A Traditional Farm Life - Cherry Moos

A Traditional Farm Life - Cherry Moos

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends!   It was finally garden catalog reading weather this past weekend.  I spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon perusing the full-color glossy pages, contentedly plotting a fruit orchard, eyes lingering longingly on the multiple varieties of cherry trees.

What is it about cherries?  Even after our cherry-picking follies last summer, the catalog’s beautiful pictures of perfect red fruit sing their siren song. 

To my surprise, tonight I discovered I’m at least the fourth generation to succumb to the cherry tree’s melodic--yet tart--appeal.

I had the privilege this evening of learning a little more about the life of my great-grandfather, P.P. Penner.

My Grandma Lena’s father, P.P. Penner, passed on the year before I was born.  In a life spanning from May 2, 1887 to November 2, 1975, P.P. Penner undoubtedly saw sweeping changes occur in the world around him. 

My Grandma Lena passed away more than 14 years ago, so the extended Penner family gathering my parents hosted in Goessel a couple months ago provided a rare opportunity to learn a little more about my great-grandfather from my great aunts.

Why am I so interested in knowing more about him?  Tantalizing tidbits of family lore passed down over the years have indicated a man unusually gifted with mechanics, an inventor with artistic bent.

P.P. Penner was a man of diverse interests and abilities.  Very unusual for a man of his time and place, he possessed great artistic aptitude first expressed by painting scenes of rural life with watercolors, beginning in the 8^th grade.  The rigors of early twentieth century farm life kept him from pursuing this interest further in his adult years, but his artistic flair showed up many places around the farm.

The rare visit recently with extended family resulted in a golden gift:  P.P. Penner’s daughter, Velma (Penner) Unruh, mailed my parents a 10 page typewritten (on a typewriter!) personal reflection on her father written many years ago.

Tears flowed as a window to the past was opened up and I “met” the man of such mystique.  A picture emerged of someone with traits I can pick out of those in successive generations:  a quiet spiritual leader of the family, well read, with musical talent, and a keen, inventive mind coupled with great skill concerning both wood and machinery in the farm shop. 

Last, (and probably least, I’m afraid), it turns out he was a sucker for those garden catalog fruit tree advertisements.  I quote great-aunt Velma:

“Pop would naively believe the pictures of fruit tree advertisements in catalogs and order things.  Some grew and did well and some did not.  Cherry trees winter killed easily but soon he had ordered cherry trees again.  I often wondered whose idea it had been to plant gooseberry bushes since they weren’t all that tasty.  It also had been Pop’s idea.  Mom did make pies and gooseberry moos.”

So, friends, I guess it turns out my obsession with cherry trees in the garden catalogs is genetic!

Let’s bring the past and the present together this week as we head to the kitchen.  Russian Mennonites have a love for a thickened, creamy fruit soup called “Moos” (rhymes with “dose”).

Traditionally, Moos was served on holidays, but it was also often prepared Saturday and served cold for Sunday dinner with cold meat and zwieback.  (While it can be served hot, it is usually served cold.)  Any tart fruit can be used. 

The following recipe was from my Grandma Lena’s sister-in-law, Laura (Mrs. Jacob S.) Schmidt.  Ironically, great aunt Laura also included instructions for gooseberry moos at the end of the recipe.  What an interesting coincidence! 

Next time I’m looking at a garden catalog, I think I’ll mark the page with the gooseberries . . .

Cherry Moos

1 quart fresh or 2 cans tart cherries

canned in water

1 cup sugar

5 cups water (4 cups if using canned)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups milk

1.  If using fresh cherries, add 5 cups water to cherries and cook until cherry skins crack.  If using canned cherries, add 4 cups water to cherries with liquid and heat until boiling.  Add 1 cup sugar during the last minute of the boiling period.

2.  Make a paste of the flour, sugar, salt, and milk by mixing the dry ingredients first and then adding 1/2 cup milk, stirring until smooth with no lumps of flour remaining.  Slowly add the rest of the milk while mixing. 

3.  Add thickening to the boiling fruit slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and starts to thicken or coats a spoon. [It should have the consistency of medium-thick gravy.]

If soup seems too thick when cooled, add milk or a small amount of water.  Yield:  10 cups.

Aunt Laura adds, “Mother sometimes used gooseberries instead of cherries.  But then she added more sugar.  This was called gooseberry moos.”

From From Pluma Moos to Pie.  Goessel: Mennonite Heritage Museum, Revised 1991.  p. 37.

 

Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton

Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas.  She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children.  You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com .  

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