John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1208

David Schultze (any guesses about his nationality?) kept a journal, in which he entered his major activities.  Besides farming, he surveyed land in and around Montgomery County in Pennsylvania where he lived.  From this journal for the year 1750, I will extract entries which have some bearing on food.

• Jan 22 & 23.  Finished threshing wheat and got 87 bushels in all.  (Some of this would have been sold for cash.)
• Jan 24.  Butchered a calf (so there was veal).
• Jan 31.  Butchered the old sow, but the meat return was poor.
• Feb 10.  Butchered another calf.
• Feb 13.  Oats threshed (animal food?).
• Mar 1.  Threshed more oats and cleaned 16 bushels for seed.
• Mar 20.  Repaired the kitchen garden fence (to keep animals out).
• Apr 4.  Sowed oats (9 acres for "ourselves").
• Apr 18.  Sold 30 bushels of wheat in Philadelphia.
• Apr 25.  Fed the last turnips to the cows (everyone ate turnips).
• May 2.  Received a bee swarm! (His exclamation point).
• 2 May.  Sheared sheep.
• 3 May.  Plowed land for buckwheat (later sowed more than five acres).
• 25 Jun.  Cut 580 sheaves of grain (probably winter wheat).
• Jun 30.  Now have 1240 sheaves with 1100 of them in the barn.  Also, have put up 140 bundles of hay.
• July.  Cut grain, picked (pulled, more exactly)flax (not a food, but I had to show he was staying busy).  Mowed oats.  Plowed.
• Aug.  Finished the second plowing.  Moved the fences.  Threshed wheat.  Began to sow some.
• Sept.  The brown cow had a calf.  Finished sowing rye and wheat.  Mowed buckwheat.  Rode to Philadelphia (30 miles one way) for the election.
• Oct.  More haying, cut buckwheat, threshed buckwheat.  More haying.  Made cider from the apples.  Dug out the turnips.  Brought in the cabbage.
• Nov.  Made a new bake oven.  Worked the flax.
• Dec.  Cleaned rye.  Butchered the first hog (95 pounds of meat).  Cleaned wheat and sold some.

In animals, we heard a mention of cows, calves, sheep, horses (by implication), and bees.  In vegetables, turnips and cabbage were mentioned.  Apples were the only fruit mentioned.  Several small grains are mentioned, including wheat, oats, rye, and buckwheat.  The wheat seems to be a cash crop.  The flax was to make linen.

A large percent of the effort went into animal food to feed to the animals.  There was NO mention of potatoes.
(12 Jul 01)