Interview with Joan Margel (née Bayers) 1.4

Partial Transcript: 1. What else did your family do to sustain yourselves (e.g., fishing, trapping, hunting, mushroom or berry-picking)?
2. Did your family do canning?
3. Where did you get seeds?
4. Comments on growing and transplanting early vegetable crops?

Segment Synopsis: Joan says that she learned camping and lived in the wilderness. They picked wild strawberries and made jam. Dads would clear land and moms and their children would go pick raspberries and camp overnight. If it rained she says they would go under the wagon box. They also picked Saskatoon berries and Kalyna, which was very important for making jellies. Joan and her mother had to can 1000 jars of fruits and vegetables together, and the sugar was expensive. She mentions that her sister was born when she was 16. She says that they tried to grow corn, but it never took, but they had wonderful potatoes. Joan's mother bought seeds, but Babka had her own seeds. She mentions that the seed collection is now lost. She talks about her mother bedding and transplanting vegetables.

Partial Transcript: 1. Were your (grand) parents illiterate/literate? What languages did you speak at home?

Segment Synopsis: Joan mentions that most of her grandparents were illiterate, and says that many of the Ukrainians that immigrated were. She says that her Babka signed her wedding book with a cross, and didn't know how to write her name in Ukrainian or English, although she spoke English. Her grandmother was a midwife. Most Babas did not speak English, but Babka Bayers also spoke English. Joan never knew that because she could always communicate with her. She says that Babka Sandul never spoke Ukrainian, but tried to teach it to the kids. Joan talks about how her mother did not teach her children Ukrainian, because she wanted them to speak English and not be embarrassed. She says they lived in Montana for a while and had a hard time before moving back up north. Joan only spoke English at home, and recounts a story where she forgot a Ukrainian word when speaking to her grandmother.

Partial Transcript: 1. What else did your family do to sustain yourselves (e.g., fishing, trapping, hunting, mushroom or berry-picking)?
2. What were the ways of earning money in addition to selling crops?

Segment Synopsis: Joan talks about how there were a lot of morel mushrooms, and her family cooked a lot with mushrooms. Her family treasured pigwig, which she says is better than spinach, which they cooked with cream. She says they knew that 3 days after rain the orange mushrooms would be out. They talk about how Ukrainian families picked seneca root, as well as Indigenous people. They could sell them and make money. In the winter it took a whole day to take a load of grain into town, and then come back the next day with groceries.

Partial Transcript: 1. Did you ever order clothes from catalogues? (e.g., Eaton’s) When? What did you order?
2. What kind of footwear did you wear? In summer? In winter?

Segment Synopsis: Joan says that out where she lived there was no way to make money, but her father would sell a calf or heifer if she needed money for clothes. Her family's clothes were ordered from the Eaton's or Simpson's catalogue, but there were some brick and mortar stores not far away. In the summer she was mainly barefoot and had some running shoes. She mentions that they would get slivers in their feet.

Partial Transcript: 1. What else did your family do to sustain yourselves (e.g., fishing, trapping, hunting, mushroom or berry-picking)?
2. What was your summer / winter diet?
3. What vegetables did you can?
4. What did you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Segment Synopsis: Joan talks about her dad hunting rabbit and deer. Her family raised their own pigs, chickens, ducks, and sometimes geese. They ate creamed duck in the summer. Her grandmother kept and ate pigeons. The diet in the summer was lighter, with cream and eggs. Ukrainians in Rycroft generally didn't kill deer or moose, because they preferred pigs, but Joan's father did hunt deer. Her family canned vegetables, like pickles and sauerkraut. Her family called their meals breakfast, dinner, and supper - there was no lunch. Breakfast was the biggest meal of the day, and it was always porridge.

Partial Transcript: 1. Remarks about a truck, tractor, threshing machine in the family/community.
2. What did you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Segment Synopsis: Joan remarks that there was only one tractor and binder in the area, and the rest of the technology was wagons and horses. Joan's dad bought an old truck that they could load with wheat and bring back and forth to town. One of her Kushneryk relatives had a tractor with a threshing machine that she talks about. In the winter, she says Bill Kushneryk would come around and cut wood with a saw and also chop wheat and oats, which is how her family got porridge. She mentions that about once a month her mother made a big pot of wheat they ate with cream. They also drank coffee, and the men smoked tobacco. Her family had about 3 or 4 cows for milk, and her mother had hens for eggs. Joan says her mother canned meat just in case somebody came. The stove fires always had to be going with meat or some dish being prepared. Dinner was usually soup or borscht with bread, and supper was always meat and potatoes. Joan says her dad didn't like vegetables and would not eat them. She also says that her mother worked in restaurants and was a good cook, and did not only make Ukrainian food.