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Back in the 1850s each family had to grow its own food. At Westville we raise crops just as they did in the old days. Every spring we break the ground with a mule-drawn plow and plant by hand. In the fall we harvest our crops. In old times gardens were planted near the house and everyone in the family helped gather this produce and prepare it. Since there was no refrigeration, some of the crops were dried or pickled for year-round use. The crops of 1850 included sugar cane, corn and the biggest crop of all, cotton.
Every fall you can watch us make cane syrup. Our sugar cane is fed into a mule-powered cane mill, which presses the juice out. We boil this juice in a large kettle until it becomes syrup, then place it in jars and sell it in our general store. In the rural South of the 1850s syrup was often used in place of sugar at the kitchen table. Corn provided food for both the family and the pigs, cows, chickens, and oxen. After being ground into meal it was made into the famous southern staples, corn bread and grits. The average family planted shade trees in their yards and usually had a fruit tree or two. Nearer the house the ladies planted flower beds, called "dooryard gardens," which they tended during breaks from household chores. Certain plants in gardens were used for medicinal purposes while others were used as spices. Fences, walls and hedges kept animals out.
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