Here I am in 1974 with our new puppy Margie in the back yard of our first home!At dinner tonight I started talking about the "gluten" era of my life. I have decided to share it!! The above picture of me in my "made it all by myself" orange shirt was taken during that time period.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a wonderful woman's organization called "Relief Society".
It was in the early 70's at Relief Society that I was introduced to "Gluten"!! It was "all the rage" amongst those of us becoming involved at that time with food storage - a two years supply was recommended!
We were purchasing hundreds of pounds of wheat! We stored the wheat ingiant cans left over from the "civil defense bomb shelter" era. They would hold at least a hundred pounds of wheat - tall and dark green with all of the civil defense information printed in yellow on the outside. Made "moving" a real joy for everyone involved!
The book that we were all reading was called "Wheat for Man"!
(I need to insert here that I am a firm believer in Food Storage! I have been thankful many times for having it in my basement to use! I love grinding my own wheat and kneading my own bread! I am thankful, however, that we can now can our wheat in #10 tins and that it lasts up to 30 years that way.
I am sharing the "gluten" story because it is a slice of my life that I can't begin to think the young moms of today can even comprehend and probably will seem even more amazing to my granddaughters as they grow up and become homemakers).
So - back to the 70's! My husband had finished his graduate work and was teaching theater at the community college and designing sets for the local University!
When our first baby was born in the spring of 1973 I said "goodbye" to my professional career as a "Girl Scout" and embraced "motherhood"! The best job there is!!
I attended the weekly morning Relief Society meetings. They were wonderful! Three weeks a month we would meet for about an hour and a half - have a lesson - visit! When the children were 18 months old they could go into the nursery and play in a structured, educational environment. Most Mom's didn't work and it was a great opportunity to get some education and also socialize.
On the fourth morning the meeting would last for about 4 hours. We would have a lesson on different homemaking skills and then a luncheon.
It was here - in 1974 or 1975 that I was introduced to "gluten"! Whole wheat flour and water were mixed into a dough and kneaded until the "gluten formed". At that point one would rinse it under water - washing out all of the extra wheat and wheat germ (the nutritious stuff we now know).
What was left was this gluey mass.
The next thing to do was to boil the heck out of it in some kind of flavoring. Beef or Chicken!
Then one could either somehow chop it up so that it resembled "hamburger?" and add it to soup or slice it into pieces that were supposed to look like meat. Those "slices of meat" were breaded and fried to resemble "chicken fried steak".
We were dedicated Relief Society members of all ages and we practiced this at our monthly homemaking meeting. Then - we went home and practiced it on our families.
The "serving it to our husbands and children" part of the program did not always yield the enthusiastic results that we had felt as we were making it at church.
I, personally, after learning how to make gluten and having served it to my family decided that it was one of those"I am glad I know how to do this in case I need to use it someday"pieces of information I had gathered and have continued to gather throughout my life!
I, personally, am thankful that after further research BYU announced that gluten has been found to have NO nutritional value!
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a wonderful woman's organization called "Relief Society".
It was in the early 70's at Relief Society that I was introduced to "Gluten"!! It was "all the rage" amongst those of us becoming involved at that time with food storage - a two years supply was recommended!
We were purchasing hundreds of pounds of wheat! We stored the wheat in
The book that we were all reading was called "Wheat for Man"!
(I need to insert here that I am a firm believer in Food Storage! I have been thankful many times for having it in my basement to use! I love grinding my own wheat and kneading my own bread! I am thankful, however, that we can now can our wheat in #10 tins and that it lasts up to 30 years that way.
I am sharing the "gluten" story because it is a slice of my life that I can't begin to think the young moms of today can even comprehend and probably will seem even more amazing to my granddaughters as they grow up and become homemakers).
So - back to the 70's! My husband had finished his graduate work and was teaching theater at the community college and designing sets for the local University!
When our first baby was born in the spring of 1973 I said "goodbye" to my professional career as a "Girl Scout" and embraced "motherhood"! The best job there is!!
I attended the weekly morning Relief Society meetings. They were wonderful! Three weeks a month we would meet for about an hour and a half - have a lesson - visit! When the children were 18 months old they could go into the nursery and play in a structured, educational environment. Most Mom's didn't work and it was a great opportunity to get some education and also socialize.
On the fourth morning the meeting would last for about 4 hours. We would have a lesson on different homemaking skills and then a luncheon.
It was here - in 1974 or 1975 that I was introduced to "gluten"! Whole wheat flour and water were mixed into a dough and kneaded until the "gluten formed". At that point one would rinse it under water - washing out all of the extra wheat and wheat germ (the nutritious stuff we now know).
What was left was this gluey mass.
The next thing to do was to boil the heck out of it in some kind of flavoring. Beef or Chicken!
Then one could either somehow chop it up so that it resembled "hamburger?" and add it to soup or slice it into pieces that were supposed to look like meat. Those "slices of meat" were breaded and fried to resemble "chicken fried steak".
We were dedicated Relief Society members of all ages and we practiced this at our monthly homemaking meeting. Then - we went home and practiced it on our families.
The "serving it to our husbands and children" part of the program did not always yield the enthusiastic results that we had felt as we were making it at church.
I, personally, after learning how to make gluten and having served it to my family decided that it was one of those"I am glad I know how to do this in case I need to use it someday"pieces of information I had gathered and have continued to gather throughout my life!
I, personally, am thankful that after further research BYU announced that gluten has been found to have NO nutritional value!
that is so funny! especially funny now that gluten free is all the rage! I am glad you are writing stuff down - and the picture is adorable!
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