Did Your Grandma Swipe Her Eggs?
Shortly before I launched my blog, I came across a wonderful memoir called, Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. It was rated “one of the 10 best books of the year” by the New York Times Book Review in 2007.
I love reading biographies and memoirs but I probably would not have read Little Heathens were it not for my blog. This would have been my loss because Kalish is a terrific story teller. And though it was not her intention, her book could be my official manual for learning how to live like my grandparents. I often refer to it as inspiration for my Grandma Challenges. However, there is one particular passage I find myself pondering on a regular basis.
In the chapter titled, Building Character: Oral Influences, Kalish describes various sayings which shaped the life of her family and childhood. One saying she mentions is “She can throw out more in a teaspoon than he can bring in with a shovel.” Kalish writes, “This insightful observation describes a wasteful wife - one, say, who didn’t wipe the inside of an eggshell with her forefinger to extract every last bit of the egg white, or one who made dusting clothes out of old cotton dresses and shirts instead of first salvaging the good parts to make dust capes, tea towels, or napkins.”
Although the saying may reflect a certain view of gender, I think it also illustrates a simple, yet profound, example of the difference between my modern mindset and that of my grandparents. I use eggs all the time for cooking and baking and it has never once dawned on me to try to wipe out “every last bit of the egg white.” When I crack an egg, I usually try to avoid touching the white or I try to maneuver it as quickly as possible so it does not drip all over the counter. I am not sure if this is because I do not want to get messy or if somewhere along the line I was told that I could get sick if I touched the contents of a raw egg.
Either way, it makes me think about my impatience and inattention to certain details and how these patterns often lead to unnecessary waste. I do not maximize most of the items in my home because it is inconvenient and slows me down. I am of the mindset that it is easier to toss a mostly used item in the trash and buy a new one. Apparently, I could learn a lot from the saying, “She can throw out more in a teaspoon than he can bring in with a shovel.”
A friend of mine told me she recently asked her 83-year old Grandma if she used to wipe out the inside of her eggs to which her grandma exclaimed, “I still do! Don’t you?” I want to know how you would answer my friend’s grandma, and so it is time for another What Would Grandma Do? question.
Did your grandma (or grandpa) swipe the inside of eggs to “extract every last bit of the egg white?” Do you? My great grandma once showed me how she used egg whites for glue on her craft projects. Did your grandparents have any interesting uses for eggs or egg whites? Do you have any items that you regularly try to get maximum use out of?
This isn’t about the eggs, but I thought you’d like this. Someone is trying to go an entire month without using any plastic at all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/monthwithoutplastic/
I do the swiping the eggshell thing - but don’t really know why. I never thought bout it - just thought it was what you do - maybe my mom does it? I’ll have to ask her. I do know for sure tho that my grandmother (I called her Honey) put all the eggshells in her flower beds …. does that count?
I am interested in how right on you are in these observations. YES! Growing up - until adulthood - I always wiped out the inside of the egg until someone scolded me saying that the part wiped out was inferior and an umbilical cord. So maybe that is TMI but it is my experience.
Now I don’t wipe them out (learned not to - very likely to no good reason) but I do dry them on the window seal and then crush them into the compost.
An art lesson I gave to the kids mentioned making an egg paint (gesso?) that was used by the old masters and is still viewable today.
Never heard of this! I try to avoid touching raw egg b/c of salmonella concerns. I also wash my hands like 6 times when I’m cooking anything with egg — even though I worry about wasting water and soap b/c I’m so concerned I’ll contaminate something!
Hm, guess I never really thought about that! I actually DO wipe the inside of my egg shells. I think I was born with a frugal gene = )
My grandfather and his siblings grew up in a cold water flat in Brooklyn, NY during the depression. They have great stories about life with very little. Many of their frugal habits come from that time. The one that sticks out the most is tea bags. They still share a tea bag and make it last days.
I’ll be seeing my aunts next month and look forward to asking them lots of questions about their childhood. There is so much to learn!
Thanks for the book recomendation. That is going on my list! I’m in the middle of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle…great read, especially for anyone trying to be green = )
We recently started a craft project in our house. Why buy expensive crafting objects when you have some wasting away in your garbage???
We did the long process (for our 6 year old it was painfully long anyway) of cleaning the egg shells, pulling the membrane out, soaking them in food coloring and then drying them in the sun to make mosaics with. We haven’t gotten to the craft project yet…but the whole process of making our crafting items was a really fun bonding time. It was tedious work and provided for great conversation as we picked and cleaned and soaked…something that is often lost in our rushed, running from here-to-there society.
And now we have the really fun part to look forward to in making the actual mosaic! You can be sure she won’t be tossing any shells on the floor during her work after investing so much in her supplies.
I do swipe my egg-shells, though I suppose I don’t do it as often now as I did growing up (I don’t like washing my hands a dozen times during one batch of cookies). I just learned it that way. I use spatulas for peanut butter and canned goods and stuff, too.
As for using things to the last drop before throwing them out - you have NO idea how much longer that product will last if you try to use it ALL!!! I am constantly surprised when I think that I bought a new tube of toothpaste a week before I needed it, and then I don’t open it for another month! (And imagine how much money I’m saving by making things last another month.) Also, with shampoo, when you can’t get any more out of the bottle, run water into it in the shower and pour that on your head. You’re going to mix the shampoo with water anyway, why not do it before it gets in your hair? Do that a few times until the bottle is rinsed out, and you’ll usually have enough soap on your head to wash your hair with, and the bottle is rinsed and ready for recycling. The same goes for body wash.
Reading through your blog, I’m finding that I grew up doing a lot of the things that your grandparents did. I think it might be because my parents were born very shortly after the Great Depression, and then moved out to Wyoming (fewer people, farther to the store, more space to be yourself) before I was born. Now that I live in a city, I am constantly amazed and amused by people not knowing things that I took for granted. I’m not taking it all for granted anymore.
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