![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The older siblings took care of the younger. What we ate came from the land we worked and we all pitched in. ![]() In December we would butcher three hogs and put them in salt. From that she made bread, pasta or anything else we needed. We also raised wheat and that was ground at the mill and made into flour. “She used it for all of her cooking and made biscuits that you would dream of. “I have strong memories of my mother cooking the darker syrup down and turning it into sugar,” shared Bernie. The 12 children helped sugar and the family tapped 1000 trees and each child carried buckets and help with boiling and production. While Bernie’s parents only ran about 20 cows on the property, the family was heavy into logging and maple syrup production. He was assigned two cows to milk by hand every morning and night and even though he was six he understood it was a family farm and the family worked it. “Growing up in the Great Depression,” shared Bernie, “we had to live off the farm because even though Dad worked for 25 cents an hour laying cement, there was more than often not enough money left over for food.” Sleeping in a room he shared with two other brothers, Bernie’s chores in the barn started when he was six years old. With its number of siblings split, “a straight 50/50,” grinned Bernie, it was a pleasure to call Roxbury and his parent’s farm home, with six boys and six girls in the family. Photo by Photos ProvidedSharing memories of times gone by, visiting with Bernard is a window into the world of Vermont agriculture spanning eight decades.īernie Jerry was born on a crisp morning in 1919 in Roxbury, Vermont, and was seventh in a family of 12 children. ![]()
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