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Joyce's horseradish root growing in her yard.
What makes growing horseradish so easy is
by harvesting it in late winter or early spring,
and shaving off the outer peel of the root, you
get to eat the inside of the root but you can
plant the outside peelings that will grow
all summer and become next spring's root to eat! |
Our county (like a small province inside our State of Pennsylvania) has hills ("mountains") that overlook the Lehigh River Gorge and with creeks, such as the Mahoning and Lizard Creeks, that cut through fertile farm land. To our north we have anthracite coal fields that once fueled the world's industrial revolution of the 1800s into the 1900s. During those years, much of the world's machinery ran on steam power fueled by anthracite, or "hard coal."
The "Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company," which dug coal from Carbon County, was known over the world for having the hardest coal. The harder the coal, the more intense heat it could produce. The first coal was discovered here in 1792. By 1818, a man named Josiah White developed a 9-mile road from the coal quarry to the Lehigh River. Eventually building one of the first railroads in North America. He also used the river to float barges down the river to Philadelphia and New York City.
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Here is a view of the Lehigh River between the
towns of Jim Thorpe and Lehighton below. The trail
is called the canal "towpath" because mules walked it
pulled the canal boats with a rope. The canal is out of
view on the right. This is the area known as "Lock #4" of
the Lehigh Canal. Said to be the best and longest
working canal in the country. |
Our area once produced several millionaires. However, with the coal industry nearly extinct here (there are a few strip mines remaining) Carbon County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state of Pennsylvania. Our people have been highly resourceful. To find good work, some must travel by car, for far distances to the cities like Allentown, Philadelphia, or even New York City. Some work closer to home and work at places like Walmart or Lowes Home Building Center.
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These are stone remains of a building that once sat along the Lehigh
River above Jim Thorpe. It remains from a time when large amounts of
coal were being brought down from the mountains and sent to the
river for shipment. Here, between Jim Thorpe and White Haven (named after
the founder of the Lehigh Coal Company Josiah White), the river was
made navigable by using large dams on the river to make the water slack
so that boats could travel on the river. When the boats approached a dam,
they pulled to the side where there were water locks for the boats to pass. |
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Here are workers repairing the dams of the Lehigh River. Although the
state closed the river to boat traffic after the 1862 flood, some of the
dams were found to be beneficial and were kept and maintained. A wooden
framework was built and filled with stone. |
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| Here is a picture of another dam on the river after a flood. |
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Here is one of the roots growing in Joyce Gaumer's yard.
She says the best time to pick it is "right after the last
snows of winter have melted." If you wait too long she says,
the roots get mushy. |
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Here Joyce Gaumer stirs in some vinegar with her chopped
up horseradish root. Horseradish is favored among the
Pennsylvania Dutch in the spring time as it is one of the
first roots/plants you can harvest to make food with their
Easter hams. The only other plant that grows wild is the
dandelion leaf that is tasty in salads.
The "Dutch" like to make a dressing
known as "hot bacon dressing" for their dandelion.
Hot bacon dressing is made with bacon fat, flour, vinegar and
sugar. |
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Perhaps the secret to the success
is in their smoke house. Using only apple
and maple wood, the rings hang above a fire
that will soon be damped down by the
metal plate. The air is controlled by leaving
the metal door open a crack. To test if the
fire is at just the right temperature, the
workers will place their hand on the door.
If it is too hot to touch, the close it a little tighter.
If it is too cool, the open it a little more.
The large space at the door allows more air to
pass through the smoke house and up through the
chimney. |
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Here is Barry Smith, long-time Heintzelman
employee who made the balogna each
week with David. This large meat
grinder is grinding 150 pounds of a beef
and pork mixture. |
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One of the well-known family names in this
area for over 100 years is Heintzelman. Here is
David Heintzelman, last of his family in the meat
business makes the renown ring bologna.
Traditionally this was made each Tuesday using last
week's unsold beef and pork. (They add 5 pounds
of a tasty mystery ingredient to every 150 pound of
meat and salt mixture they make in each batch.) |
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Here is some "Buckwheat" honey produced
by Charlie Fritz's bees on the old Herman
Ahner farm. Bees are having a hard time
in Pennsylvania these last several years.
They are having trouble surviving and no one
quite knows why. It is known as "hive
collapse." One day a hive can be active and
healthy. And without warning, the hive is
barren and deserted.
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Many people in the Lehighton area can trace
their ancestry to the Pennsylvania "Dutch."
These people did not come from the "Netherlands"
but rather from Germany. When these people arrived,
they spoke the German word for "German," which is "deutsch."
Many people thought they were saying "dutch" so these Germans
are known as the "Dutch" today. Here old time
Lehighton resident makes his yearly batch of sauerkraut.
The two ingredients are cabbage and canning salt. The
cabbage is shredded the old fashioned way by hand
on the wooden frame with the metal blade. Then a few tablespoons
of salt are added, swirl it all around with your hand, then tamp it
down with the old wooden block on a broom handle (both tools are over 80 years old!).
This is done each fall. The sauerkraut sits in an underground room (It is too smelly to keep
in your house basement!) for about three months. Dutch people, known to be superstitious,
always eat pork and sauerkraut of New Year's Day. It is considered bad luck to eat
chicken or turkey on this day because birds scratch the ground and walk backwards to eat.
The pig scratches the ground but always moves forward. The New Year is filled with promise and we
must always move forward! |
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Here is Joyce Gamuer, mentioned at left, who
still has her grandfather's and father's
copper distiller's collection kettle from making
wintergreen essential oil. Today, this flavoring
has been substituted by artificial flavorings.
CAUTION: When one is searching for the
tea berry plant, be sure to correctly identify it.
Some young people have been fooled by the toad
stool plant, which is similar in looks to tea berry,
but it is poisonous to eat. |
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Lehighton resides in the "foothills" of the Pocono
Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania in Carbon County.
In northern Carbon is an area known as the "Great Pine
Swamp." This boggy area of pines and mountain laurels
extends to the neighboring Monroe County to the east.
This area is a prime growing area for a plant known as
"tea berry." If you find this low, waxy-leafed plant with
white berries, you will notice the leaves are tasty to
chew on, the flavor is a minty "wintergreen" flavor.
It also contains the key ingredient of aspirin, an analgesic
pain-killer. Mountain people would collect this low
plant with wooden rakes, mostly crawling on their
hands and knees and stuffing the leaves into a
burlap sack. They would take the leaves to stores
or distillers who would buy it for about 5 cents per pound.
Joyce Gaumer of the Pine Swamp would scavenge the forest
for it when she wanted extra "pin-money" so she could
go to the church cake walk for 5 cents a round. Carbon and
Monroe Counties produced 80-90% of the world supply of
wintergreen essential oil. This oil was used for flavoring in
ice cream, chewing gum, cough medicine, and in analgesic
ointments to relive muscle and joint aches. |
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Mountain spring just above Penn Haven
Junction on the Lehigh Gorge in April. Small
springs like these lead to creeks and the Lehigh River.
The Lehigh River leads to the Delaware River, which
enters the Atlantic Ocean near Philadelphia, PA, and
the state of Delaware.
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