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Sketches of a woman playing a joke on her husband on their farm in Chortitz, Manitoba
"Once mother had called father to come and eat many times. Yet still he stood talking over the back fence with neighbour Schellenberg. Then she sneaked up behind him and dumped a bucket of water over his head! People still laugh over it!"

Sketches of a woman making yeast by hand in her yard
"Greet makes yeast: swirl honey and hops+ and flour in a crock with warm water and hang it in the back boxelder for fermenting. Every day she checks, swirls and smells until it is 'ripe'. Then she takes it down and uses a bit of it each time to set the yeast sponge for bread-making. Lisa and I have to upend manure sod (mennonite coal) for further drying...
+rather the water from boiling hops..."

Sketch of a woman and two girls in the yard in front of their housebarn
"Grandmother's Sorrel Soup
Simmer smoked pork with bay leaf and peppercorns until done, then add cubed potatoes and coarsely cut greens - sorrel, onion, parsley, dill. When done add heavy clotted cream. Now, two generations later, whole milk yogurt does quite well too!
Sketches from a Canadian prairie Mennonite village childhood.
Picking sorrel in Grandmother Katharina Fehr Neufeld Reimer's backyard, Schanzenfeld
Coming to Canada from Russia at twelve in 1874, Grandmother Katharina Fehr married widowers John Neufeld and "Ütroopa Reima" successively, 1881-1901 and 1904-1923. Besides numerous step and even step-step children she bore twelve of her own of whom, however, only five survived to have families half the size of hers. Her only child by Ütroopa Reima, a son, was Watkins salesman in the Mennonite villages of southern Manitoba for many years. Auctioneer
Among other favourite foods grandmother made were yeast-raised Pāpânāt. Spice buns they are called in some recipes now. She used to bake them on large darkened pans and keep them covered with tea towels in the pantry by the backdoor. It was a most welcoming aroma to greet us in. Translated from her intuitive homemade yeast and honey sweetened one can still come close:
Crumble and sprinkle a fresh Fleischman's yeast cake into warm honey-sweetened water, stir in unbleached white flour, add a bit of salt, stir until batter slips off mixing spoon. Wait until bubbly, then stir in corn oil, pepper, and cinnamon with caution, keep adding flour while kneading to soft dough. Let rise covered in warm place, shape into buns, let rise again and bake in rather slow than fast oven..."

Sketch of a girl judging the time of day in order to bring the cows in from the fields
"When the sun is two hands high it's time to bring the cows home."

Sketch of a house on fire, and the community rallying to put it out with buckets of water
"The dogs are suddenly barking like crazy, horses neigh, cows bellow, and there's a banging at the window. "At old Frank Groening's is fire and pass on the word!" Father jumps out of bed, runs across the yard to Penners... and so the news goes through the village. People run, call to each other, some with lanterns, buckets.. there's pouring water, carrying out what can be saved, thanking God no one is hurt. Next morning so much is brought together, Greet says, "Groenings are better off after the fire than before!""

Sketch of a family watering their crops by hand
""Well, if it doesn't rain soon..." then father hauls a drum of water by stoneboat to the fields. So it won't slop over too much he toes a rope over a piece of canvas that covers it. We children like going the back way through cowfences and woods. We're watering the sunflower and potato patch."

Sketches of a family working in the fields and stopping to eat
"Today it is hot! En route to hoe potatoes in the field we stop in the garden to eat a lovely cantaloupe: this way they taste best! The flies are biting again: that means rain, we say..."

Sketches of a cow breaking into the family's garden, and the family chasing it out again
"Greet calls: "Children, come fend off! Yellow (one)'s in the garden! That old beast! That sneak-thief! She needs a ladder hung on her again!" We drive her out gently so she won't panic and trample yet more underfoot. Such a ladder is used only on young stock, and that only rarely..."

Sketch of a family and their housebarn in Chortitz, Manitoba circa 1930

Sketches of the funeral of Marta's mother.
"Our mother dies March 6, 1928. The aunts want to divide us among them, but father says no. "I'll keep them together..." Those village women who do that, have washed mother and put on her white dying-dress. The aunts have put mother's own red, pink, and white geraniums 'round her."

Sketches of a family travelling by horse and wagon to visit relatives in Schanzenfeld on a Sunday circa 1929.
"Dressed in Sunday best, past Wielers fence, we're off to visit grandmother! "TKL," goes father, and Toots trots easily, two miles off to Schanzenfeld... "Come my goslings! Have you missed me already too?" calls Grandmother in greeting"

Sketches of Marta and another girl playing with baby chicks in front of the stove in their house.
"We enjoy the baby chicks coming out in spring! Lisa and I have to teach them to peck up crumbs and drink water. At first they cheep fearfully! Then, when we cover them in their big cardboard box behind the stove, they nestle together. With now and then a cheep, they sleep... We call them like this: cheep-cheep-cheep!"

Sketches of children playing barefoot outside their houses.
"We dash home: "Daddy, Daddy, may we go barefoot this afternoon (too)? The other children do!" "You don't say! What nonsense! The earth isn't even thoroughly thawed out yet!" "Who goes barefoot?" asks Greet. "Well...!" "Don't tell me you want to become such snotpots too!" Not even "barefoot-in-the-shoes", not yet..."

Sketch of a panoramic view of Marta Goertzen's childhood farm in Chortitz, Manitoba.
"Our Canadian prairie Mennonite village home recalled and drawn from memory of 1930 or so..."

Sketch of Marta Goertzen's yard where she grew up in Chortitz, Manitoba, showing her house and parts of the neighbors'.
"Abram F, Goertzen's place; my home 1934 in Chortitz by Winkler Manitoba"