Does anyone grow raspberries?

I found this in a Good Housekeeping recipe book from 1920.  I think it'd be interesting to try, 
if only to see what was considered "good" back then.

You wouldn't have to make a lot of it, just enough to taste 

and report back to us, ok?  

I'd pay ya twice what dad paid us to help trim trees, promise.

.........................

Two days later--I mentioned this recipe to a client and her husband yesterday just thinking they might remember a tart raspberry drink from when they were young.  They didn't, but thought the vinegar would be too much, since raspberries are already fairly tart.  

Ten minutes later, he went outside, and came back with half a pail of raspberries that "needed picking", and gave me about a quart of em!

YES, I'm sacrificing a cup of them in the interests of 

science, and genealogy.

I'll let ya know...

 OK!  Well, it's a whole lot better than I expected.  When I first strained it and added sugar to the liquid, it was definitely a vinegar-y raspberry flavor (duh)--not terrible, but I was pretty sure I'd wasted a cup of raspberries.  


I actually did exactly as the recipe said: equal parts liquid and sugar, boiled for 10 minutes.  (This is my 1 quart pot, so about 6" across.  I love close-ups).  
The taste when it's done is only slightly vinegar, and it's as beautiful as you'd expect it to be.  I tried maybe a quarter cup in a glass, and added that much water. 

Nope, the flavor was way too concentrated (but definitely a pleasant no-vinegar raspberry), so I added about a half cup more water.  If I'd had ice cubes on hand, that would have been good, too.
  

WOW--now its a nice fruity "pink" flavor.  It's not really raspberry tasting, but the fragrance is there, and I probably should've waited till it was nice and cold. 

   The syrup would probably make a good addition to iced tea, or a topping for vanilla ice cream, or mixed with 7-up...or booze.


   LOL...no, I probably won't make it again, but it was worth trying.  For sure, it'd be one more way to use those delicious raspberries in the 20s, when there were no freezers available.


  And even THAT should have been a hint.  I put the syrup in the fridge (which they couldn't have done).  When it's cold, it doesn't pour, and it dissolves reluctantly.  If you were making this for use later, it would have been sealed and left on the fruit cellar shelf.  Duh.  (I learn, but s-l-o-w-l-y).

From The History of Stearns County, 1915

FINALLY, a family connection who had their photo taken AND who paid to be in a book. 

YAY, Stephen & Margaret Zenner!

 Kilian's father, Math Zenner, was Stephen's brother (Kilian married Adela Brandl, mom's first cousin), so this couple would have been Kilians' Aunt Margaret and Uncle Stephen.  Here, in 1915, he (Math) was still farming in St Augusta, Mn, just south of St Cloud. 

The map below is Buckman township in 1920--ah, yes, theres "M. Zenner", in section 16 and 17 ☺.

Greetings to Mike and Pat--and THANKS for e-mailing!!

Pierz, Minnesota

Here's the plat map of Pierz in 1920...a considerably larger town than Buckman five miles to the south.  At the time, local folks thought of it in terms of South Pierz and North Pierz.  The divide was  St Josephs Catholic Church, there in the middle.

A little history here:  Pierz was one of the towns in Minnesota that was embroiled in a dispute over schools.  Benedictine nuns taught in many of these towns, but all children were welcome.  The local Catholic church supported the school, more or less, but it was a burden.  Of course, prayers were said during the school day, and there were crucifixes in every room....but did nuns and icons make it a Catholic school?  The state supported public schools, but not parochial schools.  The question, then, was fairness.  Pierz had a particularly bitter fight over the issue, and it raged for at least 50 years....including dynamite left on the priests' front porch at least twice--in 1902 and in 1951....

In this enlarged section--church property in 1920 included a parochial AND a public school building.  How did that happen?  Did two schools make the problem worse, or was it a solution?  Those Catholics who chose to send their kids to the public school were in trouble with the church because now they refused to help pay for the Catholic school.  Families were divided over the issue, and so was the town.  I don't know if this was the source of "North" and "South" Pierz, but at least figuratively, the church was definitely in the middle. 
  

8 October 1902 St Paul Globe:
 Deadly Feud At Pierz, Minn.

                                             

                  Brainerd Dispatch, June 1952