Mischievous boys still make sly and unannounced visits to watermelon patches. News of such a visit would not be unusual, but it would be uncommon to hear that a group of boys had raided the farmer’s apple hole. Such excursions have ceased. Boys may be the same, but the apple holes aren’t. They have disappeared along with the practice of holing up food for winter.
Once upon a time in late fall, it was the custom of farm folk to gather and store certain of their winter food supplies. After heavy frost, but before the first hard freezes of the winter had come, the frugal farmer began putting away reserve supplies of potatoes, cabbage, turnips, apples, pears, celery, and sometimes pumpkins and squashes. Most farms did not have cellars, there were no locker plants, the home freezer had not appeared, and refrigerators were unknown. Small-town grocery men did not regularly stock fresh vegetables in winter. Therefore, if families wished to have a dependable supply of such food, they had to hole up their own.
The holes for the storage of these reserve foodstuffs really were not holes; they were conical mounds or pointed ridges of straw and earth. It was the practice to store each product separately. The size and number of mounds seen in the house-holders garden, therefore, would rather reliably indicate the family’s prospect for eating well during the winter.
The construction of these storage places was more or less uniform. A spot where water did not stand was selected, and a heavy layer of straw, leaves, or grass was laid down. The product to be stored was carefully arranged in a conical heap or in a sharply pointed Ridge, and a thick layer of straw or dry leaves was thrown over it. A layer of dirt, 8 inches or more thick was next added from a ditch dug around the base of the growing mound. Boards or planks often were leaned against these mounds as additional protection against expected rains and snows. The purpose of this method of storage was to keep the product dry and cold, but not to let it freeze. This crude but effective cold storage method kept foods throughout the winter months.
Foods to be stored were not especially prepared, but care was taken to store only sound and clean products. Some who store apples would arrange them with the smaller and knottier ones at one side or end of the mound so that they could be used first while the better ones would be saved for Christmas time or even later.
Cabbage was pulled with rootstock attached. It was then arranged with the roots upward to retard any tendency of the cabbage to grow. When cabbage was removed for cooking, the stalks were cut off near the head. If one wished to grow early cabbage leaves for greens or to grow seeds, the stalks were set out. Those which were not planted were prized by youngsters who peeled them, dipped their tips in salt, and ate them. Some oldsters may recall eating those tasty stocks in their youth.
In addition to providing food for the family, a well-stocked apple hole had about it a certain social factor. This was especially true if the owner was of a generous nature and treated visitors. He would hand a bucket or pan to his son and say, “Boy, you and John take this bucket and get some apples. Be sure to stuff the straw back in the hole and put the boards back.” It made for a pleasant evening.
(Extracted from “Holing up food for the winter”, Legends and Lore of Southern Illinois, by John W. Allen)