Grandpa Samson: Part 4--Food

One food that Grandpa loved was limberger cheese. This is a VERY smelly cheese that must be kept tightly sealed or else everything in the fridge would smell like limberger cheese. My grandfather loved limberger and onion sandwiches with mustard!

I mentioned that we ate frogs. Well, technically, we ate frogs' legs. Grandpa and Pat would go to some ponds in the woods near our house and shoot frogs and skin the legs. Then my mother would cook the frogs' legs. She would lightly batter them and fry them; I prefer them sautéed with garlic and tomatoes, the French way. Even today, if I go to a very good French restaurant, such as Le Jardin in Vermont, I will order frogs' legs, or cuisses de grenouilles. (I love escarots, as well!)

Grandpa made his own sauerkraut, which is simply pickled cabbage. In a large stoneware crock in my grandparent’s cellar, my grandfather would place shredded cabbage and kosher (large-grained) salt. He would mix these well, and place a round wooden board on top of the mixture, and hold in all down with a large brick. The cabbage and salt would ferment in the crock, and voilà! Sauerkraut! It was not until I was in college that I realized that most people actually bought sauerkraut in stores, because when we needed sauerkraut, we brought a glass Ball jar to my grandparents’ house, went down to the cellar, scooped out a jar-full of sauerkraut and took it home. Periodically, my grandfather would grate more cabbage into the crock, add a little salt, stir the mixture, and let it sit and ferment.

The common dandelions, generally considered a weed, was a plant that my grandfather used both for food and for making wine. The leaves of the dandelion plant are actually very good as a salad, with a little oil, vinegar, and sugar on them. My grandfather also made wine from dandelion flowers. He also taught my brother how to make dandelion wine. It has an interesting taste, and a powerful “kick.”