Bread and Butter Pickle

May 6

GROSHEN, INDIANA

These pictures are of my maternal grandmother. She was a mother of 12 and could make a lot from nothing. She taught me how to crochet and was the best cook and baker. She canned every year and this recipe is hers in her handwriting. I have framed it and it hangs on my kitchen wall. I haven’t made them but I remember that they were delicious! She sadly passed in 1992 at the age of 90. She was the best grandmother. I miss her.

HOLLIE RIETH - TINA DESLAVO 1.png — This is her hand-written bread and butter pickle recipe.

HOLLIE RIETH - TINA DESLAVO 2.png — My Gram…Olive Stearns...no, my sweet puppy, Olive, wasn’t named after her...lol...but she would’ve loved it!

HOLLIE RIETH - TINA DESLAVO 3.png — My Grandma, Grandpa Lewis and Great Aunt Dell…(I don’t think I met her) -are in this photo.

It’s so good to learn about the lives your family lived when they were growing up.

It’s our family’s history! I discovered when I was putting this recipe together for Tina, more about Great Aunt Dell than I had known before My mom told me that Great Aunt Dell had been put on an orphan train in New York by the church when she was about 4. Her older brother and my gram, Olive, were given to relatives. My gram started work cleaning out stoves and other work at that point. Amazingly, my mom’s sister, Aunt Jeanette, found Great Aunt Dell 50 years after she was put on the train! Great Aunt Dell had been adopted in Aurora, Nebraska!

Thank you, Hollie, for sharing your grandmother’s recipe. Your words are a lovely tribute to her and her love that lives today through you. It is a perfect recipe and story to read as we celebrate Mother’s Day!

-Tina