For years I have thought that a pretty jug of farm fresh milk sitting on a farm (0r farm wannabe) table was a romantic touch. I imagined that it hearkened back to more wholesome, graceful days of yore somehow. I occasionally wished that such a jug might grace my table of offerings for my family but I wasn’t sure it was quite practical for a family of our size. In any case, I never mentioned this little romantic notion of mine to anyone.

This morning for breakfast we had cornbread and milk. I never in my life heard of such a meal until about a year ago and then I started hearing of it with some frequency. I first learned of it from a friend whose farming grandparents had cornbread and milk for dinner every single night for decades (and lived to a ripe old age). Then I heard of it a few moretimes once we moved to Virginia. I gather this way of eating cornbread is not only an old fashioned, frugal thing but also a southern thing.

For the uninitiated, having a meal of cornbread and milk does not mean you slather butter on a piece of cornbread, put it on a plate and then pour yourself a glass of milk. No, it means that you break up pieces of cornbread into your bowl and then pour milk over it as if it were breakfast cereal. For our part, we add a drizzle of molasses and eat it for breakfast as opposed to dinner. It is both light, reasonably filling and yummy. I make a typical cornbread only I use freshly ground whole wheat and corn flours. Also nowadays I preheat a 10″ cast iron frying pan along with the oven and then bake the cornbread in that. Delicious and practically no clean up!

This morning as I was setting out breakfast and my husband was about to pour the (still warm from the cow) milk, I thought of the lovely Wedgwood pitcher I received in the mail yesterday afternoon. Apparently my paternal grandparents bought this pitcher on one of their trips to England and Ireland many, many years ago and gave it to my parents. My mother has now given it to me and it did, indeed, grace our breakfast table with every bit of the romance I had ever imagined.

Here is the cornbread with a bit of molasses all served up and with the milk just poured from this heavy, gleaming pitcher. Seeing a mama reading while her baby plays at her feet fits right in at the table of a Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online homeschooling family.

Here is the other side of the pitcher. So sweet and a gentle reminder about the inner beauty of our children.

Homesteading can be a hard scrabble life at times. It is so nice to be able to bring a bit of almost otherworldly beauty to the table and create one more link between generations, cultures, beauty and food.

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,

Leslie

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