Lawton Emerson McDaniel

In my cast iron article ( https://richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp ) I wrote

why use cast iron?
There are many things that drive me to use cast iron:

teflon is toxic
I'm convinced that "non stick" surfaces, such as teflon, are toxic. Newer products come out that sound better, but I cannot help but think that folks just have not yet learned how toxic the new surfaces are. At the time of this writing, I feel comfortable cooking with cast iron, some steels, and glass. I avoid all chemically treated cooking surfaces, aluminum and copper.

Cooking with cast iron helps folks get more iron in their diet to build more red blood cells. Doctor's recommend that those with anemia cook with cast iron.


lawton emerson mcdaniel

Many of my happiest memories involving cooking, involved cast iron. I remember my grandad cooking almost everything we ate in a cast iron skillet. My grandad was a really great guy, so I find I like to do a lot of stuff that he liked to do. For a long time he was a professional mountain guide - how cool is that? And when he took me with him, the cast iron skillet would come with us!

Using cast iron is a skill from a simpler time.

Cast iron can last hundreds of years. Many moderm skillets/griddles last only a few months to a few years.

Today is Grandad's birthday.  So today I eat almond roca and macadamia nuts.

With Grandad, breakfast was served every morning at about 5:59 am.  By then I had already fed the cattle.  Grandad turned on the radio to a low volume because it was just static.  A few seconds later the static went away and the star spangled banner started to play.  The volume was turned up.  KWVR - Wallowa Valley Radio.  

Breakfast almost always featured basted eggs and hash browns.  Grandad would fry the hash browns in bacon squeezins so that it was a bit like he made one giant potato chip.  Sometimes there was half a grapefruit, and other times a bowl of rhubarb soup.

After breakfast we did the dishes and got to work.  We took lunch at noon, did the dishes and got back to work - usually less than an hour.  And came in around five or six.  Sometimes there was a bit more to do after dinner.

I remember working outside one day in the middle of a deluge.  It was the fourth day that the rain was bizarrely too much.  And we worked through it.  30 degrees below zero and we worked.  Mending fence, repairing tractors, moving cattle ...  Nobody ever suggested getting out of the rain or the freezing cold.  We would say "now THAT is wet!" or something like that.  

I remember getting to a tractor that wasn't working.  it was a really old tractor.  And Grandad says "what do you think?" And I would say something and he would say "Let's try that."  And it would work and he would say "Good job."  I think he knew the answer already, but he wanted me to get used to figuring stuff out.  So this is how it went for just about everything.

When i caught fish and brought them home, he made a HUGE deal out of how I was feeding the family.  And went on and on about how tasty they were.

I have a thousand stories, but it is now time for me to go to a meeting and get my work done.

Thanks Grandad.  You were amazing.

Precious memories. Thank you for sharing.

Today is grandad's birthday.  If he were alive he would be 124.

I remember when I started living with him I was so grateful, I tried to help in his shop a bit.  I tidied.  There was a huge 24 volt battery.  I picked it up to move it, but I dropped it and it broke.  I had done the opposite of what I set out to do - I thought I was doing a good thing, but, instead, I broke something that looks very expensive.  Grandad heard the noise and came running.  I was devastated to hear what I was about to hear.  Dread. So much regret. So much shame.  When he arrived he said "Are you okay?" Fine. "That's acid!  Step back!"  We cleaned it up.  There was no reprimand.  He was authentically more concerned about my welfare, than the welfare of the battery.  What a strange feeling.

Today: macadamia nuts and almond roca.

What a guy.  You're a lot like him.

Paul -

Thanks for sharing your memories of your Grandad with us.

My grandfathers were both a lot like him, I think.  I didn't have as much time with them, because we lived in Idaho, and they were in Michigan, but I still remember being invited to "help" with projects when we visited - repairing a bicycle, or lubing a bearing, or smearing a stripe of grease around the trunks of the oak trees behind the big garden to deter army worms (caterpillars) climbing up to denude the leaves.  I don't remember either one of them ever saying a cross word; they had the patience of Job with everyone - including me.

Good memories of good men.

Thanks again.

Kevin

Beau M. Davidson wrote:What a guy.  You're a lot like him.

Really?  That's a huge compliment.  

paul wheaton wrote:

Beau M. Davidson wrote:What a guy.  You're a lot like him.

Really?  That's a huge compliment.  

Yeah.

I've rarely seen someone respond so calmly to the costly blunders of others as you.  

I'd like to hear more grandad stories... I need to absorb information on being a good father.
Are there permies flavored resources for being a father?
Given your amount of mentoring and time spent with young people, perhaps it would be a good podcast topic

When he died, I got a stainless steel spoon rest.  When I lived in community in seattle, somebody moved out and took that with them.  That's kinda a part of community living.  The spoon rest wasn't a normal thing you would buy in the store - it had words printed on it "Jack's tire service, Enterprise, Oregon".  Enterprise was the next town over, and went to jack's a few times.  When we got to Jack's, jack would come out and it seemed like a big party would get fired up between jack and grandad.

A couple of years ago, Dez bought a stainless steel spoon rest and donated it to the house.  Kinda similar to grandads.  That is also part of community living.

I couldn't find one that looked like grandad's, but this looks kinda like the one dez got


https://amzn.to/3CXy0t9



On the stove was a grease keeper.  It had a sort of sieve in it to get the chunky bits out.  Grandad made heavy use of this!

This looks much fancier than the one grandad had


https://amzn.to/3ZxF9cd

November 30.  Macadamia nuts and almond Roca.

I mention this annual ritual in a podcast, complaining that I cannot find organic almond Roca. She sent me organic, home made almond Roca the next year.  Very nice!  

I told the guys a few stories about grandad while munching on almond Roca and organic Macadamia nuts.