An old recipe for starch:
“Wash a peck of good wheat and pick it very clean. Put it in a tub and cover it with water. It must be kept in the sun and the water changed every day or it will smell very offensively. When the wheat becomes quite soft, it must be well rubbed in the hands and the husks thrown in another tub. Let this white substance settle and then pour off the water. Put on fresh and stir it up well and let it subside. Do this every day till the water comes off clear, then pour it off. Collect the starch in a bag, tie it up tight and set it in the sun a few days. Then open it and dry the starch on dishes.”
Mrs. C.C. Dosien
Valley Center, Kansas
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
