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Coast plentiful food source*''’?
• Covered wagons pulled by teams of straining mules could be seen'-^ leaving the .Mississippi Coast, ./•. heading north, for many years as ^ late as the beginning of the 20th.;, ■/ century?' .•“'..T\/V . .j>;’ The wagons contained barrels of salted fish which had been caught and preserved by people in such inland cities as Columbia and Hattiesburg.
Entire families came to enjoy the Coast, fish, camp, and return with a supply of^fish which' woyld provide a source of food throughout the approaching winter.- .
This is just one example of the ways the people of South Mississippi preserved their foods before the days of home delivery of ice or the modern electric refrigerator of deep freeze now common in homes.
Foods were often dried, salted, smoked, pickled, canned, stored in cellars and even lowered into the bottoms of wells to be kept cool.
Fruits were often spread on white sheets and allowed to dehydrate for several days, then placed in a cool n.ildew-proof place.
Fish and shrimp were often dried as well as preserved by smoking, and some seafoods were soaked in brine then dried on racks.	_	>
Both pork and beef were smoked as a common way for preservation. Almost every rural home in South Mississippi had a smoke house nearby. ■
Butchering a hog was almost a social event during the early days
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of this area, although this wasn't the case of butchering cattle..
Very little was lost when a hog was killed. The children were sent -' to a nearby stream as a rule to ,■ clean the Intestines of the dead ani-^g. mal in order that they might be^. used to hold sausage.:
The various parts of the "hog : were smoked, salted, pickled and ; -even kept in barrels ofjard. The , lard was rendered’ from the fat ’’ belly of the animal, and the crisp ' fatty meat, ’'cracklins” were a delicacy, especially when they.-were cooked in corn bread..
Vegetables, fruits and berries'' were often canned, or preserved inv jars, and during years past, some’' --berries were “preserved” by usingj ' them to make wine. Some people,, such as Paul Beaugez of North Bi->;-loxi, gained a reputation for mak'-ing good wine. ■	,
Daily products, milk and butter, were frequently bottled and lowered into the well in the back yard. They*lasted longer in the cool, dark water.
There was one Coast family known for making cheese, and engaged in this activity as a busi-. , ness, but as a rule, cheese making -was a household chore. .	'	Vi.
After commercial, .ice^.makipg^' ' came to the area,” there, was'ice^ cream for sale in the stores, as ’ well as gutter. But they weren’t sold then as they are today. You,. had to bring your own container,^;:;.' which was filled from the larger1^ * commercial-sized containers in the.J. slo^e.	:	*.-•	•'
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