Melita Loewen Bartel was born, in 1929, in Macklin, Saskatchewan, to “Reformationist” parents. Her parents left South Russian, in 1923, in search of religious freedom. (Melita believes they were of Dutch origin.) In Macklin, the family lived and worked on a grain farm for a kindly farmer who left the Loewens his farm when he returned to Britain. Unfortunately, it was in the 1930s, the period of The Great Depression and the prairies turned into one giant “Dust Bowl.” The family moved, hoping to find “greener pastures,” in North Saskatchewan. Melita, one of seven children, has happy memories of farm life where the family survived on their own eggs, milk and meat. There was no refrigeration, in those days, so seasonal produce and meats were kept in root cellars or ice houses lined with straw.
The only transportation, in the snowy winters, was a large four-runner sleigh drawn by a team of Percherons, named Katie and George. “My father would bring out blankets and hot bricks for our feet and we would all bundle up in the sleigh. My brothers had homemade skis and they would tie a rope to the back of the sleigh and be pulled through the snow,” Melita says. Melita describes her parents as “very devout Christians.” The family attended a small Mennonite church, made of logs. On Christmas Eve there were real candles attached to the branches of the Christmas tree in the church. The candles were lit, only, when the congregation was ready to sing O Holy Night. There were no musical instruments, so singing was mostly a capella, according to Melita.
Christmas Eve dinner consisted of the chicken or duck, raised by Melita’s mother, and a Russian condiment made of stewed cabbage, prunes, raisins, apples and brown sugar. On Christmas Day, the family went, in the sleigh, to Melita’s grandmother for a meal of smoked ham, home-made sausages and pickles.
After Melita completed Grade 10, by correspondence, she attended a boarding school for Grades 11 and 12. In 1948, with her high school diploma, in hand, Melita was offered a teaching job in rural Saskatchewan. After two weeks of orientation, she found herself in a one-room school house. She boarded with a Ukrainian farm people and walked, every day, two miles to the school. In the early ‘50s, Melita went to Winnipeg. There she worked in a hospital while attending teachers’ college.
In 1957, after Melita married, she lived in North Battleford where she taught school, raised a family of four daughters and was director of a church choir. (Melita confesses to having a fine alto voice and was often a soloist.) At Christmas her North Battleford church collaborated with the United Church because it had an organ. The blended church choirs sang Handel’s Messiah at Yule Tide and, to this day, this oratorio is Melita’s favourite piece of music. After her husband died, Melita moved to Toronto to be near two of her daughters. Some three years ago she joined Wychwood Presbyterian, a church within walking distance of her new home.
Melita enjoys baking peppernuts, a treat from her own childhood, with her grandchildren. She describes peppernuts as an old-fashioned German confection that she suspects her “forbearers picked up along the way.” The recipe results in “hazelnut” sized cookies, just like the ones the Loewen children carried in their pockets (or in a cloth bag) over 70 years ago.
MELITA’S PEPPERNUTS
Bring to a boil:
3 cups brown sugar (dark is best)
1 cup syrup (golden, corn or rice syrup)
I cup water
Cool slightly and stir in 1 cup shortening or butter and 4 beaten eggs
Add:
1 tsp soda dissolved in a tsp of water. 1 to 2 tsp cinnamon. I tsp ground clove. 1 tsp aniseed (powder or oil). Optional: 1/8 tsp fine black pepper.
Add enough flour to make a soft dough that holds together and is malleable. Chill dough for about half hour. Roll out, by hand, finger-thick strands, two feet long.
Chill again, for an hour or so. Cut the thin “sausages” of dough into hazelnut-size pieces and roll, in palms, to resemble nuts.
Place them on a gently buttered cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove from pan with a spatula, onto a tea towel, to cool. Store in a closed container or jar. Eat like candy.
