52Ancestors52Weeks Week 49 Homemade...............The Cornish Pasty Recipe

 

  My Great Grandmother Emma Lavinia King Hayes Van Duzer came from Cornwall  to San Francisco in 1894.  Nana eventually settled in Grass Valley, California  where she was a prominent member of the Grass Valley United Methodist Church.  One of the Cornish traditions that she carried with her from Cornwall was the baking of Cornish pasties.  Auntie Dot  (her oldest daughter) also carried on the tradition, and  they made pasties by hand for many years.  Eventually, the Methodist Church of Grass Valley used pasty bakes as fundraisers and you could buy a nice quantity of pasties to put in your freezer and bake later, without all the work!  They still make around 1,000 pasties a month with the help of volunteers. I am sharing the official recipe of the Grass Valley Methodist Church, which is probably very close to Nana's pasty recipe.    If you choose to make them at home, you will need to find a Youtube video on how to correctly crimp the edges, which is the hardest part.  Last year,  my husband Geoff and I made several batches from scratch.  Geoff used to work with the youth group in the kitchen at the church to make pasties when he was in high school, so this was a fun project for him!  The church recipe does not add the traditional ingredient of  swede (yellow turnip or rutabaga) and adds parsley which is not a traditional ingredient,  but this recipe will get you a pretty authentic result. 

  The pasties we made at home smelled and tasted heavenly and brought back wonderful memories of Sunday dinners with family.  They are best served with very strong and dark hot tea.  Nana preferred Red Rose. 

Crimping the edges....it takes practice! 

  "The Cornish pasty originates in Cornwall and can be traced back as far as the 1200's. Mining was once a thriving industry in Cornwall and at that time pasties were baked by the wives and mothers of the tin miners.  Pasties were made with a thick crimped edge along one side so the miners could use the crimp as a handle to hold on while eating. The miners hand would often be covered with arsenic from the mine, so the miners would discard the handle when they were done. The crusts were never wasted though, as many miners believed that ghosts, or 'knockers', inhabited the mines, and the leftover crusts would keep these ghosts content. Traditionally, pasties were made with different fillings at each end. One end contained meat and vegetables, and one end with a sweet filling.  The sweet end would be marked with an initial so the miners knew what side to eat first.  Today, Cornish pasties are filled with steak, potatoes, swede (rutabaga) and onions."  gv-umc.org/ministries/ 

A traditional Cornish Pasty

  Pasties went down into many mines all over the world in Cornish miners' tin pails.   This simple,  portable meal  connects Grass Valley history and my family history to the global history of the Cornish diaspora (the dispersion of the Cornish people and their culture).  Cornish people could be found in America, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, the Samoas and Brazil.   The saying was..."If there is a hole anywhere on earth, you're sure to find a Cornishman at the bottom of it."   Grass Valley was a fast growing gold rush town after 1849 that attracted a large population of Methodist Cornish miners and their families.  They brought with them many traditions from the British Ilse.  This is one of my favorites! 

  

Dorothy Ross Hayes and Emma Lavinia King Hayes Van Duzer.  Photograph taken on July 2, 1939 when my grandparents Margaret Elizabeth Hayes and Harold Lloyd Hansen were married in Grass Valley, California.  

Relationship Reference:  Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Margaret Elizabeth Hayes Hansen->Emma King Hayes Van Duzer.  Emma and Lester Hayes had three daughters: Dorothy, Francis and Margaret (Betty).

52Ancestors52Weeks Week 51 Theme: Holidays......The Hansen Family Postcard Album: Holiday Greetings and Wishes From Near and Far

 

 A 1916 postcard written to my Grandfather Harold Hansen from Myra.  From the Hansen Family Postcard Album.  Grandpa was 6 years old in 1916. I am still working on identifying Myra.  She may have been a family friend from the Bay Area. 

    This postcard is from a postcard album put together by my Great Grandmother Vere Burrows.  It contains postcards from around 1910 all the way up to the early 1930's.  Each postcard gives a small glimpse into how the Hansen, Hurd and Burrows families kept in touch during the holidays.  

The Hansen Family Postcard Album cover.  The ship illustration is fitting as John Hansen came to America from Norway on the clipper ship Seminole......the cover design is Art Nouveau in style.   I am sharing just a small selection of Christmas and New Year Greetings and Wishes from the album.  

This postcard was sent to my Uncle Jack, date unreadable, from the Curtis Boys (Elbert, Melvin and Allan Curtis: sons of Winnie (Hurd) and Morrill Curtis from Reno, Nevada).  Jack was staying in Oakland at the time with his younger brother Bob.  Jack would have been 4 years old in 1910. 

This postcard was sent to my Uncle Bob in 1917 from Jane Hurd Burrows, his "Grand-Ma".  The first sentence is difficult to read, but ends with "Hope you have a fun Xmas".  Even with the sparse address, it made it to its destination! Robley (Bob) was 8 years old in 1917. 

 Uncle Bob got a special postcard just from Allan (Curtis) in Reno, Nevada.  I am sure his mother wrote and addressed this one which was postmarked in 1910.  My grandfather was born in October of 1910 in Grass Valley, so Jack and Bob may have been staying at Jane Burrow's home in Oakland, California around the holidays. 

Jane Burrows added the actual address as an afterthought as she sent her Christmas wishes to her daughter Vere Hansen in Grass Valley in 1915. Her writing is very faded and difficult to read,  but she signed off with "Mother". 

A postcard sent to Jack Hansen from Don and Lillian Burrows and the "little Bees" (Marjorie, Evelyn and Don) in 1915 from San Francisco, California.  The Don Burrows family had quite the sense of humor!

A wish for a Merry Xmas and A Bright and Happy New Year to Vere (Burrows) Hansen "from all in Reno", sent in 1914.  The handwriting looks like Winnie (Hurd) Curtis' handwriting.  

Vere Burrows with her boys Jack (left), Robley (bottom right) and Harold (top) around 1911.  

  This is just a small selection from this remarkable album.  I will continue sharing more postcards in the New Year!  I am sending wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to all my family near and far......

52Ancestors52Weeks Week 50 Theme: Lines.....The Story Behind Bob and Skip Hansen's Big Catch on a 4 Pound Test Line

 

Robley (Uncle Bob) Hansen proudly displaying his "Big Catch" as captioned by Alma Hansen around 1951-2.  From the Bob Hansen Family Album.  Reno, Nevada. 

Bob and Skip Hansen holding their German Brown caught in the Truckee River, Reno, Nevada (from the Bob Hansen Family Album). 

 "The Big Catch"

  The theme for this week is Lines.......Family lines? Telephone lines? Railway lines? Fishing lines?.....This story had been floating around in my mind all summer waiting for its turn to be written down.   The theme for this week's writing challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally  get it down on paper.  Or in this case, on the blog... My husband and I had been helping Cousin Skip clean out his garage this last summer.  One of the first things we came across was "The Fish".  I also came across Uncle Bob's family album which Skip shared with me.  In the album were the pictures that were taken by Aunt Alma after the big event.  There were no dates written on the photos, but they were taken after Skip finished Junior High which was either in 1951 or 52.  Skip also pulled out the newspaper article from his wallet, where he has kept it all these years, and shared with me also.   Here is Skip and his Dad's Fish Story!  

The Fish

 Skip wrote....."Many years ago, when I was finishing up my Junior High schooling, Dad and I went to our usual fishing spot up the Truckee (River) a bit.  Dad had a nice bamboo fly rod, 4 lbs test line and 2 lbs test nylon leader.  He hooked a beautiful brown that he didn't want to loose.  Dad kept pressure on the line to hopefully keep the eagle hook from getting tossed off by the fish.  He fought for a little over an hour.  He finally got it close enough and tired enough so that I could net it.  It was too big for the net.  It started to flip back into the river.  Dad leapt down off the higher embankment cranking his Shakespeare reel madly.  We got the fish!  He entered it into the Sportman Contest; it weighed about 10 lbs, I think more, but that's close enough.  Another fisherman weighed in a catch at a lb. more.  Dad's dried out a bit while we continued to fish.  No bites!  I think the struggle scared the rest away.  Dad's would have outweighed the other had we stopped fishing immediately and taken it in to weigh and register. I was rewarded by getting to clean it after we weighed in at Crystal Springs.  Dad did the taxidermy.  It hung on the wall at the Sportman for several years.  When they closed we had a bit of a problem retrieving it.  Good memory!" 

  It now proudly resides in the garage, mounted on a piece of driftwood.  

  Here is the newspaper article from the Reno Gazette Journal (date unknown) that Skip kept in his wallet.  As you can see, some details are a little different, but it is,  after all, a fish story! 

   

  The Sportman store was located at the corner of 4th and Vine for many years and was owned by the Piazzo brothers Chet and Link.  They opened the original store in 1938.  The brothers sold their interest in the store in 2000 and it is no longer in business.  (Reno Gazette Journal April 12, 2000).  I remember shopping there a few times in the 90's; Uncle Bob's prize fish was up on the wall somewhere!

Chet and Link Piazzo, Reno Gazette Journal

 

The beautiful Truckee River in the summer,  courtesy of the Water Education Foundation.

52Ancestors52Weeks Week 48 Theme: Strength......The Man with the Hands of Iron: More Photographs Discovered of John H. Hansen

      

" Hansen....The Terrible Viking....The man with the HANDS OF IRON....A Raw Potatoe--Crushed to a Pulp...Meets all Comers in Feats of Strength".....pen and ink drawing on cardboard from the Hansen Family Collection, date probably around 1912-13.  John was working as a mine supervisor in San Salvador in Central America at that time.   It is easy to imagine my Great Grandfather participating in such contests.  I would love to know more about this particular picture and how it came to be!

  The theme for this week is Strength...strength comes in many forms; either physical, emotional or spiritual.  What ancestor demonstrated a particular strength?  My Great Grandfather was extremely proud of his physical strength throughout his life.  I recently discovered even more pictures of John H. Hansen at a Hansen cousin's house this past summer.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!  John Hartwig Hansen was indeed a very strong person, not only physically, but he also had a particularly strong personality.  I find myself coming back to his life story over and over.   These new pictures add even more depth to his life.  I am so glad they still exist! 

  This picture was taken in 1898 in Grass Valley, California.  John Hansen arrived in Grass Valley after gaining his citizenship in Colusa County, California in 1894.  He was born in Christiana Norway on February 2, 1865, worked on sailing ships out of Norway from a young age and jumped ship in either San Francisco or Eureka before he made his way to Colusa to work as a laborer on a farm. In Grass Valley he worked in a mine as a ropeman, using the skills he learned working aboard ships.  

  While he was in Grass Valley, John joined up to participate in the Spanish American War, at the age of 33 years. I also discovered this photograph that my Great Grandmother Vere Hansen had saved.  He served in the Navy, where  he continued to use his skills as a rope splicer.  See my previous post of May 9, 2020 John Hartwig Hansen Larger Than Life for more details on his participation in the flag raising in Hawaii during the war...

  John Hartwig Hansen Spanish American War, Navy.  1898.  See my previous post of May 31, 2020   Documents for John Hansen; Birth, Citizenship, The Spanish American War and the Laundry Business Explained for more in depth information on his life and participation in the war. 

  This one is dated 1899 and was taken in San Francisco, after the Spanish American War.  

  Another picture I discovered this summer!  Date unknown, but it must have been taken around the turn of the century, sans mustache.  John Hansen was certainly proud of his physique.  He worked out with Indian clubs, which were all the rage at the time.  

John Hansen, far left.  This was a theater production he was involved in in Grass Valley, around the turn of the century.  Notice his large forearms!  He participated in theater to practice his elocution skills.  He was working on loosing his Norwegian accent.  

  John Hansen with his sons Jack (holding hands) and Robley (on his shoulder) around 1909-10.  Grass Valley, California.  From the Hansen Family Album shared by Skip Hansen.  John was a loving father to all three of his boys (Harold, my Grandfather, was born in 1910).  I can just imagine the strength in John's arm as he proudly held up his son for this picture.  And compare the size of his hand to the size of Jack's hand! Fatherly strength and fatherly tenderness in one picture.  

John H. Hansen San Salvador 1913.  He worked for the Pullinger and Butters Company which ran mines in Central America.  This must have been his supervisor pose.  He looks very sure of himself here. 

  Another pen and ink drawing on cardboard found with things saved by my Great Grandmother Vere Hansen and discovered this summer.   This could have been from San Salvador, also.  The forearms certainly look like John Hansen's!  He often went by the name Jack. 

  Caption on back..  "Dad with boom erected by him Idaho Maryland Mine".  John Hansen worked at the Idaho Maryland Mine in Grass Valley after he came back from San Salvador.  Did he erect the boom all by himself?  One wonders.  He certainly could have!

  John Hansen on far right posing with his three boys Harold (my Grandfather), Robley and Jack at the reservoir near the Idaho Maryland Mine in Grass Valley sometime in the mid to late 1920's.  John kept his athletic physique as he aged through swimming, skiing and skating; all great Norwegian sports!  He encouraged his boys to be active and athletic, also. 

  I posted John's obituary earlier in my blog (May 3, 2020 John Hartwig Hansen) which gives the basic outline of his colorful life.  I am sure there will be many more posts to come on John Hartwig Hansen, especially now that I have a small collection of pictures taken in San Salvador and the actual manuscript he wrote detailing his time in Central America.  These were also found at Cousin Skip's this summer. 

   It was fascinating to find pictures that visually told the story of John Hansen's physical strengths.  His strong personality continues to challenge me to write down the rest of his story.... 

Relationship Reference:  Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Harold Lloyd Hansen->John Hartwig Hansen m. Clara Vere Burrows Hansen