If the notion of a read-along is new to you, you’re in for a treat – check the LIWLRA.org website (https://www.liwlra.org/little-house-readalongs/) for all the posts on the previous books. We started in the middle of the series with Long Winter and worked our way through to the end, and now we’re back at the very beginning with Big Woods. So basically the same approach as Star Wars, but with bonnets instead of lightsabers.

So that gives me the privilege of writing about the very first chapter of the very first book. [Note: before we get started I recommend you go and fix a snack because if you’re not hungry now you will be by the end of this chapter.]

Are we ready?

Once upon a time, 43 years ago, a little girl lived on the flat plains of Shropshire in England in a big red house made of bricks. And though she loved the Little House books, she was a little bit confused by the opening of this one.

Here was my 9-year-old reasoning: 60 years ago … and it’s now 1978, so this is all happening in … um, 1918. Right? Wrong, of course. Yes, I eventually realised I could work out when the book was set by checking the publish date at the beginning of the book and re-doing the ‘subtract 60’ maths. (It still seems a little odd to me to word it this way though. I was interested to see that the original “Pioneer Girl” draft begins ‘Once upon a time, years and years ago’ – which, though vague, is at least more future proof!) In reality, this book is set in the period after the Ingalls family returned to Wisconsin from Kansas in May 1871 (i.e. it really takes place after the events of Little House on the Prairie, as it is in the original version of “Pioneer Girl”, rather than before.) Laura is four years old and turns five during the book, which happened in February 1872, so it supposedly covers the autumn of 1871 through to late 1872 (though they were actually in Wisconsin till 1874).

Here’s a confession: LHITBW is not my favourite, or even one of my favourites. I think that’s because when I first began reading the series, I started in the middle with Silver Lake, and then went back to early books later (much like our read-alongs). I was a little too old for Big Woods by the time I read it. It definitely has that ‘for young children’ feel to it, compared to the others. And I skip over Pa’s stories too. Somehow I find them a distraction from the main story. Terrible, right? Please don’t throw me out of the Association.

That said, of course there is lots to love in Big Woods (the food! And the dance! But mainly the food!). And lots to love in this opening chapter, which is basically Pioneer Winter Prep 101 (we now know this additional detail on pioneer life was requested by Marion Fiery of prospective publishers Albert A. Knopf, during the publication negotiations. Thank you, Ms Fiery). I recently moved to LIW country from the UK and I’m currently bracing myself for my first Iowan winter. This chapter will be invaluable if I find I can’t get to Target in between blizzards. Later on in the series, children, we’ll tackle bigger projects like how to build a log cabin, lay a railroad and construct your own whatnot. But today we’ll learn:

 How to make a venison smoker out of a log;

 What parts of a pig can be made into what tempting foods;

 What parts of a pig can be played with;

 How to improvise a doll from a vegetable.

The opening paragraphs do have a slightly odd feel to them to me, like going back and watching the pilot episode of a favourite TV show while the characters we know and love are still finding their feet. We are introduced to the family, and to Jack the dog. We learn that Laura calls her parents, Ma and Pa (a detail that unthinkably nearly got dropped at the request of the publisher as too ‘colloquial’, but luckily there was a change of heart. Imagine no Ma and Pa!). We learn how big the Big Woods are – big! – and the animals that live in them. We learn how little the house is – little! – though it’s comfortable, and [spoiler alert] positively palatial compared to some of the dwellings in store for the Ingalls family. But once we’ve got past the opening scene-setting, we get straight to business with Laura seeing dead deer in the trees, and the lesson in how to hickory smoke them (because you can’t beat hickory cured meat). Then Pa catches a wagonload of fish from Lake Pepin, which are salted away in barrels. Then the garden produce is harvested: potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, cabbages, onions, red peppers, pumpkins and squashes.

Then it’s Butchering Time! As Laura says, this is great fun (once the pig has stopped squealing of course). Pa saves the day (and the bacon) when a bear nearly swipes their pig before they have chance to butcher it. Incidentally, all the pig talk reminds me of an episode from my childhood.

The story of Eddie’s Mother and the pig

When I was little girl, a local Farmer bet my Mother that she could not raise the runt of a litter of his pigs as well as he could raise the rest. Now, Mother was not one to shy away from a challenge so she told the Farmer she would try. And that’s how Sam Pig came to live with us. When the Farmer brought him, he was so tiny he lived in a box in the corner of the kitchen. Then as he grew under my mother’s loving care, he moved to the shed. And he grew and grew. He grew so much that he was bigger than any of his brothers and sisters that the Famer kept. And the Farmer had to admit that Mother had turned Sam into a very fine pig.

Gah! Distraction from the main story! Sorry. Back to Butchering Time. Again, we get enough detail here that we could do it ourselves if we wanted to. Here’s what to do for a full Butchering Time experience:

Pa & Uncle Henry

1. Kill hog

2. Scald hog in boiling water

3. Scrape off bristles

4. Hang & allow to cool

5. Cut up and salt pieces

6. Brine hams and shoulders ready for hickory smoking

7. Once all of the above done, prepare pig’s tail and bladder for children

Ma

1. Boil up lard*and save cracklings for later (too rich for little girls)

2. Make headcheese

3. Make sausage balls

4. Supervise cooking of pig’s tail

Mary and Laura

1. Carry wood & watch the fire for the lard

2. Roast the pig’s tail

3. Play with the bladder balloon

Jack

1. Eat bones from pig’s tail

*in all the times I’ve read this, I’ve never noticed before that Ma ‘tries out’ the lard. Is that just an old-fashioned word for rendering? This is why I love the readalongs! There’s always something new. And Ma puts sage in the sausage!

Poor Laura.

Laura’s description of headcheese reminds me of eating brawn as a child (which is what headcheese is called in the UK – and although the US name is retained in the UK edition I read, Laura’s description is so good that even as a child I knew exactly what she was talking about). It fell out of fashion but has started to appear again now that nose-to-tail eating is all hipster. We’re also told Ma saves the cracklings to make Johnny cake. Having never really known what Johnny cake was (other than it would not be good to take on a journey), I’m pleased to say that since arriving in the US and being fairly glued to the Food channel on TV, I’ve seen Johnny cake made on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and be a signature dish on Beat Bobby Flay. Much excited shrieking at the TV on both occasions

Once butchering time is done, everyone is ready for winter. Here’s where we get that lovely scene of Mary and Laura playing with their dolls in their attic, bursting with all the produce ready for winter, and with a ‘dusty-spicy’ smell from the herbs. Is there a sweeter line anywhere in Little House than: “It wasn’t Susan’s fault she was only a corncob”?

The chapter ends with the cosy contentment of winter evenings: Pa greasing his traps and telling stories, and the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the introduction of the remaining vital ‘character’: Pa’s fiddle. I think we can all agree with Laura that was the best time of all.