This Sampson County Family Won't Go Hungry, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as printed in the Wilmington Star on October 29, 1945

One farm family will not go hungry this winter—come what may. It is the family of Mr. and Mrs. D.P. Dillard of Clinton, Route 1, Sampson County. Mrs. Dillard is a member of the Salemburg Home Demonstration Club, and there are six in the family, including grandpa, and a son in the armed services. Mrs. Dillard has been able to produce and conserve almost all kinds of food as needed except the staples of sugar, coffee, and other such materials.

But the whole family has worked this year in the growing and collection of fruits and berries for canning. Even grandpa helped to gather while the other members of the family prepared and preserved the food. There is one young four-year-old who did what he could even though it consisted mostly of getting underfoot at critical times. This year, Mrs. Dillard said there was so much to do on the farm with only the family to do it all, that she took much of her garden produce over to the community cannery in the Salemburg High School and had it canned there.

At any rate, here are the results to date: 88 quarts of peaches, 55 quarts of tomato juice, 10 quarts of apple sauce, 2 ½ quarts of grape juice, 40 quarts of string beans, 11 quarts of corn, 8 quarts of turnip greens, 4 quarts of tomatoes, 17 pints of butterbeans, 16 pints of garden peas, 9 pints of okra, and 11 pints of pimento peppers. This figures up to 244 quarts of fruits and vegetables, according to my reckoning.

But that’s not all. Mrs. Dillard has canned 16 pints of fried chicken and 25 quarts of cooked pork.

And still that’s not all. A freezer locker plant was established in Clinton this year, I believe, and in this locker, the Dillards have placed 25 quarts of fresh strawberries, 29 quarts of fresh peaches, 11 ½ quarts of apples, 12 quarts of butterbeans, 7 pints of okra, and 22 pints of creamed corn. This is a little over 100 additional quarts of food.

And then, she has these frozen meats: 24 pounds of fresh ham, 12 pounds of liver pudding, 12 pounds of sausage, 15 pounds of spareribs, and 8 pounds of tenderloin. This makes 71 pounds of pork so far stored in the locker this season.

Mrs. Dillard put the strawberries into the locker last April and the other food in June and July.

“We use the food I the locker as we need them,” she said. “The strawberries make grand shortcake, and the apples are delicious in pies. The family marvels at the flavor and color of our frozen foods. They are perfect.”

And Miss Eleanor Southerland, home agent in Sampson, says that Mrs. Dillard is an outstanding farm woman who is trying to follow a sensible plan of food production and conservation. She is improving the diet of her family and its general health and vigor as a result.