Working with the elderly is always a time of the old meeting the new, each sharing knowledge and information along the way. My monthly meeting with my Homemakers group at the Robertson County Health Care Facility is no exception.  The meetings conducted there create a feeling of inclusion enjoyed by the residents as community events and Homemaker activities are discussed,  Many of those attending the event each month belonged to a Homemaker club before they came to reside at the facility.  At each meeting, I make sure to include a lesson and a craft, to help keep minds and hands active.  I also take the opportunity to include nutrition information, usually by preparing a food item as they look on, then there is sampling of the finished product.  As they offer comments on preparation techniques I frequently feel it is a look into the past when food preparation was a big part of every day living, and sit down family meals with a discussion of the day's events were the norm.

Autumn family traditions was a topic I chose for the October meeting, knowing that harvest time was winding down in our rural location and my RCHCF Homemakers would have plenty to reminisce about. I had chosen to make the Traveler's Rest Freezer Apple Pie recipe because it incorporated traditions of the fall harvest with an opportunity to talk about food preservation techniques.  I arrived with one pie ready for baking, and into the oven it went at the Facility's Activity Department.  I carried with me more ingredients to make another pie during the Meeting. 

What I did not know was one of my members was being visited by her son and his family.  I was surprised to see both mother and son show up at the meeting.  He said he had been informed this was an important meeting, his mother was attending and he could come along if he wanted to - but she was going to that meeting!  So we discussed traditions of the harvest - which in our county included much talk of the days of housing tobacco - and the residents enjoyed sharing their memories of the large meals they would cook for their families during those times.  Gardening and food preservation techniques were also discussed as I began my preparation of an apple pie.  Everyone had a story about pies they had made or enjoyed in the past, and apple pie figured in as a general favorite. I demonstrated a small hand held peeler and an apple slicer/corer which made readying the apples a quick task. The gentleman that had accompanied his mother to the meeting was fascinated by these items and the ease of the preparation with them. He asked where I had obtained the peeler, and explaining it was an item distributed through our nutrition education program, I gave it to him when I had finished making the pie.  He was very excited and wanted a copy of the recipe, saying he was going to try making it at home.

Of course everyone sampled and enjoyed the freshly baked pie that was brought out of the oven at the lesson's conclusion, but the results didn't end there. Several weeks later as I was in a neighboring town I was hailed by that same gentleman.  He informed me that he and his grandson had prepared the apple pie at home that evening after the meeting, that it was the best apple pie they'd ever had, and they planned to make another one soon.  I really felt this proved the success of the lesson in various ways, from the sharing of tradition to apparently creating a new, intergenerational tradition, as well as exposing a younger generation (the grandson) to cooking techniques and shared time with family members at home. This created a much farther reaching impact than what I had originally anticipated when I presented the lesson but it is certainly the impression I hope for with every presentation I give.