A Pancake by Any Other Name—with Giveaway By Donna Schlachter

As a child growing up in eastern Canada, the Tuesday before Lent was called “Pancake Day”. Traditionally, we ate pancakes for supper. The batter was prepared as usual, and when my mother spooned the mixture into the frying pan, she tucked an aluminum foil-wrapped coin into each pancake.

You can imagine our excitement as the children endeavored to eat as many pancakes as possible, because then we increased our chances of finding the cakes with a dime or maybe even a quarter inside. Most had a penny or nickel, but that didn’t deter us.

Each year, we’d ask why we ate pancakes for supper just one day a week, and my mother always told us because it was a tradition. She didn’t know the reason. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered the reason.

Dreamstime.com

 

Pancake Day hails from the observance of Lent and marks the beginning of the season. Held on the Tuesday before Lent, it’s also known as Shrove Tuesday. It was a day of confession and self-examination, which has become Mardi Gras in the United States. Because Lent was commonly a time of fasting from favorite foods, Pancake Day was begun as a way to rid the home of eggs, sugar, and fat (usually butter).

Dreamstime.com

Pancakes hold a longstanding place in history, first mentioned by Ancient Greeks around 600 BC. Around 1100 AD, Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday became a traditional way to adhere to the church’s admonition to self-deny. National Pancake Day originated in the USA in 1985, although depending on one’s country of origin, has been celebrated here much longer than that.

Regardless of which traditions you adhere to regarding Lent, Pancake Day is still a fun way to change up your menu and encourage your kids to eat.

Now, if we could just find a way to hide money inside vegetables.

Giveaway: Leave a comment, and I’ll draw randomly for a free print (US only) copy of “The Pony Express Romance Collection”. Share one of your family traditions, and leave your email address disguised from the bots as name AT email DOT extension (for example: Donna AT HiStoryThruTheAges DOT com)



 

 

 

 

 

Resources:

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pancake-Day/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shrove-Tuesday

https://holidays-today.com/holidays/national-pancake-day.html





About “The Pony Express Romance Collection”:

Join the race from Missouri, across the plains and mountains to California and back again as brave Pony Express riders and their supporters along the route work to get mail across country in just ten days. It is an outstanding task in the years 1860 to 1861, and only a few are up to the job. Faced with challenges of terrain, weather, hostile natives, sickness, and more, can these adventurous pioneers hold fast, and can they also find lasting love in the midst of daily trials?

About Donna:

Donna writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas, full-length novels, and non-fiction books. She is a member of ACFW, Writers on the Rock, SinC, Pikes Peak Writers, and CAN; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com

Sweet Colorado: The Rise & Fall of Sugar Factories

Blogger: Amber Schamel

A Beet Sugar Factory in Monte Vista 1912

Growing up, I remember hearing stories from my great-grandmother about her father working in a sugar factory in Loveland, Colorado. She would talk about him bringing home “burnt sugar” as a treat for the kids. So when I needed a factory for Solve by Christmas, it was natural for me to choose a sugar factory. I ended up having a lot of fun with the research, so I wanted to share some of it with you.

The sugar factories were a large contributor to the communities in Loveland, Longmont, Brighton and northeastern Colorado. The industry thrived there for around 70 years, from the late 1800’s to around 1970. In fact, beet sugar was the most important agricultural activity in Colorado during the early to mid 1900’s. According to the Colorado Encyclopedia, twenty sugar factories were built in Colorado between 1899-1920. In the early 1900’s, a tariff was enacted on sugar, which aided the mills here in Colorado by spiking sugar prices. Then came the sugar act of 1948, which also aided the industry.

The process is not too different from what we have today, except that our technological advancements have made the process much easier. When the beets are first shipped in, many times by train, they must be washed. Then they are cut into tiny French-fry type shapes called casets. The cut pieces are then soaked for a period of time to allow the cell membranes to open up, this allows for the next step, which they call extraction. The extraction process consists of boiling down the beets in water until it becomes “raw juice”. Next the juice goes through a purification process that involves limestone, kok, and carbon dioxide. Once the juice is purified, it goes through the evaporation process. Don’t let that name fool you, because at the end, it’s still liquid, however the juice is thick and syrupy. Finally, the thick juice goes to the crystallization machine. Here, you need ‘seed crystals’ and lots of heat to get the crystals to form. Then the crystals are separated from the syrup and dried before the sugar is ready for packaging.

GWS Factory in Longmont 1960's
 Great Western Sugar, Collection #1021720282,
CSU Libraries, Archives & Special Collections

As you can imagine, all of these processes created many jobs. Each factory typically employed between 100-200 workers, and that’s besides the many who worked on the farming side, most of which were immigrants. While this process sounds complicated, it is usually less complex than the process to make cane sugar.

The old machines used in these processes are fascinating to me, however I found very limited information on how they worked. I did find some images of several factories during the early 1900’s, so that helped immensely in my research and writing details.

Most factories made their own sugar sacks as well, so they had an entire section of the factory where women would sew the packages. Again, more jobs created.

Sugar machinery advertisement 1915

However, in the 1970’s, several events finally brought down the sugar mills. In late 1974, the sugar act expired, which yanked the advantages offered by the government. There was also a rising trend of using sugar alternatives, which were seen as healthier than sugar. Cane sugar was also competing for the market. Between all these elements, most of the sugar factories in Colorado are now ghosts of the past. Many of the remaining structures are being demolished.
There is currently only one Sugar factory remaining in Colorado. One in Fort Morgan owned by the Great Western Sugar Cooperative. However, the impact that this industry had on Colorado survives. Had it not been for the sugar industry, Colorado would not have prospered and grown at such a rapid pace. The industry also set a precedence for agriculture that still exists today. 

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Amber's book, Solve by Christmas was awarded the 2018 Christian Indie Award! To celebrate, she's hosting a giveaway for her fantastic readers. The prize includes her two award winning titles, book swag, and a custom Solve by Christmas mug! You can access that giveaway by clicking here.
Keep up to date with Amber and all her historical adventures on her website, www.AmberSchamel.com.