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I have my grandmother's pie bird. It is ceramic and black; very lovely. Both of my grandmother's were born in the 1800's; 1886 and 1892. 1886 lived with us and 1892 lived right across the street. 

The grandmother across the street decorated her entire home Victorian. To this day a home does not feel like a home to me without wallpapered walls. Our past house, that we had built in 1980, was completely wallpapered; every room with exception of the utility/laundry room in the basement. I loved that house and it felt like home. We had all the walls flat finished specifically for the wallpaper. 

The house we ,Iive in now, purchased in another town when we moved to be closer to our grandchildren, has all the walls painted. It still feels dull to me after living here 11 years. There is no wallpaper, but I still have my grandmother's china and her pie bird. Items my grandmother touched and used are more important than walls.

I wonder why pie birds fell out of favor?

I don't recall my mother ever using one.

I have my mother’s biscuit cutter, but don’t ever remember a pie bird. I don’t remember my maternal grandmother baking, and my paternal grandmother made Chocolate cakes often. I don’t remember anyone making pie! I do love pie though, but my husband has to be gluten free, so I’d have to figure out a good, easy gluten free pie crust. For the holidays, I make a crustless pumpkin pie that works out very well for us.

I can not remember seeing a pie bird until I saw one in an article about ten years ago. My Mum made just two types of pie, one was meat and the other was apple pie which was a favourite of mine it had such good flavour. Mum cooked the apples with a bit of sugar and spices before she put them in the pie. from Judi.

We have a nursery rhyme here in the UK called Sing a Song of Sixpence and one of the lines goes “ four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”. I inherited my Grandma’s pie bird and that is a blackbird with an orange beak which unfortunately has a small chip in it but I do love my little bird. My Grandma often baked a steak & kidney pie for the family, us kids would try to pick out the bits of kidney as we weren’t keen on the taste but were told it was full of iron so eat up, it’s good for you!

Incidentally one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels is A Pocket Full of Rye which is all about this nursery rhyme.

I live in the UK, and have a black ceramic pie bird which I have used all my married life, and I bought it probably in the 1980s.  I can't see why they fell out of favour, but perhaps because people were too busy to make pies and bought them instead?  I am fond of mine too.  I also have a splayed bottom white utalitarian one too, but prefer to use the bird.  My mother never had one but didn't make pies.  Small jam tarts, and bigger ones with criss-cross pastry were the nearest we got to a pie!

Well done with all your repurposing of furniture and drawer-clearing.  I should do that here . . .

Hi, sweet Grandma Donna!

Your home is getting more and more cozy! :)

I only saw pie birds in movies and TV shows! I never saw one in Portugal and although I believe my mother never made pies, I never saw them in other people's homes, either.

But I think they are so cute and practical, and like Margaret and Jennie, can't understand why they fell out of favor...

About your lavender plants, I also have some in the yard and they keep great all summer. Maybe it is because I water them every day in the early morning, but they are keeping green and alive! :)

You talked about pie birds in the Victorian era and I found out they were called pie funnels. Here is an article with a picture and some history. It seems that they began like little chimneys and then evolved to birds!

Here is the link, if you want to check it out: https://thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com/2016/01/11...

Have a blessed weekend, dear Grandma Donna and Grandpa Charles!

Sandy,  I eat gluten free and the recipe I use for pie crust is one of Donna's.  It is from her Ganny Pie recipe.  This makes 4 small individual pies, but I just make more for a full pie and we all like it whether gluten free or not.  https://www.generationsbeforeus.com/cooking-from-scratch/ganny-pies-gluten-free/  I use King Arthur gluten free flour and I don't add the Xanthan Gum because I sometimes have problems with that too.

Hope you like it.

Lavendula Stoechas is less hardy than English Lavender. I have had less success with it here with all of the rain, and the heavy clay soil. I have tall bushes of Munstead lavender, which has branched stems giving three flushes of flowers from early summer until the first autumn frost.  Bumble bees and honey bees love it. It is planted along the house wall, getting sun in the afternoon and evening to scent the lounge and our bedroom. Granny kept large bowls of dried lavender in the bedrooms which was stirred up gently with the fingers to release calming scent at bedtime.

I have the pie funnel with our vintage Manor Green Denby crockery, but have never used it. I make apple pie occasionally, the local Howgate Wonder cooking apples hold their shape when cooked, supporting the pastry. I prefer to make wholemeal apple crumble as it uses less butter. I made rabbit pies quite often, and Mum’s bacon and egg pie, but pasties are easier for picnics. 

Sandi P, I made pie crusts from cassava flour.  I use Otto’s brand because some brands can be bitter or gritty. I buy it online and it isn’t cheap, sadly. Cassava flour makes a delicate dough so it takes some care getting it into the pan. I can now eat low gluten flour so I don’t use cassava as much as I used to.  Once baked, though, no one noticed the crust in my gluten free pie was cassava. 

My mother and grandmother never used pie birds in their many homemade pies. They slit the crusts and would get quite decorative with the designs of the cuts. I was an adult before I heard of pie birds and as I recall, when I asked my mother about them, she said something about it being another thing to wash so she never wanted one. I like to make pies and I slit the crusts in patterns like they did. I don’t think I have had a pie spillover, or if I did, it couldn’t have been many. The birds are adorable though and I have had to keep myself from getting one just because they are so cute.  How do you get it out after baking without messing up your top crust?  Or do you cut slices with it still in there?  I’m just curious. 

I recently got a rotary egg beater to add to my old fashioned non-electric items. Some things I have always used non- electric, like can openers.  I can’t imagine taking up counter space full- time with an electric can opener for the few times I open a metal can. When my late DH worked out of town for several years, I had to pay a little more to get him one that was easier for a left- hander to use- that is a downside to manual openers. I also never owned an electric knife. I am teaching myself how to sharpen my knives using whetstones instead of electric sharpeners or paying someone to do it. 

I am officially retired now so I am able to spend more time on tasks. My biggest problem is remembering that I don’t have to do it all at once; I have more than a weekend to get things done!  

I'd never heard of a cake bird before. That probably stems from the fact that in Germany, cakes with a pastry lid are hardly ever baked. Our cakes are quite different from American ones.

I have been moving furniture and trying new placement for more comfortable living.  I live with it a few days and if it is not an improvement I just try again.

I moved a few plants into bedroom windows for naturally "cleaning" the air. I have to keep light requirements in mind but so far so good.

I decanted a 25# bag of flour into mason jars with the addition of a bay leaf on top (to repel bugs) for storage. I do a lot of baking and noodle making so have done this many times and it works well. My grandma always used lard cans but those are hard to find besides I need something smaller because of the weight. 

I just mixed up a batch of yeast donuts for frying this afternoon and will share with family.

I am a pie baker; I don't like cake or frosting so seldom make a cake. I have never had a pie bird but have heard of them. We just always cut fancy vents in the top crust. My dad always said he only liked 2 kinds of pie...hot and cold LOL.

I have never been able to keep lavender alive and I have tried everything, It might very well be the growing conditions in my yard as I do live in a woods.  

I have started rooting spider plant babies and other trailing house plant cuttings in prep for using as pot fillers and spillers with an annual in the middle of my large flower pots. It accentuates the colorful annuals and I need to buy fewer so money saved.

Trying once again to stay away from too much news as it scares me and disrupts my calm and peace.

Grandma Donna Wrote, 

Thank you Paula Alexandra S, for the research on the Pie Bird.  That is very interesting information. This led me to research the Pie Bird under the name of Pie funnel and found the articles further back in time.  One article in 1905 said that if you do not have a pie funnel and your pie runs over the sides you can take a small paper funnel and place it near the center of your pie.  :)

Janet W, your vintage Manor Green Denby crockery is lovely, and thank you for sharing.  Congratulations on your retirement, we are still taking baby steps and still feel like we are supposed to go back to work or go back to somewhere. Lol

Grandma Donna, I love lavender and peppermint essential oils.  I was putting them in a diffuser and  noticed one of my little dachshunds started coughing.  I told our vet and she said lavender and peppermint oils were not good for dogs.  I stopped using them and my dog stopped coughing.  Just thought you might like to know.  I am loving this 1942 study as I love the 40s, except for the war, of course.  I was wondering if people ate a lot of cottage cheese during the 40s.  I remember it being popular in the 50s when I was growing up.  My husband and I have just started eating it with fruit for lunches, so good and so good for you.  Happy retirement to Charles!  Hope you both are enjoying it. My husband and I are both retired  and I am finding I need a schedule of something planned or nothing gets done.  Unfortunately, we go to the doctor a lot.  I tell people I retired so I could go to the doctor every week.  We both hurt our backs two years ago and my house is a mess.  I can only work 15 minutes at a time and then rest 15 minutes.  Slowly but surely it will come together.  Unfortunately, I also have a sleeping disorder that is being followed by a neurologist. I sleep 12-14 hours a night and also take an afternoon nap.  Every day is a new adventure.  Such is life! 

I’ve struggled with lavender plants too. I know they like sun, not a lot of shade and they like a fairly dry environment. Mine does well until all the trees leaf completely and then it gets spindly 

That's interesting.  I had never heard of a pie bird before reading this post, unless you count "four and twenty blackbirds."  

When I was much younger (from the age of about twelve to my mid-twenties) I baked pies for my family a couple times a week, and occasionally entered pie contests.  I will admit that for contests, I normally baked two and entered the more presentable, in case some of the filling bubbled up and stained the crust on one.  For home use no one cared if the crust was stained, and I don't recall ever having a pie boil over so badly it dripped into the oven.

Personally, I like the vent slits, and find even a very simple pattern decorative.  I normally did four long slits with two short slits between each, which also marks the pie into 12 even pieces for later slicing.

Doesn't using a pie bird make the pieces come out sloppy when the pie is served?  It seems like you wouldn't be able to get that nice crisp point on them if there was a ceramic bird in the middle of the pie.  Maybe that's why pie birds fell out of use.

I never saw a pie bird at a contest either, so if any of the (mostly much older) women used pie birds at home, they were not using them when the pie's appearance counted.

They do look cute as little figurines though, and now if I ever see one I will know what it is:)

I've heard of pie birds but never seen one - my grandmother was an avid baker of just about anything and she never used one, just slits in various places and that was enough.  I agree that it'd be just another thing to wash up!  I rarely bake much at all these days and if I do, it's individual pies that I just stab the knife into a couple of times for the steam.

I've never owned an electric knife nor an electric can opener or any of those "time saving" devices - manual is good enough for me.  I have kept things to a minimum, I found I had so many things that were never used nor wanted, I donated almost everything and now I have heaps of space, things are neat and tidy, bench isn't cluttered and it pleases me to see a clear area instead of having things everywhere.

The news this morning is devastating - so much for peace in this world of ours.  Here we go again.

My grandmother always placed the pie bird in the very center of the pie. Then, she decorated the pie by making very small slits so it appeared to be a flower. A slight sprinkle of sugar on the crust tops it all off.

When the pie was done, she would let it cool for a couple of minutes then carefully remove the pie bird. The pie is easier to cut into equal slices when there is a center point that is obvious.

Grandma Donna, as someone has already said, Lavender likes it dry and sunny. They especially dislike wet feet, that is too much water on their roots. My guess is that even though you still get plenty of rain there in the winter, it may either be less at a time, farther between rains, or just that the lower temperature and humidity help keep them feeling drier. To test this theory, when the weather starts getting close to 90, and or the humidity is above 90, move the potted lavender to a sheltered location so you can make sure it isn’t being watered too much. As you know, evaporation is difficult to impossible when the temp and humidity go up. Another thing you could try is adding more porous materials to the pot soil like sand or vermiculite. And also don’t put a tray under the pot so it can drain water more easily.    My lavender struggle here in the PNW in the winter because this is when we get almost all our rain for the year, it is often overcast as well, and my yard soil has a lot of clay. I have tried to elevate them in a raised bed but the ones in pots that drain fast do the best. 
Good luck! They are such lovely plants! 

P.S. I noticed in one of your other posts that you had some cleavers weed growing next to your cilantro and I just wanted to let you know that it is edible. It’s also called Velcro weed since it likes to stick to fabric. You can eat the tips or young sprouts raw, but the older stuff is nicer cooked like spinach so that the hairs don’t irritate. You probably also already know that all the parts of a dandelion are edible and that the greens are very nutritious- but many other yard weeds (like chickweed, lambs quarters, sorrel, miner’s lettuce, and purslane for instance ) are very healthy greens and that might be a lovely way to add some free veg in a pot of soup or a tossed salad if food or money are scarce. There are many great books published recently on foraging “weeds” so check your library! 

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Loxley B, thank you for the information on the cleavers that we though they were just weeds.  We have been pulling them up for years and all this time they are a herb!  I will do some more research, I know why they have the name of velcro weed because they stick to everything!  Seems that I should have known that but I did not.  :)

I have a question and I am going to put it out here.

I am trying to get rid of the plastics in my home, everything seems to come in plastic, mustard, ketchup, salad dressing(mayo). IF I transfer it to glass, is that helping to keep micro plastics out of my food or has it been in the plastic container long enough that I am not making any difference?

I remember as a child all of these came in glass containers. My mom would save the mayo jars for water bath canning. She put jelly in the mustard jars and sealed them with paraffin. 

Having things in glass containers is more like the 1940's. I even transfer my cottage cheese into glass, I think before plastic it was packed in waxed cardboard or paper containers.

Just wondering if anyone has any answers or thoughts on this.

I never saw a pie bird when I was growing up so I don't think my mom or grandma used one.  My friend did give me one several years ago.  It's black with a yellow beak.  Quite cute. But I doubt I'll ever use it.  I keep it on a shelf in my kitchen because it makes me happy.

Totally off topic, but I was thinking back to the occasional treat of going out to bfast after church with my grands.  Specifically, the sprig of parsley and curled orange slice that was always on the plate.  I loved those!  Parsley tasted so good after breakfast!  

Joyce C,  I transfer some of our food that comes in plastic to glass jars.  Just make sure to clean the jar good or plunge it into some very hot or boiling water if it is something that stores for a good while.  If you transfer milk I would sterilize the jar and to me that is not a lot of trouble to do, I just do it to be on the safe side.  Jams and jelly I buy in glass and I buy as much as I possibly can in glass.  

Your question is it helping to keep the microplastics out since it has already been sitting in the plastic?  I don't know but my though is if you use a spoon to dip out of it then you are scratching the plastic.  Sometimes we do things like this just because it makes us feel better and why not.  We are so full of toxins now anything we can do to help is good. :)  Sometimes I transfer something to glass to have things more uniform so they fit better in the fridge.  The main thing is to transfer to a very clean jar.  I hope this helps.  Donna

Thank you for your thoughts on my question. I really like the idea of using the glass containers and will continue my quest to get plastic out of my home.

Joyce C  I am no expert on microplastics.  I have been thinking about this too and here is what  a google search came up with this 

Transferring food to glass helps immediately stop further contamination, reducing your overall exposure to microplastics and chemical leaching. While some migration occurs during storage, switching to glass prevents further accumulation, especially during heating. It is not too late, as stopping the exposure source prevents ongoing, cumulative ingestion.  If your jars have plastic lids examine them for scratches

The article went on to say avoid use of reheating anything in plastic (think of frozen entrees, vegetables in microwave pouches etc. as heat accelerates the release of  microplastics and chemicals from the plastics.  

if you are using plastic for storage, ditch any old containers, like Tupperwear from before 2010 because the plastic is not BPA, lead or cadmium free (!!!!)

Debbie, thanks to you and Gr.Donna for the info.

I never reheat anything in plastic, I have a "funny taster", and I swear I can taste plastic or the smell of plastic when it is reheated in plastic.

I can also taste metal in canned pineapple and some canned tomato products.

I use saved jars from things like jam and jelly and mason jars of all sizes for food storage. I always sterilize them before use as Donna suggested. 

Thanks again

I like to store in glass.  I have a lot of canning jars and use those.  I also take fruit out of the plastic bag, wash and put in a bowl in the refrigerator.  I know we still get a lot of plastic, but I try to keep out as much as possible.

I have been thinking of things my grandmother did and she would make jelly and seal it with wax.  Does anyone remember that.  If any mold got on the jelly we would take a spoon and just take that little part out.  Then "they" decided that the mold went too deep and need to can in jars with a sealed lid.  My grandmother was great pie maker in the summer.  She used all the fruit that was in my grandparents' garden.  So good!

CindyD W, my grandmother sealed jam with wax and same with mold as your grandmother did.  Charles Grandmother preserved sausages by cooking the sausage and then filled the crock with hot lard and sausage by layering the lard over the sausages and then put a lid on the crock and a heavy stone to keep the lid tight. This was before they had refrigeration.  They removed the sausages as needed. Quite a difference in the way we do things today.   

I have a few of the old jelly jars without threaded tops, meant for sealing with wax, but have never used them for anything except drinking glasses.

Growing up my family scraped/cut mold off any food that went moldy, not just jams and jellies.  Never did us any harm, but the way the mold flavor gets all through certain foods permanently ruined my appetite for blue cheese.  Jams and jellies are among the few foods I'm still perfectly fine with scraping mold off of, if a jar comes unsealed in storage or something.

But isn't blue cheese supposed to have mould through it?  (We spell mould as such here in Australia).  I still just cut bits off any cheese or product that has a bit of mould on it, however the modern trend is to throw the lot out - such a lot of waste in the world these days.

Pam, Yes, it is, but that's what I mean.  Once you've been forced to eat things like citrus fruit or baked goods that taste like mold throughout and definitely shouldn't, or make porridge from moldy oats after "rinsing them" (which doesn't help much) it's hard to adjust to "Oh, in blue cheese that moldy flavor is a good thing."  

I definitely haven't gone all the way over to the "throw the lot out" side of things either, but I remove enough not to taste mold.  Like in a loaf of bread, I would compost the moldy slice, and if it was badly moldy, the one under it too, but use the rest of the loaf as long as it smelled okay. I would not just try to scrape the tufts of mold off the surface, like my family used to. That's what blue cheese reminds me of!

I'm with you there, TEA S, I hate that mouldy taste.  Have to add I don't like blue cheese anyway :-)

I remember a macaroni pie! Beat that! :D

Made it as a teenager in the seventies, and remember it as being very good.

Love your articles, Donna.

I get rid of plastic whenever I can. I look for products in glass jars, but sometimes they cost more. We just started using a new local family farm dairy that delivers. Unfortunately they put that beautiful fresh milk into plastic containers. We switch it to glass bottles as soon as we get it, and take comfort in the fact that it wasn't in the plastic long. It gives me a reason to use those old-fashioned glass milk bottles.  :) 

Canned foods have plastic lining the metal. I've looked at the different chemical compositions of the linings and decided to quit buying canned products, unless they are in glass jars. I even bought little cork-stoppered bottles to store medicines in, and I bought a small, blue glass spray bottle for my betadine antiseptic.  The glass medicine bottles are very helpful because you know how much is in the bottle. And I buy Patch brand bamboo band-aids because I am allergic to the plastic kind. 

Our spring planting is going well. I bring the seedling trays in the house on cold nights, and when I put them back outside I remind the birds that they are not snack trays or a salad bar. My Welsh onions that I planted for the first time last year shrugged off the cold winter and are giving me nice green onions. They are incredibly hardy! 

When I was a teenager, one of my aunts gave me a pie bird for Christmas. I kept it for years, and when I had my own home and learned to make pies, I tried it but it didn't seem to make any difference so I gave it away. It was one of the black ones. 

I wanted to grow lavender this year, but from what I read, it wasn't going to like my hot summers. 

As far as the news goes, I can't understand it. When I go to watch an old movie, sometimes the Fire TV homepage shows me headlines from one of the news channels. Now we're mad at Spain and aren't going to trade with them. I give up! None of it makes any sense.

Back to the original question....

I'm familiar with pie birds, but have never used one and neither has my mother.  I don't recall ever seeing one at either of my grandmothers homes when I was growing up.  I am going to have to ask my brother-in-law about his Mom and grandmother.  He is observant and would remember if they used one.  BTW--that dining room furniture that  appeared in an ad posted by Grandma Donna that I said looked like my MIL's?  It was, but originally it was her Mother's furniture which she inherited.

I  looked up pie birds online to see where they were sold, and locally I could buy them at Target or Walmart.  Williams-Sonoma had a pie bird TURKEY fairly inexpensive on their website.  I laughed when I saw that because Thanksgiving is the time I bake the most pies. 

My Mom used a drip ring pan for her pies.  It's no longer around my house, but it had a circle in the center and the edges were fluted.  It was handy to keep any drippings from going all over your oven.  I think I might get myself one.  :)

CindyD W

Thank you so much! I definitely missed that pie recipe somewhere along the lines! I sure appreciate you pointing it out for me!

Joan S  I already have plenty of Cassava flour! And yes, not inexpensive for sure, but I don’t use it for that many things, so I guess trying a pie crust is a must now! Thank you! 

I, too, am familiar with pie birds but haven't known anyone that used one.  I think they're very cute.  I want to find some vintage egg cups so I can make soft-boiled eggs the way my Grandma did.  

I enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on plastic vs.  glass.  I also try to buy as much as I can in glass or transfer it to glass when I get home.  Years ago -the 1970's -  I made a lot of jelly and jam for the family.  I sealed it with paraffin wax as I did not have a canner at the time.  I think I'm going to do that again as I have some peaches and strawberries in the freezer that would make wonderful jam.  As  for moldy food - I also cut off the bad parts, scrape out the mold on jam, etc unless it's gone too far into the food as it sometimes does with produce.  I've never like Bleu cheese but many in my family do.  I always say, " I make it a habit not to eat moldy food on purpose.". That usually gets a laugh.

I live alone (with my little dog), in a small apartment on the 3rd floor.  I'm home most days but have a few activities during the week.  I am loving this study but am having trouble weaning myself away from my electronics.  My iPad in my constant companion, mostly for the sound.  I listen to audio books, podcasts, music, etc on it.  Sometimes the apartment is just too quiet!  I would like to use it less but it seems I'm hooked on it!  I would love to hear from others who are living alone and/or in an apartment.  How do you fill the hours of silence?  I have many crafts and hobbies to do - knitting, sewing, learning to play the mandolin and learning a foreign language but much of that is quiet work.  Anyway, I'd love to hear your ideas.  Have a blessed day.

Jackie in CO

Jackie, I'm married with no kids.  I've always had pets.  I've been a SAHW for 23 years now.  My husband worked 2 jobs for awhile and then had a job with so much travel.   My house is like a tomb.  It's always quiet.  I thrive in the quiet.  Maybe it's because I worked noisy jobs and always had someone yapping at me haha!  I hate the TV and use my tablet mostly to obtain information like ads, store hours, and library book reservations.   However, when Im crafting, I listen to CDs from the library.  I love stories! Unless I'm watching a lesson.  I also drive in silence - no radio.  That said, I think you're considered far more normal than me!  I know several people who leave their TV on all day- I would go loopy!   I think you need to do what you're comfortable with.  If you're neglecting things to stay online, that's a whole different thing.  But if you're just happier with noise and you're not bothering anyone, I'd let it be.  That's just my opinion.

Debby, I prefer the quiet too. I never occurs to me to turn on something just for the noise. 

I know I'm not the norm.

I can't think of one person I know who doesn't have something on - car & home. My brother even carries his phone with something on!