The burning question during the hottest weather in summertime in the past in N.D. was simply this: “How can we keep cool?”
For farmers, there was no getting around the sweaty work of haymaking or wheat harvesting with temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s. Whenever there was no breeze, common flies and horseflies buzzed around the haymakers and sweat ran freely down the workers’ faces, causing them to pause frequently to wipe their brows with sleeves or handkerchiefs.
On the hottest days, farm manuals advised farmworkers to keep wet plantain leaves or wet prairie-weed leaves inside the headbands of their straw hats to prevent sunstroke or heat headaches.
With dehydration an imminent danger, drinking plenty of water was essential. So, farmers brought barrels of well water to the fields.
Some farmers even brought out large chunks of ice from their icehouse. The ice was kept in covered twelve-quart tin pails or earthenware jugs, and sheltered under any available shade. The ice would slowly melt over six to ten hours, providing cold water for the entire day.
If a sweating worker got tired of plain water, farm families made flavored drinks that provided more energy. One of the best of these was a summertime concoction called “switchel,” known for refreshing a harvest-worker’s vitality on even the most sweltering of days. The basic switchel recipe called for one cup of maple syrup (or brown sugar), a cup of apple cider vinegar, and a half-cup of light molasses and stirring it all into a quart of cold water. After that, they mixed in a key flavor ingredient – one tablespoon of ground ginger. The spice contributed to the overall tonic effect that helped maintain the “proper amount of internal heat.” Switchel thus quenched thirst and elevated blood-sugar levels, while the acid in the vinegar had a cooling effect and gave switchel some zip.
On this date, in 1913, the Ward County Independent newspaper asked the question: What had become of the “old brown jug ... set beneath the hayrack or [wheat]-shock at the end of the field?” Who remembered how to mix “switchel ... in just the right proportions?”
Actually, over 100 years later, switchel is making a comeback. Entrepreneurs are providing it through food coops and other stores, it can also be found online, and you can even search up recipes to make your own – a health food to provide energy and electrolytes to help beat the heat.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, MSUM History Department.
Sources:
“Good Times on the Farm,” Ward County Independent [Minot, ND], September 11, 1913, p. 2.
Steven R. Hoffbeck, The Haymakers: A Chronicle of Five Farm Families (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000), p. 66-69.
“An Old Time Drink,” Bismarck Tribune, November 22, 1907, p. 7.
“A Switchel Makes a Whistle Wetter,” Minneapolis Star, March 26, 1975, p. 62.
“Switchel was Pioneers’ Gatorade,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 28, 1975, p. 28.
“Remember Switchel,” Des Moines Tribune, September 8, 1947, p. 10.
“The Burning Question,” The Farmer, vol. 23, no. 15 (August 1, 1905): 495.
Carl Werner, “Getting in the Hay,” Everybody’s Magazine, vol. 29 (July 1913): p. 106.
Solon Robinson, Facts for Farmers (New York: A.J. Johnson, 1866), p. 298, 982.
David Tresemer, The Scythe Book (Brattleboro, VT: By Hand and Foot, 1981), p. 63.
“Summer Drinks,” The Farmer, July 15, 1905, p. 471.
