Frontier Village

We had the opportunity to visit Frontier Village in Denison, Texas this week.

"Frontier Village of Grayson County is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 to establish a frontier village at Loy Lake Park. In this replica of an early village, structures and artifacts historically significant to Grayson County preserve the rich background of the pioneers who settled here in the nineteenth century." - from their website

There was one cabin in particular that looked like it was lifted from the pages of Little House on the Prairie. It was set up almost identical to the description in Laura's writings of the home Pa and Ma built together in Indian Territory. The only exception was that this cabin had a loft where the children slept. The Ingalls cabin in Indian Territory was a one-story structure.

I took some photos at Frontier Village to share:

Here is the table and chairs where the family ate situated in front of the fireplace, used for both heating and cooking.


The dresses were hung on nails in the wall, next to the bed, which was just across from the table.

The bed's platform was nothing more than criss-crossed ropes. My daughter, Chloe (isn't she adorable?) shows what's under the thin mattress.

This spinning wheel was in a different cabin, but I show it because of the description in Farmer Boy. Almanzo's parents were almost completely self-sufficient. They raised sheep for wool, and Mother would spin the wool into yarn or thread, and then use a loom (also partly pictured below) to make cloth.

The cabin on the right is the one that most resembles Laura's Little House on the Prairie in Indian Territory. The one on the left is a stable.

Frontier Village is a great place to visit. They are open 7 days a week, year round, from 1-4 p.m. We had a private tour for our group. They are incredibly friendly and knowledgeable people! We had a great time, and will definitely go back.

If you're in North Texas, or anywhere close, I highly recommend visiting them.

Food Coloring

There are many examples in Little House of the way people did things before "advancements" changed our lives. Take food coloring, for example.

After (Ma) had put the cream in the tall crockery churn and set it near the stove to warm, she washed and scraped a long orange-colored carrot. Then she grated it on the bottom of the old, leaky tin pan that Pa had punched full of nail-holes for Ma. Ma rubbed the carrot across the roughness until she had rubbed it through all the holes, and when she lifted up the pan, there was a soft, juicy mound of grated carrot.

She put this in a little pan of milk on the stove and when the milk was hot she poured milk and carrot into a cloth bag. Then she squeezed the bright yellow milk into the churn, where it colored all the cream. Now the butter would be yellow.

From Little House in the Big Woods in the chapter entitled Winter Days and Winter Nights



It seems so simple and nutritious to use a carrot for the yellow-colored butter! Today, we use artificial food colorings in nearly every food on the market. Yet, studies have shown that these colorings are detrimental to our health. This is just one of hundreds of examples of how our advancements have actually complicated our lives (and risked our health).

So, how can you color foods the natural way? Here are some suggestions:

• Use beet juice for red or pink. I did this in some store-bought vanilla icing and it works beautifully without compromising taste. I wonder how it would be in a Red Velvet cake?
• Blueberries make a nice dark juice.
• Ma's carrot solution for yellow works!
• Lots of berries would work for purple, like blackberries, mulberries, etc.

Not only do these methods substitute an all-natural ingredient for what could be a very dangerous chemical ingredient, but just think of the added nutrition that beets, carrots, and blueberries add to your diet!

There are many, many natural solutions to every day living that we have forgotten, or maybe we didn't even know. Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy are two wonderful references for self-sufficiency and natural solutions. If you've never read them, or it's been too long, why not read them today?