Summer's End at Little House on the Prairie

Summer Celebrations

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We hope you’ve had a lovely summer filled with Little House on the Prairie moments. Summer is a busy time for celebrations and we attended the LauraPalooza conference in July and celebrated Carrie Ingalls’ birthday in August. Today we celebrate Laura and Almanzo’s wedding anniversary and the special relationship they shared.

To make the last days of summer extra sweet, we also wanted to share some of our favorite old-fashioned recipes with you! Thanks again for being part of our community and we hope you enjoy.

We attended the fascinating two-day conference with Laura Ingalls Wilder scholars and fans called LauraPalooza in Brookings, South Dakota and took a day trip to De Smet. Speakers covered a variety of topics including solving the mystery of Mary’s blindness, grasshopper weather, and Laura’s frontier spirit in Japanese girls’ comics. The next conference will be in 2017.

Caroline "Carrie" Ingalls Swanzey was the third child of Charles and Caroline, born on August 3rd, 1870. She is best known as Laura’s younger sister, but she also lived a rich and full life in her own right. She was a talented newspaper printer and journalist, had her own homestead claim, cared for her sister Mary, and settled in Keystone, South Dakota (the eventual site of Mount Rushmore). Her stepson is one of the 400 men who transformed the mountain into what it is today.

Sometimes there’s simply nothing better than delicious, homemade ice cream like the one Almanzo Wilder enjoyed. In Almanzo’s day, summer was the traditional time to make ice cream and they had to work hard for their sweets since there were no power-driven refrigerators or churns available. We think you’ll find this modern adaptation less tiring and definitely worth the effort!

Lemonade is a timeless beverage that even little Laura Ingalls enjoyed during special occasions. Laura tasted lemonade for the first time at Nellie Oleson’s party and then again at the Fourth of July Celebration. Lemonade is perfect for summer because it’s refreshing and brings sweet and tart flavors together.

This traditional lemonade recipe is super easy to make, plus you can try our modern strawberry lemonade twist!

Rock sugar candy has been around for centuries, so it’s almost certain that Laura and Mary would have seen something similar in the general stores they visited. Not only is rock candy a delicious and colorful treat, but it’s also super fun to make and watch grow. The science aspect of this treat is almost even more memorable than its sweet flavor and crunchy texture.
We think you’ll like this edible experiment!

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