Chapter Seven
At lunch the following day, Myrtle told her friends about the men who met her on her way to town every day to buy her wares.
“I get about halfway to town, and there they are. The first day, there were two. The second day, there were four. And the ones I saw yesterday told me they’d be waiting for me today. ”
Belle laughed. “That’s how it was when I first started to bake.
The men would crowd into the store and be there when I arrived.
Once Emmett was annoyed because all his men had abandoned their tasks, and he scolded me in public.
The next day, there was a man telling me he didn’t mind if I was divorced. He’d marry me anyway!”
Myrtle giggled. “I haven’t gotten a marriage proposal yet.”
“Hopefully, you won’t!” Maggie said, shaking her head. “Sometimes it feels as if the men were starved before we arrived.”
“I know!” Myrtle said. “That reminds me. I have Eskimo fry bread for anyone who wants dessert today.”
Sally tilted her head to one side as if she was considering. “What will you make tomorrow?”
“Donuts with cinnamon and sugar. I think I’m also going to try a few meat pies and see how they sell.” Myrtle looked at Belle. “Would you be willing to share some venison roast for my little experiment?”
“Since Lulu and I both got bears yesterday, you can have lots of venison. We should be set for the winter for all of us now. A few more days of hunting, and we won’t worry about meat at all,” Belle said.
“I’ve never had bear,” Josie said. “Is it good?”
Belle shrugged. “I like it. I use it in stews or roasts. It can taste like salmon or berries. It tastes better if the bear has eaten a lot of berries and fewer fish. The main thing is you have to cook it long and slow. No pink. The meat can kill you if it’s not cooked all the way through.
If you don’t cook it a long time, it can be tough to eat. It’s kind of like beef but sweeter.”
Myrtle tilted her head to one side. “I wonder if that would be better for my meat pies than venison.”
“I’m not sure. I prefer it as a stew. It’s good with carrots, potatoes, and onion. Some of the onions you can find foraging really help the flavor,” Maggie said.
“Thank you. I know how to cook it now!” Since the men always brought their plates, she could even make a stew, but she wasn’t sure how easily Katie could sell it. For now, she’d stick with venison pies and experiment with different ways to make bear stew in the winter.
Lula related the story of how she’d shot the bear. She seemed proud of herself, but she tried to be modest.
Maggie was still taking it easy and caring for both babies while the other women worked. “I may just make my job taking care of all the babies,” she said and everyone turned to look at her.
“I thought you were going to wear your baby when you foraged,” Belle said.
“I was thinking about it, but all of us will keep having babies, I think. If we have one person designated to watch them, it will be easier on the children,” Maggie said.
The women all looked around, waiting for someone to respond. Finally, Belle said something. “I think if you show the others what they can forage in the spring, that will work. You could wear the baby for that short time, and then none of us would need to worry about how we’d do our chores.”
They all nodded in agreement, but Myrtle was surprised. Didn’t Maggie want to keep earning for her family? Perhaps she was expecting to be paid for watching the children, which seemed fair, but...it was just different than she’d expected.
After lunch, Myrtle set out for town with her wagon. The group of men had more than doubled in size. She sold them what she had.
“What are you making for dessert tomorrow?” asked the same man who had wanted to know yesterday.
“Donuts with cinnamon and sugar.” Myrtle saw that she only had ten loaves of bread left. The new stove couldn’t get there fast enough.
“We’ll be here,” one of the other men replied.
As Myrtle continued walking, the money she’d received from the men in her apron pocket, she decided to start making payments on the stove with the money she made on her way to the store. That seemed like the perfect plan to her.
It was all Myrtle could do to save a loaf of bread for Katie as she walked through the store, the men grabbed things from her wagon and moved to stand in line to pay. It seemed strange to Myrtle, but Katie seemed to take it in stride.
She walked up to the counter, ignoring the line, and gave Katie both the food that was left in her wagon and the money she’d earned on her way. “I hope to have that new stove paid for before it arrives,” Myrtle said softly.
Katie grinned. “You’re making a good start.”
Myrtle all but danced on her way to her cabin. She couldn’t wait to tell Aaron that she’d already started paying for the stove. She knew it would ease his mind.
She made meat pies for supper with the venison Belle had put on her table while she was gone.
The hardest part was chopping the meat fine enough, and Myrtle realized she would need a meat-grinder with a hand crank if she was going to make meat pies often.
It took too long to chop the pieces small enough with a knife, though she managed to get it done.
Aaron was thrilled to hear that she’d already begun to pay Katie for the stove. “I thought it would take you months of having the new stove to make a payment.”
“I’ve decided to pay Katie whatever the men pay me on my way to the store.
That way, I’ll pay it off faster, but we’ll still get some pocket money from all the work we’re doing.
” Myrtle gripped her apron and used it to pull the meat pies from the oven.
“I’m making donuts tomorrow, but I think I’m going to make meat pies as well. I want you to tell me how they are.”
She put two pies the size of his hands on his plate, but only one on her own. “I need your honest thoughts.”
Aaron nodded. “I’m getting used to telling you what I think.” He carefully cut off a bite with the side of his fork and plopped it into his mouth, chewing slowly. “I think it needs just a little more pepper, but it’s good!”
“Thank you. I’ll add more for the ones I sell tomorrow. And I want you to tell me if any of the men tell you what they like or don’t like about them.”
“I will. The men loved the fry bread. Some said they would have liked jam or jelly on them. Or maple syrup or honey. They liked the way you did it, but they would have liked jelly best.”
Myrtle nodded. “I’ll think on how I can make that happen.
“I think it’s perfect the way you did it, of course.”
She laughed. “Now you can’t go telling me everything’s perfect when you know of a way to improve it. I want to serve only the best when I open my bakery.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “So now it’s when you open and not if?”
Myrtle nodded emphatically. “Yes, it is. Honestly, I’d like to open in spring. I could spend the winter deciding what to bake based on how quickly it sells and the feedback I get. Then I’d open in spring. I’d have a soup or stew every day, so the men could come for lunch if they wanted to.”
He frowned. “And would you still be open at supper time?”
“I think I’d open for breakfast and lunch, but I wouldn’t stay open past four in the afternoon. Then if men wanted to get some soup for supper, they’d have to be there with their plate by then.”
“My only request is that you don’t let the bakery take away from our time together.” He shook his head. “I sent for a wife so I could have her around, not so the town would get a bakery.”
“I understand. And I’ll do everything I can to make that happen. I’m hoping to have a partner who wants to work with me by spring, but I don’t want to have to wait if no one is interested.”
He sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I guess it’s all right then.”
She smiled at him. “How about some blueberry cobbler for dessert?”
“I don’t get to try the donuts before you sell them? Now I’m sad.”
She laughed. “I’ll make certain you have some for breakfast.”
“That’s my girl!”
*****
Myrtle was up well before dawn the following day to make the donuts. She’d often made them with her mother, so she knew well the time they took. She had the first batch out of the pot of oil before she woke Aaron. “You never sleep this late! I have your breakfast ready.”
He grunted. “All right. I’m getting up.”
A few minutes later he was at the table, ready for his coffee and breakfast. “It’s crazy, but I think I’m still recovering from the trip to Skagway and back.”
Myrtle smiled. “I understand completely. That was a difficult journey, and I only had to go one way.”
“But you’d already crossed the country and taken a boat up to Alaska.”
“That’s true. Let’s just say it was hard on both of us.”
She sat down across from him with her own coffee and donuts. As she took the first bite, she remembered why she’d begged her mother for donuts every chance she got. They were delicious!
Aaron took a bite of his own and grinned. “These are fabulous. Don’t change a thing!”
“I was hoping you’d feel that way. I also make them with a sugar glaze, but this is my favorite way to eat them.”
“You’re spoiling me, you know. I’m going to expect delicious baked goods every day for the rest of my life.”
She laughed. “I will do my very best to make that happen.”
“Are you making enough that I could have a couple for dessert with my lunch?”
“Of course! You always get first pick at my baked goods. You know that.” She cocked her head to one side. “I should actually send you to work with whatever I’m making for everyone the next day. You would be a great advertisement.”
He laughed. “Let’s not make my friends any more envious than they already are.” He watched as she stood, and using a slotted spoon, removed more of the donuts from the pot. “How many are you making?”
“I want to make a half dozen for each of my friends. Then another six or eight dozen for the store. I already have the bread in the oven.” She shook her head. “It’s hard work, but I love it, so it doesn’t seem so bad.”
She packed three meat pies into his lunch pail, and then used a layer of brown paper, before adding the donuts. “I don’t want you to not eat the meat pies because you have donuts. Real food first.”
He chuckled. “I love your meat pies too much to skip them. I’m going to be too fat to carry an ax before long.”
She giggled. “You could use a little fattening up.” And it was true. Whether it was because he worked off everything he ate, or because he ate so little when his only foods were jerky and hardtack, he was a slender man. He really could use a bit of bulking up.
“Just not too much,” he said with a grin. He kissed the top of her head as he headed out the door, musing that his life was so much better than it had been before she came.
As soon as the bread was out of the oven, Myrtle put meat pies in its place. She’d decided to only make two dozen meat pies because she wasn’t certain that savory foods would sell as well as sweets.
When she arrived at Maggie’s house for lunch, she told the others what she’d made for the day. “I’m hoping the men like my meat pies as much as they love the sweet treats. I’m always amazed at how quickly everything sells.”
Belle smiled. “I got two more deer yesterday with Lula’s help. If the meat pies go well, you can have that venison for your pies.”
“That would be wonderful! I feel like I’m using too much of our meat stores.”
Sally shook her head. “No, you’re not. There’s no more room in the two cold houses. If we don’t want meat to be wasted, we need to use it. There are still a couple of weeks of hunting to be done.”
“Really?” Myrtle asked, feeling excited. “And how is the whitefish coming, Agnes?”
“I have so much whitefish! I’m smoking most of it, but I can get you some for supper again tonight if you want,” Agnes replied.
“That would make my husband very happy. Does anyone have receipts for whitefish? Last time I just breaded it and fried it with some potatoes, and he was pleased, but I’d like a little variety.”
Belle shook her head. “I don’t.”
“I have a receipt for trout that I think you could easily adapt for whitefish,” Ella said. “It’s one my ma used to make all the time, and I love it.”
“Would you mind bringing me the receipt at lunch tomorrow?” Myrtle asked.
“I’d be happy to!”
“Then you can pick my dessert I make tomorrow,” Myrtle said. And she knew she’d make extra for Ella and her husband.
“I want fried pies. Apples if we have some.”
Myrtle looked at the others. Maggie shook her head. “Apples don’t grow well here. I’ve heard crabapple can grow here, but we don’t have any. We have lots and lots of berries though.”
Myrtle frowned. “I can make mixed berry fried pies!”
Ella nodded. “Mixed berry sounds wonderful. Will you sell some as well?”
“I will. I’ll make sure everyone here gets some, and I’ll sell some. My arms and shoulders are finally getting used to kneading all that dough!”
They all talked then of how they were adapting to their new work.
“I have a bruise on my shoulder from shooting,” Lula said. “Thankfully, we’ve switched to bows and arrows now that we have our bears.”
“Life is certainly harder here than I imagined it would be,” Josie said.
“Harder but infinitely better,” Belle said, smiling. “I wouldn’t go back for all the money in the world.”