Switchem

In the previous article I mentioned the hard physical labor involved in parts of the process of haying on a dairy farm in the 1940s.  It surely was difficult manual labor, and, as would be expected, it caused one to sweat profusely.  Although sweating undoubtedly cooled the body, it also caused one to lose necessary body fluid.

This is when switchem came to save the day.  Sometime during a hard afternoon my mother would make some and deliver it to the men and boys laboring in the hot afternoon sun.  I can remember what a great relief it was to drink all that we wanted of our home-made soda.

Our family always called it switchem, but in later years I have learned it was known elsewhere as switchel (in various spellings), apparently an old German recipe, in various forms.  It seems that the ginger within it warmed the stomach, allowing the drinker to absorb larger quantities than if drinking cold water.

We boys drank it because we were thirsty, and it tasted good.

My mother’s recipe went like this:

¼ cup vinegar

¾ cup sugar

1 tsp ginger

2 qts water

Stir it up and you got it.  However there are variations to this recipe that can be located by cruising the web.