Ruth’s Banana Bread fills my home with memories of my maternal grandmother as it bakes. As a child, this was a childhood summer treat with Lipton iced tea, sitting by the lilac bush in the squeaky metal chair. I was not allowed to drink tea, per the Mormon faith (sorry grandma, the secret is out). Sipping the tea felt sophisticated with the earthy woody flavors. This leads me to believe it is why my tea choices are green or Earl Grey. I love steeping my tea in my Rae Dunn mug from my daughter. Ruth’s Banana Bread wasn’t just a recipe but a quiet act of rebellion, a bond, and a moment out of time, being an adult with my grandmother.

Ruth Ilene Wake

Reading her journal from 1996, not long after my grandfather Lawrence’s passing, she writes, “I have saved these articles and I will put them in this book and hope someone will read them one day.” As I read this journal, she discusses driverless cars, writing, “Cars will drive themselves, you’ll simply select your destination (edited later as pen color is different, always the perfectionist) and relax until you get there. This must have interested my grandmother, as she never had a driver’s license or drove a car. What freedom that would have offered her.

My daughter and I rode in a driverless car after the P!nk concert. We had no luck with Uber or Lyft. Hours after the concert, men were walking around with “Uber” signs and cars, which looked like a kidnapping waiting to happen. It was a pleasant ride with Waymo, and the best option to get home at 2 AM. We enjoyed a cup of nighttime tea and went to bed.

Ruth’s Story

Grandma Ruth was born August 17, 1916, in Almo, Idaho, to Ernest Dennis Jones and her mother, Lucy Jane Bronson. She married George Lawrence Wake on April 7, 1934, in Burley, Idaho. They moved to Portland, Oregon, during World War II. Lawrence was a welder in the shipyards.

As a child traveling through the Pacific Northwest, I looked out the window and told my dad, “I’m going to move to the town with the green bridge.” At 23, I made that move to Portland, Oregon, unknowingly following a promise my younger self had made, or knowing my grandmother once lived here.

They moved to Hailey, where Grandma Eileen was born, and her twin brother. She moved from Hailey in 1953 to Orem, where she lived out her life. She was a devoted mother and wife.

She passed from Lung cancer after living with my grandfather’s smoking for 60 years, on June 28, 2004, in Taylorsville, Utah, at 87. She is buried in Sunny Cedar Rest Cemetery, Almo, Idaho.

Miscellaneous

Her quote, ” Be organized, setting up daily routines lightens the load on your memory and frees it up for more important tasks.”

Food memories were vivid with Grandma Ruth; her precision in cooking made her an excellent cook, especially in baking. Saturday nights were dinner at her home. We would have hamburgers or KFC. We would watch Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk with my grandparents. My grandfather always wore a white tank top. He would try to get a rise out of my grandmother. As a result of no response from grandma, he would leave (we did not know where he was going, learned later it was the local bar). While pulling out of the driveway, she would wave not goodbye, but she was shooing the flies away.

Food History

Food scarcity, starvation, and the struggle to meet basic needs are not distant tragedies—they are my family history. These are the stories carried in quiet glances, in empty plates, in the ingenuity of making something out of almost nothing. They are the legacy I come from, not just of hunger, but of survival.

Many pioneer ancestors left Nauvoo with very little in the dead of winter in 1846. They traveled 1,246 miles with very few provisions. The Ute people shared vital knowledge with the pioneers. They taught them how to gather, process, grind, and store the bulbs of the native sego lily.

When getting to Utah, Grandma Dorathea “Dolly’ Durfee (3rd great-grandmother) and Grandma Paulina Clarissa Spink (4th maternal great-grandmother) relied on the sego lily bulbs for flour during hard winters. Spink’s grandchildren, “Would go to the Cold Springs south of Willard where sego grew as large as onions and they would dig as many of them as would keep fresh for any length of time. They made bread of them, dried and boiled them and used the sego in many numerous ways for food.”****

Grandma Dorathea

Grandma Dorathea, in November 1845, “Edmund (her father) and others returned to harvest crops. One midnight they rushed to put out a straw stack fire. Suddenly two whistles were heard and six shots were fired from the darkness. Edmund died from a rifle ball just above the heart.”*

They departed Council Bluffs on June 5, 1850, when traveling west to Zion. The children walked the trail barefoot, and as a result, they bound their bleeding feet with rags to avoid leaving bloodstained tracks for the Indians to follow.***

Grandma Dorathea’s children took the straw from their beds to feed their livestock. Many of the livestock still died from the cold and starvation. When settling in Utah, they built a brick and rock home in North Ogden. They raised livestock, sheep, and had a large orchard. Her husband built a reservoir to irrigate the crops. She was a tireless worker and an immaculate housekeeper.** Her biscuits were made throughout her life, reflecting her experiences with starvation. They were light, dainty, each biscuit was not much more than a mouthful.

Banana Bread

Banana bread and muffins are readily available in any store. They are popular choices for snacks and breakfast. Food preservation was key for many of our ancestors during various times. Banana bread grew in popularity during the Great Depression, when Grandma Ruth lived in a chicken coop. This bread was a way to preserve the fruit in another form. First appeared in the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook (a family favorite cookbook). Bananas were cheap, and nothing went to waste. (Facts generated by ChatGPT)

Wheat Fun Food Facts

Wheat Flour Nutritional Facts

Grandma Eileen (mother) is renowned for her culinary expertise. She had monthly cooking classes with a few sisters in the ward. She shared her in-depth cooking techniques and fascinating food facts. She distributed a flyer detailing information about wheat.

• Wheat stored on the counter nutrition lasts 5-7 days
• Wheat sitting in the fridge last 2-3 months
• Wheat in the Freezer 1 year (always wondered why Grandma Ruth’s flour was in the freezer)
• Wheat is enriched to restore nutrients that are lost during the refining process

Wheat Flour Fun Facts

• Watering in the late 1800s in Cassia County was primitive canal systems or small diversion ditches from the Snake River or nearby creeks.
• Most work was done manually or horse-drawn, using plows, harrows, and seed drills.
• Harvesting wheat would involve binders and threshing machines, often shared communally or rented.
• The wheat they grew was Turkey Red Wheat
• To get ½ cup of flour, it takes
  • 1/3 cup of wheat berries
  • 5,300 individual wheat berries
  • 30 wheat plants
  • 1′ x 1′ area to grow wheat for 1/2 cup of flour
  • 22 gallons of water to grow 1/2 cup of flour
  • Harvest time
    • Spring Wheat 90 to 120 days
    • Winter Wheat 7–8 months
• 1/2 cup of wheat flour makes 1 hamburger bun (facts generated by ChatGPT)

Food is the great connector, linking us to our ancestors not only through recipes but also through memories, traditions, and love. It evokes the warmth of a grandmother’s kitchen and the comforting aromas of something simmering on the stove, speaking a language older than words. With every bite, we remember who we are and carry those stories forward, nourishing the future with the essence of the past.

What is your favorite family food memory? Share here using #4chionstyle #4chionfoodie

• * FamilySearch. (n.d.). Memories of Tamma Durfee Miner (KWJX-NPN). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved May 8, 2025, from https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJX-NPN
• ** FamilySearch. (n.d.). Memories of Dorothea (Durfee) Garner (KWJG-JHP). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved May 10, 2025, from https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJG-JHP
• *** FamilySearch. (n.d.). Memories of Dorothea (Durfee) Garner (KWJG-JHP). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved May 10, 2025, from https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJG-JHP
• **** FamilySearch. (n.d.). Memories of Paulina Clarissa Spink. Retrieved [May 11, 2025], from https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJY-VKK

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