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Farm and Home Market 



Helps Her to Success 



How Mrs. Warner of Champaign County Wins 



Financial independence 



By IMELL FLATT GOODMAIV 





LD you provide iinancial 

 pport for your family for 

 _ even years? Would you be 



able to care for doctor's bills for a sick 

 husband and send two girls through 

 school ? 



Mrs. Bert Warner, Home Bureau 

 member of Champaign county, did just 

 that. She did it through participation 

 in the Farm and Home Market of the 

 county. 



"Probably no one in the Farm and 

 Home market," Mrs. Warner said, 

 "ever actually needed to make the busi- 

 ness a success as I did. It was not 

 a fad or fancy to me. It meant bread 

 and butter." 



When a Home Bureau unit was or- 

 ganized in her community Mrs. War- 

 ner was one of the first to join. She 

 served as secretary of the group. At 

 that time the Warners were successfully 

 operating a farm. When the farmers' 

 market was organized during the de- 

 pression years, Mrs. Warner contracted 

 to take a booth to dispose of her sur- 

 plus farm products. 



The first morning the market opened 

 Mr. Warner suddenly became serious- 

 ly ill. For two years the illness was 

 diagnosed first as one thing and then 

 another. Only recently after eleven 

 years of medical care and an operation 

 was he able to do his first day's work. 



Mrs. Warner's interest in the market 

 necessarily increased with her husband's 

 illness. The sale of farming equip- 

 ment left some surplus but that soon 

 melted away as expenditures mounted. 

 The market flourished and the coffee 

 shop opened. Mrs. Warner took part 

 in that. Today the market is closed 

 but she still carries food twice weekly 

 to the coffee shop. 



On delivery days Mrs. Warner gets 

 up at 2:30 A.M. to have everything 

 ready. The uncertainty of guessing 

 how many customers she will have is a 

 constant problem. "When so much de- 

 pends on my sales, it takes lots of work, 

 a few tears, and a occasional prayer, 

 too," she said. 



Mrs. Warner and her partner, Mrs. 

 Culp, have prepared and served as 

 many as 242 meals at one time. They 

 average about 125. For special days, 

 such as holidays, dollar days, or con- 

 ventions, more food must be prepared. 



For ordinary trade Mrs. Warner will 

 bake eight pies, two cakes, prepare 

 three chickens, pork roast, pork chops, 

 sausage, two gelatine salads, two loaves 

 white and two loaves of brown bread, 

 eight dozen rolls, numerous varieties 

 of vegetables, also soup, puddings, pre- 

 serves, and pickles. 



All the vegetables are prepared at 

 home, ready for cooking at the coffee 

 shop. Potatoes are often baked at 

 home, made as on the half shell to be 

 browned later. For creamed potatoes, 

 Mrs. Warner cooks the potatoes in 

 milk in a double boiler so as not to 

 lose any of the food value and flavor. 



" 'Make each day's food just as good 

 as I can.' That has been my motto," 

 Mrs. Warner said. "That >seems more 

 business-like than having an especially 

 good meal one day and one not so 

 good the next. 



"It hasn't been all fun and play," 

 Mrs. Warner confessed. "But, we got 

 through so far. Now, my husband is 

 well and the girls are through school. 

 When we get this little place paid for, 

 we hope to build more on to it." 



The little place, as she called it, is 

 a neat comfortable little house with one 

 acre of ground on the edge of a beauti- 

 ful grove of oak trees. The setting is 

 a pleasant one for Mrs. Warner to do 

 her work and ride her hobby of grow- 

 ing flowers and vegetables to her 

 heart's content. 



"Our little home is like the way 

 many young people start out now- 

 days," Mrs. Warner laughed. "We 

 were accustomed to a large dining 

 room, dining table and lots of company 

 so I was a bit lost at first about folks 

 coming in for meals. Now, we use 





MRS. WARNER AND DAUGHTER 

 "It hasn't been all fun and ploy." 



card tables or trays and get along as 

 in a modern tiny apartment." 



When Mrs. Warner joined Home 

 Bureau she didn't join to make money, 

 yet it has turned out to provide the 

 means for her to do so. 



The lesson she most enjoyed during 

 this period was the one on interior 

 decoration. She served as local leader 

 for the group. When she arose to tell 

 the others no one could have been 

 more frightened than she was. In the 

 pleasure of her subject, however, she 

 forgot her fright and according to her 

 listeners, it was one of the best lessons. 



The lesson she found most difficult 

 was the one on pattern drafting. In it 

 she had to make a sleeve pattern for 

 her own arm. 



"Whether it was my own peculiar 

 arm or what, I had a time. But, that 

 sleeve pattern has been of great help 

 to me in sewing. I make all of my own 

 clothes, have made all my daughters 

 clothes, and still do, although they are 

 away now." 



Home Bureau Editor: ' 



May I commend you on the wonderful 

 article you wrote for the lAA RECORD 

 about Mrs. L. E. Knotts. I think it was a 

 wonderful piece of publicity for the county 

 as a whole. 



Myrtle E. Swanson, Home Adviser, 

 Macon county. 



THE WARNER HOME . 1 



"Neat and comfortable in a grove of beautiful ooks.' 





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