Mother's Love
Mother's Day as we know it began as a meeting of groups of mothers who had lost sons in the Civil War. These activities occurred mostly locally until 1868 when Ann Jarvis endeavored to unite families that had been divided as a result of the war by creating a committee to establish "Mother's Friendship Day." Ann passed away on May 9, 1905, when her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, established Mother's Day in its present form. Annual celebrations were then held in Ann Jarvis' hometown of Grafton, West Virginia, where carnations were passed out to all mothers in attendance. Meanwhile Anna Marie petitioned to establish Mother’s Day as a national holiday for women to celebrate the lives of their fallen sons.
In 1910, West Virginia was the first state to declare the holiday. And finally on May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day which falls on the second Sunday in May. Eventually, the carnation flower became a symbol on Mother's Day. Wearing a red carnation implied your mother was living and a white one if she was deceased.
Today, Mother's Day reminds us to honor the very special women in our lives. Whether it's your wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, sister or friend, what better way to show your appreciation than with a tranquil spa-like escape all within the comfort of their own home! The Prairie Soap Co. offers amazing pampering products. That special lady is sure to love soaking in their Prairie Soap Co. Black Amber & Lavender Spa Mineral Bath Salts, and exfoliating with a Prairie Soap Co. Mineral Essence Spa Salt Glow Bars. Her spa experience will continue when she moisturizes using Prairie Soap Co. Buffalo Tallow Lavender Sage Body Lotion ...YUM! Take advantage of Buffalo Trader Online's sale and stock up for yourself too!
Gift wrap tip: Stuff a colorful flower pot with some tissue paper and place the spa products on top. Tie with a pretty bow and you'll be in Mom's good graces!
Spring Forward!
American settlers spent their winter months hunkered down, living on harvested food stays that were salted or canned. Like us, they dealt with bone chilling temperatures and gray skies for a few months and welcomed Spring with open arms! Once again they were able to enjoy being outside, whether it was tending to their gardens or taking naps on their porches.
Buffalo Trader Online offers some great ideas to add a little 'country-charm' to your favorite outdoor living spaces. Enjoy your fishpond while sitting on the Stagecoach Style Wagon Wheel Garden Bench. Not only does this hearty piece create a comfortable resting spot, but it also offers an artistic splash to your yard. Or perhaps you'd prefer to add a little color to your outdoors. Wagon Wheel & Water Pail Planter provides the perfect venue! Imagine a melody of colorful Impatiens, Begonias or vining Petunias in this weathered treasure. The whimsy combination of wagon wheels and water pails offers western authenticity. Buy two of them and place on either side of your driveway entrance to offer your guests a 'down-home' welcome!
Down-Home Dining
Dining is not only about eating, it is also an opportunity to slow down and enjoy friends and family! Meals are a socially necessary event allowing loved ones to reconnect their very busy lives. Nothing is more appealing than a beautifully set table complete with good food, good drink and good company!
Buffalo Trader features some magnificent down-home dinnerware that would be a fun addition to any dish collection. The Pine Cone 16 Pc Ceramic Dinnerware Set is perfect alone or perhaps mixed in with a more traditional stoneware setting in solid whites and greens. Consider using these dishes for a more festive arrangement around the holidays. They would be so country cozy placed on a great red tablecloth with a fun centerpiece featuring a few fresh pinecones, some greenery and white candles!
Here's a hearty down-home slow cooked dish that's easy and delicious. You'll spend less time in the kitchen and more time around your festive table with family and friends.
Bison Pot Roast
3-4 lbs Bison roaster (Chuck, Round or Rump)
2 C. of your favorite red wine (heavy Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvignon will do best)
4 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3-4 cloves chopped garlic
Fresh chopped Sage to taste
Brown the meat in 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (approximately 3-4 minutes on each side) and place in slow cooker. Top with remaining ingredients and cover. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until fork tender. Serve with mashed potatoes and a dark green such as wilted spinach.
Y'all enjoy!
Panning For Gold
It was January, 1848, James Polk was president and the territory known as Alta California, belonged to the country of Mexico. This era is defined in history as the Gold Rush. What is known in present day as San Francisco, boomed from approximately 1,000 full-time residents to over 25,000 with hopes of panning their way to a fortune along the Rio de los Americanos (or America River). Most developing towns began with saloons, gaming houses and brothels, all of which added to the profitability of mining gold. And although through good fortune and hard work, some businessmen reaped great rewards in retail, shipping, entertainment, many hopefuls, however, did not.
The good news is that today you don't have to pan for a great find! Buffalo Traders Online offers amazing deals on some great gold and gem finds. In addition to some fabulous gold leaf designs such as Willow Gold Leaf Earrings, there are also some unique pieces using genuine Wyoming Jade, such as the Wyoming Jade Antiqued Oval Filigree Necklace. Enjoy a piece of American history at a very recession friendly price!
Christmas on the Western Trail
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, holiday shoppers will be readily seeking bargains and items on their holiday shopping list. Being mindful of the current economy, Buffalo Trader Online selects merchandise that is both affordable, good quality and easily shipped to the destination of your choosing.
Planning for your Christmas Day menu may also be at the top of your shopping list. While planning your festive menu, be mindful of the origins of our celebrated holiday meal. Modern conveniences, all electric and gas kitchens make preparation of any meal a snap, but it wasn't always this way. 
If we step back in history a bit and reminisce on Christmases past, you'll get a better understanding of the dedication and perseverance of our forefathers during their quest to settle the west. Settlers moving to the western territories, wranglers, rustlers, guides, cattle drives, wagon trains and the like made do with the rugged and often deplorable conditions afforded to them along the dusty trails. The "cookie," otherwise known as the chuck wagon cook was of the utmost importance to the survival of the groups. Most groups traveling in wagon trains hired an experienced "cookie" to oversee the preparation and distribution of the simple and often plain mainstay of staple foods along the trail. Flour sugar, strong black coffee, tea leaves, dry beans, rice, dried fruits, various jerky meats, smoke cured bacon, other cured and salted meats, and often fresh wild game was cleaned and prepared along the trip as traditional sustenance. These cooks were very creative with flavorings, spices and fresh herbs when available to create savory and often very satisfying meals for the weary travelers. The holidays were of no exception of course and sometimes members from the large caravan groups would contribute little things to the menu to make the meals more festive and special.
Livestock, chickens, and wild game were often the main courses. The cooks would travel a day ahead or so of the wagon trains and have meals prepared and waiting for the weary travelers' arrival. Weather conditions dictated the menu often and the conditions were always in the forethought of the cook in his preparedness for the next day's meal planning. Cooking utensils and pans were of a simple design and often very heavy cast iron. A large, heavy cast iron Dutch oven was more often than not the process of choice for cooking when open flame cooking wasn't advantageous. Dutch oven cooking involves constructing a pit fire dug several inches into the earth where a very hot fire is built and the coals are brought to a red-hot glow. The foods are prepared and put into the large, heavy cast iron pots that are covered with heavy lids and then lowered into the shallow pits where they are buried slightly with the hot coals around, underneath, and on top of the pot so as to basically slow cook the meal, a cast iron oven so to speak. This sounds easy in theory but it requires a great deal of physical strength and skill as well as attention to details to obtain the perfect cooking environment. 
Roasted buffalo, whole chicken, wild turkey roasted on a spit by open fire pit or Dutch oven, smoke cured ham with scalloped white potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, meatballs with gravy over rice, cooked dry beans with seasoned cured sausage, and of course, cowboy beans, chili and baked beans were frequently the mainstays on the cook's menu. Sounds good, doesn't it?
Let's step back even further and consider the often less than sanitary cooking conditions, weather, and overall lack of convenience these settlers must have endured. First, cleaning of foods usually involved water from nearby steams or rivers. Settlers and cooks on the trail always camped down for the night near a water source, not just to rest and hydrate the livestock but also to secure clean water for the next day's trail ride. For safety, water was taken as upstream as possible, away from beaver dams and other areas where water could potentially be contaminated. The water was often gathered in wooden buckets, dried animal bladders, canteens, or other suitable containers. The water was boiled to kill any contaminants and then stored in large wooden barrels lined with waterproofing resins for the ongoing trip should a shortage of fresh water become an issue. Water was taken from these barrels for food cleaning and preparation as well as drinking water or coffee making. This process alone would take hours to complete from start to finish. A cooks laborious day is one of little sleep, lots of physical labor and although very good pay for the times, a job many of us wouldn't ever envy.
Food storage was always an issue on the trail. Dry goods, often in cloth sacks, were the mainstay staples along the trail. Storage was of the utmost importance to prevent contamination and pest invasion. Canned goods in jars, when available, had to be stored carefully to protect them from freezing conditions and to avoid glass breakage and the ever-present botulism exposure. Aluminum and tin storage containers, similar to The Olde Mill Canisters or our Tin Spice Bin Rack were used along the trail for storing dry goods to protect from pests and moisture.
Dried and cured meats were often supplemented with fresh venison, buffalo, wild turkey, chicken, rabbit and other small animals when dried meat rations were in short supply. The meats were cooked either on a spit by open fire or roasted by Dutch oven method. Nothing was wasted and much work went into the cleaning, preparing, smoking and storage of meats. Consider the enormous amount of time and effort involved for the little convenience items we now buy readily prepared. There is nothing like a dry rub on meats for that rich, smokey, back-to-nature flavor. We have developed our own Buffalo Branded Original Dry Rub Seasoning in the rugged spirit of these great settlers.
Let's not forget desserts! The settlers, wranglers, guides, cattle drivers, and even the wild, west posses loved just a little sweet something back then too, just as we all still do today. A little sugar often went a long ways to finishing off a satisfying meal on the dusty trail. The cookies were creative with the limited staple items available and often served warm biscuits with molasses and butter or fresh apple butter, brownies made from cocoa, flour, sugar and lard or butter, homemade fudge, sometimes with nuts when available. Very creative cooks would bake apple, peach, or a rhubarb pie or sweet potato turnovers when the right staples were available and time permitted. And of course, dessert was not complete without a mug of hot, brewed black coffee. A little hot cocoa around the campfire was often the finishing touch to a meal on the trail.
Christmas menus were often a dilemma for feeding the hungry travelers but for these seasoned cookies, mental planning, creativity and a fresh, plump, juicy gobbler or other suitable meat, traditional Christmas dinner was not only tasty but also hearty and filling. Here are examples of such a meal for the on-the-move trail riders.
Spit-cooked roast turkey giblet gravy and corn bread dressing – wild turkey of course.
Quail in cranberry sauce with carrots, turnips, or other root vegetables – fresh quail and cranberry sauce from dried cranberries.
Pheasant with roasted baby potatoes – pheasant was plentiful along the western trails.
Savory corned beef or buffalo stews with vegetables, hot buttered biscuits and fruit pie – livestock and cattle drives often fed the travelers along the trail. Roots, berries and nuts also provided other sources of tasty delicacies.
Spit-cooked pork roast, baked sweet potatoes, and fresh vanilla custard – wild boar pigs were a staple along the trail. The leftovers were cured for bacon, cured and salted pork fat for seasoning, and jerky.
During our season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we give thanks and reflective compassion for the settlers, rustlers, cowboys and cookies that helped mold and shape our current festive holiday mealtime celebration.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Thank you!
Thanks to our recent visitors and buyers who have made Buffalo Trader Online successful! We continue to grow and look forward to providing you with more home decor lines, fine art prints and collectibles.
Please be sure to visit our home page for special Father’s Day gift ideas, limited time offers, sale items, “new” merchandise, and our seasonal clearance merchandise section.
Happy Mother's Day!
Buffalo Trader Online wishes all Mothers, new and older, a wonderful Mother's Day! Take this day to relax, enjoy the beautiful Spring weather, have family over to wait on your hand and foot... you are special and deserve a day just to be pampered. Thanks to all our customers who have shown Mothers how loved they are on this wonderful day of celebrating life, love and Motherhood.
Don't forget Father's Day is quickly approaching, June 21st! Watch for our Father's Day Specials and promotional items... or early, supplies on some items are limited!
