Their inheritance

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Originally uploaded by coralinad

Some families pass down precious gems, metals, jewelry, works of art. All Jack's kids can hope for is cast iron. Seasoned to perfection and maybe even a bit historical if you count the brief two hundred years we call history out here.

On the left are the skillets, found at garage sales, abandoned in basements and gifted from people unwilling to move the behemoths. We use them every day. Every day. Often multiple skillets multiple times. That Saladmaster purchase was sort of a waste.

On the right are the Dutch ovens. Jack is a Dutch oven cook. He gives classes and even spouts poetry about it (see below). Most people can handle cobbler and beans, but Jack's motto is that anything that can go in a regular oven you can cook outside in a Dutch oven. He's done cheesecake, pizza, apple pie, ice cream, fish fillets and even a turducken.

Jack's afterlife plan is to divide his ashes into the Dutch ovens and give them to the kids. Good news kids - the price of cast iron doubled this summer. Your oven might buy you a new Wii!

Ode to the Dutch Oven (download Jack's recitation)
By Bruce Kiskaddon

Mind that Dutch oven,so greasy and black,
that you put in a wagon or tote in a pack,
the biscuits it makes aren't bad by no means,
and its got the world cheated for cooking up beans.

If you've got a Dutch oven you can always get by
you can bake, you can broil, you can stew, you can fry.
First you take that old oven and its thrown to the heat
while the cook peels some taters and cuts down some meat,
then he throws some fire down into a hole, next goes the oven
on top some more coals.

I'll always remember how old coose did
when he took that old gunchhook and lifted the lid.
He was mighty graceful about doing that trick;
the old greasy sackers, they just used a green stick.

Boy howdy we all made a general attack
when the horse with the oven went to slipping his pack.
We put our old ponies into a long lope
and built a big loop at the end of our rope.

Them old waddies, they knew what to expect:
no biscuits no more if that oven got wrecked.
We didn't know much about praying or loving,
but I reckon we worshiped that greasy old oven.

An old timer smiles as his memory turns back
to that old Dutch oven in wagon or pack.