| This painting is based on a story my mother told me about her parents, Jacob G. and Anna Toews. Jacob's father was John Toews (known locally as "klukkeh Taayves" ) because he raised chickens. My grandfather's family was nicknamed "mayickeh Taayves" because they had raised a lot of girls. In the days that my mother was a young girl, Jewish pedlers used to visit her rural community and would invariably come to her parent's home. They would arrive just in time for supper and would receive a warm welcome and an invitation to spend the night, since it was a long trip back to Winnipeg. My mother recalled her mother telling the pedler who was know as "Buddock", that she had prepared food without any lard or pig fat, so he could eat without any worries. Buddock became a regular visitor whenever he came to Greenland, just north of Steinbach, Manitoba to sell his wares. In this painting my grandmother is holding a bowl of "tweiback", the Mennonite double decker "grandma buns" she was famous for. |
