Lard Paddle
Donald Carey is holding the lard paddle that belonged to his grandfather. The lard paddle dates from the nineteenth century, and was used by generations of Careys on their farm near Milton. On hog-killing day a large iron kettle was set over a fire in the yard. The fat from the butchered hog was thrown into the kettle and stirred with the lard paddle as it liquefied in the heat.
Donald Carey was born in his grandfather's farmhouse a mile from Milton in 1944, and grew up on the farm. He attended Milton Consolidated School and began to work for duPont Corporation in Seaford, Delaware after high school. He served in the U.S.Navy from 1965-1968, when he returned to duPont. He and Mary Ellen Clendaniel were married in 1972, and are the parents of twin sons. Donald worked at duPont until his retirement. He is an avid student of the Civil War, Lay leader of Grace United Methodist Church in Georgetown, and a docent at the Milton Historical Society.
Scrapple is a savory cornmeal pudding or mush in which the cornmeal is simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then formed into a loaf. It is arguably the first pork food invented in America. The first recipes were created by Dutch colonists who settled near Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries, though others have posited that scrapple originated in Germany.