Potato Cakes

One of my special areas of interest is historic foodways and I have learned to cook and make many things from the Laura books. One of the foods Laura talks about that was already a tradition in my family, and one of my personal specialties, is potato cakes. It used to be that there were

Potato Cakes

many recipes that were deliberately designed to give food a second life as something else. It helped avoid waste. Potato Cakes is one of these recipes.

Ingredients for Potato Cakes

You start with yesterday’s left over mashed potatoes, the smoother the better. Then depending on how many potatoes you have, you beat up an egg and stir it in. I usually add a little freshly ground pepper at this point, but that is optional. Stir until it’s all one consistently . You want it to flow, but not be too liquidy. Then in modern kitchens either use an electric skillet on a frying pan on the stove, put in about 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of the pan. Drop the potato mixture in with a spoon and push it flat with a spatula. Fry until it develops a crust on the bottom, then flip and repeat. Drain on a paper towel and salt to taste. They are best when served hot.

Seed Savers Fall Festival

Burr Oak, Iowa is about 10 minutes north of Decorah. Decorah is home of the Seed Savers Exchange. This year’s fall festival included everything from a Best Harvest Soup contest to a sampling of more than 18 varieties of 19th century apples. There will be music by Western Home String Band, historic orchard tours, kids activities, and hiking.

http://www.seedsavers.org/fall_harvest.htm

They have other events all year, such as a lesson in apple grafting.

http://www.seedsavers.org/applegrafting.htm

Seed Savers is also a fascinating stop even when nothing special is going on. Consider dropping by on your next visit to Burr Oak.

Schwan Historical Museum

I just found out about an unusual food museum. The Schwan Food company was founded in 1952. It has grown from a one-man operation to a global reach. Their brands include Schwan’s, Red Baron, Tony’s Pizza, Freschetta Pizza, Mrs. Smith’s Pies, Edwards Pies and Asian Sensations. The museum is located at the Schwan Food Company headquarters at the corner of West College Drive and Saratoga St. in Marshall, Minnesota.

I have recently run into a number of pretty good company museums, especially food related ones. So next time I’m in Minnesota. I hope to look this one up.

http://www.theschwanfoodcompany.com

Danbury Fair

Oh, say are you going to Danbury Fair?

I’ve been having an ongoing project of reading all the versions of the Bill Anderson series, as I find older ones for my collection. A recent reading of the original version of “Laura’s Rose” popped to my attention that she showed bread at the Danbury fair. Unfortunately the fair went out of business back in 1981 (it’s now  Danbury Fair Mall ), but I’m pleased to find another connection to Rose in the community.

http://www.danburyhistorical.org/DanburyFair.html

Grain Elevators

Scattered across the Great Plains and the Midwest are buildings unique to our area. Some people drive across the wide open spaces and look for one-room schools. Others look for beautiful barns or peaceful country churches. However, a new group I just discovered are looking for country grain elevators.

They were just featured in American Profile: http://www.americanprofile.com/article/31661.html

Their home website is here:
http://www.country-grain-elevator-historical-society.org/

So keep an eye out for all of them on your next Laura Ingalls Wilder or country school trip.

Ann Arbor Food History Conference Postponed

This is to inform you that the 2009 Third Biennial Symposium on American Culinary History: Chefs, Restaurants and Menus scheduled to be held in May, 2009 has been postponed.

We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause and will notify you of the new date as soon as the information is available.

However, we are very pleased to announce that there will be a culinary exhibit:

500 Years of Grapes and Wine in America: A Remarkable Story

Curated by Prof. Dan Longone and Jan Longone, February 16-May 29, 2009

Clements Library, University of Michigan
Open to the public, free of charge, Mon-Fri 1-5pm

Lecture on the exhibition, Sunday May 10, 3-5pm

Prof. Dan Longone and Jan Longone

Co-sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor

PLEASE ADDRESS AND QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS TO: jblong@umich.edu

 

 

 

 

One-Room School Lunch Baskets

One of my on-going projects is in researching the one-room school lunch. Read more about the project here: http://www.trundlebedtales.com/id22.html

Lunch Basket 1880s

As I’ve been going through materials and looking for examples and photos, one thing that had eluded me was a lunch basket. Although I saw several ads for these, I hadn’t run across any photos or drawings. I saw so many ads that I think there must be different styles, but I finally have found one positively identified school lunch basket. It was carried in town by Alice Salbkat in the 1880s. She left it with a collection of other materials to the Spring Valley (MN) Historical Society and it is currently on display in their recreated one-room school room. Thank you to Spring Valley for letting me photograph this basket and share my find.

Lambert’s Cafe Home of the Throwed Rolls

I recently wrote about the wonderful historical fiction of Richard Peck, especially his Blossum Culp series. Blossum was from Sikeston, MO and when I was down there for a conference a few years ago I had to get a photo of myself by the city sign for that reason. The other thing Sikeston reminds me of is a great southern restaurant called Lambert’s Cafe. There are actually three of them around Missouri, including in Sikeston, and they are quite the experience. They come around with all the side dishes and you can eat all you want of great southern things like stewed greens and fried okra, but the best part is when you want a roll they literally go around and throw them at you. Their slogan is “Home of the Throwed Rolls” and one visit there and you’ll never forget them. So the next time you are in Missouri, look them up. And if you happen to be in Springfield, Mo for Laura purposes, there’s also one in Ozark, MO just south of there.

http://www.throwedrolls.com

Hot Dish of Cocoa

Hurray, I’m up to 194 one-room school lunch surveys turned in! In the survey responses one of the things that keeps coming up as a single hot dish cooked at the school or in a Thermos is cocoa. With temperatures around here falling to 10 degrees below normal this week. I thought it might be a good time to share. Here’s a recipe from the “Rural School Lunch” by Nellie Wing Farnsworth in 1916. I haven’t made this particular recipe before, but I included my general hot cocoa tips below.

Cocoa

6 tsp. cocoa
2 cups boiling water
4 tsp. sugar
2 cups scalded milk
A few grains of salt

Make a paste of the cocoa, sugar, salt, and a little water. Add the rest of the water and boil one minute. Add scalded milk and beat one minute with Dover egg beater to prevent scum. This recipe may be prepared in ten minutes and will make six cupfuls. Cocoa may be purchased in bulk at a very low price.

That’s the 1916 recipe. Personally when I make cocoa I like to add extra chocolate syrup and a capful of Watkins almond flavoring (weaker brands need to add more). Try it yourself sometime.

Mansfield, MO – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

I just discovered some place else to check out just outside of Mansfield. Baker Creek sells heirloom variety seeds both nationally through a catalog and directly out of their store. Read about it here:

http://rareseeds.com/store/

The store seems to be part of a created country town. From the photos on their website it doesn’t look like it strives for authenticity, but could be a fun place to spend some time. It seems like a more frivilous version of the Seed Savers Farm outside Decorah, Iowa near Burr Oak, which can also be a great additional stop for a Laura fan.

In case you don’t know, most modern seeds are hybrids. Hybrid seed stock is inbred and then crossed. This creates one generation of super seeds, but that generations offsprings are almost always worthless. You have to buy a new set from the seed company the next year. Previously varieties were breed and seed saved year to year. These varieties were breed for characteristics outside the modern goals of 1) all maturing at the same time for easy mechanical harvest 2) long shelf life and 3) transporting well. You’ll notice flavor, variety, multiple maturation dates for a long harvest and adaption to localized climates and soil types aren’t on that list. Desire to recapture some of those characteristics and to keep alive more than just the handful of varieties of each product have caused a movement to grow and harvest seed from heirloom varieties. Baker Creek is one place that does that. I haven’t ordered from them yet, but a friend’s brother has had nothing but good experiences with them. I think they might be worth an hour or two on your trip. They are going on my list of things to do next time I head south.