Preserving Iowa’s Award-Winning Culinary History

It's county fair season, a prime time for fun opportunities to showcase a taste of Iowa, with a dash of tradition.

I never know what to expect when I check my email. If you’re like me, sometimes the inbox contains a reply (yeah!) from someone I’m trying to contact. There’s also plenty of junk mail, but sometimes there’s something interesting—and unexpected—like this a couple years ago:

Subject: 4-H Project

Hello Ms. Darcy Dougherty Maulsby,

My name is Kathleen Mosher. I am a freshman in high school and a member of the ENP Bearcats 4-H club in Hardin County, Iowa. This year I read your book, A Culinary History of Iowa. After reading your book, I decided to cook my way through all of the recipes listed in the book and keep a journal of my progress as a 4-H project.

I am writing to ask if I have permission to display your book and use the recipes contained in the book for the 4-H project I described above? The book and project would be on display at our county fair in July at the Hardin County Fairgrounds.

Within minutes, I replied to Kathleen. “I think your 4-H project sounds terrific (what a creative idea!). You are certainly welcome to display my book and use the recipes for your 4-H project.”

This got me thinking about my own experiences as a member of the Lake Creek Go-Getter 4-H club, when I entered a variety of foods in the Calhoun County Expo each summer. These experiences expanded my culinary skills, but they also built my confidence.

So did a college internship at Living History Farms during the summer of 1995. Clad in calico skirts, buttoned up blouses and aprons sewn on a treadle sewing machine, I learned to milk cows by hand, transform home-grown vegetables into delicious side dishes, and bake bread and cookies in a wood-fired cookstove.

About halfway through that summer internship, my supervisor announced she was leaving for an appointment that morning and was putting me in charge of cooking the day’s dinner for about eight staff members and volunteers. I panicked. “You’ll be fine!” she shouted as the squeaky screen door clattered behind her.

During the next three hours, I discovered she was right. I got the meal cooked on time, and the hungry farm hands appreciated the food. My fear of “I can’t” transformed into “I can.” That’s an attitude I’ve embraced far beyond the kitchen.

Something unexpected also happened along the way. As I prepared the pot roast, fresh lettuce salad, creamed peas, bread (with butter I had churned) and cake in that hot kitchen, I felt a connection with my Grandma Fern, who grew up on a farm in Webster County, and my Grandma Katherine, who grew up in West Point, Nebraska, in the early 1900s.

That’s the amazing thing about cooking—it transcends time and brings people of all ages closer, especially when meals include treasured family recipes. But what happens when the cooks who knew these recipes (from kringla to kolaches) are gone?

That’s a big part of why I wrote The Culinary History of Iowa. I’m thrilled that Kathleen’s 4-H project based on my book took top honors at the Hardin County Fair, plus it received a blue at the Iowa State Fair, along with the Outstanding Food and Nutrition Award.

Well done, Kathleen! If your efforts are any indication, young Iowans will help carry on our state’s culinary traditions for years to come.

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