What are you cooking at home these days? What did your mother cook? How about your grandmother? There have been cooks in Williamsburg and Haydenville for decades and decades and they have been borrowing, collecting, and compiling cookbooks for just as much time. Many have made their way to Meekins— from shelves of recent basic, ethnic, and vegetarian cookbooks, to vintage volumes from the library’s earliest days to cookbooks compiled by our town neighbors over the years. You will find “The White House Cookbook” from 1923 which included dinner table etiquette and featuring a frontispiece portrait of Grace Coolidge.
The well-used 1952 “Williamsburg Grange and Community Cookbook” featured many dessert recipes including Grape-Nuts and rice puddings. The 1986 Williamsburg PTA “Williamsburg Community Cookbook” had at least 3 recipes for soft pretzels. In 2012 the Haydenville Congregational Church compiled their “Family Favorites Cookbook.” The intergenerational partnership of the Williamsburg Elementary Schools and Fertile Ground created their own cookbook, “The Feast,” in 2007. The cover of the “Best of Burgy Cookbook” depicts local town buildings from the 1980s. And townsfolk like the late Christine Allen so enjoyed cooking and hosting meals, that she created her own volume from 2012, “Good Food, Great Times.” Are you a cook? Do you have a favorite cook, cookbook, or recipe? Share with your neighbors here! #throwbackthursday
Posted to Facebook 4/29/2021
