Historic cooking on display tonight at BCHS in Valley City with latest in lecture series

The Barnes County Historical Society Lecture Series Season 14 Presents: Christi Kracht “What’s Cooking in the Cook Car?,” at 7 p.m. tonight at the Barnes County Museum, 315 Central Ave. N, Valley City.

This presentation will explore the Great Plains invention that brought the cooks on location for feeding farm workers. As the size of farms grew and with the introduction of the Bonanza Farms, it was too difficult to transport food many miles from farmhouse kitchens, thus portable kitchens were constructed so that they could be moved around as harvest crews were moved from field to field and farm to farm.

Part cooking show, part local history, this presentation will look at photos of cook cars, as well as cook car food, a recipe to take home, a look at utensils used in cook cars and shared stories about the food and sisterhood of women whose planning abilities fed thousands of workers thousands of meals.

Kracht has loved to cook since high school when she made a traditional German meal for a 4-H Project on ethnic cooking.

Born into a long line of cooks, one ancestor was a cook for a Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Kracht has memories her great-grandma Emma cooking on her cook stove. There is no admission charge. For more information contact Wes Anderson at 701-845-0966.

Tags: history, diversions, events