Recipe Queens: Marjorie Standish, Brownie Schrumpf and the Evolution of the Cooking Column in Maine

Description

Marjorie Standish wrote a cooking column for the Maine Sunday Telegram for 25 years sharing her recipes and expertise and Mildred “Brownie” Schrumpf did the same for the Bangor Daily News for 40 years. Learn more about the women and their impact on cooking in Maine with Sandy Oliver on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Jesup Memorial Library. Oliver, who writes the “TasteBuds” column in the Bangor Daily News, is the editor of the newly released “Cooking Maine Style: Tried and True Recipes from Down East,” which is a collection of Standish’s recipes.
 
Both Standish and Schrumpf were modern, twentieth century professionals with similar educations and career paths. They both wrote columns for years and published books sharing their recipes, which have often become Maine family classics. Their books show an evolution of Maine cooking from baked bean traditions through international cuisines. Both women relied on correspondence with readers to collect recipes, provide advice and share experiences. In an era before online social media, they connected their readers and their kitchens with each other.
 
Cooking columns in a print newspaper are not entirely history; Oliver continues to write a weekly cooking column following the footsteps of these influential writers. Her sixteen years’ experience writing has shown how the more things change the more they stay the same. While compiling “Cooking Maine Style,” saw the history of 20th century Maine food unfold, and recognized her own joys and challenges in the writing of these two Maine food writers who paved the way for her.
 
Oliver is a food writer, gardener and cook. In addition to her weekly column in the Bangor Daily News her work appears in Downeast Magazine, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. She is the author of “Maine Home Cooking: 175 Recipes from Downeast Kitchens” which features recipes collected from her column. Oliver has worked a food historian since 1971, and is the author two books on food history “Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century;” and “The Food of Colonial and Federal America” and is the co-author of “Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie.” Oliver speaks to organizations and conducts classes and workshops in food history, and in sustainable gardening and cooking.
 
Books will be on sale that night courtesy of Sherman’s Books. For more information on this talk, contact the Jesup at 207-288-4245.