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Dispatches from Home - A Taste of Humboldt

3/31/2020

Day ??? of Shelter in place and soon I’ll have polished off a 30 pack of tortillas and pound of salsa. I’m looking through my cupboards to see if there is anything, anything different I can make with random odds and ends that I have. Ooh, mac and cheese. That’ll do.

Back in the before times (before shelter in place that is), I picked up a cookbook of recipes from different immigrant groups that have come to Humboldt County over time. The book was published in 1987 and I think is out of print now. It was produced by YES at Humboldt State to raise money for scholarships. It’s actually a great historical resource, giving a short discussion of different immigrant groups that came to the county, when they came here, and what trades they participated in, and where they settled, thanks to help from a number of big names in the local history world - Lynwood Carranco, Martha Roscoe, Peter Palmquist, and Jack Norton to name a few. It also has all kinds of tasty recipes that people brought with them in their travels to the county, and some that were modified when they got here. There are local Native American, Welsh, Laotian, Danish, Italian, English, Swiss, Mien, Indian, Finnish, Norwegian, Greek, Mexican, even the Midwest attributions in the book, from people located all around the county (that’s not an exhaustive list of the different ethnic backgrounds of the foods in the book by the way, it goes on and on).

My Aebleskiver pan that I found at a yard sale in San Diego.

In the book, there are some recipes I recognize from my own family. Aebleskivers come to mind. I’m not exactly sure how a Danish recipe ended up in our German and Luxembourgian family (I think I’m 4th or 5th generation American), maybe it was from my grandparent’s frequent visits to Solvang where the fried dough and related accoutrements are sold. There are also some other ones I’d like to break out at a post-pandemic party (Pink Elephant Party Punch with Grenadine, lemonade, orange juice and a bit of vodka- maybe hold the vodka - recipe from Sylvia Molloy of Bayside), and all kinds of bread. Breadmaking seems to be making a comeback with people at home looking for things to do- and this book is not short on bread recipes. Yugoslavian ones, Portuguese ones, ones with unknown origins...

Oh my and it has cookie recipes.

Cookies are some of my go-to recipes when I’m having a tough day or know someone else who is. There’s an oatmeal cookie one that sounds tasty, oh, and a peanut butter cookie one that also sounds tasty…
For you enjoyment, here’s those two recipes:

Old fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup raisins
½ cup hot water
¾ cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups rolled oats
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg

Soak raisins in hot water for five minutes; drain, reserving liquid. Combine butter, sugars, and eggs; beat until fluffy. Set aside. sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spice. Blend into sugar mixture. mix in ¼ cup raisin liquid, adding water if necessary. Add oats and raisins, drop onto greased cookie sheets by teaspoonfuls.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Makes 4 dozen cookies.
This cookie recipe has been passed down through three generations of my family. My grandmother made them for my father when he was a child, and they continue to be his favorite cookie. Now I make the cookies for Dad and enjoy them as much as he does. They are the best oatmeal cookies I have ever tasted.
Michelle Farden, Arcata

Grandma Poe’s Peanut Butter Cookies (this one had a star next to it and a rusted paperclip mark from its previous owner- probably a favorite recipe)
½ cup each of the following: Peanut Butter, shortening, white sugar, and brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 ½ cups flour

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars. add baking soda and salt. add egg, and beat well. Add flour. Roll in small balls and put on a greased cookie sheet. press both ways with a fork.
bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.
Grace and Ed Poe from Trinidad were my adopted grandparents. They often came to stay overnight with us in Arcata. We loved to see them come. Grandma always brought something good to eat. My favorite were these cookies.
Paula Flannery, Bayside

The book also includes little stories from some of the recipe contributors, like the ones listed in the last two recipes. Another story was one from Carol S. Kausen of Fortuna who says that she found the recipe for her holiday “Delightful “No Bake” Dessert” from a friend of a friend who was a caretaker on one of the Russ family ranches. She was really impressed with the recipe and made it a part of her holiday traditions for the next 50 years.

A word of caution however, look how many it serves before you break into making a recipe from this book- some serve a small dinner party while others serve 25 or more!

In all, if you’re looking for a book that gives you a rundown of the early immigration history to Humboldt County and some recipes for your shelter in place party of 1 (or your household), this is the book for you!

If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be in the kitchen baking up a storm. Too bad I’ll have to keep the cookies to myself…
Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home!
-Katie

6 Comments

Dispatches from Home - Disaster Journaling

3/30/2020

10 Comments

Kitty enjoys helping me with quilt projects- in this case by keeping my lap warm while I do some hand stitching

So now we’re at… week 2 of working from home, probably somewhere like week three for being closed to the public? Check with local health authorities and those folks as they know best, but from the information I’ve picked up, we’ll be in this boat for a little bit. I’m sure many of you are looking for something to do, some way to look forward to a future where we can all go outside and enjoy the company of others without fear. I know I am. I miss seeing friends and family, not to mention thrift shopping, the Redwood Empire Quilters Guild, going to a movie… But I get why we have to do what we have to do, so I’ll keep myself busy with work, sewing, baking, and reading. Ah, and of course hanging out with my absolutely archaic cat, Kitty (she’s 21 and I think is powered by sunlight).

I’m part of a Facebook Group called Archivist Think Tank (along with a few other history-related groups) and someone mentioned the idea of encouraging people to write about their experiences during this time in journals, and later donate those journals (or copies) to their local history organizations for future researchers trying to understand the pandemic’s affect on the community. (Not to mention that journaling is a great way to relax and decompress after a difficult day or event).

We, in the larger history organization sense of the word, have journals, newspapers, letters and more from another life changing event -the 1918 epidemic. The journals and lettersgive us an inside look at the event from the view of people who lived through it, and a view into how the epidemic affected individuals and communities, while the papers give us a larger picture idea of what was going on. These resources have been used locally to write up articles on local responses to the 1918 epidemic, and these articles can be found over at the Historical Society. You can also read excerpts from a diary by someone who lived through the epidemic on their website, linked here. Their Facebook page has been very active through these events in sharing the steps local residents took to protect themselves and their community in 1918, some of which are similar to today. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing how archivists will be preserving all the art and culture that has been shared through digital means like Facebook Live videos during the pandemic, but that is a thing for another day. Now is the time to start creating that paper record of COVID-19 for future researchers. I wonder how many people are clipping newspaper articles, writing down their thoughts, and documenting how the world is changing around us as this event continues on.

I grew up in San Diego (North County, the Vista-Oceanside area for those who are familiar with the area) and I remember getting ahold of the newspaper each day during the 2008 fires and hacking out photos and articles on the event. I didn’t include notes, just taped the articles into a scrapbook that is still at my parent’s house. I remember a picture taken during a flyover of a burned area - two cul-de-sacs in a cookie cutter neighborhood side by side, one circle had all its houses intact except one, and the other all of the homes except one had burned. I believe it was on the front page of the paper that particular day.

One of the melted car window photos my dad took during the fires

My dad worked for the power company, so he was part of the first group that went into the burned areas after the fires passed to rebuild the electrical infrastructure that had been decimated. He carried around a disposable camera with him to show us some of the crazy things he saw. I vividly remember him sharing a picture with us of a burned over car where the window was melted down the side of the car and in a puddle on the ash-black ground. Another image was of a power pole, where only the cross-arm (where the power lines cross the power pole) and the transformer was left- the fire had burned so fast the bottom of the pole went up but not the cross-arm. I know people to this day that have artifacts recovered from those events, a melted piece of metal that was formerly an engine block, shined up and hanging on a wall. A burned page from a magazine, with an address miles away from where it was found, carried by the wind. During that event, I sewed a lot. Nothing very fancy because I was just using random fabric that I found and I was only 12 or so, but I still have some of those things in a box that remains at my parents house called my fire box. That is the one thing they need to grab from my room if the house is on the fire path. It lives near the door to my room so it’s accessible.

These things - events, experiences, items- stay with us and we carry them with us for the rest of our lives, physically and mentally. I didn’t lose my house in that fire or the ones that have happened in more recent years, but I know people who did and they will tell you the same thing.

Initially, I wasn’t sure how long this pandemic was going to last, but eventually I began to own the fact that this will be our new normal for a bit, so I’m keeping a journal of sorts.

My journal is a little different than paper and pen story telling - I’m making a quilt block a day and jotting down thoughts on the quilt block, along with what was going on while I made it. Some I made while livestreaming on my Facebook. Some turned out wonky which may have been due to quilter error to be honest. The book I’m working from is of quilt blocks turned into pot holders, but I figure it’s a good chance to use up some fabric that I might not use otherwise, learn some new blocks, and keep myself busy during shelter in place. The book is structured in a way where you make a potholder a week for a whole year, so since I started this 6 days ago, I now have 46 days worth of blocks left. If all these blocks get made, it’ll make a quilt (roughly) 80 inches by 60 inches. With borders and all, that thing will be HUGE - but toasty warm and sure to keep me cozy in the fall when we may very well have to go into quarantine again with a resurgence of the virus (which happened in 1918 and very well might happen again). I’ll have to find another book of potholders a week if that’s the case, and stock up on fabric!

My first 6 quilt blocks

My 1955 Featherweight sewing machine

I realize now that the comfort I’ve taken in making these blocks and sharing them through social media and with my mom’s group of quilters (many of whom weathered the 2008 fires at our house when they were evacuated and needed a place to go) is just bringing me full circle. Quilting has helped me before, and it continues to help me now. Part of that is the experience of making things, part is the feeling of holding fabric, and part is the community that comes from the act of making something.

So break out some paper and jot down your thoughts in this crazy time, make some art, do some baking (I’d like to see a recipe book somehow come out of this) and we will hear from you as we trek through it together and on the other side when we can all get out in the streets and dance together- and get burritos from Los Giles at the Friday Night Market. YUM.

Until then, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home!
-Katie

10 Comments

Dispatches from Home - Local History Books

3/26/2020

7 Comments

Hi all!
I’ve been working from home per the shelter in place order since… last week? Time really seems to be blurring as my house is really quiet besides when my cat decides to sing to me at 3 am for no reason.
I miss being at the museum and working with my coworkers, walking around Old Town on my breaks, and talking with visitors about the exhibits. I also miss the events we host, inviting people into the museum to learn, talk, and form friendships.
However, for the good of our community, we’ve all been asked to stay home and find other ways to occupy our time. Museum work is never done, so we’re all keeping busy behind the scenes. Brittany has been posting Baskets of the Day on our Instagram, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator Dana is working on Artifacts of the Day, Registrar Alex is studying up on professional standards for storage collection, and I'm researching for upcoming exhibits.

Part of what I’ve been doing, is reading up on local history. Luckily, there is definitely no shortage of books on our region’s history! Here’s what I’ve been reading:

When Money Grew on Trees: A.B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron (Greg Gordon, University of Oklahoma Press, 404 pages, 482 if you include the bibliography and index)
I admit I started reading this before all the closures, but the closure time gave me a good boost in finishing it. I first heard about it when talking with Jim at the Historical Society, who read me part of the first page – it told a story of Hammond’s funeral, where rumor says that while his casket was being carried into the funeral, he sat up outraged at the pallbearers being paid- that two of them should be fired and the others have their wages cut. Talk about a hook!
The book can look daunting and sometimes reading parts of it was, but it really revved back up as the author began discussing Hammond and his being at odds with organized labor, how Humboldt County’s organized labor situation was a bit different from most other places, and the start contrasts between Hammond and other lumber owners (like William Carson, the Falk family, etc). Chapter 15 on how the industry changed was notable, as most books talking about logging in the redwoods start out with the story of the redwood tree. Gordon introduces this and the evolution of the industry way late in the book (which was fine by me as I wasn’t really reading the book for the purpose of understanding that aspect) but it worked really, really well and moved perfectly into the discussion of labor in the following chapter.

Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans (Jean Pfaelzer, University of California Press, 351 pages, 400 with notes and index)
I’m about 40 some pages into this and it’s already a darn incredible book. The author has done a really great job in explaining how ideas around slave and immigrant labor transferred from African Americans to the Chinese, how popular and government responses to Mexican and South American immigrants as well as local Native people set up the structure for legal and legally encouraged discrimination and violence, and gives examples with details of different events where Chinese communities were driven away from their livelihoods and residences in California and the West. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the book. It does get graphic at times, but that was the nature of California in the Gold Rush era.

Here are a few other books worth checking out in quarantine (you may be able to get them from Eureka Books if they are still open for deliveries. The Historical Society also has many of these books in their book store so contact them about possibilities for shipping. Some of these may also be available digitally through the library on Libby, Overdrive, etc). I have read many of these, but some have been recommended to me, some I have seen and heard good things about, etc.

The textbook trifecta of Humboldt County’s history (in my opinion)
- Two Peoples, One Place – Ray Raphael and Freeman House
- Both Sides of the Bluff – Jerry Rohde
- Place Names of Humboldt County – Dennis W. and Gloria H. Turner
Logging History
- Falk’s Claim – Jon Humboldt Gates
- Falk: Company Town of the American West – Julie Clark. Mainly images, but also lots of good information in the captions
Location- Based History:
- Rio Dell – (Wildwood) As I saw it in the early Twenties by Julio Rovai – out of print and hard to find but this one, along with the sequel are fascinating, rambling stories of life in Rio Dell and its neighboring Wildwood during the Prohibition era.
Redwoods History
- Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History – edited by John Evarts and Marjorie Popper, written by Michael Barbour, Sandy Lydon, Mark Borchert, Marjorie Popper, Valerie Whitworth, and John Evarts
- The Fight to Save the Redwoods: A History of Environmental Reform, 1917-1978 by Susan R. Schrepfer. Very high level academic-y but it is probably the most thorough resource out there to understand how the Redwood National and State Parks came to be
- Who Saved the Redwoods: The Unsung Heroine of the 1920s Who Fought for Our Redwood Forests- women who kickstarted and fueled the early movements to save the redwood forests in California. Includes many local names as some of the hardest hitting women in the fight lived in Humboldt County.
- The Wild Trees by Richard Preston– a bit popularized, but tells the story of the search for the tallest trees in the world
- Humboldt Redwoods State Park The Complete Guide by Jerry and Gisela Rohde (out of print now, unfortunately, but a great resource if you can find it)
- The Last Redwoods and the Parkland of Prairie Creek by Francois Leydet and the Sierra Club- published post 1968 park establishment while there was a movement to expand the park. Incredible photos! The Sierra Club was a big proponent in the expansion of the park to many people’s surprise as we hear more about Save the Redwoods League when it comes to redwoods.
- A Good Forest for Dying by Patrick Beach– also a bit popularized but really well-written story about a young man who died during the fight for Headwaters Forest, along with the larger forces that led up to David Chain’s death. It does a good job of contextualizing why the fight for Headwaters was as powerful as it was.
Native History – this isn’t my forte, but I will include a few books that I’ve read and heard good recommendations from (what’s that website with Native folks reviewing books?
- We are Dancing for You by Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy. Very academic in many parts, but very thorough in discussing ties between feminism, native cultures, ceremonies, revitalization of cultures, and the enduring spirit of cultural revitalization.
- In the Land of the Grasshopper Song by Mary Ellicott Arnold and Mabel Reed – a story of two “Matrons” sent to live and work with tribes on the Klamath River as part of a government-supported program to promote assimilation in local tribes.
- Ka'm-T'em: a collection of essays from local native scholars. A relatively new publication, I think it came out last year. I haven’t read it but recognize many of the names associated with it as highly respected scholars and local native people.
Labor History
- Organize! The Great Lumber Strike of Humboldt County, 1935 by Frank Onstine and Rachel Harris – I haven’t gotten around to reading this yet, but after reading the Hammond book that discussed organized labor issues and the role of organized labor in anti-Chinese movements, I’d like to look into what the state of organized labor was in the county leading up to the 1935 strike.
Not books but…
- The Humboldt Historian! If you’re a student or have access to EBSCO, all Humboldt Historian articles are accessible digitally! If you’re a member, you can also access many old issues digitally through the Historical Society’s website.

(Note: I wasn't paid to recommend any of these books! I purchased most if not all of them at local second hand stores or through eBay's used book section. If you use Amazon, pick us out on Amazon Smile when you order and we get some money from the sale with no extra cost to you!

I hope I inspired some of you to dive into some reading on local history. What are some of your favorite local history related books or topics?

7 Comments

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Dispatches from Home - A Taste of Humboldt

Oh my and it has cookie recipes.

Dispatches from Home - Disaster Journaling

Dispatches from Home - Local History Books

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