We live in a little town way up in the woods, very low population density, and we never thought a Smithsonian Institution exhibition would find its way anywhere close to us. But a few months ago we learned just such an exhibit would be visiting Rhinelander, Wis., for about a month.
It's called "Key Ingredients: America By Food." There are two traveling Key Ingredients exhbitions: The other is now touring in Arizona.
Rhinelander? That's not too far away--just 60 miles. A short spin down the road.
My wife and I had talked about seeing the exhibit during the holiday season, but the weather got cold, I enjoyed my nights off at home, and we got to watching DVDs together most nights--the onslaught of high school basketball was on hold for two weeks.
Suddenly it was January, and we still hadn't seen the show. We learned the exhibit's final day would be Jan. 21. And I had a game that night!
So on Jan. 15, the final Saturday of the show, my wife and David and I all made the trip to Rhinelander. A little shopping, yes. I took back a Christmas gift sweater that was too big. We restocked on cat food. And we went to the program, held at a shopping center where a fabric store used to be. (My wife still grieves.) ...
To complement the Key Ingredients show, local organizers came up with a local-oriented counterpart, focusing on the traditions of "the North Country."
From an introduction near the entrance:
"A harsh winter day makes a cold, clear statement about the challenges of sustaining body and soul in the North Country. Basic survival has been and continues to be a stark reality for all residents of this remote landscape. Even so, the bounty of fish, game, berries and maple syrup provided by the land and water made the region a beloved home to the Ojibwe people. Later, European Americans brought logging and farming to the area to sustain their communities. Lumbering established an economy, clear-cutting of forests and limitations to agriculture forced a new reality to sustaining a livelihood and gave birth to innovative potato, cranberry and tourism industries."
It goes on to talk about the area's natural beauty and the food-related activities that become part of the culture.
"Throughout economic changes, pride in local customs, a spirit of resiliency and taking time to relax has sustained the soul of the region. A powwow, the cranberry harvest festivals or a lumberjack dinner celebrating the past each contributed to the special identity of the north.
"The region has continued to face a variety of hardships over time. For some, lack of adequate employment has left them with reduced resources to feed their families. Today, more than 50 percent of students qualify for government-subsidized school meals in some local districts. Active food pantries in six communities use the labor of volunteers, food donations from businesses and individuals and produce from community gardens to fight local hunger. This generosity nourishes both body and soul of a whole community."
Only some kinds of farming proved to be viable up here--the land was frequently too wooded or too dry or too wet. Of course, the climate has a big say, too. Some kinds of farms proved successful, though, and displays showed some of the tools of the trade. Dairy farms produced milk, butter, cheese ... and some hand-cranked ice cream ...
Another one celebrates the cranberry's role in the Northwoods economy, and still another celebrates the hearty potato and all the tasty things spuds can be made into ...
Here's an old potato bagger, in front of a wild rice/cranberry display ...
This photo was part of the display about eating out. A group of watermelon munchers at a picnic held early in the 20th century--or maybe even late in the 19th ...
There were displays about food preservation and the frozen food revolution ...
Cookbooks, recipes and recipe cards weren't overlooked. Have your own recipe cards been edited extensively over time? ...
The biggest challenge to U.S. homemakers came during World War II, when rationing was in effect. Here is a display of the ration books and cards, with the complex rules that all Americans had to comply with during the war ...
Another display explained why rationing was necessary and how to use the ration books. (And yes, I am certainly aware that other countries had it much, much worse than the U.S. during and after the war.)
Table settings and special place settings were part of the display ...
If you look right at the middle of that display, you'll see a wooden icebox that was made right in Rhinelander, years and years ago. It's an Airtite icebox, and being air-tight was important because if the ice compartment wasn't fully sealed, outside air gets in and the ice melts faster, back in the days before electric refrigerators.
When I was a kid and my mom and dad took us "up north" to see my grandparents in Iron Mountain, there still existed a ramshackle old, unpainted wooden ice storage building on the shore of a local lake. Blocks of ice, harvested from lake surfaces during the winter, were kept well-insulated in sawdust and would last all summer. That's also how the ice trains took ice to warm climates back in olden times. Oh, I wish I had a photo of that old building! I think the only sign on the outside of the roofless building simply read "Ice."
They held various special events during the Key Ingredients exhibition, and we happened to visit on Apron Day, when they had a big display of aprons, both fancy and ordinary ...
The special event of the day was an Apron Fashion Show, and I got a photo of the "models" just before showtime ...
During the program, the ladies told apron stories and histories of certain aprons--when they had been created and under which circumstances ...
I was walking around, looking at the exhibits and getting some pictures, when something got my rapt attention. It was about (if I heard it right) some tradition in which a woman once a year prepares/serves a meal for her husband wearing a special apron--just the apron!
Of course, that quickly got my attention. But, alas and alack, I had missed the rest of the story. Oh, I do wish I had been paying closer attention!
The Key Ingredients exhibition is touring the U.S. for the next several years--into the summer of 2013, with a total of 150 stops. The website talks about the program and related topics like The American Cookbook Project. "Explore the two ingredients that are key to American cuisine--regional traditions and international influences."
If you like cooking and foods and traditions--and who doesn't?--keep an eye open for it. "Key Ingredients" could be coming to a town near you.
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