Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Farm Journal Cookbooks

I have mentioned this fabulous series of cookbooks before. We grew up with the older ones in our house. Some of Mother's favorite recipes were contained in these volumes. My parents had a subscription to Farm Journal magazine, and I'm sure that is where she first learned of their cookbooks. They also belonged to the Farm Bureau, and I have fond memories of the potluck meetings we attended and yummy food! When I grew up, I set out to amass my own collection of the cookbooks. This was their first in 1959:
The Freezing and Canning Cookbook, 1963:
Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook, 1965:
Let's Start To Cook, 1966 - we sisters cooked a lot out of this book!
Cooking For Company, 1968:
Homemade Candy, 1970:
And Homemade Cookies, 1971:

That is just a few of them. They continued to publish more books through the years; my collection now numbers at least twenty!
Like I said before - those farm ladies really knew how to cook!

6 comments:

yosemite faith said...

oh yes they did! both my gram and grandma were farm ladies and wow - i wish i would have known how lucky i was as a kid! i took it for granted - plus all the farm fresh produce that gram would load us up with when we headed for home (200 miles south) after one of her great suday dinners. my parents belonged to the grange (farm bureau? maybe) and after my dad died they sent a lovely letter to my mom and put up some sort of honoring thing at the grange citing his years of service with the grange and the global community! boy do i go on and on.....back to your cookbooks - they look great - i have lots of cookbooks but none of the farm journal ones. obviously MY LOSS - now that we live on my gram and gramps farm - a canning cookbook would help big time. but we have been canning - last years harvest in a can is already gone and due to a very cool spring and summer we are still waiting for our garden to give us its bounty. oh - we have gotten potatoes already - 1st year of those because we thought they were so cheap to buy but once again they are so amazing fresh from johns huge garden. i will stop now - but once again heidi ho - thanks for the memories........

Lorlore said...

Yes, very fond memories of the cookbooks and good food we had from recipes made from them!!!!!
I'm still collecting them all for myself!!

Twyla and Lindsey said...

Heidi Ann, why is it that everytime you show something I don't know about, I want to start collecting it too?! I never knew these books exsisted, but I love old cookbooks and now I want to find some of these! Your collection looks great and I bet there are great pictures in them too. Hope you are having a great day! Twyla

Heidi Ann said...

Hi Twyla - You crack me up! There are a few pictures, not a lot. But the great recipes make that okay. Heck, yeah - start collecting them! you should be able to find them reasonably priced.

Unknown said...

I just inherited 4 of my grandmother's Farm Journal cookbooks and they are such a delight. I always wondered whether they were popular with other folks as I haven't ever heard other people talk of them but they are such treasures! My wonderful grandmother was the consummate farm wife and cook and it is wonderful having her notes, thoughts and opinions scattered throughout these great American cookbooks.

yosemite faith said...

chrismck- you are so lucky to have gotten those. my gram & grandma had cooked, baked, & canned for so long that they really did not use cookbooks - it was all in their heads. probably why as a tiny girl i just did not get how to do it......and now i never will.