Does your family have a special recipe, and perhaps a great story to go along with it. If so, you may be interested in the Cooking Up Community project going on right now as part of Boyle County’s America 250.
This collaboration between Centre College and the Boyle County Public Library Story Center is designed to connect the community through the sharing of recipes and family stories behind the food.
The project – sponsored by Centre College CentreWorks – is coordinated by Beth Morgan, Archivist at Centre College Library. All recipes and affiliated materials collected from this project will be permanently held and publicly accessible at the Boyle County Public Library.
Recognizing recipes and cookbooks as unique forms of material memory that preserve family and community history, the project is:
— Collecting family recipes from the Danville-Boyle County community, to be archived in the BCPL online recipe database and printed in a cookbook;
— Collecting personal stories about the recipes that reflect the memories and traditions of the family affiliated with the recipe, in written or oral form, to be archived in the BCPL oral history database and potentially printed in a cookbook alongside your submitted recipe;
— Collecting photographs of the people and places affiliated with the recipe, to be archived at the public library and potentially printed in a cookbook alongside your submitted recipe.
How can you participate?
There are a few ways to contribute to the project:
— Come to the Story Center at Constitution Square on Friday mornings between 10 a.m. and noon, where your recipes and photos can be scanned and you can record a story about your recipe;
— Fill out a recipe card at the drop box located at the Boyle County Public Library;
— Bring a recipe to the Soul of Second Street Festival on Saturday, August 8. Beth Morgan will be collecting recipes at the festival from 3 p.m. until dark.
Contact Beth Morgan at beth.morgan@centre.edu to arrange a time to come by the Centre College Library, where your recipes and photos can be scanned and you can record a story about your recipe.
Please reach out to Beth Morgan beth.morgan@centre.edu with any questions or for additional information.