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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula July 12, 2007 Text © 2007 Michele Anderson, with press release information from Erik Nordberg and Tech Today.

Traveling exhibits to celebrate Copper Country food, culture July 14 - Aug. 26

CALUMET -- Food is the theme in the Copper Country this summer as a series of exhibits, festivals and presentations explore the region’s rich food culture. The events are anchored by two traveling exhibits that will remain open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from July 14 through August 26 at the Keweenaw Heritage Center -- the former St. Anne’s church, Calumet.

Key Ingredients: America By Food is a Smithsonian exhibit depicting our national food culture. It includes information on the history of food production in the United States, the ethnic traditions that flavor the foods we eat and the many food-related traditions that are part of our culture, from traditional meals at Thanksgiving and birthdays to family recipes (and recipe cookbooks) which are handed down from generation to generation. 

Through the efforts of Kim Hoagland, chair of the Key Ingredients Steering Committee, the Keweenaw Heritage Center was selected as one of six in Michigan to host the Exhibit.

The Key Ingredients: America By Food exhibit is part of the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibits program. Here visitors in Chelsea, Mich., view the exhibit, which is traveling to 150 rural communities across America until 2008. (Photo © 2007 Jane Nordberg. Reprinted with permission.)

"It’s not just about the food, but about the stories that go along with the food," said Hoagland. "Local organizations and people worked hard to not just highlight a certain food but to dig a little deeper for that food’s significance in a larger scheme."

Locally, children in Calumet, with help from their parents and grandparents, participated in the Key Ingredients program last February with a recipe contest and a display of vintage aprons. The 10 winning recipes have been printed on note cards, thanks to the sponsorship of the Isle Royale Natural History Association. During the exhibit this summer, the cards will be on sale in local stores and at the Isle Royale and Keweenaw National Historical Park visitors' centers. Proceeds go toward educational programs at the two national parks.

Anita Campbell, a board member of the Keweenaw Heritage Center and chair of the recipe contest event, said the Smithsonian's Key Ingredients requested a community event including children.

"This is how we came up with the recipe contest," Campbell said. "This was a good way for children to learn about their family food traditions." 

During Heikinpäivä tori (market) on Jan. 20, 2007, Anita Campbell, board member of the Keweenaw Heritage Center and chair of the Children's Ethnic Recipe Contest held last February as part of Key Ingredients, displays information on the contest in the First United Methodist Church in Hancock. Also pictured is young helper Emma Tervo, right, of Calumet. The winning recipes are now available on note cards, published by the Isle Royale Natural History Association. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2007 Michele Anderson.)*

Campbell initiated the vintage apron project to coincide with the recipe contest. Parents, faculty and staff at the Calumet schools contributed 65 aprons for a display at Calumet High School last February. Some of these will be on display during the Key Ingredients exhibit this summer at the Curves storefront on 5th Street in Calumet.*

The second exhibit, Michigan Foodways, is a Michigan State University Museum exhibit exploring our state's food story by examining Michigan’s rich agriculture, its diverse ethnic cuisines and its special culinary traditions. The tour of these two exhibits is made possible through efforts of the Michigan Humanities Council, the state’s independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Michigan Foodways  exhibit was created by the Michigan State University Museum in Lansing. It includes information on food traditions specific to Michigan -- from hunting and fishing to regional Native American food culture. And what exhibit on Michigan food would be complete without information on the pasty, as given in the Chelsea, Mich., display pictured here? As part of the food exhibits, Charlie Hopper of Pasty Central will present "Making Pasties," at 7 p.m. Monday, July 30, at the Hut Inn, Calumet.** (Photo © 2007 Jane Nordberg. Reprinted with permission.)

"The food exhibits at the Keweenaw Heritage Center at St. Anne's in Calumet are a great opportunity to visit with friends and family to discuss what food traditions exist in your own family," said Michigan Tech Archivist Erik Nordberg. "The exhibit is all about stories -- stories of favorite recipes, stories of growing your first vegetable garden, stories of the special recipes shared from your grandmother. So bring your grandmother or bring your grandchild."

Nordberg will help kick off another exhibit with a talk at 7 p.m. Monday, July 16, when the Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections will host an exhibit of historical photographs as part of the Key Ingredients / Michigan Foodways visit to the Copper Country. The Archives exhibit, "Scrounging for Food: Copper Country Foodways during the Great Depression," features historical photographs and artifacts documenting how Keweenaw residents produced food during the lean years of the Great Depression.

Nordberg's talk and the photo exhibit will be in the Archives’ reading room in Michigan Tech's J. R. Van Pelt Library and will be open through Labor Day.

Illustrated with dozens of historical photographs, Nordberg's presentation will chart the transformation of the county into one of the nation’s premier potato-growing regions during the 1930s and 1940s. At its height, more than 300,000 bushels of potatoes were exported from Houghton County, utilizing a community of growers, numerous potato warehouses and a niche market for high-quality table stock potatoes in mid-western cities.

More than 25 tours, talks, and special events will tie the traveling exhibits to local food.

Michigan Tech historian Larry Lankton will speak on "Keweenaw Foodways" at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 14, at the Keweenaw Heritage Center in Calumet. Lankton’s talk will examine the development of regular supply lines for food products into the remote copper mining district in the 1850s and 1860s.

All events are free and open to the public. For further information, contact the Michigan Tech Archives at 487-2505 or via e-mail at copper@mtu.edu.

For an updated calendar of events, visit the Keweenaw Heritage Center page on www.keyingredients.org and click on Events.

To learn more about Michigan Foodways, visit www.michiganfoodways.org  . 

See also Jane Nordberg's article in The Daily Mining Gazette, Tuesday, July 10. 

Editor's Notes: * See the Keweenaw Now article, "National Parks to sponsor Children's Ethnic Recipe Contest for traveling exhibit."

**See an article about Calumet pasties and a recipe on Michigan Foodways.