This recipe card is one of those folded deals, so it has double the space on the front and back, but when folded it fit nicely into the index card sized boxes that were so popular with our predecessors. These days we save bookmarks and pins, not much printed or handwritten documentation. I email recipes to friends and even share Notes on my iPhone. My mother typed out all the recipes she had and I have no idea what happened to the original sources. “All My Best” aka Mom’s Cookbook fills a 3″ binder with three to four recipes per page. It’s packed full! As an historian I love seeing and using so many recipes she collected during her life, but I also wonder about where she acquired them and from whom. Sometimes she noted who they came from (various relatives and friends usually). When it says who gave her the recipe, it brings back memories of either those people or stories my mother told me associated with them. I think that’s why this site appeals to me so much – it’s a melding of the digital age and the traditional recipe exchange between friends and family. I hope you are enjoying the postings – we have a ton more recipes to post! The next question I have to consider is what to do with all the source material I have collected over the years, but that’s a question for another day. :-)

Plain Beets Canned

Cook young tender deep red Beets. Peel & pack in hot quart jars. Add 1 tsp salt. Process 2 1/2 hours in hot bath to seal.

Harvard Beets

1 1/4 cup sugar (brown)

2 cups vinegar

1 tsp salt

Cook young tender beets. Then boil above 3 ingredients for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in a little vinegar. Boil altogether for 10 minutes. Pour over beets.