Center launches Siouxland Heritage Recipe Project

       (Jan. 14, 2008) – The Betty Strong Encounter Center is launching the Siouxland Heritage Recipe Project with a call for recipes for traditional dishes of families and communities in the area.

     The project is particularly interested in recipes that reflect cultural identity and connections to previous generations.

     The long-range goal is to create a heritage cookbook showcasing recipes and stories that celebrate the many cultures of Siouxland, says Marcia Poole, director of the Encounter Center. The stories will explain the ethnic, family or community origin of each recipe; how the dish is prepared and served; and how it sustains a feeling of belonging.

     “Siouxlanders represent an extraordinary number of cultures and ways of life. Traditional recipes for everyday meals, holidays, religious observances and other occasions keep those cultural ties alive for families who’ve recently come to this area and for families who’ve lived here for many generations,” says Poole.

     At a time when fast food predominates, even meat and potatoes cooked in a cast-iron skillet may be an exotic meal for younger generations, she says. “Meat-and-potato recipes and stories can help them grow deeper roots into family and community traditions.”

     The heritage recipe project was fueled by Poole’s research on Sioux City Stockyards history which has resulted in two books. Many first-person stories of the Yards led to memories of favorite dishes prepared by different groups who lived in the South Bottoms and East Bottoms near the Yards district.

     Polish, Lithuanian, Greek, African-American, German, Russian, Italian, Scandinavian, Syrian, Mexican, Irish and other immigrants lived alongside indigenous peoples from many tribes. Most worked for packinghouses and the railroads. Grocery stores and other businesses catering to specific groups, eateries, churches and schools were part of daily life before Interstate 29 construction forced relocation in 1959.

     For more than a century, the Yards were a destination for farm and ranch families who brought additional richness to Siouxland’s culinary history, both through the food they produced and how they prepared it. Ongoing immigration to this area has continued to contribute deeper complexity to Siouxland’s foodways. In some cases these recipes have never been written down, but rather have been handed down generation to generation.

     “These recipes and stories should not be lost. Food nurtures more than the body; it tells us who we are and records who we meet,” says Fr. Ray Bucko, S.J., the Center’s cultural outreach advisor and Creighton University professor of anthropology. “In Siouxland, we can have a Greek breakfast, a Vietnamese lunch and a slice of all-American rhubarb pie for dessert after dinner, all reminding us of both our differences and our unity.”

     Ultimately, the recipe project aims at fostering greater appreciation for mealtime as an opportunity for sharing and supporting one another as members of families and communities of Siouxland.

     Siouxlanders may participate by visiting the Betty Strong Encounter Center, located on the Missouri Riverfront, where their recipes and stories will be recorded by a staff member. Siouxland Heritage Recipe encounter times are: 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays; 2 to 4 p.m. Thursdays; and Saturdays by appointment. Participation is free. To schedule an interview, contact Becky Bowers, visitor liaison, at 712-224-5242.

     The Betty Strong Encounter Center is a private, non-profit institution built and sustained by Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD) located on the Missouri Riverfront, exit 149 off I-29. Admission, all programs, exhibits and activities are free. For more information, visit www.siouxcitylcic.com.

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