NW OH | Sept. 2016 | Issue 6

Salt Flavor for Everyday Life|September 2016|$3 A supplement of The Lima News

FALL TR AVE L ISSUE

Touring Amish Country Bidding for broccoli Minster Oktoberfest: Beers, brats and brotherhood

Salt CONTENTS

features

6 14 18 22 24

6

Beer, brats & brotherhood: Minster hosts Oktoberfest Take a tour of Hardin County’s Amish Country Bidding for broccoli In the kitchen with ... a fair exhibitor Out and About

14

columns

2 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

4

Publisher’s note

By Pamela Stricker

Recipe Index

Barbara Yoder’s Zucchini Bars ....................................................16 Cabbage Rolls ..............................................................................12 Cashew-Butter Leaves.................................................................23 Easy Beer Bread ...........................................................................23 German Oatmeal Cake ...............................................................12 German Sauerbraten...................................................................10 German-Styled Green Beans .....................................................12 Monster Cookies ..........................................................................23 Potato Dumplings .........................................................................10 Wainachsrollen .............................................................................12

18 22

Salt Flavor for Everyday Life thesaltmagazine.com Northwest Ohio September 2016

Publisher Editor Food Editor Layout Design Content Sales

Pamela Stricker Lora Abernathy Andrea Chaffin Jayla Wallingford Adrienne McGee Sterrett Barb Staples

pstricker@civitasmedia.com labernathy@civitasmedia.com achaffin@civitasmedia.com jwallingford@civitasmedia.com amcgeesterrett@civitasmedia.com bstaples@civitasmedia.com

Contact Salt: editor@thesaltmagazine.com 3515 Elida Road, Lima OH 45807 419-223-1010 Salt is published six times a year by Civitas Media LLC and is available through The Lima News. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any material from this issue, in whole or in part, is prohibited. Salt is free to The Lima News subscribers and is also available for purchase at the office of The Lima News.

Please buy locally and recycle.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram @TheSaltMagazine.

Hide & Shake Find the shaker in this issue and be entered to win a $10 grocery card.

Visit our website, thesaltmagazine.com, and click on the Shaker Contest link at the top and enter your contact information. Your name, street number, street name, city and zip code are required. Only your name and city will be published. All entries must be received by Aug. 25, 2016. Only online entries will be accepted.

In the June/July issue, the shaker was hidden in the photo on page 16.

Congratulations to our most recent winner, Richard W. Thiede of Columbus Grove.

You could be our next winner!

On the Cover These pints of cherry and grape tomatoes were available for purchase during a recent Amish produce auction in Hardin County.

Photo by Amanda Wilson.

Bob Fricke

Front Porch

Front Porch Profile offers a personal glimpse into the lives of notable people in our communities

By Lora Abernathy

What food do you love to eat but hate to cook?

Doesn’t apply because my wife is a great cook.

If you won an Oscar, in which category would you win and why?

Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

I’ve always believed that teamwork is the key to success.

What’s your hidden talent?

Ability to remember statistics and numbers.

Sweet or unsweetened iced tea?

Sweet.

When you were a kid, what did you want to grow up to be?

A farmer like my dad.

What do you love most about your community?

The people and the friendships that I have made over the years.

Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 3

Profile

Allen County Fairgrounds General Manager

home

That place called

4 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

By Pamela Stricker In this season of summer vacations, family reunions, weekend getaways — however you may be spending your time away — one thing that seems to always accompany the return to home base is that satisfied sigh of relief that echoes Dorothy’s sentiments from “The Wizard of Oz” film: “There’s no place like home.”

Vacation can be revitalizing and necessary to good soul health. However, we often exert a lot of energy preparing for that coveted time away.

We work ahead on projects at home and work, cramming in more tasks than usual.

Then there is packing, figuring out itineraries, arrangements for the animals, the mail, the paper. Then, once on vacation, we try to squeeze out everything we can every day for all it’s worth, knowing the vacation is going to be over way before we want it to be.

But no matter how exotic the beach, how grand the mountains or how precious the time with family and friends, there is something so comforting and stabilizing and relieving about returning home.

I suppose much of that depends on how much one cares about their home — and what home means to each of us.

For me, it’s a place of shelter, not only from the rain, but the storms that life can hurl at us.

Home is refuge, solace, a place of rest… my sanctuary. It takes some caretaking for home to be

that safe and sought-after place.

I have lived in homes with grass mat floors and dirt floors.

My homes have been in foreign lands, other states. They have been in rural America and even the largest city in the world.

My homes have included living in a converted church, an adobe house with no modern conveniences, a Quonset hut, a basement apartment and, most recently, a condo on the second floor of an old Victorian house.

But the structure has very little to do with my sense of “home.” Home, my place of belonging, my place to nest, my place to be accepted and loved. Home is more about being in the center of that place I know I am called to be and being content to be there.

It’s good to experience trav-

eling to other places. I love to do that!

But there is something very calming about returning to the rhythm of routine, of settling in to what may seem mundane in comparison. It’s good to be with the familiarity of home. It’s just good to be home.

These lines from a song written by Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine articulates it so well. The song is “Called Home.”

Just shy of Breakin’ Down There’s a bend in the road that I have found Called home Take a left at loneliness There’s a place to find forgiveness Called home With clouds adrift across the sky

Like heaven’s laundry hung to dry You slowly feel it all will be revealed Where evening shadows come to fall On the awful and the beautiful Every wound you feel that needs to heal And silence yearns to hear herself Some long lost memory rings a bell Called home So, enjoy your vacation! And when you come home, please pass the Salt!

Publisher pstricker@civitasmedia.com

Staff PAMELA STRICKER Pamela is the publisher of Salt magazine, which she launched in southern Ohio in 2009. She also holds the title of publisher, Niche Product Division, for Civitas Media. She and her husband, Jerry, reside in Lima, Ohio.

LORA ABERNATHY Lora is the editor of Salt magazine and the director of editorial digital strategies for Civitas Media. She lives in southern Ohio with her husband, Gary, is mom to a yellow Lab and competes in triathlons. Reach her at labernathy@civitasmedia.com.

ANDREA CHAFFIN Andrea is the food editor of Salt magazine and the editor of The Madison Press. She can be reached at 740-852-1616, ext. 1619 or via Twitter @AndeeWrites.

Salt Scoop

Send us your favorite recipe. We may feature it in the next issue.

Visit our website, thesaltmagazine.com, and click on the Recipe Submission link at the top to be entered. Include a photo of your dish, too, if you’ve got one. All entries must be received by Aug. 25, 2016.

Every submitted recipe will be entered in a drawing for a $25 grocery card.

Wanted: Your holiday cookie recipes

JAYLA WALLINGFORD Jayla is the designer of Salt magazine and is the manager of the special sections team for Civitas Media. She lives in Harveysburg with two cats (and offers free handouts to a slew of feline drifters).

AMY EDDINGS Amy writes for The Lima News. She’s a former New Yorker and public radio host. When she’s not writing, she’s canning, cooking, quilting and gardening.

Reach her at 567-242-0379, aedddings@civitasmedia. com or on Twitter @lima_eddings.

Bet you have a favorite recipe for holiday cookies, a recipe that has served you well over the years, the cookies that are a must at every holiday get-together.

You know the ones. If you didn’t make them, your family would freak out, right?

We’d love for you to share that recipe and a few words about how it came to be a tradition in your household. Send us an email at amcgeesterrett@ civitasmedia.com (subject line “cookies”) by Sept.

19. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number. Send more than one recipe if you’d like. Your submission will be considered for publication in a future edition of Salt magazine.

Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 5

ADRIENNE MCGEE STERRETT Adrienne is the lifestyle/ special sections editor for The Lima News. She believes everyone has a life story worth sharing. Reach her at 567-242-0510 or amcgeesterrett@civitasmedia.com.

BEER, BRATS & BROTHERHOOD Minster celebrates German heritage with annual Oktoberfest

By Amy Eddings

6 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

The 42nd Annual Minster Oktoberfest Friday, Sept. 30 - Sunday, Oct. 2 Friday 6-10 p.m. — Arts and crafts open Saturday 10 a.m. — Little Miss Oktoberfest Contest, Knights of Columbus Hall, 40 N. Main St. Noon — Opening ceremonites, gazebo 1 p.m. — Miss Oktoberfest Contest, Spass Platz 2 p.m. — Beer tray relays, Fourth Street Sunday 9:30 a.m. — Oktoberfest 10K run, Minster High School start, 100 E. Seventh St. 2 p.m. — Minster Oktoberfest parade 8 p.m. — Stands close

Minster’s annual Oktoberfest is a tourist attraction for many, with visitors traveling from across Ohio and from neighboring Indiana and Michigan for the beer, the bratwursts and the traditional oom-pah music. For Minsterites, it’s a big, public reunion.

“It’s a homecoming for families,” said Mary Oldiges, who runs the Minster Historical Society and whose husband, Gary, helped found the event in 1975.

Oldiges, 69, was sitting at her desk at the historical society at 112 W. Fourth St. Above her, resting on top of a wooden card catalog, were framed photos of the Woehrmyers, her father’s clan. She’s also related to the Ritters, the Bergmans and the Kovermans. The Mass cards from many of these relatives’ funerals in this deeply Roman Catholic community are among the 25,000 that fill the catalog.

“Today, including our grandchildren, who reside in Minster, and our sons, we are seventh generation Minsterites,” she said.

This little rural town of 2,829, she said, “feels like home.”

Minster was originally known as Stallostown, the brainchild of Franz Joseph Stallo, a native of Damme, a village in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany. Stallo was smitten with America. A schoolteacher, bookbinder and printer, he circulated a poem extolling the new country’s freedoms and beauties throughout the provinces of Oldenburg and Hannover.

He followed his own advice, immigrating with his family to America in 1830. He settled in Cincinnati and began scouting for farmland along the Miami-Erie Canal, a waterway that was finished in 1845 and unlocked Ohio’s northwestern interior from Cincinnati to Toledo. Pooling resources with other immigrants, he formed a stock company and bought 1,200 acres of former swampland that had been ceded to the United States

by Native Americans nearly 40 years earlier under the Treaty of Greenville.

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His enthusiasm did not wane with the realities of what was then frontier life. He continued his public relations campaign for Ohio and America.

“He sent letters telling them, ‘Come!

It’s the land of milk and honey!’” said Oldiges. “And they came!”

She said it was one of the largest chain migrations in U.S. history, with families who had immigrated helping, in turn, their siblings, cousins, parents, grandparents and neighbors make the journey and find their footing.

“By the time it was done, in the 1860s-70s, a lot of these little communities in Germany, half of them were gone, they had immigrated,” said Oldiges. “They brought their neighbors, their brothers, their sisters, their nieces, their nephews. And wasn’t that a great idea because, with all of that, perhaps they weren’t as homesick.”

She praised that community spirit of kinship and mutual support that brought not only Minster into being, but raised up, out of the Ohio wilderness, the German-American towns of New Bremen, New Knoxville and Maria Stein.

“I firmly believe that’s why these little communities were so successful,” she said. “You bring enough people with you who know you and love you and share your interests and likes and similarities. That’s how they survived.

They all knew each other, they were all willing to help.”

They brought their language, Low German, a combination of German and Dutch. They brought their customs, which Oldiges said included a strong work ethic and an emphasis on order and neatness.

“We get a lotta visitors from out of town, they say, ‘My God, what a clean little town!’” she said.

They brought their culture. The Minster Historical Society’s glass cases are filled with hand-carved wooden shoes and images of the humble farmer’s footwear dot the interior of The Wooden Shoe Inn, the 83-year-old restaurant at the center of town at Fourth and Main streets. Floats in the Oktoberfest’s annual Sunday parade carry windmills and celebrants dressed in traditional dirndls, lacy aprons, knee-length bundhosen slacks and felt hats.

Those early Minsterites brought their food, of course, including pretzels, cabbage rolls, wursts, spatzel, kuchen and strudel. Many of these traditional foods are sold at the Oktoberfest by the three dozen community groups that participate in, and benefit from, the festival. The 40th annual Oktoberfest in 2014 netted nearly $1 million, said

From left, Daryn Straley, of Athens, Ryan Loyd, of Lafayette, Indiana, and Kathy Straley drink beer and take a break from the chilly weather during a recent Oktoberfest.

Photos by Amanda Wilson and Luke Gronneberg

“You bring enough people with you who know you and love you and share your interests and likes and similarities.

That’s how they survived.”

— Mary Oldiges, Minster Historical Society

Jay Roellgen, of Tupelo, Mississippi, sat in a chair four hours to have his beard dyed the colors of the German flag during a recent Oktoberfest. Roellgen brought his mom, Dorothy Roellgen, with him so she could visit with family that still lives in the Minster area.

Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 9

40900575

Oldiges.

And they brought beer, the beverage that has defined Oktoberfest since the first one in 1810 in the southern German city of Munich to celebrate the marriage of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildberghausen. Two small breweries were in operation by 1869, and one of them, the Star Brewing Co., later known as the Wooden Shoe Brewing Co., lasted until 1953. A recent attempt to relaunch the Wooden Shoe brewery failed in 2012.

No matter. There will be plenty of beer on tap at the Oktoberfest, including major brands like Budweiser and Samuel Adams, as well as smaller craft brews.

But the food, the floats, the beer tray relay race and the mug hoisting contest, the tuba and accordion-flavored oompah music, is not what makes Oktoberfest a special time for lifelong Minsterite Oldiges. It’s the way the community pools its talents and resources to host it, year after year. It’s the way families reconvene around it.

“If you don’t know where you came from, how are you going to know where you’re going?” she said. “It’s so impor-

Adults and children alike enjoy dancing to the German polka band Sorgenbrecher at the gazebo during a recent Oktoberfest.

tant to go back and reflect and say, ‘Hey, they figured it out. They did it and they worked together and they succeeded.’

In today’s society, you still have to basically do it the same way, if you want to get it accomplished.”

10 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

Recipes from ‘Minster’s Heart & Heritage Cookbook’ GERMAN SAUERBRATEN (PICKLED BEEF POT ROAST) Start to finish: 53 hours (1 1/2 hours active) Servings: 14 Ingredients: 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ground ginger One 4-pound top round roast 2 1/2 cups water 2 cups apple cider vinegar 2 medium onions, sliced 1/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons pickling spice 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns 8 whole cloves 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 14 gingersnap cookies, crushed Directions: Combine salt and ginger; rub over roast.

Place the roast in a deep glass bowl. In a saucepan, combine water, vinegar, onions, sugar, pickling spices, peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves; bring to a boil. Pour over roast; turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days, turning twice a day.

Remove roast, reserving marinade. Pat

roast dry.

In a large kettle or Dutch oven, brown roast on all sides in oil over medium-high heat. Strain marinade, reserving half of the onions and seasonings and discarding the rest. Pour 1 cup of the marinade and reserved onions and seasonings over roast (cover and refrigerate remaining marinade liquid). Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3 hours or until meat is tender.

Strain cooking liquid, discarding the onions and seasonings. Measure liquid; if necessary, add enough reserved marinade to equal 3 cups. Pour into a saucepan; bring to a rolling boil. Add gingersnaps; simmer until gravy is thickened. Slice roast and serve with gravy.

[Adapted from a recipe from Ronnie (Brennan) Raible.]

POTATO DUMPLINGS Start to finish: 4 hours (2 hours active) Servings: 10 Ingredients: 3 pounds russet potatoes 2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour, divided 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg Dash pepper Minced fresh parsley for garnish Directions: Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Peel and grate the cooked and cooled potatoes. In a bowl, combine the eggs, 3/4 cup flour, bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Add grated potatoes; mix with hands until well-blended. Shape into 1 1/2inch balls; roll in remaining 1/4 cup flour.

In large kettle, bring salted water to a boil. Add the dumplings, a few at a time, to boiling water. Simmer, uncovered, until the dumplings rise to the top; cook 2 minutes longer. Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.

[Adapted from a recipe from Ronnie (Brennan) Raible.]

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GERMAN-STYLED GREEN BEANS Start to finish: 1 hour Serves: 3-4 Ingredients: 1 pound fresh green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces 3 bacon strips, diced 1 medium onion, quartered and sliced 2 teaspoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard 1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar Directions: Place beans in saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and set aside.

In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain, reserving 1 tablespoon of drippings in the skillet. In the same skillet, sautĂŠ onion in drippings about 5 minutes until tender.

In a small saucepan, combine the cornstarch, salt, ground mustard and water until smooth. Stir into onion mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in brown sugar and vinegar.

Add the beans; heat through. Sprinkle with bacon bits.

[Adapted from a recipe from Mary (Woehrmyer) Oldiges.]

CABBAGE ROLLS Start to finish: 7 hours (1 active) Servings: 36 Ingredients: 1 head cabbage, leaves pulled off of it 1 1/2 pounds fresh sausage 1 1/2 pounds ground chuck 3/4 cups instant white rice (uncooked) 1 medium onion, minced 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper Two 6-ounce cans tomato paste One 15-ounce can tomato sauce One 15-ounce can sauerkraut

Directions: Preheat oven to 275 F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the cabbage leaves until just wilted, about 2 minutes; set aside on paper towels or in a colander to drain and cool.

In a large bowl, mix together by hand the sausage, ground chuck, rice, onion, salt and pepper. Place a cabbage leaf on a work surface and place 2 or 3 heaping tablespoons of the meat mixture into the center of each leaf; roll up into a cylinder.

Place in a 9-by-11-inch glass baking dish and set aside.

In a bowl, stir together the tomato paste and tomato sauce; spoon over cabbage rolls. Add enough water to cover the rolls; top with sauerkraut. Bake for 6 hours.

[Adapted from a recipe from Mary (Woehrmyer) Oldiges.]

GERMAN OATMEAL CAKE Start to finish: 1 1/2 hours (40 minutes active) Serves: 12 Cake Ingredients: 1 cup quick oats 1 cup boiling water 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter 1 1/2 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 eggs 1 cup raisins Topping Ingredients: 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar 4 tablespoons heavy cream 6 tablespoons melted butter 1 cup sweetened coconut or chopped walnuts Cake Directions: Preheat over to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish.

In a bowl, combine the oats and boiling water; set aside for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon; set

aside.

In a standing mixer, cream together brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and mix together until incorporated. Add soaked oats. Beat in eggs and raisins. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before adding the topping.

Topping Directions: For the topping, in a small bowl, stir the brown sugar, cream, butter and coconut or nuts until combined. Spread on the cooled cake; place under broiler for 5 minutes or until brown sugar begins to bubble and coconut or nuts are evenly browned.

[Adapted from a recipe from Dorothy (Boerger) Wolf.]

WAINACHSROLLEN Start to finish: 24 hours (30 minutes active) Makes: 24 cookies Ingredients: 4 1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 sticks butter (1 cup), melted 1 cup lard, melted 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup brown sugar, packed 3 eggs 8 ounces sliced almonds Directions: Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together butter, lard, brown sugar, granulated sugar and eggs; blend well. Stir in dry ingredients and almonds. Divide the dough in half. Roll each portion of dough into 2 logs, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter; wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate overnight.

Slice chilled dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. You may also use a cookie stamp, mold or press on the chilled dough. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove and place on cookie racks until cool.

[Adapted from a recipe from Ronnie (Brennan) Raible.]

Salt Shakers We call this pair Mac and Blonde to memorialize our family’s Labs.

— Ralph and Darlene Goetz of Lima

In each issue of Salt, we try to feature photos of creative salt and pepper shakers from our readers’ collections. Please submit photos and descriptions to editor@thesaltmagazine. com by Aug. 25, 2016 for consideration for printing in a future issue.

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Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 13

there’s no place like home

14 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

Photos by Richard Parrish

Resources: The Hardin County Chamber and Business Association has free maps of the area’s Old Order Amish Country and can arrange for visits to an Amish farm for an in-home meal. Call HCCBA Tourism Director Annetta Shirk at 419-673-4131.

Take a tour of Hardin County’s Amish Country

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274 Original map courtesy of the Hardin Chamber 40 273 " ) V U 199 of Commerce. Design by Jessica Lammers. ® @ V U ® What you will find is an appre@ 2 169 206 103 farms of note240 highlighted. What they will be a driveway and parking lot for 31 V U ® @ ciation for something that can’t be Country Stitches Fabrics and More, 234 have to offer will change with the 155 68 packaged, something that can’t seasons.

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16 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

head east on County Road 144.

On the left, at 18701 County Road 144 (2), is Calvin and Esther Beechy’s farm. Esther Beechy was in an outbuilding, applying a fresh coat of black paint to a buggy, when I drove up. She had maple syrup, a quilt and eggs for sale, $3 a dozen, from 75 layers that are fed nonGMO corn.

“It’s healthier,” she said. She was awash in eggs. “Right now, you can buy one, get one free.”

Less than 500 feet down the road, at 18948 County Road 144 (3), Amos and Barbara Miller and their Scioto Valley Green House sell tomatoes for eating fresh or canning, zucchini, fresh peas, candy onions, melons, strawberries and flowers.

I asked about the sweet peas.

“They’re done,” she said,

glancing in the direction of the road where a sign stating “sweet peas” still hung, swinging in the breeze. “Guess I should take the sign down.”

Continue east on County Road 144 a short distance, turning left onto Township Road 209. On the left, at 13165 Township Road 209 (4), is Willow Ridge Rustics, where Nelson Hochstetler makes hand-hewn cedar log and knotty pine benches, cabinets, night stands, bar stools, Adirondack chairs, porches and railings.

He’s been making bed frames for a campground in Holmes County.

“The guy found similar beds, King-sized, in Tennessee for $2,999,” said Hochstetler with a

See AMISH | 26

BARBARA YODER’S MAPLE BROWN SUGAR-FROSTED ZUCCHINI BARS Bar Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1 cup, packed, light brown sugar 2 cups zucchini, shredded 1 cup oil 3 eggs 2 cups flour 2 teaspooons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Bar Directions: Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease, using butter or shortening, a 9-by-13 glass or metal baking pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the zucchini, sugar, eggs and oil.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Spoon the dough into the baking pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the bars comes out clean. Frost with maple brown sugar frosting when completely cool.

Frosting Ingredients: 2 cups light brown sugar, packed 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature 3/4 cups heavy cream 3 cups powdered sugar, or to taste 2 teaspoons maple flavoring Frosting Directions: Place brown sugar, butter and cream in a sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil, scraping down the sides of the sauce pan with a spatula. Allow the mixture to cool. Stir in powdered sugar until the desired sweetness and consistency is achieved. Stir in maple flavoring. Frost bars or sugar cookies.

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Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 17

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Bidding for broccoli 18 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

By Amy Eddings When I first heard of a produce auction, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I couldn’t picture a group of people standing around and bidding on a bushel of peaches or two heads of cauliflower. It challenged my perception of what it meant to go grocery shopping.

And yet that’s exactly what happens at the Scioto Valley Produce Auction on County Road 200 near Mount Victory, about a quarter mile east of state Route 31, in Hardin County’s Old Order Amish community. Look for the big, white barn with the horses and buggies tied up in front, near the road.

“I came here last fall and had an absolute ball,” said Kathy Chapman, 58, of Marysville. She came for the pumpkin auction that takes place in September.

“I am embarrassed to tell you what I got,” she said, laughing. “I bought, like, a 4x8 foot bin of 50 pumpkins.” Her winning bid was $150, or $3 a piece. “I gave some to my grandchildren!”

A few feet away, the auction of that week’s haul of produce was underway.

Most of the produce is from local Amish farmers, and, at this time of year in midJune, featured snap peas, broccoli, beans,

“I am embarrassed to tell you what I got. I bought, like, a 4x8 foot bin of 50 pumpkins.”

— Kathy Chapman, buyer at Scioto Valley Produce Auction candy onions, radishes and flowers.

“Thirty-five, we got two quarts of snap peas!” said the Amish auction assistant, reading off the seller’s number and a written description of the item from a yellow tag dangling from the snap peas’ container.

He picked up the quarts of snap peas from a pallet on the floor and held them aloft for the buyers to see.

“Two quarts of snap peas,” echoed the non-Amish auctioneer. His voice came over a small amplifier from above the crowd, where he was sitting at a desk on a rolling platform that was about eight feet

high. From this vantage point he could see all the buyers, see them nod or hold up a finger signaling their assent to his asking price.

He launched into his sales patter, a quick rat-a-tat-tat of numbers. “Fifty, now 50, who has 75?”

Within seconds he pronounced the snap peas sold, for $1, to No. 709.

Two small bags of kohlrabi sold for $1.25. Two heads of cauliflower go for 75 cents. Buyer No. 1104 snapped up two bunches of candy green onions for $1.75.

“The first half hour of produce, it’s all small lots,” explained Harley Hochstetler, the general manager of the auction. “Two pecks, two quarters, two hand baskets, all two.”

Bigger lots of fruits and vegetables are also sold at the auction, drawing not only those interested in canning and preserving but buyers from local supermarkets in Kenton and Lima.

“It’ll be a lot more interesting when you see it in another month,” said Hochstetler, nodding past the window of the auction barn’s office, where we’re talking, and toward the broad, open cement floor where the bidding is taking place. “We’ll be stacked full with three tons of sweet corn and zucchini. They come in the half bushel

or on a pallet. Then we like the bigger buyers.”

He looked at me, scribbling rapidly in my reporter’s notebook.

“Get a bigger buyer out of Lima, send them down here!” he said. He was only half kidding.

Hochstetler said he and four others launched the produce auction in 2012 at the request of other members of the local Amish farming community as a way of providing job opportunities for Amish youth.

“We used to be able to buy farmland for $3,000 an acre. Now it’s $7,000 an acre.

That’s tough for a young guy to afford,” he said. “We couldn’t afford the bigger farms anymore, so we had to buy the smaller farms and raise produce for the kids to have work.”

By raising produce like tomatoes, sweet corn, peas, zucchini and black raspberries, Amish families are able to get more value out of their small farms. He said about 70 farms participate in the auction on any given Tuesday or Friday. About 40 of them, he said, are raising produce specifically to sell here, as their means of making a living.

“We got one guy over here” — he gestures in the general direction of County Road 200, which is lined with Amish farms — “he’s only got five acres. But he’s got that jammed full of produce. He’s one of

our biggest growers.”

Interview over, I asked Hochstetler for a bidding number. He wrote down my name, address and telephone number, and handed me a white ticket with “427” written in black marker on the top.

Telephone number? The Old Order Amish don’t use telephones. Too fancy.

But Hochstetler said if I were to leave the auction house and forget to pick up the products I successfully bid upon, a nonAmish assistant would give me a ring to let me know.

“If I need to talk to YOU about something, how would I do that?” I asked Hochstetler.

“Just come over to your farm?”

He looked at me for a long moment, watching me wrap my thoughts around a life structured solely around face-to-face interactions. No cell phones, Skype, text messages or e-mails.

“Yes,” he said, with a little smile.

I head over to where other bidders are clustered around the Amish man who’s working down a line of bedding and potted flowers. The auctioneer watches from above, sitting atop his mobile platform.

I’ve got my eye on two hanging baskets of white begonias, their creamy, double blooms spilling over the edge of the planter. When the little group reaches them, the auctioneer starts the bidding at

$10 each. No one raises an eyebrow or a finger or a ticket, and he quickly drops the price. I raise my ticket when I hear $7, and no one responds when the auctioneer asks for more.

“SOLD, No. 427, for $7 each,” he said. I grinned, knowing my local garden center would have a price tag of at least $15 on these beauties.

The Amish man who’s acting as the produce emcee scribbled down my number on the ticket attached to the begonias and moved on to the next item, two flats of white bedding petunias. I followed along, bidding on flowers and veggies, winning some bids, dropping out of others when the price goes higher than I was willing to spend.

At the end of the auction, I headed to the office window and handed my ticket to a white-bonneted young Amish girl dressed in a dark blue cotton dress. She took several tickets out of a little box labeled “427.”

They were “receipts” from my purchases.

She totaled them up and handed me a bill, just like how any auction works. Cash or check only. No credit cards, as they require electronic machinery and more technology than the Old Order Amish’s religious principles of simplicity and humility allow.

I loaded up the car, wishing I had brought our pickup truck instead.

Photos by Amanda Wilson

Salt | Northwest Salt | Northwest Ohio | August/September Ohio | September 2016 | 19

20 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

AUCTION TIPS

1. Inspect the merchandise. Take a few minutes to walk the auction house’s floor and inspect the items for sale. Get a sense of what’s available and what condition it’s in.

2. Set a limit. Decide on how much you’re willing to spend for each item. Once the auction starts, it’s easy to get carried away.

3. Hold ‘em high. Make the auctioneer aware of your bid by holding up your hand or your bid card. Call out, if you’re in the back of a crowd, or move closer to the auctioneer so he or she sees you.

4. Settle up. The Scioto Valley Produce Auction only accepts cash or checks. Always confirm the preferred method of payment before going to any auction.

5. Bring bags. The auction house doesn’t provide them. Larger lots of produce will come in baskets or boxes, but smaller items come in quart containers and even plastic storage bags. You will need a shopping bag to collect them.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Scioto Valley Produce Auction WHERE: 18715 County Road 200, Mt. Victory WHEN: Tuesdays and Fridays through Oct. 7, starting at 1 p.m. After Oct. 7, produce auctions are held on the remaining Fridays in October. Auction is usually over by 3 p.m.

NOTEWORTHY: Pumpkin Auction, Friday, Sept. 23, 1 p.m.

CONTACT: 419-371-9534

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22 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

By Adrienne McGee Sterrett Specific directions to the Boughans aren’t really necessary. Just be on the lookout for the old brick schoolhouse they converted into their home in 1995.

Once inside, it all comes into focus. Of course Tammy Boughan’s kitchen would have touches a baker would love — a vintage cake carrier, a rack of antique rolling pins, a collection of clear glass cake stands on display.

Tammy Boughan’s name is familiar to anyone who has visited the baked goods area of the Allen County Fair, as would be plenty of other names. She is but one of many who enjoy entering the open class contests, competing against each other for everything from top sugar cookie to casserole. She may enter some items this year at the fair — Aug. 19 to 27 — but she is playing her cards close to her chest in the style of a true fair exhibitor.

Not bad for a person who A) isn’t from here and B) doesn’t recall ever going to her home fair when she was growing up.

She is from Middletown, between Cincinnati and Dayton.

She and her now-husband, Troy, met while working in Columbus at the statehouse. He’s from the Lafayette area and wanted to come home to raise his family.

He grew up raising hogs for 4-H and wanted that lifestyle. And she was game.

“I’m not a country girl,” she said, laughing.

She loves her country address and the wide-open spaces it provides (Columbus Grove mailing address but Allen County location), the history of their family home (the Monroe

Center School House was built in 1897), and their single acre on which she can dabble at a garden and raising animals.

There are picket fences and coneflowers and even an orange tabby kitten on the porch.

Picturesque.

While she’s not so sure about bona fide farming, Boughan has always been attracted to baking.

She studied graphic design and counts herself a creative-leaning person.

“Even with three kids, I think (baking) is relaxing. It’s something I enjoy,” she said. “I think I just sort of have an artsy knack.”

So, when they relocated, renovated the house with much help from his family and got settled, Boughan started hearing from her husband’s family about all the things they were taking to the fair. She started to be interested.

“Well, I could bake cookies,” she remembers thinking. “And I could make muffins. … I don’t know if fever is the right word, but you just get caught up in it.”

Boughan first entered the Allen County Fair in 1996 or ’97 — she can’t quite remember — and she has done so almost every year since. She didn’t work while their children were smaller, and she has started working again recently. (Two kids are at college and one is in high school.) Her job has made it trickier to compete at the fair.

“There’s been years that I entered a lot of stuff,” she said.

What’s “a lot”? Perhaps 40 different items, ranging from baked goods to cake decorating to a few canned goods, even though she says canning isn’t really her thing. And sometimes she would make duplicate items for the Ohio State Fair, which for a time overlapped with the

Photo by Adrienne McGee Sterrett

… a fair exhibitor

Allen County Fair.

Two plastic totes hold her ribbons — and some of her kids’ ribbons are mixed in there too, she said — but there have to be hundreds.

In all of that, though, she has a clear proudest moment: best white cake. She laughs telling the story, explaining there was a Kenton woman who always entered white cake and won.

Everyone will know exactly who she’s talking about, she said, grinning.

“I think sometimes … you get your recipe perfect and it’s just hard to beat,” she said.

Boughan made it a goal to bake a better white cake, and she had to work at it a few years.

“But one year I actually succeeded,” she said.

Winning, of course, is glori-

ous — but more than that, Boughan appreciates the camaraderie.

“I do think that even though it’s a competition — some people may think it’s cutthroat or something — but I think everybody’s out there to help everybody,” she said. “It’s just so nice to see new people involved and want to be a part of it.”

She remembers convincing her neighbor to enter something, a casserole. The neighbor won.

“I was so excited for her,” she said. “There’s more to being first place. … It’s not just all about being the champion or getting the check. It’s a different kind of family.

“I think it’s just something that once you’re a part of it, you’re a part of it.”

“I think sometimes … you get your recipe perfect and it’s just hard to beat.”

— Tammy Boughan

MONSTER COOKIES Servings: 1 1/2 dozen Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 1 1/2 cups peanut butter 3 eggs 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 1/2 cups uncooked rolled oats 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup M&M’s Directions: Mix all ingredients. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Measure 1/3 cup of dough for each cookie and place 4 inches apart on sheets. Flatten dough. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 F. Note: Dough can be divided into smaller cookies, doubling the yield. Bake about 8 to 10 minutes.

(Recipe from Tracy Jerger.)

EASY BEER BREAD Servings: 1 loaf Ingredients: 3 cups self-rising flour 12 ounces beer 1/2 cup sugar 2-3 tablespoons of butter Directions: Mix flour, sugar and beer. Batter will be thick.

Transfer into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 F for 45 to 50 minutes. Add melted butter to top of loaf and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Notes: If you lack self-rising flour, add 1 tablespoon baking powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to regular flour and mix dough as directed. Boughan reports this is similar to Tastefully Simple beer bread.

(Recipe from Cooking Light magazine.)

Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016 | 23

CASHEW-BUTTER LEAVES Servings: 2 1/2 to 3 dozen Cookie Ingredients: 2/3 cup cashews 1/3 cup butter-flavored shortening 1/3 cup butter, softened 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 2/3 cups flour Icing Ingredients: 8 ounces white chocolate squares 4 teaspoons butter-flavored shortening 3/4 cup cashews, finely chopped Cookie Directions: Grind cashews in food processor for 2-3 minutes, until smooth butter forms. Mix cashew butter, shortening and butter, beating until smooth. Add sugars, baking powder and baking soda. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour.

Divide in half, cover and chill for 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out into desired shape. (The recipe is so named because the baker used a leaf-shaped cutter.) Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are lightly browned.

Icing Directions: Melt chocolate and shortening together, stirring until smooth.

Ice cookies and top each with chopped cashews.

Note: Good-quality cashew butter is commercially available and could be purchased instead of grinding your own butter.

Boughan reports the delicate cookies are also quite good without the icing.

(Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens magazine.)

ut & Abou

Out & About

Compiled by Lora Abernathy

ALLEN COUNTY

and more. Call the state park office at 419-394-3611.

Sept. 16-18 Sept.

Canal C anal Days, Main Street, Delphos.

Call Diane Sterling at 419-6951771 or visit delphoschamber. com/canaldays.

Sept. 10 Daily and Vincent, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., The Overdrive, 3769 state Route 127, Celina. Call 419-9259999, email contact@theoverdrive. com or visit theoverdrive.com.

Sept.16-18, 23-25 “Night Must Fall,” Encore Theatre, 991 North Shore Drive, Lima. Call 419-223-8866, email encore@ mw.twcbc.com or visit amiltellers. org.

Sept. 11 K 9 to 5 Doggy Daycare Dog Show, 1-5 p.m., Mercer County Jr. Fair Building, 1001 W. Market St., Celina. Call 419-300-k925.

Sept. 22 Business Olympics, 5 p.m., Lima YMCA, 345 S. Elizabeth St., Lima.

Call 419-222-6045 or visit limachamber.com.

Sept. 23 New Life Church International Pastors’ 10 Year Anniversary Gala, 6-10 p.m., The City Club, 144 S. Main St., Lima. Call 419-999-1615 or visit newlifelima.com.

Sept. 24 Bluffton Fall Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., various locations, Bluffton.

Contact Daren at Maple Crest at 419-358-1015 or visit blufftonfallfestival.com or facebook.com/ BlufftonFallFest.

Sept. 24 Bud Bash 2016, 4 p.m., Harley Davidson, 3255 Fort Shawnee Industrial Drive, Lima. Call 419331-3027 or visit facebook.com/ events/155079878224089.

24 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

Sept. 24-25 Apple Festival, noon-6 p.m., Allen County Farm Park, 582 Slabtown Road, Lima. Call 419-221-1232 or visit jampd.com.

Sept. 25 ABATE Motorcycle Toy Run, noon3 p.m., Allen County Fairgrounds, 2750 Harding Highway, Lima. Call Dana Frost at 419-230-4969.

AUGLAIZE COUNTY

Sept. 4 Fryburg Homecoming. Visit stjohnfryburg.org.

Sept. 10 K & R Mower Derby 2016, Auglaize County Fairgrounds. Call Jeremy Resor at 419-753-3141.

Sept. 10 AACA Craft Show, Auglaize County Fairgrounds. Call the Council on Aging at 419-738-2438 Sept. 17 Fall into Your Community, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Armstrong Air & Space

Museum, 500 Apollo Drive, Wapakoneta. Call 419-738-8811 or visit armstrongmuseum.org.

Sept. 24 Wapak Wing Fest 2016. Call the Wapakoneta American Legion at 419-738-6783.

Sept. 30-Oct.2 Minster Oktoberfest. Visit minsteroktoberfest.com.

HANCOCK COUNTY Sept. 9 Farm-to-Table Dinner, 6:30 p.m., the historic barn at the Scarlet Oaks Estate. Visit hancockhistoricalmuseum.org.

Sept. 10-11 Ultimate Dogpawlooza, 9250 Township Road 208, Findlay. Call 419-423-1664 or visit hancockhumanesociety.com/our-events.

Sept. 15-18 and 22-24 “The Mousetrap,” Fort Findlay Playhouse, 300 W. Sandusky St., Findlay. Call 419-423-7168 or visit fortfindlayplayhouse.org.

Sept. 17 Buckeye Tailgate Party, noon-11:55 p.m., Fire Relief Foundation, East Crawford Street. All proceeds benefit the foundation.

Sept. 19 Will and Anthony with The Toledo Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m., Marathon Performing Arts Center, 200 W. Main Cross St., Findlay. Call 419-423-2787 or visit marathoncenterarts.org.

Sept. 24 Oktoberfest Findlay, noon-10 p.m., Findlay. Call 419-422-3313 or visit downtownfindlay.com/about/oktoberfest.

Sept. 24 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, 8 a.m. to noon, downtown Findlay. Email shannon@komennwohio.org.

Sept. 30 Rockin’ Road to Dublin, 8 p.m., Marathon Performing Arts Center, 200 W. Main Cross St., Findlay.

Call 419-423-2787 or visit marathoncenterarts.org.

HARDIN COUNTY Sept. 6-11 Hardin County Fair, Kenton. Call 419-675-2396, email hardincountyfair@midohio.twcbc.com or visit hardincountyfair.org.

Sept. 17 Harvest and Herb Festival, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Main Street and Lincoln Avenue, Ada. Call 419-788-9459 or visit ohio.org/events/31st-annual-ada-harvest-herb-festival.

Sept. 29 Jewelry is Fun Sale, Hardin Memorial Hospital Guild, McCullough Conference Room. Call Chris Davis at 419-675-8137 or Linda Smith at 419-675-8330 or visit hardincountyoh.org.

MERCER COUNTY

Sept. 11 2016 Mercer County Great Strides 5K Fundraising Walk for Cystic Fibrosis, 2-4 p.m., Mercelina Park by the hot water hole, Celina. Call 419-305-3351.

Sept. 16-18 Fall Festival at Lake Loramie State Park, 11070 state Route 362, Minster. Call 937-295-9896 or visit ohio.org/events/fall-festivalat-lake-loramie-state-park.

Sept. 23 Rock ‘N’ Roll Legends, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., The Overdrive, 3769 state Route 127, Celina. Call 419-925-9999, email contact@ theoverdrive.com or visit theoverdrive.com.

Sept. 23-24 New Bremen Pumpkinfest, Crown Pavillian, E. Plum and S. Washington streets, New Bremen. Visit newbremenpumpkinfest.com.

Sept. 24 Grand Lake Marathon, Lakeshore Park, Celina. Participants can choose between a 5K, kids marathon, half marathon, marathon or relays. Visit grandlakemarathon. com.

Sept. 29-Oct. 2 Trader Days & Water Race, Ohio Progressive Sportsman, 740 St. Peter Road, Fort Recovery. Visit fortrecovery.org.

PUTNAM COUNTY

Sept. 9-10 St. Joe Homecoming Festival, St. Josephs Catholic Church, Fort Recovery. Visit fortrecovery.org.

Sept. 2-3 Glandorf Park Fest. Enjoy famous bean soup, turtle races, turtle trot, 5K and live music.

Sept. 9-11 Grand Lake St. Marys State Park Fall Festival, St. Marys. The fourth annual Fall Festival, held at the campground, is free and open to the public. It will include arts and craft vendors, various food vendors, kids’ activities, live bands

Sept. 3-4 Ottoville Park Carnival. Games, concessions and a parade on Sunday.

Sept. 8-11 Pioneer Days, Kalida. Visit pioneerdays.com.

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Out & About Sept. 17-18 Leipsic Fall Festival, Buckeye Park, Leipsic. Visit leipsicchamber.com.

Sept. 23-25 Continental Fall Festival, Main Street, downtown Continental. Call 419789-1168 or visit continentalfallfestival.com.

VAN WERT COUNTY Aug. 31-Sept. 5 Van Wert County Fair, 1055 S. Washington St., Van Wert. Call 419-2389270, email vwfair@bright.net or visit vanwertcountyfair.com.

Sept. 4 The 101st annual Gymanfa Ganu,

a festival of sacred hymns sung in four-part harmony to celebrate the village of Venodocia’s Welsh heritage, Salem Presbyterian Church, 15240 Main St., Venedocia. Visit visitvanwert.org.

Sept. 18 Guy and Ralna, 2 p.m., Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, 10700 state Route 118 S. Call 419-238-6722 or visit npacvw. org.

Sept. 20 Sam Quinones presentation, 7:30 p.m., Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, 10700 state Route 118 S. Call 419-238-6722

Compiled by Lora Abernathy

or visit npacvw.org.

Sept. 24 Convoy Community Days, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., 643 N. Main St., Convoy.

Call 877-989-2282 or visit ohio.org/ events/convoy-community-days.

Sept. 24 Jonathan Butler and Gerard Albright, 7:30 p.m., Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, 10700 state Route 118 S. Call 419-238-6722 or visit npacvw.org.

Sept. 25-27 Bluegrass Festival, Van Wert County Fairgrounds, 1055 S. Washington St., Van Wert. Visit vanwertcountyfair. com/bluegrass-festival.html.

26 | Salt | Northwest Ohio | September 2016

AMISH, continued from 16 smile. “He couldn’t afford it. My King-sized is $350.” He said he’s so busy, he can’t keep up with a greenhouse near the front of his property that was thick with peppers, peas, snap beans and zucchini.

“I thought I wasn’t going to have enough trade to keep me busy, so I put up the greenhouse,” he said. “Now I don’t have time for the greenhouse.”

Turn around and head back south on Township Road 209 to County Road 144 and turn left, to Pfeiffer Station General Store (5), at the intersection of County roads 144, 265 and 215.

This isn’t Amish-run at all, but the store is a good place to get soda, snacks, candy, Amishbaked sugar cookies and a sandwich. Regulars come here for ice cream.

As you sit outside at one of the picnic tables under the building’s awning, look at the stately brick house across the street. That’s the old Wheeler Tavern, a stop, so the Ohio Historical Marker says, on the Underground Railroad, a secret network of hiding places for escaped slaves from the South.

Farther east, at 20335 County Road 144 (6), Ben Yoder and his son, Henry, have 20 acres

of apple trees, including honey crisp, red and golden delicious and Jonathan. They sell apples, in season. Apple butter and apple cider vinegar are available throughout the year.

Continue east on County Road 144 into the little hamlet of Hepburn and turn right on

County Road 227. If you have the time — and you do — turn left on Township Road 146, which bends like a jug handle and meets up again with County Road 227 farther south, taking you through picturesque fields and patches of wood where the only sound is of

Want to see your event listed in Out & About?

Visit thesaltmagazine. com and click on the Add Events link at the top to enter your event’s information. The deadline for entries is Aug. 25, 2016.

(The calendar is for organizations’ special events only, excluding the listings of regular meetings.)

insects, birds and cows.

Turn left on County Road 190 and head west to state Route 31. If you’re ready for dinner, turn left and pass through Mt. Victory and its antique and thrift stores and eat at The Plaza Inn (7), 491 S. Main St., a regional favorite for 57 years.

Founder Edward Elliott was one of the three men who dreamed up the “Certified Angus Beef” marketing campaign in the 1970s, and there’s a plaque and commemorative branding iron honoring him for that which his daughter, Joan Elliott Wagner, would be happy to show you.

“We’re known for our broasted chicken,” said Elliott Wagner, and for their buffet, too.

Save room for dessert, which you can pick up on your way back to Kenton at the homestead of Alvin and Barbara Yoder, 16653 state Route 31 (8). Slow down when you see the little white sign stating “Baked goods ahead.” She makes cinnamon rolls, maple brown sugar-frosted sugar cookies, and pies, pies, pies: butterscotch and apple custard, pecan and raisin cream, and all sorts of fruit pies.

Barbara will bake pies to order. “People send me a letter in the mail,” she said.

And one more thought...

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”

— William Shakespeare Grain shocks dot this Amish farm’s field on County Road 202 between La Rue and Mt. Victory.

Photo by Amy Eddings

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