Landis Valley Associates - The Landis Valley cookbook: Pennsylvania German foods & traditions

I n the late 1800s when many Pennsylvania German families still spurned higher education and chose hands-on practical experience over book learnin, Henry Harrison Landis and his wife, Emma Caroline (Diller) Landis, of Landis Valley were an exception. Although they lived in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a predominantly Pennsylvania German area with typical conservative attitudes about schooling, they chose to send their children to college. The Landises encouraged their three surviving children (their firstborn, Anna Margretta, died in 1867) to seek knowledge through schooling and books, as well as learning practical lessons through life experiences.

Their sons, Henry Kinzer and George Diller Landis, both attended Lehigh University and had careers in engineering or engineering-related fields. Henry lived in New York City, where he edited several magazines, among them Mineral Industries and Gas Age Record. His many accomplishments included winning yachting awards, singing in a choir, participating in an orchestra, and being a gymnast. George loved the outdoors. An avid hunter and fisherman, he supported local gun clubs and acquired an extensive collection of unusual firearms, including numerous Pennsylvania long rifles.

Their younger sister, Nettie May, also attended college. However, her battle with consumption (tuberculosis) interrupted her education and caused her death at the age of thirty-four.

The Landis family was solid middle-class farm stock. In addition to the farm, Henry H. operated a stone quarry and dabbled in the grain market. For many years, he kept a daily journal. Excerpts from that journal are included in this cookbook to give you a glimpse of life in Landis Valley.

The Landis brothers launched their career of collecting things in their childhood. They first saved birds nests and eggs. Soon they were on the path that would lead them through a lifetime of acquiring an extensive collection of objects reflecting their heritage.

In 1935, Henry K. penned a story about kitchens and cooking utensils, which appeared in a Pennsylvania German Society publication in 1939. Where every utensil was designed for some particular use and made largely in the colonies by home talent, he wrote, there are a technology to be studied and uses to be investigated.... In two more generations these survivors will be gone, and it is evident that permanent records made today will save a lot of searching in the future.

George and Henry K. began a formal museum in the 1920s. Their endeavor was expanded in 194041 with the help of the Oberlander Trust, Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, Inc. In a story about the Landis brothers in The German-American Review in 1941, Henry K. is quoted as saying: The future is often influenced by the past. By studying the relics of the past, one better understands the tendencies of the present. It is with these ideas in mind that we should view the Landis Valley collection.... Here we find tools, artifacts, implements, vehicles, things actually made and used by the early inhabitants.

In 1953, the brothers presented their immense collection to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This eclectic collection, ranging from books to plows to textiles, is the largest existing body of Pennsylvania German artifacts in the world today. That is the legacy of the Landis family of Landis Valley.

Books

Boyertown Area Cookery. Boyertown, PA: Boyer-town Area Historical Society, 1978.

Brown, John Hull. Early American Beverages. New York: Galahad Books, 1968

Der Deutschen Hausfrau Kochbuch Oekenoemische Recepte. Chicago: 1894.

Eshelman, Pauline Benedict. The Diaries of Peter C. Hiller. Elverson, PA: Olde Springfield Shoppe, 1994

Fegley, H. Winslow. Farming Always Farming: A Photographic Essay of Rural Pennsylvania Land and Life. Birdsboro, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1987

Gibbons, Phebe Earle. Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1872; reprint, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001.

Gilbert, Russell W. Bilder un Gedanke: A Book of Pennsylvania German Verse. Breinigsville, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1975

Groff, Betty. Betty Groffs Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1973.

Haag, Earl C. En Pennsylvaanisch Deitsch Yaahr. Schuykill Haven, PA: Call Newspaper, 1990.

Heller, Edna Eby. The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking. New York: Galahad Books, 1968.

Hutchinson, Ruth. The Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948.

Johnson, Elizabeth, Landis Valley Museum: Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002.

Kraybill, Donald B. The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008.

Leslie, Eliza. Directions for Cookery, Being a System of the Art in Its Various Branches. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey & A. Hart, 1837.

Lestz, Gerald S. The Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1970.

Lichten, Frances. Folk Art of Rural Pennsylvania. New York: Charles Scribners & Sons, 1946.

Long, Amos. The Pennsylvania German Family Farm. Brunigsville, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1972.

Marquart, John. 600 Miscellaneous Valuable Receipts Worth Their Weight in Gold. Philadelphia: John E. Patter and Company, 1867.

Shoemaker, Alfred L. Christmas in Pennsylvania: A Folk-Cultural Study. Kutztown, PA: Pennsylvania Folklife Society, 1959; 40th anniversary ed., Mechanicsburg, PA: Stack-pole Books, 1999.

. Eastertide in Pennsylvania: A Folk-Cultural Study. Kutztown, PA: Pennsylvania Folklife Society, 1960; 40th anniversary ed., Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000.

. Traditional Rhymes and Jingles of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Lancaster, PA: Intelligencer Printing Company, 1951.

Showalter, Mary Emma. Mennonite Community Cookbook. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 1950.

Stine, Eugene S. Pennsylvania German Dictionary. Birdsboro, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1996.

Stoudt, John Joseph. Sunbonnets and Shoofly Pies. New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1973.

The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore. Vol. I. Lancaster, PA: Historic Schaefferstown, 1995.

Weaver, William Woys. The Christmas Cook. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.

. Country Scrapple: An American Tradition. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003.

. Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking. New York: Abbeville, 1993.

. Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Food and Food Ways. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983; 2nd. ed., Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002.

Wilson, Jose. American Cooking: The Eastern Heartland. New York: Time-Life Books, 1971.

Yoder, Don. Discovering American Folklife: Essays on Folk Culture and the Pennsylvania Dutch. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001.

. Groundhog Day. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003.

Yoder, Don, and Thomas E. Graves. Hex Signs: Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Symbols and Their Meaning. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000.

Newspapers, Magazines, Booklets, and Almanacs

About the Landis Brothers. American-German Review. Philadelphia: Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, April 1941.

Agricultural Almanac for the Year 182954. Lancaster, PA: John Baer, 182954.

Agricultural Almanac for the Year 185559