Heartland: The Cookbook

“Rhubarb is a metaphor for finding happiness in your own backyard.” - Prairie Home Companion radio program.

For those fortunate enough to have been born and raised in the Midwest, the Heartland holds us, comforts us, makes us stand up straight. Even if we leave, it still claims a place in our hearts.

The Heartland, or Midwest, is the center section of the United States, which also happens to be its agricultural core—Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Today, its geography includes broad river valleys, marsh, rolling prairie, thick forest, great lakes, Flint Hills, Badlands, and savannahs—all specific “terroirs” or micro-climates good for growing certain crops or raising certain livestock.

Heartlanders are united in believing, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (written by Midwesterner Frank L. Baum), that what’s really important in life is no farther than “your own backyard ” and “there’s no place like home.”

Many families are only a generation or two removed from the family farm, and still feel that summer is not summer without canning tomatoes or making homemade preserves. Outlying farms surround most metropolitan areas, and Midwesterners know they don’t have to go far to breathe a little fresh air and be out in the country. They never really left their roots.

All of this is reflected in the Heartland kitchen, where dishes hark back to the farmhouse kitchen, take their cues from comfort, add a twist of ethnic heritage, and yet still celebrate what’s fresh in the garden or foraged from the wild.

So, let’s step into the Heartland kitchen.

To learn more about Judith Fertig visit alfrescofoodandlifestyle.blogspot.com. To purchase Heartland: The Cookbook visit www.amazon.com.