Sarah: Welcome back to Eating the Past. I'm your host Sarah Berry. I have a special guest today, another Sarah, Sara Szobody, and Sara Szobody is an Online Learning Librarian in user experience and engagement at USU Libraries.
Among many other things, Sara creates research guides, canvas modules, and instructional videos. Anything you want to add, Sara?
Sara: I'm also on the College of Education liaison team, so just helping faculty in the College of Education, and just really excited to be here.
Sarah: Great. Well, thanks for being here. This episode was actually inspired by a food challenge in a group chat at the library. Sara shared a Mennonite recipe for something called pretzel soup and challenged me to make it. Of course, I did, and we started talking about her family and cookbooks, and here we are.
So, first off, where did you grow up, and what is your connection to Mennonite food?
Sara: So, I am not originally from Utah. I come from Spartanburg, Pennsylvania. Most of my dad's side of the family is Mennonite. In that community, there's many members from the Mennonite community.
Sarah: Nice. What's your favorite thing to do up there?
Sara: I grew up on a dairy farm, so that's not my favorite thing to do. But just being out. I don't know if you've ever been to Pennsylvania or seen the countryside. That's definitely where my heart sings. I guess.
Sarah: Yeah, it's so green.
Sara: Oh my gosh, yeah, rolling hills, not quite mountains, but they're steep. And our family, we can trace things back to like Lancaster, Pennsylvania, early 1800s. Not just our family members, but community members traveled from Pennsylvania to Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, settled in those areas, and then eventually found themselves back in Pennsylvania.
Sarah: So it sounds like a really close knit community and food is central to most communities in general.
Sara: Yeah, absolutely.
Sarah: And so, when you had family gatherings, what types of food made their way?
Sara: Obviously, these questions like made me think about all of the events, and I just think about family reunions or like the giant Christmas parties that we used to have, or even just all of us cousins getting together and sharing a birthday party. Like I think about all of those events and traditions I got to be a part of, and just feel so lucky about that.
And always I think about the food. It's such an easy way for people to talk to each other without actually talking to each other, if that makes sense.
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Sara: And it's so central, obviously, like you just said, to like almost every community.
And a lot of the foods that I remember is grape nut pudding. I remember my great grandma Fern bringing Tupperware’s of her sweet canned pickles.
I remember, especially at Christmas time, my Grammy Chris, she made cream cheese sugar cookie cutouts, and she used almond extract as well, which isn't usually typical. I do remember Great Grandma Fern also made macaroni salad that she brought, but I think the thing that I remember the most is just the quantity.
My Grammy Chris, I remember her mainly for baking. Like I remember her blondie brownies that she used to make, but her pumpkin bread too was a huge staple. And her pumpkin bread would have like an inch thick of brown sugar topping. Oh, it was nuts!
Sarah: Oh wow! Yeah, yeah. So, are there hallmarks of food? Like, what types of foods or ingredients are central, in your opinion?
Sara: I think, honestly, from what I remember and maybe what I've noticed and in my recollections is a lot of it being food that you had on hand, so like canned vegetables put in recipes. It reminds me of like maybe Great Depression era, like having things on hand, doing your own canned vegetables, making your own bread.
I feel like now it would probably be labeled as like organic because you're growing it yourself and you're going through all that labor.
Sarah: It's homey.
Sara: Yes. Yeah. Very homey.
Sarah: Very hearty.
Sara: Yeah.
Sarah: Well, you mentioned grape nut pudding. So, Sara shared this grape nut pudding recipe with me, and it is so good. Oh my goodness! And it's so simple, but it's so good.
Sara: Yes.
Sarah: And you it’s just vanilla pudding, some grape nuts, whipped cream, and bananas. It's very rich, but I loved it. So thanks for sharing.
Sara: Yeah, oh my gosh, of course, yeah.
Sarah: So, we are out of time for this segment. We'll be back next week to continue our conversation with Sarah Szobodi. Thank you for joining us, and until next time on Eating the Past every Sunday at noon before the Splendid Table on your UPR station.
