Super Walmart and Chokecherry Jam
This morning, I was thinking about the Super Walmart that's being built in my hometown. It's kind of a depressing story, but not a unique one; Walmart is abandoning a huge building that probably won't find another use, the dayworkers who are doing the construction on the new building are underpaid (although, last fall they were fighting back, so that's cool), and a lot of small business owners in town are worried about their futures. All that's interesting, and worthy of comment, but it's not the focus of this post.
Lots of chain stores and restaurants have moved to Watertown in the last few years and as I was thinking depressing thoughts about Super Walmart, I tried to also come up with a list of some of the great locally-owned businesses. There's Angelina's, which is new and fantastic (the garlic ciabatta bread drew me in twice over spring break) and my favorite coffeehouse, Past Times. Watertown is also home to Blessings, a great used book store. And this is the point in my list, when I thought of Zesto. Technically, Zesto is a chain, or at least it used to be. There are six left in South Dakota but they're all now independently owned and operated. In Watertown, Zesto is the alternative to Dairy Queen for ice cream on a hot summer night. In my family, getting Zesto was pretty much a weekly event during the summer. I couldn't find a picture of the one in Watertown, so this one in Pierre will have to suffice.
Once I found the linke to the one in Pierre, I noticed that it was part of a great website called Plains Folk and that's when I found a home away from home on the internet. Among other things, the site has links to Great Plains research and scholarship. For instance, you can learn all about my German-Russian ancestors here. The website's a bit North Dakota-centric, but you can find a short listing of South Dakota's "Oases on the Great American Desert" here. Including, Scotty's, where my parents liked to stop to buy chicken gizzards when we would drive through Aberdeen on the way to my mom's hometown. They also have a link to this chain, but I'd encourage you to not eat there. I ate at one in Nebraska on New Year's Day and found a really long hair embedded in my runza and ew, ew, ew.
Anyway, those of you who share my love of the Great Plains should take a few minutes to explore a website that celebrates our quirkiness. It's pretty rare to find recipes for chokecherry jam, lefse, kuchen, fleishkeuchle, and rhubarb bars all in one place.
Lots of chain stores and restaurants have moved to Watertown in the last few years and as I was thinking depressing thoughts about Super Walmart, I tried to also come up with a list of some of the great locally-owned businesses. There's Angelina's, which is new and fantastic (the garlic ciabatta bread drew me in twice over spring break) and my favorite coffeehouse, Past Times. Watertown is also home to Blessings, a great used book store. And this is the point in my list, when I thought of Zesto. Technically, Zesto is a chain, or at least it used to be. There are six left in South Dakota but they're all now independently owned and operated. In Watertown, Zesto is the alternative to Dairy Queen for ice cream on a hot summer night. In my family, getting Zesto was pretty much a weekly event during the summer. I couldn't find a picture of the one in Watertown, so this one in Pierre will have to suffice.
Once I found the linke to the one in Pierre, I noticed that it was part of a great website called Plains Folk and that's when I found a home away from home on the internet. Among other things, the site has links to Great Plains research and scholarship. For instance, you can learn all about my German-Russian ancestors here. The website's a bit North Dakota-centric, but you can find a short listing of South Dakota's "Oases on the Great American Desert" here. Including, Scotty's, where my parents liked to stop to buy chicken gizzards when we would drive through Aberdeen on the way to my mom's hometown. They also have a link to this chain, but I'd encourage you to not eat there. I ate at one in Nebraska on New Year's Day and found a really long hair embedded in my runza and ew, ew, ew.
Anyway, those of you who share my love of the Great Plains should take a few minutes to explore a website that celebrates our quirkiness. It's pretty rare to find recipes for chokecherry jam, lefse, kuchen, fleishkeuchle, and rhubarb bars all in one place.
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All the talk about the Great Plains and kuchen and such reminded me of a book I read recently, "The Master Butchers Singing Club" by Louise Erdrich. It's about a German butcher who settles his family in a small town in North Dakota, and the intrigues that go on there. It's a pretty good book -- if you're looking for pleasure reading, it might feed your Great Plains nostalgia.
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CM |
4:21 PM