With my daughter-in-law, Ashley Ogle, by my side, I’ve managed yet again to turn “play and eat” into a cookbook. With her two daughters, husband, and everyone else at my farm serving as our official food testers, Ashley and I waded through our long list of dream recipes (each one thrice tested). A budding cookbook author in her own right, she’s the best kitchen partner I could have. Thank you, Ashley. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect daughter-in- law. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t look forward to your good cookin’ and kitchen comradery.
And acknowledging staff photographer/graphic designer/sketch artist Karina Overfelt is bittersweet because after working here five years, she’s moving on. This will be her last labor of love with us. Throughout her hitch here, she found a few minutes almost every day to head out the door, camera in hand. Her photos of daily life at my farm and her food photography and artwork throughout this book showcase her wonderful talents. We’ll miss you, Karina. And so will my miniature Jersey milk cow, Lacy Lou (whose daily milk Ashley turned into the cheeses used throughout this book).
Also, thank you to my daughter, Megan Rae, for content editing; to Carol Hill and Priscilla Wegars for copyediting; and to my four granddaughters, who were willing to smile for our cameras. And thank you to Cydnie Gray, Karina’s replacement-in-training. And a hearty Thank you! to the men in our family who, without fail, gave us a ravenous thumbs-up on everything we created.
Brief History of Cast Iron
Cast iron makes me nostalgic. Just the sight of a well-used skillet creates an image of hearty cooks standing before a wood stove in long-ago kitchens. It is said that George Washington’s mother so revered her cast-iron cookware that she made special note of it in her will. Griswold, founded in 1865 in Erie, Pennsylvania (their first logo was ERIE); Wagner (1881, Ohio); Vollrath (1874, Wisconsin); Atlanta Stove Works (1889, Alabama); and Wapak (1903, Ohio) are favorites of collectors.
