ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have turned out nearly so well without the generous assistance of friends from the world of food, farming, and academe. These folks introduced me to experts, directed me toward resources, sent articles, and occasionally fed me or put me up for the night. For these helpful kindnesses and others, thanks to Ro Sila, Marie Sila, Jane Hanson, Cathy Weber, Ellen Steinberg, Sylvia Zimmerman, Atina Diffley, Mary Shepherd, Jozef Kokini, Nancy Heller, Shirley Smith, Beverly Wyman, Karyn Saemann, Paul Grosso, Catherine Lambrecht, Carol Lopriore, Linda Griffith, Mary Holmes, Kari Moore, and Nancy Duffner.

Warmest thanks to all the farmers, researchers, historians, educators, and other experts who were so generous with their time, information, insights, and stories. (You will find their names and titles listed in the Sources and Bibliography section.)

Thanks to Greg Koos and Bill Kemp for assisting me in the archives at the McLean County Museum of History. Thanks, too, to Chad Buckley, Agriculture Librarian, for guidance through the Milner Library at Illinois State University.

Thanks to George Kutsunis and Bill Klutho at John Deere and to Charlie Cretors, Beth Cretors, and Shelly Olesen at C. Cretors & Company, for their help in obtaining photos. Thanks to Mark Schilling, director of the Mitchell Corn Palace, Wendy Vonderhaar, chair of West Point Iowa Sweet Corn Festival, and Greg Lippert, City of Olivia, for contributing photos. Thanks to Jennie Deerr at Living History Farms in Iowa; and, in Illinois, Johanna Biedron at Kline Creek Farm, and Whitney Templeton at Graue Mill and Museum, for granting permission to use photos I shot at those locations.

Thanks to Teresa Tucker for proofreading the manuscript.

Thanks to Willis Goth Regier at the University of Illinois Press, for his enthusiasm for the topic and support of my desire to make the book as good as possible.

Special thanks to Dr. Bruce Kraig, who invited me to be part of the Heartland Foodways project.

Thanks to Crescent Dragonwagon for offering her recipe for “Gold and White Tasty Cornbread.”

Thanks to Argo Corn Starch, a division of ACH Food Co., Inc., for supplying the recipe for cornstarch pudding.

Thanks to Steve, Sean, Christina, Dan, Megan, and Tommy at Starbucks. I don’t know that I’d have made it without you.