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Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
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Baking Traditions in the West Georgia Piedmont
March 5, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - Can you still taste that special caramel cake with the mouth-watering icing that your mother made? Do you remember the tea cakes that your grandmother baked and kept in flour sacks or pillowcases? Do you still long for cornbread prepared in a cast-iron skillet or biscuits from scratch, the way your mother or grandmother used to prepare them?
What
we eat says a lot about our culture and ourselves. Over the past two years,
the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia
has been trying to learn more about what we eat and what our foodways
traditions say about the West Georgia Piedmont.
To share the results of the research, the Center has produced a traveling exhibit entitled “Biscuits, Cornbread, and Teacakes: Baking Traditions in the West Georgia Piedmont” which will be held at the Neva Lomason Library in Carrollton March 1 through March 22. The exhibit opening will be Sunday, March 7, from 2- 4 p.m. with traditional southern baked goods available to sample, and Center staff will be present to collect memories about family’s baking traditions.
The exhibit and public programs are funded by the Georgia Humanities Council. This project is supported by the Georgia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.
Drawing on oral histories conducted with local residents, the exhibit explores the types of baked goods that characterize the region, from biscuits and cornbread to teacakes and specialty baked goods like pies, cakes and other treats. The exhibit uses quotes from the oral histories and photographs to highlight how people prepared these baked goods, how and when they ate them, and what these foods meant.
The Center for Public History will also sponsor several public programs at the library while the exhibit is there. On March 10, Nikki Patterson will talk about southern baking traditions at the story-time programs at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
On Sunday, March 21, at 2 p.m., Jessica Hendrickson Ruckheim will sponsor a recipe swap in the exhibit room. Bring a favorite biscuit, teacake, cornbread or dessert recipe. Participants are invited to share why the special baked good is a tradition. Also, to enrich the research on baking traditions, any donations of church or community cookbooks is appreciated.
The nine-panel traveling exhibit is available for use for libraries, schools, senior centers, churches and other organizations free of charge. For information on how to reserve the exhibit, contact Dr. Ann McCleary at 770-838-3141 or by email at amcclear@westga.edu.
Prior to opening at the Neva Lomason Library, the exhibit previewed at Carrollton Junior High School, to coincide with their 8th grade oral history project, also sponsored by the Center for Public History. After leaving the Library, the exhibit will move to the Carrollton Senior Center for several weeks in late March and early April.
To learn more about the Southern Baking Traditions Project, visit the website at http://www.westga.edu/~history/centerbaking.htm. One new feature is a collection of six holiday recipes prepared for our exhibit “What’s Cooking for the Holidays?” at the Carrollton Junior Women’s Club “Art on the Square” show heldlast November. These recipes include caramel cake, sweet potato pie, red velvet cake, Christmas Lizzies and Punchbowl Cake.
Anyone interested in participating in the baking project is encouraged to contact McCleary. The documentation from the project, including oral histories, photographs and recipes, is archived in the Center for Public History, located in Pafford 207 on the UWG campus.
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