Jerry Apps has become the living memory of rural Wisconsin’s past—an age when agribusiness seemed far away from the red barns of the Dairy State. In Apps’ childhood, the distance from farm to table was measured in yards, not miles. He was a teenager before electricity was installed; the place ran with well water, a wood-fired oven and a cellar of pickled and canned produce from the garden. Along with memories, Apps resuscitates family recipes in Old Farm Country Cookbook, transliterating the “salt to taste” and “bake for an hour” instructions on his mother’s faded recipe cards into meals for today’s kitchens. There is much homespun delight in his directions for preparing strawberry jam and rhubarb sauce and pies along with German-American dishes involving sauerkraut and festive entrees like roast duck with gravy and dumplings. Dig in!
