Marin IJ: Mill Valley Residents Share Stories, Recipes in New Cookbook
A meatloaf recipe made for a veteran coming home from Vietnam. A casserole dish full of comfort on cold nights. These are just some of the recipes found within the pages of the new “Mill Valley Community Cookbook,” an eclectic collection of recipes and the sweet, funny and historic stories behind them by former and current Mill Valley residents.
Created by the Mill Valley Public Library, with support from the Mill Valley Library Foundation and Friends of the Mill Valley Public Library, the cookbook launched earlier this month with a potluck featuring many of the cookbook’s participants. A limited number of free copies are available at the library for people to come and take, and copies of the cookbook will be added to the library’s collection for people to check out.
“Each recipe comes with a short story about why this recipe means something to someone. You’re not just getting a recipe. You’re getting someone’s personal history, which is the most important component for me. Food is wonderful, and food can tell you so much about a person or about a culture, and it’s about the connection that people here in Mill Valley have to food and exploring that and sharing it with others,” said Jennifer Hooker, the library’s adult services supervising librarian, who worked with supervising librarian and archivist Natalie Snoyman and others to bring it to life.
“At the potluck, people were enjoying the food and sharing stories about food, and people were making new friends. I’m like, this is why I do what I do. This is what I wanted to come out of this project.”
For Marilyn L. Geary, history has always played a big part in her life. She worked at the Anne T. Kent California Room, an archive dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history and culture of Marin County, for many years doing oral histories and served on the Mill Valley Historical Society’s board. So, when Geary, who moved back to Mill Valley from Woodacre around a year ago, heard about the cookbook project, she went on a search for a historical recipe to submit. Combing through the California newspaper digital archives, she stumbled upon Mrs. Carl Symonds and her bran muffins and knew she’d found her winner.
Originally published in the Mill Valley Record on March 2, 1918, she was the U.S. Food Administration’s local woman food administrator and encouraged Mill Valley homemakers to conserve wheat and sugar so that they could be shipped overseas for our troops and allies during World War I.
READ THE FULL MARIN IJ STORY ABOUT THE MILL VALLEY COMMUNITY COOKBOOK