A Visit from April McGreger

April McGreger , owner of Farmer’s Daughter brand pickles and preserves, paid a visit to the NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center this week for a special viewing of collection materials showing foodways, agriculture, and canning practices in North Carolina.  We brought out some highlights from the Oversize Photographs of the Agricultural Extension Service , 4-H Youth Development Photographs , Home Demonstration Records , and the Jane McKimmon Papers , among others.

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Publications featured canning instructions and recipes from as early as 1916. McGreger found that many of the methods and recipes that she uses in her business today are the same as those taught in these earliest extension circulars.  She also found a menu in the Oliver Max Gardner Papers that featured sauerkraut produced by the North State Canning Company in Boone, NC, in 1932, showing that kraut has long been produced and enjoyed by southerners.

The work of the Cooperative Extension Service, Home Demonstration, and 4-H Clubs set an important foundation for developing and teaching the canning practices that McGreger celebrates and carries on in her own work. The Farmer’s Daughter brand seeks to “revive, popularize, and promote old Southern recipes, fruits, and forgotten flavors; to celebrate regionalism; and to create our own bold and inspired flavors that capture the taste and the spirit of this place that we call home.”  Having early documentation of these traditional regional flavors and practices in our collections helps us to understand and enjoy these flavors in enriching new ways.  We look forward to seeing (and tasting!) how her visit to the archives may inspire McGreger’s next batches of preserves in our local farmer's markets and beyond .