Local flavor

MOREHEAD CITY - When customers leave Ginny Gordon's kitchen accessories shop in Morehead City carrying a cookbook compiled by an area church or civic group, they are taking away more than recipes.

Jenny Morrison, who runs the shop with her mother, Ginny Gordon, sees the books as local treasures. The recipes come from the heart of the families who submit them, and often woven into the pages are the stories of the people and places that make a community unique.

"It's better than any travel brochure," says Morrison, laughing.

The cookbooks are typically published as fundraisers for churches, schools, civic organizations or community projects, but they also showcase the community they represent, making them appealing to neighbors and friends, as well as tourists and visitors looking to take a little taste of the area back home with them.

"They serve an important role to a local community," Morrison said.

On the shelves at Ginny Gordon's are cookbooks such as "Collard Greens, Watermelons, and ‘Miss' Charlotte's Pie," a collection of recipes from Swansboro United Methodist Church, and "Island Born and Bred," a collection of Harkers Island food and history compiled by Harkers Island United Methodist Women.

The latter, which has now been in print for more than 20 years, is as much history book as cookbook and has even been reading material for folk history classes. It has received an award of merit from the N.C. Society of Historians and was featured in 1989 in Good Housekeeping magazine's Cookbook Corner

More recently, it is a Morehead City-based cookbook that is getting national attention.

"A Little Taste of Heaven Since 1857: The Morehead City Heritage Cookbook," published for the Town of Morehead City's 150th anniversary, was recently named the 2008 first-place national winner of the 19th annual Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards.

Judges called the book a "true piece of local book-making," and D.J. Femia Leeuwenburg, chairwoman of the MHC150 cookbook committee, is quick to agree. The committee and many members of the "cookbook crew" worked hard to pull everything together in just six weeks, but she said the true editors and authors of the book are the citizens who shared their stories, photographs and recipes, giving the cookbook a true local flavor.

"The community directed how this book was put together," Leeuwenburg said. "We are not the ones that went out and got the stories. The community shared their stories, and that makes us more proud."

Under the "Breads" section, landmark restaurant The Sanitary Fish Market & Restaurant shares its history and a recipe for Tar Heel hushpuppies. The "Seafood" section is a feast of history, with tales of Morehead neighborhoods such as Conchs Point and Crab Point, memories of seafood dishes served at the Atlantic Hotel and stories of the catches from the charter fishing fleet.

And featured on the front cover is a 1929 photo of the Morehead City Curb Market, a place where all the communities gathered to share their harvest, swap recipes and spend time together. The market, which has operated in limited fashion in recent years, was selected for the front cover because it represents the people of Morehead City.

"It's homogenous to everybody, whether you are local or a second homeowner. It represents what Morehead City is," Leeuwenburg said.

While the Morehead City cookbook was about celebrating the town's first 150 years, it also held a role as a fundraiser to help defray the costs of putting on the Sesquicentennial Celebration held in May 2007 and keeping as many of the events as possible open to the public free of charge.

The first printing of 3,300 cookbooks sold out in 60 days, and reservations are now being taken for copies from a second printing that is expected in late March or early April. Reservations can be made by visiting www.mhc150cookbook.com.

With the Sesquicentennial Celebration now past, the copyright for the cookbook has been gifted to the Downtown Morehead City Revitalization Association, allowing sales of the cookbook to continue to benefit the town as it moves into the next 150 years.

And while the national recognition wasn't something the sesquicentennial cookbook committee was after - they didn't know the contest existed until the printer suggested they enter - they are pleased for the spotlight it puts on the town.

"We're so excited for the people who dedicated their time to this, we're so excited for the people who submitted recipes, and we're so excited for the town," Leeuwenburg said.

Brookwood Baptist Church of Jacksonville has compiled three different cookbooks over recent years, each one helping to raise money for a church need.

Melba Mewborn, who has been chair over the last two cookbook committees, said money raised from one went into the church building fund and proceeds from the latest will go toward upgrading the often-used church kitchen.

The church takes a portion of the $10 cost of its cookbooks and is now on a second printing of 500 copies of the current one.

Janet Gillikin of Harkers Island was president of the Harkers Island United Methodist Women at the time the Island Born and Bred cookbook was compiled. It was originally printed in October 1987, and Gillikin remembers well the church family's task of hand collating the first 2,000 copies.

But over the years sales of the cookbook have blessed the church, allowing it to support missionaries in the field or families in need at home.

"Being a small church, we're not an affluent church, so the cookbook has been a real help," Gillikin said.

While the cookbooks are a good fundraiser, Mewborn said the books are about more than money.

Their latest was also done as part of the church's 50th anniversary celebration and gives historical information about the church along with the recipes from church members past and present.

They are the recipes they've shared together during fellowship, church dinners and special occasions. They are dishes that are loved and often passed down from generation to generation.

"The recipes are tried and true," Mewborn said.

Karen Willis Amspacher, who was editor for both the Harkers Island and Morehead City cookbooks, believes cookbooks are a great way to celebrate a community. Family, friends and neighbors tell about their lives and the day's happenings over the kitchen table, and it is around food that we celebrate and mourn together, she said.

What better way to tell those stories, she said, than through a cookbook.

"I really believe every community should have a cookbook because it is at the kitchen table where we all come together," she said.