Butter days ahead

By Meredith Hines-Dochterman/The Gazette

Someone call Paula Deen. There's an event celebrating butter and she's not a part of it.

Coggon will host its annual Harvest Home celebration Saturday, but with a creamy twist.

“The planning committee adopted the theme - Butter Days Ahead - to honor our former creamery,” Chairman David Shaffer says.

For most of Coggon's 150-plus years, the town had a creamery. Records from the Coggon Historical Society show that a creamery was in operation as far back as 1882.

In 1917, the Linn County Farmers Mutual Creamery Association purchased the creamery for $3,000 and it eventually became the town's leading industry.

“Several people in the community were involved with the creamery at one point in their lives, if not directly than their parents or grandparents,” Shaffer says.

The creamery was known for Coggon Butter, but it was not strictly a local product. According to town records, most Coggon Butter was shipped to the east coast by railroad cars. A 1955 news article noted that the entire butter production, minus what was sold locally through the creamery, was sold to a Boston firm.

A picture of the creamery was on the box of every pound of butter sold.

The creamery closed in the late 1960s. Today, the new Coggon Fire Station stands where the creamery used to be, but the memory of it will be celebrated Saturday with games, contests and entertainment designed to excite the community and its visitors.

“We're looking to the future, to better days, or Butter Days Ahead,” Shaffer says.

A yard art contest will illustrate that message. Participants will decorate their yards with their best butter- or dairy-related decorations. A prize will be awarded to the yard that best illustrates the “Butter Days Ahead” theme as well as a prize for the best yard display.

In other words, the more people “milk” the theme for all it's worth, the “butter” their chances of winning.

“There are other towns that have done this, but it's new to us,” says Judy Isaacson, a Harvest Home committee member. “It's fun and that's what we plan to do - have fun.”

Harvest Home activities begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday and will continue through midnight. A new event for all ages is a corn hole bean bag toss tournament. Registration is at 1 p.m. and the contest starts immediately.

Also new this year is a Mr. Legs contest at 9:30 p.m. There will be six categories in the competition, but Shaffer is keeping them quiet for now.

“We want to spring it on the guys at the last minute so they can't make special preparations,” he says.

The Coggon Historical Society is preparing a special display related to Coggon's creamery days for its open house during Harvest Home. People are invited to stop by and sign a special register if they or family members worked at the Coggon Creamery or sold cream to it.

“They are trying to collect some stories from people with connections to the creamery,” Isaacson says.

Memorabilia and photos of the creamery era also will be accepted.

Recipes

Gooey Butter Cake

Paula Deen may not be in Coggon for Harvest Home, but that doesn't mean she can't be represented. Her classic Gooey Butter Cake recipe is both loved and hated. People love it because it tastes so good and hate it because, well, it tastes so good.

Cake

1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix

1 egg

8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 tablespoons butter, melted

1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.

Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Source: pauladeen.com

Raspberry Butter

Try adding something extra to your next meal with flavored butter. This recipe is delicious on toast.

Two sticks butter

4 to 5 tablespoons of raspberry jam

Mix both ingredients together.

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com

Homemade butter

Or make your own butter.

1/2 pint of heavy cream

A clean pint jar or other similarly-sized container with a tight cover or lid, preferably plastic.

A clean marble

Take your jar and place the marble inside.

Pour the cream into the jar and screw the cover on tightly.

Have the children shake the jar. A figure-eight motion seems to work best, but let your kids go wild (not so much, if the jar is glass). If you have a plastic container with a tight lid, you can even roll it back and forth.

Listen for the marble bouncing up and down. After the marble cannot be heard anymore, you'll know the cream is thickening. Keep shaking, and you will soon start to see the glob of butter form.

Find and remove the marble

Place the butter into a container of your choice to store or use.

Source: Jumpstart.com

n Comments: (319) 398-8434; meredith.hines-dochterman@sourcemedia.net