Key Ingredients lecture series kicks off

The Key Ingredients lecture series kicked off Wednesday evening with a fascinating lecture called "Before the Age of Acme" by Dr. Constance Cooper, the manuscript librarian at the Historical Society of Delaware. Dr. Cooper outlined what it was like to shop for food in the era before supermarkets and convenience stores replaced corner stores and she provided the audience with a fun look back at the history of food shopping. Once the slide-illustrated talk was over, the audience had plenty of questions for her about how food shopping, preparation, and service habits have changed over the centuries.You won’t want to miss the other upcoming talks in this series, which all take place at 7:00 p.m. on the designated date at the Society, 135 E. Main Street, Elkton:

• Wednesday Aug 22 at 7:00 p.m. Ed Kee presents a lecture on "Saving Our Harvest," the story of the Mid-Atlantic's canning and freezing industry
  
• Monday, August 27 -- 'Building Houses out of Chicken Legs – Black Women, Food & Power” is the subject by Dr. Psyche Williams Forson. Using a receipe of scholarly analysis, personal interviews, film advertisments, cookbooks and literature, Williams-Forsythe examines the role of the chicken in African American Life, paying special attention to the connection between chickens and African-American Women. From slavery to the present, families have been fed with chickens raised by these women, who have made their livings cooking and serving in houses, resturants, on the roadside, at the harbor and in churches.
  
• Wednesday, Sept. 5 -- Dr. Cooper returns for a talk on the "The Delmarva Peach Industry."
  
• Wednesday, Sept. 12 -- A talk on Growing Heirloom Vegetables by Heather Morrisey, a history and how to guide for growing heirloom vegetables.
  

Key Ingredients: America by Food, has been made possible by the Maryland Humanities Council. Key Ingredients is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. These lectures are also underwitten by a grant from the Maryland Humanities Council.

From the The Historical Society of Cecil County Blog