The Treasured Family Cookbook started by Holli Purkeypile and her mother, Melody Miller, is her go-to cookbook. Holli finished the cookbook years after her mother’s death in 2005.
Cookbooks on way out? Not according to these families
These days, with recipes available after a quick click on your phone or from multiple online sources, it begs the question, “Are cookbooks a thing of the past?”
If you ask family members in Imperial, Nebraska, and Holyoke, Colorado, the answer is a definite no.
The marketing director of a major cookbook printing company in Nebraska agrees, too.
She believes there’s a future for the recipe-filled publications, especially family cookbooks, and that’s thanks, in part, to COVID-19.
“People have had to spend more time at home the past year,” said Aimee Blauvelt, marketing director for Morris Printing Group in Kearney.
She believes that has led to a lot of family discussions, resulting in sentimental memories and “getting back to their roots.”
Recipes, she said, often represent a family’s ancestry.
Blauvelt backs up her opinion with a growing interest she’s seeing in family cookbooks, and families going to the effort to gather recipes for them.
“We’ve seen a very nice increase the past year (in new family cookbooks), and I think it will just get better,” she said.
Blauvelt believes while the internet provides convenience, a family cookbook becomes a keepsake.
“They are real treasures,” she said.
“It’s something they can pass on from generation to generation.”
Her company also makes the process easy, with user-friendly directions, she said.
The entire process of creating a family cookbook can be done on their website.
Two families in the area continue to use family cookbooks even though they were printed decades ago.
Garneta Bauerle of Champion, Nebraska, was well known for her cooking. Some of her children said family events were often built around food.
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