What Was Baking in Siskiyou County in 1898?

One of my favorite parts of researching Kita's Courage, my historical novel set in Fort Jones, California, in 1898, is discovering the everyday details that help bring the past to life.

Food is one of those details.

In my story, Kita's mother owns a bakery and café in Fort Jones. She is a Swiss-German immigrant who brings recipes and baking traditions from her homeland to California. But her bakery isn't just a place where she makes the foods she grew up with. She also enjoys trying recipes contributed by local women in the community.

Kita and her best friend, Helen, work at the bakery, so naturally, food becomes part of their everyday world—and the bakery becomes a place where cultures, friendships, and recipes come together.

As I've been researching the foods and recipes that might have been available in Scott Valley in the late 1800s, I've started looking through local church and Fairchild Medical Center cookbooks. I've been fascinated not only by the recipes but also by the names of the women who contributed them. These cookbooks are little pieces of local history, preserving the foods people enjoyed and the people who helped shape our communities.

I'd love to bring some of that culinary heritage into Kita's Courage.

I'm especially interested in recipes and foods that would have been appropriate for the region and era—things like sweet breads, yeast breads, quick breads, pancakes, cookies, cakes, jams and jellies, pies, cobblers, soups, stews, and vegetable side dishes. I'm also interested in recipes that reflect the ingredients and food traditions available in Northern California in the 1890s.

And this is where I'd like your help!

Do you have a family recipe that has been passed down for generations? Do you have a recipe that is 100 years old—or perhaps even older? Do you have an old handwritten recipe card, family cookbook, or recipe from a local church or community cookbook?

I'd especially love to know:

What recipes have been passed down in your family?

Who originally made the recipe, and where did they live?

Do you know approximately how old the recipe is?

Is there a story connected to the recipe or the person who made it?

What foods do you remember your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents making for special occasions?

With permission, I'd love to include some contributed recipes and the names of those who share them in an appendix to Kita's Courage as a small tribute to the people and culinary heritage of the Scott Valley and surrounding communities.

If you have a recipe or food story to share, I'd love to hear from you! You may help me discover another delicious little piece of the history to bring to life in my current novel-in-progress. Trying out these recipes in real life will give me a taste of history as well!

And the recipes don't necessarily have to have originated in Siskiyou County. Since Kita's mother is a Swiss-German immigrant, I'm also interested in recipes that families brought with them when they came to the area—whether from Germany, Switzerland, other parts of Europe, or elsewhere in the United States. I'm curious about the recipes that became part of local families' lives and traditions, even if their origins were far away. Thank you so much!

Love,

Julie

P.S. I'm also trying to think of a way to include Yreka Bakery in my story. I have to at least mention it, because how could I resist a bakery with that cute little palindrome of a name? 😊