Key Ingredients exhibit kicks off in Chelsea

The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007

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By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer

CHELSEA — Food, history and a place to keep dry was a draw for many at the McKune Memorial Public Library in downstate Chelsea Saturday.

Torrential downpours threatened to blow over the tents of the Chelsea Market Faire on the library’s lawn, which marked the kickoff of the 2007-08 tour of Key Ingredients and Michigan Foodways exhibits.

Key Ingredients is a Smithsonian exhibit depicting national food culture. It is part of the Institute’s “Museum on Main Street” program, which has brought traveling exhibitions to 35 states and 300 rural towns.

The corresponding Michigan Foodways exhibit, created by the Michigan State University Museum, tells the state’s culinary story.

Both exhibits will debut at six Michigan sites for approximately a six-week period through 2007 and 2008. After Chelsea, the exhibits will come to Calumet, where the Keweenaw Heritage Center at St. Anne’s will host from July 13 through Aug. 26.

Cheboygan, Whitehall, Frankenmuth and Dundee will subsequently host until the end of the tour in March, 2008.

A ribbon-cutting marked the kick-off Saturday, led by State Rep. Pam Byrnes.

“I love food, I love history, I love eating, so when I heard about this exhibit I was genuinely interested and pleased to be a part of it,” Byrnes said.

Jan Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council, main sponsor of the two exhibits, said the exhibits were not just about food, but the stories and connections made through the making and sharing of food.

“When I was growing up, I thought everyone in the world made their own sausage and sauerkraut,” she said. Her grandmother showed her how to make kolaches, a Czech dumpling filled with meat, cheese or fruit, and warned her never to deviate from the recipe.

“I never have,” Fedewa said. “When I make them, I always think about being with my grandmother in the kitchen. Growing up in a small town where food was the centerpiece of life, I learned to value the importance of food and its relationship to culture and story.”

Through a videotaped message, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, after declaring May 26 “Michigan Foodways Day,” shared her good wishes to the people of Chelsea and wished them “Bon Appetit.”

McKune Library Board President Gary Zenz thanked the representatives of the committees from the other host sites who attended the installation workshop Friday.

“One of the benefits of going first is to get to host the exhibit training, and get the help of the groups of the other five sites,” he said. “Thanks to all of you for helping us put this together.”

Kim Hoagland, Chair of the Steering Committee for the Calumet host site attended Friday’s workshop, and said the Key Ingredients installation was very impressive, both in the way it is put together and for the story it tells.

“For a traveling exhibit, I didn’t expect so many artifacts and photographs,” said Hoagland, also a social sciences professor at Michigan Tech University. “It does a great job of telling a huge story in a relatively small space.”

The exhibit includes thematic groupings of panels detailing the birth of the American restaurant, gardening, ranching, and even table manners. Many panels are interactive, such as the one that invites participants to see how they look in a famed Wisconsin “Cheesehead” hat.

A local exhibit also highlighted the historical changes in the packaging of the baking mixes of the Chelsea Milling Company, more commonly known as “Jiffy” mix, and the prominence of Chelsea’s award-winning restaurant, The Common Grill.

Hoagland said she particularly liked the Michigan Foodways exhibit.

“I think the Michigan exhibit is going to strike a chord with a lot of people in the Keweenaw,” she said. “There’s the panel on the pasty, of course, but also there is a nice exhibit on fishing, which is also very prominent up north. I’m learning a lot about food and culture, and I think others will, too.”

For more information on the Smithsonian Institute Museum on Main Street exhibit, visit www.keyingredients.org. For more information on the Michigan Foodways exhibit and to view a calendar of events for the Calumet site, visit www.michiganfoodways.org.

Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com