Father’s Day tradition will be sorely missed
North Judson’s Mint Festival has been canceled for first time in its 44-year history.
From the Farm
Anyone who has read this column or any of my published cookbooks during the past two decades knows our family Father’s Day Weekend tradition. The day always includes a big barbecue at the wooded home of my oldest brother Tom and his wife Linda, just down the road, followed by enjoying the annual Mint Festival Sunday Parade hosted in our small town, North Judson.
For the first time in more than four decades, what was to be the 44th Annual Mint Festival was canceled because of the global pandemic from COVID-19. Over the years, I’ve judged the Mint Queen Pageant and also the Cooking with Mint Contest, as well as participated in the parade. This year is very different. Even our family’s annual barbecue, at times as many as 25 people, had to be planned smaller because of required social distancing.
Reader Donna Kida of North Judson contacted me about my newest cookbook “Back From the Farm,” asking about a scheduled cookbook signing that was planned for this weekend in conjunction with the Mint Festival.
“I have all three of your previous cookbooks and was counting on this one, to pick up,” she said.
Despite the detour of this year’s Mint Festival, I have arranged for pre-signed copies available at our town’s quaint Pioneer Florist, for sale courtesy of our church friends Bob and Regina Howard. Call (574) 8965421 for more information. This latest book has more than a dozen featured “minty” recipes, as well as photos, from previous winners of the Mint Festival Cooking with Mint Contest.
Our farming neighbors Larry and Debbie Wappel, who live just a couple fields away, are hailed as local ambassadors for mint farming in our community. They annually conduct the town festival mint tours, which span their lush fields of peppermint and spearmint and finish with a guided walk through their large mint still where the harvested mint foliage is processed to produce the lucrative and precious oil that is later sold.
It’s not unusual for the Wappel Family, which includes their farming sons Larry Jr. and Eric and their wives and children, to host international agriculture representatives to visit their farm properties, which now incorporate the latest in solar panels as an energy source. Of the more than 9,000 acres they farm, this season, they have 1,200 acres planted in peppermint and 200 acres in spearmint. They also have a field of oregano (one of the many herbs in the mint plant family) which they also distill to sell the valued oil, in addition to their fields of both pumpkins and scrumptious irrigated sweetcorn.
Last month, Larry and Debbie stopped at my parents’ house during their after-supper evening walk to visit, standing from afar (social distancing) to chat over the fence. My dad, who is just a few weeks away from his 91st birthday on July 12, was busy hoeing away among the rows of tomato plants in his prized garden. This moment was captured via camera phone courtesy of Debbie, and it’s now a favorite photo I’m sharing for this unusual Father’s Day 2020.
Debbie, a wonderful cook, also surprised my parents with supper last week, including her signature potato soup. The recipe was highlighted in an earlier column in November 2006 and appears in my “More From the Farm” cookbook published in 2007. Debbie’s selfcatered meal also included her family’s half-a-century-old recipe for a delicious oil-based, colorful and delicious chilled salad her late mother loved to serve.
“I still have the yellowed recipe notecard, which was written out by my dad’s sister, my Aunt Betty (Shannon) McCord,” Debbie explained.
“My mom Gloria loved this recipe, which started as a three-bean salad recipe. I like to use cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, and I replace the bean ingredients with cubed tomatoes, diced cucumbers, colorful peppers and bright red onion. The original three-bean salad recipe was a favorite dish my aunt would bring to our annual family reunion. This year, my Aunt would turn 90, and my mom would have celebrated her
80th birthday.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, P.O. Box 68, San Pierre, IN 46374.