—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 29, 1973 26 Mta \ , Homestead Society 3 Celebrating 50th Anniversary In Usual Style By Sally Bair Feature Writer Members of Farm Women Society 3 are observing an an niversary this week and they are celebrating by cooking - and cooking and cooking!! It’s their 50th anniversary of serving food to hungry fairgoers at the Ephrata Fair, and naturally their only plans are to continue to serve up some of the best platters found anywhere. Mrs. Harold Stuber, Stevens RDI, news reporter for Society 3, says, “There won’t be any champagne, but we will decorate the stand.” Mrs. Stuber, who was 11 when they started the stand, says, “cold sandwiches, apples and potato chips” were some of the earliest foods served. She said she can’t remember many of the prices but she does know that hot dogs were “five or 10 cents” in those early years. She adds, “My mother dragged me along then and I’ve been helping ever since.” The women have come a long way since those early days and the menu for the week reads like a Pennsylvania Dutch delight: Wednesday - pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, applesauce; Thursday - chicken pot pie, peas, pepper cabbage; Friday - deviled clam platter, mashed potatoes, harvard beets, cheese and macaroni and pepper cabbage; Saturday - baked ham, candied sweet potatoes, green beans and pepper cabbage. Pies, coffee and dairy drinks are also served. Mrs. Clarence Stauffer, Society 3 Notes Pat Erway, Editor ' In addition to the platters, there is always soup, deviled clam cakes, fried ham sand wiches, hamburgers and hot dogs available at their stand on main street. Last year the women started a new tradition - serving breakfast on Saturday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. Hot cakes and sausage, homemade doughnuts, fruit juice and coffed are served to the early risers. . The woman who is responsible this year for seeing that the food stand is underway daily is Mrs. John Edwards, Ephrata RDI. The Farm Women have been serving hot platters only since 1959, when they were asked to take over the job from the Schoeneck Fire Company which stopped serving cooked meals because their building had been paid off, Mrs. Stuber says. Fair officials felt there should be someone serving platters on the midway, according to Mrs. Stuber, and just a few weeks before fair time the Society agreed to do it. The minutes of the Farm Women as recorded by Mrs. Stuber’s mother, Mrs. Samuel Mohler, read, “Like a bolt out of the blue we are serving platters.” They established menus then, and there have been few changes since. An early menu was roast beef, potato filling and dried corn, but that was dropped. Last year was the first time for sauerkraut, Mrs. Stuber says. She adds, “We’ve been serving deviled clams as long as I can Mrs. Harold Stuber and Mrs. John Ed wards and other Society 3 members were remember. It’s one of our most popular items.” Along with the sandwiches, and platters, Mrs. Stuber says, soup has long been a mainstay on the menu. Homemade vegetable soup is always available. Oyster soup was served until oysters became too expensive, and ham and bean soup was also served at one time. Even the years of World War II didn’t stop Society 3. Mrs. Stiber says, “We got food stamps for j&:\ president, and Mrs. Jesse Balmer pause at the start of the noon rush hour. ft mr One job that never seems to be done at home can’t be escaped at the Fair either - and there are mountains to be washed! Sally Snyder cheerfully pitches in. what we needed, and we had a beef slaughtered ” She recalled that the equipment used in those early years was not quite so glamorous as that used now. They used coal oil stoves •V Jf'Hs' busy stirring pots and seasoning the foods at their stand at the Ephrata Fair. and big iron skillets - there were no griddles, and no roof on the stand. “When it rained we would grab up our supplies and run under a roof,” Mrs. Stuber (Continued On Page 28) - *r v if
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