320-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 16, 1991
Blair Farm Woman Operates Party Room
LINDA WILLIAMS
Bedford Co. Correspondent
ROARING SPRING (Blair
Co.) — Shirley Kcnsinger can’t
remember a time when she didn’t
want to have her party room.
“Shirley’s Something Special,”
located on the picturesque Kcnsin
ger farm is her dream come true.
“It’s just a dream I’ve always
had,” she smiles. “But, while I was
raising my three children and we
were farming full time, I consid
ered that my job. My party room
was a dream and I didn’t know if it
would ever be a reality.”
Thirty years ago as a busy,
young mother who helped her hus
band on their 265-acre farm, Shir
ley began baking wedding cakes.
“It was, something that just grew,”
she remembers. “Before long I
was baking birthday* cakes or
cakes for any special occasion.”
Then, the children grew up and,
when Shirley wasn’t needed at
home quite as much, she accepted
a job as dining room manager of a
local restaurant.
“I loved it,” she remembers. "I
liked the challenge and I learned a
lot about managing a restaurant It
brought back my old dream of
owning a party room.”
Shirley continued to bake their
special-occasin cakes and when
Wilton cake pans offered a special
school in Chicago where she could
leam how to make cryslalizcd
flowers from icing, Shirley signed
up for the course.
“When I came home, I knew it
was time to give up my job and go
into the cake business full time,”
she says.
Persuading her husband to build
her a kitchen was no easy job. “He
grumbled a lot and was sure I
wouldn’t make it but he built the
kitchen anyway,” she laughs.
The cakes were such a success
that Shirley soon had to hire some
part-time help to keep up with the
demand. “I’m the only one in the
area who seems to know how to
make these icing flowers,” she
admits. “I’ve had orders from as
far away as Philadelphia.”
With the children grown, Fred
cut back on farming and began
raising feeder calves. He is also a
farm auctioneer. He had more time
for chores which had been put off
when work pressures were greater.
Mother Nature took its toll on
the big farm house where the Ken
singer family had lived for nearly
three decades, and the side porch
became very much in need of
repair.
“It was either tear it down or
add a room,” Shirley told her hus
band. “I told him that, at long last,
here was the perfect opportunity
for my party room.”
“Fred laughed and told me I was
getting too old to take on a chal
lenge that big. But, I presisted and
finally won him over.”
Umil about 1916, all the sour cream used in the United States
was homemade. The advent of the cream separator in the late 1800 s
led to the manufacture of sour cream in dairy plants.
Some stones suggest that, during biblical limes, people in the
Middle East discovered yogurt when they left milk in a warm place.
13 utter is one of the oldest known dairy products, having teen
discovered about 4,000 years ago. It was accidentally churned in an
animal-skin pouch, slung on the back of a horse or camel The pouch
bounced as the animal moved, churning the cream or milk into the
substance known as butter.
The Kensingcrs did most of the
work on the new addition them
selves. While the building was in
progress, Shirley began her party
room idea in the dining room of
the big farm house. She could
serve parties of up to 12 and, it was
an immediate success.
When the new room was com
pleted, she had room for 45. “I did
all of my own decorating,” she
says modestly. “I even papered the
walls mv ”
Shi. icy cnose the colors careful
ly blending the patterns and
designs of everything from the
drapes and wall decorations to the
pattern of the china and the napkin
rings. Predominent colors are
shades of pink accented with con
trasting black.
The carpet was laid one day and
“Shirley’s Something Special”
opened the next. “That was
December 18, 1989, and we’ve
been busy over since,” Shirley
remembers.
She serves card clubs, rehearsal
dinners, club meetings, baby
showers, wedding showers, or
family reunions.
“In this area, country home
cooking is still the big thing,”
Shirley says. “I would like to serve
some gourmet-type items, but the
home cooking is what most people
seem to want”
She docs add one special dish to
each event. “Something they
didn’t ask for, but are willing to
try. It’s always a hit”
Shirley now has five regular
part-time workers. During the
busy summer season she hires an
additional five. Her married
daughter is one of her best helpers,
as is her husband, Fred.
“It isn’t all fun and games,”
Shirley is quick to admit. “It’s
hard work and long hours. I’m
always meeting-a deadline. When
I was cooking for my family, 1
could pul them off for a half-hour.
You don’t do that with the public.
In the summer she often works
until 1 or 2 in the morning and is
back up at 6 a.m. One weekend
last summer, she baked wedding
cakes for 1,700 people.”
Shirley also does some catering
and has carry-out specially foods.
“J think I’m going to have to give
up my Christmas cookies,” she
admits.
“I used to make 1,200 dozen
and then hold an open house. They
would all be bought in one day.
But, I just can’t do everything.
Something has to go.”
She says she is always amazed
at the number of people she talks
with who are bored. “I couldn’t be
bored if I live to be 100,” she
smiles. “I figure we only get one
crack at life and, I’m going to live
it to the fullest And, I’m extreme
ly lucky, I’ve seen my dream come
true. I might be working hard, but
I’m doing something I love.”
A three-room building behind the farm house Is the location of Shirley’s kitchen. A
lot of the cooking for “Shirley’s Something Special” is done here.
i
Shirley Kenslnger in the party room of Shirley’s Something Special. She did all of
the wallpapering and decorating herself.
Appetizers are served In the sing room. Here, the table is decorated for Easter.
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