Iowa Arts News is a monthly publication of the Iowa Arts Council. If you would like to subscribe, please send us a blank e-mail.
Finding Iowa's Food Stories
What's the story behind authentic tortillas from Muscatine and Italian sausage
from Des Moines? Or how about the sweet corn variety your grandfather grew for
years, or the family kolache recipe?
Folklorist Riki Saltzman wants to learn about Iowa's food stories -- how that
great tomato came to be grown here, how your mother makes lefse, how your local
locker smokes meats and fish.
Saltzman has received a $25,000 grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture to find and document place-based foods in Iowa, that is, foods with
a connection to both place and heritage. She received her doctorate in anthropology
and folklore from the University of Texas and specializes in identity and cultural
traditions, particularly ones to do with food. Saltzman is Folklife Coordinator
for the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.
Outside of Maytag blue cheese and Amana meats, which are known beyond the state,
Saltzman said there are few examples of foods marketed for their value to tourism.
Many states and countries are known for particular wines, cheese or other foods
and have tourist-destination "food heritage areas" that attract economic
development dollars from government and businesses.
Leopold Center Marketing and Food Systems Initiative leader Rich Pirog said Iowa
has a lot of potential in this area. He conducted a 2004 study, "A Geography
of Taste," that identified a number of place-based foods such as Muscatine
melon and the Hawkeye Delicious apple.
Saltzman will be conducting field research and surveys over the next 12 months
to document and write "food stories" about five to 10 place-based foods
in Iowa. The foods or crops must meet at least two of the following cultural,
geographic and ecological criteria:
• Ingredients must be grown and processed in Iowa.
• The food product or crop must have some heritage basis -- historical,
ethnic, ecological or geographic.
• The food must have some kind of "story" related to it, making
its Iowa connection clear.
