Myrtle (Torkelson) Overland By Granddaughter Terri J MartinThis cookbook is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, MyrtleTorkelson) Overland (born 1903, died 1987). She loved to cook and had a gift of creating meals by taste. She said "I loved to collect recipes - and have oodles of them". I remember visiting her during the summer months when I was young and watching her on bread baking day. She would make bread and buns by scratch for the week. The bread was wonderfully light and delicious! Another day it would be sugar cookies, oatmeal, and brown sugar cookies to be frozen. This would be besides her busy daily schedules of gathering eggs for market, and cooking meals for the family and hired hands. Myrtle's life growing up must have been similar to how author Mildred Armstrong Kalish described frontier life in her book "Little Heathens: hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the great depression".

The Torkelson farm was right on the state border of Iowa. The same cook stove pictured in this book, she used is still in the house that her father and uncle built in 1914. The Overland farmhouse where Myrtle lived for over 50 years of marriage was built in 1909 with the materials ordered as a kit from the Sears Roebuck catalog and still standing. Both the Overland farm, where Myrtle and Grandpa Art lived; and the Torkelson farm, where grandma grew up are being recognized by Freeborn County as Century Farms this year, 2012. I was fortunate to live on the farm for 3 years to experience their enjoyment of country life. My memories of learning to cook and growing fresh produce come with great humiliation and rewards of reaping fresh delicious meals. Rewards of earning blue ribbons at the county fair, selling jams, jellies and apple pies at the Farmers Market in Albert Lea are priceless. The wear and tear of working an old century farm adds up and can consume your life if there were no rewards.

Hours of taming the jungle-like vegetation and thinning out the wild fruits and berries of invasive Buckthorn were spent. Raising chickens was a challenge, where chicks dined on the acres of bugs, and sprouts free ranging. When you depend on the land to feed yourself, it can be felt as a necessity to become sustainable. In today's world there isn't the land for the poor who are hungry to be able to feed themselves as immigrants did throughout history.