The author in her natural habitat: the kitchen

It’s the time of year when baking kicks into high gear, especially when it comes to cookies. As an avid at-home baker, I am constantly on the lookout for interesting new recipes to try. This year I decided to look for some old new recipes and dipped into the newspapers and recipe books available in the Topeka Room.

The following recipes are from between 1913 and 1946. As you will notice, the measurements and instructions sometimes are a bit vague, so half of the adventure when baking these was hoping I had measured the ingredients correctly!

I decided to make this a group project. After baking I had other library staff members taste test these cookies and share their opinions.

Without further ado, dust off your apron and your rolling pin, roll up your sleeves and join me for some retro baking!

Recipe #1: Brown Sugar Refrigerator Cookies (Mrs. Irene Grant; YWCA Young Matrons’ Cook Book, 1946)

• 

  YWCA Young Matrons’ Cook Book (Topeka Room, 641.5 YWC)

  1 ½ cups shortening

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 cups flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Sift dry ingredients together and add gradually. Add nuts, raisins or dates, if desired. Form into rolls and wrap in wax paper. Let stand in refrigerator until firm, then slice and bake. Bake from 12 to 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

Baking

I will begin with the easiest of the four recipes. Unlike the rest of our retro recipes, this is the only one that is recent enough that it contains both a bake time and a temperature. However, this lulled me in to a false sense of security (more on that in a bit). After making the dough, I rolled it into a log and wrapped it in cling wrap and refrigerated it overnight.

The dough, even chilled, can be a bit crumbly. I cut it into ¼” sections and baked them at 425°. I decided to start at 15 minutes, which was a big mistake! There’s been almost 80 years of advances in oven technology since this recipe is written. After only 10 minutes smoke was pouring from my oven. I tossed the black little bricks that had been the cookies, lowered the oven temperature to 350° F, and baked for 15 minutes. That worked perfectly!

 Taste testers

My crack team of library taste testers said this cookie would be best dipped in a hot beverage or in milk. It’s a very crunchy, crumbly cookie that reminded me of a British digestive biscuit. It’s not overwhelmingly sweet, but that means it would pair well with almost anything.

Recipe #2: Cream Cookies (Topeka State Journal, January 4, 1921)

• 

  Unlike modern recipes, this one doesn’t come with a short story before getting to the actual recipe.

  2 eggs

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup thick cream
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat eggs; add sugar, cream and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. Chill, shape, and bake. One half cup of caraway seeds may be substituted for vanilla. Use high flame.

Baking

On its face, this recipe seems pretty straightforward. But a closer look reveals the recipe writer seems to have forgotten to explain what to do with the last two ingredients: salt and vanilla. While I appreciate the lack of a short story before this recipe, there is no oven temperature or time for baking.

Using my baking knowledge while pretending this was a technical challenge on The Great British Baking Show, I beat the eggs, then added vanilla, cream and sugar. I mixed the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, then added it slowly to the wet mixture. I chilled the mixture in the fridge for two hours.

When it was time to bake, I scooped out about a tablespoon’s worth of the very sticky dough at a time and rolled them into a balls. I baked them at 350°F for 20 minutes.

Taste testers

The taste testers were pleasantly surprised by this one. Most of the comments mentioned it was a nice cake-like cookie. Some were hoping for more flavor and said that this cookie “needed something.” One tester suggested you “pair with Early Grey tea & a mystery.”

Recipe #3: Coffee Cookies (Mrs. P.B. Lee; Central Congregational Church Cook Book, 1913)

• 1 cupful New Orleans molasses
• 1 cupful sugar
• ½ cupful lard
• ½ cupful coffee or water
• 1 level teaspoonful ginger
• 2 level teaspoonfuls cinnamon
• 1 level tablespoonful soda
• 1 teaspoonfuls salt
• 1 teaspoonful baking powder

Cream lard and sugar. Add molasses and spices and salt. Sift baking powder into flour. Stir soda into the coffee, and add to the batter, alternating flour and water. Add sufficient flour to roll out; bake in quick oven.

Baking

Again, this appears to be a straightforward recipe, but this one throws you a curve ball. Notice the directions say to “sift baking powder into flour,” but the list of ingredients doesn’t include flour! Again, donning my Baking Show hat, I started with three cups of flour, and then kept adding it until the dough looked right. In the end, I used 6 ½ cups. Since this ends up being like a gingerbread dough, I also decided to chill the dough for about an hour just to make it easier to handle.

When it came time to bake, I had to research what the term “quick oven” meant. This recipe is from a time before ovens had clearly defined temperature settings, so each baker had to know their own oven and how it heated. Most guides place a “quick or hot” oven at between 400° and 450° F. I played it safe and went for 400° and watched it like a hawk. I ended up baking these for about 12 minutes.

Taste testers

The one word that seemed to sum up these cookies comments was “subtle.” While the cookies might look like gingerbread, the flavor is lacking gingerbread’s typical spiciness. Most of my taste testers liked the softness of the cookie and its texture, but found it was lacking in the promised coffee flavor. Several people mentioned it would be good with a cup of coffee or tea.

Recipe #4:  Raspberry Cookies  (Mrs. Hal A. Waisner, Kansas; Capper’s Farmer Country Cook Book, 1928)

• 

  Capper’s Farmer Country Cook Book (Topeka Room, 641.5  CAP)

  3 cups sifted flour

• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup sugar

• Grated rind of 1 lemon
• 1 egg (beaten light)
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ lb. raspberry jam
• 1 egg (white)

Sift together three times the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter, add sugar, grated rind, egg and alternately the milk & flour mixture. Knead in the last of the flour mixture. Roll the dough (part at a time) into a thin sheet and cut into rounds. Spread half the rounds nearly to the edge with jam; lay the other half over the jam and press together lightly; set into a baking pan, brush over the tops with white of egg, dredge with granulated sugar and bake about 12 min.

Baking

We finish with a more technically challenging recipe. Not only is it lacking in some details, it also is a “some assembly required” cookie. After I got my dough mixed, I separated it into two equal balls and rolled them both out to about 1/8 inch thick. I then used a 2” round cookie cutter. You want to use a cookie cutter that is slightly larger than you think you’ll need to allow for plenty of filling but still have a nice seal to keep the jam from oozing. I decided to try them at 350° 19 minutes.

On a few of them, I got fancy and created an opening in the tops to give it that classic “Jammy Dodger” look. These ones turned out looking incredibly cute.

Taste testers

This was definitely the sweetest of the four cookies and it also seemed to be the runaway favorite amongst the library staff. Words like “yummy,” “sweet” and “delish” were featured in most of the comments. They really liked the mix of lemon and raspberry. One tester said these cookies were on every holiday cookie tray during their childhood.

Get cooking

Hopefully, you’ve been inspired by some of these historic recipes. And if none of these four recipes float your boat, stop by the Topeka Room! We have several shelves dedicated to cookbooks from local organizations that go back to the 1910s. You can also search through our microfilmed newspapers to see what sorts of recipes were published as far back as the late 1800s! Happy baking!

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In each journey you follow a series of classes that build upon each other. You’ll gain confidence in your new skill and complete projects along the way. The journeys give you a progress bar to track where you are, reminders and encouragement, and even downloadable certificates of completion. Heck yes, hang those certificates proudly on your fridge or office wall (gold stars for adults)!

Choose your own adventure

Right now Creativebug has seven journeys to choose from. I’m sure they will continually add journeys so check back regularly. Here are your options right now:

• Patchwork quilting
• Kids crafting
• Intro to Cricut
• The art of bookmaking
• Crochet 101
• Garment sewing
• Quilting 101

Use library Cricut

We have a Cricut Explore 3 in the Level 2 Tech Center’s Digital Art Studio. After an orientation training you can reserve time to use the Cricut anytime the library is open.

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My good friend, Peg, and I ate lunch last week at The Bristol in Kansas City. One of their salad offerings was a tomato salad with arugula, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and basil ice cream! We were intrigued. We ordered it and were delighted with a perfect summer salad.

steeping basil in milk for ice cream

Peg said she had made basil ice cream before and used the recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. It is a custard style ice cream with egg yolks. I tried the no-churn version I found online since I didn’t have an ice cream freezer. I am sure the custard-base ice cream is much richer but I thought the no-churn version was just fine. For my salad, I garnished the fresh tomatoes with pea shoots, which you can find at the Monday Farmers Market at the library. The stand also has other beautiful micro greens I am addicted to! Check them out! Of course, my amazing homegrown tomatoes came from the Monday market as well. Such great finds right now!

A few tweaks

my basil ice cream salad

I did not tint my basil ice cream green so it kind of has a light tan color to it. I think I will add just a tiny drop of green food coloring next time. I also strained the milk basil mixture through a fine sieve after blending. I then added about a tablespoon of the basil solids back into the ice cream and stirred once in a while as it was freezing. Here is another custard ice cream recipe from The Food Network website that looks easy and good. I think I may need to invest in a tabletop ice cream freezer. I have fond memories of cranking the old White Mountain freezer in the summer with my family. But I think I’m past cranking and would find it to be a workout rather than nostalgic.

The most refreshing gazpacho

The other summer recipe I love that seems like an odd combination is peach and tomato gazpacho. Peg served this to me several years ago. Now it’s a summer staple when the peaches and tomatoes are at their peak. It’s an old recipe from Epicurious magazine printed in 2005 that is so tasty and refreshing! Don’t forget to garnish with the peach and tomato salsa. It is simple to put together since almost everything just goes in the blender! Served cold, it is a perfect summer soup. Not only do peaches and tomatoes make a great gazpacho, they make a great salad as well. Add the basil ice cream right in the middle, if you would like.

Don’t be afraid of these strange mash-ups – give them a try!

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Paper quilling is an ancient craft that uses strips of paper that are rolled, shaped and glued together in ornate designs. While the beginning of the craft is debated, people think quilling originated in ancient Egypt or ancient China. Much like needlework, quilling was popular in the 18^th century as an artform for noble and gentle ladies. Thankfully being gently bred is no longer a requirement to learn the craft.

My first quilling project

Since I wanted to try to make gifts or cards for the holidays, I checked out the ebook Quilled Christmas. I was immediately struck by the beginner project Holiday Lights Tree. Many, many, many years ago, I received a quilling kit (I never used it, sigh) so I knew I had the materials to make a similar project. I gathered my quilling tool, paper and glue and got started.

The project went better than I hoped! I very much enjoyed the process of twirling the paper strips around the quilling tool and shaping them into mini lights. I could easily see myself working through other quilling projects, Quilled Mandalas book, I’m looking at you. First I have more Christmas tree lights to make.

Best quilling resources

In addition to books with quilling projects, you can check out a quilling arts and crafts kit. The kit gives you supplies for a couple starter projects to experiment with. This will give you a good idea if you like quilling. Then you can tackle more intricate designs.

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Items Friends accept

Thank you for only donating items that are clean and in good condition. Please take your items to the library dock (first driveway south of 10th Ave & Garfield) and place them in the donation box at the bottom left of the drive or call 785-580-4400 and we’ll be happy to retrieve them from your vehicle. Please note: the Friends do not currently have a recycler.

We’d love to have you donate any of the following:

• Nonfiction books – Examples: textbooks, repair & owner’s manuals, art books, biographies, craft books, cookbooks and history books
  • We request that books in the following categories be less than 10 years old:
    • Business
    • Diet
    • Medical
    • Parenting
    • Technology
    • Travel
• Fiction books – Examples: mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, children’s books, romance
• All classics
• CDs – music and audiobooks (no or minimal scratches)
• Magazines released after 2020 (nothing older)
• DVDs (no or minimal scratches)
• Blu-rays (no damage)
• Puzzles and games
• Video games (no computer games)
• Vinyl records

Items Friends do not accept

Please don’t donate the following:

• 

  Books destroyed in a Venice flood

  Encyclopedia sets

• Books or other items that are excessively dirty, moldy, water damaged, torn or otherwise in poor condition
• VHS tapes
• Cassette tapes
• 8-track tapes

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Jamtinis

Let’s start off with a cocktail! My daughter explained Mason Jar Jam Cocktails or Jamtinis are all over TicTok (not one of my places). We gave it a try. The composition is simple – 2 oz  vodka (or liquor of your choice), 1 oz  juice, 1 spoonful jam, topped with soda or sparkling water.

Add liquor, jam and juice to Mason jar and shake well. Add ice and top with club soda or sparkling water. We had peach jam with vodka and Fresca, which were yummy! Think of the endless possibilities of combinations you could make! I think vodka, lemonade and strawberry jam with some fresh basil would be good.

Tomato Goat Cheese Dip

Next I was looking for a good dip to take to a friend’s house. I found this one and gave it a try – Tomato Goat Cheese Dip from The Cookie Rookie.

I love the mix of goat cheese, ricotta and feta with sweet cherry tomatoes and basil. You can serve it with anything you like, I used bagel chips and crackers. It was easy to put together. I imagine this will be even better in the summer months with garden fresh tomatoes and basil!

Scallion & Asparagus Salad

The final recipe comes from Lidia Bastianich, a well-known chef specializing in Italian American cuisine. She has a restaurant in Kansas City that is one of my favorites and I’ve eaten at her restaurant in New York City. I was looking for a typical spring recipe that called for ingredients widely available and at their peak in the spring season.

I found this recipe for Scallion & Asparagus Salad. Although Lidia gathers her green veggies from her garden in Italy, I found this worked just fine with my produce from the grocery store. (You can also find some fabulous asparagus at the Monday Farmers Market.) It’s a cold salad with barely blanched scallions and asparagus with hard boiled egg wedges drizzled with vinegar and oil. I thought the salad was perfect for dinner on it’s own, but adding some tuna might make it more protein rich and filling.

Below is a list of some of Lidia’s cookbooks so you can get a sense of her cooking style. I particularly like her book My American Dream. It tells the story of how she ended up in American and the trials and tribulations of a woman chef. Now if I only had a villa with a garden in Tuscany, I’d be set!

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Make your own vanilla

First off, I made some homemade vanilla. It’s so easy to do and requires only two ingredients! You will need bottles, a funnel, vodka and vanilla beans. Split the beans in half, add the beans to the clean bottle and fill with vodka. In as little as 6 to 8 weeks, you’ll have your own vanilla extract. It will be really good at the 6 month mark. Store in a cool, dark place. I gave away several bottles as gifts, tied with a cute ribbon and a fun label. No cooking skill involved but the payoff is well worth it!

Garlic confit & garlic oil

I also made garlic confit for spreading on toast, crackers, a crusty slice of bread or whatever! Confit literally means to poach at a slow simmer in oil. Garlic confit can also be added to soups, vinaigrette, as a sandwich spread or added to mashed potatoes. I like adding it to a charcuterie board for some added flavor.

This confit method can be done either stove top or in the oven. I did mine in a pan on the stove so I could watch it carefully. I started with about a pound of pre-peeled garlic cloves (much easier than prepping and peeling tons of garlic). I added enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the cloves and a bunch of thyme. I let it simmer for about 2 hours, until the garlic was roasty toasty brown and beautiful.

After it cooled completely, I strained off the oil from the garlic and discarded the thyme. (It’s okay if some of the leaves are in the garlic or the oil.) I then pureed the garlic in the food processor and added a couple of tablespoons of butter. Next I froze the confit in an ice cube tray. Once frozen, I transferred the cubes to a storage bag for the freezer. I kept the flavorful oil of course, storing it in the refrigerator.

Not bad for a couple of hours of kitchen work! It is so nice having 3 homemade products ready at hand if I need them. Give it a try yourself and see what you think!

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Last week, I purchased a big box of fresh blueberries. It may have been a few more blueberries than I needed so I started looking for ways to use them and save their summery goodness for later.

Sweet muffins

I found a recipe for Jordan Marsh’s Blueberry Muffins that was published in the New York Times in 1987. Jordan Marsh was a department store well known for these muffins, so I had to give them a try.

I added more blueberries than what was called for because I like lots of fruit in my muffins and I made them jumbo sized. I also sprinkled the tops with turbinado (raw) sugar for a crunch factor. The cake of this muffin is tender, sweet and made moist by the addition of mashed blueberries as well as whole fruit. I froze most of the batch but was really impressed by this muffin!

Having more blueberries left, but not quite enough for another batch, I added fresh peaches to the next batch I made. Wow! Another hit and more goodies for the freezer.

Savory muffins

I started thinking about what else I had that would make a good muffin. I decided to try a savory muffin with the tomatoes, cheese and chives I had on hand. Here’s the formula I used for the savory muffin:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 t baking powder
• ½ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• ¼ t black pepper
• 2 T cornmeal
• Whisk together dry ingredients.
• 6 T butter
• 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs

Beat together wet ingredients, then mix in dry ingredients.

I folded in tomatoes, sauteed green onion, chives and 1 cup of cheese, a mixture of gruyere and cheddar. I added some flaked kosher salt to the tops before baking.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

The savory muffins were delicious served as little bites with wine. I also had a few more for the freezer!

Taste of summer year round

I am now well stocked for muffins and I’m very pleased with myself for saving some of the summer bounty for later. When the snow is flying and I’m missing these summer days, I’ll thaw a few summer muffins!

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Looking through these cookbooks, you can see that tastes have changed over the years. Other aspects of history also creep in. Technology like refrigeration and stoves, what was cheap to eat and what was fancy, even things like the standard size of a can have changed over the past 100 years.

Early 1900s

I picked out a few cookbooks from different time periods and started by looking at the oldest one – The Fireless Cooker: How to Make It, How to Use It, What to Cook by Caroline B. Lovewell and Frances D. Whittemore, published in Topeka in 1908. At that time, kitchen stoves would have used coal or wood, which meant they needed to be much larger to have a compartment for coal as well as an oven. Refrigerators were literally ice boxes, an insulated cabinet with space for a block of ice in the bottom and food in the top. Built in cabinets and counters weren’t even a thing, you had to put in your own shelves for storage.

It would have been a whole lot more work to clean up coal ash daily and constantly empty a drip tray from your icebox. The solution the authors of  The Fireless Cooker propose is right there in the title. They talk about “a kettle or other vessel that can be heated, enclosed in a box or other outer shape, with enough insulating material between them to prevent the heat in the kettle from escaping.”

Saving time & effort

The main point is to heat the food, then insulate it very well so it continues to cook for several hours. The book goes on to describe some methods of insulating an existing box or cabinet or building one from scratch. “It’s the 1908 version of a crock pot,” I said to myself. Not exactly, but both are tools for saving labor. We don’t have to haul coal today, but we still want to save time and effort. Long, slow cooking is one way to do it.

The recipes in this book don’t have lists of ingredients like we’d expect to see. They’re written in narrative form with entire paragraphs of instructions. The recipes are also written to be made in a “fireless cooker,” so I moved on to look at recipes in a book with more conventional cooking methods in mind.

1930s

The next book I looked at was published in 1930. By that time gas stoves were more common. Some people had refrigerators, but they were very expensive. The average income in the U.S. in 1930 was $1,368 per year. A refrigerator cost upwards of $150 – more than a month’s salary. The average income in the U.S. now is around $53,000 so you’d be looking at a $6000 fridge!

The Cookbook of Laurel Elizabeth Weiskirch: CLEW to 1500 American and Foreign Recipes is the book I explored. I spent a little time trying to find out something about Weiskirch’s life, but couldn’t find much. Using the library’s subscription to Newspapers.com I searched her name in Topeka papers from the early 20th century. I found a few mentions of her and her husband, Armin A. Weiskirch, in the society pages. They seem to have been a well-off couple who lived in the Potwin neighborhood.

Weiskirch’s book has some narrative recipes like the earlier book, but many list the ingredients first as in most modern cookbooks. Some of the recipes would still work and sound good today. I would totally roast a pork loin with onions and apples as she instructs on page 76. I didn’t know cake pops existed in 1930, but under “Holiday dessert” is a recipe for mixing fruit cake crumbs with grape juice and molding it around chocolate covered cherries. They’re not on a stick, but it’s the same concept. The Thanksgiving staple of marshmallows on sweet potatoes is here too.

Uncommon ingredients

However, many recipes have ingredients that aren’t common in 2022 or just sound downright unappealing. I’m sure chopped celery leaves in meatloaf taste fine, but I’ve never made anything that specifically calls for the leaves. I’ll definitely skip “macaroni stewed in kidney sauce.”

Looking at the salad chapter, nearly all the salads call for mayonnaise dressing, even the fruit salads. This is where I went off on a tangent. I am a huge fan of learning the history of words, and not a big fan of mayo. I found “salad” used to refer to cold meat with mayo – more like tuna salad than a green salad. Read this article to learn the origin of the word salad. Mayo on fruit still sounds bad to me, but it makes a little more sense why they call it a salad.

Late 1960s

Next, I chose The WIBW Cookbook, which includes recipes sent in from Topeka and all over the WIBW 580AM listening area, and was published in 1968. What cooking advances have there been over those 38 years since 1930? I notice most of the recipes are still from scratch, but some of them use margarine instead of butter. A few recipes are “low calorie” and use saccharin or other artificial sweeteners, which is also new.

Nervously, I turned to the salad section to see what developments had occurred. I found a recipe for mayonnaise on the first page of the section! Yes, most of the salads contain mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, marshmallows or that staple of American cooking – gelatin.

Gelatin

Let’s address the wibbly-wobbly elephant in the room: what was up with all the gelatin?! Who decided covering food in gelatin and molding it into a ring was the best cooking method ever? I took a detour to find out.

Gelatin was used as far back as ancient Egypt, but for most of its history it wasn’t easy to make. It’s made by the unpleasant process of boiling animal bones. You boil and strain it multiple times to get a product that is clear and flavorless. Because of this lengthy process, serving fancy molded gelatin dishes was a way to show off that you were rich enough to have servants doing the work for you. Picture French lords and ladies of the 1700s dining on molded gelatin, smug about not having had to boil bones themselves.

Fast forward to 1895, Jell-O fruit flavored gelatin is invented in the United States. It takes a few years to catch on and once it does, it does not stop for several decades. First, people were just excited about how easy it was to make powdered gelatin, it’s a novelty. Then refrigerators became common, making it faster and easier to chill the molds and keep them cool. (It will start to go soft above 80 degrees – not feasible in Kansas summer without a fridge!) By the middle of the 20th century serving a gelatin mold with perfect layers of food arranged within was a peak housewife skill.

By the time the WIBW cookbook was published in 1968, gelatin recipes had been passed down through generations, and they still come out at holidays. Regardless of whether it contains fruit, meat or veggies, calling it a “salad” apparently stuck too.

Late 1980s

Finally, I looked at one cookbook published during my life span. Recipes Old and New by Chapter CS of P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization, a women’s charitable organization) was published in 1989. It doesn’t say which recipes are old and which are new, but here is the kind of food that’s very familiar from my Midwestern childhood. Some recipes use packaged foods like a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, frozen peas or a can of cream of mushroom soup. (In our house we ate a lot of Hamburger Helper, another semi-homemade dish.) There are lots of casseroles, still a lot of mayonnaise and perhaps we have hit the peak of gelatin delights. Is mustard out of a jar too boring for you? Try the recipe below! 

Mustard Mousse

1 packet unflavored gelatin

¼ cup lemon juice

4 eggs

¾ cup sugar

3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

½ tsp. Salt

½ cup cider vinegar

½ cup water

½ pint whipping cream, whipped

2 Tbsp. Chopped parsley

Sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice; let stand 5 minutes to soften. In saucepan, mix eggs, sugar, mustard, salt, vinegar, and water; beat well. Add gelatin mixture. Stir constantly over moderate heat until mixture begins to thicken. Do not boil. Refrigerate until almost set. Oil a 4 cup mold. Fold whipped cream and parsley into gelatin mixture. Pour into mold and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Serves 8.

This might taste decent with a slice of ham, but it’s an awful lot of work for mustard flavor. 

Gelatin salads aside, these cookbooks are still a solid source for made-from-scratch dinners, desserts, and more, plus a peek into the kitchens of Topeka’s past. Stop by the Topeka Room and take a look!

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Q & A with the Kansas Riverkeeper

Tell us about your work as the Kansas Riverkeeper.

I have been the Kansas Riverkeeper since 2015. My primary responsibilities include monitoring, responding and mediating suspected pollution incidents to the Kansas River; facilitating educational paddle trips; and managing advocacy efforts to protect and preserve the river. As the Executive Director, I also manage the daily activities of Friends of the Kaw including staff, fundraising and grant writing. I am Governor Kelly’s appointee as Chair of the Kansas Water Authority, working on water quality and quantity issues across the entire state.   

The two things I enjoy the most about my work are first, connecting people to the Kansas River and helping them explore it for the first time. The second thing to clean up the river – the really dirty work of digging out decades old tires or just simply picking up someone else’s trash. I enjoy knowing the work we do is making the river a healthier place for us all, and hopefully a place my grandchildren will not have to cleanup like we are doing today. 

What are some of the special projects you are managing or are participating in?

One of our programs is Riverbank Restoration. We use volunteer led, public projects to demonstrate how we can remove invasive plant species and plant native plants to help protect our rivers. Removing non-native plants and returning native grasses, wildflowers, trees and shrubs will slow storm water and stabilize soil, decreasing erosion on the bank. The native plants will also filter pollutants and debris, provide habitat for wildlife, and provide food for pollinators. They are also beautiful!  These projects allow us to build partnerships along the river as well as educate the public about how important these plants species are to our rivers and streams.   

Other important projects include river cleanups, educational paddle trips, adopt-a-boat ramp program and our Kids About Water Program for schools. 

What  can the public do to participate in local water quality efforts? 

The first thing I like to say is to just be a responsible citizen and good steward of our environment. At the very core of this problem in our rivers is the need for all of us to do the right thing.   

• 

  Coreopsis is one of many native Kansas plants you can add to your yard.

  All trash is one Kansas windy day away from a river or stream. Please secure your own trash, but also pick up trash wherever you go and dispose of it properly.

• Please fix leaking cars and don’t dump anything onto the ground. When it rains, anything on top of the ground will wash into our rivers. 
• Wash your car at a car wash because the soapy water will be sent to the wastewater treatment plant to be cleaned before being returned to the river. Do not wash your car in the driveway as the soap suds go untreated to the river.   
• Plant native plants in your yard! Native plants are made for Kansas weather and won’t require wasting water, fertilizer or nasty chemicals. (See K-State Research and Extention’s list of native plants.)
  
• Get involved in your local community and encourage trash cleanups and good stormwater practices such as buffers around parking lots and anywhere you can put a buffer between the city and the river.   
• VOTE for people who will implement healthy policies.   

When we have clean communities, it also impacts whether or not people from out of town will want to come and spend money in our communities. Picking up our trash makes it a cleaner (and healthier) space for our visitors!   

Lastly, we should be good stewards of the rivers in our own communities. If it’s our trash, we should take care of it. Sending it on down the river just creates a burden for those downstream in the Missouri River, the Mississippi River and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.

Many people are surprised to discover that the Kansas River is a great source of recreational opportunities. How can we safely enjoy the river?

There are many ways to connect to the Kansas River. Explore some of these options in your community: 

• Sit on a bench along the river. Some communities offer this. If your community doesn’t, talk to the Parks & Recreation Department about getting a bench installed. 
• Take a walk or ride your bike on a levee or river trail. If you don’t have one, get involved in local efforts to bring one next to the river! 
• Fish from the banks of the Kansas River on public property. Look online at local maps to find public places to fish or call Friends of the Kaw for assistance. 
• Kayak or canoe the Kansas River with many different groups, including Friends of the Kaw! Go to our website for more details and to find local businesses that offer this service.

What are some of your most memorable experiences on the river and some of your standout observations?

Kansas Riverkeeper Dawn Buehler

My most memorable experience is the KAW 173 in 2020 where we had a team that kayaked the entire Kansas River – all 173 miles – in 9 days. We camped on the sandbars and experienced the river in a whole different way.  It was truly special and will always be one of my favorite memories.   

My favorite sections of the Kansas River include from Ogden to Manhattan, where you can see the rolling Flint Hills and feel yourself kayaking down the hills. I also love the 30 miles section from Belvue to Topeka because it is so quiet and full of wildlife.   

Some of my most favorites sights include a deer skipping across the river at dusk, two beavers that froze as we paddled by, otter tracks in the early morning along the water’s edge, and eagle tracks on a sandbar.   

The Kansas River is a National River Trail, but it is also a working river. There are hazards to be aware of such as dams, so anyone who wants to explore the river should use our River Access Map for all of the details. There are recommend flows levels for safety as well as details information about each section of the river. Beginners should go out with an experienced group for the first time to learn about the river and safety hazards. Anyone can call Friends of the Kaw are we are more than happy to help you plan your trip!   

The Kansas River is a prairie-based river – the longest in the world. As such, the sandbars are the hallmark of our river. We need to stop in-river dredging (mining for sand) and protect our prairies. The prairie protects the river and also washes the limestone that helps to make these beautiful golden sandbars.   

At the core of what we do at Friends of the Kaw is to protect our river for future generations. Join us as a member to increase our voice across the state and in the Statehouse. Join us as a volunteer to help us cleanup the river or as a Kaw River Guide to help teach the public about paddling the river. No matter how you want to give back, there is a place for you at Friends of the Kaw. Join us! We are stronger when we work together.  

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