Here’s a delicious way to learn about Minnesota history

From the Oliver Kelley Farm to the Split Rock Lighthouse, the Minnesota Historical Society’s summer program is an all-you-can-eat buffet of activity, with main dishes of exploring and fun and a side of learning.

“A Recipe for Adventure” sends curious seekers on a culinary quest to 13 of its historical sites and museums across the state to collect recipe cards to fill a “cookbook” peppered with bite-sized historical facts. There’s even dessert.

It follows the Historical Society’s successful scavenger hunt last year celebrating its 175th anniversary, but on a much smaller scale.

“We tried to think of what could we do, again, that gets people to engage in Minnesota history,” said Jacob Rorem, public program specialist at the Minnesota Historical Society. “Because we have the Julia Child exhibit coming this fall, we thought this could be a good appetizer, so to speak, to get people excited about the connection between food, history and culture.”

Rorem also said it’s a chance to learn more about Minnesota’s cookbook history, which will be a part of the “Julia Child: A Recipe for Life” exhibit opening at the Minnesota History Center on Sept. 27. In addition to the 50-plus books from the Minnesota Historical Society Press, the exhibit will weave in community cookbooks produced throughout Minnesota history.

“It was a win-win in a lot of ways,” he said.

As with any exhibit, plenty of thought and expertise went into curating this culinary collection. Rorem worked with each site to brainstorm food-related tie-ins for the booklet: a story, a recipe card and a corresponding MNHS cookbook to spotlight.

“Some of them, though, were kind of happenstance,” Rorem said.

The staff at Split Rock Lighthouse told Rorem stories about the keeper’s daughters picking wild blueberries near the Two Harbors landmark. That led to thinking about recipes that featured blueberries, but also Minnesota cooking. Stephanie Hansen’s “True North Cabin Cookbook” — and her recipe for a summer salad featuring blueberries — was the answer.

“Sometimes it started with the cookbooks, and sometimes it was looking for cookbooks that might tie in,” Rorem said. “And I was pleasantly surprised that so many of our publications really tied in well to the recipes we ended up selecting.”

Recipes run the gamut from cakes, soup and salads to kid-friendly projects like do-it-yourself butter and frozen treats.

As a Historical Society program specialist, Rorem is tasked with helping to create programming that has wide appeal, which is a reason why “A Recipe for Adventure” weaves historical facts in with the recipes, and has a “shopping list” of activities to encourage participants to get to know Minnesota’s culinary scene outside of its sites, too.

Rorem even found himself learning a thing or two.

When working with the Mill City Museum on its recipe for the booklet, the classic Tunnel of Fudge Bundt cake, Rorem discovered that Ella Helfrich’s 1960s second-place Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe captivated home cooks and launched Minnesota’s Nordic Ware into the national spotlight. You can no longer make the original recipe; it used a discontinued Pillsbury frosting mix.

So Rorem set off on his own recipe adventure. He connected with a writer from Slate magazine who was doing similar Tunnel of Fudge research and worked with a food scientist at Pillsbury to reverse-engineer the discontinued frosting mix and get it in recipe form.

“It’s very fun to have an updated recipe that re-creates that original, celebrated cake recipe,” Rorem said.

No sharing the recipe, though — you’ll need to stop by the Mill City Museum for that.

“We want to make it as accessible as possible,” Rorem said. “We want to give people the opportunity to have it be a scavenger hunt-style element this summer, but we also want to make it a broader offering to folks who aren’t able to do that.”

How it works: Stop by one of the 13 participating sites to pick up a booklet and complete an activity to earn a recipe card to affix in the booklet.

Where: Participating sites are Charles Lindbergh House & Museum, Little Falls; Forest History Center, Grand Rapids; Historic Forestville, Preston; Historic Fort Snelling, St. Paul; James J. Hill House, St. Paul; Jeffers Petroglyphs, Comfrey; Mill City Museum, Minneapolis; Mille Lacs Indian Museum & Trading Post, Onamia; Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul; Oliver Kelley Farm, Elk River; Snake River Fur Post, Pine City; Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors; and the Minnesota History Center, St. Paul.

Ends: The program runs through October, once the Julia Child exhibit is underway.

Tip: Be sure to check on hours for the various sites, especially after Labor Day. Recent budget woes and layoffs also have led to reduced hours at some locations.