I marvel that May 8 marked the 10th anniversary of this “From the Farm” column being published in the Post-Tribune and distributed under the newspaper parent umbrella that is Chicago Tribune Media.
It was on that Mother’s Day 2016 that the inaugural column appeared, along with a featured asparagus soup recipe, following a previous 14-year history with this “From the Farm” column previously appearing in The Times newspaper of Indiana and Illinois and Lee Media Enterprises from April 2002 to November 2015.
I’m far from being the first food, recipe and lifestyles columnist published in the Post-Tribune, a more than century-old newspaper which has been in existence since it launched as the Gary Weekly in 1907, and then a year later as a daily newspaper branded as the Gary Tribune before the founders J.R. and H.B. Snyder purchased the Gary Evening Post from then-Gary Mayor Thomas Knotts.
Eventually, the two newspapers merged to introduce the Gary Post-Tribune in July 1921.
Before I joined the Post-Tribune, just a few of my predecessors included Janet Burton, food editor and columnist who was also the lifestyles editor for what was then called “The Women’s News Department.” The year I was born in 1970, Janet was fulfilling all of these roles along with a recipe column written by Betty Sacek of East Chicago, the latter who joined the Post-Tribune in the mid-1960s and stayed through 1994, while new features editor Bonnie Miller-Rubin steered the course, and later editor Diane Hayes.
Decades later, the late Barbara Rolek served as the anchor food columnist, while lifestyles columnists included Debbie Bosak, Joan Dittmann and Jeff Manes, with his popular “Salt of the Earth” column anchored on the cover of the “Neighbors” section. Before I joined the Post-Tribune as a contributor, it was Corinne Powell, consumer family science educator for the Lake County Purdue Extension Office. who penned the recipe column.
(For entertainment column reporting duties from the late 1970s through the 2000s, The Post-Tribune was equally well-covered with movie columnist, the late Jim Gordon, and live entertainment scribe Bob Kostanczuk.)
Here are the opening paragraphs of that launch “From the Farm” column in the Post-Tribune a decade later, and every word still holds true:
“Every recipe has a story. Writing a newspaper column, combining a love of family farm traditions and stories connected to reader memories, all served up weekly with the bonus of a great recipe, is a satisfying role I’ve enjoyed for 14 years. Today is Mother’s Day and the perfect day to invite readers to join me each Sunday for this column feature with my farm family and our town neighbors sharing a slice of life, full-course journey spanning past, present and what’s just around the corner. After graduating from Valparaiso University in 1992, when I began my first reporter assignment working for the editors of a newsroom, I quickly developed a fondness for the time-honored tradition of heirloom recipes shared each week on the features pages of a newspaper. Today, most households still have a beloved kitchen drawer filled with clipped recipes and promises of new menu possibilities. But having the story and origin associated with each recipe makes it even more special when shared with others. So this column not only includes my own family’s tried and tested favorite recipes, but also showcases the favorites from readers who send in their own specialties to preserve and pass along, as well as your kitchen questions for help finding recipes which might have faded from memory or seem long forgotten.”
My last published “From the Farm” cookbook, a long work in progress, was released in November 2019 and included a special celebrity foreword and chapter written by “America’s TV Mom” Florence Henderson of CBS’s “The Brady Bunch” fame. (Her work was published posthumously since she died at age 82 in November 2016.) Henderson is also one of our Hollywood Hoosier claims-to-fame and served as the traditional soloist for more than two decades, belting out “God Bless America” at the start of the telecast of each Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day race.
Earlier this month, I interviewed her TV daughter “Jan” played by Eve Plumb, who was in town to promote her new 272-page hardcover memoir “Happiness Included” (2026 Citadel Press $30). Plumb, 68, chatted with me about working with Florence and unlike Flo (who loved to cook), she admitted she leaves cooking duties to her husband Ken Pace.
Today’s column is dedicated to “Mrs. Brady” Florence, who died nearly a decade ago. Raised on a modest farm in Dale, Indiana, as the youngest of a family of 10, Florence always said buttermilk biscuits “filled bellies” and were “a menu mainstay.” Years later, she used her mom’s same recipe and “fancied them up” by including a selection of grated cheeses folded into the basic buttermilk biscuit batter.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio host at WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at philpotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Florence Henderson’s Four Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 6 dozen
Ingredients
12 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons baking powder
7 teaspoons salt
1 generous tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 generous tablespoon paprika
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
1/2 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese (or Swiss or Jarlsberg)
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup buttermilk
Directions
1. To make the mix, in a large bowl, combine well the flour, baking powder, salt pepper and paprika.
2. Add the chilled butter chunks and vegetable shortening to the mixture. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening into the flour.
3. Add the cheeses. Using a pastry cutter, cut the cheese into the dough/ The mixture should be crumbly with no large chunks.
4. If not ready to use, store the mixture in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This will keep for about 3 to 4 weeks. You can also store it in a freezer for months.
5. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
6. To make one batch of biscuits, place 2 cups of this cheese biscuit mix into a bowl. Make a “well” in the center of the mixture and pour the buttermilk into the “well.” Combine the mixture with a fork until the mixture is just blended, being careful not to overmix.
7. On a lightly floured surface, gently pat the dough out to about 1/2-inch-thick and cut the biscuits with a biscuit or cookie cutter while using all the scraps.
8. Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake the biscuits in the oven until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.
