Recipes from the Heart

Copyright 2009 Morris Press Cookbooks

Recipes from the Heart is a wonderful recipe book filled with 224 pages of Recipes provided by residents of Wilber. You will find recipes for Czech dishes such as Rye Bread, Kolaces, Poppy Seed Cake, Dumplings, Ham Loaf, Pork, Sauerkraut, Kuba, and Liver Dumpling Soup. To learn more about this recipe book, read the Forward below.

Forward

In1962, the City of Wilber, Nebraska, held the first Wilber Czech Festival. That same year, several Women grouped together to form "The Promotion Committee". The ladies sewed Czech costumes, decorated dolls, crocheted hot pads, embroidered tea towels, and made miscellaneous craft itms in their homes. During the Czech Festival, the Promotion Committee displayed and sold these items in the Wilber Manufacturing Co., Inc. building downtown.

The Promotion Committee bought a building located at 216 West 3rd Street in 1973 and donated it to the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber. At this time the organization became known as the Wilber Czech Craft Shop. Many improvements, all financed by the Craft Shop, have been made to the building throughout the years.

The Wilber Czech Craft shop held a quilt raffle for many years, with the quilting being done by ladies of the community.

The hand embroidered ladies' Czech costumes and men's decorated Czech shirts with vests have been sold nationwide -- complete Czech Wedding party in California, small wedding in Iowa, Czech shirts and vests for a band in New York, and a Czech blouse and apron for Dolly Parton. Some Czech costumes were also made for Willa Cather's O Pioneer!, Hallmark Hall of Fame production that aired on CBS-TV.

During the Czech Festival, which is held the first full weekend of August each year, the Wilber Czech Craft shop sells their products under a large white tent on the street in front of their building. Throughout the year, the ladies take their product to several promotional events. New merchandise including craft items are continually being added.

The Wilber Czech Craft Shop, a non-profit organization, has made many donations to local organizations and assisted financially in many local community projects.

Currently there are 14 members of the Executive Board of the Wilber Czech Craft Shop. Over 100 women have participated in the development of the shop, either as members, seamstresses, quilters, or volunteers during Czech Days over the years.

An attempt was made to contact all of these women, or their families, to add their favorite recipes to this Recipes of the Heart cookbook. We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to this endeavor of the Wilber Czech Craft Shop.