blue ribbon recipe

Every so often, the museum receives a donation that includes a cookbook or recipe card. Sometimes the recipes are familiar comfort foods still served on many Thomas County tables. Others… well, let’s just say some recipes are best left in the past. This series highlights some of those recipes: from the classics to the experimental. If you try any of these recipes, successfully or not, let us know what you think in the comments!

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I have to warn you — there might not be a big history lesson in this blog. The History Center has been aflutter with students from all over our county coming in to get some last-minute learning done before the school year wraps up. But when you’re running around with very excited students all day, you need to keep your energy up and fuel your body with plenty of electrolytes. That’s why today’s blog features a recipe from our collections for a blue-ribbon winner that is sure to help you muster through while also tasting delicious: Squash Pickles.

This recipe comes to us from Clara Hargrave (1910-1998). Clara was one of six kids born to the Hargrave family in Thomasville. Her father, Walter Davis Hargrave (1876-1966), was the business manager of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise for over 50 years, a trustee for Abraham Baldwin College in Tifton, and a founding member of the Thomasville Chapter of Kiwanis. Like her father, Clara furthered her education after high school by attending Valdosta State University. She went on to work as a secretary for the Veterans Administration and later worked with the Chamber of Commerce. As the Hargrave children grew up, they donated many family items that cement their place in Thomas County’s history – including this recipe!

Squash Pickles

4 cups thinly sliced young squash

2 cups thinly sliced onion

3 cups sugar

2 cups vinegar

2 teaspoons whole celery seeds

2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds

1 tablespoons salt

4 bell peppers (can use Green and red Bell Peppers)

Place squash and onion and salt in container and let stand one hour. Cut up Bell Peppers and place with other ingredients and boil. After one hour has elapsed drain squash and onion of liquid that has accumulated. Place squash and onion in boiling liquid and boil approximately 2 minutes. Do not boil too log as we do not want squash soggy. Then place pickles in scalded hot jars and seal.

(Above is Blue Ribbon recipe, which calls for 4 cups squash. Brooks County Recipe calls for 8 cups of squash. I used 5 cups of squash. Emily Milton used 8 cups of squash and said it makes up just fine that way.)

C. Hargrave 5/31/76