Daughter Ayn, at right, in the pantry
Bessie Trigger And The Harvest Haus
From James Donahue’s Journal
The restaurant located directly across the street from my office was the local gathering place for the men in town to have their mid-morning coffee breaks. It became an excellent place for me to meet and get to know people when I first arrived in the area, and quickly became an important stop each day to pick-up on the local chatter about things going on in and around the community. I received many good story leads from just listening to the things the people were talking about in that place.
When I first arrived in town the restaurant operated under a different name and was a somewhat run-down old establishment. The food served was nothing outstanding and I marveled that it was still in business. But when it fell under new ownership, the place was completely remodeled and given its new name. After that, the Harvest Haus was the “in” place to hang out.
The food now was good, and we usually had to take early lunch breaks to get a place to sit during the noon hour. The Friday night fish fries were the best. They served all you could eat and adopted the corn bread recipe from our cook book to serve with the fish.
An outstanding feature of the restaurant was the pies. One of the waitresses, a grey-haired older woman named Bessie Trigger, was the pie baker. She would come in around five o’clock every morning to make and bake her pies before the restaurant opened and got busy. They were so good that everybody wanted a piece of pie either with their coffee or with their meals.
I interviewed Bessie, took her picture and wrote a nice feature story about her wonderful pies. That was about the best thing I could have done for both Bessie and that restaurant. After that Bessie’s pies became a hallmark of the Harvest Haus.
I told Bessie that her pies were as good as those my mother used to make. And I meant that. To be fair, my wife, who learned the skill of good pie making from not only my mother but from her own, cranks out good pies too. But neither of them made all of the variations that Bessie produced.
Bessie was so proud of her fame she started inventing new pie concoctions. Among the best of her inventions was peanut butter pie, something that I liked so much I made sure she saved me a piece every time she made one. She also made a great rhubarb-strawberry pie, and all of the other standards including lemon, chocolate, apple, cherry, peach and blueberry pies. I still have fond memories of Bessie Trigger and her pies.
After our daughter, Ayn, worked at the Harvest Haus, the place almost became a second home to me. Some nights, especially after the Friday night fish fries, there was so much extra food left over Ayn would bring home buckets of fish. We would heat it up for a meal the following day.
From James Donahue’s Journal
The restaurant located directly across the street from my office was the local gathering place for the men in town to have their mid-morning coffee breaks. It became an excellent place for me to meet and get to know people when I first arrived in the area, and quickly became an important stop each day to pick-up on the local chatter about things going on in and around the community. I received many good story leads from just listening to the things the people were talking about in that place.
When I first arrived in town the restaurant operated under a different name and was a somewhat run-down old establishment. The food served was nothing outstanding and I marveled that it was still in business. But when it fell under new ownership, the place was completely remodeled and given its new name. After that, the Harvest Haus was the “in” place to hang out.
The food now was good, and we usually had to take early lunch breaks to get a place to sit during the noon hour. The Friday night fish fries were the best. They served all you could eat and adopted the corn bread recipe from our cook book to serve with the fish.
An outstanding feature of the restaurant was the pies. One of the waitresses, a grey-haired older woman named Bessie Trigger, was the pie baker. She would come in around five o’clock every morning to make and bake her pies before the restaurant opened and got busy. They were so good that everybody wanted a piece of pie either with their coffee or with their meals.
I interviewed Bessie, took her picture and wrote a nice feature story about her wonderful pies. That was about the best thing I could have done for both Bessie and that restaurant. After that Bessie’s pies became a hallmark of the Harvest Haus.
I told Bessie that her pies were as good as those my mother used to make. And I meant that. To be fair, my wife, who learned the skill of good pie making from not only my mother but from her own, cranks out good pies too. But neither of them made all of the variations that Bessie produced.
Bessie was so proud of her fame she started inventing new pie concoctions. Among the best of her inventions was peanut butter pie, something that I liked so much I made sure she saved me a piece every time she made one. She also made a great rhubarb-strawberry pie, and all of the other standards including lemon, chocolate, apple, cherry, peach and blueberry pies. I still have fond memories of Bessie Trigger and her pies.
After our daughter, Ayn, worked at the Harvest Haus, the place almost became a second home to me. Some nights, especially after the Friday night fish fries, there was so much extra food left over Ayn would bring home buckets of fish. We would heat it up for a meal the following day.