Thirty-two hundred copies of the 2016 Oley Fair Cookbook have been printed and are ready to be distributed at the 70th Annual Oley Community Fair.
The cookbook features 2015 winning contest recipes in addition to community submissions. Dena Kauffman, fair treasurer and member of the Cookbook Committee, says more than 450 recipes are included.
All of the main food categories such as canned goods, soups, baked goods, desserts, meats, main dishes, vegetables, and side dishes will be represented in the book. Some of the winning recipes included will be Apple Pie, Chocolate Cake & Bar, Cookie, Shoo-Fly Pie, and Angel Food Cake Recipes.
The community recipes were submitted in fall of 2015 primarily from Berks County residents. There were also some submitted from across the country.
Since then, committee has been working to enter and proof all of the submissions. Kauffman said nearly all the submissions were accepted; only duplicates were eliminated.
This cookbook will be the second cookbook ever compiled for the fair.
“We put a book together 10 years ago of similar size,” said Kauffman. That year the committee had ordered a thousand books and they were sold out on day one.
This year the committee chose to order the 3,200 books due to the high demand last time.
“We’re hoping that will get us through the whole fair,” she said.
Along with each recipe, the name and the location of the person are listed. The book will include a custom drawn cover, a history of the fair and old fair photos.
The sales kick off Saturday, Sept. 10, during entry tag pickup at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the week of the fair. Kauffman expects a lot of people to make their purchase ahead of the fair weekend. The cookbooks are $15 each (cash or check) and will be available for purchase at Fair Centre.
