Stark County Food: From Early Farming to Modern Meals

Whether it's homemade chicken pot pie, a steak from Baker's Café or a frozen custard at Meyer's Lake, the food of Stark County has made mouths water for generations.

The region's unique soil nurtured a boom in agriculture, and growers like K.W. Zellers & Son Farms still make a living off the land today. Mom-and-pop grocery stores such as Flory's and Lemmon's served their neighborhoods. Long-gone restaurants like Mergus and Topp's Chalet created delicious dishes and cherished memories. Families like the Millers and Swaldos have created nationally recognized destinations out of simple starts. Join authors Kim Kenney and Barb Abbott as they trace Stark County's food history.

Kim Kenney earned her Master of Arts degree in history museum studies at the Cooperstown Graduate Program in New York. She became curator of the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in 2001 and was promoted to assistant director in 2017. She has authored six books, and her work has appeared in the Public Historian, White House History, The Repository, the Boston Globe, Aviation History and Mused. Kim has appeared on The Daily Show, First Ladies: Influence & Images and Mysteries at the Museum. Her program "The 1918 Influenza Pandemic" was featured on C-SPAN's series American History TV.

Barbara Abbott graduated from the University of Akron in 1992 and began a career as a naturalist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Traveling between state parks, she regularly published articles on history and wildlife for the Division of Parks and Division of Wildlife. She moved to Canton in 2004, and in 2012 started Canton Food Tours to showcase regional food and history. Named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2013, Barbara was also inducted into the YWCA's Stark County Women's Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Chapter of Les Dames D'Escoffier.