By John Andrews

I had never been to Freeman's Schmeckfest until last Friday night. As a lifelong South Dakotan I'm almost ashamed to admit that, but it's true. It's even more embarassing considering I've lived just 30 miles away for the past four years. At least I had the "but it's two hours away" excuse when I lived in Lake Norden and Brookings.

But my wife and I had a great time. In fact I'm kicking myself that I didn't go sooner. It reminded me of Sunday dinner at grandma's 10 times over. Servers in red and white checkered aprons just kept bringing food.

The meal is served family style, so servers wheel carts loaded with food right up to your table. You start light, with soup and salad. As a Schmeckfest rookie, I loaded my plate with lettuce, not realizing that stewed beef, sausage, sauerkraut, fried potatoes and cheese buttons were right behind. I asked our waiter, the friendly Jeremy Waltner from the Freeman Courier, if they had bigger plates. I shouldn't have worried because all the food made a second pass around the table.

Of course we overdid it, which is not a good thing since I'm taking part in the magazine's "Biggest Loser" weight loss challenge. Better luck next week.

As I talked to people over the weekend, many said they've always wanted to go, but just never have. Well, there's no time like next weekend (weather willing).  Serving goes from 4-7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Freeman Academy. As of this morning there were 460 tickets left for the Friday meal, but only 75 for Saturday. To get tickets, visit Schmeckfest online.

We'll have more on Schmeckfest and other small town ethnic gatherings in our May/June issue.

By Ruth Steil

We like cake here at South Dakota Magazine. But, who doesn’t — especially cake with a caramel filling? While skimming through recipe books, I came across a recipe for Caramel Latte Cake. It starts with a box mix that makes it easier, but the topping on the cake is real whipped cream. Actually making whipped cream is easy, too. Over the years I’ve let the convenience of store-bought topping override my memories of how really good whipped cream is. I guess I’m not the only one who’s forgotten judging by the size of the whipped topping section at the grocery store.

The cake goes together much more easily than the name might indicate. The caramel layer uses canned dulce de leche, caramelized sweetened condensed milk. This is something I’d never used before. I thought it might be hard to find, but luckily a Yankton grocer carries it in the Mexican foods section. The lattte part of the name comes from the espresso added to the cake and filling. But, here again, it’s simple to do because you use instant espresso coffee granules.

Our staff is my tasting committee and they liked the cake. It’s a rich, but not too rich, flavorful dessert; one of the tasters said it reminded her of tiramisu.

Here is the recipe. Try it sometime even if you use store-bought topping.

Caramel Latte Cake

Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon instant espresso coffee granules
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
3 eggs

Filling
1 can (13.4 oz) dulce de leche (caramelized sweetened condensed milk)
1/2 cup hot water
3 tablespoons instant espresso coffee granules
1 tablespoon dark rum or 1 teaspoon rum extract plus 2 teaspoons water

Frosting and Garnish
1 cup whipping cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
2 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped or 1 teaspoon cocoa

Heat oven to 350 degrees for shiny metal or glass pan (or 325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13X9-inch pan with baking spray with flour

Place cake mix in large bowl. In separate container, stir warm water and 1 tablespoon espresso granules until dissolved. Add espresso mixture, butter and eggs to cake mix. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds; scrape bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes longer. Pour batter into pan

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on cooling rack 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour dulce de leche into medium microwavable bowl. In small bowl, mix 1/2 cup hot water, 3 tablespoons espresso granules and the rum; stir into dulce de leche until smooth. Microwave uncovered on high 2 to 3 minutes, stirring after about 1 minute with wire whisk, until pourable. Set aside while cake cools.

Poke cooled cake every 1/2 inch with handle end of wooden spoon. Pour dulce de leche mixture evenly over cake; spread mixture over top of cake with metal spatula to fill holes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cover; refrigerate 2 hours.

In medium bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar on high speed until stiff. Spread whipped cream evenly over chilled cake. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate or cocoa. Store covered in refrigerator.

* From Betty Crocker’s “Super Moist Cakes” Cookbook

By John Andrews

It used to be that West River ranchers were so isolated on their spreads it was a big deal to communicate with people who didn't live in the same house as you. Not so with the Internet.

I found a neat Web site run by Matthew Trask, a 30-year-old rancher near Elm Springs in Pennington County. Hubba's House provides nearly daily updates of what's happening on the Trask Ranch. Matthew writes a blog, posts weekly podcasts and writes about other aspects of ranch life.

Wednesday's post gives a quick summary of the blizzard that walloped a large part of West River earlier this week. "We're still digging out, and it's not pretty," Trask writes. "On the plus side it never got very cold, and we didn't lose electricity. On the minus side, we're getting reports of buried cattle. We hope most of the reports are exaggerated, but we do know of one cow of ours who was buried and died."

Photo: Webmaster Matthew Trask

I wasn't that impressed when Chicagoans placed plastic cows all over their city. What's wrong with real cows?

And then I saw a plug for artificial fireflies. Are they that hard to find in most parts of the United States these days? They are as thick as, uh, flies in the creek below my house. Maybe I should be charging admission. Or capturing and marketing them?

Readers of David Laskin's riveting book The Children's Blizzard might remember the story of the Jerauld County teacher and her students who became lost in the 1888 blizzard and tied themselves together with scarves so no one would fall behind. Finally the teacher and the kids came upon a haystack with a pitchfork. The boys were able to dig a hole in the side of the stack. The small band of survivors sat in the straw throughout the long night, singing and telling stories to stay awake.

Hundreds of youngsters and adults died in that awful storm but teacher May Hunt kept her charges alive. Local historians kept track of the kids. Addie Knieriem lost a frozen foot to amputation. Fred Weeks was celebrated as the hero who dug the hole with his little brother.

But how about the steady teacher, Miss Hunt? Little was known about her until — according to this week's Wessington Springs True Dakotan — a letter arrived recently in the mailbox of the Dunham Historical Society in Jerauld County. It came from Bradford Hedrick of LaGrange, Ill., who read Laskin's book and decided to send his great-grandmother's handwritten memoirs of Dakota Territory.

She was the teacher who kept her students alive 121 years ago.

She came to Dakota Territory with family members and dreamed of having a ranch here and raising beautiful horses. But two weeks after the blizzard a young man she'd known back East arrived by train to propose. It was agreed that they would marry in the fall and her fiance said she would never have to spend antoher winter in this "Godforsaken place."

It was our loss but we're glad she was teaching in Jerauld County for awhile. Some very hardy South Dakotans can be traced to the children she kept alive.

by Roger Holtzmann

FOLKS IN THE Black Hills who woke up under a couple feet of snow yesterday might not believe it, but it’s true: spring is on the way. I know this is so because I spotted my first toilet sitting by the curb this morning.

Like many cities, Yankton stages a citywide clean-up each spring. Residents can put items they aren’t normally allowed to put out for garbage pickup and the city hauls it away for free. Over the next few weeks our normally tidy community will see mounds of brush, refrigerators, ratty couches and more than a few toilets all over town.

This rite of spring also proves the old adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Some of our more creative residents have been known to prowl the streets in search of treasure. A chair that could be made serviceable again with a bit of glue. Sheets of tin. Lengths of pipe. A few 2X4s. An old sink that no longer fits in with the original owner’s décor that might be just dandy in another’s workshop. You never know what you'll find lying by the curb.

Including hope that winter will soon be over!

By John Andrews

Celia Benson's new book chronicling the history of Minnehaha County's rural schools started with a small, black and white photo of a one-room school. "The schoolhouse is gone, and soon, few people will remember it ever existed," she writes. "The picture itself is one-of-a-kind. What was to become of it?"

Benson, of Fergus Falls, Minn., stopped by our magazine office last week to show us what became of it. She spent over three years gathering other photos, maps, stories and documents for her 379-page history. She says it's one of the best sources available on country schools, because it has items that can't be found in the state archives or other libraries.

Though the book is about Minnehaha County schools, all South Dakotans who attended a one-room school will find familiar stories. Two photos in particular have resonated with readers. One shows students during their favorite noontime activity: hunting gophers. They stand with shovels, brooms and baseball bats, waiting for the little critter to stick his head out of the hole. A short accompanying story says one student remembers drowning 48 gophers in one noon hour.

The other photo shows students standing by sacks of milkweed pods. Students gathered them to help soldiers during World War II. Milkweed floss was used to fill life jackets when kapok became unavailable. Students got 20 cents per bag.

Rural Schools of Minnehaha County: 1871-1971 is available at the Old Courthouse Museum in Sioux Falls or by contacting Benson at cjbens@prtel.com.

By Bernie Hunhoff

I thought all horses were wild until I was a teenager. Every horse that ever stepped foot on our Yankton County farm was a terror. However, to be honest, we probably never spent more than $25 for a horse. In fact, I remember that on at least one occasion the neighbors gave us a horse if we could catch it and get it home.

Now that I'm older I realize that some horses are safe to ride. But I still appreciate the spirit of a wild horse. About 25,000 mustangs still roam free on public lands in 10 western states. We don't have herds on public lands here in South Dakota, but we have two refuges — the very well known sanctuary at Hot Springs run by author/naturalist Dayton Hyde (who we've written about on several occasions) and another near the tiny town of Lantry in Dewey County operated by Karen Sussman who, like Dayton, has devoted much of her life to preserving the wild horses of America.

We'll have a story on Sussman in our May/June issue. Her place is very different from the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, which provides thousands of acres for unwanted horses. Sussman's smaller operation is devoted to studying and preserving the genetics and cultural behaviors of herds that can be traced for centuries.

Horse and man have a bond that automobiles and airplanes haven't severed. Sussman notes almost all cultures and civilizations in world history have depended on horses for companionship and dog meat and everything in between.

We'll always have horses but there's a debate over whether we'll always have true wild horses — not the untrained brats that we had on the farm but the truly feral herds that have developed their own culture apart from man's hand.