In August of 2023, the Elizabethtown Fair will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and fair committee members want to commemorate one of the most-loved parts of the fair - the food. To mark the occasion, the committee is compiling a cookbook of fair foods and more.

"We would like to include the community, and we are seeking recipes," said Sally Nolt, fair secretary. "We're hoping some people who had winning recipes at the fair will submit them."

This will be the second time the fair committee has created a cookbook, she noted. "We did one for our 25th anniversary, and we had a number of people who asked if we could do one for the 50th," she stated, adding that people still request copies of the previous cookbook. The first cookbook was called "Making Memories," and Nolt said the new cookbook will be titled "Making Memories II."

Although the titles are similar, the books will be different, Nolt noted. "We want to make this cookbook bigger than we originally thought we would," she stated. "We originally planned only to ask for recipes from fair participants, but then we decided to appeal to the wider community for recipes."

She also noted that the cookbook will be filled with more than just food ideas. "We will have a page with a brief history of the fair," she stated. "We're also hoping to include recipes beyond food, for things like kids' Play-Doh."

For her part, Nolt will be submitting her mother's spaghetti sauce recipe and a recipe for Jell-O salad. She noted that other recipes could be for dishes in any of the categories typically found in a cookbook, along with foods entered for competition at the fair, such as apple dumplings, pies, cakes, cookies, candy and jam.

Recipes can be emailed to Etownfair@pafairs.org or brought to the information booth at the fair in August. People who submit award-winning recipes are asked to note the award on the submission. All submissions should also include a name and contact information. The deadline for recipe submission is still being finalized, but Nolt expects it to be at the end of the September, with the finished book ready for pickup at the fair's chicken barbecue in May of 2023. To submit a recipe by mail, contact Nolt at 717-367-7256.