Mansfield Recipes & Memories Cookbook

Get A Taste Of History In This Collection Of Recipes

MANSFIELD RECIPES & MEMORIES

One day in the early 1920's, a 12-year old girl walked from Diamond, Indiana to Mansfield, Indiana and arrived on the doorstep of the Harmless family farm. With a bucket and scrub brush in her hand, the exhausted youngster explained in broken English that she'd heard the family could use some help.

That day was a milestone for Anna Soltis Chiles — one that marked the beginning of an affectionate relationship with the Harmless family that spanned three generations.

It also signaled the beginning of Anna’s culinary career, which lasted nearly 80 years. It all started with the first notable pies she sold at the Covered Bridge Festival. The Harmlesses employed dozens of laborers on their expansive farm. Working side by side with family members, Anna helped feed them all.

Through her cooking and other chores, she formed strong bonds with the Harmless family, and especially the daughter, Anna Ernestine Harmless, who was her namesake. She also discovered, judging by the many compliments she received, that she was quite a good cook.

In 1944, when Anna married and ventured out on her own, the Covered Bridge Festival gave her a prime opportunity to continue baking for a crowd. Anna and her husband, Fay Chiles, purchased a small farm with a brick house in Mansfield, on a main festival route. As tourists traveled through the town each autumn, they’d drive up the hill to the Chiles’ red brick house.

Anna would be waiting with hundreds of pies, baked throughout the year and preserved in a deep freezer just for the occasion. Anna and her pies quickly became legendary among Covered Bridge Festival guests, and her fame continued until her death in 1993. Today, Ann’s legacy is preserved in a cookbook — "Mansfield Recipes & Memories" — and through folks like Ernestine, to whom she passed on her many baking secrets.

Her recipes, included in the cookbook, live on — like the one for her renowned mincemeat pie, and others which were recovered from original hand-written texts.  Available for $14.00 from Fox's Overlook at Mansfield Village.  Click here and order your copy today!