A city girl in the country: Lynda Kappel among bakers chosen for Home of Economy-Herald contest
Aug. 9—MANVEL — Many contestants in the Home of Economy-Grand Forks Herald Pie Bake-off grew up on farms and learned the intricacies of cooking and baking as part of their childhood chores.
With Lynda Kappel, it's somewhat reversed.
Kappel, of Manvel, grew up in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minn. And while she enjoyed a good childhood in the lakes country and had a mother that taught her about baking, she didn't quite have the rural upbringing that others in the upcoming contest had.
"My mother was either in the garden or the kitchen. Now, she's gone and I'm kind of taking over that role, in a way," Kappel said. "I'm kind of doing (the Home of Economy-Herald contest) for my mother. I always thought that had I grown up on a farm, I would have joined 4-H because I like crafts, too, so I figured, 'Hey, I'm going to give this a shot.'"
Kappel is among the 16 contestants chosen by the Herald to participate in the baking tournament, which begins Aug. 22 and runs four weeks. She is sponsored by Wall's Medicine Center, of Grand Forks.
The idea behind the event is to highlight some of the region's best pie-makers — and also to showcase the pies that they make.
Kappel, a paraeducator in the Manvel School District, is a wife (her husband is Steve) and mother of a grown daughter. She bakes solely for fun and says she's "definitely a hobbyist."
When contacted by the Herald to inform her that she's been chosen to participate, Kappel had only recently finished baking a strawberry-rhubarb pie, utilizing fresh ingredients from her garden.
Turns out the city girl who missed out on a rural upbringing has made her way out of the city. Her mother used to tell her: "You would have loved living on a farm."
Well, now she does.
"We live on a two-acre farm here (near Manvel)," Kappel said. "We have two (Labrador retrievers) and two cats and I'm just outside all the time with my flowers and the garden and the produce out there. I'm just a city girl in the country."
And with the transition has come a return to baking. After spending her early years watching her mother painstakingly roll out crusts and master all of the other intricacies of baking, Kappel started really delving into the hobby in her late 20s.
"I just started baking and cooking. I do enjoy it, although I kind of cut back on it a bit — because of the waistline," she said. "I love to make pies and cakes and things like that. It's just one of my zens. It relaxes me."
