Group cooks up book

POLSON — Polson’s longstanding Montecahto Club has come out with their second cookbook full of recipes born out of love and a tenderness of touch.

The club was formed in 1935, as an opportunity for women living on the East Shore of the Flathead Lake to unite. As it turned out, close personal ties between the club members often blossomed in the kitchen under the rich aroma of pastries.

Since the club’s conception, the Montecahto women have brought a touch of sweetness to the area through their strong friendships and desire to give.

It is from this caretaking attitude that the organization’s scholarship program was born. For the past two years, the club has provided a $500 scholarship to a Polson High School senior, and plans to continue and expand this scholarship with the net proceeds of the new cookbook.

The 345 recipes within the carefully crafted cookbook come mainly from club  members and their families. Club members have been working on the book for about two years.

The first book the club printed was in 1964, the same year the clubhouse replaced their wood and coal stove with a gas stove. The new cookbook may have similar delicious recipes found in the first book that cost $1.50, however an extra dash of creativity has been added to the new book for good measure.

“It’s more personal than the first,” club member Carole Olson said. “These ladies are known for their cooking.”

Olson is the driving force behind the book. 

At the start of each chapter a historic overview of the area is presented, as  club members tell the story of a land where many of them have lived all of their lives.

June Peterson, the longest club member, is one such person with a wealth of knowledge on the area. She grew up in Polson, and fondly recalls various activities with her fellow club members.

Peterson used to play the bass fiddle in the club’s Kitchen Band. Women in the band played instruments they made from kitchen appliances, and took their homespun music to hospitals and various events.

“It was a cooky group,” Peterson said, adding that her instrument was made “from a washtub with a broom stick coming out of it.”

The band played washboards for about 15 years, with the accompaniment of an accomplished pianist in pinafores and a conductor with a rolling pin.

Peterson said the club began as a social gathering place for everyone in the family, but became a women’s club in the 1940s.

Club members have a rich history of social and civic outreach. The women purchased war bonds, prepared bandages and knitted for Red Cross during the second world war. The club members have hosted several dances over the years, bake sales, friendship teas, harvest dinners and have a history of furnishing cookies for the Finley Point Fire Department fundraiser in June.

“Whenever there’s an activity we’ll be there with our cookbooks and cookies,” said Peterson.

“We’ve continued to maintain old values,” club member Dorothy Stoner said, adding that it is these supportive women who keep the group together.

The women of the club are strong and confident, they welcome new members with open hands and warm eyes. Apparent in the club’s history and the member’s actions is the club creed they follow daily as club members “strive to touch and to know the common human heart.”