“Stories for the Season,” a collaborative project launched by the library in 2020, has evolved from simple readings of public domain holiday tales into an elaborate production featuring historic recipes, local history and multiple community partners.

The program was conceived during COVID-19 restrictions when in-person gatherings were limited. LeRoy Harris from the New Ulm Public Library developed the concept as a way to maintain community connections during a difficult period.

“It started in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 restrictions,” Harris said. “I came up with the idea of doing a winter holiday series of readings that NUCAT could film for us to share with patrons while there were still restrictions on in-person programming.”

The initial series featured readings from old holiday stories in the public domain and true holiday stories from previous eras. Harris selected the theme and curated the readings, working with NUCAT to film the presentations for distribution to library patrons.

A still frame of the video "Stories for the Season at NUPL 2023 Episode 4.” In the video, Leroy Harris recounts significant historical blizzards that impacted New Ulm, Minnesota, detailing the severe conditions, widespread damage to infrastructure and property, and profound effects on daily life and the community from 1866 to 1940, including the Armistice Day Blizzard, the intense storms of 1866 and 1873, and the damaging blizzards of 1881, 1892, and the winters of 1916-1917 and 1935-1936. Submitted photo

The program has run every year since its inception except for one, due to a lack of readers.

Each year’s series centers on a different theme. This year marks a significant departure with its focus on historic recipes, the first time the program has ventured into culinary territory.

“Recipes are a new topic, and this is the first year we haven’t filmed down in NUCAT’s studio,” Harris said.

The 2025 series features recipes sourced from vintage cookbooks, some dating to the 1880s, presented through readings and cooking demonstrations filmed in a kitchen setting rather than the studio environment used in previous years.

The historic recipes presented production challenges due to vague instructions, missing measurements and obsolete ingredients.

A still frame of episode 11 of "Stories for the Season at NUPL 2020.” The speaker Peter Buckley is talking about The Christmas Truce of 1914 an extraordinary event during World War I where soldiers from opposing sides spontaneously stopped fighting and fraternized. Submitted photo

“The directions would say something like, ‘heat in a medium brown oven.’ Like what does that mean?” Harris said.

Despite these difficulties, the prepared recipes, often made with dense, whole-grain flour, were successful.

“My bottom line is they all tasted good,” Harris said.

The collaboration has expanded since the first season. What began as a partnership between the library, NUCAT and State Street Theater has grown to include the Brown County Historical Society and, this year, The Grand Center for Arts & Culture.