Meandering from Cumberland, MD to St. Louis, MO, the National Road is a pastiche of beautiful scenery, old country stores, and quaint diners. Built in 1811, the highway is a hunting ground for antiques seekers, who pack up the station wagon every summer for the Historic National Road Yard Sale, an epic consignment sale spanning multiple days and states.
Patricia McDaniel has not only organized the yard sale for the past 10 years, she has found a special way to promote this event with the help of Cookbook Publishers.
In 2004, Patricia organized the first National Road Yard Sale to promote the many antiques and consignment businesses like hers that have long bordered the highway. The yard sale, which begins on the first Wednesday following Memorial Day, has grown into a four-day, six-state event!
Patricia has traversed Route 40 multiple times, sampling the delicious regional cuisine offered along the way. In 2008, Patricia had a stroke of genius: Why not collect regional recipes along US Route 40 and publish a cookbook to popularize the yard sale?
“Letters were sent to restaurant owners, bed-and-breakfast proprietors, food-related businesses, and individuals, requesting the best that they could offer from their particular region of a specific state,” Patricia remembered.
The result was the Historic National Road Yard Sales Volume I, which utilized custom dividers to separate recipes by the states where they originate. Each state is proudly represented not only with recipes, but with trivia and historical information, and the whole cookbook is generously seasoned with humor from front to back.
Ensuing volumes of the cookbook followed Patricia’s first success. Patricia is now in the midst of publishing her sixth installment, and has sold over 7,600 cookbooks in total.
In her six volumes, she has gleaned thousands of unique regional recipes and created an enduring souvenir that captures the spirit of the National Road.
“I like to think of the book as historical in significance, and not just as a collection of recipes. Many times, people will read the book and be encouraged to traverse down US 40 to seek their own adventure.”
Congratulations, Patricia, on your success. We’re so glad we could participate and we can’t wait to see the newest volume!
If you’re ready to create a successful cookbook for yourself, get started here.
It’s been a constant source of pleasure to work with Cookbook Publishers. I try to shop locally whenever possible, and there are several publishing companies in my immediate area, but none provide the service as well as humor that Cookbook Publishers does
