There’s a great page on Facebook where people from Jamestown reminisce about the good old days of our city, asking questions, posting pictures, remembering the way things were. Like a lot of small American cities, the good old days were the best days, when a place was at its peak of prosperity and the people who lived there enjoyed a good standard of living, had few worries, and felt nestled in the crook of American life.

We long for that time. I long for it in this column often.

Someone wrote in last week and asked about Hedberg’s Bakery. If there’s one thing people seem to miss, it’s that bakery and what it represented to them. A store like that can symbolize the ethos of a community, and in the case of Hedberg’s, it stood as a time when a little bakery wasn’t overshadowed by corporate grocery stores and perfectly reflected the tastes and culture of a community.

One contributor wrote in to ask whether the bakery had sold its cake recipe to another store, and the granddaughter of the owner of Hedberg’s wrote in to say she didn’t believe so, but lamented she couldn’t bake like her grandfather. And then everyone chimed in, saying they missed their birthday cakes from there, or they remember that’s where their wedding cake came from way back when. “I miss it whenever I drive by,” someone wrote. One of the bakers from Hedberg’s wrote, “He (Mr. Hedberg) was a very patient man and a great teacher. You never wanted him to look over the top rim of those glasses at you. You knew you screwed up! I know for a fact that when Wegman’s first opened, I was a baker there and it was at that time the store manager and bakery manager begged his widow to sell them all the recipes, especially the vort limpa, almond tarts, etc. And she turned them down flat. I was blessed to work with him and learn those things. What people don’t understand is I would stand next to him and do the same measurements, mix, knead, and it never could compare to his. If you’re a baker or chef, you get it.”

What a great comment! I’m wondering if this writer and baker could recreate the bakery. I know time marches on, but does it have to? Do we have to always be so gracious about letting go? I’m so grateful to Ecklof’s for keeping the tradition going and in gratitude, let’s all go buy a Swedish cookie there today. It’s convenient to buy at the grocery store, I know, but it takes true effort to keep our old-time favorite stores open and thriving.

It appears Mr. Hedberg had all his recipes memorized so they live in the vaults of time now. Some of the favorite baked goods mentioned were cinnamon rolls, cardamon rolls, chocolate sponge cake, Swedish rye bread, raspberry filling with whipped cream frosting, and daffodil cake. One woman wrote in and said she had their rye bread recipe, but she wouldn’t share it.

Maybe we should have a vault that houses and preserves all the favorite recipes of time past in Jamestown because so many should and deserve to stay alive.

Another person remembered: “My father delivered for Hedberg’s and I passed out the groom’s cake at the Pembridge wedding. I still have a cake knife from Hedberg’s.”

Another remembrance: “My birthday cakes came from Hedberg’s – chocolate chiffon with chocolate frosting. The best. Sure wish I had that recipe. I also loved their sweet rolls – nine in the pan. Nine cinnamon rolls baked in a square pan.”

Food historians talk about the purposeful balance in Nordic baking. Luxuries like butter, sugar and cream are used in moderation, not in excess – balanced with just the right amount of spice to give the finished product a clean flavor. A Swedish cinnamon bun only contains one spice – cinnamon. When you bite into the soft, pillowy dough of your cinnamon bun you aren’t overwhelmed by other flavors, you just get cinnamon. The same is true of other classic Scandinavian sweet pastries like cardamom buns – cinnamon, cardamom and saffron were spices discovered by the Vikings long ago, and that’s why they are still used today.

Nothing is used for the sake of it in Swedish baking. Everything has a place. Perhaps that’s why we remember and love our Swedish bakeries. We remember the taste of tradition and our own histories. Once Hedberg’s, and now Ecklof’s, help to preserve it for us.