Welcome to our newly designed CAPPER’S magazine. We hope you’ll enjoy exploring this new version of an old friend as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Take a look and you’ll see that the spirit of CAPPER’S remains as strong as ever. In keeping with the philosophy handed down from Arthur Capper, who started the publication in 1879, you won’t find a depressing article anywhere in this magazine (except maybe the calorie count on some of our delicious recipes). You’ll find the emphasis on small-town and rural living that CAPPER’S has always offered, and a point of view that places us directly in the heart of the American landscape.
In this issue, for example, you’ll see friends and neighbors reaching out to connect with each other – often over many miles and even more years – as well as an appreciation of the family recipes we swap with each other and the techniques for preserving the harvest from the gardens so many of you continue to plant. There’s a celebration of barbecue, the Heartland’s “ultimate comfort food,” along with some winning recipes for you to try, and planting dates on the Facts and Folklore page, provided by the folks at Farmer’s Almanac.
CAPPER’S has always shared a “good news” approach with its readers, and it has consistently reflected what’s best about country living and small-town people throughout this great land. That won’t change – and our intention is that this new approach allows us to do even more with the resources we have.
As I edited the stories, I kept imagining our readers – you! – opening up to the article on miniature horses on Page 64, or Brenda Brinkley’s Looking Back remembrance of driving her Farmall A tractor in her father’s fields, or Kansas author Kathleen McKenzie Winn’s delightful article about preserving a little piece of pristine prairie, and thinking, “Now, who wouldn’t like that?”
My conclusion is that there is a lot here to make you happy.
I trust you’ll let us know what else you’d like to see in future CAPPER’S issues. My commitment has never been stronger for a healthy, vital rural life in the U.S.A. The country needs backbone and commitment and strong examples of how life can work for real people. I can’t think of a better group of individuals than you to help provide it.
We want to tell the very best story of rural America, and we are thrilled that you are part of it.
Onward!