On this fourth day of Christmas I spent the morning writing thank-you notes and eating holiday treats, including shortbread from Emily. Baked in a decorative pan, this traditional Christmas gift is as beautiful as it is delicious. At our family celebration in Wisconsin, I admired the designs produced by Emily’s new pan. According to manufacturer Brown Bag Designs, “In the early years of our country, farm wives decorated their home-made butter by stamping it with carved wooden images. This shortbread pan reinterprets nine of these antiques designs to decorate shortbread – the best butter cookie of all.”
Emily’s “Plank Road” shortbread pan, officially titled American Butter Art by Brown Bag Designs
The nineteenth-century Yorkville families may well have used wooden butter stamps featuring images such as these.
At our Christmas celebration Emily and I conducted our own reinterpretation of the nine designs. We offer our list to readers:
- The fruit basket featuring an apple reminds us of Will McEachron’s orchard
2. The pineapple, symbol of hospitality, reminds us of Vin Mather’s welcoming guests to the Mather Inn
3. The acorns and oak leaves remind us of the oak grove near Gran Mather’s cabin and the lone oak on the Doanes’ front forty
4. The horse reminds us of the race between Big Jim Doane’s chestnut stallion and David Banvard’s sorrel mare
5. The eagle reminds us of Old Abe, famous Civil War mascot of the Eighth Wisconsin infantry and later emblem of J. I. Case Equipment in Racine
6. The cow reminds us of livestock exhibited at the Racine County Fair and the Plank Road families’ new dairying venture
7. The wild rose reminds us of the flowers in Grace Caswell’s Midsummer wreath and the hedgerows alongside the Yorkville settlers’ graveyard
8. The sheaf of wheat reminds us of harvest time in Yorkville and farm wagons traveling the plank road to the Racine harbor
9. The heart reminds us of the Plank Road community’s love and care for family, neighbors, and strangers
Plank Road Stories 
Additionally, our family Christmas at the McEachron homestead included Hilda’s wassail–which we were able to drink, not use for dousing fires as happened in “Plank Road Winter.”