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Description
Years ago I bought several B&W photos at a flea market, one of the photos was of a Fanny Farmer Harley-Davidson delivery bike. The print wasn't very good, but I always planned to do an illustration of it. Inspiration is a funny thing and when the sparks fly, you got to let them burn.

A little history. Fanny Farmer Candies was the idea of Frank O'Connor in 1919. He named the candy company after the late Fannie Merritt Farmer, (1857 - 1915). Fannie Farmer was an American culinary expert. Her Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was and still is a popular culinary reference book.

Fannie Farmer was born in Boston to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer. She was the oldest of four daughters, born to a family that valued education and they expected young Fannie to go to college, but at age 16, she suffered a stroke while attending Medford High School. Because of the stroke, Fannie was unable to continue her education. For many years, she was unable to even walk.

By age 30, Fannie was walking, but with a bad limp. She enrolled in the Boston Cooking School. She trained at the school until 1889. Fannie was considered one of the school's best students and in 1891, she became principal of the Boston Cooking School!

In 1896 Fannie Farmer published "The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook". This became her most famous and popular work. The book was an update to an earlier book called Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book, published in 1884. Under Fannie Farmer's direction the cook book eventually contained 1,849 recipes! Fannie Farmer took American cooking to a new level. For Fannie, cooking was so much more than just putting things in the oven, it was an art. In her book, she included essays on housekeeping and cleaning, canning and drying fruits and vegetables as well as nutritional information on foods. The book became the most popular cook book ever written!

That would have been enough for anyone, but Fannie Farmer didn't stop there. She eventually left the Boston school and began teaching on her own, focusing on something near and dear to her heart, diet and nutrition for the ill. She wrote "Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent". She lecture at Harvard Medical School and taught convalescent diet and nutrition to doctors and nurses. She believed so strongly in the significance of proper food for the sick. She felt that she would be remembered chiefly for her work in the field of caring for the ill, as opposed to her work in household and fancy cookery. Farmer knew better than anyone, the importance of appearance, taste and presentation of sickroom food to ill and wasted people with poor appetites. She ranked these qualities over cost and nutritional value in importance.

Throughout her career, Fannie Farmer continued to lecture, write and invent recipes. To many people in America, Fannie Farmer's name will always be synonymous with precision, organization and most of all good nutritional food!

Fannie Farmer died in 1915 at the age 57, but her contributions to American cooking and food preparation will last forever. She is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The motorcycle in case you are wondering is a 1920's Harley-Davidson sidecar utility vehicle for delivery and messengers services as well as for police and military use.

Adobe illustrator CS2, Apple G5 Power Mac, OSX Tiger.

Description
Years ago I bought several B&W photos at a flea market, one of the photos was of a Fanny Farmer Harley-Davidson delivery bike. The print wasn't very good, but I always planned to do an illustration of it. Inspiration is a funny thing and when the sparks fly, you got to let them burn.

A little history. Fanny Farmer Candies was the idea of Frank O'Connor in 1919. He named the candy company after the late Fannie Merritt Farmer, (1857 - 1915). Fannie Farmer was an American culinary expert. Her Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was and still is a popular culinary reference book.

Fannie Farmer was born in Boston to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer. She was the oldest of four daughters, born to a family that valued education and they expected young Fannie to go to college, but at age 16, she suffered a stroke while attending Medford High School. Because of the stroke, Fannie was unable to continue her education. For many years, she was unable to even walk.

By age 30, Fannie was walking, but with a bad limp. She enrolled in the Boston Cooking School. She trained at the school until 1889. Fannie was considered one of the school's best students and in 1891, she became principal of the Boston Cooking School!

In 1896 Fannie Farmer published "The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook". This became her most famous and popular work. The book was an update to an earlier book called Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book, published in 1884. Under Fannie Farmer's direction the cook book eventually contained 1,849 recipes! Fannie Farmer took American cooking to a new level. For Fannie, cooking was so much more than just putting things in the oven, it was an art. In her book, she included essays on housekeeping and cleaning, canning and drying fruits and vegetables as well as nutritional information on foods. The book became the most popular cook book ever written!

That would have been enough for anyone, but Fannie Farmer didn't stop there. She eventually left the Boston school and began teaching on her own, focusing on something near and dear to her heart, diet and nutrition for the ill. She wrote "Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent". She lecture at Harvard Medical School and taught convalescent diet and nutrition to doctors and nurses. She believed so strongly in the significance of proper food for the sick. She felt that she would be remembered chiefly for her work in the field of caring for the ill, as opposed to her work in household and fancy cookery. Farmer knew better than anyone, the importance of appearance, taste and presentation of sickroom food to ill and wasted people with poor appetites. She ranked these qualities over cost and nutritional value in importance.

Throughout her career, Fannie Farmer continued to lecture, write and invent recipes. To many people in America, Fannie Farmer's name will always be synonymous with precision, organization and most of all good nutritional food!

Fannie Farmer died in 1915 at the age 57, but her contributions to American cooking and food preparation will last forever. She is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The motorcycle in case you are wondering is a 1920's Harley-Davidson sidecar utility vehicle for delivery and messengers services as well as for police and military use.

Adobe illustrator CS2, Apple G5 Power Mac, OSX Tiger.