Tag: Reformed tradition

The Smells and Tastes of Being Dutch Reformed

The Smells and Tastes of Being Dutch Reformed

What shapes an identity? What makes a community? I grew up in Dutch Reformed immigrant communities in towns and rural areas in Ontario, Canada, in the 1970s and early 1980s. My father was the “dominee” in a series of congregations from the Ottawa region to 

Dutch Imperialism? – “Little Empire on the Prairie”

Dutch Imperialism? – “Little Empire on the Prairie”

Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa, seems so innocent in this mid-twentieth century postcard from the E.C. Kropp Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But was this ethnic festival a sign of something untoward in the American heartland? Were Dutch Reformed “colonies”–as the immigrants themselves called them in