Last month, I published a recipe for “Deer Egg Nog,” a homemade concoction to ward off hungry landscape destructive deer and the dreamed-up elixir from the late master gardener-turned-PBS TV host Jerry Baker.
Readers “got a kick out of” this unappetizing recipe provided to me from an old magazine clipping saved by the parents of farmers’ daughter friend Ann Scamerhorn down the road.
I wasn’t very familiar with Baker, who died at age 85 in March 2017, and I revealed that in the previous column, which became the catalyst for readers to set me straight on Baker’s notoriety and claim-to-fame.
While some people mentioned Baker’s contrasting earlier career in the 1960s as a Detroit undercover cop, others cited that he began his landscaping and green thumb chapter working for the Kmart Corporation, creating their model for their garden centers. Michigan-based Kmart launched their first
store in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.
Because of Kmart Corporation partnerships and advertising sponsorship opportunities, Baker was soon booked as a favorite guest on afternoon television talk shows of the 1970s, especially Dinah Shore’s daytime TV show called “Dinah’s Place,” as well as her afternoon chat fest TV show host
contemporaries, which included bookings on the talk shows of Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas.
Baker’s first best-selling book, titled “Plants Are Like People” and published in 1971, provided funny fodder for late night TV host Johnny Carson, who was amused by Baker being one of the first to promote the notion of “talking to your plants.” Baker gained so much media attention about the topic that it
inspired his second book “Talk to Your Plants” in 1973 and helped Baker to become an occasional guest on “The Tonight Show.”
By the 1990s and into the 2000s, Baker was the TV host of his own popular PBS gardening series. His signature claim-to-fame was to answer viewer’s questions about gardening troubles and offer unorthodox homemade remedies using everyday ingredients to spray on plants or mulch around flower
and vegetable garden beds. Mouthwash, tea bags, beer and cola, tobacco and ammonia were among some of his favored and most frequent ingredients for “yard witch’s brew.”
By 1982, Baker was “back to his roots” when named the national gardening spokesperson for Kmart Corporation’;s Garden Centers, a role he continued with until 1996.
From 1987 to 2007, Baker fielded the questions of gardeners, both novice and professional, as the host of a national call-in radio show called “On the Garden Line,” aired by ABC Mutual Broadcasting Network.
But of all the reader feedback, the most common “fun fact” about the fame associated with Jerry Baker came from the reveal that he was the longtime “celebrity pitchman” in promotional commercials for a garden tool device called “The Garden Weasel,” a forked pole tool used to break-up and aerate
compacted soil. The opening line in all of his commercials began with: “If you’re into gardening like I am…”
Today, Baker’s second wife Shirley and his large family of children and grandchildren continue to enjoy his gardening reputation, with his name lent to his active website www.jerrybaker.com and his Facebook page.
Dinah Shore, who died at age 77 in 1994, published multiple of her own cookbooks. She loved cooking segments on her talk show, in addition to gardening segments.
Breakfast menus ranked among Dinah’s favorite offerings.
“Sunday brunch or Sunday morning breakfast is a big deal,” Dinah wrote as the 1971 narrative for her favorite breakfast casserole, referencing her daughter Melissa.
“It has to be to make up for all the grouchy weekdays when everybody is in a hurry and you’ve forced pancakes or eggs or hot cereal in place of the cold packaged ones the kids want and everybody goes his separate way full of food and hostility. Sunday brunch usually takes place at a respectable hour so everybody can sleep late, including Mom, who still has time to read the paper and get a special breakfast together. A quick egg-baked casserole is ideal.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Dinah Shore’s Sunday Baked Eggs
Makes 6 servings
Casserole:
2 Tomatoes sliced medium thick
8-10 eggs (figure on two per person)
6 slices of ham, thinly sliced and cut into wide strips
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter
1/2 cup grated American cheese
Cheese Sauce:
1/2 cup of either Cheddar, Monterey Jack or Swiss Cheese (or combination of all), cubed
2 heaping tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup plus two tablespoons milk
Dash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Dash of Tabasco sauce (optional)
Directions:
1. To assemble casserole, line buttered baking dish with ham and layer tomato slices flat on ham and salt and pepper generously.
2. Make cheese sauce by melting butter in pan and blend in flour before adding milk very gradually, stirring constantly. When smooth and thickened, add bits of cheese, salt, pepper and a dash each of Worcestershire and Tabasco.
3. Break eggs over tomatoes carefully. Cover with Cheese Sauce.
4. Top casserole generously with grated American cheese, bread crumbs and butter dots.
5. Bake in preheated 325-degree oven for 20 minutes (or longer if harder cooked eggs desired).
