Judy Pitzer, of Shepherdstown, stirs a pot of steamer meat in the New Street United Methodist Church kitchen earlier this year. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — New Street United Methodist Church has made a name for itself in the local community, as a source for good cooking.

Throughout each year, the church hosts a number of food-centered community events, including spaghetti dinners, pancake breakfasts, high teas and the Shepherdstown Peach Festival.

According to Rev. Dee-Ann Dixon, this food-minded focus is consistent with most of the churches in the United Methodist denomination. And with such a focus, it was only natural that the church would choose to publish a cookbook of its members’ recipes every few years.

“2012 was the last cookbook that we put out,” Dixon said. “We did it ourselves, with a committee leading the process. It was a lot of work!”

Church member Denver Hipp began working on producing a new cookbook this past spring, with a committee composed of 10 of the church’s cooks: Kathy Blue, Nancy Cleaver, Carol Feaster, Laura Foglesong, Carol Goldthorpe, Becky Lidgerding, Judy Pitzer, Margaret Rose Smith, Jennifer Wabnitz and Shirley Wiltshire. Due to the challenges experienced with self-publishing the last cookbook, they all agreed it would be best to work with a publishing company this time around. They did some research and decided to work with Morris Press Cookbooks, which published the cookbook at the end of September.

Rev. Dee-Ann Dixon, left, stands beside cookbook contributor Carol Goldthorpe, across the street from New Street United Methodist Church on Tuesday morning. Tabitha Johnston

According to Goldthorpe, working with Morris Press Cookbooks was a good experience overall, though it did pose at least one challenge to the cookbook committee — the requirement to feature at least 1,000 recipes in the cookbook. This stipulation, rather than ending the project, gave the committee a new idea — to solicit recipe submissions from community members and turn it into a community-wide publication.

“It’s a community cookbook made with over a thousand recipes from the Shepherdstown community,” Goldthorpe said. “These are really good, homemade recipes. It was a labor of love!”

The committee was thrilled to see an overwhelming amount of interest from the local community, receiving a number of submissions to add to those from the church’s cooks. Along with these submissions, favorite recipes from previous cookbooks were also selected for republication — particularly, those submitted by cooks from the church who are still fondly remembered today: Lucy Ellen Waldeck, Agnes Tabler, Annabel Osbourn, Lavetta Fraley, Reva Kave, Bettie Wiltshire, Gerre Maddex, Evelyn Mason, Mary Parkinson, Mary Runion and Virginia Hawn.

“It’s been a lot of fun, to look at some of the recipes and think about the old folks who contributed them,” Dixon said, mentioning one of these cooks was a cook at Shepherdstown Elementary School for years, while another was a longtime 4-H leader. “I could remember when we ate some of these recipes, way back when. What a great way to honor their memories!”

The community cookbook can be purchased at the church, located at 202 West New Street, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is also being sold at a number of local stores and, for the next three weeks, at the Shepherdstown Farmers Market.

“They make wonderful Christmas gifts — they’re memorable and feature recipes from a lot of folks!” Goldthorpe said. “There are recipes in it from people from all five churches in town and people that have lived in the community that are no longer here, but who wanted to be part of it.”

Proceeds from the cookbook sales will be used to upkeep the church’s historic building, which was built in 1854.