With both love and talent for cooking, Mathews County resident Linda Braxton spends a couple days each week baking. From her baking, rolls, Bundt and pound cakes are ready for prospective buyers by 8 a.m. each Saturday at the Mathews Farmers’ Market. For special orders, Linda spends even more hours opening and closing the oven door.

“I didn’t get into really cooking until I was in my early 20s,” Linda confessed. “Growing up, I did a lot of watching. My father was an excellent cook. He was a cook on a fish steamer and at home. He was always telling me to watch and see how it’s done. It was my grandmother who I also watched and maybe did a few cooking things with every now and then.”

This cherished cookbook is the basis of Linda Braxton’s cooking.

Linda probably learned more from her grandmother than she realizes. “In my early years of cooking I was trying to make a cake. When it didn’t look right, I called my grandmother. After asking me a few questions what I had done, she to...