WILKE'S

An electronic eye guard the glass doors, opening them with a swish when someone comes near. Inside you can buy a frozen chunk of food to zap with a microwave and call it dinner. There are fresh strawberries to be plucked from plastic containers - even in the middle of winter. If Fred Wilke were alive today, he'd find precious few similarities between Elkader's only grocery store and the little shop he ran in 1867 in the nearby town of Clayton Center. But Fred, an 1863 immigrant from Westphalia, Germany and the Wilkes who are selling produce, meats and staples in Elkader have a lot in common. Dave, of Elkader, is the fifth generation of Wilkes to help supply food for the consumers of Clayton County. One hundred and fifty one years after Fred Wilke opened his store, the Wilkes claim to have Iowa's oldest family-owned grocery business, a boast the Iowa Grocery Industry Association and Food Marketing Institute will back up.