The Proof Is in the Dough examines how rural white and African American women in Alabama and Florida used the Cooperative Extension Service’s home demonstration programming between 1914 and 1929 as a means to earn extra income. Kathryn L. Beasley explores an area of rural women’s history that has not been closely examined-that is, how rural American women involved with home demonstration used the skills they learned as a way to better themselves economically. Furthermore, Beasley traces how this extra income allowed these women to shape their own producing and consuming habits.