Join the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York for a field trip to Adirondack farms and a local farmer’s market. Field trip farms include Rivermede Farm at Snowslip, Lake Placid, N.Y., Tucker’s Taters Farm, Gabriels, N.Y., and the Ponderosa Poultry Farm, also in Gabriels. The day will include a stop at the Saranac Lake Village Farmer’s Market, as well as lunch at the Eat ‘N Meet restaurant in Saranac Lake, N.Y.
The Farm Field Trip will be held on Saturday, August 21, 2010. Pre-registration is required. The day will begin at 9:30 a.m. in Lake Placid, N.Y. and end at 5:00 p.m. in Gabriels. Participants will use their own cars or carpool with others. Driving directions will be sent upon registration. Sensible clothing and sturdy shoes are suggested. The cost will be $50 for museum members and $55 for non-members. For additional information or to register, please contact Jessica Rubin at (518) 352-7311, ext. 115 or at jrubin@adkmuseum.org.
The field trip day will begin with an introduction and presentation, “Adirondack Farming History,” by museum Curator Hallie Bond at Rivermede Farm at Snowslip.
A tour of Rivermede will follow. Rivermede Farm at Snowslip is owner Rob Hasting’s “new” farm. Hastings has been farming at Rivermede in Keene Valley, N.Y. for over twenty years.
The group will then move on to Saranac Lake, N.Y. and the opportunity to explore and enjoy the Saranac Lake Village Farmer’s Market.
Lunch will follow at the Eat ‘N Meet restaurant where chef and owner John Vargo is committed to using local foods. The menu at Eat ‘N Meet represents time-trusted recipes and classic European technique – with South American, Caribbean, African, and Asian influences.
At 2:00 p.m. the tour will visit Tucker’s Tater Farm in Gabriels, N.Y. Tucker Farms has been a family enterprise since the 1860’s. Steve and Tom Tucker – 5th generation owners – have diversified the farm to alleviate ebbs and flows in the economy. They have added specialty variety potatoes to their list of crops including “All Blue,” “Adirondack Blue,” “Adirondack Red,” and “Peter Wilcox” – a purple skinned yellow flesh variety.
The day will come to a close at Ponderosa Poultry Farm, also in Gabriels. A chicken and duck ranch, the farm includes lupines, dahlias, gladiolas, and a small garden.
The Adirondack Museum will host its annual Antiques Show and Sale this weekend, August 14th and 15th. Forty-five of the country’s top antique dealers will offer the finest examples of premium vintage furnishings and collectables. For a complete listing of dealers, visit the “Exhibits and Events” section of the Adirondack Museum web site at www.adirondackmuseum.org.
Show hours will be 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on August 14, and 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on August 15. The Antiques Show and Sale is included in the price of general museum admission. The 2010 Antiques Show and Sale will include: vintage Adirondack furniture, folk art, historic guideboats and canoes, genuine Old Hickory, taxidermy, books and ephemera for the collector, fine art, oriental and Persian rugs, camp and trade signs, Olympic advertising, and everything camp and cottage.
A shipping service will be available on each day of the show. Porters will be on site to assist with heavy or cumbersome items.
Rod Lich, Inc. of Georgetown, Indiana will manage the show. Rod and his wife Susan Parrett have 32 years of experience organizing premier antiques shows throughout the country. To learn more about Rod Lich, Inc. visit www.parretlich.com.
The Antiques Show Preview Benefit will be held on August 14 from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Guests will enjoy exclusive early access to the show, a champagne brunch, and music. Proceeds from the benefit will support exhibits and programs at the Adirondack Museum. Preview benefit tickets are $125 and include admission to the Antiques Show and Sale on Saturday and Sunday. To reserve tickets call (518) 352-7311, ext. 119.
Dogs will be welcome at the Adirondack Museum this Saturday, August 7th. The now legendary celebration of all things canine — “Dog Days of Summer” — will return for a fourth year. In 2009, 159 dogs of all shapes, sizes, and breeds participated in this event.
Visitors and their pets can explore all that the Adirondack Museum has to offer and enjoy a variety of dog demonstrations, programs, and activities. All dogs are welcome when accompanied by well-behaved owners. The event will include a few simple rules and regulations for pups and their people: dogs must be leashed at all times; owners must clean up after their pets – special bags will be available; dogs will only be allowed on the grounds – not in the exhibit buildings; Doggie Day Care will be available throughout the day at no charge, with the understanding that dogs cannot be left for more than an hour; poorly behaved or aggressive dogs will be asked to leave the museum grounds with their owners.
Sheep herding demonstrations will return this year. Sarah Todd of Dog Days Farms will herd with a variety of breeds including a Belgian sheep dog, Bearded Collie, German Shepherd, an Old English sheep dog, and an Appenzeller. Visitors can watch these amazingly skilled animals work at 2:30 and 4:00 p.m.
“Dog Days” demonstrations will include “Dancing With Dogs” at 12:00 noon. An informal workshop for visitors and their own dogs will follow. Join members of the Adirondack High Peaks Training Club for fast-paced routines. The talented dancing dogs include German Shepherds, Corgis, Labs, Rotweiller, Border Collie, and Australian Shepherd.
Watch a variety of skilled dogs and their handlers, the “JAZZ Agility Group,” go through their paces on an agility and obstacle course featuring hurdles, weave poles, and tunnels, at 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
The annual “pooch” parade will include a costume contest this year. The parade will begin at 1:00 p.m. Gift certificates from Benson’s Pet Centers will be awarded category winners, and there will be participation prizes for all. Benson’s Pet Centers are located in Queensbury, Clifton Park, and Albany.
The Lake Placid Pub and Brewery will sponsor an “Ubu Look-Alike” contest as part of the festivities. Not that long ago, Lake Placid, N.Y. was home to Ubu, a legendary chocolate lab with a nose for great beer. Ubu’s story is still going strong, thanks to Ubu Ale, the brewery’s signature beer named in honor of the dog. Is your “best friend” an Ubu double? Chocolate labs can vie for the honor and a gift certificate for the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery.
Lake Placid Pub and Brewery will also offer samples of Ubu Ale and other craft beers at “Dog Days.” Participants must be twenty-one years of age.
Adirondack storyteller Bill Smith will tell “Tall Tails,” humorous stories about people and their dogs at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Chris Shaw will provide music at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.
Special presentations will be held in the Mark W. Potter Education Center. At 11:00 a.m. Lois, Alea, and Andy Rockcastle will offer “From Sprint Mushing to the Iditarod: Tales of the Trails.” At 11:30 a.m. Lisa Godfrey and Elizabeth Folwell, contributors to the Shaggy Dog Press publication Dog Hikes in the Adirondacks, will talk about their favorite trails and experiences hiking with dogs.
In addition, Ralph Holzhauer will offer “Fur Under the Desk,” based on his book of the same title. The book tells the real-life story a teacher and dog lover who introduced dog therapy and dog-assisted special education at his school. Finally, Museum Curator Hallie Bond will discuss “Canine Tourists in the Adirondacks” at 3:00 p.m. Historic photographs from the collection of the Adirondack Museum of dogs on vacation over time will illustrate Bond’s presentation.
From 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. “Doggy Booths” featuring great regional working dogs and organizations will be open. Participants include: Champlain Valley K-9 Search and Rescue Dogs; the Schenectady Chapter, Therapy Dogs; Tri-Lakes Humane Society; North Country SPCA; and Canines Can Do. Dog owners and representatives will answer questions about the training, care, and work of special dogs.
“Dog Days of Summer” will also include an expanded agility course for visiting dogs, “Say Woof,” a photo opportunity for dogs and owners, and special story hours for puppies and kids at 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Visitors are asked to bring a donation of food, toys, or cleaning supplies to the museum on “Dog Days.” A drop-off spot will be located in the Visitor Center. The museum will deliver donations to regional animal shelters.
This year’s “Dog Days of Summer” event was made possible by generous support from Nancy and Lawrence Master. Photo: “Everybody Smiles Here,” The Antlers Hotel on Lake George ca. 1930. Photo by Alfred Santway; collection of the Adirondack Museum.
In 1916, the New York Commissioner of Agriculture reported that Essex County is “by far the most broken and mountainous section of the state.” In spite of the fact that “only about one-third of the area of the county is in farms and only about one-eighth improved farms, yet there is a remarkably good report of agricultural production.” County farmers produced 96,383 bushels of corn in 1915, along with barley, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, and hay and forage.
Corn has long been a staple food in the Americas. It is a domesticated plant, bred from a wild grass native to southern Mexico nearly 7,000 years ago. Its use as a cultivated food plant in the northeastern United States began about 1,000 years ago. Although the Adirondack climate is not generally conducive to agriculture, there are pockets in the valleys and surrounding areas where the growing season is long enough, and the soil rich enough, to grow corn. The vegetable was one of the staples of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) diet. European settlers in the region grew corn where they could, not only to feed themselves, but to feed their livestock as well. As settlement and tourism in the region grew, Adirondack hotels and resorts kept kitchen gardens to feed guests. Adirondack families grew their own vegetables, preserving what they did not eat in season for the long winter months. Locally grown corn was featured on the menu for human and animal consumption.
Although the Commissioner’s 1916 report indicating that most crops grown in Essex County were produced “for the supply of camps, cottages, hotels, and summer tourists,” by the late 1800s, some northern New York farms were growing enough corn to export to wholesale dealers in cities like Boston, Syracuse, Rochester, Watertown and New York City.
During the Depression, newspapers like the Malone Farmer offered advice on creating healthy and inexpensive meals. In October, 1931, readers were advised that “as for cost, corn preparations are among the more economical of the common foods. Two pounds for five cents is the average price per pound by bulk for both corn meal and hominy.”
A regular column, called the “Market Basket,” offered readers tips on shopping, canning, cooking, and sample menus. The May 20th, 1931 edition also included a recipe for corn soup:
2 cups canned crushed corn 1 cup water 1 quart milk 1 onion, cut in halves 1 tablespoon flour 4 tablespoons butter Salt to taste Pepper
Combine the corn and the water, cook for 10 minutes, and stir constantly to keep from sticking to the pan. Press the corn through a strainer. Heat the milk and the onion in the double boiler and thicken with the flour and fat, which have been well blended. Add the corn pulp, salt, and pepper, Heat, remove the onion, and serve. Buttered popcorn makes an interesting substitute for croutons to serve with corn soup.
Adirondack farmers hosted “husking bees” during harvest. Families and neighbors gathered together to remove cornhusks before cooking for a crowd. In Willsboro, an unidentified farmer or family member used a small wooden peg, pointed on one end and held with a strap of leather to the thumb as an aid in removing husks from many ears of corn. Made by hand near the turn of the 20th century, it would have made such a repetitive task easier.
Come see the corn husker (76.163.12), and other corn-relates artifacts in ‘Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions” at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, on exhibit this season through October 18, 2010.
Corn Husker Found in Willsboro, NY ca. 1890-1930 76.163.12 Gift of Dennis Wells
The past decade has been one of rapid transformation in the Adirondack Park according to North Country Public Radio’s Brian Mann, who will discuss this phenomenon and its implications for the future in a program entitled “Adirondack Park 3.0” on Monday, August 2, 2010 at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
Part of the museum’s Monday Evening Lecture series, the presentation will be held in the Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. There is no charge for museum members. Admission is $5.00 for non-members. NCPR’s Adirondack Bureau Chief, Mann has been on the front lines during ten years of change in the Park. He will lead a discussion of how environmental stewardship and community sustainability are being changed by new technology, new ecological threats, and a new political landscape.
Brian Mann has covered rural America for twenty years, working for public radio stations and networks from Alaska to New York. His award winning stories appear regularly on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 2005 and 2006, Mann won four separate Edward R. Murrow Awards.
In addition to his work for NCPR, Mann is a commentator for Mountain Lake Public Television. He is the author of Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America’s Conservative Revolution. He lives in Saranac Lake, N.Y. with his wife and son.
On Thursday regional chefs competed in a trial by campfire at the Adirondack Museum as part of “The Adirondacks Are Cookin’ Out.” Each chef selected his own menu; all cooked over an open fire. Tony Zazula, Sally Longo, and Suvir Saran judged the competition. The cook-off resulted in a tie between Chef Tom Morris, Chef De Cuisine at the Mirror Lake Inn, Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Chef Stephen Topper, Lorenzo’s al Forno in the Copperfield Inn, North Creek, N.Y. Photo: Back row, left to right: Chef Tom Pollack and Chef Kevin McCarthy, Paul Smith’s College; Chef Tom Morris, Mirror Lake Inn, Lake Placid, N.Y.; Chef Stephen Topper, Lorenzo’s al Forno, North Creek, N.Y.; Sous Chef Kevin Gardner, barVino, North Creek, N.Y.
Front row, left to right: Chef Luke Bowers, barVino, North Creek, N.Y.; Tony Zazula, co-owner of Commerce, New York, N.Y.; Sally Longo, a chef and owner of Aunt Sally’s Catering, Glens Falls, N.Y.; Suvir Saran, a respected food authority, television personality and consultant worldwide, and Chef Eric Hample, The Cellar Restaurant, Long Lake, N.Y.
The Adirondack Museum will hold a special event, “The Adirondacks are Cookin’ Out,” on Thursday, July 29, 2010. A highlight of the day will be a “top chef” competition – Adirondack style. Outstanding regional chefs will compete in a trial by campfire. Visitors are invited to watch and cheer them on as guest judges choose the winner of this outdoor cooking challenge.
Competitors include: Chef Kevin McCarthy, former Executive Chef at The Point in Saranac Lake, N.Y. and the Lake Placid Lodge, Lake Placid, N.Y., now a faculty member at Paul Smith’s College; Chef Stephen Topper, former Executive Sous Chef at The Sagamore on Lake George, Executive Chef at Friends Lake Inn, Chestertown, N.Y., and currently at Lorenzo’s al Forno in the Copperfield Inn, North Creek, N.Y. Also, Chef Richard Brosseau, Executive Chef at the Interlaken Inn and Restaurant, Lake Placid, N.Y.; Chef Luke Bowers, Executive Chef, barVino, North Creek, N.Y.; Chef Tom Morris, Chef De Cuisine at the Mirror Lake Inn, Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Chef Eric Hample chef and owner of The Cellar Restaurant in Long Lake, N.Y.
Tony Zazula, co-owner of “Commerce,” a contemporary American restaurant in Greenwich Village, Suvir Saran, a respected food authority, television personality, and consultant worldwide, and Sally Longo, a chef and owner of Aunt Sally’s Catering, Glens Falls, N.Y. will be judges for the Campfire Cook-Off.
The Campfire Cook-Off will begin at 11:00 a.m. Each chef will select his own menu; all will cook over an open fire. Judging will take place at 1:00 p.m.
The Chefs:
Chef Tom Morris Chef Morris is the Chef De Cuisine at the Mirror Lake Inn, Lake Placid, New York. Tom worked under chefs Serge Roche and Pierre Couvin at the Three Clock Inn in Londonderry, Vermont and was sous chef at the Three Mountain Inn in Jamaica, Vt. Tom returned home to the Adirondacks in 2007 to complete his studies and join the Mirror Lake Inn under Chef Paul Sorgule. In 2008 Tom was on the team for the “Taste of the Adirondacks” dinner at the James Beard House. He has been involved in the Vermont Fresh Network and the Adirondack Harvest Association and strives to utilize the bounty of fresh ingredients the mountains provide in New York and Vermont.
Chef Eric Hample Chef Hample graduated from Paul Smith’s College in 2002 with an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts and a concentration in baking. He has worked at various local restaurants in multiple positions and in Syracuse as a pastry chef for two and a half years. He now owns and operates The Cellar Restaurant in Long Lake, N.Y. with his wife Brooke and partners Ali and Michelle Hamdan where they pride themselves in consistent, fresh, and delicious food at fair prices.
Chef Luke Bowers Chef Bowers is Executive Chef at barVino, North Creek, N.Y. barVino is a restaurant, wine bar, and live music venue. Under Chef Bower’s leadership the chic rustic menu uses many local products and changes seasonally to incorporate the freshest possible ingredients.
Chef Kevin McCarthy Chef Kevin McCarthy took local Adirondack ingredients to new heights as Executive Chef at The Point, Saranac Lake, N.Y. and Lake Placid Lodge, Lake Placid, NY. He has appeared in numerous trade and travel magazines and was featured in the PBS documentary “The Adirondacks.” McCarthy currently lives in Saranac Lake and has recently joined the faculty of Paul Smith’s College. Chef Stephen Topper Chef Stephen Topper was the Executive Sous Chef at The Sagamore Resort on Lake George, N.Y., moving next to the role of Executive Chef at The Friends Lake Inn in Chestertown, N.Y. His elevation of the menu offerings to match the Inn’s impressive wine list won numerous awards. Chef Topper was the chef at Saratoga Polo –Catering & Events, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. before coming to Lorenzo’s al Forno at the Copperfield Inn, North Creek, N.Y.
Chef Richard Brosseau Richard Brosseau is the Executive Chef of the Interlaken Inn and Restaurant in Lake Placid, N.Y. He draws inspiration from the rich local farming community in the Adirondacks to add dimension to his menu. He has been featured on “Live! with Regis and Kelly” as well as PBS’s “Roadside Recipes” and has received numerous Wine Spectator Awards for the wine list he has compiled at the Interlaken Restaurant.
The Judges:
Tony Zazula Tony Zazula is the co-owner of Commerce, a restaurant in Greenwich Village, featuring an upscale, contemporary American menu with Asian, French and Italian accents. Zazula began his career at the famed Tavern on the Green in New York City. He went on to gain invaluable experience at the St. Regis Hotel where he was the Director of Food and Beverage, and at The Plaza where he was the Catering Sales Manager. Zazula has also worked at Windows on the World as Vice President of Sales and Catering, and The Rainbow Room.
In 1985 Zazula and partner Drew Nieporent opened the award winning Montrachet, marking the revitalization of Tribeca and playing a critical role in shaping the neighborhood’s status as a hip and desirable section of Manhattan. During it’s 20-year span, Montrachet maintained a reputation of excellence. When not in New York City, Zazula enjoys spending time at his family summer home in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y.
Suvir Saran A respected food authority, Saran has been featured in Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Travel & Leisure, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine and many other national publications. Television and radio appearances include: The Food Network, “Next Iron Chef”, “The Martha Stewart Show,” NBC “Today”; and the Travel Channel’s “Epicurious TV.” Saran is also a featured chef in the national public television series “How To Cook Everything: Bittman Takes On America’s Chefs” (2005) and “Food Trip with Todd English.” When he is not on the road teaching and learning, Saran enjoys working on his 68-acre American Masala Farm in upstate New York.
Sally Longo Sally Longo is the chef for and owner of Aunt Sally’s Catering, a renowned local catering company in the Adirondacks. For over 18 years Longo has catered dinners and parties for families, businesses, and private camps. She is the host and associate producer of the popular regional cooking show “Dinner at 8” and has appeared on “Sixty Second Helpings” for WNCE News. Longo teaches cooking classes and has published on food and catering.
Tasting, Presentations, and Music Lake Placid Brewery will offer a tasting of their award winning products – including Ubu Ale, the brewery’s flagship beer — from 12 noon until 4:00 p.m. Visitors must be twenty-one years of age to enjoy the sampling; ID will be required.
Visitors can expand their own cooking skills by participating in demonstrations and food-related talks throughout the day. At 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. smoking and grilling will be the hot topics. Join Susan Rohrey (grilling) and John Roe (smoking) to learn more about both techniques.
The presentations “Edible Adirondack Mushrooms” and “Wild Vegetables of the Adirondacks” with Jane Desotelle and “Pairing Beer & Food” with Christopher Ericson, founder, owner, and brewmaster of Lake Placid Brewery will be offered in the museum’s Auditorium. Times will be posted.
Intermountain Trio will offer three sets of classic folk and rock in the Marion River Carry Pavilion at 12:00 noon, 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Oh! My old kitchen cook stove, to time now surrendered, How well I remember the day you were new. As so proud in your newness, you stood in my kitchen So black and so shiny, and fair to my view. How oft, by your side, in the years that have vanished I have held my firstborn to your genial heat And the years in their passing, added still others ‘Till your hearth was surrounded with dear little feet….
Lucelia Mills Clark, a farm wife from Cranberry Lake, wrote this ode to her cast iron cook stove in 1899. Her verse reflects the iconic status of the 19th century cook stove in the American imagination—as the heart of the home, a place where families gathered and generations spent time together, when life was simpler. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Museum will celebrate National Picnic Month on July 10, 2010. Activities are planned from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. All are included in the price of general museum admission. Children twelve years of age and younger will be admitted FREE of charge as part of the festivities.
“Picnic in the Park” will include displays, tableaux, special presentations, music, a Teddy Bear’s Picnic just for kids, cookbook signings, demonstrations, menus, recipes, hands-on opportunities, and good food, as well as the museum’s new exhibit, “Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions.” Visitors are invited to bring their own picnic to enjoy on the grounds or purchase sandwiches, salads, beverages, and desserts in the Cafe. Picnic tables are scattered throughout the campus.
The event will showcase “Great Adirondack Picnics”. Ann S. O’Leary and Susan Rohrey will illustrate how the use of design and menu planning can create two Adirondack picnics. A Winter’s Repast, En Plein Air – an elegant New Year’s Eve celebration will be set in a lean-to. The Angler’s Compleat Picnic will feature local products in a scene reproduced from a vintage postcard. Both women will be available from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to speak with visitors, and provide menus and recipes to take home.
To round out the elegant picnic theme, Chef Kevin McCarthy will provide an introduction to wines and offer tips on how to best pair wines with picnic foods. The presentations will be held at 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Special presentations will be held in the museum’s Auditorium. Curator Hallie E. Bond will offer “Picnics Past in the Park” at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Varrick Chittenden, founder of Traditional Arts of Upstate New York (TAUNY) will present “Good Food Served Right: North Country Food and Foodways” at 1:30 p.m.
In addition, Sally Longo, chef and owner of Aunt Sally’s Catering in Glens Falls, N.Y. will offer “Fun Foods for Picnicking with Kids” in the Mark W. Potter Education Center. “Savory Foods and Snacks” will begin at 11:30 p.m. “Sweet Treats and Desserts” will be presented at 3:00 p.m.
Museum visitors can create their own Adirondack picnic fare at home. From 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., regional cookbook authors will sign and sell their work in the Visitor Center. Participants include the Upper Saranac Lake Cookbook with Marsha Stanley; Good Food, Served Right, with Lynn Ekfelt; Northern Comfort with Annette Neilson; Stories, Food, Life with Ellen Rocco and Nancy Battaglia; and Recipes From Camp Trillium with author Louise Gaylord.
Tom Phillips, a Tupper Lake rustic furniture maker, will construct a traditional woven picnic basket in the Education Center from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Visitors will discover displays about “Picnics and Food Safety” as well as the many uses of maple syrup (recipes provided) with the Uihlein Sugar Maple Research and Extension Field Station staff.
Guided tours of the exhibit “Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions” are scheduled for 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.
Singer, songwriter, and arts educator Peggy Lynn will give a performance of traditional Adirondack folk music under the center-campus tent at 2:00 p.m.
The Museum Store will be open from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., featuring a wide array of North Country-made food products as well as a special “farmer’s market.”
Do you have an exceptional bed quilt or pieced wall hanging that was made in, inspired by, or depicts the Adirondack region?
The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake is seeking quilts for “The Second Annual Great Adirondack Quilt Show” to be held from September 14 to October 17, 2010. The show will be part of the museum’s Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival and will complement the exhibit “Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters.”
There will be two divisions in the show. Historic quilts (those made before 1970) can be of any theme or technique, but must have been made in the Adirondacks. Modern quilts (those made after 1970) should have a visible connection to the Adirondack region.
An eligible quilt might depict an Adirondack scene in appliqué or be composed of pieced blocks chosen because the pattern is reminiscent of the region – “Pine Tree,” Wild Goose Chase,” or “North Star,” for example.
A “People’s Choice” award will be presented to one quilt in each division.
Although the show will not be juried, applicants must complete a registration form prior to September 11, 2010. A statement by the maker is required to complete the application process. For additional information or to receive an application, please contact Hallie Bond via email at hebond@adkmuseum.org , by telephone at (518) 352-7311, ext. 105, or through the postal service at P.O. Box 99, Blue Mountain Lake, NY, 12812.
Photo: Winner of the “Best in Show” award at the quilt show held as part of the Adirondack Museum’s Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival on September 19, 2009. The quilt is “Poppies” and was made by Betty deHaas Walp of Johnsburg, New York, in 2006.
During the nineteenth century, a number of Adirondack Indians marketed their skill as hunters, guides, basket makers, doctors, and cooks.
On Monday, July 5, 2010 Dr. Marge Bruchac will offer a program entitled “Venison and Potato Chips: Native Foodways in the Adirondacks” at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. Bruchac will focus attention on what might be a lesser-known Native skill – cooking.
The first offering of the season for the museum’s Monday Evening Lecture series, the presentation will be held in the Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. There is no charge for museum members. Admission is $5.00 for non-members. Nineteenth century white tourists paid good money to purchase wild game from Native people, to hunt in their territories, to buy medicines and remedies, and to eat in restaurants or lodgings where Indians held sway in the kitchen.
Dr. Bruchac will highlight stories of individuals such as Pete Francis, notorious for hunting wild game and creating French cuisine; George Speck and Katie Wicks, both cooks at Moon’s Lake House and co-inventors of the potato chip; and Emma Camp Mead, proprietress of the Adirondack House, Indian Lake, N.Y., known for setting an exceptionally fine table.
Bruchac contends that these people, and others like them, actively purveyed and shaped the appetite for uniquely American foods steeped in Indigenous foodways.
The Adirondack Museum celebrates food, drink, and the pleasures of eating in the Adirondack Park this year with a new exhibition, “Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions.” The exhibit includes a 1915 photograph of Emma Mead as well as her hand-written recipes for “Green Tomato Pickles” and “Cranberry Puffs.”
Marge Bruchac, PhD, is a preeminent Abenaki historian. A scholar, performer, and historical consultant on the Abenaki and other Northeastern native peoples, Bruchac lectures and performs widely for schools, museums, and historical societies. Her 2006 book for children about the French and Indian War, Malian’s Song, was selected as an Editor’s Choice by The New York Times and was the winner of the American Folklore Society’s Aesop Award. Photo: Dr. Marge Bruchac
The Adirondack Mountains have long been treasured for the healing properties of clean air, beautiful scenery, and sparkling water. The air and scenery could only be experienced in the Park itself, but water could be bottled and shipped elsewhere, and became a major export from the region during the 19th century.
Urban-dwelling New Yorkers in the late 1800s suffered from the effects of overcrowding, poor ventilation, summer heat, and the stresses of working a nine-to-five job. New ills like “dyspepsia” and “neuralgia” could be alleviated with a healthful escape to the Adirondack Mountains, where fresh air, exercise, and pure water would restore the weakest constitution to vigorous health. For those who could not afford the time or cost of a summer in the mountains, bottled water from Adirondack springs was a more affordable alternative. Bottled water, some imported from overseas, was served in fine restaurants in New York City. Bottled from mineral springs, it often contained slight amounts of sodium bicarbonate, which could soothe an unsettled stomach. Bottled water was valued not only as an aid to digestion, but also for other perceived medical benefits.
In the early 1860s, the St. Regis Spring in Massena, New York, produced water advertised as a “curative for all affections [sic] of the Skin, Liver and Kidneys.” Harvey I. Cutting of Potsdam bottled and sold “Adirondack Ozonia Water,” the “world’s most hygienic water” from a spring “in the wildest portion of the Adirondack wilderness, far from the contaminations of human habitation” near Kildare in St. Lawrence County.
Cutting’s advertising included testimonials from satisfied customers. G.W. Schnull, a wholesale grocer in Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote in 1905, “I have used your Adirondack Ozonia Water for several months and find it to be the best water I have ever had. It acts on the kidneys and bowels in such a way as not to be annoying.” With typical Victorian hyperbole, the company touted the water’s “most excellent medicinal qualities,” claiming it cured hay fever, “congestion of the brain and prostate gland,” breast cancer, rheumatism, inflammation of the bladder, Bright’s disease, and “stomach troubles.”
By 1903, the Malone Farmer reported “an average of 1,500 gallons of Adirondack water is shipped from Lowville to Watertown each week. The water is sold in that city in three gallon cases at 15 cents per case.” In 1911, the Ogdensburg Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat ran a story in the Farm and Garden column advocating “Water as a Crop,” as “a great many cities are complaining of the inferior quality of the water furnished by city waterworks.” Water wagons, bearing loads of spring water, were a common sight in many cities, and a “profitable trade in bottled water could be worked up at little cost to the farmer, provided, of course, they have never failing springs of pure water from which to supply the demand.”
A. Augustus Low (1843-1912), was a prolific inventor, entrepreneur, and owner of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company in northern Hamilton County, near the center of the Adirondack Park. Low produced lumber, maple syrup, wine, and jams and jellies. In the 1880s, his company began exporting bottled water from the “Adirondack Mt’s Virgin Forest Springs.” In 1905, Low designed and patented a glass water bottle with heavy ribs near the neck that strengthened it, reducing breakage while in transit. The ribbing also made the bottles easier to grasp.
In 1908, Low’s Adirondack empire collapsed when a series of devastating forest fires burned through his Adirondack properties. The Adirondack Museum owns several objects relating to the Horse Shoe Forestry Company’s products, including one of Low’s spring water bottles and the patent he received for its design. Both are on exhibit in “Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions,” open in 2010 through October 18.
Photo: Bottle for spring water, Horse Shoe Forestry Company, 1903-1905.
In the late 19th century, a new fad swept the nation. Chewing gum was decried by newspaper editors and public pundits as “an essentially vulgar indulgence that not only shows bad breeding, but spoils a pretty countenance.” Nevertheless, the June 14, 1894 edition of the Malone Palladium commented, “No observant person can have failed to note the marked growth of the habit of chewing gum…in all parts of the country and among all classes.” The paper noted that even the “late Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York was a firm believer in spruce gum chewing.”
The gum-chewing craze began in the conifer forests of Maine and the Adirondacks. Made from the dried and crystallized sap of spruce trees, spruce gum was an important commercial crop in the Adirondack region during the 19th and early 20th centuries. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Museum once again extends an invitation to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park to visit free of charge from May 28 through June 30, 2010. Through this annual gift to close friends and neighbors, the museum welcomes visitors from all corners of the Adirondack Park. Proof of residency – such as a driver’s license, passport, or voter registration card – is required.
The museum is open daily, 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., from May 28 through October 18, 2010. There will be an early closing on August 13, and extended hours on August 14; the museum will close for the day on September 10. Visit their website for exact times and details. The Adirondack Museum tells stories of the people – past and present — who have lived, worked, and played in the unique place that is the Adirondack Park. History is in our nature. The museum is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
Adirondack region new media / social media writers and producers are invited to gather at the Adirondack Museum on Friday, May 7, 2010 from 5 until 7 pm for a networking event and backstage tour of the Adirondack Museum’s exhibit “Let’s Eat: Adirondack Food Traditions”.
Local bloggers, Twitter users, social media writers and producers and new media journalists, will be getting together in the Adirondack Museum’s “Living With Wilderness Gallery” for food, drink, and networking, before taking an early behind the scenes look at the Museum’s featured 2010 exhibit. This event is sponsored by the Adirondack Pub and Brewery and the Adirondack Winery and Tasting Room (both in Lake George), the Adirondack Museum, and Adirondack Almanack.
Please RSVP by May 1st to John Warren at adkalmanack@gmail.com
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Join the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York for a field trip to Adirondack farms and a local farmer’s market. Field trip farms include Rivermede Farm at Snowslip, Lake Placid, N.Y., Tucker’s Taters Farm, Gabriels, N.Y., and the Ponderosa Poultry Farm, also in Gabriels. The day will include a stop at the Saranac Lake Village Farmer’s Market, as well as lunch at the Eat ‘N Meet restaurant in Saranac Lake, N.Y.
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