Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 105
March 12, 2012
Formulas for Success
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When we first mentioned the idea of opening a business in upstate NY, the very question asked by a local was:
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
'Why?" we asked.
"The Mohawk Valley formula," he said.
"What is that?"
"Open a business here and you will see."
How could we not take such an ominous proclamation seriously?
Of course, we went immediately home and Googled it.
In the early part of the 1900s, the Mohawk Valley was still predominantly an agrarian economy, but times were changing. By the late 1930's a handful of manufacturing companies had moved into the area, the largest of which was Remington Rand. This typewriter manufacturer introduced many of these workers and their families to the industrial age.
In 1936, Remington Rand employed thousands of workers along the Mohawk River Valley. The AFL had been trying to infiltrate the factories for the previous two years, and with little progress being made called for an employee strike.
Remington Rand responded to the strike threat by devising what would become known as The Mohawk Valley Formula—a battle plan for industrial war. Using propaganda, psychological manipulation and deceit, Remington sought to undermine the democratic process.
Some of the more egregious tactics included encouraging banks to call on debts and foreclose on family properties, paying landlords to increase rents on striking union members, and buying the services of local politicians and policemen to intimidate workers and their families.
Remington even went as far as to hire men and women to pose as religious missionaries so that they could enter the family homes and convince family members that it was an ungodly act for the family breadwinner to shirk his obligations to provide for the family.
It wasn't until 1940 that the AFL finally claimed victory, but during these 4 years, the small rural populations from which their employees were drawn may have been permanently changed. The willingness to "help thy neighbor" that is so typical of rural agricultural communities had been replaced by a level of distrust in anyone who suggested that such a thing as "the common good" existed.
As the local who piqued our curiosity alluded, the potential ramifications of the Mohawk Valley Formula, perhaps amplified as it passed down through generations , still exists in these parts and is the explanation for why town and villages in upstate NY have been on a downward slide since the mid-20th century.
Of course, this is all the stuff of lore.
We started Beekman 1802 in Sharon Springs because the recession really left us no choice lest we decided to walk away from the farm altogether.
But the tacit warning became a very fundamental part of our business. In order to succeed—for any new business to succeed and grow—requires the contributions of many.
It is important, as much as possible, to understand the history of the people that you bring into the fold. The baggage, the agendas, the aspirations, the dreams, the things that we each carry with us from where we've been determine where we will go.
Have you started a small business? Please share your secret to success in the comments section below
March 11, 2012
Homegrown chicken noodle soup
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Nothing compares to the taste of homegrown chicken noodle soup made with an old-fashioned stew hen and homemade noodles. If you are lucky enough to have your own backyard hens, they truly make the most amazing broth when they get to be three or four years old. Almost three decades ago, Julia Child lamented the disappearance of the stew hen from American grocery stores, but thankfully it is getting easier to find them now that backyard flocks are becoming popular, as well as farmer's markets where you can buy them directly from the farmer.
A stew hen should be cooked in water over low heat for several hours until the meat is tender enough to be pulled from the bone with a fork. To make your soup, just chop up a couple of carrots, an onion, and two or three stalks of celery, add salt and pepper to taste. After the meat and vegetables are cooked, you can add your own homemade noodles!
Noodles
(from Homegrown and Handmade)
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Let the noodles dry in a single layer or they'll stick together.
Although noodles are not expensive to buy, they cost only pennies to make, and you can use your own organic eggs. They are also delicious and incredibly easy to make. These noodles make a great chicken soup when cooked with a stew hen. Feel free to double this recipe. However, you will probably have to split it up into two batches to roll out, depending upon how thick you like your noodles and how much counter space you have to roll them out.
Makes 4 servings as part of chicken soup.
2 eggs
1 cup flour plus more for rolling out
pinch of salt
Break the eggs into bowl and beat. Add the flour and mix thoroughly. It's easier if you add it 1/4 cup at a time. The dough should form a ball. If it hasn't formed a ball, add a little more flour. Roll the ball in flour to coat completely. Sprinkle flour liberally on a countertop or waxed paper and press dough ball down on it. Flip the dough ball over and press again. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough as thinly as possible. It's quite elastic and will keep trying to shrink on you. Use flour liberally to keep the dough from sticking to the countertop or rolling pin. You can't use too much flour at this point.
Cut the dough into strips using a pizza cutter. If you don't have a pizza cutter, sprinkle more flour on the dough, roll up like a jelly roll, and cut through the roll with a knife to make noodles. Dry the noodles for an hour if you have time, but if you don't, you can cook them right away. They might puff up a little but will still taste great. Cooking the noodles in boiling chicken broth (made from a stew hen) will give the best flavor.
[image error]Deborah Niemann and her family live on 32 acres on a creek in the middle of nowhere, growing their own food with the help of chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, cows, and pigs. She is the author of Homegrown and Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living and also blogs at Antiquity Oaks.
March 10, 2012
March 8, 2012
5 Beautiful Things
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This new feature is designed to inspire you to look at the world around you, to take note of the season at hand and to capture it – in memory or on film – for posterity. I will be choosing five photos each week for Beekman1802.com with this aim in mind.
We're calling the feature, The Five Most Beautiful Things In The World This Week.
Something I've wondered about since I was a child has been humanity's relationship with the sky. Since the dawn of time, we have monitored that vast space above us, searching for answers, for solace and comfort, for dreams, for warnings and for inspiration. We are awed by its enormity, its colors, and its temper. There is a shadow of longing, too. We are wingless and will never fly without the aid of some perfunctory contraption: wax wings melted by the sun or tonnes of steel fuselage preventing us from truly experiencing what it means to fly. We are ground-dwellers who must be content to cast our collective gaze beyond the treetops for that hopeful glimpse of something much bigger than us.
LIFE OF A CLOUD (excerpt)
Warming thermals whisper as they rise
To tell us they are soon to bring to view
In cooler air aloft before your eyes
A gentle wisp to counterpoint the blue
Powder puffs emerge to grant her grace
That further bloom, as would for stately tree, and
Yield a sight that calls for our embrace
Another cloud anew above the lea
-Mark Slaughter, 2010
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Photo sources:
2. Unknown
3. Unknownskywalker.tumblr.com
Andrew Ritchie is the creator of Martha Moments, a blog devoted Martha-Stewart related content and her community of supporters. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada, and has been a longtime friend of Brent & Josh, Beekman 1802 and Sharon Springs. Each week he'll scour the world (wide web) to find the 5 most beautiful things to inspire you. Follow Andrew on Pinterest.
March 6, 2012
Every Little Detail
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Before 204 Main opened, I had a very successful business coordinating and executing high end wallcovering installations for some of the top designers in the U. S. The designers would select the materials, be they silk fabric, Chinese scenic murals, hand-tooled leather panels, hand-blocked reproduction papers, on and on, tell me the areas to be installed, and leave me to my own devices. It actually was a very satisfying and creative way to make a living. I met an awful lot of interesting people, traveled the country a bit, and got to see some very interesting and beautiful homes.
Whenever I was measuring a job specifying "Adelphi Paperhangings", a slight sense of giddiness would enter my head. Adelphi Paperhangings are one of two manufacturers in the U.S. that still hand-block print their papers. Actually, everything is done by hand, from mixing colors, to hand painting grounds, to hand-block printing in a method centuries old. All done by hand under the watchful eye of Steve Larsen, Dave, Jen, and Michelle. Adelphi Paperhangings are currently hanging in the White House (yes, the White House in DC), Montpelier , the MFA in Boston (which I personally installed), and numerous other historic and significant locations.
To say I was excited about Steve creating a contemporary paper for us at 204 Main Bar & Bistro would be a gross understatement. I was THRILLED !!!!!!!!!! We gave Steve a color pallette , a rough idea of what we wanted, and said GO. The results were far better than I could have hoped for. The paper has no vertical or horizontal repeat . But the overall effect is of bubbles rising up in a random, yet cohesive fashion. The colors are exactly what we wanted. The paper can be custom printed to any size wall, and in any color combination.
See how wall-paper is actually made at Adelphi, click here
Chocolate Roulade
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In the morning before the kitchen at 204 Main begins to heat up, I like to make the desserts for the day. I've been making chocolate roulade for the last twenty years and, still, Jim and I look forward to a left-over end. It' s a favorite of mine because of the short list of ingredients that are never out of season.
I use Baker's Chocolate because I've always gotten good results with it and the price is right. Twenty years ago when I started making the roulade there wasn't much of a selection in baking chocolate, and that was the chocolate my mother always used. Feel free to experiment with your favorite semi-sweet baking chocolate.
Good to the End Chocolate Roulade
Ingredients
8 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate
2 2/3 cups heavy cream
6 egg whites (extra large eggs)
2 Tbls granulated sugar
1/3 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly butter a half sheet pan and line with parchment paper. Lightly butter and flour the parchment paper.
3. Finely chop the chocolate. Add one cup of scalded heavy cream to the chopped chocolate. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
4. Beat egg whites with pinch of salt until foamy. Add 1 Tbl granulated sugar . Continue beating whites until they form soft peaks.
5. Add remaining tablespoon of sugar. Beat until they form stiff peaks.
6. Fold egg whites into chocolate in three equal portions
7. Pour into prepared half sheet pan and smooth
8. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
While the cake bakes, beat 1 2/3 cup cold heavy cream with powdered sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Place in refrigerator.
Let the cake cool in the pan for five minutes. Then, with the help of the parchment paper, slide cake on to a wire rack until completely cool. Once completely cool, slide cake on a clean, flat surface such as a counter.
Using the dull edge of an 8 inch chef knife (or similar tool), slide knife between cake and parchment paper to release. Be sure to hold the knife completely flat against the counter top or you my risk tearing the delicate cake. Repeat on remaining three sides.
Smooth whipped cream on top of cake. With the aid of the parchment paper, position the shorter side of the cake closest to you. In one quick motion, roll cake into a log. Refrigerate at least two hours before slicing.
A Cut Above
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The formal flower garden right outside the back door of the farm house is one of our favorite places to take a walk in the summer gloaming, and nothing makes decorating for a dinner or a guest as easy is having a cutting garden.
Our friend, artist and gardener, Frances Palmer, has shared her list of the best resources to get you started. Pay a visit or order from their websites
for Spring Bulbs:
VAN ENGELEN (based in Bantam, CT)
Tulips: Bastogne, Black Hero, Black Parrot, Flaming Parrot, Carnaval de Nice, Gudoshnik, Queen of the Night, Sprying
Muscari: Superstar, Valerie Finnis
Fritillaries: Fritllaria meleagris
Narcissi: Cragford, Rapture, White Lion, King Alfred, Barret Browning, Ice Wings
for Dahlia Tubers:
ENDLESS SUMMER FLOWERS (based in Camden, Maine)
Favorites: Hamilton Lillian, Fidalgo Knight, Taiheiyo, Pop Talk, Duet, David Digweed, Wildwood Marie, Pink Gingham, Crazy Legs, Dark Magic, Penhill Maroon Globe
Also try FERNCLIFF GARDENS, OLD HOUSE GARDENS, and SWAN ISLAND DAHLIAS
Frances' recipe for dahlia-specific fertilizer: 2 parts Espoma bone meal to one part Espoma sulfate of potash
for Annual Flower Seeds:
JOHNNY'S SELECTED SEEDS (based in Winslow, Maine)
Cutting garden essentials: Scabiosa, Nigella, Rudbeckia, Calendula, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Cosmos, Marigold, Hyacinth Bean, Sweet Peas, Nasturtium, Morning Glory
for Herbs:
GILBERTIE'S HERB GARDENS (based in Westport, CT)
You can plant some of our favorite selections from the Beekman flower garden. Click here.
Need help displaying your blooms, try our One Singular Sensation Bud Vase. Click here
March 5, 2012
Singular Sensations
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There's beauty everywhere, we just don't always take the time to notice it. At Beekman 1802, we try to take the time each day to appreciate the beauty of nature and to really examine the world around us.
Ichiban is a Japanese word that means "the one", and the concept of ichiban when applied to floral arrangements can actually be a form of meditation. Finding the one perfect flower to appreciate and studying it in isolation can bring clarity and peace of mind. (The idea of bonsai–contemplating the shape of plant to make minute pruning cuts–is based on a similar principle.)
And for those looking for just about the easiest way to arrange flowers and still have a "wow" effect, you simply can't get any better than this.
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We are always developing new products at Beekman 1802 and testing them out first in our little Mercantile on Main Street in Sharon Springs. Some items remain exclusive Mercantile treasures that only people who make the pilgrimage to upstate NY get to excavate while other items eventually become a part of our online store.
The One Singular Sensation bud vase proved quite popular last spring, so this year we have made it available online. Working with a local ceramicist, we designed the vase to enclose a cast iron "frog" so that no matter how large your cutting, the vase can perfectly and simply display the result of your search.
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Beekman 1802 Mercantile, Sharon Springs, NY
To create a sensation of your own, click here
The Sunken Island
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Sharon Springs, home of Beekman 1802, is of course famous for its various mineral springs – containing sulphur, magnesia and chalybeate – and Native Americans frequented them for centuries for their healing properties. Other such springs exist throughout upstate New York, and other municipalities are named for them, such as the city of Saratoga Springs and the village of Richfield Springs. The latter lies some 22 miles west of Sharon Springs along Route 20. Canadarago Lake (also known as Schuyler Lake) extends southward from the village. In the early 1800s, there were reportedly two islands on Canadarago Lake. One island still exits, but the second island supposedly sank one night. A Native American legend is associated with the island's disappearance.
A medicine man is said to have lived on the island that is no more. He became known to the Mohawk and other tribes of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy as a great healer, and individuals with various ailments visited the island for his cures derived from magic water. His secret: Every night at midnight, he would sneak off the island by canoe, paddle to the top of the lake, walk through the forest, fill containers at the sulfur springs, then return to the island with his fresh supply. As the medicine's man reputation grew so did his sense of self. He would brag about his powers and even claimed to be the Twin of the Great Spirit. (A name for the Iroquoian concept of the Great Spirit is Orenda.) One morning, when a bridal party set out to visit the island to receive the medicine man's blessing, they were shocked to discover that not a trace of it remained on the lake's surface. The legend holds that, because of the medicine man's blasphemy toward Orenda and his hording the curative water for his own advancement, the island had been thrust deep into the earth below the lake, carrying him to his death.
Take what lessons you will from this legend. One might be to avoid hubris; another, to value the healing power of the mineral springs!
The History Boys are
Chris Campbell has made his permanent home in Cherry Valley, NY. The Campbell family dates back to 1739 in this town, situated about eight miles from Sharon Springs. Some family members were captured by Tories and Iroquois allies in the Cherry Valley Massacre of 1778 during the American Revolution and taken to Canada, released two years later in Albany as part of a prisoner exchange. Chris is a rare book and map collector and has had a lifelong interest in history, especially relating to upstate New York and colonial land patents. He was the founder and first chairman of the Cherry Valley Planning Board and has worked as a surveyor and realtor as well as a researcher for the Otsego County map department. His hobbies include Ham radio.
Carl Waldman, also living in Cherry Valley, is a former archivist for the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown. He is he author of a number of reference books published by Facts On File, including Atlas of the North American Indian and Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, both originally published in the 1980s and both in their third editions. He is the co-author of Encyclopedia of Exploration (2005) and Encyclopedia of European Peoples (2006). Carl has also done screenwriting about Native Americans, including an episode of Miami Vice entitled "Indian Wars" and the Legend of Two-Path, a drama about the Native American side of Raleigh's Lost Colony, shown at Festival Park on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. His hobbies include music and he works with young people in the Performance and Production Workshops at the Cherry Valley Old School.
March 1, 2012
The Chatter for March
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We've lobbied really hard for Garrison Keillor to give up life in Lake Wobegone and move to Sharon Springs, but thus far he has not answered our letters or returned our calls.
Sharon Springs has beautiful people and above-average children, too, so on to Plan B.
What is a small town village without a small town paper to keep track of what everyone is doing?
Leila Durkin, proprietor of The Village Hall Gallery, is now editor of our own little paper.
Each month you can check back here for a new issue and follow the lives of the real village people. If you pay a real visit, you may even want to submit a story idea of your own!
You may not live in small town, but at least you can pretend.
See below for the March 2012 Issue
