Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 110

A Year in the Country

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As we look ahead to our next year at Beekman Farm, it's nice to reflect on the wondrous, beautiful, exhilarating year that wasy

 

 

2011 Beekman Holiday Video Card

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Take a musical look back at Beekman 1802 Farm through all four seasons:

 

(Tuesday, 12/20 is the last day to order Beekman 1802 gifts for guaranteed holiday delivery.)

Tale of Two Cities

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When we were invited to The Greenbrier to do a cooking demo from The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, we had to accept.  It was reconnecting two parts of history.

We've told the story before about Sharon Springs' rise as a world-renowned spa destination in the 19th century, and it's fall from society's graces during the Great Depression.

So much of the trajectory of history is set in motion by one pivotal force—sometimes one simple decision can chart the course for centuries.   This happened when the good folk of Sharon Springs decided to forbid the building of a horseracing track  (which instead moved to Saratoga).

At the turn of the 20th Century, the White Sulphur Company operated The Greenbrier, located in White Sulphur Spring, West Virginia as well as a hotel in the village of Sharon Springs, NY.

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Although the Greenbrier was a center of American political and social life outside of Washington, DC, it too had a rise and fall—and then a triumphant re-birth.  It's a story of pluck and survival.

Over the last 150 years, the resort has served as a hospital for Civil War soldiers,  a brief home to interned German and Japanese diplomats and their families as well as a US military hospital during WWII.  Twenty-six American Presidents have slept there.

In 1958, while the resort was building a new wing, it entered a unique partnership with the US government.  Simultaneous to the expansion, an underground bunker was built that could house all of the vital operations of the federal government.  For the next 30 years—through the height of the Cold War– this secret underground world stood at the ready while on the surface the activities of the resort went undeterred.

In March 2009, the Greenbrier filed for bankruptcy but was saved by James Justice, a prominent West Virginian businessman.  Subsequently, millions of dollars have been spent on renovations and hundreds of jobs have been saved.

When we visit, we hope to experience a little bit of history, but also to dream.  Part of what makes any visit to Sharon Springs memorable is that when you turn the corner and make your way down the hill into the village proper, you don't see a picture-perfect little village.  You see something much more powerful.

You see possibility.

 

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The Sulphur Temple in Sharon Springs

 

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The temple at Greenbrier

Read more about the Greenbrier in Dr. Robert Conte's book, The Greenbrier: America's Resort

Visit with us at the Greenbrier.  Click here for more information

Same Time, Next Year

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The second annual Sharon Springs Victorian Holiday Celebration doubled in size with even more activities and brilliant costumes.  The village even raised $2000 for the Hurricane Irene flood victims bracing for winter.

We were too busy spreading holiday cheer to take photos, so we relied on our friends Harold Levine, The Classic Image, and Craig Clemow of Arplais Imagery to capture the beauty and camaraderie of Christmas in small town America.

The celebration is always held the first Saturday of December.  Start planning your outfit.  We hope to see you all there. View the video recap below, and click on any of the thumbnails below the video to launch a slideshow.

 

 

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Eat This, Not that?

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When I think of the Victorian era, two images immediately come to mind.  Both are derived from literature and film, the first being the lavish high society depicted in Edith Wharton's novels like 'The Age of Innocence'.  The other is from Dickens' 'Oliver Twist', the orphan who pleads "can I have some more, please?"  This extreme between the haves and have-nots is fitting because there existed a huge gap between the rich and the poor at the time.  Today, we can think of it like the 1% and the other 99!  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and it was a tale of two diets.

Involved in heavy manual labor, the working class consumed more.  They needed more calories and a higher glycemic load to fuel their physical labor.  A typical breakfast could be two chunks of stoneground bread smeared with drippings, a large bunch of watercress and tea.  Lunch was soup with some cheese and a hot or cold meat.  Dinner would be very similar to lunch, only the working class ate their largest meal in the middle of the day, which according to Ayurvedic principles is a better routine for us to follow.

With the development of the railway system, fish, a cheaper source of protein became more widely available.  This is when fish and chips become popular. Oliver' in the workhouse ate mostly potatoes, cheese, bread and that infamous gruel.

As if that doesn't sound dreary enough, the urban poor ate things like tripe (stomach of farm animals), slink (premature calves), and broxy (diseased! Sheep).  In rural areas, birds and other game were eaten.  Both the urban and rural working class would use the odds and ends of meat from butchering and make use of it in sausages and such.

Honoring the animal by utilizing all parts is a great practice, though as a vegetarian some of their habits sound as frightful as a Sweeney Todd story!  But if you've seen the film 'Food Inc.' or know about the modern industrial food system, what we order at a baseball game or a fast food chain may not be that different after all.  I understand being a vegetarian is not a healthy choice for everyone.  I appreciate the episode in season one of 'The Fabulous Beekman Boys' where Porky and Bess are slaughtered because I believe it's beneficial to be close to our food source.  Not only does it foster greater reverence and appreciation for animals, but we can ensure our meat is of higher quality and support local farmers!

The upper class would start their day with animal protein like eggs and bacon, but also with items like grilled tomato, fish or British delicacies like smoked herring or devilled kidneys.  Lunch was similar to breakfast but with more meats.  The tradition of afternoon tea with tea sandwiches, cakes and scones with jam or clotted cream meant lunch was lighter and dinner later.

Dinner was the largest meal of the day for the rich.  If they dined alone, it could average five courses but if entertaining could be a dozen or up to as many as twenty courses!  This was a chance to boast of one's wealth with displays of china, cutlery and servants.  Cheeses, savory soups, vegetable side dishes, fish, meats like roast beef, turkey or pork were followed by citrus ice, fresh rolls with sweet cream, butter or jams, sweet pickles, cake and fruit preserves, coffee and punch.  Consequently, obesity was more prevalent in the rich!

From a nutrition standpoint, they did have higher levels of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables and ate local and with the season.  In fact, health featured quite prominently in Victorian life and the Latin phrase 'mens sana, in corpore sano' (healthy mind in a healthy body), was a motto.  At this time, physiology developed as a distinct biological science with an emphasis on the wholeness of the body and the organs in relation to the system.  Physiological psychology also emerged which professed that the health of the body and mind was interdependent.

One well-known figure we're somewhat familiar with is Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.  Most everyone knows his cereals but he also founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, as depicted in the comedic film 'The Road to Wellville'.  He held some controversial views, but he was a vegetarian who promoted exercise, enemas and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and sexual stimulation… but not necessarily in that order!  He was nuts about nuts, which are healthy fats we all need in our diet and even patented a process for making peanut butter.

If you think of yogurt of a health food, that can be attributed to Kellogg also.  He promoted yogurt and the use of enemas because healthy intestinal flora help our immune system fight harmful bacteria and viruses.  Now popular and referred to as probiotics, this is important for us to do with the widespread use of antibiotics as well as in our industrial livestock.  Many commercial yogurts contain high amounts of sugar and I suggest limiting dairy intake so try fermented products like tempeh, miso and kombucha.

Kellogg also employed hydrotherapy, which experienced a revival in Victorian times.  Hydrotherapy dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and Japan.  In fact, we still use it today, only we call it a hot tub or going to the spa!  This is what contributed to Sharon Springs becoming a fashionable resort, it being one of the only places with a confluence of three distinct mineral springs.  It's also why the architecture of the temples at each is a nod to its classical roots.

Kellogg didn't start the fad, that can be attributed to a peasant farmer in Austria and then a Bavarian priest who authored the book 'My Water Cure'.  By 1850, there were more than 100 books and periodicals on the subject and at its height, there were more than 200 water-cure spas, mostly in the Northeast.  This is why other places like Saratoga Springs, Vail and Evian were popular and why seaside resorts like Cape May were frequented.

History is fascinating and provides us with perspective and greater understanding of our present.  And regardless of class and the era in which we live, our health is truly our wealth.  Just as then, if we make healthy diet and lifestyle choices, are mindful of our body-mind connection, and seek ways to restore and rejuvenate ourselves, we can appreciate and focus on this moment.

 

Justin Mendoza, is Your Gay Guru, a nutritionist who practices a holistic approach to health.  He is also a former intern at Beekman 1802.  Connect with him to clarify your diet and lifestyle goals at www.yourgayguru.com and on Facebook and Twitter!

The Color Purple: A Frosty Garden

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I'll admit it. I'm a gambling man. Many gardeners begin cleaning out their garden right after the first frost. While they know that many species in the garden can handle light frosts, many like to go ahead and harvest whatever produce remains, and clean up the garden before a really hard frost kills everything.

But I like to push our garden's limits, because many of the fall and winter vegetables left growing in the garden get sweeter and sweeter as the days get colder and colder, and shorter and shorter. As long as there isn't a killing frost, the garden just gets better and better. That which doesn't kill us makes us sweeter, so to speak. So why does this happen?

Many of the plants from the Brassicaceae family -  including brussels sprouts, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and rutabaga – survive the downturn in temperatures by turning some of their stored starches into soluble sugars. This helps prevent the liquid in the leaves from freezing (think of how sugary liquids don't fully freeze in your freezer). And since the plant sap doesn't freeze, it doesn't expand. And since the sap doesn't expand, it doesn't rupture cell walls. Which prevents plant stems from turning into limp spaghetti noodles.

So as the plants catch a chill, they fill up with sugar. Which, when it comes to slightly bitter veggies like brocolli, brussels sprouts and collards, is a delightful thing.

But I've noticed another quirk that happens to many plants left in the garden through the first several frosts. They turn purple. Which is also a delightful thing when the rest of the landscape looks brown and barren. After a little research, I've learned that the change – like most plant changes – can be traced back to photosynthesis. Remembering back to high school, you'll recall that photosynthesis uses sunlight and carbon dioxide to create glucose (a sugar) that is used to help the plant grow. They do this with the help of chlorophyll. – a chemical that turns the plant green.

But shorter days means less sunlight. Which means less photosynthesis. Which means the plant starts shutting down. Which means the chlorophyll goes away. Which means less green. The same pigment that makes purple cabbages purple is present all season long even in the green-colored Brassicaceae species. But it's invisible until the green chlorophyll fades.

So. There's our little cold-weather garden lesson. You don't really have to understand it in order to enjoy both the taste and the prettiness. But winter's coming. You may as well settle into reading about gardening rather than doing it.

Click on any of the below pictures to start a slideshow, and share with us the things you find in your late season garden in the comment section.

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Mary Prepares for Christmas

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Mary Beekman is a four-year-old ghost who resides in The Beekman Mansion, and considers Brent and Josh her "imaginary friends." Follow Mary Beekman's Diary each week to learn what it's like to be a young child in early 19th century America

It does not seem to matter if it is gray and snowy in the mornings or bright and full of sun.  Mother is up and about and singing or humming. She likes to sing "Joy to the World" and "The First Noel" best of all.  Without all the gardening and preservingt to do, Mother has time to bake.  She loves to bake the cakes and cookeys of Christmas. Sometimes I join in and sing with her.  I like to sing.  Even Josh and Brent know the words to those songs.  I am the only one that hears them.  Josh is very loud and Brent hums when he forgets the proper words.

Father was laughing at the table this morning when he was teasing Mother.  He was reminding her of a piece in the Baltimore weekly magazine from December 20, 1800.  He pulled it from his pocket and read "Get married, a wife is cheaper than a housekeeper, her industry will assist you many ways, and your children will soon share and lighten your labor."*  Mother makes a "tish, tish" sound and asks Father "if just anyone will do?"   My older sister whispered to me that Father does this every year.

Then he reads :

Christmas is come, hand on the pot,

Let spits turn round and ovens be hot;

Beef, pork, and poultry now provide

To feast thy neighbors at this tide.

Then wash all down with good wine and beer,

and so with mirth conclude the year.+

*Boydston, Jeanne.  Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic.

+Virginia Almanac  Joesph Royle in 1765

Early Satiety

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Some lessons can be taught by occupying Wall Street, but we learned ours by occupying the garden.

 

When I was a child there was a hierarchy of important days each year:  Christmas, first day of school, and the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz on CBS.

Back then there was no DVR, no bevy of cable channels scrambling for content, and not even a VCR until I entered my pre-teen years.

We were used to waiting for things.

Things as seemingly simple as watching a classic movie became full-fledged cultural EVENTS.

Such is the power of delayed gratification.

As I grew older, the world changed.

Propelled by the marvelous inventions of the internet, text messaging, and the insatiable appetite of consumerism, it seemed that patience was no longer the virtue it was once cracked up to be.

Before long, I changed, too.  Gone was the kid who saved up each day's quarter allotted for ice cream just for the pleasure of the "clink" it made falling into the piggy bank.  I was now a full-fledged adult, jonesing for everything the Joneses had.

In the fall of 2008, on a weekend trip to upstate NY, we came across a vacant farmhouse with a For Sale sign in the front yard.  All of our friends were getting weekend places in the Hamptons or in the country.  We should, too!

In our fever-induced folly, we cashed in all of our savings, signed up for a jumbo mortgage, and became landed gentry.

8 months later we were jobless.

The Great Recession, in a large part, was due to our insatiable appetite for "things" and our need to have them "right now"—often before we ever earned them.  Want that big new house but can't afford it?  Here's a zero interest adjustable rate mortgage.  Can't live without that new flatscreen TV?  No problem!  Open a new store credit card account and get 15%  off.   New car?  12 months of interest free financing!  While it's easy to make corporate America or the financial industry the scapegoat, they've only always supplied us with what we demanded.

Working now to make our farm-based business a sustainable one, we're growing over 80% of the food we consume, and the garden has taught us life lessons far beyond how to build a raised bed and make goat manure tea.

We've re-learned how to wait.

It can seem like an eternity between planting the first seed and the moment the first seedling pushes up from the earth.  It's even longer before that seedling grows into a plant and we harvest the first tomato.

After waiting patiently for all of those weeks and months, no tomato has ever tasted better.  Absence really has made the heart (and the taste buds) grow fonder.

So maybe the garden is a remedy for the ails of modern society.

When you always have immediate access to everything you could ever want, you don't truly appreciate anything.  If you haven't worked for something or aren't paying it's true cost, then you lose all perspective of what to value.

So, whether or not you believe in the messages coming from the young people who protested down on Wall Street and around the country, they will quite possibly teach us all a lesson at the same time they're learning one. These are the kids who grew up having everything they desired, the moment they desired it. And now they're finding themselves settling in for a long winter of discontent.

But that's a good thing. For them. For the bankers. For all of us. We might just re-learn that change doesn't happen overnight. It might not even come by the time the buds return to the trees.

But it will come. It always does. The changes will not be what either side desires. But after waiting for them to come, they will be welcome changes.

Gilded roads steered me in the wrong direction, but a simple country drive brought me back.  There's no place like home except maybe one with your own Technicolor dreamworld in the back yard.

 

 

 

 

 

The 2011 Sharon Springs Heirloom Recipe Advent Calendar

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Check back here every day between now and December 25th!

 

The townsfolk, farmers, businesspersons and neighbors of Sharon Springs wanted to give everyone a gift to thank you for being so supportive of our village this year. So building on the community growing around The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, everyone in town decided to share their favorite holiday heirloom recipes and stories with the world.

We've created this "Video Advent Calendar" in which a different Sharon Springs citizen will share their heirloom holiday story and recipe every day between now and Christmas morning. Be sure to check back each day to see who'll show up. You'll likely recognize quite a few folks, both of the two -and four- legged variety. (Unfamiliar with advent calendars? click here.)

Everyone in town would love to see you in Sharon Springs before the holidays are over. But if you can't drop by, we want to ask you to please support the local businesses on your town's Main Street. (And feel free to share your holiday recipes and stories in the comment section below.)

December 1 – Doug Plummer's "Plummer's Pudding"

Christmas Plum Pudding

1/2 pound beef suet

3 cups flour

1/2 pound raisins

1/2 pound dried currants

2 ounces candied orange peel, chopped finely

1 cup sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2  teaspoon ground salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Prepare at least 3 weeks before serving, and up to three months before.

In large bowl, whisk together 2 cups of the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Finely chop the suet with remaining 1 cup flour and add to bowl. Stire in the raisins, currants, orange peel, sugar, spices, salt & zest. Thorougly mix, then stir in the lightly beaten eggs and milk. The batter will be fairly stiff. Steam six hours in a buttered, two-quart pudding mold.

Remove from oven. Once cool, remove from mold. Slowly pour 2 shots of Brandy or Rum over cake, allowing all liquid to absorb. Wrap in cheesecloth and store in cool, dark place. Add more Brandy or Rum every five days, until served. Serve with a hard sauce.

Merry Little Christmas

The magic of Christmas in any city includes the twinkling lights and the elaborate holiday display windows, but just because we lack the financial resources and huge walls of plate glass doesn't mean we can't make our little "Five and Ten" glisten once again.

Last year we simultaneously made fun of the idea of Black Friday and paid homage to our first annual Victorian Holiday Celebration.

This year we took our inspiration from the classic holiday tune Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.  With the help of our friends at Groton Hobby in Groton, NY, we interpreted the idea of "little" quite literally.

Below are the scenes and some details on how each was created.

 

The Beekman 1802 Mercantile:  The flooring is a commercial flooring sheet that is cut and glued into place.   The shelving and tables are all handmade using basswood and Mother Stover's doll house model glue.  The simulated Beekman soaps are made of miniature square bricks wrapped in kraft paper.  Notice the small copies of The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook and wheels of Blaak.  The miniature shopping bag is actually one our Merry Little Christmas Gift Tags.

 

Chalybeate Park:  The gazebo is a commercially available miniature gazebo that was modified and painted to look like the original.  The figure looks a great deal like Doug Plummer, one of the proprietors of The American Hotel, so we dressed him in his trademark kilt!  The deciduous trees are just sticks that are decorated for winter!  After the season, this window box will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.  Proceeds will be directed toward the Chalybeate Park restoration fund.  Call the Mercantile at 518.284.6039 to place your bid and solve the mystery of what Doug keeps under that kilt.

 

The Beekman Barn:  The barn interior siding is made from coffee stirrers that have been glued to the surface of the box somewhat haphazardly to create the rugged appearance of a barn.  The window has a separate box surrounding the back of it with a powerful bright white LED strip lighting it from above to look like daylight coming through the window.  Farmer John is such a doll.  His likeness was handmade from scratch. The hay is created by cutting doll house thatched roofing material in small strips.  Another good use for wood coffee stirrers is to make doll house wood floors.

 

The Beekman Dining Room:  The table is a handmade replica of the famous dining table that Brent built for Josh's 40th birthday.   Note Brent's box of Stove Top Stuffing sitting on the table!  The miniature wood trim is what really completes this miniature.  It's available in various designs that can fit just about any room.  The wallpaper was recreated from a photograph of the actual wallpaper in the Beekman dining room.  The portraits on the wall are actually from our 2011 Collection.  Did you see the fireplace "burning?"  Even the embers in the fireplace glow. Can you find the ghost of Mary Beekman keeping an eye on Josh? 

 

The Beekman 1802 Mercantile Porch:  A miniature of one of the holiday windows as viewed from the outside. The doll is a likeness of Maria's husband Pete (no doubt buying her Christmas present at the Mercantile) and the window scene he is viewing is the Beekman Dining Room.    The bag that the doll is carrying is one of Merry Little Christmas gift tags that are available from the Beekman Mercantile.  It's a perfect 1/12-scale handmade shopping bag.  The flooring is actually doll house wainscoting that is available commercially and then painted.  It makes a great antique-looking floor with ease!  The LED lighting from above is bright white to resemble sunlight while the lighted wreath is a yellow light to resemble an incandescent bulb.

 

The Imperial Baths:   Since Sharon Springs is famous for its turn-of-the-century bathhouses.  Not even a travel-weary Santa could resist.  The tile in the bathhouse is commercially available ceramic doll house tile.  It's glued in place and then grouted with real white tile grout.  Santa is handmade and sitting in a bath of Scenic Water.  The vintage heater in the right corner is hand painted as is all of the furniture in the room.  The rug is crocheted by hand.  Can you find the frog in the room?

 

Ice Skating on the Pond at Beekman Farm:   The pond is made of a mirror base surrounded by carved Styrofoam.  Then, a product called Scenic water was poured in the pond to create the ice.  Finally, finely ground Styrofoam is used to create the snow on the pond. Additional snow and ice scenery is created using a Woodland Scenics winter snow kit.  The background in the box are photographs  of the Mansion and Barn that were printed and glued to the box.    The trees are made of real branches that have been dried and had Woodland Scenic snow attached.  The dolls are handmade.  We had originally intended for snow to swirl around the box like a snow globe. There is a plexiglass front attached to this box to keep the swirling snow in the box and to stop it from sticking to the window.   A hair dryer was attached to a vent cut into the top of the box, but the force of the air stream was not strong enough to keep our snow circulating.  Sometimes you just can't replicate Mother Nature.

To continue the theme throughout the Mercantile, Groton Hobby created a scale replica of the Beekman Barn as a centerpiece for one of our display tables.  You can now order kits to assemble your own!  Click here for more info.

Groton Hobby will be represented in the market at this year's Sharon Springs Victorian Holiday Celebration.  Click here to learn more.

We also found 30 different variations of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland to Zooey Deschanel.  (If you stay in the store shopping long enough, you may hear them all!)

Can't make it to Sharon Springs this holiday season?  Let Brent give you a guided tour of the holiday windows.  Click "play" on the video embedded below.