Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 39

America, Land of Plenty

Photographic print. A large produce display, at the New York State Fair was created using a frame with horizontal spaces and a star within a circle in the center. The pattern within the frame was created with tomatoes and sweet peppers. In front of and on the top of the slanted display are bunches of celery. An American flag hangs above the display. Surrounding the display are decorated booths featuring more produce and educational presentations.

 

Last year, we were named to the Board of Trustees of the Farmers��� Museum in Cooperstown, NY.�� The mission of the museum is to cultivate an understanding of the rural heritage that has shaped our land, communities and American culture.

One of our favorite collections of the museum is the vast photo archive.

Plowline: Images of Rural New York is a collecting initiative. The Farmers��� Museum, with the generous support of the Gipson Family, is actively assembling original photography that documents changes in agricultural practice, rural life and farming families in New York State from the 19th century through the present.

Each week on Beekman 1802 we���ll highlight a photo from the collection that not only depicts where WE come from but where we ALL come from.

 

To learn more about the museum or plan a visit on your next trip to Sharon Springs, click here

Crystal Clear

At Beekman 1802, we celebrate the ability to create something out of nothing which is why Corning, NY’s Historic Gaffer’s District is the perfect home for this summer’s pop-up shop.�� What’s a gaffer? A gaffer is a master glassblower and a tribute to Corning’s glass heritage.

Corning is the home of the famed glass company of the same name as well as the home of the stunning Corning Museum of Glass, but even more importantly it is the home of an indelible community spirit to keep downtown business districts thriving.

The reasons for setting up shop in the “Crystal City” are crystal clear.�� Take a photo tour below

The Beekman 1802 Mercantile Summer Outpost is located at 18 Market Street from May 23 through October 4

 

Hours of Operation

Monday: 11am-6pm

Tuesday: 11am-6pm

Wednesday: 11am-6pm

Thursday: 11-8pm

Friday: 11-8pm

Saturday: 11-6pm

Sunday: 11-4pm

 

Josh and Brent will make appearances at the Summer Outpost throughout the summer.�� Follow along on Facebook to see when they’re visiting!

 

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Five Beautiful Things

Painting her Joy

On April 3, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was rushed to a California hospital where she remains today. There has been no official word about the cause of her hospitalization or what ails her, but it triggered in me the realization that even the most prolific, brilliant people are vulnerable to time���s meddling fingers. The 71 year-old Canadian musician is considered, worldwide, to be one of the most influential singer-songwriters ever: more than 25 albums released over a career that spans four decades, an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, countless awards and, most importantly, songs that have changed the landscape of music and touched the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world ��� myself included.

Joni���s artistic talents extend well beyond the realm of music, however. She has been a painter for most of her life and the artwork is timeless, engaging and imaginative. As Joni once said, ���I sing my sorrow and I paint my joy.��� With the warmest of wishes for her healthy recovery, I wanted to celebrate Joni���s art this week. Below are five of her paintings, including a few self-portraits. Visit jonimitchell.com for more examples and to explore the work of this amazing artist.

 

 

2015 Mortgage Lifter Awards

Of all the projects that we work on at Beekman 1802, nothing is more exciting or more rewarding to us than the Mortgage Lifter Project. With your help, we have started the Farm-to-Shelf revolution���figuring out ways to support small farms so that they can find their way to the grocery store shelf.

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Please join us in congratulating the recipients of the second annual Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter Lifts! (Read more about them at their profile links below)

 

 

$15,000 Mortgage Lifter Lift: Prairie Heritage Farm in Power, MT

$1049 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #1: Free Grass Union Farm in Free Union, VA

$1049 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #2: Maple Hill Farm in Ladysmith, WI

$1049 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #3: Windy Hill Goat Farm in Cherry Valley, NY

 

We look forward to seeing them all GROW! We���d like to say how much we admired ALL of the hard work demonstrated by every nominee this year.�� We hope next year we���re able to give even bigger ���Lifts��� to even more farms, and encourage this year���s entrants to read the other profiles and learn from one another and to re-apply this year. There were many worthy candidates.

We thank each of our judges for helping us identify farms that have the potential to be leaders, innovators and an inspiration to other small farms around the world

And most importantly, we thank ALL OF YOU for supporting the Mortgage Lifter Project with every jar of sauce you buy.

What our esteemed panel of judges had to say about Prairie Heritage Farm:

 

���Demonstrates initiative and success in building a year-round diversified, organic heritage grain and seed farm operation that is researching and preserving ancient, endangered grain varieties adapted to northern US growing conditions and marketing them through an innovative “national CSA” model, and vision in expanding the farm’s production and distribution by proposing unique, appropriately scaled grain-processing infrastructure suitable for replication by other small-scale specialty grain producers across the country to enable their farms’ viability and the availability of heritage grains to consumers.���

 

and

 

���Jacob & Courtney are not only running an organic CSA and livestock farm, but they’re also preserving the genetic diversity of seeds by doing their own field trials to preserve valuable genetics in ancient and heirloom grains that would otherwise be threatened by our industrial agriculture system and marketing those seeds to other farmers nationally. Their grain CSA offers high-quality, unique staple crops like wheat, barley, and legumes, as well as fresh, stone-ground flour, and in a state like Montana, where large-scale, conventional grain production rules, this is revolutionary! Their prize money would be put to the equipment that would enable them, and others through them, to have access to clean, heirloom seeds that are free from GMOs and corporate control. They describe themselves as educators first and farmers second, and this is hugely important.���

**Please help us Kick-Start next year���s fund by picking up more Mortgage Lifter Sauces today either at Beekman 1802 or at one of 1500 Target stores nationwide. As always, 25% of the profits of each jar go into the Lift Awards.

Garden Party 2015

 

This is our sixth annual Garden Party Festival in Sharon Springs���our little celebration of making it through another long, upstate Winter!
Check back right here up until the day of the event for the latest details.
Saturday

 

9:30

Tours begin of Beekman Farm.�� For ticket information, click here

 

9:30am-5:00pm

Chris Ottman will demonstrate how he creates his popular Cherry Valley Tincicles. Demonstrations all day in front of Cobbler and Company.

10:00

Start browsing over 100 vendors selling seeds, plants, crafts and food

11:00–Main Stage in Chalybeate Park��

Join Author Nancy DiPace Pfau as she shares colorful anecdotes about Sharon���s History, followed by a signing of her new book: Sharon & Sharon Springs

12 noon ��� Chalybeate Park

Become an honorary citizen of Sharon Springs!�� Mayor Doug Plummer will lead a ���swearing in����� ceremony.�� Line up to shake his hand and get your authentic certificate of citizenship

1-1:30 ��� Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

Josh & Brent Cooking Demo ��� Josh & Brent demo a recipe from their ���Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook��� and take all your questions

2-2:30 ��� Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

Rose Marie Trapani, from ���Our Sicilian Table,��� shares her favorite spring & summer recipes

3-3:30 ��� Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

Ron Ketelsen, owner of the Roseboro Hotel, shares great tips on how to garden using everyday household items.

3:30 ��� Meet in Chalybeate Park

Historic Walking Tour – Joshua Stillwell will conduct a walking tour of historic Sharon Springs. Delight in stories about our village. Tour begins at the Chalybeate Park Temple and concludes with “Tea at Edgefield Bed and Breakfast”

 

Sunday is for Shopping and Strolling
10:00

Start browsing over 100 vendors selling seeds, plants, crafts and food

11:00

Josh and Brent, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, demonstrate a recipe from their Beekman 1802 Heirloom Garden Cookbook.

12:00 noon

Ron Ketelsen, owner of the Roseboro Hotel, shares great gardening tips.

1:00

Join Author Nancy DiPace Pfau as she shares colorful anecdotes about Sharon���s History, followed by a signing of her new book: Sharon & Sharon Springs.

2:00

Rose Marie Trapani, from ���Our Sicilian Table,��� shares her favorite spring & summer recipes.

Additional info:

Hours:

All vendors will be set up and ready to greet you by 10:00am and will be open for business until 5pm

Parking information:��

Parking is at the Sharon Springs Central School on the corner of State Route 10 and US 20 (just behind the Stewarts Station).�� Shuttle buses will run on the half-hour throughout the day.�� Additional parking available at Sunnycrest Orchard on US 20.�� Shuttles are also available from this location. Street parking is discouraged on festival days for safety reasons

Mother Earth

Photographic negative. Dante Tranquille. Farm harvest. Image is of a mature adult woman sitting in a lawn chair holding flint corn. She is sitting among baskets and piles of produce such as acorn squash, corn and butternut squash. Behind her is a house.

 

Last year, we were named to the Board of Trustees of the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, NY.  The mission of the museum is to cultivate an understanding of the rural heritage that has shaped our land, communities and American culture.

One of our favorite collections of the museum is the vast photo archive.

Plowline: Images of Rural New York is a collecting initiative. The Farmers’ Museum, with the generous support of the Gipson Family, is actively assembling original photography that documents changes in agricultural practice, rural life and farming families in New York State from the 19th century through the present.

Each week on Beekman 1802 we’ll highlight a photo from the collection that not only depicts where WE come from but where we ALL come from.

To learn more about the museum or plan a visit on your next trip to Sharon Springs, click here

Five Beautiful Things

Magnolias

The blossoming of the magnolia trees is one of the most anticipated highlights of spring for me. With their large, fragrant flowers and their lush, glossy foliage, there is so much to admire about this magnificent tree. Magnolias are native to East Asia and the Himalayas, eastern North America and Central America. They grow 40 to 80 feet tall with a spread of 30 to 40 feet. Depending upon the species, magnolias may be evergreen, semi-evergreen or deciduous. Some of the deciduous types that are found in the temperate zones of North America bloom in early spring before the tree leafs out – the type many of us in the Northeast are familiar with. There are so many images of magnolias that it was difficult to pick just five for this column. Hopefully the photos illustrate the beauty and artistic potential of this majestic harbinger of spring. To learn about growing and caring for magnolias, click here.

 

Men Working

A photo essay by artist Sarah Pezdek Smith

 

Inspired by the creation of the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Furniture Collection

 

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To see more of Sarah Pezdek Smith’s work, click here

Five Beautiful Things

Unnatural Perspectives

Artist Ray Morimura is a Japanese printmaker who primarily works with woodcut. By painstakingly carving imagery from a wood block, inking it and putting it through a press, Morimura depicts the unique landscapes of Japan using a flat perspective that gives the scenes a surrealistic and geometric cast. Born in Tokyo in 1948, he later studied fine art at Tokyo Gakugei University. He has exhibited around the world and has permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Yale University and the University of Maryland. I love the ‘simple complexity’ of his compositions, which are full of detail but refined by his use of line and bold inks.

 

 

Unforgettable

The original copy of the Sharon Polka resting on the piano in the music room at Beekman Farm

 

We were recently asked to give the introduction to a performance by the phenomenal Schoharie County Concert Band.  It served as the world-premier of the Sharon Polka as composed for woodwinds by oboist Diane Baltazar.

 

 

 

We purchased our copy of “The Sharon Polka” off of Ebay. It didn’t cost much. Certainly under $10. At the time, we really thought it would just look nice displayed on our piano.

After it arrived in the mail, I plinked out the tune a few times, but the yellowed sheet music just sat there on the piano for several years until Charlie Keese saw it in a picture on our website. He inquired whether we might loan it to the Schoharie Concert Band so that they could make a full arrangement out of it.

We were quite happy to oblige, and we’re incredibly excited to hear the world debut of this new arrangement.

In the weeks leading up to today, we grew curious about the original composer, so we tried to do a little research. Like Martin, we didn’t find out much about Theodore C Clark himself. There are only three compositions to his credit that we could find, and a handful of newspaper and census mentions. But, with a little imagination and local historical context, we think we can paint a pretty good picture of him.

From census records, we learned that Theodore C Clark was born around 1848, most likely in or near Canajoharie.

He was a pretty promising young musician. At the age of only 17, he published his first song – “General Sheridan’s Grand March” – celebrating a Civil War Union General’s victory in Virginia. We couldn’t find any reference that young Theodore actually served in the Civil War, but whether or not he fought, any young man of the day would’ve been caught up in the excitement and victory of the “home team.”

His next published song came just a year later. It’s the song we’re going to hear today. And just like most 18-year-olds today, Teddy’s next subject matter was a little closer to his heart…

Girls.

Lucky for him, there was no more hopping place in 1866 to scope out hot girls than good old Sharon Springs – right down the road from Canajoharie.

Sharon Springs was in its absolute heyday in the mid 1860’s, when Teddy was in his late teens. Over 12 grand spa hotels had been recently built around the springs, and every summer day was filled with music, parties & gatherings. In 1864, a guest at the Pavillon Hotel wrote: “This house never commenced a season with a greater number of guests, nor composed a more highly respectable and interesting company. Gentlemen of intelligence, ladies of refinement, young ladies of beauty, young men of aspiring hopes…are all present.

In the summer of 1866, Teddy probably was one of those “young men of aspiring hopes.” He may have worked in one of the grand hotels. Or he may have just come for evening dances. It’s easy to imagine this Canajoharie country boy developing summer crushes on one – or maybe more – of the refined, sophisticated New York City young women visiting the spas.

Like countless young men throughout history, he probably figured he could win over their hearts by penning a song about them. Hence: “The Sharon Polka,” which is dedicated to “the ladies of Sharon Springs.” It was published by J.H. Hidley’s – a venerable piano, organ, and music store in the big city of Albany. This was the big time.

It must have been pretty exciting. A published musician at 18. And this wasn’t a stuffy opera or symphony…this was parlor music. Which, if it had gotten really popular, would’ve been like hitting the pop charts today. He could’ve been the 1860’s version of Justin Bieber.

But it didn’t pan out. The Sharon Springs Polka never caught on in a big way. The ladies of Sharon Springs and the rest of the country did not become crazed Teddy Clark Beliebers. However fun it may be, The Sharon Polka…by any measure…was and is not a major contribution to the music world.

After “The Sharon Springs Polka” we can’t find many more recorded facts about Theodore C. Clark. An early 1880’s local newspaper mentions that he was playing the organ at the Canajoharie Methodist Church. An 1874 jury roll call lists his occupation as “lumberman.” In 1918 we find record of a World War I novelty patriotic song entitled “The Starry Banner” self-published by a Mr. Clark of “20 Otsego St in Canajoharie.” He would’ve been 70 years old. The very last mention of Theodore we found is in the 1920 Amsterdam Evening Recorder, which briefly notes that a Theodore C and Mary Clark were moved to a new home.Theodore C. Clark died on Wednesday, November 6, 1929.

His obituary was published in The Morning Herald on Friday, November 8, 1929 on page 5. The headline is: Old Resident Passes Away at Age of 82.

We could take away a rather sober lesson from Theodore C Clark’s life. We could feel bittersweet about the fleeting fabulousness of our own youth, which is inevitably replaced by the less glamorous realities of making a living and growing old.

We all feel some pangs about slipping into the latter half of life. Of feeling a bit irrelevant. Of becoming somewhat boring and predictable. And a little invisible. We all start to wonder what our legacy will be. Or if we will even have one.

Which is, to us, what makes this afternoon’s concert so remarkable.

Look at us all! Nearly 150 years after Theodore C Clark wrote a rather inconsequential teen-age parlor ditty, trying to woo the women of Sharon Springs. And today we’re re-discovering it. Re-living it. Celebrating it.

Maybe the real secret of living forever isn’t reserved for those who do great and awesome things. It’s not only for those who have books written about them and statues erected on town squares. Today’s performance of “The Sharon Polka’ shows that we can all make our mark on the future. The secret to living forever is simply to create something. A song. A recipe. A quilt. A chair. A poem. Just make something.

It doesn’t have to be great. Or world-changing. It just has to exist.

Because, who knows? 150 years from now, someone might spot something you created in the corner of a hologram on their iPhone 7900 and bring it back to life for others to enjoy and learn from.

So let’s all give a big round of applause to to Theodore C Clark of 20 Otsego Street in Canajoharie, NY…who might not have lived happily ever after with the Sharon Springs girl of his dreams, but lives on nonetheless, here with us today.