Into the Maze at Paradocx Vineyard (Opening this Weekend)
By Roger Morris
It seems only fitting that a winery with a name like Paradocx would have a maze – a corn maze – planted in a field next to it, one that children and adults could try to puzzle their way through, with the big folks hopefully testing their GPS skills before they visited the tasting room.
The maze opens September 4 at Paradocx winery on Flint Hill Road in Landenberg. Last year, they tested a smaller maze, but were late in getting the maze field planted.
Creating and growing an old-fashioned, green matrix was the combined brainchild of three farming families who sell their specialized “produce” directly to consumers and thus need to dream up promotional schemes to draw them to their farm stands and not be tempted to show elsewhere. The Harrises and Hoffmans of Paradocx grow grapes on a larger farm adjacent to the winery property where they then turn them into red, white and rosé wines.
To find their farm partners, drive out of their parking lot and turn right, proceed south down the hill, go across a one-lane bridge over a branch of the White Clay Creek, climb a few hundred yards up the other side and you will come to the Schmidt’s Tree Farm where the Schmidts’ primary produce – cone-shaped conifers – are much in demand at Christmas.
“A couple of years ago, the guys came here to pour their wines for our customers while they were buying and cutting their Christmas trees,” Ellis Schmidt told me a couple of months ago on a rainy spring day as we sat in his living room. “We started talking about other ways we could help each other out. Finally, we came up with the idea of a corn maze and planted one last year – but we were late to get started.” Under the scheme, Harrises and the Hoffmans provide the land and the venue, and Schmidts oversee the design and implementation of the maize maze.
Constructing a corn maze is both a work of art and of science with a little agriculture thrown in. It is basically a three-step process:
- Decide on a design for the maze and commit it to a computerized program.
- Plant the corn as a solid, green mass, a form of no-till farming, and not in rows.
- Cut out the design of the maze while the corn is still relatively short.
“We’re still working on the final design,” Schmidt said during our spring meeting, “but it will have something to do with a Christmas tree. We’ll plant the corn next week, and the pattern will be cut in around the Fourth of July.” This year’s plot at Paradocx covers a little more than five acres, larger than last year’s, on a gentle slope facing the winery.
Surprisingly, there are a number of firms that specialize in producing corn mazes. The one that Schmidt’s Tree Farm and Paradocx Vineyards utilize is a local one, Newtown Graphics. Schmidt gives Newtown Graphics the coordinates for the field and a computerized design. After the corn reaches about a foot high, Newtown cuts out the design using GPS and specialized tractors with on-board computers and the capability of turning at 90-degrees angles. Then the maze literally grows up around the cut-out design.
In early July, I visited the growing maze when the corn was not yet waist high. It was thoroughly baffling even in its infancy because, while I could see most of the field, the design was lost to the eye just a few yards away.
In between the maze and the winery, there is a game park for kids, including hay rides, a pedal car track and pumpkin bowling. A pick-your-own-pumpkin patch is also available.
The maze and kids’ park will is open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekends through October 31. Entrance fee for children is $10. For more information, click here.
Summer’s Peaches Dripping with Flavor (Try this Peach Crostini)
By Margaret Gilmour
Mix a few downpours with record heat this summer and our local produce is bursting with flavor. So much sweetness, in fact, that Lisa Kerschner of North Star Orchards in Cochranville says “eating fruit this year is definitely not something to do while driving— talk about distractions!”
Our warm, dry weather helped concentrate the flavors so instead of huge, water-filled fruits, we’re getting smaller peaches, plums, apples and pears with flavors and textures that “may just about blow people’s minds,” Lisa says. Then she adds: “I don’t think I can remember a year when the fruit has been this flavorful. I can’t imagine what that’ll mean for the Asian pears as they come in.”
Peaches, especially, are juicy and sweet, the white-fleshed variety (my favorite) now so fragrant and lush I can hardly wait to get home to eat them—many times biting while leaning over the sink so the juice can trickle from my chin to the stainless steel basin.
Usually ripe fruit only lasts a day in my house. Sometimes, though, I choose not-quite-ripe peaches and place them single-file on the counter to mature so I can savor them throughout the week (I just learned that stacking them in a bowl promotes bruising).
I may slice a peach into a cup of yogurt, or better yet, make peach crostini as a light meal or quick appetizer (see recipe, below). Eight-seven percent water, the stone fruits are a packed with vitamin C, vitamin A and iron.
Lisa sells her peaches (and famous Asian pears) each Saturday at the West Chester Growers Market and at the Phoenixville Farmers’ Market (check the North Star Orchard Web site for other market locations). Stock up now, because this winter you’ll be dreaming of the summer’s mouth-watering, fragrant peaches.
Here’s a quick and easy method for freezing whole peaches:
• use only ripe and ready fruits;
• DO NOT WASH THEM…spread the peaches out on a baking sheet and place in your freezer until they are rock-solid;
• you can use freezer bags to store them for up to six months or more, but if you’re trying to avoid plastic, the peaches will keep just as long or longer in wide-mouth jars made for freezing and canning. You can also reuse your ice cream or milk cartons, though because they are not perfetcly moisture-vapor resistant, this method works for short-term storage only (up to three months).
Check out the 2010 Chester County Buy Fresh Buy Local Food Guide to find your local orchard or farm stand by clicking here:
Peach Crostini (adapted from a NYT recipe)
(Crostini means “little toasts” in Italian)
Grill or toast several slices of ciabatta, (actually, a baguette or any favorite, fresh loaf will do), pile with ricotta, baby arugula and slices of ripe peach.
Variation: Toss peaches and arugula with a simple olive oil vinaigrette kissed with a little seasoning and topped with a pinch of sea salt. If ricotta doesn’t appeal, substitute cottage cheese (drained). Or heck, if you love cheese as much as I do, use whatever type you find in your fridge (I’ve used feta in this recipe too).
Special thanks to local writer/photographer Matt Freeman who generously shared his image of peaches. You can see more of Matt’s work at his upcoming exhibit at the Brush and Palette gallery in Kennett Square, where his giclée prints of fine-arts photo still lifes will be featured from September 3rd through the 22nd. Matt’s images of fruits and other foods are inspired by Chester County’s continuing agricultural tradition. For more info on the exhibit click here.
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Sources: NYT, The National Center for Home Food Preservation
In the Vineyard with Eric Miller of Chaddsford Winery
By Roger Morris
There is an old cliché that says, “Wines are made in the vineyard.” Even though it is a cliché, every winemaker, including Eric Miller, co-owner and winemaker at Chaddsford Winery and a 30-plus-years veteran of winemaking and grape-growing, repeats the cliché and firmly believes it. Recently, Miller and I sat in the Kennett Square Starbucks discussing grape growing over a cappuccino and crumb cake.
“The vineyard is a strong signature of what your wine will become,” Miller says as he takes a sip of coffee, dressed in walking shorts as he usually is on hot days. “You have an idea of what you want in the winery and try to make it in the vineyard.”
Being a vineyardist is pretty much year-around work, but it begins in earnest in late winter and early spring, when much of last year’s new growth is pruned away the way gardeners trim limbs from a butterfly bush, except more thought is put into it. Most of the year’s work ends with harvest.
Miller moved to this area from New York’s Hudson River Valley in the early 1980s to start up a new winery – Chaddsford, beside Route 1 – but he and his wife Lee had to find sources of grapes, as they had no vineyard at the time. “I told the farmers, ‘Do what you did last summer,’” he says, “and it took me a few years to get the confidence to start making changes in what they were doing.” Those farmers who still sell grapes to Miller may find such a hands-off policy on his part hard to believe.
When the Millers bought an existing vineyard on a hillside a few miles south of Pottstown to use as their estate vineyard, Eric began a series of changes to improve the quality of the grapes. The first was moving where bunches of grapes hang – from a high cordon to a lower one. “I had just gotten back from Burgundy, where they hung lower,” he says, but there were other reasons.
Most of what happens in a vineyard is to make grapes have more flavor intensity, to remain disease-free and to properly ripen. Having fewer grape clusters, as a rule of thumb, is supposed to drive more intensity into the remaining grapes. That can be done by removing buds during pruning, later removing flowers, and by cutting away bunches of grapes – called green harvesting – during the summer.
Cutting away excess foliage, either by hedging (trimming the vines to look like rows of hedges) or by leaf plucking, decreases vine vigor, exposes the grapes to more sunlight (on either or both sides) for better and more uniform ripening and discourages mildew and rot by let air flow through more easily to dry the grapes.
When grapes are picked is of ultimate importance, because a winemaker is looking for the maximum balance of fruit sugars (that turn into alcohol), grape flavors, acidity, pH and tannins. Green seeds or pips can give the wine bitter tannins.
But before all this happens, Miller explains, you need to select the right grape variety – and its proper clone and rootstock – to plant according to the terroir (soil and climate). This is something that Europe has had centuries to decide, but local winemakers have had only 30 years or so to figure it out.
Where does Miller think the greatest gains in local vineyards are still to be made?
“I would like to see more roots cut [mainly through close plowing] to further reduce vine vigor,” he says as we finish our coffees and get ready to go back to work. “And better drainage [through ditches or underground pipes] would drive the roots deeper, even on my hillside vineyard,” he says.
He notes that his vineyard has recently suffered some hail damage, the second time in three years, and he has yet to decide what to do to bring in the best crop. Fortunately, the damage occurred while the grapes were young and not full of juice.
And then he goes off, several weeks before any grapes will be harvested, to continue his task of making Chaddsford wine in the vineyard.
Crispy Kale Chips
By Margaret Gilmour
We’ve had record-breaking heat this summer, along with occasional bouts of soaking rain. So why is kale, ordinarily a cool-weather crop, still keeping company with the cucumbers?
To help me answer this question, I gave Jennifer Cully, co-owner of SunnyGirl Farm, a call. My friend Paula picks up her CSA share from SunnyGirl each week, and for the past few, Paula’s basket featured deep green, curly kale.
Jennifer says while most of SunnyGirl’s lettuces bolted about three weeks early this year because of record-breaking temperatures, her kale is in fact thriving and should continue to do so for a few more weeks.
Also loving this summer’s heat wave are the tomatoes: a surplus of plump, succulent varieties along with sweet cherries now appearing at the local farm stands and farmers’ markets. In my own backyard green zebras and sunsugars hang waiting to be plucked. What a difference to the 2009 blight. Peppers, too, are soaking up the heat and taking on the sweetest of flavors.
But kale will only be around for a little longer—new crops appearing again in the fall—so now’s the time to make kale chips. Serve them on their own (with a cold beverage), pile them up alongside your sandwich or arrange them with other cold-platter fare. They’re great for picnics too, the perfect pack-n-go food.
Paula makes kale chips from her weekly CSA bundle, offering me my first taste, then a bowl full. Even my seven-year-old snatches up the delicious, crunchy treats, and he has no idea how good the green chips are for him.
Kale, a member of the brassica family of vegetables that includes cabbage and Brussels sprouts, is loaded with vitamins and is said to have more antioxidant capacity than any other fruit and vegetable. So devour them knowing they’re great for you, and when they’re gone, kale chips are so easy to make, you can simply make more.
Kale Chips
1 bushel of kale
1 TBL olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (or more if you like salty)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Rinse and dry the kale. Tear the kale into bite-size pieces—leave stems behind. In a large bowl, rub the olive oil and salt into the kale. Spread the kale evenly onto a baking sheet (they shouldn’t be top of each other). Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes until really crisp. Serve when cool.
For a spicy variety season with:
1 TBL olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/6 tsp cayenne pepper
Source: whfoods.com, accuweather.com
Want Milk? Visit Baily’s Dairy of Pocopson Meadow Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
Last week I pulled into my friend’s driveway as her 19-year-old son Will rode out on his scooter (1983 Honda Express). His destination: Lenape-Unionville Road, where Baily’s Dairy of Pocopson Meadow Farm sells farm fresh, all-natural milk. It’s just a mile or so from Will’s house by way of back roads. He scooters over to Baily’s, packs the basket nestled into his handlebars with two gallons of the cold stuff, and heads home.
Will’s not the only local buying his milk at Baily’s Dairy. After sampling the creamy liquid, I stopped by too, and other cars pulled in for their weekly supply.
I left my cash (it was the honor system that day) for a gallon of the 1.5 reduced fat milk and a ½ pint of chocolate, which I handed to my seven year-old who promptly opened it, and began gulping.
Baily’s sells pints, ½ gallons and gallons of whole and skim milk. (And the ½ pints of chocolate.) The milk is hormone-free and comes directly from their pasture-raised, grass-fed cows.
As you might have guessed, wholesome, fresh milk like Baily’s not only tastes great, it’s better for you than the mass-produced variety: the grass-fed cow’s milk contains more vitamin E, vitamin C, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids—the good fat said to reduce the risk of heart disease (sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are omega-3s).
Family-owned for four generations, Baily’s Dairy supplied milk to Land-o-Lakes for years before taking matters in their own hands. In fact, it was twenty-four-year-old Becky Baily who dreamed of operating her own dairy farm and set about the task a few years before graduating from high school. She grew up with the cows and pastured fields and intended on staying on it after her father retired.
By March, 2010 the bottling and processing plant were complete, and their farm stand opened.
Becky’s mini-market began by selling just milk, but it wasn’t long before she offered local cheese and eggs, and their own just-picked produce. Naturally, with all that frothy butterfat so near-by, Becky is now scooping out own ice cream in two, sweet flavors: chocolate and vanilla. Is a local creamy in her future?
Even if you don’t drink milk straight up, you can get milk’s benefits when you add it to a favorite recipe. Here’s a summertime favorite that’ll keep you cool, fill you up, and is a nutritious as it is delicious.
Orange Dreamsicle (gotmilk.com)
1 ½ cups ice
½ cup orange juice
½ cup local milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped
2 tsp vanilla extract
Blend until smooth. Serve in a chilled glass. Enjoy.
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Baily’s Dairy at Pocopson Meadow Farm
1821 Lenape Unionville Rd.
West Chester, PA 19382
610 793 1151
Open Thursday Through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., or serve-yourself, daily
Sources: eatwild.com, gotmilk.com
July is for Daylilies
By Margaret Gilmour
By the first of July daylilies (hem-er-o-kal-is) seem to rule the landscape, the common “roadside lily” starting off the month with a dense rug of orange blossoms.
And it never fails, as soon as I see the first stalks of these dayflowers, I think of Carolyn Heimberger’s daylily collection, her one-acre plot of land in Kennett Square home to over four-dozen varieties.
Local daylily lovers know that Carolyn’s selection is far from ordinary, and if you happen to catch Carolyn after she’s split a bunch, you’ll most certainly go home with a clump for your own garden. In fact, when I called her today to inquire about her lilies, she generously encouraged me to come by for some too—she had plenty—and loves to share flowers from her garden. Which is how Carolyn got started on her daylily collection years ago.
Carolyn is a farmer’s daughter whose mother spent many hours gardening. When Carolyn moved with her husband to Kennett Square in 1966, her mother promptly offered up daylilies from the farm’s beds. And so the fascination began.
Every year throughout the month of July Carolyn stopped in a local nursery no matter where she traveled. New England. Lancaster. New Jersey. She’d go for the newest daylily variety and take only one plant home with her because, as she explained to me, “I didn’t need more than one. I break them up every couple of years and share them with friends and people who like lilies.”
Now, after 44 years of this plant-and-share tradition, her landscape is infused with lilies in varying heights, hues and textures. There’s double salmon, ruffled peach and bi-colored red. In addition you’ll find lavender, chartreuse and brown too, with names that include Stella de Oro (yellow-gold), Softly Spoken (ruffled pale-pink) and First Glance (apricot-persimmon). One of her favorites is Happy Returns, a cheerful repeat-bloomer just 18 inches tall. Some bloom as early as late-June, others wait until mid-July, and a few spike near July’s end. In mid-summer, there’s always a daylily blooming in Carolyn’s yard.
In Greek Hemerocallis (daylily) means “beauty for a day.” Apparently there are more than 35,000 daylilies that have been named and officially registered. Each daylily plant produces a bunch of flower buds that will open for one day only, and is replaced the following morning with a new bloom. There are a few varieties that open in the evening and remain open until nightfall the following day. And most daylilies are all show with no scent, but there are fragrant cultivars available.
These one-day flowering wonders originated in Asia and made their way to North America by the 17th century—an ideal perennial that needed little care, multiplied easily and offered great color in almost any type of soil.
As it turns out, ease of growing daylilies isn’t what got Carolyn hooked, it was more the sentimental mind-set: they remind her of the time her mother gave Carolyn her first cultivar.
When Carolyn retired as a guidance counselor at Unionville High School, she was able to devote more time to gardening. She joined garden clubs and became a graduate of the Master Gardener Program, Penn State’s Extension—both experiences allowing her to share and take daylilies (and other flowers) with members.
She also followed the now-retired Dr. Darryl Apps, the daylily expert from Longwood Gardens who opened his own specialized nursery—Woodside Nursery—years ago in New Jersey. There he became nationally recognized for hybridizing and breeding gorgeous cultivars. Woodside Nursery is currently relocating their stock of hundreds and thousands of daylilies and now only sells only online.
For Carolyn, snipping a multi-colored bouquet of daylilies from her garden is the ideal centerpiece when hosting a dinner party. “By the time they close up, it’s usually time for everyone to go home,” she tells me.
Locally, many nurseries sell daylilies half-price by August 1. Stop in, select just one, and you too could have an impressive collection in a few years.
Sources: University of Minnesota Extension, Tranquil Lake Nursery,
Resource: The American Hemerocallis Society, Inc. (AHS)
Making a Mint Garden (and Very Minty Tea)
By Margaret Gilmour
Right outside my back door grew two pots of mint: peppermint (Mentha piperita) and curly spearmint (mentha spicata v. crispa). For several years the mint has continued to thrive, but this year I knew they needed transplanting—their root-bound bodies were gasping for air.
My mint has been confined because these fragrant, leafy herbs are greedy neighbors in any garden setting—mint known for quickly and effectively taking over an area unless they are well-managed and supervised. Which means lots of pruning during the season, and splitting before the next.
But, because I like the mint right outside my door for easy picking and for its welcoming fresh scent, I decided I would keep it simple and continue to ban the mint from my perennial bed, and instead plant a mint garden where the mint can grow with abandon.
Even with the desert-dry ground making digging an almost impossible task, I put my shovel to the cracking, rocky soil and dug up a small, well-contained bed butting up against the stucco side of my home. Then I liberated my mint from their imprisoned quarters, planted them with some compost and dragged the hose over to soak the parched earth awhile. And, just to make sure they understood their new boundaries, I edged the mint garden with a few bricks.
I think the mint patch may need a small, staked Tiki torch or, even better, a humming bird feeder as an accent. Perhaps I’ll find something this weekend to add the finishing touch.
There are about 25 species of mint, and maybe as many as 600 varieties, including spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint and Bergamont orange. For now I am content with my two varieties, and even though I am curious about the other types, I am not sure my two plants would allow room for a third. (You know how territorial mint can be).
Peppermint is known for its digestive qualities and ability to soothe an upset stomach. I haven’t chewed on a piece for that reason, but I love to stuff a bunch of just-cut leaves into a cold glass of iced tea, or chop some to sweeten a dish of ice cream or cookie recipe. I’ve also mixed peppermint and spearmint in a drink and enjoyed the contrasting flavors.
Spearmint is best for savory dishes like lamb, or spicy salads like Tabbouleh. It’s also great mixed in with warmed potatoes and other veggies, and makes a great garnish if you need a little something extra to add to a plate.
Inspired by my mint garden, I happened upon this recipe for cool and refreshing Very Minty Iced Tea, and made myself a glass and one to share…with you. Since we’re in for more hot and steamy weather this weekend, enjoy.
Very Minty Iced Tea (from MNN.com)
This syrup can be used for mint juleps as well as for iced tea. For a less intense version, strain out mint leaves as soon as the syrup has cooled.
(Made with garden spearmint, but you can mix in other mints too)
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
A generous handful of chopped mint leaves
Unflavored iced tea
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish
Directions
Heat sugar and water in a nonreactive saucepan until sugar dissolves and mixture is clear. Add chopped mint leaves and cook a minute or two longer. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Cover and place in fridge for at least three hours. Strain out the mint leaves and store syrup in the fridge in a glass container for up to one week.
Add 1 tablespoon (or to taste) of syrup to each tall glass of iced tea. Garnish drinks with fresh mint.
Italian Grapes, Chester County Wines
By Roger Morris
“Given the success you and Eric Miller have had with making very good wines from Italian grape varieties grown locally, doesn’t it make sense to say that southern Chester County is a good place to grow them?” It is a late weekday afternoon, and I’m having a glass of Mahogany, a red proprietary blend, in the quiet tasting room at Va La Vineyards on the cusp of Avondale when I pop the question to Va La’s owner and winemaker, Anthony Vietri.
However, I have found out over the years that Vietri hates to be caught making generalizations that he might later regret. “The only thing I can tell you,” he says slowly, “is what I do here and what works for me on our one little plot of land in Avondale.” He grins.
Eric Miller, with whom I’ve argued wines for 25 years, is usually more direct and to the point: “Many of them – the grape varieties – are hard to grow,” Miller says, “and the clones for some of them are different than the ones in Italy. And, of course, the regions are different.”
“Getting disease-free vines is also a hassle,” he adds. That being said? “We’ve have made some nice wines out of Italian varietals, especially Barbera.”
Mark Chien, the well-respected and hard-working Pennsylvania state enologist, believes that among classic European vinifera grapes, the French ones – such as Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon – are the easiest to grow locally and, in general, make the best wines.
“I’m personally skeptical about Italian varietals,” Chien once told me when I was researching another article. “They are very tough to grow but, Tony and Eric have made some very nice wines from them.”
Just what grapes are we talking about? The ones most commonly grown in both northern Italy – let’s include Tuscany as well – and locally are the white wine producer, the dusky-tinged Pinot Grigio, and the red Sangiovese. “Both make decent wines,” but, for clonal differences and other reasons, “they are not as good here as in Italy,” Miller says. “Here, we use Sangiovese mainly as a blending grape.”
One of the grapes Miller blends Sangiovese with is Barbera, the second-most prized red grape of Italy’s Piemonte region, which is cozied in next to the Alps. His Due Rossi (“two reds”) wine made from the two grapes varies from year to year but is always quite good. He and Vietri, to my knowledge, are the only ones to grow Barbera in any quantity in the Brandywine region. And only Vietri grows Nebbiolo, the most prized grape in Piemonte, where it is used to make Barolo and Barbaresco. Although he has made wine from purchased Sangiovese grapes, Vietri is not a big fan of it locally.
“Italian varietals in general have bigger berries and tighter clusters, so they take more diligence,” Vietri once told me. “Barbera has the potential for potassium deficit, yet it grows well here. Nebbiolo is a pain in the ass.”
The biggest part of that pain is that the East Coast – unlike California and the classic growing areas of Europe – is extremely humid. Tight-bunched grapes tend to get mildew infection and rot, which means they need extra attention.
Miller adds that Barbera is a late-ripener, which means two things – it may not get fully mature, and the longer it stays on the vine, the more likely something bad will happen, such as autumn hail, frost or hurricane winds.
In spite of all this, the Italian-style wines that Miller and Vietri make are very popular with local drinkers. Miller’s Due Rossi, and Vietri’s Mahogany, Cedar and Castagna, also command relatively high prices for the extra effort – and extra results.
Most of the red blends the two men make are creative variations and certainly not traditional in Europe. I don’t know of an Italian winemaker who combines Sangiovese and Barbera, as Miller does in Due Rossi. Vietri’s top-of-the-line Mahogany combines Barbera with Corvina Veronese, the grape responsible for the lusty Amarone. His Cedar is primarily Nebbiolo, but has other grapes added.
Vietri also is fond with experimenting with the more-obscure Italian varietals – what the local mushroom growers might call “exotics” – such as Lagrein, Sagrantino, Teroldego, Charbono and Malvasia Nero.
Yes, northern Italian varieties can be hard to grow, but local wineries are showing they can make excellent wines. In spite of Miller’s qualifications and Vietri’s reluctance to extrapolate beyond his own “little plot of land in Avondale,” Miller continues to make a lot of quality wine from them, and Vietri has transformed his vineyard into an arbor for Italian grapes.
If they won’t fire up the bandwagon, then I’ll continue to hot-wire it.
Clues Beneath the Waves: Local Shipwreck Artifacts Solve Mysteries
By Pam George, Guest Contributor
The steady patter of water dripping onto a concrete floor echoed in the metal-walled structure. It sounded as though someone had recently turned off a giant shower. My guide, Chuck Fithian pulled back a plastic curtain so that I could peer behind it.
There rested the battered, jagged hull from De Braak, a British naval warship that sank off the coast of Cape Henlopen, Del., on May 25, 1798. Fithian, curator of archaeology for Delaware’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, has been the copper-edged hull’s guardian. Three times a day, a pump roars to life to bathe the wood with water that keeps the hull from drying out and disintegrating.
The hull, ripped from the mud and silt of the Delaware Bay, is hardly the picture of a shipwreck treasure. But along with the 20,000 artifacts retrieved during a salvage effort in the mid-1980s, it is invaluable. Footwear, cannonballs, toothbrushes are all dear to historians, archaeologists and even movie directors like Peter Weir, director of “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World,” who studied them.
“De Braak gives us an unparalleled glimpse into the life of a Royal Navy warship,” Fithian told me when I interviewed him for my book “Shipwrecks of the Delaware Coast: Tales of Pirates, Squalls & Treasure.” He’s been working on De Braak since he started with the state in 1986.
When it comes to shipwrecks, artifacts are clues that can help solve the mystery, whether you’re seeking the identity of the ship or information about those who once occupied it. Even a seemingly mundane object—a glass bottled labeled ketchup—can intrigue those who view it.
On display at the Zwaanendael Museum, in Lewes, the bottle once held a concoction likely made with cloves, spices, mushrooms and stale beer, which sailors used to mask the taste of spoiling food.
One of Delaware’s best-known shipwrecks, De Braak was rumored to carry gold and silver, making it the subject of a frenzied treasure hunt until the ship was finally found in 1984.
Initially, experts wondered if it was the right ship. The bell bore an imprint for Le Patrocle 1781. Wood seemed as though it was from America. But then divers found a ring belonging to De Braak’s captain, James Drew. The inscription: “In Memory of My belv’d Brother Capt. John Drew Drown’d 11 Jany. 1798 Aged 47.”
The ship also was equipped with carronades, short powerful guns that the British installed on De Braak when the government took the ship from the Dutch, a war enemy. Ammunition boxes, still cradling rows of shotgun-like projectiles, are the only known intact boxes in existence. The projectiles originally consisted of tin cylinders packed with iron balls and nailed to a wooden base. The balls are still visible; the tin has long disintegrated.
There were coins found on the site, but nothing like those that have turned up along a stretch of sand in Delaware Seashore State Park, now dubbed Coin Beach. Finding a coin here turned Dale Clifton into a shipwreck aficionado.
“It revealed the image of George III,” he recalled. “I was the first person to touch that coin after all those years; I felt I was shaking hands with history.” Since then he’s found at least 200,000 coins.
Clifton, founder and director of DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum in Fenwick Island, is fascinated by the coins’ likely source, the Faithful Steward, which in 1785 carried 249 passengers—mostly Irish immigrants headed to America—and about 400 barrels of British coins for the new country, which had no mint of its own.
The ship slammed into a shoal on Sept. 1, 1785, about 150 yards from shore, during a raging storm. Because so many immigrants could not swim, only 68 people aboard the ship survived, making it one of the area’s most tragic shipwrecks.
Along with coins from that ship, Clifton has “alphabet” plates brought up from the China Wreck, so named because of the copious amount of china found on the site. ABC plates feature a literary character of fairy tale hero ringed by an alphabet.
The china has served as clues to help experts and theorists guess the ships identity. Some say it is the Principessa Margherita di Piemonte from Naples. Others claim it’s the D.H. Bills. But without a manifest that matches the items or an artifact with the ship’s name on it, no one knows for certain.
That is also true of the shipwreck hit by a dredge off the Roosevelt Inlet during a beach replenishment program. The dredge spewed thousands of shards, glass and some whole pieces on to the beach for lucky beachcombers to find. Determining the items’ manufacturers and the dates on coins, tokens and buttons helped state archaeologists pinpoint a date span for its demise. Most likely, it is the Severn, lost in 1774. But no manifest has been found to match the cargo. Nor has there been an artifact with that name on it.
If you’re looking for traditional treasure, there’s no shortage of it at DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum and the Treasures of the Sea Museum in Georgetown, Del. Both boast items found on Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which in 1622 sank off the Florida coast. Clifton was 15 when he dove on that wreck, whose salvage in part was financed by a Georgetown businessman, Melvin Fisher.
Gold chains or jewels, wool hats or mourning rings, the artifacts are still sad memories of a ship that once carried dreams along with their cargo—dreams that died when the ship collided with destiny.
For more information on shipwrecks:
The Cannonball House in Lewes, Del., which details the town’s maritime past.
The Overfalls Lightship in Lewes, which was used to warn ships away from shoals.
The Indian River Life-Saving Station just south of Dewey Beach before the Indian River Inlet bridge.
Treasure Quest Shoppe in Ocean View, Del., where you can see artifacts and buy treasure-hunting maps and equipment.
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Meet Pam at the following signings of her just-published book Shipwrecks of the Delaware Coast:
June 18, beginning at 7 p.m. at Bethany Beach Books in Bethany Beach, Del.
June 19, from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Wilmington (on Rt. 202.)
June 26, 2 p.m., at the Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival in Lewes
Raised in Devon, Pa., Pam George is a freelance writer and author in Wilmington, Del. who now knows the difference between going to the beach and going down the shore. She regularly writes on maritime history, food, travel, technology and business for publications such as Fortune, the Christian Science Monitor and US Airways magazine.
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Images: Coins likely from the Faithful Steward. Plates found on the so-called China Wreck, named for the amount of china at the site. Both images courtesy of DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum
Q&A with Local Author Pam George
By Margaret Gilmour
Local writer and author Pam George loves spending time at the beach, especially in Lewes, DE where she heads many summer weekends and spent a month last September. Although she grew up going to the Jersey shore, she says she “loves the fact that Delaware’s northern beaches have a more diverse ecosystem. There trees run down to the shoreline in some spots.”
Pam also has plenty of experiencing writing about the beach. So when she pitched the idea for writing a book on Delaware’s shipwrecks, the publisher dove right in, and her first book, Shipwrecks of the Delaware Coast hit bookstores just two months ago in April.
I asked Pam a few questions about her book that takes readers for an oceanic adventure in treasure, terror and local history.
Come back tomorrow for more details on Delaware’s most intriguing and mysterious shipwrecks: Pam guests writes for us about the China divers, the artifacts found on the beach in 2004 that led to the discovery of a wreck near Lewes, and all the artifacts brought up from the De Braak.
When did you become interested in exploring the shipwrecks on the Delaware Bay/Atlantic Ocean?
I’ve always been interested in shipwrecks and maritime history, but I became aware of the tremendous number of shipwrecks off Delaware’s coast when I wrote a story on De Braak, a British naval vessel that sank on May 25, 1798 off Cape Henlopen near Lewes.
It wasn’t until 1984 that a salvage company finally found De Braak’s grave, which was rumored to contain thousands and thousands of dollars worth of treasure. (It didn’t.) The hull now sits alone in a shed at a state park. When I saw it, I was incredibly sad. It’s kind of like seeing a sarcophagus in a museum; you’re fascinated but at the same time it feels morbid. Most the artifacts–barrels, bottles, sabers, cannons, cannonballs–are in a warehouse. Delaware has no maritime museum big enough to hold it all.
How did you do most of your research?
Books mostly. I had interviewed some experts for stories on De Braak and the shipwreck found in 2004 off Lewes Beach when a dredge hit it. The Lewes Historical Society was also very helpful, and the Delaware Public Archives had a lot of great photos.
Dale Clifton has a wonderful museum, DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum, in Fenwick Island. Kids love it. He’s a diver, and he’s brought up some beautiful artifacts from ships off the Delaware and Florida coast.
Were you able to explore any of the old shipwrecks? (Above water and/or under the ocean?)
My husband is the diver, not me. But he dives on Caribbean wrecks. I got to see De Braak’s artifacts in the warehouse and at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes.
Dale Clifton has artifacts from the China Wreck and the Faithful Steward, which went down about 100 yards from shore. People back then could not swim, and only 68 people of the 249 on board survived. Only seven of the 100 women and children on board survived. It was horrific. People on shore robbed the bodies that washed up on the beach. Because the ship was carrying barrels of coins, they occasionally wash up on a stretch of beach now known as Coin Beach (a one-mile stretch of coastline north of the Indian River Inlet).
What was the most surprising story you learned during your research?
I was initially surprised at the number of collisions. I list six in my book–seven if you count the collision in my section on military casualties. We have to remember that many ships went down before technology could help them find their way in bad weather. There was also a lot of human error when it came to collisions.
I also was interested to learn about the Lenape, a passenger steamship that caught fire off New Jersey and sought help in Lewes Harbor. They say flames from the ship shot 100 feet in the air. The story is interesting because 11 months earlier, the Lenape’s sister ship, the Mohawk, had the same experience. Both ships were destroyed, but only one passenger between them died.
What caused most of the wrecks—any one cause that stands out as reoccurring?
Weather. Fog, rain, snow, sleet, wind–you name it. Weather was the enemy of sailing ships in the days before weather forecasts.
So, were there area pirates?
There certainly were. Lewes was frequently targeted. The names Kidd and Blackbeard were familiar to Delaware residents.
Pirates would capture a pilot and pilot boat in the Delaware Bay and sail up the river. Ships needed pilots to navigate the perilous waters–which is still the case today–and in those days, they hailed one. So pirates aboard a pilot boat had easy access to the ships.
Can you share a personal story about the pirates?
As far as treasure, it is hardly the stuff of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” In colonial times, colonists were dependent upon goods brought in by Britain, which kept a tight fist on trade. So the treasure here was often what we’d consider ordinary goods that had a high price tag due to their scarcity. There are stories of colonists trading with pirates for these goods, because they could get them cheaper from the pirates–a black market, if you will. They took clothing, furniture–even a village carpenter. The plunder prompted merchants to complain to the government. Philadelphia depended on a safe waterway for its trade. Merchants hired privateers, who were sanctioned to plunder–only the pirate ships, of course. Or, in the case of wartime, privateers could raid and rob enemy ships, which they called a “prize.” DeBraak came over from Britain to protect a convoy of merchant ships from the French.
Did any of your findings change your outlook about the local beaches/area waters?
It puts many of the historical structures still standing into perspective: the lighthouses, breakwaters, World War II lookout towers, and lifesaving stations. It also gave me more respect for the importance of the two “capes,” Cape Henlopen and Cape May, which flank the Delaware River’s mouth. They were seen as a unit, and they were important to navigation.
How long did it take you to write your book?
I signed the contract in summer, and it was finished in January, 2010. But I’d written on a few of the subjects in magazine articles, so I already had that research.
Is there a next book on the horizon?
Perhaps. We are talking about doing a story on the “wicked” aspects of the coast or of Delmarva: rum-runners, prostitutes, murderers, etc.
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Raised in Devon, Pa., Pam George is a freelance writer in Wilmington, DE who now knows the difference between going to the beach and going down the shore. She regularly writes on maritime history, food, travel, technology and business for publications such as Fortune, the Christian Science Monitor and US Airways magazine. Buy her book by clicking here:
Meet Pam and buy her book–a great gift for local history lovers:
Barnes & Noble for a book signing on June 19th on Rt. 202 in Delaware from 1-3 p.m.
Chanticleer: Foliage and Sculpture are the Masters of this Garden
By Margaret Gilmour
Two years ago when my oldest son Thomas was 17-years old, I introduced him to Chanticleer, an intimate pleasure garden tucked away in the small town of Wayne, Pa (29-miles from my home).
Thomas has ventured with me to public gardens and museums most of his life, and checking out a new place was a mildly interesting idea to him that day. He agreed to join us for the trip to Chanticleer more to practice driving than for his interest in unusual landscapes.
It was late August, and the pond at the bottom of the hill was capped with blossoming Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) magnified with soft hues of pink and white; their huge leaves still cradled raindrops from the early-morning shower.
At the top of the hill in the Ruin Garden, a fallen building was staged with succulent vines, variegated grasses and shrubs hand-picked for their architectural appeal. You entered the ruins to capture a fountain shaped like a large sarcophagus (Greek stone coffin) and a library of books carved of stone. In another room marble faces peered through cascading falls: were the sculptures drowning? Or did the calm rush of water tranquilize them? It was all a drama left to the imagination.
As we walked from one surprise “performance” to another, all I heard from Thomas was “Wow.” Or, “This is ridiculous.” And he never stopped shooting pictures.
His friend, I heard later, got this reaction from Thomas via text message: “It’s Longwood Gardens on steroids.”
Well…I had never thought of it that way. But Chanticleer really is a theatre of landscape, the setting directed by those who tend it rather than by the original owners of the estate.
What makes this pleasure garden so unusual is the variety of textured plants and unexpected forms dotted throughout the landscape, and the use of tropicals tossed in for interest. Unlike the formal and familiar we experience and expect at Longwood, Chanticleer’s gardens seem random. Yet it is a well-planned setting that leads you to hidden paths and creative treasures you never tire of discovering.
I went back to Chanticleer a couple of weeks ago—Thomas stayed home but plans a trip back this summer—to catch a glimpse of the gardens in June since each year I seem to go in August. This time, my husband and our seven-year-old son accompanied me; we brought a picnic lunch.
As soon as we parked our car I noticed a creative display of bolting lettuce (Lactuca sativa), feathery fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and staked sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) planted in the huge containers near the entrance of a courtyard. Then we followed a path to the right of the property where I discovered the long row of still-sprouting asparagus outlining the composition of the vegetable garden.
Then, there were the poppies (Papaver orientale). Everywhere fields of orange-scarlet dominated the garden beds—especially around the pond and along the hillside toward the Ruin Garden and main house.
This journey also led me to unexpected surprise: the makings of a native woodland garden set to open next season.
After walking for a couple of hours (which you can easily do, even though the estate is only 35-acres), I sat with my family at one of the many picnic benches to eat our lunch and take a drink form our water bottles. We were happy for the secluded spot that shaded us from the hot sun.
In fact, as the heat continued to build, the plan to stop in the small town of Wayne for a cool drink developed. Wayne is just about a two-mile drive from Chanticleer, and you can spend a few hours browsing boutique shops, sipping what’s on tap at Teresa’s Next Door, or enjoying a glass of wine on the wrap-around porch at the Wayne Hotel.
That day, though, after departing from Chanticleer, we drove into Wayne and wandered into Gumdrops and Sprinkles for homemade ice cream before heading home. And, just like each time I visit Chanticleer, I began planning my next visit. Maybe Thomas will join me again.
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Chanticleer is the former summer home of prominent Philadelphian Adolph Rosengarten, Sr. and his wife Christine. The home was completed in 1913 and by 1924 the summer retreat was converted to a year-round residence where the property gave way to lawnscapes and huge trees. Most of the gardens were developed after 1990 by Chanticleer staff and landscape architects. The garden is “a study of textures and forms, where foliage trumps flowers.” For more information, check out Chanticleergarden.org.
Open April though October
Wednesday through Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., until 8:00 p.m. on Fridays May through Labor Day.
Day Trip: Great Local Wineries Beyond Chester County (Less Than 50-Miles)
By Roger Morris
Joanne Levengood was in her vineyard doing some last-minute spring pruning when I caught up with her on her cell phone a few days ago. I had a few questions to ask the Berks County vintner for an article I was researching on women winemakers, and Joanne was multi-tasking on a warm day at Manatawny Creek Winery near Douglasstown where she is owner and cellar master.
As we talked, it occurred to me that what I really needed to do was drive to Douglasstown from my home in Landenberg – let’s see, north on Route 100 to Pottstown, then west on U.S. 422 a few miles – to visit the U.C. Davis-educated vintner and buy some of her delicious red wines for my own cellar. Then I thought about Brad Knapp, who makes some fabulous sparkling wines at Pinnacle Ridge Winery, a little farther away in Kutztown. Actually, it’s been a while since I tipped a glass at Fiore Winery in Pylesville, MD, just west of the Susquehanna near the Pennsylvania border.
Then the idea began forming – now that winter’s snowmageddon was behind us, why not spend a couple Saturdays driving around the countryside buying wines for a 50-mile wine cellar — those made within a 50-mile radius — the same way restaurants tout their locally sourced foods? It was a time to do some back-roads day tripping.
Like dandelions after an April rain, regional wineries have been popping up in great numbers over the past decade. Many of them make and sell wines that are right at home with those produced in traditional wine growing areas. As we turned into the new century, for example, there were only three or four wineries in southern Chester County. Now there are a dozen.
And there are some good regional wineries I have not visited. I have tasted very nice wines from Black Ankle Vineyards just northwest of Baltimore in Mt. Airy, but have not driven there. The same is true of Boordy Vineyards – the oldest in Maryland – just north of Baltimore in Hydes. Add those two to Fiore and to Terrapin Station in Elkton, which will finally open a tasting room this summer, and you have a vigorous Saturday or Sunday of Maryland travelenology.
West of the Susquehanna in York County, Allegro Winery in Brogue makes the best wine in the county, but Moon Dancer Winery just south of Columbia has one of the prettiest venues you could ask for, with a hilltop venue that overlooks the wide river. North of Lancaster, in Mannheim, Jan and Kimberly Waltz have sold grapes to other wineries for years. Now they have opened their own Waltz Vineyards and are making delicious wines.
North of us, Manatawny Creek and Pinnacle Ridge are the best bets, but there are others in the Lehigh Valley and the Berks County wine trails if you want other stops in the neighborhood. The best in Bucks County is Crossing Vineyards at Washington Crossing.
Things are not quite as interesting south of us on the Delmarva Peninsula, although there are some wineries popping up in the Easton area. Best bet is Nassau Vineyards on the way to/from the beaches near Lewes where Peggy Raley has been making wines from her home-grown and purchased grapes for almost 25 years. New Jersey has wineries not far over the bridge, but, for now, save your toll money.
You can get a good overview of Pennsylvania wineries at www.pennsylvaniawine.com and Maryland wineries at www.marylandwine.com. These will lead you to maps and wine trails.
Chester County Farmers’ Markets: When and Where
There’s nothing better than celebrating the growing season with fresh fare sold by the hands that made it.
And by the end of this week, just about every local farmers’ market is open and ready to sell you their farm-fresh produce, eggs and meat, along with artisanal goods (Chocolate! Cheese! Honey!), and hand-made or just-picked luxuries (Soap! Flowers! Herbs!), and an ample selection of thirst-quenchers (Wine! Coffee! Juice!). Can’t forget the baked goods, and, while they last, specialty seedlings that include heirloom tomatoes, peppers and beans.
See you at the market.
2010 Local Farmers’ Markets, When & Where:
The West Chester Growers’ Market
At the corner of Church and Chestnut St
Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Opening Day: May 1)
The New Garden Growers’ Market
Rt. 41 near Avondale
Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Opening Day: May 8 )
The Phoenixville Farmers’ Market
Bridge Street & Taylor Alley
Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Opening Day: May 8 )
Kennett Square Farmers’ Market
In the alley on State Street & Union Street
Fridays, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. (Opening Day: May 14)
Oxford Village Market
3rd & Locust Streets
Tuesdays, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. (Opening Day: May 4)
Celebrating 10 years!
Centreville Farmers’ Market
NEW LOCATION: Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church parking lot
Across the street from Winterthur entrance
(new location during the Centreville construction project)
Thursdays, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. (Opening Day: May 6)
Winterthur Farmers’ Market
NEW THIS YEAR
Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Opening Day: June 5th)
(At Winterthur’s second gate)
West Grove Farmers’ Market
Harmony Park on Harmony Road
Thursdays, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. (Opening Day: May 20)
Anselma Farmers and Artisans Market
At the historic Mill at Anselma
Route 401/Conestoga Road, Chester Springs
Wednesdays, 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Opening Day: May 19)
Headhouse Farmers’ Market
For a day in the city:
At the Headhouse Shambles
2nd Street between Pine and Lombard streets
Philadelphia : Saturday & Sundays, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
8 Chester County Cheese Artisans
By Margaret Gilmour
In 2009 Sue Milshaw, Agricultural Program Manager at the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC), began collecting information about local Chester County cheese-makers and learning about their delicious, handcrafted products: Some farmer’s use sheep’s milk, others, goat’s milk, and a few use the more traditional cow’s milk. The creamy main ingredient, though, is always pure and fresh, taken directly from their own farm animals.
It was during a conversation with Al and Catherine Renzi of Yellow Springs Farm that the couple suggested to Sue some ideas on developing the local industry. Perhaps, they said, a cheese group could be formed? The concept intrigued Sue, so she pulled together all eight Chester County farmers producing farmstead cheeses. Then, in January 2010, the Renzi’s concept of a local cheese collaboration became a reality, and the Chester County Cheese Artisans assembled for their first official meeting.
The group is about to launch a Web site (by the end of this month) where you can learn details about each farm including places you can sample or purchase their artisan cheeses. In addition, Chester County Cheese Artisans provides its members with local training opportunities and workshops like the two-day program on cheese aging given by Marc Druart from the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese.
Some of the Chester County Cheese Artisans produce raw milk cheeses you can purchase only at their farm stand, while others offer a variety of cheeses available through a cheese CSAs or at local restaurants, vineyards, specialty food markets, and farmers’ markets.
As individual as their cheeses, each of eight local cheese-makers has their own favorite cheese recipe, cheese pairing and cheese book. Here are some details (click on the farm’s name to get to their Web site):
Birchrun Hills Farm
Chester Springs, PA
Sue and Ken Miller began milking Holstein cows over 25 years ago at Birchrun Hills Farm, and started making cheese in 2006 as a way to diversify their farm business. They learned quickly to appreciate their raw milk, farmstead cheese with its “depth of character” made possible, in part, from their pastured cows that spend their days wandering the rolling hills of fertile Birchrunville.
Specialty Cheeses:
Birchrun Blue
Fat Cat
Red Cat
Birchrun Hills Farm Recipe
Birchrun Blue Bruschetta
Slice baguette, drizzle with olive oil and heat in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, spread each baguette with Birchrun Blue and drizzle with honey or North Star Orchard’s Asian Pear Butter and put back in the oven to warm. Enjoy!
Recommended Cheese Books:
The Cheese Chronicles by Liz Thorpe
The Cheesemaking Manual by Mararet Morris
Home Cheesemaking by Ricki Carroll
Hay Fever by Angela Miller
A Favorite Cheese Feast:
Sue Miller: Birchrun Blue with figs. I would have to throw in a small piece of Rougue River Blue because it is just so good!
Also: Winnimere from Jasper Hill Farm, Rupert from Consider Bardwell Farm, Ticklemore, an aged goat cheese from England
September Farm
Honey Brook, Pa
September Farm was established in 2002 as a Holstein dairy farm, and owners Roberta and Dave Rotelle began making cheese in 2007 as part of their dream of bringing artisan cheese to locals. To master the craft, the Rotelles traveled to the University of Wisconsin to study cheese-making where they were trained by a private consultant and master cheese maker. The milk used in September Farm’s cheese is fresh, hormone free and pasteurized.
Specialty Cheeses:
Cheddar
Monterey Jack (won a national award from the American cheese society for our Chives and Dill Jack)
A favorite cheese feast:
Roberta: Our Honey Jack cheese!
Yellow Springs Farm
Chester Springs , PA
In 2001, Catherine and Al Renzi purchased Yellow Springs Farm, a 150-year old dairy farm, with the intent on preserving the historic farmhouse and outbuildings on eight-acres of pastoral land.
Three years later they were raising goats before turning their interests to cheese-making, a “natural evolution of having goats,” Catherine says. And, since both Catherine and Al love to cook, trying their hand at the art of making fresh and aged raw milk cheese was a logical next step too. Already locals were lured to the farm by the Renzi’s well-known nursery of native plants. “In Italian family tradition, food is love,” says Catherine. “So we find offering food is a very warm, positive and productive way to build community.”
In 2009 the Renzi’s renovated the 19th-century fieldstone bank barn for cheese-making, including a cheese kitchen, climate-controlled aging area and milk parlor.
Specialty Cheeses:
Yellow Springs Farm crafts over 25 types of cheese, and use farm-raised Sycamore, walnut and grape leaves to create a few signature cheeses varieties:
Red Leaf (aged with Sycamore leaves)
Nutcracker (aged with black walnuts)
Bliss (surface ripened cheeses made in the European tradition)
Cloud Nine (surface ripened cheeses made in the European tradition)
A favorite cheese feast:
Catherine: flatbreads and Spanish quince paste with cheeses, as well as a dry, but fruity red wine. (Raw milk cheeses offer fuller flavors and a contrast of textures from soft to hard cheese—all combined in one cheese plate makes for an exciting, sensuous feast.)
Shellbark Hollow Farm
West Chester, PA
Peter Demchur began raising a small herd of purebred Nubian goats about 15 years ago; two years later, Peter was making cheese as a hobby. It wasn’t long, though, before his interest in cheese had him crafting award-winning artisan goat cheeses, cheese spreads, yogurt and kefir. Today Shellbark Hollow Farm is a farmstead dairy that provides quality hand-made delicacies to farmers’ markets, restaurants, vineyards, and specialty shops.
Specialty Cheeses:
Sharp 2 (won Best of Philly 2008)
Recommended Cheese Books:
Eyewitness Companions-French Cheese by DK Publishing, Joel Robuchon: Great for traveling through France and exploring
A favorite cheese feast:
Donna Demchur Levitsky: Tomme with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon
Amazing Acres Goat Dairy
Elverson, PA
Over 30 years ago husband and wife team Debbie Mikulak and Fred Bloom of Amazing Acres Goat Dairy, LLC started raising goats for the health benefits of fresh goat milk—known to be easier to digest than cow’s milk. Then 2007 as retirement grew close, the love of cooking and goat rearing took the couple to a natural next step: cheese-making. Today they craft over 12 varieties of chevre and also make Crottin, Banon, Sea Smoke and Fromagina. All cheeses are hand-made using a customized process developed by Debbie.
Specialty Cheeses:
Sea Smoke
Amazing Acres Goat Dairy Recipe:
Goat Cheese Soufflé
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all purpose unbleached flour
1/4 warm whole milk
4 oz. fresh chevre, any flavor
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon Kosher or coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
4 large eggs, separated
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter 1 small soufflé dish or 4 1-cup soufflé dishes. Dust with flour and shake out the extra.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle flour over the top of the melted butter and cook for 1.5 minutes, whisking the entire time. Add milk, cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook while whisking for 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in the egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into the cheese mixture. Either pour into the soufflé pan or divide into the 4 individual dishes, and fill 1 inch from the top. Bake until puffed and golden brown and an inserted knife comes out clean, about 12 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
Recommended Cheese Books:
Goat Cheese by Maggie Foard: beautiful recipes and pictures (cookbook)
The Year of the Goat by Karl Schatz (non-fiction)
A favorite cheese feast:
Debbie: Sea Smoke – paired with blackberries and Pinot Grigio.
Conebella Farm
Elverson, PA
Don Gable is a fourth-generation dairy farmer—it was in 1923 that his great grandfather purchased the 200-acre farm and began raising Ayrshire dairy cattle, the reddish-brown and white breed from Scotland. Interested in diversifying their farm, in 2007 Don and his wife Pam began sending some of their fresh Ayrshire milk to a local cheese maker who crafted the rich liquid into home-made cheddar and Colby cheeses. It was by chance that the Gables discovered that their Scottish cattle produced high-quality, moderately fat milk ideal for making artisanal cheeses. Conebella Farms sells their products at their farm and at local markets, restaurants, wineries and area farm stands.
Conebella Farm features 15 different flavors of cheese, along with 4 varieties of cheese spreads.
Specialty cheese:
Smoked jalapeño
Smoked cheddar
Horseradish cheddar
A favorite cheese feast:
Don: Smoked jalapeño, solo.
Highland Farm
151 Doe Run Rd., Coatesville, PA
610.384.7118
Martha and Jerry Pisano purchased Highland Farm more than a decade ago, and soon after became pioneer Chester County cheese-makers. The couple specialize in artisan sheep’s milk cheeses, fresh to aged, and are just one of a few cheese-makers in the area that make sheep’s milk cheese—high in nutritional value and known to be consumable by people who are intolerant to cow and goat milk.
Specialty cheese:
Bahh Blue– a blue mold exterior with creamy, white interior
Aged
Camembert – soft, creamy French cheese with white mold rind
Romano – hard, salty Italian cheese
Manchego – firm Spanish cheese
Tomme – young aged, washed-rind, natural-rind French cheese
St. Pauline – young aged, washed-rind French cheese
Doe Run Dairy
324 Hicks Rd., Coatesville, PA
610.383.4593
kjholbrook@gmail.com
Kristian Holbrook of Doe Run Dairy has always had an interest in cheese making. It began as a hobby over 10 years ago and, after the birth of his daughter, Kristian transitioned from being a professional Chef to a full-time cheese maker. It’s a big change, but Kristian says he likes “the variety of the work,” which allows him time outdoors with the animals, and time to study the craft of cheese-making.
Doe Run Dairy uses fresh milk from cows, sheep, and goats to make their artisanal cheeses. They will have four varieties available in 2010/2011.
Recommended Cheese Books:
The History of Stilton Cheese By Trevor Hickman
A favorite cheese feast:
Kristian: Robiolo Bosina with a cider my wife, Haesel, makes
Native Plant Sales and Trail Run/Eco-Fest this weekend
In Chester County, May is full of great local events like the Eco-Fest and Stateline Loop Trail 9K and 5K Run on Saturday, along with three native plants sales held both Saturday and Sunday.
So be sure to get out, stay local and enjoy the weekend.
You can begin by heading to the:
2nd Annual 9K and 5K Trail Run and Eco-Fest
Saturday, May 8th 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Stateline Woods Preserve
814 Merrybell Lane, Kennett Square, PA
A fundraiser celebrating land preservation in our community
• Live music, food, local beer and wine tastings • Guided spring wildflower and bird walk s• Environmental vendors, workshops, and presentations • Scavenger Hun t• Pony rides, hay rides, and childrens’ activities
All proceeds benefiting The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County (also known as the Kennett Township Land Trust), whose mission is the preservation, conservation, and stewardship of land in Chester County.
NATIVE PLANT SALES
Grow natives to create healthy wildlife habitats that support local biodiversity and to enjoy plant life that is well-adapted to our region. This means you can spend more time enjoying/planning your garden since landscapes planted with natives need less attention than ones filled with non-natives. So be sure to pick up some natives this weekend:
London Grove Plant & Bake Sale
500 West Street Road , Kennett Square, PA
Saturday, May 8, 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. Rain or Shine
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29th Annual Wildflower, Native Plant and Seed Sale In the courtyard of the Brandywine River Museum, U.S. Route 1, Chadds Ford, PA
Saturday and Sunday, May 8 & 9, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
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Yellow Springs Farm Native Plant Nursery
Open House & Native Plant Sale
Featuring goat cheese tasting and art sale
1165 Yellow Springs Road, Chester Springs, PA
Two weekends this year:
Saturday & Sunday, May 8 & 9 and
Saturday & Sunday, 22 & 23
10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Rain or Shine
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If you miss a sale, head to Redbud Native Plant Nursery or to a nursery near you and surround yourself in the beauty of native plants.
4 Tips to Creating An Eco-friendly Backyard
By Margaret Gilmour
Ever stand looking at your backyard and wonder how you can make it more sustainable? Maybe improve the health of your green carpet?
Some days maybe you think you’ve figured it out: Plant natives. Recycle rainwater. Toss out that toxic spray. All good choices.
But there are more choices too. Margot Taylor, founder and owner of Dogwood Native Gardens in Kennett Square, says while giving your landscape a major boost may require an expert’s hand, there are four steps you can take to convert your outdoor space to a more eco-friendly play area/retreat/garden. Her tips are about building your soil quality.
Margot specializes in evaluating the functions and viability of a garden, and designing them to be artistic, ecologically sound environments.
She says you need to begin by building your soil and points to research completed by a previous U.S. Secretary of Agriculture who studied all known past civilizations looking for a common cause for the society’s decline.
Their finding: mismanaged agricultural land, which led to the end of soil fertility and ability to feed their people. Thus, the civilization suffered great loss. There are no exceptions: China, Rome, Greece, Africa, Ireland, all faced the same fate.
What to do to avoid loss of soil fertility? Build it. Better its quality. Maintain its health.
Here’s Margot’s 4 tips on how to build your soil:
1) Get Your Soil Tested:
Know the chemistry of your soil. It is important to understand what your soil is, what is in it, what is not.
Besides the normal tests, pH, acidity, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, I also get the results for organic matter, soluble salts, nitrate, and total carbon. I’m also interested in knowing about the abundance/presence of soil organisms as they are the real workers in the soil.
In addition, I consider the carbon readings to see if the soil is absorbing carbon. Lots of organisms grow with aid of the carbon and absorbing carbon helps the planet, as we know. This is why bio-char is important to add to the soil.
Soil samples: Purchase soil test kit from the Pennsylvania State University, agricultural extension office in your county. (Chester has an extension office at the Government Services Building in West Chester.)
2) Apply a Compost Tea
This nutrient run-off from your compost pile is the best soil amendment on the planet because it filled with the living micro-organisms that breathe life into your soil and boost nutrient levels.
Add liquid concentrate to spray/dilute with water. Compost tea is the run-off substance from a compost pile. For a quick how to make and apply compost tea click here.
3) Protect with Leaf mold
Leaves are the product of tree mining and food production and more nutritious than wood. Shred your leaves directly in your beds or store covered until spring.
4) Supplement with cover crops
Use plants such as legumes to build back soil fertility.
Plant cover crop on an area you wish to build soil fertility: open spaces, fields, at the end of the season in your vegetable garden. Anywhere. Legumes as a family are nitrogen-fixing plants. Examples are: clover, alfalfa, field peas.
Of course, managing water so soil does not erode is vital.
Resources:
Margot Taylor
Dogwood Native Gardens
(484) 947-9442 Mobile/Office
Kennett Square, PA
Earth Day 2010: Safeguarding Our Natural Resources
By Margaret Gilmour
It was 40 years ago today when over 20 million Americans joined in on the first Earth Day event in rallies held all over the country. Organizers declared: “Earth Day is a commitment to make life better, not just bigger and faster. It is a day to re-examine the ethic of individual progress at mankind’s expense.”
The daylong celebration banded eco-organizations together and kicked off the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first campaign resulting in two federal environmental legislation acts: the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. What followed was an American tradition that spread across the globe with thousands of Earth Day events now in over 180 countries.
The message, of course, is just as important today as it was 40 years ago: Save our planet from deteriorating.
So this Earth Week we consider: How can we promote environmental awareness and uphold the health of our planet? How we can we make a difference? How can we change our approach to every day tasks?
Most of us already know that we can take steps to improve energy and water conservation, and to incorporate simple, environmentally conscience habits into our daily lives like recycling, composting and using chemical-free cleaners.
But, according to a 2008 public opinion survey conducted for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA):
• 96 percent of respondents integrate sustainable or energy efficient practices inside their homes; and
• 58 percent say they use energy or water saving techniques in their yards/gardens.
The results in this survey got me thinking about how we can manage our outdoor spaces with equal care and consideration that we give to indoors.
Going beyond sustainable gardening basics—planting natives, installing rain barrels to harvest rainwater and slow runoff, and avoiding chemical applications, what else can we do outside to help safeguard our natural resources?
To help me answer this question, I consulted a local landscape architect who specializes in creating ecologically sound garden environments.
Check back next week for the answer, along with four steps to help you become more eco-friendly in your own back yard. Until then, here are 8 Water-Saving Tips for your Landscape that we featured last April.
Now today, to celebrate Earth Day’s 40th anniversary, I’m taking time to enjoy nature by getting lost in the woods rather than in my electronics.
I hope I see you there.
Resources: NYT.com, MNN.com, ASLA.com
Earth Day Event: A Day of Learning and Growing
Thursday, April 22nd is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. You can start celebrating this Saturday at this daylong Earth Day event held on the gorgeous grounds of the Kimberton Waldorf School, 410 W. Seven Stars Rd, Phoenixville.
Take in eco-movies, meet local farmers, learn about sustainable businesses. An e-waste collection (bring your old electronics to recycle) is followed by an organic lunch and speakers discussing permaculture, living roofs, green building and more. Check out the vendor list–we’ve featured many of them from the Organic Mechanic to Zukay Live Foods to Swarmbustin’ Honey. This should be a great Earth Day event…we hope see you there!
A Community Partnership between Kimberton Waldorf School and Kimberton Whole Foods
The Delicious Dandelion
By Margaret Gilmour
Packed with vitamins, ideal for numerous ailments, dandelions are ripe and ready for picking to serve in salads, side dishes or to brew for wine or tea.
Historical Hopewell Vineyard Goes Solar
By Roger Morris
On a gorgeous spring Saturday recently, I was talking with grape farmers Anthony and Karen Mangus at the edge of their hillside vineyard just west of Oxford when our conversation was interrupted by the clip-clopping of a horse-drawn Amish buggy a hundred yards away on Lower Hopewell Road.
It was a symbolic moment in a way, as the Amish families of the region are the original eco-farmers, largely because of their rejection of technology. In so doing, they have left a minimal carbon footprint in the almost 300 years they have lived here – unless one counts the occasional horse droppings along the back roads.
By contrast, the Manguses are pioneers in a new wave of ecology-driven agriculture which embraces advanced technology as a means to dramatically reduce their carbon-fuel emissions while leveraging the energy benefits. As we watched the horse and buggy pass below, above us, in an arc along the private dirt road leading up the hill into their Historic Hopewell Vineyard, stood a series of 11 tall pedestals, each containing 12 solar panels pointing due south.
The electricity generated by the 132 panels will supply the Manguses’ farm, along with a winery they have planned for the future, and return power to the Peco grid – which the rest of us depend on.
“The panels were just tilted up yesterday,” Tony says, his face bronzed from a week of vineyard pruning in the warm spring sun, “and a lot of cars have been slowing down for people to look.” But soon, the leaves on the trees along the access road and at the edges of the vineyard will hide the Manguses’ grove of solar towers as they quietly convert sunshine.
“We had to have them high enough so the farm tractor could pass under them,” Karen says. “The installation wasn’t cheap,” Tony adds, “but we do get an energy tax credit, and it will pay for itself in about five years.”
The vineyard is a second job for the Manguses – he is an airline pilot and she a marketing executive – although it doesn’t always seem that way. They started farming in 2002, something they had planned for several years, and now have 13 acres of vinifera or European varieties of grapes that they now sell to regional winemakers. The two have been environmentally conscious since the beginning, already using electric (GEM) vineyard vehicles, low-output sprayers and small solar units to power a bird-protection system and a small weather station.
“Each panel will produce about 3,000 watts,” Tony explains as we stand in the shade of one of the pedestals, and the system will produce more than 36,000 kilowatt hours annually.
The panels are solid state, requiring no maintenance, and are engineered to withstand high winds and the pounding of hail storms. The system is calculated to reduce carbon emissions by about 20 tons per year. The DC electric from the panels is converted into AC for the grid by four power inverters housed in an old farm shed standing at the edge of a large barn.
Although the Manguses’ solar-powered system is the largest in the area, it is not the first. Stargazers Vineyard near Embreeville installed rooftop solar panels a few years ago and also regularly contribute power to the Peco grid.
Edible Flowers to Jazz up Spring Dishes
By William Woys Weaver, Guest Contributor
It is early April in Devon, Pa. where I live and already we have plenty to eat in the garden: mâche (I have two sorts, golden and the common green one), upland cress, winter spinach, Russian lettuce (it grows under the snow -–remember all that snow?) and even sweet violets (Viola ordorata), which right now are in full bloom and filling the kitchen garden with the aroma of an old-fashioned French confectionery shop.
I have three sorts, a blue one brought over from Germany in the 1860s, a petit orange one, and a delicate yellow variety, all as richly perfumed as the flowers used to make violet preserves in Europe. But of course, they are also delightful scattered on the fresh salad greens and this reminds me of all the other edible flowers to look forward as we rush headlong toward summer.
We also have Johnny-jump-ups and pansies, and then come the truly exquisite flowers of the quince and medlar trees, peach blossoms from my Chinese peach tree, dames rocket with its billowing magentas, and the cheerful yellow flowers of spring mustards, Siberian rocket,cabbages, over-wintering turnips, and yes, even rucola (its proper Italian name) which a lot of Americans call arugula as it is known in Neapolitan dialect.
Those flowers are white and in spite of the spiciness of the plant, they are filled with very sweet nectar, which adds an interesting dimension to the spring salad scene.
I could go on, but I think one of the real highlights of late spring floral grazing is the damask rose, which is the variety of rose used for perfumes and rose water, and rose petal preserve.
I was inspired to plant my patch of damask roses after visiting Cyprus one May and making a pilgrimage to the village of Agros high in the mountains. The village is nestled in a valley and the hillsides all around it are planted in terraces with damask roses for the local rosewater distillery.
Imagine an entire valley filled with the delicate scent of roses! It was breathtaking and all you could hear with the constant hum of bees. The village women get up early in the morning before sunrise to hand-pick the petals, which cannot be touched by direct sunlight otherwise the volatile oils evaporate before they can be captured in the still.
I will be reenacting a similar ritual in May when I head to my heirloom kitchen garden, and if the weather is right, and the petals of good quality, I plan to sample some freshly made rose petal preserve.
You can join Mr. Weaver in his garden to sample some of his edible flowers, and perhaps a slather of rose petal preserve, when you sign up for his Heirloom Gardening workshop. Click MORE for details:
Open Hive Demo + Chester County Honey and Bee Products
By Cate Hennessey
Beekeeping is a magical sort of dance with nature, a chance to mingle with insects in a surprisingly personal way.
After I read C. Marina Marchese’s Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper, I appreciated honeybees as a sustainable resource. But my real interest was selfish. As an allergy sufferer and the mother of two kids who always seem to be sick, I wanted the health benefits of local raw honey and bee pollen. So I went on a search for Chester County beekeepers and their products.
One of my first encounters was at a free workshop sponsored by Chester Countians for a Clean Environment (CFACE). For nearly three hours on a clear, chilly Saturday morning, Walt Broughton of Swarmbustin’ Honey demonstrated how to open, inspect, and split an active hive.
Calmed by pine smoke and the cool air, the bees hovered in their frames while potential and novice keepers learned to identify bee bread and egg cells. The more experienced helped move full frames of bees from an overcrowded hive into a new home. At this point, bees took to the air, but more curious than perturbed, they passed gently from person to person. It wasn’t hard to see why the workshop was a success – beekeeping is a magical sort of dance with nature, a chance to mingle with insects in a surprisingly personal way.
Of course, not everyone enjoys the presence of bees, but the environmental and health benefits of local honey and other bee products are universal. Here in Southeastern Pa., we’re fortunate to have a variety of producers. It’s worth trying honey from each one, as the taste of honey differs from farm to farm.
The largest local honey producer, Walt Broughton’s Swarmbustin’ Honey is based in West Grove with 300 hives across the county, from Chatham to Conshohocken. From Totally Raw Honey to Buckwheat Honey, (more…)
Paradocx Vineyard’s Year-Long CSA Membership
By Roger Morris
No matter how glittering Château Lafite looks in a crystal stem, no matter how many black ties winemakers don for celebrity wine auctions at Sotheby’s, and no matter how romantic it is to wander by candlelight through the Schramsberg sparkling wine cellars carved into the rock of the Mayacamas Mountains, wine is still nothing but farm produce.
Winemaker David Hoffman says that was his line of thought early last summer when he was driving back from picking up his weekly allotment of vegetables and fruit at the North Star Orchard CSA run by Ike and Lisa Kerschner. Why not start up a CSA at his own Paradocx Vineyard in Landenberg – one that rewarded those who signed up in advance with regular allotments of Chardonnay and Sangiovese, instead of bags full of Swiss chard and sugar snap apples?
“We had all talked about wines being farm produce before,” Hoffman told me as he was preparing for a consumer tasting at the winery recently, “but there seemed to be a disconnect between farming and traditional wine clubs. A community supported agriculture or CSA seemed to make more sense.”
Hoffman and his wife Karen own Paradocx along with Mark and Joanne Harris – all physicians, and thus a pair of docs.
Harris explained how it works: a full red wine share cost $650 annually, a white wine share $550 and a mixed or vintners share is $600. (White wines cost less to produce than barrel-aged reds do.) For this, the CSA subscriber gets 24 bottles of wine in four pickups, as well as event discounts and winery paraphernalia and an invitation to the four exclusive pickup parties. There are also half-shares available with 12 bottles of wine and reduced side benefits.
Paradocx started its CSA – the first wine CSA in Pennsylvania – at mid-year 2009 and got enough subscribers to encourage them to launch it for the full year in 2010.
Currently, there are about 50 individual and family CSA shareholders (more…)
Earth Hour 2010: Saturday March 27, 8:30 p.m.
By Margaret Gilmour
This year, Earth Hour is scheduled for Saturday, March 27th, 8:30 p.m. local time, wherever you are.
Sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour is a global sustainability movement conceived in Sydney, Australia in 2007. The message: A shout out to all citizens to show your concern for climate change.
In 2008 in the U.S. over 36 million participants turned off their lights for this global call-to-action. And last year, nearly 1 billion people in over 4,000 cities in 88 countries hit the switch for Earth Hour.
I was one of those people. For one hour, I sat with my family and read a book to my young son as candlelight illuminated the pages. When we were finished reading, we sat and watched the flickering flames for awhile.
Actually, all over the world lights switched off and candles lit up for one hour. This included Paris’s Eiffel Tower, Rome’s Coliseum and New York’s Empire State Building.
So this Saturday, hit the pause button for an 60 minutes, or plan a candlelit dinner that starts at 8:30. How about playing some parlour games by candlelight, or board games with your family?
Then again, you can enjoy the darkness and step outside, take in some stars and listen to the spring peepers singing their seasonal symphony.
The college my older son attends is planning an Earth Hour gathering complete with a campfire, s’more roast, glow-in-the dark Frisbees and student musicians jamming, unplugged. I like that idea, and I think we’ll light up our bonfire pit also.
What will you do for one hour to show your support while celebrating the one thing we all have in common: our planet?
For inspiration, click here for the official 2010 Earth Hour video.
