Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery
Ever wonder what became of Folly Hill Winery, that rustic vineyard planted at the edge of Longwood Gardens along a wooded hillside?
We did too. Especially now during harvest-time.
So we asked local wine writer and cookbook author Roger Morris to make a visit and fill us in on all the construction, harvesting and bustling about that’s going on at the property now.
Turns out, the former Folly Hill Estate is now Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery, so named after new owners Lele and Brad Galer. The state-of-the-art vineyard is set to open summer, 2010 with plans to host private tastings to small groups. They will also sell their seven, distinct varietals to visitors and local restaurants.
To make their dream a reality, the Galer’s hired two wine consultants and a winemaker:
• Lucie Morton, an international superstar trained in viticulture (winegrape agriculture) and famous for her knowledge, experience, and wisdom in developing the highest quality vineyards in France, California and now in Virginia/Maryland/Pennsylvania;
• Nelson Stewart, a local vineyard consultant and perhaps one of the best vineyard managers in the mid-Atlantic; and
• John Levenberg, master winemaker with experience in California, France, New Zealand, and New York, known for his award-winning wines.
And, of course, there’s much more.
But we’ll let Roger tell you the rest.
Special thanks to guest contributor Roger Morris for filling in the details.
Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery: Opening Summer, 2010
By Roger Morris
Lele Galer is at heart a Romantic, and one senses there is also a touch about her of what was once called The Bohemian. Lele’s husband, Brad Galer, is a neurologist and entrepreneur whose specialty is pain medication and how to best get relief into the body’s systems.
The two met as students at Wesleyan University; Her side of the equation is art, both as an artist and a mentor, and one of her current projects has been helping re-launch the Unionville Art Gala.
Then there’s the winery.
“We thought about going to California to start one,” she says – both she and Brad are longtime wine lovers – but the kids nixed that idea.
They had settled into the Pocopson-Unionville milieu after having once again made new friends as the family moved about and being of that age when the grass looks greener where your feet are. So in 2005, Lele and Brad planted some grapes behind their old farmhouse off Route 52. And then last year the Folly Hill Winery property behind Longwood Gardens, and a couple of miles from the Galer residence, became available. (more…)
The Organic Mechanic: Healthy Soil for Potted Plants
By Margaret Gilmour
“Healthy plants need healthy soil,” says Mark Highland, CEO and Founder of Organic Mechanics Soil Company in West Chester.
This may seem a little obvious, but unless you’re a soil scientist and horticulturist like Highland, precisely how you engineer the ideal soil mixture isn’t just a matter-of-course.
Highland spent ten years researching and developing the ingredients for his organic media, first completing one degree in Environmental Horticulture from the University of Florida, then working a few years in Oregon on a certified organic farm. Eventually, he relocated to Chester County for a graduate degree in Public Horticulture Administration offered by the University of Delaware in collaboration with Longwood Gardens.
“I wanted the science experience the program offered,” Highland says. “I worked at Longwood and helped them refine their composting process.
Just after completing the Longwood program, Highland started the Organic Mechanic in January of 2006.
The result, of course, is the Organic Mechanic’s rich blend of coconut fiber, worm castings and compost, all mixed in perfect ratio for a synergy of matter that Highland packs up and sells to over 140 locations through the U.S.
Container gardens filled with the Organic Mechanic’s earthy blend thrive without adding anything but water. Even then, there’s need for less watering due to the soil’s water-holding capacity. Potted vegetables are naturally fertilized for an organic, robust harvest, and the life of hanging baskets and window boxes seem endless.
How is this possible?
“Compost is the best soil amendment on the planet because it is alive,” Highland says. With micro-organisms breathing life into the mixture, nutrient levels boost and plants flourish. Many potting soils, by contrast, are made up of sterile a medium.
Actually, all the components of Highland’s potting soil are chosen as much for their scientific characteristics and as they are for their sustainable ones. “Environmental sustainability is a core value of our company,” Highland says. (more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Inverbrook Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
In celebration of Chester County’s agricultural bounty, we’re rounding out our farmer profiles with Inverbrook Farm, a 10-year-old sustainable family farm run by Claire Murray who grew up in Chester County, went away to college and came home ready to spread her appreciation for locally grown, organic food.
Again, the images are all shot by photographer Carlos Alejandro, whose stunning photographs brought all the stories in our series to life.
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As a child, Claire Murray spent most Sunday dinners in West Grove at Inverbrook, her grandparent’s 100-acre property bought and named—Inverbrook means near a brook—by her great-grandfather in the 1930s.
By the time she was about 15-years-old, Murray and her family moved onto the idyllic tract of land with her grandparents, and Murray’s appetite for the outdoors continued to flourish.
This country girl savored the fresh air, sprawling grassland and garden-fresh vegetables her grandmother grew, and headed to Penn State a few years later where she majored in Environmental Resource Management.
It was at Penn State that Murray was first introduced to the CSA concept.
Immediately intrigued, she immersed herself in environmentalism, activism and nutrition, devouring new concepts along the way and eventually adding a minor in International Agriculture and then another in Science-Technology and Society.
“I felt like I’d found my community,” Murray says.
(more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Pete’s Produce Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
Second in our series on local farmers is Pete’s Produce Farm, overseen by Pete Flynn who has farmed Chester County fields for over 23-years. This consummate farmer, who has locals anticipating his nectarous corn each summer, has just taken on milling his own flour and corn meal, which makes buying locally sweeter than ever.
After Pete Flynn graduated with a degree in dairy science from Michigan State University, he naturally followed a path into the dairy industry and set out to launch his own dairy farm.
Flynn began his career as a dairy farmer in 1986, working in West Chester on the Jones’ farm, a 160-acre property which is now home to Rustin High School. He was three years into processing milk and caring for his cows when he discovered that he preferred growing corn.
In fact, he started growing the sweetest corn around and sold it at the end of his driveway to eager customers.
Flynn sold his cows in 1992, barely four months before the barn burned down after being struck by lightning. With good luck and agricultural sagacity in alignment, Flynn had already exchanged his livestock for a tractor, and established fields of delicious produce.
The same year he opened his first farm market where his cows once grazed, and sold the ripe-and-ready veggies to a growing crowd of grateful followers.
Flynn’s reputation for sweet corn grew like his harvest. So, when the Jones property sold to make way for the high school, Flynn approached Westtown school—just a mile down the road—about moving his produce stand to their site. (more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Sunnygirl Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
In 2007 there were over 1,733 farms in Chester County with an average size of just under 100 acres. Although a handful of these farms sell directly to consumers, their number has increased about 25 percent since 2002.
This is good news for locals interested in the food-to-land connection and supporting the Buy Fresh Buy Local movement.
We think knowing your local farmer is just as important as knowing where your ingredients come from. So, in the spirit of seasonally inspired cuisine, we spent some time talking to three local farmers about the current state of small farms, what they think the future holds for the industry and, just as important, what they do for fun. (The Proust Questionnaire and James Lipton, the host of the TV program Inside the Actors Studio, inspired many of our questions.)
The farmers we interviewed are a varied group of individuals: Mary Ann Petrillo and Jennifer Cully from Sunnygirl Farm in Kennett Square, Claire Murray from Inverbook Farm in West Grove, and Pete Flynn of Pete’s Produce in West Chester.
The first farm we profile in our series is Sunnygirl, the young–but wise–team of two (along with a couple of much-appreciated volunteers) harvesting their bounty in smallest fields of the bunch.
A special thanks to photographer Carlos Alejandro, who generously volunteered his time and talent to shoot the gorgeous photographs for the series.
Source: Buy Fresh Buy Local and Chris Fullerton, Director of Consumer Outreach at PASA.
Sunnygirl Farm
Mary Ann Petrillo, a native Delawarean, spent three-and-a-half years journeying all over the country for the right spot to start Sunnygirl Farm before snatching up 14-acres in Kennett Square. It was the pull of the land that kept her coming back for over a year before she decided to stay close to her roots and plant herself here. (more…)
Michael Petrie’s Handmade Garden
By Margaret Gilmour
If you’re looking for the traditional, or prefer the predictable, then you just may pass by Michael Petrie’s Handmade Gardens in Downingtown without stopping.
But, no matter what your style, you will most certainly pause for a glance. 
Outside the nursery, eye-catching containers and antique objects stage a lively scene of surprise plantings and expressive furnishings, all choreographed by the garden shop’s owner, Michael Petrie. (more…)
Inside Chester County Book and Music Co.
Twenty-seven years ago Kathy and Bob Simoneaux, owners of Chester County Book and Music Company (CCBMC) in West Chester, decided it was time to get out of New York City and open a business in a small town.
So the two left Manhattan to check out Margaret Alburn Bookseller, a small independently owned bookstore up for sale in West Chester. Margaret Alburn, formerly a Westtown School librarian, was ready to retire and move on.
They had no idea they would end up in Chester County.
“We saw Margaret’s advertisement, came to Chester County for the first time, and just fell in love with the area,” says Kathy Simoneaux.
The husband and wife team made three more visits before purchasing Alburn’s bookstore in 1982. This was long before independent bookstores were threatened to become anecdotes of the past, and before the invasion of big-box stores, megachain emporiums and point-and-click Internet shopping.
Still, even today, this local establishment continues to offer bibliophiles great resources in a rich environment where a well-read staff can talk extensively about—take your pick—the latest bestsellers, or the history of graphic novels.
“Our staff is as much our specialty as our children’s books—a section that’s bigger than a lot of children’s-only bookstores,” Simoneaux says. (more…)
Mt. Cuba Center, Inc.: Nurturing Native Plants
By Margaret Gilmour
When Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland decided to build their home on 113-acres near the village of Mt. Cuba, Delaware in 1935, they had a love for the outdoors, and a budding interest in gardening.
So, shortly after purchasing the lush, open fields, the couple commissioned Homsey Architects to design their stately Colonial Revival manor house that reflected the Copeland’s passion for historic Americana.
They also hired famed Philadelphia landscape architect Thomas Sears to create formal outdoor rooms that took guests and family members into well-scripted patios, terraces and courtyards, all framed with carefully planned plantings.
Then, what began as a love for formal gardens, evolved into a love of nature and a fascination with native plants in a woodland, naturalistic setting. Today the Copeland residence is home to Mt. Cuba Center, Inc., a 650-acre non-profit horticultural institution.
(more…)
Lyla Kaplan: Feast & Functional Ware
By Margaret Gilmour
When local potter Lyla Kaplan takes a seat at mealtime, she knows where most of her food came from, and who created the tableware she presents to family and friends. After all, it’s likely that she’s the one that threw the mug or the bowl filled with seasonal fare.
But that’s not the only reason why.
For Kaplan, celebrating the connections between food and pottery completes a culinary experience. “It’s not just about the food,” she says. “It’s also about the form.”
Cooks and farmers from all cultures have long honored the flavors and scents of a well-prepared repast, presented after many hours in the field as well as in the kitchen. Kaplan doesn’t believe mass-produced, white plates belong in that scene, however. “It’s such a disconnect,” she says. “The look and texture of handmade pottery adds to the language of food. It completes the quiet pleasure of meals.”
For total harmony at the table, connecting the people who share in the meal with the farmers who grow it is also important to Kaplan. So much so that she joined the food movement and founded Down to Earth, which she describes as “an exhibit and series of events that celebrate the connections between functional art, local food and community.”
Through Down to Earth and her own soda-fired functional ware, Kaplan raises awareness of and financial support for her local Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter. Once again, the relationship between farm and food is the key ingredient in this cause. “In it is a labor of love. Both potters and farmers work the earth,” she says. “We all depend on food (and farmers) for existence, and good food contained in handmade vessels helps celebrate that existence.”
Kaplan became interested in pottery making in high school. “In pottery I could just be myself” she says. “It’s always felt like home for me.” In college, however, things changed. She felt stifled by the rules her art teacher imposed and which she didn’t want to follow. All of a sudden pottery class was just another course, not a means for self-expression.
It wasn’t until Kaplan moved to North Carolina after graduating with a masters in psychology that she began throwing clay again. “In North Carolina pottery is in the air,” Kaplan says. “I was inspired by so many potters who poured their heart and soul into their art. And I thought, ‘I can do it too.’”
She began by joining local guilds before becoming an apprentice to professional artists Tinka Jordy and Lois Sharpe. She also discovered area potter’s associations and attended workshops.
In between studio visits and part-time jobs, Kaplan got married and followed her husband’s work first to Michigan, where their baby was born, and finally to Downingtown in 2003, where she and her family now live.
In Downingtown, she found a property isolated enough to build a kiln, which took her over two years to complete. Together with her husband and brother Nick, a homesteader living in Virginia who is still instrumental in encouraging Kaplan’s creative side, they constructed the primitive structure with recycled wood and bricks salvaged from a salt kiln.
When spring arrives each year, her brother brings her buckets of hand-dug clay from Virginia’s mountainside. Kaplan prepares the clay (drying, screening) before she combines the raw material with her store-bought clay. Mixing the two earthy substances “breathes life into the pot,” Kaplan says.
Kaplan throws on two antique treadle wheels, one a sit-down Leach style, and one a stand-up version for larger work. By the time she sits at her wheel, she’s ready to dig in to her art form as the creative process for Kaplan occurs when she is out and about during the day, especially when visiting friend’s farms.
“Being close to a farm and close to food helps me identify who I am as a potter,” Kaplan says. Her functional shapes attest to a food aesthetic: they include rough-hewn vases for herbs, shapely salt and pepper shakers and textured mugs.
Kaplan single-fires her pieces, and plays with the kiln’s atmosphere by reducing oxygen levels at various intervals, while also introducing soda and heat. Sodium is briefly introduced for added volatility, which encourages the random texture and colors Kaplan prefers.
Restricting oxygen in the kiln produces warm reds and browns for Kaplan’s unbisqued, earth-toned pieces. The entire firing process is unpredictable and much of it beyond Kaplan’s control, a technique she favors. After all, “It’s all about relationships,” she says. Indeed, it is.
The Bakers at Red Lion
By Margaret Gilmour
If you haven’t noticed already, you will before long: On some weekends, suspended above the basement door facing Doe Run Road, a tri-colored French flag waves in the wind signaling that the bread has risen and is ready to eat.
Barbara Churchville, baker, interior designer and local resident, also hangs her Fresh French Bread sign out in the yard where Doe Run and Folly Hill Roads meet. It’s a flag she brought back after a visit to France in 1963.
The bread is usually done by 11:00 a.m., and sometimes sold out within a couple of hours. And even though the parking isn’t always easy on this back road, it doesn’t stop passersby from pulling over for a loaf or two.
Churchville reignited her bread-baking hobby in October, 2008, almost ten years since she and her partner Nancy Fenstermacher closed doors on The Bakers at Red Lion, their in-home bake shop. “I just missed doing it,” Churchville says. “I love baking bread.”
The Bakers at Red Lion began in May of 1991 when Churchville baked a batch of French bread to take to a party. With six loaves too many, she decided to take two, and leave the rest in a basket outside her front door along the 926 side of the house. She also put out a sign, and left a can for “donations.”
It was only a matter of minutes before a driver pulled over for some bread and left a few dollars in the can. She hadn’t even left for the party.
After that, she and Nancy began baking every weekend. At one point they even sold homemade soup and sweet breads. “Nancy’s cinnamon buns were ambrosia,” Churchville says.
But by 1999 the two bakers closed shop because their full-time workweeks followed by all weekend baking became too much. They felt as if they couldn’t go anywhere.
“When we stopped baking people would stop by and ask us when we’d start again,” Churchville says. “There’s something about homemade bread that makes people happy.”
Who knew it would be about nine years before Churchville decided to heat up her rehabbed commercial Vulcan range and bake bread for sale again?
This time, though, Fenstermacher is only occasionally involved, and Churchville is baking when the mood hits, which means some weekends there’s bread, on others, there’s not. She will consider taking special orders, so if you need bread for a party (or just need your fix), do call.
Churchville uses a basic French bread recipe, mixes with a commercial mixer, and kneads by hand. She bakes herbed bread by tossing in all the savory herbs: dill, thyme, oregano, basic and rosemary…and if marjoram is within arms reach, she may add that too. Her cheese bread may be filled with either sharp cheddar or provolone, or both, and for zip, a bit of Tabasco. She also bakes wheat and oatmeal baguettes, and a sun-dried tomato loaf.
All Churchville’s ingredients are organic, including the fresh herbs picked from her garden when in season. She leaves her customers strips of tin foil to wrap their warm, golden-brown purchases, and in turn, her customers deposit $4/loaf in a basket. It’s the honor system that worked for the Bakers at Red Lion years ago and still continues to do so.
“There’s something very reassuring about knowing that people will come in, take bread, put money in the basket and leave happy,” Churchville says.
Ask anyone on their way out, and they’ll (happily) agree.
Bakers at Red Lion
Where: 926 and Doe Run Rd at the top of Folly Hill Rd
When: Some Saturdays and Sundays, by 11:00 a.m. (look for the tri-colored flag)
Special Orders: 484-467-3978
Basic French Bread:
- 5 lbs Unbleached King Arthur Flour
- 2 tbls salt
- 4 tbls sugar
- 6 ½ cups luke warm water
- 5-6 tbls Red Star yeast
Mix, hand-knead and bake.
Photography: Rick Ziesing










