The Alpine Gourmet, On and Off the Mountain

By Laura Pope

A gifted cadre of chefs working in the alpine reaches of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont ski resorts offer winter warriors savory options well beyond ubiquitous pub fare, from Upscale Rustic and European Comfort Food to Contemporary American cuisine. This selection of fine dining establishments, on and off the mountain, features a remarkable mix of masters in the kitchen, including a self-taught chef, two owner/chefs (one is CIA-trained) and three ski resort chefs, all alumni of the prestigious Chef Apprentice Program at The Balsams who have gone on to helm dining operations at major ski resort restaurants.

Vermont, On the Mountain

Chef Josh Berry, Solstice at Stowe Mountain Lodge, Stowe, Vermont

www.stowemountainlodge.com            

                 

Broadcasting a menu that is rustic, seasonal, contemporary and American, Solstice at Stowe Mountain Lodge has long been “the big place on the hill, a family resort where everyone chooses an entrée and lots of side dishes to pass around, family style,” describes Joshua Berry, executive chef at the premier dining and inn destination, as well as Hourglass, a lounge setting offering lighter, gastro-pub cuisine.

The casual, comfortable ambiance at the 110-seat Solstice presents a signature Neo-Lodge aesthetic that is both traditional and contemporary and pairs seamlessly  with an imaginative, interactive a la carte menu that allows Chef Berry to not only lower price points, but “fully engage diners who are wowed by all the options and flavor possibilities.”

The “build-it-yourself” menu style generates instant buzz with patrons who come to Stowe Mountain Lodge,  full of  high expectations.  A generous offering of starters, soups and salads starts the menu (the Vermont Goat Cheese Croquets, served with Stewed Apricots, Kalamata Olives, Watercress and Fennel Seed merit serious consideration), followed by an impressive Charcuterie of assorted meats, sausages and terrines, available in a small or large portion, continues with a staggering nine selections of local Vermont cheeses, served with local raw honey, stone fruit chutney, toasted walnuts and fresh bread, all sourced from Vermont farms, creameries and cheese makers.

“We’re one of forty Destination Hotels located all over the United States, and I’m proud to say that here at Solstice, we have the largest cheese selection,” boasts Chef Berry, another graduate of The Balsam’s Chef Apprentice Program who went on to serve as executive chef there for three years.

Diners at Solstice custom design entrees by first deciding whether they want one that is braised and sautéed (such as their signature Truffled Beef Pot Roast) or stone oven roasted (local cod, duck breast, baked stuffed mountain trout or scallops) or grilled (prime cuts of beef and Shetland salmon). Once that decision is made, they have the option of adding a flavor enhancements such as truffle, lobster, foie gras, crab, shrimp or blue cheese and equally important, and choosing from a wide selection of side dishes, that includes Truffled Mac and Vermont cheese, baked or Whipped Potatoes to Braised Red Cabbage, Confit of Wild Mushrooms and Caramelized Root Vegetables.

A Chef’s Signature item, a winter-hearty dish of Spiced Local Venison Medallions; a Friday-through- Saturday Queen- or King-cut of Slow Roast Prime Rib of Beef; specials such as a Braised Lamb Shank served with Creamy Polenta, Gremolata and Braising Jus; Vegan and Pasta items round out the winter wonderful menu.

“The heart of my culinary style is seasonal and local so that diners may experience a taste of northern Vermont and New England. I use a lot of regional ingredients and prepare them with a twist, such as the New England staple, pot roast, an old recipe I transform when I add the truffles from Italy.”

Vermont, Off the Mountain

Michael Kloeti, Michael’s on the Hill, Waterbury, Vermont

www. michaelsonthehill.com

 

~In Waterbury Center, at the rim of snow-blessed Stowe, Vermont, Chef Michael Kloeti and his wife, Laura, preside over Michael's on the Hill Restaurant, a hill top restaurant with views of the Green Mountains, purchased ten years ago, now an acclaimed bastion of European comfort food.

Like the Oxford House Inn and Sugar Hill Inn, the pair’s 1820 farmhouse with barn 85-seat restaurant, and newly renovated lounge, is often recommended by other top chefs and lauded by exacting food bloggers. It’s also sanctioned many times by other more conventional bestowers of greatness: Vermont Restaurateurs, Vermont's First Chef of the Year award, Sante Magazine Restaurant Award, Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, First Certified Green Restaurant in the Green Mountain State.

For Michael, MOTH represents a coalescence of his Swiss heritage, landscape and culinary roots, follows a top notch career at several dream destinations – the four star Lespinasse in New York City, the Lodge at Koele in Lanaii, Hawaii and the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan – and ultimately, offered an escape hatch from the corporate bottom line ethos that dominates many urban food empires.

“To me, winter is all about eating more and comfort foods and nothing is more comforting than food you can serve in a bowl. I make a lamb stew, served with locally-made Nitty Gritty polenta that has a vein of red wine in it, like beef bourguignon. Winter food is not necessarily heavy, it can be very refreshing. I can still remember the venison stew my mother made with red wine braised cabbage and spaetzle.” says the chef, who recently completed another guest stint aboard Holland America Cruise lines on an Asian/Pacific journey.

 “Diners camp out for a savored experience in one of the four dining rooms: The Porch with its wall of windows, the Barn with its exposed frames and wood prints from Switzerland, the Bar or the Trout Room. I would describe it as casual, but then the tables wear nice table cloths.”

 

 

Growing up on a farm, Michael absorbed a local, fresh, sustainable and seasonal way of gathering and preparing food he still abides. “It’s hard for me and the trout farmer to know just how many fish he has so it will come off the menu as the supply dwindles.” Venison was recently replaced with a Lamb Navarin dish on the entrée menu which also includes a skillet chicken, beef tenderloin, Maplewood smoked pork loin, an herb butter poached Maine lobster, a gnocchi dish and roast Atlantic char. Menus may change more than once in a season. “I run this place by our own rules and policies, so I choose to pay more for local provisions. It has more to do with high chef and customer satisfaction than the numbers.”

Maine, On the Mountain

Featuring:  Executive Chef Chad Davidowicz, Sunday River Ski Area & Resort, Newry, Maine www.sundayriver.com

As executive chef of several eateries serving skiers a variety of cuisine during their time on the eight peaks at Sunday River Ski Area & Resort in Newry, Chad Davidowicz, with his delegation of managers and assistants, operate three daytime cafeterias, five restaurants at two slope side grand resort hotels, (the Grand Summit and Jordan Grand) plus a popular nightspot called The Foggy Goggle at Southridge.

The offerings vary, from family friendly cuisine at Grand Summit’s Legends Restaurant and Moonstruck Café and the upscale pub food at Jordan Grand’s Sliders to the on-the-go, lunchtime cafeteria buffets for skiers eager to refuel. For those seeking fine dining, Chef Davidowicz recommends the 100-seat restaurant, Dining at the Peak, “a place on top of the mountain, on top of the world.”  

Normally reserved for winter-time Saturday evenings beginning in mid-December to coincide with Winter Fest, Dining at the Peak patrons “take the gondola ride up to the summit of North Peak where they’re greeted with a blanket and met at the door with a glass of champagne, followed by a four-course, sit-down dinner. During the day, Peak is a bustling skiers’ cafeteria, but on special days we transform it into a restaurant so that someone who had chowder or chili for lunch may return at night for finer dining.”

Last winter, the Peak’s four-courses included a soup course of Truffled Cream of Mushroom Soup with Duck Confit garnish as well as Lobster Bisque; artfully composed Baby Spinach and Gathered Greens salads; varied entrees such as Veal Chop Oscar, Seared Free Range Chicken Breast, Tenderloin, Seared Diver Scallops, and Honey Poached Gnocchi and sweet finishes of a classic Crème Brulee with sugared berries and a Chambourd Ganache Cheesecake. 

“I tend to lean toward the French influence in the dishes I create or cook, but I’m also a huge fan of Italian and South West cuisines,” shares Davidowicz, who oversees other wildly popular culinary happenings -- Moonlight Dinners in summer, staged during full moon cycles, featuring live music and buffet style service. “At the Peak, we try to create an atmosphere that tells patrons ‘everything was made just for you.’”

This winter, Peak dinners are scheduled for special times, such as Winter Fest, New Year’s, and at on other occasions, with overarching themes such as Wine Dinners or a dinner featuring French cuisine.

“We’re always looking to satisfy our customer base, and to that end we alter and add things, such as adding a tasting menu at the Jordan Grand,” says the Balsam’s Chef Apprentice Program graduate who  stayed on at the famed resort destination as sous chef before taking a position at Sunday River, first as executive sous chef and four years ago, as executive chef.  

Maine, Off the Mountain

Chef Jonathan Spak, Oxford House Inn, Fryeburg, Maine

www.oxfordhouseinn.com

 

~Since 2007, Chef Jonathan Spak and his wife, Natalie, have welcomed guests at The Oxford House Inn in Fryeburg, Maine, right next door to North Conway, NH and the ski-centric Mt. Washington Valley, as innkeepers of their four guestroom inn and 70-seat restaurant, both highly praised by the likes of Downeast and Yankee magazines.  

A Connecticut native, Jonathan trained at the Culinary Institute flagship campus at Hyde Park, NY, and more than a decade later left a perfectly fine job at a conference center in West Cornwall, Conn., after a vacation in North Conway, to preside over the Oxford House Inn, a Mission Style house built in 1913 by famed architect John Calvin Stevens.

Describing his culinary sweet spot as Contemporary American, the one-time apprentice with CIA-trained French chef, Gerard Coyac at Le Marmiton (Little Kitchen Boy) in the northern reaches of the Constitution State, explains: “I draw on traditional flavors and make them my own by breaking them down or reinventing the components.” Diners will find a hybrid menu melding the Inn’s pub and dining room offerings, from smaller bistro dishes to the more robust fine dining entrees. 

 

Four separate dining rooms set the alpine tone– a fireplace and a large bay window dominate the Front Parlor; the Middle Room features a more formal atmosphere; three walls of windows on the Back Porch let in sweeping views of the eastern edge of the White Mountains (Kearsarge, Black Cap, Bald Face and the Twins) and lastly, Jonathan’s Pub beckons with an entirely distinct atmosphere all its own.

Patrons flock to sample Jonathan’s Bangs Island mussel dish and local brews on Thursday evenings in the darker months. “It’s called Pint and a Pound: You get a pint of beer, currently Geary's Pale Ale or Moat Mountain Brown, crafted in North Conway, on tap, or a glass of wine or bottled beer with a pound of mussels or clams in one of five different preparations. Currently we offer yellow curry with potatoes, apples, raisins and coconut milk; pesto, roasted tomato, pine nut & chardonnay; chorizo, sweet potato, roasted corn and Corona; smoked bacon, English pea, cream and sage and our traditional with garlic, chardonnay, pepper flakes and butter. This weekly special has taken a life of its own.”

A sampling of the winter menu (entrees include braised lamb shank, a cider-brined pork tenderloin, cornmeal crusted rainbow trout and a grilled filet mignon) and specials (a braised beef short rib and potato tart with roast root vegetables and rosemary gratin) reveal an inventive orchestration of cooking technique and seasonal provisions.

Never forgetting the importance of a sweet finish, Spak touts the caramel cheese cake with Grand Marnier citrus salad. “We use at least six different citruses, no lemon or lime, in the salad and a slightly thickened, uncooked Grand Marnier.  ~

New Hampshire, On the Mountain

Chef Matthew Holland, Seasons Restaurant, Mountain Club on Loon Resort & Spa, Lincoln, NH  

www.mtnclub.com

 

On the heels of a $9 million renovation at the Mountain Club on Loon Mountain Resort & Spa in Lincoln, Chef Matthew Holland launches Seasons Restaurant, formerly Rachel’s Restaurant, at Christmas for fine dining dinner service, featuring the very best New England or “indigenous” cuisine tapping local/sustainable food sources.

“When I think of winter fare, I think of root vegetables, onions, seafood such as lobster and scallops which are at their very best this time of year, braised items, pork and heartier cuts of beef,” says the chef from Twin Mountain who worked at his family’s restaurant before signing on, at 16, at the Mt. Washington Hotel to work with Chef Val Fortin (now the executive chef at the Sugar Hill Inn) where he attained the position of executive sous chef.  He later completed a chef apprenticeship at the Balsam’s Grand Resort’s prestigious program, where he worked as the executive pastry chef and also worked as executive chef at Bonta, in Hampton, NH.

At Seasons, Chef Matthew’s proffers a refined dining experience, “to give our patrons more options. We’ll have linens on the tables, but we won’t be fussy or pretentious. We also have the flexibility of creating cuisine for two dining venues. Black Diamond Bar & Grille at the Mountain Club features more casual surroundings and fare, and with a fantastic group of culinarians in the kitchen, we strive to serve great, consistent food at a great value, from casual to more upscale.

Seasons at the Mountain Club on Loon features regional New England cuisine “focusing on the finest of seasonal, local and sustainable ingredients found in our fantastic soups, stews, breads, braised items, grains and produce so prominent in our fall and early winter harvests. Our focus at Seasons allows diners a more formal dining option with respect to the menu items and top-notch service, but executed in a casual, relaxed atmosphere.”

New Hampshire, Off the Mountain

Chef Val Fortin, Sugar Hill Inn, Sugar Hill, NH

 www.sugarhillinn.com

 

~The comfortable, sophisticated guest rooms and cottages at the Sugar Hill Inn, taken together with its Euro-upscale 25-seat dining room have earned this oasis in New Hampshire’s White Mountains impressive accolades: multiple DiRoNA  Achievement of Distinction in Dining awards; a Distinguished Inn of North America recognition from Select Registry and a Wine Spectator  Award of Excellence.

Executive Chef and New Hampshire native, Val Fortin, joined owner Steve Allen’s team in 2006 when Allen purchased the inn minutes away from Cannon Mountain, Bretton Woods and Attitash, and began restorations.  The self-taught chef worked his way up from dishwasher to chef, including a long stint at the Mount Washington Hotel and as chef in private hotels and clubs in Florida and Cape Cod.”

Fortin ’s passion for Creative Cuisine, a fusion of international flavors (think herbed spaetzle, Italian bread soup), as well as his “made from scratch” credo and adherence to local and sustainable food philosophies, surfaces all over the four course prix fixe winter menu.    

 

“The food here tends to be inventive, creative, passionate and comforting. For those diners who are a little more adventurous you may even see a little molecular gastronomy on the menu.” He forages for local food sources at the co-op in Littleton and works with local farmers including the Walker Hill Farm in Lisbon, where he gets all his heirloom tomatoes.

Dinner guests may decide on one of Val’s signature dishes, the horseradish crusted filet mignon of beef tenderloin set atop a scallion and fresh herb potato cake served with a parsley lemon butter and red wine braised shallots or the red wine slow braised beef short ribs with smashed winter root vegetables and fingerling potatoes served with a sauce from it’s own braising liquid. His trio of soups deliver of winter’s essence: a winter squash medley, a broccoli and gruyere combo, almost a fondue, and a heaven-scented potage of mushroom and truffle.

“The pan seared quail breast, served medium rare, and the crispy leg, served with a house made wild mushroom ravioli, crisp prosciutto and wild mushroom and truffle broth is a great beginning to your dining experience. The wild mushroom and truffle broth is served table side so as to get the full aroma of the broth. The tasting of duck is an inn favorite with pan seared duck breast, confit of leg and foie gras ravioli served with whipped gingered sweet potato, French haricots verts, baby white turnips and a lingonberry gastrique.”  Trout, lamb and truffle béchamel mac and cheese dishes round out the entrée offerings.

Desserts are homemade, decadent, beautifully presented. If the homemade ice creams, mini pistachio and pecan whoopie pie (with a orange and Vermont goat cheese filling finished with a salted caramel sauce) or a petite German chocolate cake scented with a touch of espresso (finished with a homemade vanilla bean ice cream and a Tuckerman’s ale chocolate sauce) doesn’t quite fit the bill, then perhaps Val’s handmade bittersweet chocolate and pomegranate laced truffle will.~

On the Mountain Alpine Chefs in this post were profiled in the December issue of Northeast Flavor Magazine; profiles of Alpine Chefs Off the Mountain were written as a Web Extra for Northeast Flavor Magazine. Both articles have been combined here by the writer.

 

Project Discovery

Project Discovery a Great Adventure in 1981

Published Monday, June 17, 2002 in The Public Garden; the Portsmouth Herald

By Laura Pope

Twenty-one years ago Indiana Jones exploded into mainstream consciousness in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Swashbuckling, fearless and undefeated in his quest to retrieve treasures, the whip-carrying, hat-wearing Indy added the archaeologist to our growing pantheon of male heroes that already included pirates, soldiers and statesmen.

This was the same summer - in 1981 - that I participated in Project Discovery, an educational public excavation of an archaeological site behind the Mary Rider-Wood House at Strawbery Banke Museum. More than 120 regular citizens, ranging from preteens to retirees, and divided almost equally between the sexes, signed up for the summer-long course, led by me and Harvard-trained archaeologist Gray Gratham.

 

 

The program, a brainchild of museum staffer Bruce Follansbee and underwritten by state grants, offered everyday people a chance to participate in a process-driven retrieval of artifacts right on museum grounds.

What attracted most of them to the program was the idea that one didn’t need an academic degree to actually do the excavating, cataloguing, photography, map-making or research. It was a project that empowered and educated, at the same time adding to the already impressive archaeological archive on display and in storage at the Jones House exhibit.

Funny how the name of the museum’s archaeology exhibit house matched that of the movie-screen hero. Completely coincidental was the timing of our dig and the visage of Indiana Jones, but this confluence made for overflow crowds and national media coverage of this banner program in Portsmouth’s 10-acre waterfront museum.

Another extensive dig, at the Follett site, located right next to the Jones House, to examine Puddle Dock wharf remnants, also took place at the museum over the course of that summer, though this one was undertaken by three professionals - Faith Harrington, Elisa Jorgensen and Aileen Agnew. A third dig also began that season - a salvage dig at the site on Deer Street where the Sheraton now stands. This one turned out to be one of the most fruitful, complete and intact historic archaeological sites in New England in terms of ceramic and glass finds.

As we taught classes in excavating, identifying, cataloguing and dating a wide variety of artifacts - from shards of ceramic dishes, cups, wine bottles, pipe stems to bone refuse and the like - interest in the dig and its mission took on a life of its own. Every major and minor television station took turns interviewing students and leaders at both digs; The Associated Press did a story that was picked up across the nation, as we found out from our museum president when he returned from a conference on the West Coast; and visits to the museum rocketed.

Though we did not look anything like the movie hero, we were dirt-covered, trowel-packing truthseekers, out to find evidence, a few centimeters at a time, about the families that resided at the Rider-Wood House.

We did unearth a leather tanning vat out back, and the old outdoor privy did much to verify diets and household wares of residents over time. We glued pots together, made careful lists of our finds and learned to appreciate history and how it is compiled. We did much to quell the snob factor of academia by throwing open the door of the profession to the nontraditional student, the amateur.

Teachers signed up, and so did many a father and son, daughter and mother. Some signed on because they had the summer off and didn’t want to travel. Others had always wanted to try archaeology; a few were earning credits; many didn’t know what to expect. An analysis and interpretation program followed the excavations in the spring of 1982, and for a few of the students, archaeology became a second profession.

 

 

When funds for these educational programs dried up - and they did with amazing speed in 1982 - several of the amateurs we had trained took over the laboratory duties. Most all the archaeologists at the museum, a record number in fact, fled to other digs, positions or professions. Still, it was one of those rare times when an innovative idea surfaced, found funding and followed through with incredible results.

Post Script: Following excavations and lab work, the Mary Ryder Wood House underwent extensive renovations, re-opening as an exhibit house at Strawbery Banke Museum, including a select display of artifacts unearthed by Project Discovery participants.

Behind the Lens

Bradley John Huckins, Photographer

World traveler who inherited his father's eye for photography.

A photo taken during one of his many visits to the Middle East, this of the middle pyramid at Giza, called Khafra (also known as Khafre or Chephren). Distinguished by its remaining cap, it is the second largest pyramid at Giza built by pharoah Khafra, who is also credited with building the Sphinx. Some say the face of the Sphinx is that of Khafra.

 

Bradley lived for a while at Plum Island, the barrier island off the coast of Newbury, Newburyport and Rowley. Winters could be savage and the island was often cut off from the mainland. Depicted here is one of the many boardwalks at the National Reserve, in full capture of falling snow.

 

 

You can almost see your breath in this photo, taken after a winter storm with waves at full crash mode. Plum Island severely erodes during major blizzards and hurricanes and of late, houses have been taken by the sea.

 

 

A timeless looking photograph of Plum Island in flood stage. This picture says it all.

 

 

This photograph of a rather agile Bradley was taken at Bow Lake by his father.

 

 

Assorted photos of Bradley John Huckins. Top is Sepia tone of DJ Bradley Jay at WBCN, The Rock of Boston; Bradley spins at River Rave; Bradley at House of Blues; Bradley, how radio talk show host at WBZ and Jay Talking.

 

To learn more about Brad, go to: http://unhmagazine.unh.edu/f12/bradley_huckins.html to read an article I penned about his long career in music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Iconoclast Jay Smith

 

Originally published Monday, September 9, 2002 Public Garden column, Portsmouth, NH Herald

Jay Smith: Bon Vivant & Cultural Catalyst

I will never forget the sight. More than 100 people dressed in formal evening attire milled around the bar and moved sluggishly on the dance floor in the ballroom of the Islington Street design firm, now closed.

Helium-filled balloons with long ribbon tails caressed the ceiling. Tuxedoed bartenders served drinks. The swish of satin and crinoline gowns filled the air. Ben Baldwin and his band were trying to coax the swank crowd into steady dancing with up tempo tunes.

Despite all the fixings, the expansive guest list (that also included a guest psychic) and the elegant atmosphere, this holiday party lacked spirit. Most seemed uncomfortable in deluxe duds and too-tight shoes with slippery soles.

And then in walks Jay Smith with an entourage. The perennially dressed down Jay and his friends had come from a Button Factory art exhibition, had gotten wind of this more fancy pants affair just down the road and decided: Why Not?

Ever the joyous gate crasher, Jay did not bat an eyelash when it came to pursuing fun. Rather, he rallied the party at large and soon, those swathed in cocktail attire were boogying next to those in flannel, jeans and sneakers. Even the hostess recognized a party savior when she saw one and instead of asking him how he got in, let him work his magic.

I, like many in the Seacoast, hold many memories about Jay Smith. Most of mine involve Jay at an event of some sort, mixing it up with the proletariat and the polished, the artist and the banker, the musician and the mayor.

The first time I saw Jay was at one of the first Market Square Days. It was raining (as usual), and Jay with a group of friends dashed across Congress Street to stop in at the Kearsarge Hotel for a beverage. He was laughing and talking, leading the uninitiated to an out-of-the-way nook.

Most times, Jay could be found at the Press Room. Tall, dimpled, with chiseled features and a keen mind, this bon vivant liked nothing more than introducing people to one another. At the bar one wintry afternoon, Jay sat between me and Katie Paine, ignited a rousing conversation about the Pease Development Board and then made introductions all around. If only that nude painting above the main bar could re-play some of the brilliant discussions Jay generated!

His most magnificent role – beyond his mostly hidden penchant for institutional and personal generosity, was as cultural catalyst. He was a mover and shaker in the truest sense – connecting all the dots of people from different spheres of his own life into a woven work comprised of an extended, stronger community. The Press Room was his salon, where music, food and drink pulled in a soupcon of thinkers, drinkers, game players, diners, gossips, music makers, music lovers and creative sorts of every stripe. Conversations, arguments, business deals and ideas flowed freely.

As an arts reporter I discovered quite by accident Jay’s philanthropic support of the Music Hall. Less accidental were first hand reports about Jay helping people finance the purchase of homes. Or paying staff out of his own pocket when times were lean. Selfless generosity was just another element of a character profile that included those of an aesthete with a unbridled passion for music. I ran into Jay at post-Telluride parties, at Katie Paine’s grand fetes at the farm, on the street and at various house parties all over the Seacoast. The last time I saw him at Katie’s, he was driving a red, vintage sports car and accepting the attentions of several females gathering in the Great Room. I managed to coerce him onto the dance floor for a spin to the sounds of the Curt Bessette Band. Jay Smith left the most vivid impression with me in February 2001 at the post-funeral gathering upstairs at the Press Room for musician, Grieg Westley. I knew Jay was musical and heard from Harvey Reid how he and Jay cut a track on his Circles CD, with Jay on bodhran late one evening at the Daniel Street music room.

Still, that did not prepare me, or those gathered in honor of Grieg, for Jay’s spontaneous burst of song on the stage. Singing clearly, sweetly, boldly, and without accompaniment, Jay Smith sang his heart out in an old ditty that brought Grieg’s spirit forcefully forward. There were few dry eyes. I turned to Kent Allyn, who like me, was shaking his head in wonder at the angel singing his song before us.

 

Good Medicine article

Appeared in Summer 2012 Northeast Flavor, New England's Food & Wine magazine

 

Good Medicine

Integrating the healing power of organic farming at Serving Ourselves Farm with renewal of life skills at Boston’s Long Island Homeless Shelter

Laura Pope

“Working at the farm, tending the gardens, is particularly suited to recovery. It’s a place to quiet the mind, meditate and focus on the tasks at hand. Growing food is a very clear activity; it’s not complex in the way a lot of the world is. The sea breeze makes it a perfect environment to work outdoors.”

So says Erica La Fountain, farm manager at the four-acre, certified organic Serving Ourselves Farm at Long Island Shelter in Boston Harbor, about the very real positives of aligning the organic farm ethic with social change. The farm provides food to the homeless, trains homeless individuals in a wide variety of skills, attracts volunteers, offers a sanctuary to troubled youth while also serving the community at large.

Each growing season, the farm yields 25,000 pounds of fresh organic food—vegetables, fruits and herbs, eggs and honey – that helps to provide 2,000 meals each day for 800 homeless persons at the Long Island and Woods-Mullen shelters. Some of that bounty also lands in local restaurants – including the swank Hamersley’s Bistro, Ashmont Grill, Tavolo and Barbara Lynch Gruppo, while 20 percent goes on display for sale at farmers’ markets in Boston.

The brainchild of Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Serving Ourselves Farm was founded as a vocational training program in 1996, as part of the Boston Public Heath Commission’s Homeless Services Bureau. The farm also partners with the City’s Office of Jobs and Community Services, which funds Youth Options Unlimited, YOU, a training and employment program for court-involved youth. For seven weeks each summer, a large group of youth from YOU arrives at the farm to lend helping hands. 

“There are so many different aspects of work and training here,” explains La Fountain, who brings a background in social service, organic and community farming to SOF. “There’s the seeding, tending and harvesting, then the Culinary Arts Program in the shelter kitchen where trainees learn to prepare meals, as well as methods to preserve harvest foods such as pickling and drying herbs,” she adds. “We also maintain an apiary for the honey and to help pollinate the plants, and tend our free range laying hens. Our adult trainees become mentors to our youth participants.”

The farm is one component of the Serving Ourselves Program (SOS), an integrated, holistic program which focuses on developing basic work and life skills, while providing services to homeless individuals. Each season, the farm employs as many as six client workers, who receive shelter, meals, case management, education services, health services, and counseling while in the program. After graduation from the program, each client worker is helped with finding work and housing.

In addition to the training programs, the SOF utilizes the Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA model. Those who purchase farm shares in CSA are given a reusable bag of fresh produce every week throughout the growing season, a delectable stash gathered by trainees and volunteers.

“We emphasize kitchen staples in our plantings – potatoes, tomatoes, greens, onions, carrots and summer squash,” says La Fountain. “Then we plant 30 other vegetables in smaller quantities for our culinary arts program, farmers’ markets and the CSA, such as garlic, radishes, leeks, beans, broccoli, turnip, kale, beets, scallions, cherry tomatoes and eggplant.”

Like any truly sustainable and successful program, collaboration and inclusion are key factors. “The Boston Public Health Commission has a unique public/private partnership with the Friends of Boston’s Homeless, a non-profit charged with raising funds for our program. They recently hosted our first Celebrity Harvest Dinner. Each celebrity chef prepared a course for more than 100 diners, raising $25,000.

Ultimately, results are what make the Farm such a remarkable tool in transforming lives.

“Our trainees interface with all the visitors and volunteers at the farm. They share knowledge with others about their tasks, they answer questions, they teach. We’ve had trainees go on to jobs directly tied to farm skills – in the florist business or in landscaping. A lot of them lose weight and cook better meals as a consequence of working here. In the end, our great success rate in job placement comes from transferable skills learned here: accountability, responsibility, respect. Serving Ourselves Farm is all about a great physical and mental recovery.”

The Bridge that Opened Downtown

Written in August 2002 for The Public Garden, my bi-weekly column in the Portsmouth Herald

It’s hard to equate in modern terms the excitement generated in Portsmouth and Kittery on Aug. 17, 1923. Though newspaper clippings at the time greatly detailed the big event - the opening of the Memorial Bridge - not even the most optimistic politician or city planner could have imagined the positive impact the new bridge would have on the economy and growth of the city.

Former Portsmouth Mayor Eileen Foley - who at age 5 was selected to cut the silk ribbon, at the middle of the new bridge, signaling its opening - sums it up this way: "The opening of the bridge was really the opening of downtown Portsmouth."

The new $2 million drawbridge connected Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, at a crucial downtown crossing point, eliminating the need for Portsmouth-side shipyard workers to catch the ferry to the PNSY at the coal company (now the salt pile) on upper Market Street.

A dilapidated toll bridge maintained by the Boston & Maine Railroad - crossing near where the Sarah M. Long Bridge, or Middle Bridge, now stands - became obsolete. Pedestrian sidewalks along the new bridge made it possible to walk from Portsmouth to Kittery.

Several businesses opened when the bridge did, including The Rosa Restaurant on State Street and John’s Barber Shop on Daniel Street. The surge in pedestrian and auto traffic demanded more services, and so sprang a hybrid downtown community composed of businesses and residences.

The carefully engineered Memorial Bridge also adapted to fierce river currents and tides. The middle of the span, powered by two 100-horsepower motors, could be raised to a maximum 180 feet, allowing lofty ships to do business upriver.

This feat was tested for the first time in February 1924, when the four-masted Helen B. Gring of Boston passed through with several feet to spare. It was estimated that as many as 15,000 cars would cross the bridge each day for the city’s tercentenary celebration a few weeks after the bridge opened.

The idea to build the three-span cable drawbridge began in 1917 by both New Hampshire and Maine legislators. The cost of building this top-of-the-line span was shared in equal parts by the states of New Hampshire and Maine and the U.S. government. At the time, there were only two other bridges of its kind - in Portland, Ore., and Jacksonville, Fla.

In 1920, contractors in Boston were selected to build the piers and abutments for the bridge. The piers were positioned in bedrock, at some points going as deep as 82 feet below the high-water mark. These necessary foundations required 14,000 barrels of cement, 6,000 tons of sand and 12,000 tons of gravel. Several homes were torn down to make way for approaches to the bridge. By December 1922, the last of the three metal spans - each of which measured 300 feet - was floated into place by the American Bridge Company.

In late August of the following year, opening ceremonies attracted more than 5,000 people, gathered at either end of the bridge. Several dignitaries, including Gov. Brown of New Hampshire and Gov. Baxter of Maine, were in attendance.

An old clipping reads: "The governors met at the boundary line of the middle span and shook hands. There was the tooting of auto horns; boats in the river blew their whistles." Then little Helen "Eileen" Dondero, later Foley, cut the pink silk ribbon, inaugurating the bridge into service.

"I don’t really know why it was me cutting the ribbon that day," said Foley from her Portsmouth home. "My father, Charles Dondero, worked at the Internal Revenue and my mother was at home with us girls. This was years and years before she became Portsmouth’s first female mayor. I do remember wearing a crepe de chine dress with tatting and that a woman fetched me from my mother at the Daniel Street side of the bridge and brought me to where the ribbon was to be cut. I also remember that after cutting the ribbon Governor Baxter held me in his arms."

Later, the delegation would enjoy a lobster dinner in celebration.

Foley added that a collection of materials from opening day, including the ribbon she cut and relevant newspaper articles, was framed, which years later she gave to Sen. Tom McIntyre in Washington, D.C., to bolster his research on ownership of the bridge.

"When he lost his election, his office was cleaned out," she continued, "and that framed piece with all of the bits about the bridge were lost."

Another news clipping reporting the opening reads: "Traffic was opened and immediately a pandemonium broke forth and an avalanche of traffic moved in both directions. Boys on bikes (from both sides of the bridge) rushed forward to see who would be the first to reach the opposite shore."

Portsmouth’s two other bridges would come much later. The Sarah M. Long Bridge opened in November 1940, and the $50 million six-lane Interstate 95 bridge opened in 1972.


Postscript: The Memorial Bridge was dismantled in the winter of 2011-12 and will be replaced with another, more modern bridge.

Front Door Decor

Portals of Past Elegance

Period tools and techniques in hand, John Schnitzler tends a most visible architectural legacy of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the surrounding Seacoast, through the renovation of colonial door surrounds more than two centuries old.

 “Some surrounds call for simple, small repairs,” explains the Maine-based carpenter who learned his trade under the tutelage of the legendary master carpenter, Norm Clark, at Portsmouth’s 10-acre maritime neighborhood museum, Strawbery Banke.

“Other door surrounds require major surgery when they have to be taken apart piece by piece, to be repaired, duplicated or replaced.” Schnitzler has salvaged at least two dozen door surrounds in Seacoast New Hampshire and southern Maine over the course of  two decades.

Once a booming, urban seaport, Portsmouth and her legendary echelon of merchants, shipbuilders, lawyers and government figures – and before the American Revolution, her Royal Governors – required impressive dwellings to mirror their social standings in an unrivaled, exhilarating heyday of prosperity.

In the 18^th century, Georgian and Federal embellishments, entirely the creation of English architects tapping Roman and Greek antiquities, appeared in all manner of interior and exterior architecture as well as furniture and decorative elements in the colonies, most prominently in door surrounds.

“The doorway of a house proclaimed to all the status and wealth of its occupants, who could afford the skills of superlative carvers and joiners working in tandem to accomplish the grandest entrance possible,” continues the bespectacled artisan with his trademark pencil perched between cap and ear.

 With restoration, these artifacts endure as a testament to the outstanding caliber of trade dynasties working in Portsmouth almost two decades before the Revolutionary War.

Several trade families – the Dearings, the Whiddens and the Harts, to name just a few – sprang into action to fulfill the architectural appetites of the upper class. They also left their telltale marks inside – from interior columns and detailed trim and moldings to carved mantels and corner cupboards.

The Chase House, a refined Georgian (named for England’s King George III) era home, built in 1762, features two contrasting door surrounds; one fancy, one a little less so.  Ebenezer Dearing, 1730 - 1791, lived for a time in the two-story residence and is credited with carving the finely executed Corinthian capitals and dense, ornate detailing in the front door surround as well as another of his calling cards, an elaborately carved mantel, festooned with a delicate, French-inspired rococo pattern of flowers, fruits and ribbons, adorning the formal parlor fireplace.

 

His son, William, 1759 - 1813, continued the family business, carving columns and other ornamental features all around the city. Together, their collective style survives in the capitals at Sherburne, Wentworth-Gardner, Governor Langdon and Moffatt-Ladd Houses, St. John’s Church, on several mantels and the oval carvings on the facade of the Portsmouth Athenaeum.  

 The signature on Dearing capital carvings is distinct, says Schnitzler: “A zig-zag dart or lightning bolt carved into the tops of capitals.”

 Wallingford Hall, a merchant’s manse in Kennebunk, Maine, dated to 1807 and now a public marketplace, displays the quintessential Federal door surround and floor plan.

 “The house stands in amazingly large scale,” he says, “and the rooms inside are huge, so the door surround must match that scale.” The entryway opens extra wide, with newfangled features – transom sidelights and an elliptical skylight.

Built in brick in 1818, on Pleasant Street, one of Portsmouth’s most opulent thoroughfares, the Treadwell-Jenness House is only one of several city residences commissioned by and named for the well-to-do merchant family.

The front door, which Schnitzler freed from a small hall addition and returned to its original position, represents a classic door surround with a half-circle, arched transom featuring a leaf or flute pattern drawn in glass with lead tracery.

These elements display a change in door surround styles ushering in the Federal period, a style christened in honor of the new federation of states that included new fluting, reeding and beading woodworking techniques as well as curved walls and curved staircases inside.

The new approach took hold in New England in 1785 and held sway through the 1820s, brought to the fore by next generation builders such as James Nutter, Jonathan Folsom and journeyman joiner, Shepard Frost, like the Dearings, Harts and Whiddens before them.  

To restoration carpenters such as John Schnitzler, these enduring woodworks are prize relics, worthy of salvation and admiration.