Ed's Corner

It's another gray morning as I look out my kitchen window today. Gray skies and even mostly gray bark on the trees as I gaze over the woodland behind my house. What, you say, is wrong with me? Don't I know that tree bark is brown? Remember how the brown crayons in school were brought out to color the bark of trees we had drawn? It's taken for granted that all tree bark is brown. Just ask anyone and they'll tell you its so, but If you go right up to a tree, the bark appears gray, or some shade of gray, not usually brown.

This is the time of year when sunrises and sunsets can be most beautiful. There are no leaves to get in the way of the view. Very recently, I was in Helen Hayes Hospital in Haverstraw. It sits on top of a big hill, and views of the the Hudson River and nearby mountains were grand. I woke up just as the sun was rising and the sunrise over the Hudson was just spectacular, in a quiet way. I wanted to run around to every patient, nurse and doctor and tell them to look out a window.

That probably was the best medicine of the day.



Can you spy the creature who's ability to camouflage relies on the grayness of a winter day? 

Timely Bird Special *7.5% Off* Ends Saturday 12/15

The timely bird swoops in, just in the nick of...

Sign up for Summer 2019 by Saturday, December 15th, 2018, paying half your balance then and the other half on January 15th, to receive 7.5% off your total camp tuition!

To see the Timely Bird Rates, click here.

The Sustainability Scoop

A hub for 'green' information and inspiration

How to Reduce Electricity Use Part II
Resources galore!

Ayla Dunn Bieber recommends some resources for energy conservation and websites that show you how to choose your electric supplier. Chock-full of practicality...

Hello all,

While we may not have them every night, Daniel, Odelia, and I have been enjoying our candle-lit dinners immensely. My awareness about turning lights off when I'm moving rooms (or not turning them on at all during the day) has been satisfying, and I've switched to doing all laundry using cold water. I've also programmed our thermostats to ensure we're not wasting energy while we're not home, nor at night when we are cozy in bed. I have some self-judgement that I wasn't paying more attention to these things before now, but all we can do is continually do better, right?

How is your electricity reduction going? Are there changes you have tried to make? 

I wanted to share a few more links to websites with easy and practical information about energy conservation for further tips and inspiration:

• A comprehensive booklet from energy.gov
• A practical list of strategies to reduce energy from Energy Star
• Cold weather specific energy saving tips from energy.gov 

Another way to have an impact around sustainable energy is to choose your electric supplier. While we don't have a say in our electricity distributors (specific companies that own and maintain the poles and wires that get to our homes), we can choose where our electricity comes from (including making greener choices - i.e. wind, solar, hydroelectric). 

I was recently directed to NYS Power to Choose by my gas and electric distributor (Orange and Rockland) and was happy to see that once you put in your zip code the site easily compares electric supplier's rates in your area and tells you if they are green and how so. I found a few sites (there seem to be several) doing a similar thing in NJ (Power2Switch and Choose Energy). Daniel and I chose a new green supplier, which I not only feel better about morally, but which will also save us money too!

I hope you've enjoyed our foray into this electrifying topic ;). I can't wait to explore a different sustainability theme with you all next month. Until then... stay warm (but not too warm) on these cold winter nights. 

Don't forget to take advantage of the '20% off candles' coupon below that our friends at The Hungry Hollow Co-op have offered in conjunction with our energy reduction efforts these past two months! Offer expires January 15th!

Powering down for now, 
Ayla

Where to find us in 2019: Calendar of Events

Looking to meet us in your neighborhood, check out our campus, or come to one of our public programs? Check out what's happening, where, and when, by clicking the links below!

Click here for dates and locations of Camp Fairs in Manhattan & Brooklyn, NY and Montclair & Ridgewood, NJ.

Click here for dates of Open Houses and Tours on our Campus.

Click here for more info on the following Free Public Programs...

1/19/19 | 12-1 PM | Winter Tales with Chuck Stead
3/02/19 | 12-1 PM and 2-3 PM | Maple Sugaring
3/24/19 | 12-1 PM | Outragehiss Pets
4/14/19 | 2-3 PM | Wild Edibles in Inwood *New Event!*
4/28/19 | 12-1 PM | Wild Edibles
5/04/19 | 10 AM-1 PM | Family Day Hike in Harriman *New Event!*

The Traveler and The Cook

Our cooking instructor, Eva Szigeti, writes about the nostalgia she feels around the holidays, particularly for the joys of the 'holiday market'...

Christmas Market in Vienna

The holiday season is a time when we seem to be especially prone to nostalgia for childhood, for the magical time of hope and anticipation that brought light into the darkest part of the year. Nostalgia magnifies moments from childhood and leads to reminiscing about positive experiences. I miss the Christmas seasons of my childhood. No matter how hard I try to recreate the feeling of 'Christmas' every year, the holiday never seems to be the same as it was when I was a kid.

Adults, do you remember snow globes? Those heavy glass (or plastic) spheres with a winter scene? When they are shaken, snow starts quietly coming down on the town or the landscape encased in the glass. Did you ever hold one as a child and feel mesmerized by the miniature world where snow was just one shake away? I always imagined myself being part of the scene. As the soft snow slowly came down inside of the glass-covered world, I was transported into the kingdom of imagination and dreams. How delightful! But seeing a snow globe as an adult, it seems more tacky than enchanting. I had to remember all the magic it brings, when my daughter asked for one few years ago.

As a child, I loved the Christmas market. I remember a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts warming my hands and the aroma of roasting chestnuts filling the town square. Enjoying the spirit of the holiday in a market is a nice way to spend a weekend day with children. For those who happened to be in Central Europe during the holiday season, Vienna is an excellent choice. Although I never went to a Christmas market in Vienna as a child, I had been to many others that provided a similar experience.



Vienna’s famous Christmas markets were likely the first place where snow globes were sold (and are still sold). Like many other inventions, the first snow globe was an unintended byproduct of a quest for something else - in this case, for a surgical lamp. The snow globe (Schneekugel) was patented at the end of the 19th century by Erwin Perzy, an Austrian surgical instruments mechanic. The hand-painted, manually assembled glass globes encasing a miniature St. Stephen's Cathedral were a hit. The Perzy family continues to make a variety of snow globes to this day, and the family business still operates in the same house in Vienna. 

Of course, there is no Christmas market without food and holiday treats. In a Christmas market in Vienna, this means stalls with grilled sausage, pretzels, sandwiches, roasted chestnuts and almonds, potato wedges, donut-like sweets (Krapfen), apples covered in red sugar glazing, cotton candy, and marzipan. Some stalls sell nothing but gingerbread decorated with colored frosting; hearts and stars with inscriptions of Christmas wishes.

For the sake of childhood nostalgia, I had to have a Schaumbecher when I last visited a market - an ice cream cone topped with marshmallow cream dipped in chocolate. As children, we called them 'winter ice cream'. It was nice to taste one again, although as a child, I had not been a big fan because they failed to deliver the taste of real ice cream.

Possibly more than by food, children at a market in Vienna will be enchanted by old-world wooden toys like pine cone animals, wooden birds, porcelain bells, and especially wooden figures that jump or fly (without batteries) when a string is pulled. And don’t expect to meet Santa in Vienna. In Austria and the Central European region, Christmas gifts are brought by the Christkind (Christ-child or Little Jesus).

In Central Europe, there is no Christmas without what the Austrians call vanilla kipferl (vanilla crescents). We decided to make a batch with my daughter recently. As we were baking, suddenly the wise-woman persona of my nine-year-old daughter came to life and spoke, “You know, it is the small things that matter in life, like baking cookies or being with your family.” After my initial shock, I had to acknowledge that she was perfectly right. I hope she feels the wonder of the holiday, and one day she will yearn for the magic of her childhood Christmases.

Click here for Eva's Recipe for Vanilla Kipferl or 'Vanilla Crescents'!

Primitive Living Skills Spring Topics Announced

Bolivers

Our beloved camp storyteller, Chuck Stead, writes about a holiday tradition with humble roots...

Bolivers, my dad Walt told us, was what they called the fried bread dough that my grandmother offered as a regular meal when there was nothing else to eat during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Growing up, it was my family’s tradition that we ate bolivers every Christmas morning before unwrapping our gifts. One usually poured molasses or maple syrup over the boliver. 

As Christmas drew near, Walt would make a great pillow of bread dough and then park it in a covered pot on the steam radiator so as to rise overnight. He usually did this three nights in advance of Christmas. Ricky Cramshaw always came over to have a boliver after his folks unwrapped their presents. Through the years various other friends joined in with this tradition and chomped down on a sticky, chewy boliver. Watching Walt stretch a wad of bread dough as thin as he could, and then toss it into a sizzling pan of fat, was also part of the tradition. After one ate a boliver, there was a period of sitting and falling half asleep as the boliver settled like warm sand into your belly. Truth is, no one really much cared for bolivers themselves - it was all about tradition...the tradition that was set down by Gram Hulga Stead.

One year, the day after Christmas, Ricky Cramshaw and I were playing with these wonderful electric Lionel trains I had received. That year, Tessie was not proud of the fact that they had bought me ‘used’ trains, but actually I couldn’t have been happier. My grandfather (who passed when I was four) had worked in the Ramapo Iron Works shop on railroading equipment, so I equated the old-style toy trains with him. Ricky and I were configuring a track set-up when Walt called us up for bolivers. 

In the kitchen he first powdered his hands with flour and then started stretching two wads of bread dough. He told us this was his mother’s way of keeping the family eating during the Depression. Ricky asked him, “Why was everybody so depressed back then?”

Walt tossed our bolivers into the snapping and crackling hot fat. Then he looked at us and said, “Well sir, back then, a lot of rich people fixed it so that most people ended up stone-broke. Pretty soon no one had jobs or if they did, they didn’t earn much money and they couldn’t feed their families. It was a bad time.”

Ricky said, “But your mother fed everybody, right?”

“Well, she fed us just like other mothers found a way to feed their families. Bolivers is poor people food.”

Ricky said, “So, I guess that means we are poor, huh?”

“Nope, it means that at this time of season we remember our poor background and maybe that makes us a little kinder to those in need.”

He had already flipped our bolivers and was now forking them out of the spitting fat. He plopped one down on a plate for each of us and set them on the table. We buttered and poured maple syrup over them. He made another one that cooked fast enough for him to join us. As we sat there eating the bolivers, Walt admitted something to us both, he said, “You know, I don’t think anyone really likes bolivers, but at this time of year we have our traditions.”

We agreed and once we finished eating, we slunk off to the electric trains but soon were both sound asleep on the floor, our bellies full of warm sand.
 

Happy Everything!

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