Garden Tour: Conservancy Open Days Begin on Saturday
Secret woodland garden at Broccoli Hall photographed by Jennifer May
Saturday marks the beginning of the Open Days Garden Conservancy Tour season, with some of our region’s most exceptional gardens open to the public. (We will keep you informed of tours of other properties on Open Days throughout the growing season.) Saturday’s itinerary has us poking our noses into seven far-flung gardens within a six-hour period. Clearly, it’s too much for one day, so one must strategize and make some painful choices. And then there’s the matter of lunch: even gardening fanatics must eat. We offer some suggestions for lunch on the run.
Columbia County
Steepletop
East Hill Road, Austerlitz
In 1925, the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay began creating a series of outdoor rooms using existing stone foundations--"the ruins,” as she called the remains of the ancient farm she owned in Austerlitz. In good weather, Millay gardened daily, creating over time walled rose gardens, a rock and iris garden, an outdoor bar, a spring-fed woodland swimming pool (left), a wildflower garden, and a kitchen garden. These are in the midst of being restored with the help of the Conservancy’s Preservation Center program. At this point hundreds of bulbs should be in bloom, including the remains of the Narcissus poeticus planted in 1927-28 by Millay. Her ring garden of peonies should be showing brilliant color as well.
Hudson Bush Farm
154 Yates Road, Greenport
Hudson Bush Farm has appeared by name on maps of Columbia County since 1790 at least. The formal gardens surrounding the eighteenth-century house include color-themed parterres, a double red border, a rock garden, a long walk leading to a summerhouse, a small pool, a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, and a potting shed. These features are spread over three acres that is surrounded by old-growth woods.
Shale Hill
120 Underhill Road, Hillsdale
Since 1999, Douglas Hunt has gardened at the aptly named Shale Hill. Following a design created by Sara Stein, Hunt’s half-acre now includes shade plantings near the house, a cottage-style border and a classic clipped-box herb garden. One hillside is planted with more than seventy hybrid Rosa rugosa, another is covered with hay-scented fern. A path lined, in season, with day lilies leads to a rustic arbor, where there is an an impressive view of the Taconic Hills.
Dutchess County
Broccoli Hall
23 Flint Hill Road, Amenia
Visitors to Broccoli Hall use words like “incredible,” “inspirational,” and “magical” to describe this English-style cottage garden. Starting in 1986 with an acre and a half of bare earth, Maxine Paetro collaborated with horticulturist Tim Steinhoff to create a series of enchanting garden rooms. Broccoli Hall now features an apple tunnel, a brick courtyard, a lavish display of spring bulbs blooming along with crabapples in May, a tree house with long views, and a secret woodland garden with a teddy bears’ picnic (see the large photograph at top). The garden in May is a magical. White-and-pink daffodils abound, crabapples bloom overhead, and the woodland gardens are filled with trillium and other native wildflowers.
Mead Farm House Garden
224 Perry’s Corners Road, Amenia
On the site of a 250-year-old farmyard, this mature garden winds around a structure that is a fair approximation of a nineteenth-century horse barn. Rocky outcroppings and the stone foundations of long-gone farm buildings anchor perennial beds. The base of an old silo has become a deck from which one can gaze over a small pond at the distant landscape. Features include a bog garden, and some interesting trees, including a sizeable Japanese umbrella pine planted about 1966.
Litchfield County
Robin Magowan and Juliet Mattila
24 Taconic Road, Salisbury
Located on the remains of a windswept nineteenth-century farm facing Barack Mountain, this witty garden is full of surprises. In May, the main interest is the extensive alpine rock garden that, by then, should be at its floriferous peak. It contains several thousand plants from around the world. The saxifrage-lined, moss-covered outcrop a few feet from poet-and-memoirist Magowan’s writer’s studio gives rise to a sloping boulder garden, creating the illusion of a series of alpine meadows. Tapestry-like, the “weave” is, in some sections, intense--twenty to thirty different plants within a few inches. Directly in front of the studio is a ledge garden dominated by the tiny waving plumes of Androsace lactea and A. latifolia. There, in the sun, a garden of self-contained cushion plants grows in a rich scree soil mixture. A refurbished wall provides the opportunity for are two steeply angled crevice gardens, featuring plants that cascade. At the base of the second of these are two more gardens. One, in shade, features tiny woodland plants and alpines that favor north-facing slopes; the other, is devoted to sun-loving Turkish and Rocky Mountain plants. There is also a small woodland garden and a stepped garden for acid-loving gentians and their like. Toward the house are a heather garden, perennial beds, and, in back, a paved outdoor room with pergolas, featuring peonies and roses, as well as more alpine plants set between the paving stones.
Hollister House
300 Nettleton Hollow Road, Washington
The garden of George Schoellkop is old-fashioned and rambling, informally planted with an exuberant abundance of both common and exotic plants in subtle, and sometimes surprising, color combinations. High walls and hedges divide separate rooms and open to create interesting vistas out towards the landscape. New areas are currently under construction. (This garden is open only from 10 to noon.)
Admission, $5 at each property, may be paid at the door. For directions, maps, and further information, visit the Garden Conservancy website.
Best Quick Bites
Between Austerlitz and Dutchess/Litchfield
Dad’s Copake Diner
Bright and immaculate, Dad serves “the usual” only here it tastes a little better than, well, usual.
Main Street (Route 7A just off Route 22), Copake; 518.329.3237
Hillsdale County Diner
No surprises. The salads aren’t bad; the cole slaw is.
Route 22 (just south of Route 23), Hillsdale; 518.325.9230
Between Greenport and Amenia
Taghkanic Diner
The patty melt with a side of sweet potato fries will get you through the day and then some.
Route 82 just west of the Taconic State Parkway.
Between Amenia and Salisbury
On the Run
Breakfast is the specialty of this deli that opens at 5:30 AM but they also make overstuffed sandwiches that you can eat at picnic tables out front.
Beware: it closes at 1 PM on Saturdays
4 Ethan Allen Street (near the intersection of Route 44 and 112), Lakeville; 860.435.2007
County Bistro
One of the few places where you can find interesting salads such as curried chicken and carrots with sesame ginger dressing. If you have time to sit,
there’s waitress service under the umbrella tables on two patios.
10 Academy Street (just off Route 44) Salisbury; 860.435.9420
Between Salisbury and Washington
The Wandering Moose Cafe
The quintessential country coffee shop, which means your patience may be tested if you’re in a hurry; if you’re not, the picture book setting will calm your nerves.
421 Sharon Goshen Turnpike (next to the Covered Bridge), West Cornwall; 860.672.0178
Between Washington and Amenia
Panini Cafe & Gelateria
First-rate sandwiches and ice cream just off Kent’s main drag with outdoor seating.
7 Old Barn Road, Kent; 860.927.5083
Stroble’s Bakery
Soups and salads are easy to grab and go at this Kent landmark that has
tables on the front patio.
14 N. Main Street, Kent 860.927.4073
Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/13/08 at 07:23 AM (1) Comments • Permalink
Family Outing: How to Rescue a Rainy Saturday
There’s a virulent strain of shack wackiness that befalls families on rainy Saturdays--no golf, no gardening, no outdoor play; just a lot of under-employed, highly-combustible togetherness. Before things get out of hand, consider this:
Pittsfield.
You heard me.
Pittsfield, as it happens, is at an idyllic mid-point in its acclaimed renaissance. It has a good, kid-friendly museum, greatly enhanced through a recent infusion of cash. It also has sophisticated art galleries, restaurants and boutiques. But it still has its innocence and enough traces of its past to feel authentic. And it has not yet turned that fateful corner where upscale blandness bumps headlong into inconvenience—rents so high there’s no one left to mend your shoes.
There are two kinds of family outings: entirely kid-centric, which, in the long run, benefit no one, or the sort where everyone gets some time to do what they want. For the latter, we offer a range of options--several cultural/educational activities, a bit of sport, some interesting shopping, and a reasonably civilized-but-not-too-expensive or patience-taxing lunch. Since everything we recommend is on the main thoroughfare of Pittsfield (conveniently called South Street south of the town green; North Street to the north), there’s no need for a fixed itinerary. Let the mood of the group tell you when to tarry and when to move on.
The Berkshire Museum
39 South Street; 413.443.7171 ext. 10
Monday - Saturday, 10 – 5, Sundays noon to 5
This museum works hard to keep kids stimulated and engaged. There’s plenty to interest grown-ups here, too, but this Saturday, April 19, the focus will be on Earth Day. Visitors may explore green technology, learn about local environmental groups, make paper, and create inventions out of recycled materials. A variety of family activities, as well as lectures and a film for adults, will be offered. Puppeteer Meredyth Babcock of Marmalade Productions will perform in the galleries from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. At 11:30 a.m., Ross Robertson, associate Editor of What Is Enlightenment? Magazine, will give the talk A Brighter Shade of Green: Rebooting Environmentalism for the 21st Century. At 2 p.m., Maria Sangiolo will perform songs from her latest CD, Under the Mystic Sea, in a program that teaches children to respect the planet and the creatures of the sea. At 4:30 p.m., the Berkshire Museum’s Little Cinema will screen the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes (2006, 80 minutes). Tickets to the Maria Sangiolo performance are $10 adults, $7 children 3-18 ($5/$3 members). All other Earth Day activities are free with Berkshire Museum admission.
usbluesware
141 North Street; 413 442-5533
A perfect Armani pantsuit ($200), a new Ralph Lauren alligator belt with a sterling silver buckle ($25), Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Farragamo—usbluesware specializes in “pre-owned” but virtually new designer clothes plus a few cannily selected lines of new, inexpensive women’s wear. At any given moment, a certain percentage of their stock is out of sight, as it’s being auctioned to an international audience of fashion fans via E-Bay. What doesn’t sell rotates back to a space the owners Linda Mitchell and Giora Witkowski call “the warehouse”—actually a spacious and attractive retail store (shown above). What we get that E-Bay customers don’t: Linda, a fashion expert who seems to know just how every customer ought to dress.
The Garden
148 North Street; 413.442.9088
Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 6; Sunday noon - 5
Their website is hosted by MySpace, okay? So, if you want your son to think you’re, like, really, really cool, take him here. In addition to the latest in hip-hop footwear, The Garden carries state-of-the-art skate- and ski-boards. While your little man is lost in dreams of coolness and derring do, you can take a quick refresher course in what’s happening on that front these days.
Candle Lanes
255 North Street (2nd floor; above the Indian restaurant); 413.447.9640
Monday – Saturday 10 – 10; Sunday noon - 10
This isn’t bowling; it’s candlepin, an old-fashioned game played with a 4-inch-diameter ball that weighs less than three pounds, just one of several things that make this sport ideal for little ones. Another: there is no such thing as a perfect game--the world record is 245 out of a possible 300. Judging from this photograph, which appeared in the Berkshire Eagle in 1973, the atmosphere at Candle Lanes hasn’t changed much since George Aslan and his father Anton bought the place from the original owner, universally remembered as Mr. Daury. Prices, too, seem to be caught in a time warp: A family of four can play one string (game) for $12, (shoe rental, $1.50), and indulge in steamed hotdogs that cost just a buck apiece.
Little House
East side of North Street for the moment; open 24/7
At the entrance to a parking lot a couple of doors south of Dottie’s restaurant stands a curious structure with walls of plank and twig. It appears to be a booth or a kiosk but, in fact, it is a sculpture, Little House to Honor a Request for Poems, by Gene and Susan Flores. Up close, you notice how well made it is, but when you open the door puzzlement turns to awe. Inside (top photograph), the light forms horizontal stripes—like in a corn crib or a tobacco barn--that play against the horizontal siding. It is a poetic space, designed to inspire poetic thoughts. In the middle is a small metal desk and chair, plus paper and pens. You are invited to write a poem and clip it to one of the strings that hang, clothesline-like, along the walls. Soon, the poems will be in an exhibition at the Ferrin Gallery, and assembled into a book. Then Little House will move to another town.
Museum Facsimiles
429 North Street; 413 499 1818
Monday - Friday 12 - 5; Saturday 10 - 5
You don’t know how much you miss the look of letterpress printing until you see it again, and then you’ll want it back in your life. From the outside Museum Facsimiles looks like an attractive gift shop with a lot of greeting cards. In fact, it is the wholesale outlet for an extraordinary printing and custom-framing concern owned by photographer Ken Green and his wife Laurie, a graphic designer. Be sure to bring all your stuff that needs to be framed; they do custom-work for wholesale prices. And there’s a spectacular line of organic cotton baby clothes—think Bonpoint, at a fraction—and a little 8’ x 14’ art gallery that features the work of local artists.
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Ferrin Gallery
437 North Street; 413.442.1622
Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 5
Not all art galleries are alike, any more than all children are. You know your own—they can either handle being in a gallery, or they can’t. But if they can, Ferrin Gallery, one of the country’s top ceramic art and sculpture galleries, is an interesting choice. Like everywhere else, the work shown here varies from show to show, but there’s a consistent thread of humor (for a child, the most inviting portal into any art form) and several recent exhibitions have featured exquisitely crafted ceramics that were subversively hilarious. Any kid who gets The Simpsons would respond to this work.
Burger
297 North Street; 413.997.9797
Monday - Thursday 11:30 - 8; Friday & Saturday 11:30 - 9
Closed Sunday
There are dozens of places to eat in Pittsfield, lots of them kid friendly—Dotties for coffee and sandwiches, Panchos for burritos, The Lantern for diner food--but Burger stands out as a something-for-everyone destination. The burgers here run the gambit from a modest ¼ pound classic ($3.99) to an extravagant ½ pounder made of ground wagyu beef ($14.99). Fries ($2.99 - $3.99), are available in every know permutation—Idaho, cheese or chili-cheese-topped, sweet potato, eggplant; dirty or clean. Milkshakes may be virginal ($4.99-$5.99) or spiked--the Spotted Cow ($8.99) combines vanilla vodka with Oreos and vanilla ice cream. (?!) The space is large and clean, and on a rainy Saturday, it’s unlikely your offspring will be any worse behaved than anyone else’s. Always a comfort.
Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/17/08 at 01:04 PM (2) Comments • Permalink
Out and About: A Spring Drive in Northern Dutchess
Mud season; relentless, sepia-toned mud season has us all cowering by the hearth and scratching at the window glass. But one day soon, the world will turn a tender shade of green, and we will want to kick up our heels, rush outside, and go…where?
Some people find satisfaction at this time of year on the golf course; others, in the garden. But am I alone in feeling the urge to jump in the car and go someplace? The question, though, always is where? How often have we sallied forth, heart and gas-tank brimming, only to drag home hours later cranky, dissatisfied, and ill-fed. It’s not a question of knowing what we want, it’s a question of figuring out where it’s hidden.
Over the next several weeks, Rural Intelligence will outline itineraries for country outings in every part of our region. If this one errs for you on the side of the overly familiar, sit tight; soon there will be another whose highlights, we hope, come as news. What sort of outings? To me, a day’s outing near home should be everything a holiday in someplace like, say, Provence would be—some beautiful scenery, a little shopping, perhaps a cultural or historic enhancement, and a lovely lunch.
This particular ideal day begins with shopping at Hammertown Barn in Pine Plains. There are, of course, two other Hammertown stores, one in Rhinebeck and another in Great Barrington—both great places in their way. But for sheer entertainment value, they cannot compare with the mother ship. First, there is the sense of discovery--coming upon this intriguing converted barn set back from the road in the middle of nowhere (no offense, Pine Plains, but it is well beyond the edge of town) is special. Then, once you park and go inside, there’s so much stuff—an exquisitely edited, enticingly arranged, seemingly endless array of well-priced home furnishings, housewares, and surprises--soaps, toys, wallets, books, and the sort of gift items you secretly long to keep for yourself. To call all this mere merchandise is to diminish the sense of delight and surprise it ignites.
But today we have not come all this way just to browse and be charmed. Hammertown has just begun to carry Fishs Eddy Sturdyware at the Barn and in their Rhinebeck store (it will come later to Great Barrington). And, as it happens, Fishs Eddy and I go way back.
Fishs Eddy is the unlikely name of a Manhattan shop near Union Square that sells dishes--not elegant china; in fact, quite the opposite. Fishs Eddy dishes, which I began collecting nearly thirty years ago when Julie and David Gaines opened their first shop on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, are the sort used in diners and college dining halls. Thick, typically off-white, and indestructible, they have an appeal similar to that of old ironstone, and they cost next to nothing. Hammertown’s Joan Osofsky has made her usual unerring choices, including one style in pale blue and another with a leafy bird pattern, both of which feel so right in her store, it’s a safe bet they’ll work in almost any country house.
I always have to tear myself away from Hammertown Barn; but today hunger propels us. At Joan’s suggestion, we are off to Bangall, a hamlet 8 miles south, to try a new restaurant. When you leave Hammertown Barn, turn right onto Route 199, then once you get into Pine Plains, turn left onto Route 82. Drive south until you see a sign for Bangall and bear left onto Route 87. At the dead end, turn left and Red Devon is immediately on the right. [Note to birders: On Route 82, you will pass Buttercup Farm Aububon Sanctuary, over 500 acres of diverse habitats, six miles of trails, and, on a good May day, over 80 species of birds, including, if you’re lucky, nesting Great Blue Herons, Wood Ducks, Bobolinks.]
If a restaurant could qualify for sainthood, Red Devon would have a halo hovering over its roof. Instead, said roof (a brochure we pick up inside informs us) is about to gain a 10-inch-thick layer of soil in which something unspecified but no doubt healthy and eco-friendly will grow. This small café, which doubles as a bakery and produce market, is open just for breakfast and lunch. In May, a larger, more formal room, is expected to open for dinner.
But back to Red Devon’s virtues. The building and grounds, a thorough overhaul of James Cagney’s old Stage Stop Restaurant, which closed some time ago, have features that are variously described in the brochure as green, indigenous, “pervious,” recycled, energy-efficient, zoned, natural, sustainable, non-polluting, and ultra-low flush. Likewise, the menu refers to ingredients that are homemade, local, organic, grass-fed, dirt-scratching, house cured, and did I mention natural? All this goodness could be heavy going were the food not good, too, but it is. The lunch menu features the sort of things we actually crave at lunchtime—spicy gumbo (cup $3.99; bowl, $6.99), warm quiche with mesclun greens, ($7.95); roasted chicken on ciabatta with lemon/shallot aioli, a smear of pesto and some oven-dried tomatoes ($9.99). A word of caution: unless you order a sandwich, be sure to ask for a side of chips; otherwise, you’ll either suffer order envy or spend the entire meal filching these irresistible sheets of fried fabulousness (salt well first), as I did, off your companion’s plate. We both left wishing we lived near enough to dine here once they start serving at night.
When you leave Red Devon turn immediately right again onto James Cagney Way, aka Route 86, aka the Bangall-Amenia Road. Virtually from beginning to end, this road is breathtaking--one immaculate farm after another, with heart-stopping vistas as backgrounds. This amalgam of natural beauty and the highest possible standards of maintenance brings to mind something someone once said of the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills: It’s what God would have done if he’d had the dough. You might even find, for the duration of the drive, that your position on excessive executive compensation softens; after all, somebody has to pick up the check for all this magnificence.
Fortunately, you’ll regain your senses the moment Route 86 dead ends at Route 44. Turn left and drive into Amenia, then, at the light, left again onto Route 22. After a quick stop at McEnroe’s Organic Produce, it’ll be high time for a caffeine fix, and Millerton, which lies straight ahead has two topnotch purveyors of legal addictive stimulants. At the light, turn right (toward Lakeville) onto Main Street, site of (almost immediately on the left) Harney & Sons for tea and (further down on the right) Irving Farm for coffee. Both are exceptional in their respective ways, Irving Farm has it’s own brand of high-end coffee, but Harney’s is the far rarer treat—an American countryside version of the fabled Mariage Freres in Paris’s Marais district. Harney’s is no mere tea shop, it is a beautifully designed tea-lovers mecca, a place to taste, compare, and learn (they also serve light lunches). Sidle up to the tasting bar where 150 canisters contain teas from around the world or take a seat in the back at a cozy table and order a pot ($4.00 for small; $6.50 for large). Each comes with a scone or two, and for an extra dollar, clotted cream and jam (both sublime), thus turning the occasion into a cream tea. (Not to be confused with high tea; which is actually just an early supper, a far less festive affair.)
Thus refreshed, we end our outing with a civilized half hour or so browsing in Oblong Books and Music, another bastion of exceptional quality tucked away in this small country town. The well-edited fiction selections here include, not just high-end American literary fiction, but translations of European titles--unusual for such a small bookstore. The poetry and music CD sections are equally sophisticated. Oblong’s proprietors clearly are literate and literary, and they obviously have a demanding and well-read clientele. What better way to end a day’s outing than with something to read and/or listen to later at home by the fire, which, incidentally, ought by now to be looking pretty good to you again.
Hammertown Barn, 3201 Route 199, Pine Plains; 518.398.7075
Monday - Saturday 9:30 - 5:30; Sunday 10:30 - 4
Buttercup Farm Audubon Sanctuary, Route 82, Pine Plains
Dawn until dusk, seven days per week. For further information, contact sanctuary warden David Wheeler; 518.325.5203.
Red Devon Café, 108 Hunns Lake Road, Bengall; 845.868.3175
Breakfast and lunch 8 - 3, market 8 - 6
Closed Wednesday
Harney & Son Fine Teas, Main Street at the Railroad Plaza, Millerton; 518.789.2121
Monday - Saturday 10 - 5, Sunday 11 - 4
Irving Farm, 44 Main Street, Millerton; 518.789.6540
Monday - Thursday 6 - 5, Friday 6 - 10, Saturday 7 - 10, Sunday 8 - 5
Oblong Books and Music, 26 Main Street, Millerton; 518.789.3797
Monday - Thursday 9:30 - 6; Friday & Saturday 9:30 - 9; Sunday 11:30 - 4
Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/01/08 at 02:28 PM (2) Comments • Permalink
Making A Day of Hyde Park
Springwood, the Dutchess County estate commonly (though erroneously) called Hyde Park, is to the pantheon of great American houses what Franklin Delano Roosevelt, its scion, is to the pantheon of great American men— perhaps not the most brilliant, but so preternaturally confident, relaxed, good-humored and patrician that any shortcomings are quickly overlooked. Like FDR, Springwood bears no trace of the arriviste striving and pomposity that casts a pall over the Vanderbilt Mansion next door. It is comfortable American well-to-do, rather than lugubrious European rich--better suited to a Democracy and certainly to a Democrat.
For those of us who live so near to it, it is easy to postpone a visit to Springwood on the grounds that it will always be there and will never change. Not so. Earlier this week, a new exhibit, “Action, and Action Now” FDR’s First One Hundred Days, premiered at the FDR library and museum there. With a presidential election looming, it is timely to reconsider how one new administration began in a time of crisis far greater than the one we face now. (And, when you finally go there, also give a couple of moments thought to presidential libraries, in general. FDR’s, a modest stone and slate-roofed affair, is as unlike the architectural monuments costing tens of millions that have become the recent norm as Springwood is to the Vanderbilt place. But I digress.)
Springwood: Well-to-do (okay, very well-to-do); Photograph by W.D. Urbin, NPS
The Roosevelt administration started with a bang. When he was elected, the Depression was entering its fifth year. Thousands of banks had failed, leaving their uninsured depositors penniless. Farmers in foreclosure and school teachers working without pay were demonstrating in the streets and being beaten and jailed by the police. Revolution appeared to be imminent and, to forestall that unthinkable end, the equally unthinkable means, a dictatorship, was being floated by, among others, Walter Lippmann, the pre-eminent liberal columnist of the day.
But Roosevelt did not use the state of emergency he inherited from Herbert Hoover as an excuse for making a power grab. He did not suspend the constitution or expand executive privilege to wartime levels, as many suggested he should. Instead, he instituted the first of his largely symbolic (in the beginning, at any rate) programs for putting the nation back to work and used the relatively new mass medium of radio to get his message across. That message was, of course, “We have nothing to fear...” but the subtext read, “Cheer up. Look at me, I can’t even walk, and I’m confident. Now that I’m running things, you can be confident, too.” Before his administration was 100 days old, there were long lines outside the banks, not of panicky people desperate to withdraw their life savings, but of upbeat depositors who saw it as their patriotic duty--if not as downright fashionable--to pull their cash from under their mattresses and put it back in the banks. The Age of Spin had dawned.
And then, on the 101st day, the president went sailing, and the press said, “well deserved.” Ah, those were the days. It’s all there, just down the road, inventively laid out for us at the The FDR Library. We sit in a replica of a Great Depression Era kitchen (built by McElroy Scenic Studios of Ashely Falls, MA, as was the rest of the exhibit) and listen to the radio as FDR’s voice assures us that, “We have nothing to fear, but…” well, you know. Viewed up close, yet from the safe distance of 75 years, it’s fascinating.
There’s More to Springwood Than Politics
Now let’s see, what else is interesting? Oh right, sex! Many people who visit Springwood combine it with a tour of the Vanderbilt Mansion, as it’s right there (there’s also an incentive built into the ticket-pricing structure--see below). But unless you’re really keen on ormolu, I’d advise you to skip that and visit Wilderstein instead. This 35-room Queen Anne pile overlooking the Hudson in Rhinebeck, a few miles north of Springwood, was the ancestral home of Margaret (Daisy) Suckley, who died there at the age of nearly 100 in 1991. Upon her death, a battered black suitcase was found beneath her bed and in it scores of love letters from her distant cousin FDR. Though she was one of the four women (Eleanor not among them) who were with Franklin when he died at Warm Springs, Georgia in 1945, it had not been suspected that they were lovers until after her death.
As Barbara Ireland, writing in The New York Times advises, see Top Cottage, FDR’s private hideaway in the hills three miles above Springwood before you leave Hyde Park. “Tour both places in the same day,” she writes. “But...do your homework first.” By which she means, read Geoffrey Ward’s Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley. Though Margaret Suckley’s own book about Roosevelt’s dog Fala (the Scotch Terrior that had been her gift to FDR) is available through the FDR bookstore, this one is not. Luckily, it can be purchased through the Wilderstein website, and there’s plenty of time to both order and read it: the properties--Wilderstein and Top Cottage--are closed for the season until May 1.
And now to lunch: There is only one sane option. The Culinary Institute of America, on the same road five minutes south of Springwood, is Disneyland for foodies. The campus has five restaurants, each specializing in a different style of cuisine and service. I don’t care for table-side service myself (think: silver domes whisked away in unison and frequent outbreaks of flambé) for the same reason I don’t care for ormolu, so I tend to avoid the admittedly fabulous Escoffier. The Ristorante Caterina de’Medici has wonderful Italian food, particularly the fish. But for lunch, my favorite is the St. Andrews Café. Don’t let that “Café” business fool you: this is a bright, attractive, carpeted, tablecloth joint, a perfect place to take a breather in the middle of a day of touring. While you are free to order a pizza or a sandwich at St. Andrews, to do so is to entirely miss the point. The food here is seriously tasty—modern, healthy, inventive, well-prepared and well-priced. Ask your waiter, a student, what to order. Trust him; he’s on his way to becoming the next Wolfgang Puck.
Springwood, the Roosevelt home, and The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, 4079 Albany Post Road (Route 9), Hyde Park; 845.486.7745; combined admission $14.
Top Cottage (re-opens May 1); admission, $8.
Val-Kill Cottage, the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site; admission $8.
The Vanderbilt Mansion; admission, $8.
(Buy any two of the above and get another one free.)
People under 15 admitted free; over 62, $10 with an Inter-agency Senior Pass (see the Springwood website for details).
Wilderstein (re-opens May 1), 330 Morton Road, Rhinebeck; 845.876.4816; admission $10; seniors $9; children under 12 free.
The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park; 845.471.6608 or reserve on-line
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 03/06/08 at 09:35 AM (2) Comments • Permalink
DeFazio’s: The Pride of Troy’s Little Italy
Is it crazy to drive all the way to downtown Troy, NY, to buy marinara sauce and frozen meatballs made by an 86-year-old Italian grandmother who has been using the same recipes for half a century? It would be crazy not to.
After all, De Fazio’s may not be around forever. It’s one of the last Little Italy mom-and-pop grocers with homemade prepared food. You should not only fill your freezer with Josephine De Fazio’s deeply flavorful sauces-- Alfredo, Calabrese, Neopolitan, pesto, clam--but also sit with her in the rudimentary kitchen at the back of the shop and listen to her talk about what’s important in life. She’s endearingly old fashioned and believes in family, loyalty and community. She considers food nourishment for the spirit as well as the body. “We don’t use cheap ingredients here,” she says. “We don’t shop at the Price Chopper.” She warns you not to cook her garlicky clam sauce. “Let it get to room temperature and toss it on hot pasta. If you heat the sauce, the clams get hard.”
• Attend a classical or pop concert at the 19th century Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, which dates to 1875. It’s an architectural and acoustical marvel that rivals Carnegie Hall.
• Visit the Hart-Cluett House, a fully-furnished white marble banker’s house c.1827.
•Browse the Troy Antiques District, especially Living Room Antiques run by Elizabeth Young.
• Take a self-guided tour of the city’s impressive collection of Tiffany windows.
• Shop at the producer-only Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, which operates in the Uncle Sam Atrium on Saturdays from 10 AM to 2 PM, November - April; the Summer Market runs May - October at Hedley Park Place, 433 River Street, from 9 AM to 1 PM
• Stroll around Washington Park, a square surrounded by 19th century townhouses. It’s where Martin Scorsese shot “The Age of Innocence.”
• Dine at Daisy Baker’s, an 1892 brownstone that was built as a YMCA; the current dining room was a Christian Science Church chapel from 1920 - 1970.
In the front of the shop, Mrs. De Fazio’s 91-year-old husband, Anthony, stocks the shelves with imported jars and cans of hot peppers, artichokes, tomatoes and olives as well as cellophane packages of biscotti and organic whole wheat pasta from Italy. He painstakingly slices Genoa salami and Provolone to order. Mrs. De Fazio confides that their marriage was an arranged one. “That’s how it was done in my day,” she says. “He was from a good family.” You notice that she has a stack of “Hillary” pamphlets up front and photographs of the Clintons by the cash register, and you ask if she is supporting the senator for president. “Absolutely,” she says. “She’s my friend. She’s been here. She stayed by her husband. That’s what marriage is about. I admire her.”
And I admire Mrs. De Fazio. Every Tuesday, she and her husband make 1,500 meatballs, and they roast them in the wood-fired oven at their son’s pizzeria next door. ( Order a pizza before visiting Mrs. De Fazio, and when you are finished shopping it will be ready. Don’t worry if you have a long drive home, the pizzas reheat beautifully.) “That’s one of our secrets,” she says. “We don’t fry our meatballs.” I think the real secret is Mrs. De Fazio herself. She still cares. She takes great pride in what she produces in her kitchen. As corny as it sounds, I think integrity and love are her secret ingredients. God bless her. Marinara sauce $2.95 pint; meatballs $5.95 for nine. 264 Fourth Street, Troy, NY; 518-274-8866
Monday - Saturday 8 AM - 7 PM
Sunday 8 AM - noon. 
Posted by Dan Shaw on 01/08/08 at 03:59 PM (1) Comments • Permalink
