"Into the fire" COOKING CLASS

"Into the fire" COOKING CLASS With Mercy Ingraham, The Open Hearth Cook To be followed by a book signing and 'hearthy' meal. Mercy Ingraham "is a hearth cook, the culinary equivalent of one of those Revolutionary War re-enactors, and it is her conviction that the invention of the stove, while it's sure saved wood, has not been without its drawbacks."....On March 15th, Mercy invites you to join her over an open hearth, as she kindles memories from the first days of our 1780's Federal manor, and teaches this very special cooking class on preparing historic food atop the windy hill at Howard Hall Farm. The class will be followed by a signing of her new book, which will be available to purchase after the class. Lunch and dinner are included! · "We shall prepare an assortment of dishes, and then consume them. While we are cooking over the fire, there will be lots of time to talk about the principles of cooking, and the techniques that were used by fire-cooks in the past." · We will learn: soup, roasting, baking, stewing and grilling, and all food will match the era of the house. In addition to eating the lesson, each student will take home copies of the recipes and a bibliography of great books for further study. MARCH 15: 10AM-6PM Workshop fee: $125 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ****************************************************************************** ****************************************************************************** Tiny update: We just received a preview of the menu for our "Into The Fire" Workshop this weekend, and it looks delicious.... Menu Highlights: Shirley Plantation Mushroom Soup String Roasted Chicken Southall Cabbage Pudding Ember-Roasted Sweet Potatoes Yam Pudding Dover Cake ****************************************************************************** Colonial Burlington Cookery: A Book of Receipts April 1770, Polly Burling. By Sue Huesken and Mercy Ingraham, RanMer Publishing Company Co., March 2008. 54 pages. Paperback. $12.00 plus postage and handling. In April 1770, Polly Burling started a small book of receipts, or what are now called recipes. This book is invaluable for both academic historians and those individuals portraying life in colonial New Jersey. It is also of interest to people who enjoy baking good food. It predates by twenty-five years the first published American cookbook. The book contains twenty-three receipts, including ones for baking, pickling and medicinal preparations. Polly’s receipts are presented here along with an historical backdrop of her life and times in colonial Burlington, New Jersey. Thirteen of the baking receipts have been interpreted for the modern cook, however the historic cook will have no trouble making them as they were originally prepared. Photos of the original manuscript are included. The primary goal of this project is to make these receipts accessible to a larger community. Eating is a timeless pleasure. This book aspires to please the taste buds, as well as satisfy a hunger for a taste of history. To order copies of this book, please send a check or money order to: 2 Water Street, Hulmeville, PA 19047.

PRESS RELEASE FOR THIS CLASS:

Contact:Reggie Young FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel.:518-945-1253
Email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

Howard Hall Farm Opens Its Historic Hearth to the Public
Historic Restoration and Green Technology in Athens, N.Y.

Mercy Ingraham “is a hearth cook, the culinary equivalent of one of those Revolutionary War re-enactors, and it is her conviction that the invention of the stove, while it's sure saved wood, has not been without its drawbacks.” On March 15th, "The Open Hearth Cook" will be coming to historic Howard Hall Farm to host an "Into The Fire Cooking Class" and book signing. Howard Hall Farm's mission to restore their Federal-style manor using green and sustainable technology and Mercy's focus on traditional, sustainably-sourced cooking make this learnig laboratory an ideal setting for a workshop in creating recipes from the 18th century on an authentic hearth. They are joining forces to celebrate the discovery and restoration of an original Dutch Beehive Oven in the Federal Manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley. This collaboration will take place on the 1780's hearth in the Federal Manor's Upstate New York kitchen.

Mercy Ingraham invites you to join her over an open hearth, as she kindles memories from the first days of our 1780's Federal manor, and teaches this very special cooking class on preparing historic food atop the windy hill at Howard Hall Farm. The class will be followed by a signing of her new book, which will be available to purchase after the class. Lunch and dinner are included.

"We shall prepare an assortment of dishes, and then consume them. While we are cooking over the fire, there will be lots of time to talk about the principles of cooking, and the techniques that were used by fire-cooks in the past. We will learn soup, roasting, baking, stewing and grilling, and all food will match the era of the house. In addition to eating the lesson, each student will take home copies of the recipes and a bibliography of great books."

The workshop fee is $125, and the book signing is free and open to the public. Class begins at 10 in the morning, and lasts until 5. This is the second in a series of three cooking classes being offered at Howard Hall Farm this March.

Howard Hall Farm is both an historic restoration project and a vehicle for educating people in sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques. The site of our learning laboratory is a 1780s Federal stone manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley. As preservation architect Carl Elefante says, "The greenest building is the one you don't build." In our restoration we are focused on dovetailing an acute attention to historic detail with the newest green technology, which will allow historic homes to go into the future as modern, functioning dwellings with minimal impact to the house and the environment. Our mission is to investigate, restore, and revive every facet of this structure in a green manner, and provide a forum for other interested homeowners and craftspeople to learn to do the same. In an effort to educate ourselves, we bring in preservation and restoration experts from all over the country to train us and everyone who attends our workshops in green techniques to preserve and revive our homes while minimizing their impact on the environment. Join us in our effort to RESTORE GREEN.

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If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Reggie Young,

The Proprietor of Howard Hall Farm, email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

To visit our green restoration blog: http://www.howardhallfarm.com

To view a complete listing of our 2008 classes and workshops: http://hhfworkshops.blogspot.com/

Unless I've missed some significant advances in quantum mechanics, it is not yet possible for the average historic home-owner to travel back in time and take digital photographs of the past, but last Saturday we did the next best thing. We invited Mercy Ingraham, The Open Hearth Cook to visit us here at Howard Hall Farm. Completely clothed in Federal garb, Mercy Ingraham arrived on the steps of our Federal Home looking like she had just emerged from a Vermeer painting to teach us how to cook on our recently restored historic hearth. *Note the similarity: Wearing Dutch linens and bearing an armload of iron and brass cookware, she lit a roaring fire, and proceeded to charm the hell out of all of us. She is a fascinating and intelligent woman, and one of the most incredible teachers we've ever had here. The workshop was filled with people from vastly differing fields, yet they all had some strange tie to historic buildings, so we all had plenty to talk about. We met a lot of incredible people. Clothed by references to rare films and literature, historic images, and odd chemistry facts (ex: ash+ saliva= lye, which I almost learned the hard way), Mercy gave us a treasure-trove of information....and as far as I'm concerned, it was the very best kind of knowledge: The sort you can eat afterward! ******************************************************************* Among other things, we made and had: Shirley Plantation Mushroom Soup (which was so delicious it was gone before I could take a picture), String Roasted Chicken (Literally: it was roasted by hanging from a string), Southall Cabbage Pudding, Ember-Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Yam Pudding, Dover Cake, and more.... **************************************************************** Mercy just finished her latest book, and signed copies for all of us after the class. For all of you who were here, thank you for making this weekend such a scintillating experience. And Mercy, you are truly a wonder. I can't think of a better way to have brought the light and life back to our hearth. For the first time in probably a century, this house had a blazing, open fire and good company to enjoy it. I hope you'll all come back soon. ******************************************* *********************************************************** If you participated in this workshop, and have pictures, please send them to us! We'd love to add them to our collection... howardhall.farm@gmail.com To view a complete listing of our 2008 classes and workshops: CLICK HERE