Salem Farmers Market returns to Old Town Hall every Thursday, 3-7 p.m.

Salem Farmer’s Market keeps a tradition alive and well

Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

Although the 2016 Salem Farmers’ Market may bear little resemblance to its 1634 originator, the Commonwealth’s earliest settlers would feel right at home in downtown Derby Square in front of Old Town Hall — the oldest surviving municipal building in Salem.

Today, as then, the market offers much more than local fresh produce and other dry and baked goods. It also offers a place where people can gather and feel a real sense of local community.

Hundreds of smiling people of all ages did just that last Thursday, braving the wind gusts and threatening skies, to be part of the festivities marking the Salem Farmers’ Market’s eighth opening day. Many lounged on Town Hall steps, munching and talking. Others gladly sampled the vendors’ wares.

Amy Glidden looks at one of the plants for sale at the Gibney Gardens booth during the Salem Farmers Market at Derby Square, Thursday, June 9, 2016. Wicked Local Staff Photo / David Sokol

“The Salem Farmer’s Market creates a community center where residents can catch up with other,” said Kylie Sullivan, executive director of Salem Main Streets.

In fact, according to Kylie, whose downtown Salem revitalization organization runs the market, the city’s deed actually requires the use of Derby Square as a market. “The Salem Farmer’s Market physically transforms the feel of downtown for a little while in a way that’s very relevant to its history,” she added.

The volunteer-run market will be held at the square on Front Street in downtown Salem every Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. through October 13. Each week features live music and other entertainment.

Among the 30 vendors lined up for 2016 is “Balloon Man” Lawrence Levesque, who lives in Peabody and is also a magician. He met some people who were “in balloons” eight years ago, and he’s been twisting balloons into fanciful shapes to the delight of youngsters of all ages ever since. “I love it. I wouldn’t do anything else. It’s the best career choice I ever made,” he said as he handed a preschooler a perfect latex dachshund.

Lawrence Levesque, who is also a magician, delights Salem Farmers Market shoppers of all ages with his balloon creations. Photo by Shelley A. Sackett

Mandy Williamson of Marblehead’s “Fishwives Specialty Foods” started her business on a friend’s dare after she lost her job as regional director of biotech in a wastewater management company. She makes all natural, gluten-free chowders and bisques and “on-the-go” gazpacho that comes in a 16-ounce bottle ready to crack open and drink “much as they do in Spain.”

Because the chowders are gluten free, Williamson can cut back on cream and butter without cutting back on taste resulting in an “absolutely decadent” taste with only 200 calories per 10-ounce cup.

Holly and Andy Varela started Maitland Mountain Farms, one of the seven major farms that anchor the market, after Holly’s 2009 visit to the Salem Farmer’s Market inspired them to ask her father about growing vegetables on his 2.5 acre Salem property.

He agreed, and the two revived the land, cultivating it and installing greenhouses. “Six years later, we’re actually an agricultural production,” Andy said proudly of Salem’s only urban farm.

These days, the bulk of their business is pickles, which they sell all over the Northeast through a food service. They still stay close to their homegrown roots, however, by doing local farmers markets and servicing farm stands and small “boutique-y shops.”

Among the market’s biggest fans is Mayor Kim Driscoll, who was excited when its June 9 opening day rolled around. “The market is such a vibrant and fun weekly downtown event,” she said, offering thanks to Salem Main Streets, the volunteers, City employees and all the vendors “who put in the hard work to make the market possible.”

Tucked in a corner in the shadow of Town Hall is Ann Counihan’s “All Fruit Inc.”, an all natural dried fruit and nut mix that comes in eleven varieties. The healthy snacks-in-a bag are attractively packaged for travelling and are meant to be eaten anywhere.

A large board labeled “Samples” generously offered smaller versions of each of the 11 varieties, each packaged with the same attention to style and detail. Not only were they the classiest samples at the market, Counihan’s encouragement to try as many as you wanted made doing so guilt-free.

Sullivan thinks these direct connections between business owners and customers are a key benefit of the Salem Farmer’s Market. “It becomes a pipeline for emerging businesses to grow their product and their reach,” she said.

For the latest updates about the Salem Farmer’s Market, visit salemfarmersmarket.org, “like” them on Facebook at facebook.com/SalemMAFarmersMarket or follow them on Twitter at @salemfarmmarket.

Redemption Fish Closes the Loop

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Local startup farm grows fish in a sustainable way

By Shelley A. Sackett, Correspondent

Colin Davis, co-founder of Salem’s Redemption Fish Company, has a history of merging his entrepreneurial spirit and interest in “sustainability” (the intersection of ecology, economics, politics and culture). The 30-year-old Trinity College graduate had already launched two start-ups when he and his roommate (and fellow Redemption Fish co-founder), Andy Davenport, decided it would be fun to raise fish in a sustainable way in the basement of their Cambridge apartment.

Davenport, 27, who met Davis through Craig’s List when seeking a roommate, has a background in biology and chemistry and worked at Biogen. By the time the eviction letter came from their landlord, their “hydrofarm” had over 10,000 trout. “I talked Andy out of his job and into starting a fish farm with me. Basically, this was a hobby that got horribly out of control,” Colin said with a chuckle as he pointed with pride to the 10,000 square feet of space that Redemption Fish Co. now occupies in Shetland Park in the space that housed another seafood farming enterprise in the 1970s.

Owner Andy Davenport goes fishing for some rainbow trout in one of the holding tanks at Redemption Fish Co. at Shetland Park in Salem. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

Davis and Davenport’s goal is to run their plant like an ecosystem, using the least number of inputs for the maximal output. There is no compost waste. There is little fish waste, and there is little water waste. “We try to close the loop on everything we do,” Davis said.

The basic principle behind what they’re doing is called “aquaponics”, the marriage of aquaculture (growing fish) and hydroponics (growing plants in water). Davis’ enthusiasm is palpable as he explains the process in a nutshell:

First, they feed the fish. The fish fertilize the water. That fertilized water gets pumped up to a grow bed of clay balls that biologically filtrate the wastewater through a nitrification process. Then, they grow plants in the grow bed.

Redemption Fish Co. owner Andy Davenport looks over a verbina plant and an orange tree that are being grown hydroponically. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

Aquaculture currently occupies the majority of floor space. Although there are huge vats growing tilapia, bass, brown trout and experimenting with Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout are the only fish they are currently commercially producing. In the wild, it takes 18 months to two years for a rainbow trout egg to reach “market weight” of one pound. Davis grows them in about 12 months.

A couple of months ago, Redemption Fish Co. started harvesting a few hundred of its first trout eggs and selling them to a handful of restaurants and through Farmers Markets.

The goal is to be producing 1,000 pounds of rainbow trout per week by the end of the summer and to distribute them locally.

“Not shipping them across the country is the way this is better than mass produced trout from one of the three mega farms in this country. We leave a smaller [carbon] footprint,” Davis said.

Owner Andy Davenport holds up a tilapia at Redemption Fish Co. in Salem. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

Hydroponics, the other part of the aquaponics equation, uses 5% of the amount of water growing plants in soil would, and the plants grow faster. “Growing plants this way actually saves waste water we’d otherwise have to dispose of,” Davis pointed out.

On the day of this visit, one grow bed had a three foot orange tree, tomatoes, lemon verbena and ghost peppers. They just harvested 20 pounds of basil, which Jean Louis Faber, owner of the Jean Louis Pasta Shop on Derby Street, took and turned into pesto. He also bought some of Fish Co.’s rainbow trout to use in his smoked trout ravioli.

“That’s the fun part about local small business. I can just wander in places and say, ‘I think what you’re doing is cool. Can we work together?’” said Davis. “There’s something really neat about being able to grow basil two blocks from where it’s turned into pesto, and the consumer can walk to the store. That doesn’t exist in urban areas in the United States anymore.”

Within five years, Davis estimates Redemption Fish Co. will produce 250,000 pounds of fish and the better part of one million pounds of produce yearly. Future expansion plans include large-scale hydroponic production; he also wants the company to help others start small hydroponic gardens for their own consumption.

Davis points out that it takes three gallons of water to produce one pound of trout and five pounds of vegetables. In dirt, one pound of broccoli alone uses 75 gallons of water, according to Davis. “Nature doesn’t have a concept of waste. We invented waste. Up until man, there was no such thing,” Davis said. “Resources in, resources out, this [aquaponics] is probably the single most efficient way you can possibly grow food for human consumption.”

Davis and Davenport closed their own loop on making their dream a reality through a fluke. Davis’ mother was telling her optometrist about her son’s interest in starting a fish farm. As luck would have it, her optometrist knew Peter Lappin (whose family owns Shetland Park), who had started Sea Plantations in the 1970s to raise fish and seafood for research and commercial consumption. The space was empty and still housed Sea Plantations’ equipment.

Davis got on the phone and called Lappin, who “forced me to read his book (‘Live Holding Systems’)” which chronicles Sea Plantations. Ultimately, Davis and Davenport were able to lease part of the 50,000 former Sea Plantations space from Bruce Poole, one of Lappin’s original partners who runs his environmental services firm in space adjacent to Redemption Fish Co.

“There are not a lot of people trying to start urban fish farms, and not a lot of other convenient things this space could be used for, so we were pretty lucky to run into this,” Davis said.

When Mayor Kim Driscoll (whose favorite fish dish is grilled salmon) recently welcomed Redemption Fish Co. to the Salem business community at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, she emphasized how excited she was that the company uses innovative and sustainable technologies to grow food. “This company’s products will offer a healthy and local option to Salem and the region’s restaurants and food suppliers, providing one more terrific ‘farm to table’ opportunity for customers and diners,” she told the Salem Gazette.

Although finding funding for a sustainable urban farm in a finite space remains Davis’ biggest challenge, he is as optimistic about the company’s future as Mayor Driscoll. “If we worked with every restaurant in Salem, we could feed thousands of people out of a tiny basement a quarter of a mile away,” he mused.

For more information, visit Redemption Fish Company’s facebook site or redemptionfish.com or email info@redemptionfish.com.

Northeast Animal Shelter rescues out-of-state cats and dogs

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

By Shelley A. Sackett

Last week, Old Fella Animal Rescue in Burke County, Georgia sent 39 dogs and eight cats to the Northeastern Animal Shelter on Highland Avenue in Salem. It was their fifth transfer in 2016.

“Georgia has a high kill rate in their shelters. They don’t quite get the spay and neutering part of owning a dog,” said Jane Taubenec, whose job as canine coordinator includes deciding which out of state animals are eligible for transfer to the Salem shelter.

Georgia has no leash or spay-and-neuter laws (except for stray or unwanted animals adopted from a shelter). It is the Northeast Animal Shelter’s biggest source of animals.

The three different Georgia shelters and rescue services Taubenec takes dogs from send her pictures and a short description of prospective adoptees. She then sends them the list of medical and behavioral protocols the animals must meet to be eligible. A lot of them can’t meet those requirements.

Tink, a 1-year-old cat from Georgia, is up for adoption. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

“We always want healthy, adoptable dogs. Being the size that we are and the number of animals we can handle, we have to be strict about what’s done prior to them coming,” she said. Under the current arrangement, Georgia performs the initial medical work and the Northeast Animal Shelter reimburses them for a portion of it.

“These private rescue groups are like us. For most of them, it’s their own money or their friends pay for it,” said Laurie McCannon, who has worked at the Salem shelter for 25 years and is now its Executive Director.

Laurie

The Salem shelter placed 4,606 dogs and cats out its current space in 2015. With no local, state or federal funding, the shelter depends on private donors who are “looking to save pets.” McCannon estimates it costs between $150 and $200 per pet to pay for a portion of Georgia’s medical expense, transportation, and then follow up medical care in Salem.

Some of the pets arrive healthy and ready to be adopted. Others end up costing the Salem shelter a lot more money. “We don’t want to send people home with problems,” McCannon stressed.

One of the biggest issues is socialization. “Pets being in a shelter — it’s tough on them. Most of them are used to having a family, somebody who’s stable in their lives. They’re natural pack animals. When they don’t have their pack, you can understand why their behavior is tough,” she added.

For example, two dogs from the recent Georgia group will require extensive training before they’re ready for adoption. “They always lived in a group of nine or ten dogs, and now they’ve been taken away from their pack. They’re scared,” she said.

McCannon’s face reflects pride and compassion as she describes the shelter’s programs for animals that need behavior modification training before they are adoptable. “That’s a pretty regular subject around here. ‘What can we do for them?’ They’re here. Let’s help them,” she said.

The Salem shelter works with Loyal Canines of Beverly, a local trainer who takes the pets for a couple of weeks to try to work on specific behaviors. “We’re constantly putting in various programs,” McCannon said. There are volunteers who work with the more difficult pets. There is even a treadmill to help the animals “work off a little steam.”

And there is a doggie bed in each office so staff can either bring their own pet to work or have a shelter pet for company. “We try to keep them social and from getting frustrated and lonely,” she added.

Despite the training and the willingness of adopting pet owners, the match is not always made in heaven and sometimes the adoption just doesn’t work out for a variety of reasons. While there is no guarantee, there are situations where the Northeast Animal Shelter will take the pets back. “Sometimes we don’t have a big history, so we don’t know every situation that an adopter is going to run into,” McCannon said.

At some point, however, McCannon has to draw a line. “When you adopt a pet, it’s your pet. That’s just kind of a reality. You have to commit to them and try to work through things,” she said, emphasizing that that was her personal opinion and not official policy.

After New England’s big push for “spay-neuter” laws in the early 1990s, the Northeast Animal Shelter experienced a diminished list of pets awaiting placement. “It’s not fool proof yet, but we started to see the effects. There are still plenty of issues here, but it isn’t what it once was,” McCannon said.

The shelter took its first out of state group of pets from Nebraska in 1994. In 1995, the first group came from Puerto Rico, “basically street dogs that were rescued by private people.” The program has gone on from there, and expects to place even more pets in 2016 than it did in 2015.

For both Taubenec and McCannon, their greatest satisfaction comes after watching a particularly difficult pet that they have worked with go home with an adoptive owner. “When they finally get adopted, everybody is crying because they’re leaving, but they’re also crying because they’re so happy,” McCannon said.

But the biggest reward? “When the adopters get back in touch with us and tell us how great they’re doing,” she said with a huge smile.

275 Years of the Black Picnic

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Salem United will focus on voter registration at July 16 event

By Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

Over a century before the Civil War, Salem was among a handful of Massachusetts towns that allowed enslaved and freed blacks to gather once a year and elect their own Black Governor, who spoke on behalf of all blacks and served as a judge, mediator and liaison.

That day, called “Negro Election Day” in 1741, was the first occurrence of voting rights for blacks in the United States. Now known as the Salem Willows Black Picnic, it will celebrate its 275^th anniversary on Saturday, July 16, and Doreen Wade couldn’t be prouder.

Left to right: Su Almeida, Salem United Treasurer, Doreen Wade, Salem United Founder and President, Mayor Kim Driscoll, Ann Carlson, Salem United Historian

“During this crazy election year, it is especially important to let people know the role Salem played in the black vote and to show everyone the importance of voting,” said the founder of the Salem United Organization, which hosts the event. “Our goal is to bring the day back to its origin and maintain its mission to voter registration and family unity.”

To that end, the event collaborates with the Young Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts for a get out and vote campaign statewide and a day of voter registration. The group will host a voter registration table at the event. Wade said that anyone with a driver’s license or birth certificate would be able to register on the spot at the Salem Willows Black Picnic.

Wade stresses that the day is geared to the entire community, not just its black members. “We want everyone out there to understand the importance of the vote,” she said.

2015 Salem Black Picnic-kers

“With the republicans and Democrats in such disarray, we need to have all voters registered and educated to who they are voting for and what they are voting for,” she added. Salem United will be hosting family oriented vendors, including educational and health groups, as well as speakers to highlight the historical significance of the day.

The Picnic is also a day for family-oriented fun. Since 1885, Salem Willows Park has been the Picnic’s annual location and has always included barbecues, volleyball games, dances and more. This year, the musical entertainment on the Main Stage will feature the Dave Macklin Band, Purpose Music Group, and various other performers. Children ages 5 to 14 can enjoy free face painting, arts and crafts and other hands-on activities.

And, of course, there will be food. “The day is also a day everyone came together and cooked out. There are grills galore and all you smell is barbecue,” Wade said, reminding people that is it fine for them to bring their own grills.

Wade, who is Publisher and CEO of New England Informer dba N.E. Informer Newsmagazine, founded Salem United in 2015 to preserve and restore the Salem Willows Black Picnic. “As we celebrate its history and its 275^th year anniversary, we felt it would be easier if we were a formal organization,” she said.

Organizing the 2016 event, she was impressed with the support from the City of Salem, from Mayor Kim Driscoll’s office to the City officials (many of whom are marching in the parade) and licensing departments. She is disappointed that Massachusetts didn’t embrace and support the July 16 event, but hopes the 2017 Black Picnic may receive more state recognition.

Nonetheless, Wade is upbeat and enthusiastic and steadfast in her commitment to the Black Picnic’s mission. “I hope people take away from this event that their voices are important. A day of unity is healthy and necessary. We can come together as a community,” she said.

CAPTION FOR PHOTO AT TOP: The Black Picnic, which started as “Negro Election Day” in 1741, at its first celebration at Salem Willows in 1885.

For more information, visit http://www.neinformer.net/BlackPicnic.html.

Let the Gaming Begin!

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Bit Bar Salem: where two bits still buys what it did in 1980

By Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in economics to realize that 25 cents doesn’t buy what it used to. Armed with a single quarter, you would have to time travel to 1945 to use it to buy a pound of hamburger; to 1960 to buy a gallon of gas; and to 1970 to buy a loaf of bread.

Or, you could just walk into the new Bit Bar Salem arcade-restaurant-bar hybrid at the intersection of St. Peter Street and Bridge Street, plunk your quarter into a vintage Ms. PacMan or Donkey Kong arcade machine, and pretend it was still 1980.

“Yes, it really is a quarter for a game. We say inflation be damned!” Rob Hall, one of the five co-owners said with a chuckle.

Bit Bar co-owner Rob Hall plays his favorite video game, Mortal Kombat. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

The genesis of Bit Bar was Hall’s interest in classic arcade games (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, etc.) The North Shore native, who graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a concentration in programming and media, set up a Facebook page for people who lived in the Boston area and enjoyed talking about these classic games. He met Joshua Allen, a technician by trade whose hobby is collecting and restoring arcade games, through his page. Andrew Wylie, a vintage shop owner who is plugged into the creative and music community in Greater Boston, joined the group. So did Max Clark, the restaurant manager at Trident Booksellers in Boston. Last, Allen brought in a friend of his, Gideon Coltof, who had just earned an M.B.A. at Babson College and was looking for an interesting project.

The group tossed around the idea of doing “Bit Fests”, pop up arcade events that would take place mostly at breweries. The idea was successful in other areas, but untested locally. “We were always interested in having a permanent location, but even before that, we were thinking it would be fun to do a classic themes festival,” said Hall, who admitted that the idea of moving these 300-lb. machines to temporary locations for a day or two was “a totally crazy idea. Totally insane.”

Coltof thought it was a textbook way to get a feel for the market before taking the brick-and-mortar plunge. “It’s not often you come upon a completely unguarded market like this. There was nothing in the Boston area,” he said, referring to the Bit Fests as “three tons of fun”.

In December 2014, the group did its first pop up event. Over the course of a year, Boston Bit Fest had ten events, but as early as last summer, they started looking to make the brick and mortar a reality. Originally they looked in Cambridge, Somerville, Malden and Boston, but it was hard to find interesting, good space.

One day, Coltof saw a listing for the old Salem jail space that had been home to The Great Escape and most recently, A&B Burgers. Hall had been mentioning Salem as a possible location, but this was the first time a potential listing had caught his eye. “Gideon thought it was funny, like ‘Ha, ha, ha. Look at this, an old jail!’, but I live on the North Shore and had eaten here when it was A&B. I told him it was a great space,” said Hall.

Coltof came to Salem and was blown away. “I tried to get a sense of what Salem was like and I thought, ‘This is really cool. We can really make this work.” They signed the lease and began working on Bit Bar Salem in January.

The 3,000 square foot space features two rooms of classic arcade and pinball machines with total capacity of 106, including seating for 70. The outdoor patio accommodates an additional 60 people. There are 30 machines in the bar area and another 30 in a warehouse in Everett, which they rotate for variety. These are the original games, painstakingly restored, refurbished and spit shined to their original glory. Some of the most popular games are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and pinball machines Cue Ball Wizard, Hook and Cyclone.

Under Executive Chef Eric Hammer, formerly of Tavern in the Square, the attention-grabbing menu features Walking Tacos (“a tasty, traveling taco minus the mess”), snacks, sandwiches, entrees and sweets. Specialty cocktails are whimsically named “Pooka”, “Dankey Kang” and ”Pinky & Clyde”, among others. Local breweries are featured and Maine Root supplies Fair Trade Certified organically sweetened sodas

Most important to Hall and Coltof is that Bit Bar Salem be as green as possible, leaving the smallest carbon footprint and supporting the local community. “We pay living wages. We recycle our cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. Our meat is from Walden Meats (‘happy cows and chickens’). I want to be sure we are building something we can be proud of,” Coltof said.

Mayor Kim Driscoll is excited to welcome Bit Bar to Salem and to stake her personal arcade turf. “This creative business will add to our downtown’s growing reputation as a hip, vibrant and diverse dining destination. Beyond just the new jobs and economic activity this restaurant will bring, its innovative theme will make a real unique experience, not simply in Salem but for the whole greater Boston area,” she said, adding,” I look forward to setting their high score in Galaga.”

After a “soft opening” in June, the group is looking to tweak a few things before hosting its grand opening. Their biggest issue is managing all three things that Bit Bar Salem is: a classic arcade, a bar and a restaurant. During the day, it is more like a restaurant; at night, it feels like a busy bar. And then there are the 30 arcade games. “Our biggest challenge is how much floor space to devote to tables and how much to games. We are loath to give up a single game in our floor-plan, but if a bussing station has to go somewhere, or a server station is needed to make the flow of the place work ten times better, then we have to do it,” Hall said.

Like Mayor Driscoll, Coltof and Hall each have favorite games. For Coltof, it’s Rolling Thunder, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the pinball game Cyclone. For Hall, it’s more personal.

“Altered Beast”, a fun classic Sega game, is not necessarily the best game ever made, according to Hall. But for him, it is especially fun to play because it is one he helped fix and restore. “Just seeing that come back to life after you think it’s dead and gone is something,” he said.

Mothers Day Cookbook Creates a Family Legacy

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Keepsake helps grieving daughter cope with loss

By Shelley A. Sackett

Susan Mineo and her five siblings grew up on the predominantly Italian Pratt Street in Salem smelling her mother’s famous sauce and tasting her unrivaled cooking every evening. As kids, she remembers even their school lunches being the talk of the Bowditch School lunch room.

“We had brown-bagged meatball sandwiches and eggplant parmesan, beef cutlets, chicken cutlets, pork cutlets, etc.,” she said, admitting that on a few occasions, she traded her gourmet home cooking for the “more common” peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The eight Mineos. Back row: Frank, Mineo’s Mom (Gloria) and Dad (Santo). Front row: Diane, Julie, Susan, David (Diane’s twin), and Tony on Susan’s lap.

She also loved watching her friends’ faces when they were lucky enough to be guests at the Mineo dinner table. “While they were eating, their eyes would roll to the back of their head. So many would say, ‘I can’t believe you eat like this every night!’” she said with pride.

Her mother was equally caring and generous in feeding sick friends, or “just anybody who happened to walk in.” Her father’s back seat was like a Mineo Meals on Wheels, full of carefully labeled plates for him to deliver.

“My mother had a compassionate, nurturing self. What she was proud of was being a mother. That was the proudest role in her life,” Mineo said.

Mineo’s mother, Gloria, learned to cook from her mother, whose family was from Abruzzi, Italy, but took what she learned to a whole new level. “Most people either bake or cook. My mother did both extremely well,” she said.

Gloria, in turn, passed on her love and skill to her daughter (and her five siblings, including three brothers), and some of Mineo’s favorite childhood memories are when her mother taught her to cook. “I loved when she was teaching me to make Tiramisu. It is so complex and was so easy for her. She was so talented — she was a true artist,” she said.

Gloria also invented a few recipes, including Easter turtles with colored eggs, and on more than one occasion would cook more than one thing for dinner if Mineo or any of her siblings didn’t like what she had prepared. “We were spoiled rotten. We were lucky kids,” Mineo said with a chuckle.

Seven or eight years ago, she decided to start working on a cookbook of her mother’s recipes. Her mother kept her treasured recipes on handwritten index cards, and each time she visited her parents in Florida, Mineo took some home with her. She and her parents developed a system: she would format the recipes into her computer, send the hard copies to her mother for editing, and her father would mail them back. “We were a team, because my mother didn’t drive, so my father played a crucial role,” she said.

Gloria Mineo piping her tiramisu

The family continued this routine for three years. “My mom was my second set of eyes and there were lots of things in her head that were not on those index cards, so I needed her. We used tons of paper and ink and postage, but we accomplished what we set out to do,” she said.

All her siblings supported her project, adding excerpts and even having their own children write something about their grandmother’s legacy. Finally, she designed the book, took photographs, and had her son enhance the cover page. Sadly, her father died from cancer just four months prior the book’s completion.

On Mother’s Day 2011, she presented her mother with the finished product: “Gloria Mineo’s Family & Friends Cookbook with her own personal flair.” “I don’t think she ever expected it to be what it was. When I handed it to her, she was shocked and just cried. I knew then I did something important which touched her deeply,” Mineo said.

Unfortunately, Gloria passed away last October after a long illness, and this is Mineo’s first Mother’s Day without her. In their final days, both her parents were at Kaplan House/Care Dimensions. However, that care didn’t end with her mother’s passing. With the support from the Bertolon Center for Grief & Healing, Mineo has had ongoing help with her journey through her loss with an array of grieving groups and individual sessions.

Because Mineo was the primary care taker for both of her parents, their loss created a tremendous void. She lauds Care Dimensions’ for allowing her to mend at her own pace. “Their emphasis on no time limit has softened the edges of my loss. They acknowledge the individual as who they are,” she said, noting that other companies set arbitrary numbers of weeks or months, after which a person should be healed. “The staff is a gifted group of compassionate, patient, thoughtful and dedicated people,” she said.

Gloria and Santo or Mom and Dad on their honeymoon in 1951.

Although this Mother’s Day will be an especially hard one for Mineo, she takes solace in having completed and shared the cookbook with her before she passed. “It gives me solace, looking at it, touching it and, of course, using it. My Mom is not in my past, as she is in my daily world as much as ever,” she said.

Tiramisu

Mom’s Tiramisu

Ingredients:

1 box custard pudding, cooked

½ pt. whipped heavy whipping cream

1 egg yolk

½ cup sugar – plus ¼ cup

1/3 cup sherry liqueur

1/3 cup Kahlua

1 large package Italian hard Ladyfinger cookies

2 boxes Ladyfingers, the hard cookies

2 cups espresso coffee, room temperature

2 lb. Mascarpone cheese, Italian cream cheese

1/3 cups of sugar

1 lb. Philadelphia cream cheese room temperature

1 box custard pudding (cooked not instant) or 1 box instant vanilla pudding

1/3 cup sherry wine, a good one

1/3 cup Kahlua

½ cup sugar – 1/3 cup sugar

1 pint heavy cream

2 tbs. cocoa

1 dark chocolate candy bar, use a good chocolate

Directions:

Mix coffee and Kahlua.

Beat mascarpone, cream cheese, and sugar. Whip until creamy soft – add custard or pudding and whip until soft and airy. Fold in 1 cup of whipped heavy cream.

In a 9”x12” oblong pan place a thin layer of cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the pan.

Mix Kahlua into espresso coffee and add 1/3 cup of sugar. Dip the Ladyfingers quickly into espresso and layer them in the pan on top of the thin layer of cream cheese mixture. Add ½ half of cheese mixture on top of the cookies. Dip second layer of cookies into Kahlua quickly and cover the cream cheese and then add the rest of the cream cheese on top. Sprinkle with sifted cocoa and shaved chocolate bar.

With left over whipped cream using a pastry bag with a star tip, you can design (piping), the edges of the pan.

Susan Mineo’s graduation in 2005 from Salem State College/ University

TIPS FROM CARE DIMENSIONS FOR COPING with LOSS OF A MOTHER

Helpful Tips for those Coping with the Loss of a Mother

By Patrice DePasquale, LICSW and Bereavement Counselor for Care Dimensions

As Mother’s Day approaches this may be a challenging time of year for people who have had their Mothers pass away, either recently or years ago. As adults, our relationships with our parents often change and mature over time and we may find that we value the relationships more and become friends with our parents. We turn to our Moms for comfort, decision-making and reassurance. When a Mother dies, people often feel like they have lost their closest ally in life.

If you are coping with the loss of a mother, here are some suggestions as Mother’s Day approaches:

-Realize that your grief has no time table and that walking past the large and cheerful display of Mother’s Day cards at the grocery store may trigger a painful grief reaction for people who long to spend the day celebrating with their Mom.

-Seek support from others, whether by joining a grief support group or talking with close family and friends about your emotions. This support can validate your feelings and help you process them.

-Focus on taking care of yourself with the basics, such as eating and sleeping well, exercising and taking time for activities you enjoy. Being kind and patient with yourself can help you to better cope with your feelings of grief.

-Find ways to honor and commemorate your Mother either privately, as a family or in your community. Plant flowers that your mother loved and make a memory garden. Cook one of her recipes to share with friends or visit her favorite restaurant or outdoor venue. Reminisce at family events about happy times from your childhood. These types of activities can help you feel more connected to your Mother and allow you to feel that you are continuing a relationship with her.

-Remember that the gifts our Mothers have given us over the years, such as unconditional love, comfort, and support always remain with us in all we do.
Care Dimensions offers a variety of support groups, including Loss of a Mother and Loss of a Parent, several times a year. For more information, please visit, http://www.CareDimensions.org or call 855-774-5100.

Mass Poetry Festival Celebrates Spring

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

By Shelley A. Sackett

Spring has always been an inspiration for renewal and gaiety, especially among poets. From William Blake to Robert Louis Stevenson to New England’s own Robert Frost, scores have praised the magic and charm of the season over the centuries.

And since 2008, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival has offered the rare opportunity to hear the nation’s best poets read and discuss their work in intimate and engaging forums. From Friday, April 29 through Sunday, May 1, historic downtown Salem will become the epicenter of contemporary American poetry for the 8^th annual festival, and Executive Director January O’Neil couldn’t be more excited.

“With so many events, everything is new each year. I’m thrilled that the Boston Typewriter Orchestra is joining us on Sunday,” O’Neil, who is an assistant professor of English at Salem State University, said. “There’s a lot of good energy here.”

Student Day of Poetry, which happens Friday morning before the general festival events begin, will host 250 students from across the Commonwealth for a morning of workshops and spoken word. “Money and time are always our biggest challenges. If we had more of each, how many more students could we invite?” O’Neil said.

untitled-646

Nearly 100 poetry readings and workshops take place at five venues in downtown Salem (Peabody Essex Museum, Old Town Hall, Museum Place Mall, First Universalist Church, Howling Wolf and Salem Five Community Room). The festival also features a small press and literary fair, panels, poetry slams, visual arts and open-air performances.

The full schedule is available at masspoetry.org. 17186839679_254a2018f2_b

O’Neil first became involved in 2008 and 2009, when Lowell hosted the festival. She participated both years as a reader with a group, but decided to volunteer and handle marketing when Salem became the venue in 2011. Since 2012, she has been executive director.

“It’s been amazing to watch this three-day weekend event evolve into a national poetry event. But it still feels very grassroots. We try to be as inclusive as possible, recognizing as many different poets, literary groups, and arts organizations as possible,” she said.

Panel topics range broadly, from the state of poetry, poetry and gender, book publishing and modernism in contemporary art, to the Common Threads Reading, where contemporary poets with Massachusetts ties discuss their literary connections. More than 150 local and nationally known poets engage with thousands of New Englanders each year.

Many presentations have an international and political focus. “The Bravest Women in the World: Afghan Women Speak out through Poetry” has both. Through the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, founded by American journalist Masha Hamilton, Afghan women who live under the oppressive Taliban rule are mentored and encouraged to tell their stories using online workshops. Following readings by two Afghan writers at the Friday afternoon event, the panel will discuss the role of poetry as a “human right.”

In addition to eight headline events, the eclectic schedule includes something for everyone. There are workshops on teaching, writing, editing, and publishing poetry. Some look at poetry as humor; others as mystery, song or science fiction.

“You don’t have to be a poet to have a good time. The Peabody Essex Museum has family-friendly, drop-in activities. From music and readings, to slam and visual arts, there’s lots of wicked good poetry happening in Salem this weekend!” O’Neil said.

Melt Ice Cream: More Flavors More Frequently

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Christiana Kroondyk, owner of Melt, enjoys her personal favorite: Atomic Coffee.

Shelley A. Sackett

Even as a kid growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ice cream stood out among its dessert peers for Christiana Kroondyk.

“I remember biking to the nearest shop with friends and eating it after a quick trip to the beach with my family,” said the owner and creator of Melt Ice Cream, an artisanal ice cream line that now has its own storefront home in the former Salem Screamery location. “Ice cream was always a special treat growing up.”

Her taste for ice cream never wavered over the years, but in 2009 her interest changed from eating it to making it. While vacationing with her family, they found a newly opened ice cream shop run by a couple that sold unique and delicious flavors, such as lavender mint basil and maple bacon — “before bacon was a ‘thing’.”

When Kroondyk got home, she quit her Human Resource Compensation Department job, bought a personal ice cream machine, and began trying out recipes and experimenting with unusual ingredients. “My focus with Melt is making all the ice cream myself. I use local ingredients where I can,” she said. Her original plan was to sell Melt as an artisanal ice cream line at farmers markets.

Instead, when The Salem Screamery was put up for sale last year, Kroondyk bought it, “definitely something I envisioned, but not as quickly as it happened.” For a year, she operated the shop as the previous owners had — selling ice cream from Bliss Dairy in Attleboro, MA — all the while experimenting with her distinctive flavors and thinking about how she wanted to make the store “hers”.

“I wanted to change the environment of the store. We updated the inside a lot over this past winter to make it warm, happy and inviting,” Kroondyk said. While she spends a lot of time at the store, this year she’s more behind the scenes making ice cream rather than behind the counter scooping it. Still, she loves saying “hi” to the regulars. “Meeting and getting to know the customers and the community is extremely important to me.”

Equally important is her commitment to unconventional and all natural ice cream flavors. “Coming up with funky flavors is most fun for me,” Kroondyk said, noting that she only uses real ingredients. “My mint chip ice cream is not green,” she pointed out proudly.

Her goal is “more flavors more frequently” and she features four or five “Rotating Flavors” that change every week or two. Right now, customers have the chance to taste 18 “flavors to melt for”. The rotating ones include vanilla chai, anise with candied fennel (a must for black licorice lovers), green tea, and banana with caramelized white chocolate. Of the 14 “standard” flavors, however, not all are all that standard: potato chip toffee and chamomile chardonnay top the list.

With all these exotic creations to choose from, what unusual flavor is Kroondyk’s favorite? Without a pause, the maestro of the non-traditional breaks into a wide, little girl smile, and reveals her taste buds’ old-fashioned, Grand Rapids roots: Atomic Coffee.

Melt Ice Cream is located at 60 Washington Street in Salem. Hours are Sunday through Thursday, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Visit meltsalem.com for more information.

SIDEBAR???

“Artisan” is a term used to describe “food produced by non-industrialized methods, often handed down through generations but now in danger of being lost, according to the School of Artisan Food website. Tastes and processes are allowed to develop slowly and naturally, rather than curtailed for mass-production.”

House of Seven Gables Throws its Founder a 150th Birthday Party

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

New exhibit celebrates Emmerton’s life and legacy

By Shelley A. Sackett

If Caroline Osgood Emmerton, founder of The House of Seven Gables Settlement Association, were to wander into their new exhibit celebrating her 150^th birthday, Special Projects Manager Julie Arrison-Bishop is certain she would be pleased.

“We selected colors that would have been popular in the early 20th century to highlight the images and text selected to tell her story. Using what we have in our archives, we think that we give a look into Miss Emmerton’s life in a way that she would have appreciated,” Arrison-Bishop said.

Throughout 2016, The House of the Seven Gables will be honoring Emmerton, one of Salem’s most prominent citizens, and her 150^th birthday. “Our annual exhibit program is a way for the organization to consistently improve the quality of the visitor experience and to share the many little known stories we have,” she added.

“Caroline Emmerton: An Unbounded Vision,” kicked off the year of planned events on Friday, April 8. The small but splendid exhibit features artifacts from Emmerton’s life, photographs, and richly detailed, easily digested commentaries. Especially charming is a carte de visite, recently discovered among photographs and wallpaper from her Essex Street home, that is believed to portray the young Miss Emmerton and her younger sister, Annie.

Caroline Emmerton oversees a settlement class, c. 1920.

Caroline Emmerton oversees a girls’ needlework class at the Seven Gables Settlement.

It all started with John Turner, a Salem sea captain and merchant who built the house in 1636. Three generations of Turners occupied it until 1782, when Captain Samuel Ingersoll bought it. He died at sea, leaving the property to his daughter Susanna, a cousin of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose visits to the house are believed to have inspired the setting of his 1851 novel, “The House of the Seven Gables.”

Emmerton (1866-1942), a philanthropist and preservationist, purchased the “old Turner Mansion” in 1908 with money inherited from her grandfather, maritime trader Captain John Bertram, an immigrant from the United Kingdom. Her mission was to carry on her family’s tradition of endowing and supporting charitable good works.

In 1873, Bertram had donated $25,000 to build Salem Hospital at a time when there were fewer than 200 hospitals nationwide. His generosity eventually funded the Bertram Home for Aged Men, the Salem public library, the Seaman’s widow and Orphan Society, the Family Service Association, and the city’s Public Welfare Society.

Music books and a thimble from a settlement class.

Emmerton was also a product of her times. She lived during The Progressive Era, a period in American life marked by widespread support for social and political reform. The plight of newly arrived immigrants was one of the era’s social concerns.

With the goal of preserving the house for future generations, Emmerton worked with architect Joseph Everett Chandler to restore it to its original seven gables.

She was inspired by Jane Adam’s Hull House, which opened its doors in 1889 in the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, to recently arrived European immigrants. Emmerton wanted to assist immigrant families who were settling in Salem. She envisioned providing educational opportunities for visitors and then using the proceeds from the tours to fund her settlement programs.

Her programs served all ages and were meant to enrich the lives of Salem’s primarily Eastern European community, offering lessons in sewing, crafts, job skills and English. Over time, Emmerton continued to expand and reorganize the compound, eventually moving four colonial-era buildings to the site. To her, exposure to historic environments and stories was a perfect way for new immigrants to absorb democratic values and practices.

Caroline and her sister, Annie, Emmerton

A carte de visite believed to portray the young Caroline Emmerton and her younger sister, Annie.

To honor this legacy, The House of the Seven Gables has partnered with Salem Parks, Recreations and Community Services to offer enrichment programs on the historic museum campus throughout 2016.

Because Emmerton did not leave much behind in terms of private correspondence and photographs, shaping this exhibit was challenging. Arrison-Bishop and her committee of volunteers had to look beyond the personal items historians normally use to share a story.

“Our biographical look at Caroline Emmerton was a wonderful opportunity to work with a group of historians who were interested in telling not only the story of Caroline Emmerton, but also what influenced her. Emmerton was an early leader in the field of historic preservation, and she used her knowledge and means to save a number of Salem’s most influential buildings — some of which are on our National Historic Landmark Campus,” Arrison-Bishop said.

While there are many lessons to be learned from Emmerton’s work that shaped her community and provided educational opportunities to those who needed them most, Arrison-Bishop hopes exhibit goers will pay particular attention to the broader nuances of history.

“One of the threads that we found both in Miss Emmerton’s biography and the background of the Progressive Era was a series of language — much of it politically charged — that shows how history continues to repeat itself,” she said.

Everyone is encouraged to attend the April 23^rd “Caroline’s Community: A Celebration for All”, with $1.50 tours, cake cutting, dance performances, music and Living History Labs. Emmerton historian and Lynn resident, Irene Alexrod, will perform biographical sketches of her life throughout the day. “We hope that the public sees how Miss Emmerton used her influence and means to support her community,” Arrison-Bishop said.

For a full list of commemorative events, lectures and activities, go to 7gables.org.

PEM’s “Asia in Amsterdam” Exhibit is a Feast for the Senses

Posted by Shelley A. Sackett

Shelley A. Sackett

“It started with spices from Asia…” reads the inscription above a display of glass columns of cinnamon, clove and peppercorns that greet the visitor to “Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age”, the latest world-class exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. And indeed, the 200 extraordinary examples of paintings, textiles, ceramics, silver, lacquerware, furniture, jewelry and books would never have found their way from their native Asia to 17^th century Dutch households were it not for the spice trade that originated in Amsterdam and single-handedly created the Dutch Golden Age.

The “Golden Bend” in the Herengracht, Amsterdam, 1671-1672. Gerrit Adriansz. Berckheyde.

The exhibit, five years in the making and co-organized by the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, runs through June 5. PEM is the exclusive U.S. venue. Founded less than a year apart – in 1798 and 1799 – the Dutch and Salem museums boast world-renowned Asian export art collections inextricably linked to early international trade, and pieces from both collections form the backbone of the exhibit.

Thanks to the painstaking work of a team of 35 talented PEM staff members, “Asia in Amsterdam” navigates the complex story of the transformative influence Asian luxuries had on Dutch art and life in bite-sized chunks. Combining lessons in history, sociology, economics, arts and crafts, the galleries are logically organized to tell a seamless story. The animated maps, interactive digital displays and short films add a deeper access to the material.

Cellaret. Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), with flasks from Arita, Japan, 1680-1700. Calamander with silver mounts and velvet lining, and porcelain.

It all started with pepper, nutmeg and cloves and the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) that was set up in 1602 to import them from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia back to the Netherlands. Before long, the VOC was the most powerful and largest trade and shipping company in the world, employing more than 400,000 Dutch and other European and Asian workers. The exhibit minces no words about VOC’s relentless and, at times, ruthless pursuit of profit at the expense of the local people. The toll of human suffering casts a dark shadow over these sparkling jewels.

Soon, in addition to spices and tea, the VOC began importing costly textiles, porcelain, lacquer and silver from China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. For the austere Dutch Protestants, who were used to eating from heavy stoneware and wearing drab wool and linen clothing, the introduction of gossamer thin brightly colored Indian cotton, feather light and elegant Chinese porcelain and elaborate lacquered coffers inlaid with mother of pearl and other exotic materials suddenly turned their monochromatic world into Technicolor. Amsterdam quickly became the seat of global economy and enormous wealth.

Cotton embriodered with silk and metal-wrapped threads. Palampore. Deccan, India, 1710-1750.

“One can only imagine the delight and amazement that these imports must have inspired in the Netherlands,” said Karina Corrigan, PEM’s H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art. Gallery after gallery is chockfull of examples of the lavish Asian imports the Dutch consumer suddenly couldn’t live without. Paintings by Dutch artists illustrate how the wealthy incorporated these sensual delights into their everyday lives. Fashionable Dutch men wore silk Japanese robes, Dutch women hosted elaborate Chinese tea parties, and room after room of wealthy Dutch households boasted the items on display. Many built special “porcelain display rooms” to show off their collections. Even Rembrandt van Rijn was “a phenomenal shopper”, collecting Asian objects and Indian miniature painting, which inspired many of his drawings and etchings.

Perhaps the best (and most amusing) example of the new European opulence and swagger is a sumptuous lacquer crate inlaid with mother of pearl that opens to reveal a portable commode, complete with red velvet and gilded mounts. Built in the 17^th century and later modified in France, it found a special niche at the Chateau de Versailles.

Paulus Moreelse. “Portrait of a Young woman”, about 1620.

Another example of the colossal obsession with materiality is Paulus Moreelse’s “Portrait of a Young Woman.” Apparently, his young unknown subject (rumored to be port of the court of the House of Orange-Nassau) couldn’t decide what to wear for this portrait, causing her severe anxiety lest she appear too austere. The diamond brooch from India with its 208 gems hopefully set her young mind at rest.

The array of objects and their sensual allure is at times overwhelming. While the exotic and intriguing imports reflect the VOC’s global reach and the Dutch voracious appetite for its bounty, “Asia in Amsterdam” doesn’t simply admire these objects. It goes one step further, examining their revolutionary impact on the Dutch imagination and way of life in an unobtrusive but instructive way.

As Amsterdam’s status as the epicenter of global trade grew, so did its prosperous population, and innovations that reached into all facets of life both in Europe and throughout the world followed. With so much porcelain in the Netherlands, even common people could afford to use it daily. Asian spices both brightened Dutch palates and revised how Europeans treated illnesses. Amsterdam became the center of the publishing world, growing from one publishing house in 1570 to 129 by the year 1670. Dutch books, sold throughout Europe, fueled curiosity about the wider world, especially Asia.

Covered Bowl. Jingdezhen, China. Porcelain.

Dutch artists and artisans appropriated the material Asian culture, representing it in still-life paintings, delftware and furniture. Dutch design of textiles, silver and lacquer were not far behind.

The “Thought Leaders” section of the exhibition is particularly interesting. It considers the ramifications of exposure to the worlds of far off places, including their peoples, plants, animals, religions and medical practices, on Dutch scholars. Adding a soothing musical layer is “The Golden Dream: 17th Century Music from the Low Countries,” by the Newberry Consort with Marion Verbruggen and Paul O’Dette, which plays in the background.

Cradle. Coromandel Coast, India, 1650-1700. Ebony and Ivory.

The exhibit ends as it began, with contemplative words painted on a wall. “At certain times, great achievements in art, science and commerce come together to define a golden age,” it reads. Against a backdrop listing Renaissance Florence, Mughal India, the Tang Dynasty and 1920’s New York City, it asks the visitor to consider where and when the next big movement might come.

To think, it could all start with something as small as spices.

For more information, go to pem.org.

InSights

A Blog by Shelley A. Sackett

Salem

Salem Farmers Market returns to Old Town Hall every Thursday, 3-7 p.m.

Redemption Fish Closes the Loop

Northeast Animal Shelter rescues out-of-state cats and dogs

275 Years of the Black Picnic

Let the Gaming Begin!

Mothers Day Cookbook Creates a Family Legacy

Mass Poetry Festival Celebrates Spring

Melt Ice Cream: More Flavors More Frequently

House of Seven Gables Throws its Founder a 150th Birthday Party

PEM’s “Asia in Amsterdam” Exhibit is a Feast for the Senses