Save up to 75% on furniture, rugs, kitchenware, lights…you
name it…it’s been marked down!

September 4th & 5th

Saturday 9-5pm
Sunday 9:30-5pm

AT PINE PLAINS LOCATION ONLY

And don’t forget to take advantage of Early Bird Shopping on Saturday morning.

For a $40 per person tax deductible donation you get in early for “first dibs” on our best selections.

This year the Pine Plains Volunteer Fire Department will be the recipients of your donations.

Remember to bring cash or your checkbook for optimal savings — credit card purchases will have a 3% surcharge.

Luck prevailed, and my friends and I had an early dinner at Babbo in the West Village.  Wanting to know the exact address, I went to their website. What a treat!  I found a great recipe and a great travel trip for my “someday” trip to Italy.  Wanted to share them with you…check out the links below.

http://www.babbonyc.com/travel.html

http://www.babbonyc.com/recipe.html

BABBO:

From the minute we walked inside, it was absolute perfection. The staff, the decor, the service and, of course, the food. Simple elegance…and a meal to perfection.

• Baby Wild Arugula with Parmigiano and Aceto Manodori
• Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Oven Dried Tomatoes, Red Chiles and Bottarga di Muggine
• Fennel Dusted Sweetbreads with Sweet and Sour Onions, Duck Bacon and Membrillo Vinaigrette
• Warm Rhubarb Crostata with Spiced Ricotta Gelato and Pine Nut “Crocante”

And, we will keep you posted with the opening of Mario’s new venture in NYC – “EATALY”

While Mario was visiting Hammertown last week (he loved the new kitchen being revealed at our 25th celebration), he told me that he and his partner, Joe Bastianich, are opening an Italian marketplace in the Flatiron District of Manhattan (W 23rd, near 5th Avenue).  It’s called “Eataly”… a giant Italian food hall patterned after the original in Turin, Italy.  “…a 50,000-square-foot, Slow Food–inspired Italian-food temple” according to New York magazine.  It is three levels (in the old Toy Building) with more than 20 retail departments, most with their own dining areas.  There will be fish mongers, butchers and even a vegetable “butcher” who preps your artichoke so they’re ready to take home and cook.  Like everything Mario touches, I’m sure it is going to be a huge success.  It’s set to open the end of August.   Keep it on the radar…this will definitely be THE new destination for foodies! READ MORE in this Q & A article from New York Magazine.

In the meantime, stop by and get a copy of Mario’s new book, Molto Gusto. It is FANTASTIC.

Mario told me it has already sold 250,000 copies, and has only been out 6 months.   It is a collection of recipes for everyone’s favorites: pizza, pasta, antipasti, gelati and sorbetti.  According to Mario, this book is so easy…anyone will be able to cook his favorite recipes.  (Available at all 3 Hammertown stores)

Just one more reason to love Mario!

Simple function and visual elegance combine for the optimum extraction of full rich-bodied coffee.

As the old song says, “everything old is new again” — and there are so many reasons I love these new/old Chemex Coffeemakers.   Like all great designs and great ideas they are timeless for a reason…because they’re beautiful and they work.

It’s beautiful-
Invented by chemist, Peter Schlumbohm, in 1941, the Chemex Coffeemaker was chosen as one of the 100 best designed products of modern times. It is found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  With its beautifully shaped flask with a polished natural wood collar and leather tie, you’ll want to keep this coffeemaker in plain sight all the time!

It works -
Because it was invented by a chemist, Chemex employs all of the chemically correct methods for brewing coffee.  It’s hourglass shaped flask is made entirely of glass (a “chemically inert” material that does not absorb odors or chemical residues) and because it has no moving parts — it will work forever. AND MOST IMPORTANT: It makes great coffee!  Clear, pure, flavorful and without bitterness or sediment every single time…even strong coffee will not taste bitter.  And, because of its purity, Chemex brewed coffee can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for iced coffee or for reheating…without losing its flavor!

Another thing I really like about this product is that it’s made locally….right here in the Berkshires in Pittsfield, MA.  So you’ll not only be enjoying fantastic, flavorful coffee…you’ll be supporting our local economy!

Chemist, Peter Schlumbohm, who invented over 3,000 items in his lifetime.

For five decades the Chemex Coffeemaker (which was once available to only a circle of acquaintances) has been enjoyed by  connoisseurs around the world — and now we have them at Hammertown Barn and Hammertown Rhinebeck!

We’re carrying 3 sizes of Chemex Classic Series Coffeemakers

6 cup – $40
8 cup – $42
10 cup – $44

Chemex Filters and accessories also available at Hammertown and online.

Buy Online Now

Currently blooming in our wetlands is Purple Loosestrife.  It looks so beautiful spread across just about all of our wetlands.

Guess what?  This hardy perennial is a dangerous invasive.  It can rapidly degrade our wetlands and diminish value for the wildlife habitat.  Our wetlands are the most biologically diverse, productive component of our ecosystems.  Hundreds of species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, incests, fish and amphibians rely on healthy wetland habitat for their survival.  Look around, it is everywhere…it’s considered an invasive plant in all 48 of the U.S. contiguous states.  Please do not mistake loosestrife as a colorful and quickly-growing native plant for your home landscaping.

There are plenty of places on the web, in newspapers, and local nurseries that provide information and even offer native plants for your enjoyment. The U.S.D.A  has a list of native plants to the U.S.  (click here)

For even more information about using native plants check out this website: http://www.projectnative.org/

From Doris Cassar, our guest recipe blogger.  Enjoy! -  Joan

I learned most of what I know about cooking from my mother and grandmother. Like most Mediterranean cooks, I was taught to be thrifty. This means we recognize the value of fresh, high quality ingredients and honor them with simple preparation. It also means we let nothing go to waste. The sauté of greens not only makes excellent use of the beet and turnip greens many of us toss into the compost-it also serves as a delicious, healthy sidekick to the tilapia.*

I love to make this dish for my dad whenever he visits.

Ingredients:

• 4 Tilapia filets-about 1 1/2 lbs (or any white, boneless fish filet)
• 2 Lemons, thinly sliced
• 4 Plum Tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/2c Cured Black olives-pitted, cut in half
• 2 tbl -fresh thyme
• olive oil
• salt and pepper-to taste
• 1 large onion-thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic-minced
• 5c mixed greens (your choice of beet and/or turnip greens, kale, mustard etc)

Directions:

For the tilapia:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1. In the bottom of an 8”x8” baking pan (I like my Le Creset enamel pan) drizzle olive oil to lightly coat.  Lay two tilapia filets side by side. Layer tomato and lemon over each filet, alternating. Sprinkle 1/2 the capers, 1/2 the olives and 1/2 the thyme over the fish. Lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

2.Repeat with remaining ingredients. Roast for about 30 min or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

For the greens:

1. Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan lightly with olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic over medium heat until soft and golden in color.

2. Add the greens and toss until just wilted. (You may have to add the greens in two batches. Adding more as they cook down.)

*A good source for fish is Guido’s in Great Barrington.

I also suggest making friends with the fishmonger at your local supermarket. They are usually delighted to advise you on what is fresh and will often place special orders for you.

Dine on 5+ courses of Chef Michel Jean’s signature Provençal cuisine featuring Hudson Valley produce and game, paired with 6 dynamic wines from France’s Rhône Valley.  Château de la Selve is found in the Ardèche region in south-central France, between the famous Hermitage and Gigondas appellations, and follows strict biodynamic farming practices and organic growing standards.

Friday, August 27, 2010
7 pm – Cocktails/Amuses
8 pm – Dinner

MENU:

Amuses: Wood Oven Pizza and Focaccia
with Maguelonne, Rosé 2009

First Course: Zucchini Flowers Stuffed with Goat Cheese, Red Pepper Coulis
with Palissaire Red 2007

Second Course: Lobster Timbale with Micro Greens
with Saint Régis Viognier 2009

Third Course: Roasted Partridge with Truffle Jus
with Beaulieu Red 2005

Fourth Course: Local Cheese Platter
with La Serre de Berty Red 2006

Dessert: White Peach Mousse with Berries
with Madame De Viognier 2008

The Stissing House
7801 South Main Street (Corner of Route 82/Route 199)
Pine Plains, NY 12567
Hudson Valley, NY
518-398-8800
stissinghouse@gmail.com

COST: $85 per person + tax and gratuity
RSVP: Reservations please. Limited Seating

The Stissing House is open for dinner 5 – 10 pm, Wednesdays through Mondays in the summer. Chateau de la Selve wines are available for purchase starting at $13.99 at Pine Plains Fine Wines, 17 Pilch Drive, Pine Plains, NY 12567, (518) 398-7633. Receive a 20% case discount if paid with cash or check.

Cracked but still usable

However, we can’t blame mother nature and her micro-climates entirely because there are ways we can prevent it.

One way is to get your tomatoes off to a good start by mulching your plants with black plastic to provide them with consistent warmth. This mulch will also conserve moisture during the dry periods like the ones we have had.  But even if you didn’t mulch with the plastic this year you can still help prevent the cracking. Even and consistent watering along with not letting you fruit ripen too much on the vine will also help.

If you do start to see cracks starting to begin in your tomatoes you can always pick the fruit early and let it ripen on the windowsill for a few days. Even with these cracks, most are still safe to eat, if you get them early enough.  But left too long the cracks are an open invitation to problem pests and also bacteria and fungus which will cause them to rot.

You're goin' in the compost little one!

I generally toss them for that added nitrogen in the compost bin or give the good ones to someone who is making sauce right away.  If you feel you have picked too many and want them to last, PEAKfresh produce bags are always handy to use. We just got them in at Hammertown and they’re fantastic.  (Read more about them here)

Remember, do not use regular plastic bags, it will just make your fruit rot more quickly.

Happy Harvesting!

This is, sadly, the last episode in an eight part series chronicling Bob & Jack as they brought an 18th Century farmhouse into the 21st Century.  As far as I’m concerned–they are the reigning Kings of DIY!  Make sure you check out their antique business at the Millerton Antique Center and on-line at doodletownfarm.com – Joan

[click images for descriptions & to enlarge]

Episode Eight:  Where There Was Mud

During the earlier episodes, I focused a lot on putting the old part of the house back together as much as possible. This “last” installment of Doodletown Farm’s renovation saga will focus on an equally important restoration project: putting the landscape and gardens back together to help settle the house back into its surroundings. After all, this poor old house has been through quite a lot.

I mentioned earlier that the established flower gardens, large ancient trees and rolling lawns were what had most attracted us to the property when we first saw it 7 years ago.

Beautifully varied, mature English-style flower beds with heirloom variety perennials had been planted by a series of previous owners going back about 50 years. The most beautiful of these perennial beds surrounded the back of the old house–unfortunately too close to avoid the impending bulldozers and back hoes.

So the spring before the demolition began, Jack began the herculean task ( yes, I helped) of digging up, sorting and dividing loads of daylilies, phlox, hollyhocks, bee balms, peonies, asters, coreopsis, irises (not to mention bushels of unidentified bulbs and tubers) and transplanting it all from the doomed beds to a large temporary holding bed out of harm’s way. There they stayed for one summer. And then another.

In the spring of 2010 when all the plows and backhoes and contractors were gone, the garden restoration began. We had excavated quite a bit to position the new rear addition low enough so that the new roof-lines would not be higher than the original house in front but had not fully realized how much the excavation would alter the levels and contours between the house and the stream.

Re-grading of the rear lawn would now be needed to correct the four to nine foot drop that had not been there before. We had tons of great topsoil that we had scooped aside and saved (don’t throw anything out) during the foundation work and used it to make a long, sweeping, semi-circular terraced flowerbed that would cascade down toward the stream and the screened-in porch.

Here Jack re-transplanted (no, I didn’t help) all the perennials from the holding garden and added about 3000 spring bulbs just in case things didn’t survive the trauma of a second move. Kindly, many of our neighbors, seeing the vast expanse of spring mud we needed to cover and feeling pity, offered up many great perennials to the mix from the thinning out of their own wonderful gardens. When Jack gives a tour he tells you the name of the flowers. I call them “Abby”, “Malcolm”, “Marsha”,“Carol”, “Sophie” or “B”.

Despite the heat this summer, I’m happy to report that most things have now re-established themselves. Jack dreams that Vita Sackville-West or Vanessa Bell would perhaps be right at home with the “wild and full character” of our perennial jungle. I tend to think more of all the gardeners they had at Sissinghurst and Charleston Farm that we don’t have here.

Once the lawns and flowerbeds were done we turned to the muddy courtyard that was created between the house and the new workshop. This presented a challenge because the courtyard gets full sun almost all day. Lots of experimenting was done but we found that if we planted along the sides of the buildings we could guarantee at least some shade during the early and later hours. We altered the soil mix here adding more compost and sand and planted a range of spring bulbs, mixed among zone hardy heirloom climbing roses, climbing hydrangea, heat-tough herbs and drought hardy perennials like Russian sage. We planted coneflowers, catmint, monardas, black eyed Susans along with other more experimental additions such as clumps of a fantastic old heirloom English red crocosmia. So far, (every finger crossed) things seem to love it there.

We decided to put in pea gravel walks. Pea gravel is the official stone of Columbia County. Well, not really but thanks to some geological goings on millions of years ago, gravel is one of our town’s biggest natural resource. So it seemed like the right thing to do. One path would be our daily “commute” from the house to the workshop; two others would lead out to the back gardens from the house and augment the symmetrical layout of the courtyard. In the center of the space, we dug a shallow pool, lined it with left over stone from the workshop and piped in water.

In the middle of this pool we put a large, old Celtic carved and weathered stone capital Jack had found years ago and had been hauling around for God knows how long.

A lot of drilling, banging and hidden tubes transformed it into a gurgling fountain in the center of the courtyard. With time it will be covered with moss. We hope. One of my favorite things about the shallow pool is that it is home to an ever multiplying colony of emerald green frogs. They drive our Springer Spaniel crazy who doesn’t know quite what to make of them but thankfully leaves them alone.

The final outdoor project (who am I kidding?) was the terrace under the new arbor off the kitchen. We debated packed pea gravel but ruled it out as too messy. Bluestone slate was too dressy. We looked at all the warm yellows and browns and rusty grays in the local stone of the workshop and decided to use a similar stone mix for the terrace paving.

No, the hewn surfaces of the irregular blocks will never be absolutely, positively 100% flat but we could live with the organic unevenness of it. Besides, after a cocktail or two would any guest even notice? Or better yet, if they did notice we could blame it on their cocktail or two.

It will probably be next summer before the grape vines, wisteria and trumpet vine converge to cover the arbor but once that happens I will defy anyone to guess that this whole place was a big mud hole 12 months earlier.

This is the last of the episodes covering the adventure of finding the property to finishing the renovation. Thank you for reading along over these past months and the kind comments that have come our way.

We hope to be back on hammertown.com from time to time when interesting events happen here at Doodletown Farm. And if the last seven years are any indication, they will. They will.

Bob & Jack

[click images below for descriptions & to enlarge]