Thank you for subscribing to the Historic Valentown Newsletter!
~A Note From Kathryn White~

Hello again everyone!

February begins our planning for the coming open season starting 
in June. Again this year we have projects for volunteers who want 
to help and enjoy Historic Valentown so let us know if you are 
interested.

This year we are continuing our exhibit on the history of women's 
right to vote. Our new Susan B. Anthony exhibit will be refreshed 
and added to. For our visitors and members who come to see the 
case on the 2nd floor, they can opt to don some bits of costume 
and have their picture taken in front of the case featuring our 
precious items that were once hers. And we will e-mail you an old 
fashion looking snap to share with your friends! (You'll have to 
give us your email address so we can identify the picture to send 
to you.) This will be fun! And with your written permission we 
will record your photo in our archives gallery for future 
generations to see.

Let's all celebrate and make sure we take the time to exercise 
our right to participate in elections by voting.

<http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/mediagallery/album.php?aid=14&page=1>;

Now for some really big news! We were gobsmacked to find out that 
across the pond over in the UK a popular country rock singer, 
Frank Walsh, has formed a new band named after us!/And that's 
not all! The first CD includes a song that Frank said he was 
inspired to write after reading up about our romantic little 
museum! The song is called "Valentown" and it is sooooo good! 
If you like country rock (and who doesn't??) you can listen to 
a YouTube version of it on our sites new 'Videos & Media' 
section. Check it out by clicking on the song cover to the upper 
right!

We are very pleased to know we have have friends and 
admirers from all over that want to "come home" to us where they 
are always welcome.? We have more of this story that includes 
excerpts from our email conversations with Frank, you can read 
that by scrolling down below the video.

Well, even though we can almost feel it coming, it's not uncommon 
to see the tug of war between winter and spring.? So we can 
expect some of our returning birds like robins to get snowed on 
as they arrive. They never seem to mind. We hope you are 
planning for your gardens, the flowers and vegetables will be on 
the table before we know it.

Wishing you a great start of spring.
Kathryn White, President

News and Events
WEB SITE NEWS
Coming very soon! We're offering convenient Membership purchases 
& renewals via online payment processing. Yay! We're using PayPal 
as our transaction processor, PayPal is a trusted, proven and 
secure payment gateway.

We've started out with the Hometown Business Memberships, and 
expect to have them up and running in early March.

Once those are in place, we'll get the regular Memberships 
started so every one will have the choice to either continue on 
as was usual (manually fill out the application, write a check 
and send it in) or use the convenience of online membership sign 
ups & renewals.

Oh, and be sure to check out our new "*Video's & Media*" section, 
too! We'll be adding more to that in the coming months.

Find Us on Facebook! 
<https://www.facebook.com/Historic-Valentown-157101550971895/>;

Recipes
See /our collection of recipes and hints, tips and substitutions at
http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/forum/index.php?cat=2

And remember to support you community Hometown Growers & Markets!

Now for something different! Since we already sent you a new 
recipe this month (along with a link to lots more!) this 2nd 
edition of the February newsletter will be all about our new 
section in our Web Site recipe box.

Many old time recipe's call for ingredients with short "use by" 
dates that are not commonly found in today's daily kitchen 
pantries and fridges. So we've added a new section to our Web 
Site recipe box: "Hints, Tips & Substitutions".

We hope you enjoy our new recipe section and can add to it! If 
you have a tried and true hint, tip or substitution, send it 
along to webmaster at historicvalentownmuseum.org!

GROUND PORK SUBSTITUTE
~~~/submitted by Lynne D. Perry

Okay, here is the cold hard truth. :-(
There is no substitute meat for pork, or for ground pork.

The closest you can get is to try to adapt an existing meat to 
the same taste.

So here is my "emergency" ground pork substitute for use in 
things like meatballs, taco's, Chinese dumplings, etc. This also 
works well as a Kosher substitution where you want to simulate 
the taste without the pork.

Recipe is per about 1/4 lb lean ground beef. (About 1 hamburg patty)
To ground beef, add 1/8th teaspoon (1/2 of 1/4 teaspoon) each of 
nutmeg and ground sage.
Mix it in well, mash it up good.

Let it sit in the fridge at least an hour.

There you go! Porc hach remplacer! (Ground pork replacement)

Levi's "What is it?" Department

And here is this months "What is it?"!

The wooden loop object in this picture was hand made in different 
materials. This one at Valentown is "bent wood", a craft that 
used long cuttings of wood like willow or even some other harder 
wood. It was bent by moisture and heat.? Wicker is a similar 
application of this skill and many useful things were made this way.

This "What is it?" had a very particular task. If you 
think you know, you can take a guess at our Valentown's Facebook 
"What is it?" 
<https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237.1073741826.157101550971895/2023618750986823/?type=3&theater>; 
page or just join in on the conversation! Feel free to pass this 
along for others to guess at, too.? If you know don't give it 
away too soon.? The guesses are fun to hear.

Our last "What's It" is a surveyors chain!

"Gold stars and Praises" to those of you who knew the
 answer! This object is a surveyor's Gunther's chain. A
system of land surveying was developed by Edmund Gunter in
the early 1600?s in England, and naturally adopted by the
English colonies and continued by the new United States. You
can read more about this tool in our web sites "What's It?"
department:
http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/surveryor-chain
<http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=35>;

And that 2nd "What is it" contest is still going!!! We can't 
believe it! What in tarnation is she doing??? Is it ever going to 
get solved? Don't be shy, share it around, we know someone out 
there knows! Join the discussion about it here:

Valentown Facebook "What is it?" Wood Carving
    <https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237.1073741826.157101550971895/1912890852059614/?type=3&theater>;