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

Valentown greetings,

For the month of July we are officially announcing our S.O.S. 
Campaign, Phase II titled "Save Our Siding". As many of you 
may remember out first campaign was to Save Our Site. And we 
successfully raised $50,000 thanks to the efforts of a great 
board and dedicated volunteers who helped make that happen to 
retire our debt against the property.

This time it is directly related to the building and 
making improvements to it. This is what we wished we could have 
done right from the start. But it does seem "to everything there 
is a season". So we are now introducing our Go Fund Me campaign 
to raise $25,000. This is our fund from which we will work to 
stabilize the outside of the building, which has stood the test 
of time since 1879.

The Historic Valentown Hall is the center of our site and 
spirit. It is our best way to reach the public with our historic 
message. Please take the time to review and share our Go Fund Me 
Campaign site. http://gofundme.com/save-our-siding-sos 
<http://gofundme.com/save-our-siding-sos>;

**Special Offer** Don't forget, you can stop by on Sundays when 
we are open from 1-4 pm and make a donation to our S.O.S. Fund, 
and pick out one of our decorative collector plates as a 
thank you! We have a huge selection of themes to choose from.

On another note, whether you give us an hour, a day or any amount 
of time from your busy schedule it is worth far more than you 
know to us. We thrive and survive because of people who like to 
help through volunteering. We have some very special people on 
our team. RC Westra has been volunteering since he was in 
high school! And our good friend Carl May has brought an 
abundance of practical know how and equipment to help us out.

Our web site gives you some ideas of ways to join in and help 
out, but we have interests in everything from education, ideas in 
food, nature, history and agriculture. Would you like to teach a 
special program or submit an article for Front Porch Stories on 
our web site? Just let us know if you are interested. Being the 
history of hometown business & community gives us a lot to talk 
about.
Kathryn White, President

Discover your Made in America Past at Historic Valentown!

Farm Fresh & Fantastic
At your Local Market or Farm right now!
Cherries, garlic, raspberries, blueberries, zucchini
Watch for our recipes on Face Book & historicvalentownmuseum.org 
Buy Local, Support Local, Love Local History!

Quote of the Month
"Books are the quietest and the most constant of friends; 
they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the 
most patient of teachers."
Charles W. Eliot 

News and Events

WEB SITE NEWS

Added a new recipe category to accommodate pickling, preserving 
and canning. Don't be shy, send us your old time and/or family 
recipe! It's easy to submit a recipe via our Survey Monkey online 
form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FW32QK9

We've added a new survey poll on the website. We are interested 
in hearing from those who get the newsletter as well as those who 
don't and why they don't. Please take the time to answer seven 
quick multiple choice questions for us. It should only take a 
minute or two. The poll is open to the public, and can be 
accessed by scrolling to the bottom of our web site, or directly 
by using this link: 
http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/polls/index.php

EVENTS

Our Riding for Siding is now over. But wait there's more!
How did it go? Read the event wrap up on our Events forum:
Riding for Siding Wrap-up 
<http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=93>;

Upcoming events: 
August 13th: Spinning Demonstration
September (tbd): Making Home Made Sauerkraut Demonstration
November (tbd): Valentown's Mason Bee Harvest

Reminder:
Please check out our Gift Shop Spot on Sundays from 1-4p.m.
We have a little nook just to the left of the door
when you first come into the General Store,
 it is filled with fun things.

NEWS

Historic Valentown is about to get a New Neighbor! We are going 
to be neighbors with one of the premiere craft breweries in the 
up-state area. New York Beer Project will open across the road 
from us on High Street. The original Lockport, N.Y. site has 
great reviews and we know they will enjoy another successful 
hometown brew site here, too. We have a history of growing hops 
on our historic site as early as 1876, so this should be 
interesting. Cheers!
D&C Article on New York Beer Project 
<D&C%20Article%20on%20New%20York%20Beer%20Projec>

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

Creamy Avocado Dressing for Pasta

Sum sum summertime. Some days (especially this summer) it's just 
too dang hot to even grill.
So here is a heart healthy cold pasta salad dressing that 
actually tastes BETTER than a Mayo dressing! It's so versatile, 
you can make it as a side dish, or just throw in a whole bunch of 
good stuff and make it a meal. I like to serve myself small 
variations of it with a side of tuna drizzled with olive oil 
mixed with minced garlic and lemon juice.
~~~ Submitted by Lynne

INGREDIENTS (per 2 cups uncooked pasta, makes 4 cups cooked)
1 Avocado
1 Garlic toe, minced
1 tsp lemon juice (prevents browning of avocado)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp whole milk
Dash of salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

There are 2 ways to do this, if you like it really creamy, add 
all the ingredients above to a blender and whirl it until it 
reaches a cream ranch dressing consistency. (You may have to add 
a little more milk, a teaspoon at a time).

My favorite way (because I like to have some chunks in it) is to 
flex some muscle and use an old fashion potato masher to moosh it 
all up.

Once you have the consistency you want, assemble your pasta with 
the extra's that you want to put in it (see below for ideas), 
pour in the avocado dressing, and mix it all up until nicely 
coated. Refrigerate until ready to serve (but not more than a day).

Pasta Salad Ideas
1) Add cooked shrimp or chicken bites
2) Go Hawaiian and toss in some pineapple. (This is soooooo good!)
3) Put a sweet touch on with mini marsh mellows mixed in. (Kids 
will love it!)
4) Black olives with this dressing go with everything!
5) Chopped green onions or scallions complement the flavor and 
the green.
6) ANY bite size chopped veggies... cukes, yellow squash, 
zucchini, tomato, peppers.
7) Herbs, herbs, herbs! Think: Cilantro, Basil, Parsley's, 
Rosemary, Thyme, anyone one of those of a combination of a few of 
them will lift the flavor to delightful new heights.
8) Don't forget... chopped celery and/or carrot for some crunch 
factor.

Notes:

This dressing can also be gently heated and used with hot pasta. 
Any of your favorite grated pasta cheeses go well with it.

The type of pasta isn't listed because this goes with all of it. 
Take your pick, elbows, penne, ziti, linguini, small shells... if 
it's pasta, it will work.

There is one draw back, in that making this salad dressing for 
your pasta salad gives it a pretty short left over life. About 1 
day in the fridge and that's it. HOWEVER, the good news is... 
you'll hardly ever have any left overs anyway, it's that good.

Easy Raspberry Jam

What a summer!! Berry bushes have exploded! Rather than let 
those berries go to the birds and ground crews, try a simple 
preserve recipe for raspberries that only takes about 30 minutes 
(not including the berry picking), and you'll happily have 
delicious raspberry jam in the pantry that will have a 2 year 
shelf life. Now that's time and money to market!

Check out our webmasters detailed canning instructions, even 
beginners will be able to preserve like pro's!

http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=101

Levi's "What is it?" Department

Here our next "What is it?", friends.
"This was a tool that was used to fix another tool that was used 
a lot to build buildings. The repetitive motion of the other tool 
created a lot of wear and tear on it that required frequent 
repairs to be made to it." Levi

NOTE: This "What's It" contest might be considered by some to be 
a little unfair - because there were some missing parts. It 
defied our speculations until it could be guessed what it was 
that was missing. 

The 2" wide spring steel arm at the very top was broken off at 
the forward edge. And for all these years, the adjustable fence 
at the top was also backwards, which hid the nail head buried 
into the body under the square hole in the guide in the center. 
That head showed a triangular impression hit by past actions. 
When the spring steel arm was extended, and a punch pin was 
fitted (made here from an old square head nail), we solved the 
mystery!

Now can you?

BEFORE RETROFIT:

AFTER RETROFIT:

Join our Facebook discussion and submit your guesses here:
Facebook 10th "WhatIsIt?" 
<https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/pcb.2226630820685614/2226625770686119/?type=3&theater>;

Our last "What's It" was another puzzler!
 

Our last "What is it" seems to have been a puzzler, again.
We did have an excellent guess from Kathy Loveless, so she
gets the gold star because she thought it did mix something.
Well, it is a fruit auger. When sticky things were
brought out of bins to sell, sometimes you needed to loosen
up those lovely prunes or the like to get them out
easier. They were retrieved and weighed, then probably
wrapped in paper for the trip home. What fun! Check out the
price of prunes when Valentown was operating around 1900:
http://www.prunebargaining.com/price.php

Still//going. Will they ever be solved?

These "mystery rods"
    <https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237.1073741826.157101550971895/2096916816990349/?type=3&theater>;
and this wood carving
    <https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237.1073741826.157101550971895/1912890852059614/?type=3&theater>seem
to be a real stumpers.

Dear Subscribers,

When so much is going on at once and so much is a stake, 
occasionally we make a mistake.

Our webmaster sends her sincerest apologies for an error in the 
July Newsletter Edition where the link to the D&C Article about 
the New York Beer Project being our new neighbor was broken.

This is the unbroken link to that news story!

https://www.d&c.com/New-York-Beer-Project 
<https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2018/07/18/niagara-county-new-york-beer-project-opening-new-location-victor/761446002/>;

Again, sorry for the inconvenience, and we hope you enjoy the story!

Best to all of you from all of us at Valentown!