Thank you for subscribing to the Historic Valentown Newsletter!

Valentown Greetings,

January has been full of surprises. And we are not quite 
finished yet. We hope you are warm and cozy and that the extreme 
elements are staying outside the door.

Over the years Historic Valentown has had many volunteers and 
visitors who came to appreciate what the site represents. We had 
some outstanding people get involved with the Victor Historical 
Society to further the Valentown cause. Everyone of these 
individuals has given their personal time to make a difference.

From the beginning Valentown had a signature different from many 
other places and remained a unique example of not just the local 
past but a much larger picture and story of American history. We
interpret the past through the lens of Historic Valentown and the 
wonderful collection of items and artifacts connected to it.

As with any historic site, our purpose is to directly reflect our 
past and to connect to the bigger idea around that. Being good 
caretakers of an historic organization or site means making sure 
that we keep our focus on our best assets and not always try to 
interpret ideas that others are identified with and doing a great 
job at interpreting. Like many fellow institutions, we can 
support each other in our efforts- but not necessarily duplicate 
them or compete. Right now many historic organizations are coming 
to terms with changes in their identity in the public view and 
environment. We are all trying to network other ways to reach out 
to the more diverse public that we know is out there. 

Redefining how each of us tells our special flavor of history can 
be a challenge. The good old days of great stocks of unrelated 
themes and materials in house has become an ever increasing 
responsibility of care and housing that must be carried into the 
future-and somehow financed. As resources shrink for everyone in 
the historic field it becomes vital to know how and where you 
will fit into this landscape.

Historic Valentown grows older every day, which only adds to its 
character, but it is important that we find a way to add new 
"growth" along with preservation. Over time, perceptions change 
along the dimensions of historic places and it's important that 
we don't become too detached from our origins in people's view. 
We are ina time where the past is easy to recreate in exceptional 
detail. The lines between authentic and reproduction are 
sometimes blurred. Trying to make that distinction may seem 
unimportant to some, but it should be very important that people 
recognize the real thing. The replica is not the original, but 
each have a place in helping bring the past forward. Making that 
important distinction is another aspect of what historical 
organizations can do for us. We are more complex than just a 
strictly social organization of history lovers. We are here 
because... history does matter.

Please keep in touch through this newsletter as we have some 
exciting events coming. We don't want anyone to miss any of our 
news.

As always, we are your down home, hometown museum.
Kathryn White, President
 

Quote of the Month
"You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at 
yourself." Ethel Barrymore

News and Events
Just a reminder, your Amazon shopping can help Historic Valentown!
See illustrated instructions on how to set it up and what to 
visually expect in our forums:
How to set up a Smile.Amazon.com Account 
<http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=148&fbclid=IwAR09T4sS-p-RyZfgQgU1fyNuhM8aBQpbBp5wlBeL0oZTHmNI5tuWxFpN7W8>;

Winter Festival at Ganondagan
Feb. 24 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Ganondagan State Historic Site
7191 Country Road 41 (Boughton Hill Road)
 Victor, NY 14564

WEB SITE NEWS
A New Poll Is Up on the Web Site

Poll Topic: Planning 2019 Museum Events and Activities
We would like to know which of the following events you would
be interested in attending during our 2019 season?

Question: 1: An Afternoon or Evening Pizza Party
Question: 2: A Social or Professional Happy Hour Networking Event
Question: 3: An Afternoon Euchre Tournament
Question: 4: A Wine and Chocolate Tasting
Question: 5: An Afternoon or Evening Blue Grass or Folk Music
Event
Question: 6: A Beer Tasting Event With A Local Brewery
Question: 7: Old Fashioned Game Competitions (like
horseshoes, bocce ball, croquet)
Question: 8: Movie Nights (PG) Entertaining, Educational,
Cultural, Historical
Question: 9: Craft Nights. Could be old crafts or new crafts.
Question 10: An antique appraisal day of your treasures

Answers for all the questions are:
Seriously Interested, Somewhat Interested, Not Too
Interested, and
Not At All Interested

These are not guaranteed events, just a few events that we
are considering hosting. 

Please take a few minutes to take the poll on our web site
Because in order to best represent our visitors, we need
your input!
The poll is public and open to all, so please feel free to
share it as well.

http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/polls/index.php

EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Valentown's Mason Bee Harvest
(Date, Time and Place to be Determined)

If you would like to attend (either to participate or to 
observe), please contact Lynne at 
webmaster at historicvalentownmuseum.org. We guarantee it will 
interesting and educational! Or, if you're interested in 
starting your own mason bee house, please contact her about that 
as well.

Spring will be here before you know it!

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

BRRRRR, Baby! It's COLD outside!
January and February are typically the coldest months of the year 
in our area.
But they also provide a great excuse to fire up the stove
and do some serious comfort cooking.

Sixteen Bean Soup

This recipe is fashioned after the Goya brand "16 Bean Soup 
Mix", though it doesn't technically always use 16 different 
varieties of beans. The variety is up to you. But if you don't 
keep a diverse variety of legumes in the pantry, the Goya 
prepackaged mix is perfect for using in this recipe. (They have a 
similar recipe on the back of the package, but mine is better!)
~~~Lynne

Serves 4 (double the recipe to serve 8-10)

Ingredients

1 cup of a variety of dried beans
(White northern, Lima, kidney, red lentils, green lentils, black 
beans, peas, etc.)
1 tablespoon barley
1 teaspoon of chicken or beef bouillon powder
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 garlic clove, minced
1 carrot, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 bacon strips cut into 1" lengths and/or 1/2 cup cooked ham 
steak cut into 1/4" pieces 
3 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Presoak the beans: Add the beans and barley to 3 or 4 cups of 
hot water. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from 
heat, and let sit at room temp for 1 hour.

2. Drain and rinse the beans.

3. Add the beans and the rest of the ingredients to a large pot. 
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and 
continue to simmer about 1 hour, or until beans are nice and tender.

Enjoy!

If you want to go a little more vegetarian, swap out the ham 
and bacon for potato and butter, but you'll need a little more 
flavoring so go a little heavier on the bouillon and cumin.

Note: This can be made a few hours ahead and re-heated. It 
freezes well, too.

Home Made "No-Knead" Bread

A few years ago I decided to try my hand at baking bread. After 
I got pretty good at it, I began to experiment, and came up with 
this recipe. I call it my "go to bread", because it's simple, 
practically fool proof, yummy and flexible. It takes a little 
waiting time, but make it ahead and you'll have the perfect dough 
on hand to quickly bake up some bread when you feel like it." 
~~~Lynne

This recipe is for a small batch.
It makes about 4 small loaves, 2 long baguettes or 2 medium loaves.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 tablespoon Fletcher's "Rapid Rise" or "Bread Machine" yeast
dash of salt
squirt of honey (optional, if you don't have honey 1/2
teaspoon of sugar will do.
1/2 cup warm water /(not HOT water! Yeast is a living
thing, don't kill it!)

Dough Preparation

1. Proof the yeast. 
Add the yeast and honey (or sugar) to a bowl (A LARGE bowl, the 
dough is going to rise a lot), and dissolve it with the warm 
water. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until you see the yeast is 
alive and "waking up". There will be little air bubbles visible.

2. Add the flour and salt* to the bowl and blend it
until you get a sticky, gummy dough.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap but leave a little bit of 
air space. Let it sit for 2 hours at room temp (I usually let it 
sit on the top of the stove under the hood light).

After the 2 hours are up, put the bowl in the fridge. You can 
keep it in the fridge for anywhere from 2 hours to a week. The 
longer it's in the fridge, the tangier it gets... it will 
resemble the flavor of sourdough after 3 or 4 days.

Baking the Bread

When you're ready to bake some bread, sprinkle some more flour on 
top of the dough (this makes it easier to grab), grab some dough, 
and plop it onto a wood cutting board that's been coated with 
some more flour. If you want to add any seasonings (caraway or 
dill weed for example) to the dough, now is the time to do it. 
Mold the dough into whatever shape it is you want to make. Don't 
over work the dough and don't try to make it perfect... it's 
going to have a mind of its own anyway.

Place the shaped loaf of dough on whatever you plan to cook it on 
or in (greased), and sprinkle some more flour over the top. If 
you want to dress up the crust with poppy seed or sesame seed, 
now is the time to do that. Spritz a small amount of water on the 
top of the dough and add the seeds.

Now let the dough rise again (about an hour, depending on the 
size you want and how many air holes you want).

Bake at 425 in a preheated oven about 30 - 40 minutes or until 
the crust is golden brown. If you want a super crunchy crust, add 
6 ice cubes to a heavy pot, and put them in the preheated oven at 
the same time as the bread.
It's pretty fool proof dough. Enjoy!

From our Recipe Box's "Hints and Tips" Forum

Well, here's a little trick... pour left over Coconut Milk
into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Then break the ice cubes
out and store them in a zip lock bag or other air tight
freezer safe container.

Then when you need some Coconut Milk, you can just thaw out
some cubes.

Levi's "What is it?" Department

"Hello Friends,
Well its back to the stumpers or maybe not. This item in the 
General Store was used quite a bit but hardly anyone today would 
be fond of it. This may be an easier item to identify so if you 
have some inkling just start the talk. I am not going to say if 
I've ever used this device or used the results but many of my 
acquaintances for sure." - Levi

That wasn't a stumper at all, Levi!
That got solved before it even went out in the newsletter!
So we'll just enjoy more conversation about this "What is it" on 
our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/NoStumperHere 
<https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237/2524962057519154/?type=3&theater>;

Winter Wonders Part III

There are a pair of snowshoes in the General Store at
Valentown. They were once a necessity in rural areas
for personal travel in winter. They have a very
interesting history across two continents.

https://www.snowshoemag.com
<https://www.snowshoemag.com/2012/11/25/the-morphology-of-snowshoes/>;

Don't forget the Winter Festival at Ganondagan.

You will find snowshoes there.

       
Still going. Will it ever be solved...?

The "mystery rods"
    <https://www.facebook.com/157101550971895/photos/a.708518075830237.1073741826.157101550971895/2096916816990349/?type=3&theater>;