Traditional Arts in Upstate New York. Traditional Arts of Upstate New York
53 Main Street
Canton, NY 13617
(315) 386-4289

Calendar


EVENTS, PROGRAMS, & WORKSHOPS


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Upcoming Programs

 
In July through October, TAUNY’s Grow and Tell project, part of the new Folk to Table initiative, will host a series of garden tours with project partners littleGrasse Community Farm (Canton, NY), as well as Jane Desotelle (Plattsburgh, NY), and Jean Williams (Indian Lake, NY), offering the community a chance to explore and share how the food we grow reflects and helps sustain our food traditions.

All tours have limited spots, with registration required.

July: littleGrasse Community Farm Garden Tour:
Family and Cultural Traditions, Canton, NY
September: littleGrasse Community Farm: Homestead Gardening, Canton, NY
October: littleGrasse Community Farm: Seed-Saving, Canton, NY

Stay tuned for further details about upcoming garden tours!
Garden Tour: Self-Sufficiency in Blue Mountain Lake with Jean Williams (Blue Mountain Lake, NY)
August 17, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
8085 State Route 30, Blue Mountain Lake
Cost: $25/person
 
Photos of Jean's home and garden from few years ago, courtesy of Jean Williams.
Jean Williams, Blue Mountain Lake, has learned the tricks for growing a successful subsistence garden in the coldest part of our North Country: zone 3 in the central Adirondacks. She will welcome us to spend an afternoon with her  to tour her garden and learn more about how she does it. Jean grows almost all of the vegetables, fruits and herbs her family will eat in a year, which requires processing and "putting up" crops as well as eating fresh. She grows an extensive list of crops, including cold-intolerant vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants, as well as hearty crops like cabbages and brussel sprouts. One crop she grows is especially suited to her climate: lingonberries, a favorite ingredient from her Finnish ancestry.
 
  • Light refreshments will be served; eat lunch before the tour.
  • Chickens on the loose; wear sturdy walking shoes and be prepared for stepping in their leavings.
  • Address is 8085 State Route 30, Blue Mountain Lake. If coming from the north, it is 4-1/2 miles on the right from the turn to Indian Lake in BML. There are 2 large boulders and a mailbox out front with 8085 on it.
  • Parking is in the circular drive (right in the drive, no shoulder, or along the front of their barn.)

Spots are limited, and registration is required for this event. Register here. The Grow and Tell Project, a 2021 partnership between TAUNY and littleGrasse Community Farm, is made possible by a grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation.
Join us in Plattsburgh, NY for the Grow and Tell Project’s next garden tour of Jane Desotelle’s herbal and medicinal “Botanical Sanctuary” garden. From foraging for medicinal plants as a child with her grandmother, to establishing herself as an herbalist and developing her botanical sanctuary, Jane has long been carrying on her own family and food traditions, as well as the long-standing tradition of herbalism, through the plants she forages for and grows. Take a walk through the sanctuary garden with Jane to learn more about how she gained her herbal knowledge and how she uses it to grow, process, and share the bounty through teas, jellies, essential oils, and more. The tour will include hands-on and sampling opportunities. Jane will also provide a list of all the plants at the sanctuary with their botanical names for all participants.

Spots are limited, and registration is required for this event. Register here. Location details will be provided upon registration.

The Grow and Tell Project, a 2021 partnership between TAUNY and littleGrasse Community Farm, is made possible by a grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation. Learn more about Jane Desotelle, a TAUNY North Country Living Traditions Award recipient here.
Grow &Tell Kitchen Demo: Poppa’s Garlic with Rose Rivezzi
July 23rd, 11:30am-1pm, at The TAUNY Center Kitchen
 
Join us in the TAUNY kitchen as Rose Rivezzi of Big Spoon Kitchen (Potsdam, NY) shares family food and garden stories and demonstrates some favorite home cooking--garlicky greens and more--using her father’s garlic, the story of which she shared with us recently for the Grow and Tell Project. Take-away tasting samples will be available following the demonstration.
 
The Grow and Tell Project is made possible by a grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation. Thanks also to littleGrasse Community Farm for contributing produce and more to this and other Grow and Tell Programs.
Photo Caption: Rose Rivezzi of Big Spoon Kitchen (Potsdam, NY). Courtesy of Rose Rivezzi.

littleGrasse Community Farm Garden Tour: Family and Cultural Traditions

Saturday, July 10, 10:00am-12pm

Registration is required for this event by Monday, July 5.

Suggested donation: $0-$25

Picnic lunch box available for purchase: $12

Join us for the Grow and Tell Project’s first garden tour! We will begin with a tour of littleGrasse Community Farm (Canton, NY), our partners in this 2021 project, to learn about the farm’s mission and operations, and to see how they and others in the community grow food that helps connect people to their food, family, and cultural traditions. The tour will include an overview of how the farm works with farmers Maria “Flip” Filippi and Bob Washo, and an opportunity for Q&A with guest speakers including Rose Rivezzi (Big Spoon Kitchen, Potsdam, NY), who will share stories about her father’s garlic that is grown at the farm, and Rosanna Mosher (Director of the Adirondack Mennonite Heritage Farm, Croghan, NY), who will share the story of the Virkler lettuce, a variety first brought to the region by Mennonite settlers in the Lewis County area that littleGrasse is working to help restore and preserve. TAUNY Folk to Table Director Camilla Ammirati will also share food and family story highlights from the Grow and Tell project over recent months. Additional tours of littleGrasse in the coming months will focus on themes of homestead/subsistence gardening and seed-saving.


For this event, there is a “pay as you will” suggested donation of $0-25 to support TAUNY’s ongoing programs and projects, including the Grow and Tell Project. Participants also have the option of purchasing a picnic lunch box made by Big Spoon Kitchen (details and ordering instructions below), which will include a sampling of delectables inspired by the Grow and Tell Project and the recipes and stories participants have shared. For this option, visitors are invited to bring a blanket or folding chair and find a spot in the garden to enjoy their lunch after the tour.


Registration for this event here.


Picnic Lunch Box Details:

This delicious Big Spoon Kitchen picnic lunch box includes a vegetarian basil and garlic scape pesto knot, a side of marinara, a pickled vegetable assortment, and a sweet treat, all inspired by the recipes and stories of garden-fresh food traditions celebrated by the Grow and Tell Project. (All will include gluten and dairy.) Thanks to all who ordered! Lunch orders have closed for this event.

 

 This project is made possible by support from the Cloudsplitter Foundation.

 Making Baklava with Ceyda Onaran Kartal 

Traditions of the Season Series 

When the month of Ramadan ends, the Muslim community celebrates one of the biggest festivals of the year, Eid al-Fitr. Ceyda Onaran Kartal shared with us how she normally celebrates the Ramadan Feast in Turkey, while making a tasty dessert (Baklava) that everyone loves! Hope you enjoy watching this newest video from our Traditions of the Season series, and try out this easiest recipe. Eid Mubarak!
 
A Grow and Tell Project Production
 
Never Tire Farm is the only wholesale greenhouse operator in St. Lawrence County and an important source for many small retailers in the area who supply plant starts directly to customers in the community. As part of the Grow and Tell Project, we visited Megan and Ray Bowdish, the owners of Never Tire Farm, and produced this video that provides some insight into the greenhouse business, and the ways they take care of the seeds and plants that many in the community depend on to grow food as well as flowers in their own home gardens.

The 2021 Grow and Tell Project, part of our collaboration with littleGrasse Foodworks Community Farm for the Folk to Table traditional foodways project, highlights how the food we grow reflects and helps sustain our food traditions.
Never Tire Farm: Hope in a Box
This project is made possible by support from the Cloudsplitter Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.


It's been a tough year for maple sugar producers, with a lower than average percentage of sugar in the sap and less than ideal weather conditions to make the sap run. At Yancey's Sugarbush in Croghan, NY, the season is over. They boiled 22 days in total and burned 5.75 piles of wood. We were lucky enough to visit them when the season started. From tapping the trees, to gathering sap with both horses and tractor, to boiling and canning, the whole process of sugaring is in this 30 minute-long video. We hope you enjoy watching it--and that you are encouraged to taste a bit of the first crop of the year!
Yancey's Sugarbush: First Crop of the Year
The Haskell Yancey Jr. Family is a 2010 TAUNY North Country Living Traditions Award recipient. Learn more here. Learn more about the Folk to Table Project here.
 

Folk Arts All Around Us

New Exhibit Showcases Folk Art from Glens Falls Collection

 

Bald Eagle woodcarving by Alan Hill (Gansevoort, Saratoga County, NY).


The current exhibition at The TAUNY Center is featuring over 120 items from the folk art collection of the Folklife Center at the Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY. Folk Arts All Around Us is open at The TAUNY Center. Curated by Folklife Center Director Todd DeGarmo, who has had primary vision and responsibility for building the collection during his long tenure at the Center, the exhibition is a colorful and varied display that demonstrates DeGarmo's eclectic approach to collecting. Ranging from exquisitely fine wood carvings to bright Papier-mâché festival masks, the selections include items that reflect the rural context in which DeGarmo works, such as a turkey call and hand-knit mittens. Baskets have been a focus of the collection; visitors to the exhibition will see stunning examples. Dolls have also been a focus, and examples representing different cultural backgrounds are included in the exhibition. Folk Arts All Around Us will be on display through October 23. Due to the pandemic, there will not be an opening reception on February 13, but there are plans to schedule a reception with DeGarmo later in the year.  

 

 
If you are not able to visit us in person just yet, watch the videos below to enjoy the exhibition and the stories behind some of the pieces.
 
Walk through Folk Arts All Around Us Exhibition with Curator Todd DeGarmo
A Walk through the Folk Arts All Around Us Exhibition
Folk Arts All Around Us Exhibition Virtual Event: A Discussion with Curator Todd DeGarmo
Folk Arts All Around Us Exhibition Virtual Event: A Discussion with Curator Todd DeGarmo
 

A “Grow and Tell Project” Call: Share Your Story! 


Will you be growing anything this year that is connected to your personal, family, community, or cultural food traditions? 
As part of our collaboration with littleGrasse Foodworks Community Farm on the 2021 “Grow and Tell Project”, we’re looking to learn about how the food we grow reflects and helps sustain our food traditions. From a single potted plant to small kitchen gardens to homestead plots and everything in between—we’d love to hear your stories of the food you grow, the meaningful meals you make with it, and more! Drop us a line at camilla@tauny.org or 315-386-4289.
Photo Captions: Starting top left, moving clockwise: First fresh greens of the season in the littleGrasse Foodworks Community Farm greenhouse, March 2021. Growing and preserving food are important North Country traditions. Over the years, Dawn Atkinson of Pierrepont, NY (TAUNY North Country Heritage Award recipient) has regularly preserved hundreds of jars of vegetables, meat, jams, pickles, and more in a season, all from her farm and garden. Rosemary growing in the TAUNY Center classroom window.
 
 

“Folk to Table” Project

 

You know we at TAUNY have always loved food--we love learning about people’s food traditions and practices, from recipes treasured over generations to new family favorites that shine a light on stories and experiences important to North Country life. And we love sharing food with you--at events, gathered round our own TAUNY Kitchen counter, and through stories, photos, and videos online.


So in some ways, it’s nothing new for us to be focused on food--from the abundance of foodlore that’s come up in our varied research projects, to the award-winning Good Food, Served Right cookbook and smaller recipe gathering projects, to the opening of The TAUNY Center Kitchen, to the work of Kitchen Specialist Teresa Stone over 2020 and the regular contributions of many volunteers, interns, and project participants--and of course the years of sharing delicious and meaningful tastes of food traditions at countless programs.


Going forward, we’re thrilled to have the chance to build on all this and more by diving into our new “Folk to Table'' Project. Over the coming months, Director of Research and Programs Camilla Ammirati will be shifting focus to this project in order to develop TAUNY’s work with the food traditions of the region and all who live here. 


The initiative will include things such as: ongoing research into regional food culture and the food traditions individuals and communities carry on throughout the North Country; projects and presentations featuring these food traditions; live (in-person and/or virtual) cooking demonstrations and workshops; videos and other social media features; and more. As we get this initiative going, we’re especially excited to start with a 2021 partnership with littleGrasse Community Farm to highlight the connections between food-growing practices and the food traditions they reflect and sustain. This project will feature food-growing both at littleGrasse and in personal gardens around the area and beyond. Stay tuned for more about this project, and let us know (at camilla@tauny.org) if you grow food (whether a single herb or crops that help sustain you) to help support your own food traditions and would like to share your story--and maybe a glimpse of your garden and the dishes you make with ingredients from it--for this project!


As with all our work, this is a community project--learning about, documenting, sharing, and celebrating the food traditions of our region begins with you! Keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months for calls to share stories, recipes, traditions, and more. And meanwhile drop us a line any time at camilla@tauny.org if you want to let us know about your own food traditions--or anything food culture-related you see around you that you think we should know about--or if you’d like to get involved in the program as a volunteer or intern. 

Pictured: Camilla happily dives into the wonderful Adirondack Cookbook by Hallie Bond and Stephen Topper, to brush up on some research--and maybe decide on a dinner plan--as she starts shifting her focus to North Country foodways.

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