Okay, Mitch, I’ll ride my bike.

Mitch Harper, blogmeister of Fort Wayne Observed, has been throwing thinly veiled challenges at his reading audience for the past few weeks. First, it’s a mention of the “Critical Mass” bike gathering. Then, he’s asking for suggestions for a better-designed bike rack at the City-County Building.  Now, he’s gone too far…

http://indiana.typepad.com/fwob/2008/08/david-byrnes-bi.html

David Byrne? The Talking Heads David Byrne? The “Take me to the River” David Byrne? The David Byrne of the “Music for the Knee Plays?”

David Byrne is beyond cool. Therefore, riding my bike to work would be beyond cool, too.

I’d already begun taking the bus to work on an occasional basis, but not enough to have formed a habit. I’ll try the bike. Not just any bike, either. My bike is a Pink, retro, Schwinn Suburban five-speed, that I picked up at a garage sale a few years ago. It still had the Fort Wayne bike license sticker from 1978 on it. I’ve ridden it three times in the past year, twice in the past two days. I think I’ll be ready for the four-mile ride to work by the end of the week.

Okay, Mitch, I’ll ride my bike.

A Maumee Valley Harvest

On Monday I traveled to Oak Openings Metro Park in Toledo, to attend the quarterly board meeting of the Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor. I shared the ride with Donn Werling, recently retired Director of the History Center. Donn has made the trip many times, and suggested a wonderfully scenic route that bypassed the entire section of US 24 from Defiance to Napoleon by following the river bank.  Following a brief hike through the preserve (and a few ripe mulberries) Donn and I joined Mitch Harper in the lodge as the Allen County representatives at the Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor board meeting.  

The MVHC has worked for the last decade to achieve national recognition of the unique historical, geological and cultural heritage of the Maumee River Valley.  Thus far, they have successfully worked with the National Park Service to have the Fallen Timbers Battlefield designated a National Historic Monument. The group continues to work to have the entire watershed area designated as a National Heritage Corridor. If successful, historic, environmental and cultural sites from Fort Wayne to Toledo will be more widely accessible to the public, through marketing and program funding assistance from the National Park Service. In Allen County, the benefits to historic neighborhoods, museums, and nature preserves would include recognition and visitation. For Fort Wayne’s historic districts, bigger tour audiences, increased demand for historic architecture, and perhaps even improved values could follow.

MVHC board member Phyllis Bidlack and Ed Hoeffel (both from Ohio) visited with us following the meeting, and the topic turned to farming, and our own kitchen gardens.

My own garden is really producing now, and in celebration, I made this tasty dessert last night, using fresh fruits from my back yard (along with a handful of last year’s currants from the freezer):

Many-Fruit Crumble

A crumble is like a cobbler, but has a topping that includes flour and rolled oats, a little fat, a dash of cinnamon, and a touch of sugar.

Last night I combined strawberries, rhubarb, pie cherries, and gooseberries from the garden, along with a handful of last year’s currants (from the freezer). I didn’t measure anything, so don’t have exact amounts.  I combined the fruit with a bit of turbinado sugar, and poured it into a 9” pan. I topped it with the flour-oats mix (with a bit more turbinado sugar and canola oil—though most would probably use butter). I baked it for 55 minutes at 375F.  Yum!

 

 

 

Missing the garbage

Cindyʼs Diner has been named one of the winners of a Hoosier Hospitality Award!   Presented by the Indiana Lieutenant Governor, Hoosier Hospitality recipients are recognized for going above and beyond their normal duties at a hotel, restaurant, attraction, or other tourism destination to provide excellent customer service. Cindy’s Diner is located at 830 S. Harrison Street, at its intersection with Wayne Street. Feeding the world 14 people at a time, Cindy’s is a c.1954 Valentine Diner, and is a Fort Wayne Local Historic District. Congratulations to the Scheeles for earning this honor. 

One of the few things I miss since becoming a vegan is the “Garbage” on Cindy’s menu. Eggs scrambled with peppers, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and cheese. Yum.  I sometimes make the no-egg, no-dairy version of this at home, using tofu, nooch* and sometimes adding turmeric to add a more eggy-yellow tone to the finished product.

Brian Butko has a fine photo of John Scheele cooking up a storm on his Lincoln Highway News Blog, www.lincolnhighwaynews.com . Brian is a long time friend and fellow advocate for the historic preservation of roadside architecture.

*nooch is shorthand for nutritional yeast. It is a yummy source of vitamin B12, and adds a salty, cheesy note when used like grated parmesan cheese. One of the most important tools in the vegan’s cupboard.

wednesday morning tree rant

Tree Removal in Southwood Park is Historically Restricted

(written for the upcoming Southwood Park Community Association newsletter)

As I worked on the final draft of the national register nomination for Southwood Park on a fine, sunny, April day, my concentration was interrupted by the sound of chain saws. My neighbor had hired a company to remove two healthy shagbark hickory trees in their back yard. This is against the covenants of the Southwood Park Community Association that have been in place since the development of the subdivision by Hilgeman & Schaaf in 1917. The preservation of trees is a significant feature of the neighborhood, and their loss affects the historic integrity.

Excerpts from the National Register Nomination:

“Much of the Southwood Park Historic District was platted with deed restrictions and covenants, including setback and utility easements, as well as several novel items not commonly found in others developments in Fort Wayne at that time. A concern for the existing flora and fauna and unique topography of the site, as well as adaptations to automobiles are reflected in several of the provisions, such as the conservation of trees and regulations involving grading of lots.”

“The Company reserved the right to establish the grading for each lot; and forbade the removal of trees: ‘No trees while in good condition shall be cut down, destroyed or mutilated, except as may be necessary for the construction of a dwelling house and its appertunances.’”

“The woodland trees present at the development of Southwood Park are still present. Dominant native species include white and red oaks, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, poplar and other upland hardwoods. Large numbers of american elm were lost during the mid-twentieth century. The site/system of mature, hardwood trees throughout the Southwood Park Historic District constitutes a contributing site in the district.”

“Hilgeman & Schaaf incorporated on March 28, 1912, and included Frank H. Hilgeman, Albert H. Schaaf and Harry H. Hilgemann as directors and incorporators. These Fort Wayne natives had expertise in different fields, yet shared an interest in community growth and development, design, and conservation of landscape resources. Frank Hilgeman was born in 1873, in Allen County, and his brothers included circuit court judge Harry H. Hilgemann and Dr. Victor H. Hilgemann. [Frank Hilgeman dropped the final “n” of his name as an adult] All were prominent citizens of Fort Wayne, and strong advocates for conservation of natural areas. In 1922 Harry and Victor Hilgemann led the formation of the Allen County Chapter of the Isaac Walton League.”

“In July, 1917, Carl Getz, the City Forester and Superintendent of the Fort Wayne Parks Department resigned his position to become an employee of Hilgeman & Schaaf, bringing administration skills to the organization, as well as expertise in landscape gardening and forestry. Getz was a1912 graduate of Purdue in Forestry… His expertise in arboriculture also would serve the company well, as he helped to determine which trees would be retained as the roads were laid out…Hilgeman & Schaaf also secured the services of civil engineer Adolf Hofer, a 1916 graduate of Purdue University, and native of Fort Wayne.”

“Hofer and Getz arranged the lots to maximize retention of mature trees in wooded sections, and to create grand parkway boulevards where land had already been cleared. They incorporated the use of variable park strips, wide triangular open park spaces, island open park spaces, and a variable building line to achieve the outstanding park-like setting of the subdivision.”

————–

Beginning in 1917 with the development company, and continuing with the Southwood Park Community Association beginning in 1921, our deed covenants state that permission is required prior to removal of any trees in the neighborhood.

When tree removal is necessary in Southwood Park, a plan should be developed for replacing the lost assets.  As the consultant hired by the City of Fort Wayne to document the historic significance of the Southwood Park Historic District, and as a long time resident, I would also urge the Southwood Park Community Association to mandate that replacements of similar species be planted whenever trees are removed.  Wildwood Park –the only other historic neighborhood in northeastern Indiana with covenants protecting the trees–is currently creating a formal regulation regarding the number, size and species of trees to be planted when their mature trees are lost. In order to maintain our historic woodland trees, Southwood Park should create a similar plan.  

never say never

Bishop Luers HS (my alma mater) just won their very first state basketball championship! 69-67 against Winchester HS, for the 2A title. 

Luers has often taken the state title in Football, and in Girls Basketball, but Boys Basketball? I’m not sure if they’ve ever had two winning seasons in a row, in their 45 year history. This is amazing, and even better having just won the Football title a few months ago!

Red and Black our colors proudly flying, we are the knights, we’ll conquer, never fear…

I could use that! Part 2

Last November I blogged about my desire to own an old-fashioned glass-jar butter churn, and my ongoing quest to rediscover how to use non-powered appliances.  Last month, while at the Maple Syrup festival, I found a great manual coffee grinder. It looked nearly new, and probably wasn’t an antique yet, but I bought it any way.  After making a quick trip to the 3 Rivers Co-op to get my Guatemalan Dark coffee beans (fair trade, organic, and so amazingly good) I loaded the coffee grinder and took it for a spin.  It takes about 5 minutes of cranking to grind enough beans for my morning brew. This is fine, because it takes about 5 minutes to put the kettle on, and boil the water for yummy drip-method coffee. Plus, I’m sure that I must use at least 50-60 calories at the same time, so it must count as exercise. Right?

A Slow Weekend and some Bridges

We loaded both of our hybrids (hurray, I finally got a Prius!), picked up Grandma and one of my son’s friends, and headed south for the weekend. South of Fort Wayne snow began to fall, and I69 soon got icy.  3 Hours to I465 (yawn). Another 1 1/2 west to Rockville, the county seat of Parke County.

 Our goal for the weekend was the Maple Syrup Festival. Drawn by a delectable feature in Midwest Living magazine, we wanted to immerse ourselves in Maple-y-ness. Maple syrup and maple sugar are native american sweetners, used for millenia by north americans before the first europeans ever arrived with their honey bees and sugar cane. Maple is an orginal food of the Great Lakes and Northeast.  Slow Food USA has more http://www.slowfoodusa.org/raft/Map_colored.pdf

We stopped first at the all-you-can-eat-all-day-pancake breakfast at the 4-H fairgrounds.  All of the local maple sugar farms sold their produce, as did the local grist mill. We loaded up on maple syrup; maple candy; maple-apple jelly; maple cream; sorghum; and stone-ground buckwheat, blue corn meal, cracked wheat, and pancake mix.

Then, off to visit some of the sugar bushes in action! We stayed the longest at the Foxworthy camp, and watched as billowing steam rose from a large open top stove, filled with gallons of maple water.  Several younger folks carried the 5-gallon buckets into the shack, while others brought more wood to keep the stove cooking. The Foxworthys lost a good portion of their maple products just days before the festival, when a fire destroyed the one-room schoolhouse on their farm, that served as their store. Nonetheless, we still were able to purchase some additional maple syrup, cookies, preserves, and even sassafras candy. Better still, I was able to purchase fresh sassafras root, with instructions for making tea.

Thoroughly mapled-up, we decided that we needed to check out the rest of the area’s offerings,  which included a big antique mall, and Turkey Run State Park.

We saved the Parke County Uber-Attractions until Sunday morning, which we began with a visit to the local museum. There, we lucked into a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian, and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), on covered bridges. As the original models of all later truss bridge construction, these wood structures emerge as monuments to ingenuity and creativity. On the popularity scale for the trip, the exhibit was the favorite of the teen wonders. After a bit more wandering, we headed back to the Fort.

Still in the Slow Food spirit, I made a big pot of vegetable-alphabet soup for supper. Here’s how I made it:

Two cups of mixed dehydrated vegetables (I made these last summer from our garden, and from the South Side Farmers market), including potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots. (You could substitute 1 cup of each, fresh.)

One big handful of dried tomatoes (I made these last summer as well, from yellow pear tomatoes, and roma tomatoes).

I simmered the dry vegetables in about a quart of water for an hour, then added:

1/2 jar of tomato juice (which was already in the fridge)

4 small garlic cloves (from the garden as well)

2 large carrots, sliced diagonally (since the dried vegetables looked kind of skimpy)

1 cup frozen blanched lima beans (from the Giants at the South Side Market)

1 cup of frozen, blanched turnip greens (also from the garden). I cut these into 1 inch square pieces before processing, so that they are the perfect size in soups.

Enough water to fill the pot.

This simmered for about 1 1/2 hours, and then I added a cup of alphabet pasta.

Salt n pepper to taste.

Simple, slow, and wondeful.

Rubbing Elbows

My good friend is on the campaign beat for WKSU radio in Akron, and had a close encounter (thanks, WKSU for the image):

o-BAM-ah!

Just like Emiril really knows how to kick it up a notch (BAM!), I’m discovering that ordinary conversations are beginning to be spiced up with o-BAM-ah! In the past three weeks I’ve attended more than a few meetings where the topic du jour has been suddenly enlivened with “did you hear that Obama is ahead of Hillary?” 

My daughter will get to vote in her first election this spring. She still needs to register, and is learning everything she can about the issues and candidates. She’s excited about Obama, and I’m thrilled to see her interest in this most important of all activities of citizenry.

Although I would have liked to vote for Dennis Kucinich (my favorite vegan politician), I’m happy to see the excitement generated for Barack Obama. Or should I say, “o-BAM-ah!”

A Tom Riddle Sighting

 A little known fact about Harry Potter is that his nemesis, Tom Riddle, spent considerable time in Fort Wayne, during the mid 20th century. Here is an image of Tom Riddle (courtesy allen county public library) appearing to read the mind of Pierre Boucheron, then general manager of WGL.

Fort Wayne Citizens’ Advisory Council, 1 December 1948. seated l-r: John Hilker, Captain Pierre Boucheron, Walter Fishering; standing l-4: Bruce Ruch, Thomas P. Riddle, Lee J. Ninde.

Riddle may have been in the summit city in order to hide a horcrux. In this rare image, Riddle is apparently in good spirits at the site of the extension of East Berry Street beyond Monroe Street:

.   Fort Wayne Citizens’ Council ‘in connection with Berry Street opening. shows group of men standing in tall weeds beside a railway. Identified: John Hilker (4th from left); Lee J. Ninde (5th from left); Pierre Boucheron (7th from left); Tom Riddle (3rd from right).

Some believe that Riddle buried the horcrux under East Berry Street….

(I have obviously spent too much time researching early city planning proponent Lee Ninde for the Wildwood Park Historic District National Register nomination) My apologies.