LongHouse Food Writers Revival -Part 2

Photos by Brian Samuelson

It started with the travel arrangements made almost hilariously complicated by the back-and-forth emails between Cara de Silva, Anne Mendelson, and me (later to be known as “the elders” ) trying to decide where to meet to be picked up by  our accommodating and charming self-appointed chauffeur, Sara Franklin,.  It was finally decided that we would meet at my home.  After somehow packing enough luggage for a three week journey into the wild, we piled into Sara’s car and spent the next three hours regaling her with our exploits in our love lives.  Sara, ever-focused at the wheel, but thoroughly entranced by our stories, never made a wrong turn.

Besides being caring, sweet friends, the three of us are fervent researchers on subjects ranging from psaltery to persimmons, Venice to Veracruz, word in all languages including the new media lingo.  If we did not kmow something,  we pulled out our cell phones and looked up on the Internet.

The presenters all told their  stories in the medium that they work in be it film online, radio. video, photography, or blogging  but some of the highlights were Tanya Steele’s presentation on running Epicurious which is surely one of the biggest food sites on the net. I myself use it often.  They too are economically challenged despite their huge advertising revenue. I also enjoyed Maria Cerretani’s and Aly Miller’s oral histories of Oaxacan farmers and others who have settled in the Hudson Valley, Corey Brown from Zester.com and Molly’s wise interjections among other moments too numerous to mention.

We all concluded that the only way to survive is to do various things. So someone wanted to know how that could be achieved.  It comes naturally to me but some people are linear thinkers and have a hard time answering the question. My  reply  was “You need to take care things immediately: answer the phone if it rings, d0n’t let the answering machine pick up. You’ll just waste time retrieving the message.  Take care of whatever they need immediately: send the picture, bio, quote, article or recipe  on the spot..  If you’re working on several projects move each one a little every day and all of a sudden you will have completed them all.   Most important is for bloggers to be truly informed about a subject before they write and use their power than on occasion can destroy someone

Molly and Will Levitt, who had lost his beloved grandmother that day, were there to solve every problem, to coddle and pamper, setting us up in beautiful, historic, comfortable  homes, arranging for travel to and from the events, stocking the pantry with great coffee and granola. Special too was meeting all the dew-eyed volunteers with dreams to fulfill, thrilled to be with people who could perhaps guide them there.  I, in fact, have hired a lovely young lady I met there, Aly, as my assistant.

That day, you could feel that every aspect of the day told its own tale.  Artists, builders, welders and painters left their marks on everything from the spit that rotated the pig, to the aged wooden folding chairs in the barn, to the whimsical landscaping of flowers and stone walls just outside the barn.  Like the melding of old media and new media, the event and its stage were multi-dimensioned, re-purposed, and re-formatted in ways that could only happen in Rennselaerville.

For me , it closed with broche de oro, because I spent a few hours singing with the woman making blandas (large corn tortillas from Oaxaca.)

It was a gift.  thank you Molly and everyone who helped, cooked, attended, and sponsored.