Recently in History Category

Continuing our theme of September-in-August, I've been harvesting our flint corn grown at our community garden plot at Easter Quarter Farm.  Flint corn is sometimes called "Indian corn," and the variety I just harvested (and shown in the photo -- click on the image to launch a larger view in a pop-up window) is called Roy's Calias Abenaki flint corn. It has a Vermont heritage.

This variety is "boarded on" the US Slow Food Ark of Taste, which identifies and promotes exceptional, traditional foods that are at risk for extinction. Numerous varieties of Indian corn -- vital to particularly tribes' spiritual and food ways -- are close to or already have fallen below sustainable numbers of seeds.  The only way to keep these varieties -- high in nutrition and tradition -- going is to grow and eat them.  And then save and replant the seed. 

I had originally planned to grow this corn in the Thoreau Farm's kitchen garden, but I mixed up the seedlings (which were well-marked, but not correctly read by me until after they had been transplanted). Given Thoreau's concerns about native American rights, I thought this only fitting. Also, this corn was the only variety in New England that survived "The Year Without a Summer" (1816, also known as "The Year of Poverty"), so it was vital to New Englanders in 1817 when Henry was born.

I purchased the seeds from Fedco, which has tested the nutrition and taste of this variety, and found them both to be superior (read more about this variety here: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/roys_calais_flint_corn/). The photo at right shows about one-third of our harvest. I'd like to grind this into cornmeall. 

I would also love to nixtamalize this corn (that is, soak it in water and wood ashes or lye and make hominy, when ground known also as masa) as it is the traditional method of processing this corn -- it greatly increases the availability of certain vital nutrients. But how long do I let it dry? How do I best remove the kernels from the cob? What do I do with the parts that were eaten by insects -- do I remove them now or later?   Flint corn is hard and a cheap, hand-cranked grinder would be tough going; it doesn't make sense for me to buy a good one for several hundred dollars for so little use. Where can I find a grain grinder I can use for less than a half-hour? (email if you can help, please!)

These are skills that adults taught children for millennia, skills that were simply part of common knowledge and practice. But in 2010 they are lost to almost everyone of us in Concord.  Even Google can't tell me what to do next with the harvest -- so I'm hanging the ears to dry, hoping to find out more soon.  

From Orchard House, Home of the Alcotts

We are deeply honored to announce that famed photographer Annie Leibovitz (at right) held a photo shoot at Orchard House on July 9th.  Ms. Leibovitz is at work on a book about famous authors and the places and things that inspired them, and has informed us that Louisa May Alcott has been a great inspiration to her!  We are thrilled to be included in the new book, and look forward to working with her.
 

By Rick Wheeler, Concord Resident

Several days ago, I posted a message affirming that Debbie Bier's Concord List Serve is truly an outstanding example of a means for "bringing people together!  Today, I would like to share an account of a wonderful incident that occurred on her "List Serve" some seven years ago that serves as an excellent example of the gift that she has given to us.

It all started with a message from Japan that popped up on the list serve!  The message was from a Japanese writer, Tetsuro Takasaki, who was looking for a contact in Concord to assist him in his efforts to write a biography of Concord's William Wheeler!  Knowing about our time in Japan, Debbie called me that day and said, "You are the one, Rick!"

William Wheeler had joined with three others from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1876 to go to Japan to start an agricultural college in the northern island of Hokkaido.  He stayed for two years, came back to Concord to marry his bride, Fannie Hubbard, and returned to Hokkaido with her for two more years during which he was the President of the new College!  In 1924, William Wheeler was awarded the "Fifth Order of the Rising Sun" by the Japanese government in recognition of the many contributions he had made during his stay in Japan.  I would like to add here a personal anecdote.  When Betty Ann and I arrived in Tokyo in 1965, for what would be a four year tour with our Citibank, we kept being asked by newly introduced Japanese hosts, "Are you a relative of William Wheeler?"  This, mind you, was eighty five years after his departure!  He certainly made a difference in so many ways!  Oh, yes, he was our eighth cousin, thrice removed!

So, over the following years Betty Ann and I assisted Takasaki-San in his many visits to Concord where thanks to Alan Cathcart at the Department of Public Works, Leslie Wilson at Special Collections in our Library, and so many other members of our Concord community, he completed the Wheeler biography, which covers not only his years in Japan but his life in Concord as well.  It was published in Japanese in 2004. 

That left us with the task of completing an English language translation.  Here, Barbara Wheeler stepped forward to introduce a good Japanese friend, Kazue Campbell, a former Professor at Boston University, to lead that effort.  We brought together a wonderfully dedicated group to serve as an "Editorial Committee" composed of family members and individuals who had in various ways committed themselves to Concord's history, as well as our Sister City relationship with Nanae, and the Island of Hokkaido itself.  This part of the journey was another three years or more, however, today we can share with deep satisfaction that the English Language translation was completed in 2009 and that the book is now available for sale.

Copies are available at our Concord Bookshop at 65 Main Street in Concord.  We would like to clarify that our portion of the proceeds will be dedicated to those current and future efforts supporting our Sister City relationship with Nanae as well as the Island of Hokkaido itself.  Thank you for your interest! 

Tribute Books announces the release of Thumbing Through Thoreau: A Book of Quotations by Henry David Thoreau compiled by Kenny Luck. Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing.

The Concord Magazine blog is publishing some of this book's work as the quotes appear to highlight current events.

Tribute Books announces the release of Thumbing Through Thoreau: A Book of Quotations by Henry David Thoreau compiled by Kenny Luck. Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing.

The Concord Magazine blog will be publishing some of this book's work as the quotes appear to highlight current events.

I'm making three blog posts about the two Concord Journal articles (here and here)
published last week about what they frame as "communication failures" between townspeople and Town government. I am going to publish them backwards for how blogs usually work (last in the series first) because they will go online within seconds of one another, and that way they will be read from top-to-bottom in order.

The Concord Journal cast these issues as one of civility. I think that is NOT the most important story here. The far larger story is one of Civil Rights: representatives of our government have been found to be suppressing the civil rights of citizens... and doing so unapologetically.

Here's the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I point out that the words "tone" and "civility" do not appear anywhere there. There are no modifiers such as "but only in cases where the government likes what's being said." No, there is NO prohibition or abridgment permitted, and are not considered optional. Are we not a nation of laws?

"Tone," I must stress, is a protected expression of freedom of speech. And I was petitioning the government for redress of a grievance. Instead, I got rebuke and denouncement for expressing my views. The article quotes the selectman who denied me both redress
and freedom of speech as doing so intentionally on both counts. I feel my civil rights were violated -- two-fold -- while the entire Board of Selectmen stood by. (And my "tone" was utterly and completely distorted into something it truly was not... but that is a totally subjective argument I feel I should leave here.)

What is our obsession with "tone" here in Concord, anyway? Tone being in the ear of the beholder, by the way. Should it really be the norm to reject the content of speech when the government doesn't like the "tone"? It seems from the article that the more Selectmen who don't like the "tone", the more justified that rejection is. What's happening here is that hyper-focus on "tone" is suppressing free speech. It is the government squelching dissenting opinion. I don't believe that to be the values our community has historically held dear and practiced famously. In fact, one way to judge the depth of a democracy is how dissenting views are treated -- and I'm afraid we're not passing in this area.

For every person unhinged by "tone" I have to ask: What do you think the "tone" was like here in Concord in the 1770's leading up to the Provincial Congresses and the Concord Fight? And the highly revered Concordian Henry Thoreau -- often pointed to as a moral compass for
the generations that followed: what about his "tone"?

Now we look back proudly at those "outspoken" folks, who were following their sense of moral right. We can't be proud of them yet shun frank or strong speech now -- at least not without being embarrassingly hypocritical. If we had been so hung up by "tone" in the past, our history would have likely turned out very differently.

If we want to really solve our problems here in Concord, find solutions to our challenges, and live into the future as the vibrant and fruitful community we have been historically, we have got to drop our worship of "tone" and start really talking about the issues -- dissenting opinions and all.

Now, I'm not calling for fisticuffs and ad hominium attacks left-and-right. What I am strongly recommending is that we stop branding and dismissing dissidents and start listening to each other. And talking together. Let's make our forbearers proud of how courageously we can sustain community with one another, even while acknowledging our differences.

I'm making three blog posts about the two Concord Journal articles (here and here) published last week about what they frame as "communication failures" between townspeople and Town government. I am going to publish them backwards for how blogs usually work (last in the series first) because they will go online within seconds of one another, and that way they will be read from top-to-bottom in order.

"Shadowy" -- Yes, that is what one of our current selectman called the 12-year old, 750 member Concord Discussion List (though he seemed to call it a blog, too) -- "shadowy". I am sad that the Concord Journal article didn't point out the fact that this list's archives are open to the public, and have always been. (If indeed he meant the Concord Blog, this too, is fully accessible to the public -- you're reading it right now, in fact!) The discussion list is more widely and fully accessible to scrutiny than is any other public meeting of townspeople. In fact, it's more accessible than the Concord Journal itself, which only has a portion of its content online -- which doesn't have these articles online. Every one of our posts can be seen by the public anywhere in the world that has internet access.

There is a direct accusation that what we do on that discussion list involves "keyboard courage," and that we are cowardly for not addressing the government in person. I want to point out that I did -- and as a result, I was publicly rebuked and called names for stating an unwanted opinion. So citizens have no other recourse than to either face that kind of treatment when they have a complaint, or talk amongst ourselves.

There is absolutely no obligation any of us have to privately or in person address our government -- and absolutely tremendous history that the opposite is a long and highly effective practice. Government officials have for millennia been the object of public
discussion and dissection, including satire, plays, street theater, public demonstrations, songs, paintings, drawings and poetry. Literature is FILLED with such examples, as are our newspaper with editorials, letters to the editor, op-eds and political cartoons (such as the one at right from 1869 -- click to see a larger view launch in a separate window). How come this is acceptable in the rest of the democratic world, but not to Concord's government?

There are a several other missed opportunities and missing facts, one of which I feel it important to point out. I am quite disappointed that the reporter of the piece did not mention that he himself was one of several witnesses to the "confrontation" of the elderly citizen by a selectman. Sources of information are important, and in fact, they are an expected standard. I am sad that the journal never reported it as a news item when it happened, because it was a very unusual, notable occurrence indeed (I have heard what happened directly from two witnesses and the person who was "confronted" and in my opinion it was more newsworthy than the reporter implied from his own single point of view).

I am grateful to the Journal for working with this topic as hard as they did. I was quoted accurately and in context, and in a complex work with many moving parts written over several weeks, that is a task. I don't want it to seem that I find the piece only to be lacking, because I don't. I am glad they worked with thin resources to produce it, because it involves some very important community issues with which we must now come to grips. 

Ah, Autumn!  The air is bright and dry. The crops are coming in... the pumpkins and winter squash are ripe...  wait!  It's only July 30th. Bright and dry, yes, but what is with those ripe pumpkins and winter squash??! 

To review the unusual high/low points of the weather thus far intn 2010: No hard frost in the ground here since early March. 15" of rain in two storms over the last two weeks of March. Dry, dry, DRY weather most of the time since. Bloody stinking hot summer, too. Pumpkins startied to ripen in early July, and now they've been picked nearly a month later. What next?? Snow in August? Daffodils blooming in January? It's shard to know what to think.

In fact, we nearly got two crops of pumpkins this year, but I goofed.  See the two green ones at top, left? I didn't realize they were attached to the same vine on which the oldest of the pumpkins was growing.  The vine got damaged in the process of picking the ripe one, and I had to pick the rest green. We will grill them like a summer squash, which I did last year with some prematurely picked butternuts and delicata squashes; they were delicious.

The calendula oil in the photo was made over a few weeks.  Into olive oil, I put the petals of calendula as the flowers opened.  The sun "cooked" it.  Calendula is great for the skin, so a topical oil is a wonderful way to go. I chose to grow a variety with the highest amounts of medicinal resins for this very reason (resina calendula from Fedco). 

A celebration noting the 300th birthday of Colonel James Barrett is being held on Saturday, July 31 at the Barrett Farm, 448 Barrett's Mill Rd. in Concord MA.  Colonel Barrett was in charge of the provincial supplies, enough for an army of 15,000, and the commander in charge at the Old North Bridge engagement with the British on April 19, 1775, the beginning of the American Revolution.

The British regulars had been ordered to Concord and Colonel Barrett's farm to capture the supplies and persons in command.  The British did reach Colonel Barrett's farm and searched it while, at the same time, Colonel Barrett was at the North Bridge commanding the militia and Minute Men.

The farm house has been undergoing restoration since 2005 and will be open for the public to view the progress and to interact with the historians, architects, timber framers, archaeologists, and trades people performing the work.  The house will be open attic to basement.

Talks will also be given throughout the day by historian J. L. Bell, historic architect Rick Detwiller, National Park ranger Joan Laxson, and paint analyst John Vaughn.  British regulars and colonial minute men will also be attending, giving reenactments of the house search, colonial life demonstrations, and musket salutes.  A number of Barrett descendants are also coming from across the country to help celebrate this significant birthday.

The house search reenactments are scheduled at 11:30, 2:00, and 3:30 with lectures and other demonstrations occurring continuously.  Muskets, clothing production, field plowing, and musket ball making will also be demonstrated.  Food and rest rooms will be available on-site.

The Minute Man National Historical Park will have a short ceremony at 10am sharp at the North Bridge with Mike Ryan and Joan Laxson giving talks on Colonel Barrett.

The Concord Museum, open from 9am - 5pm, will have items specially on display over the weekend related to Colonel Barrett.

For more information, visit www.saveourheritage.com -- choose the  Barrett link.

Restoration of Barrett Farm has been generously supported by the Town of Concord Community Preservation Fund, Save America's Treasures Preservation Fund, and many private donations.

We are often asked where Concord's 4th of July fireworks will be held.  Answer:  Lincoln, Acton, Boston... anywhere but in Concord!

Except for very, VERY special occasions, Concord does not permit the use of fireworks.  We will have some this year in September to celebrate our 375th birthday.  We had some for our 365th in 2000.  And a long time had elapsed since the previous time.

Does anyone know why we don't permit fireworks displays in Concord? If so, please write us here.