The House & Home Magazine: October/November 2019

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your complete home resource guide and lifestyle magazine Essex • Northern Neck • Middle Peninsula • Gloucester • Richmond • Williamsburg

NUTTALL STORE Past, Present & Future

Intrepid Workboats of the Chesapeake

STINGRAY POINT HOTEL HOLIDAY FOOD AROUND THE WORLD www.thehouseandhomemagazine.com

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October/November 2019

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A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome Home

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he winds have changed. We can feel it in the brisk breeze of morning and the gentle breath of the evening. We can see a new season in the gradual trajectory of the sun and in the subtle changes in the landscape. Our world is newly painted in a palette of gold, russet and crimson. Although we’ve spent our summer in vacation mode — traveling afar to more exotic locales, visiting destinations with sand and sea and enjoying time away from our norm, we can feel ourselves drawn back to another tradition — home.

This is a special time of the year. It’s a season of homecoming, a return to what’s comforting and familiar. We’ve been on our summer adventures and are ready to enjoy bonfires, football, family gatherings and holiday festivals. Our thoughts are homeward bound.

This issue of The House & Home Magazine is a holiday harvest of food, flowers and feathers!

We’re featuring crows for Halloween, game birds for the Thanksgiving feast, Christmas cuisine from around the world and colorful poinsettias to deck the halls.

In other articles, we highlight pirates of the Chesapeake, as well as the many enterprising workboats which have navigated our shores. As always, we feature beautiful homes, interesting people and historic places.

Also, in this edition, we present our annual Faces in Business section, our tribute to some of the hardworking people who get things done across our region. You’ll see familiar faces and meet a few newcomers as well. Meanwhile, as you’re taking in the unique pleasures of the season, be sure to pay a visit to one of our many advertisers, who always present the finest goods and services our area has to offer. They appreciate your business.

Enjoy a colorful and memorable holiday season, made complete by the company of family and friends. While making your shopping lists, guest lists and gift lists, remember to take a quiet moment and peruse your copy of The House & Home Magazine. After all, there’s no place like House & Home for the holidays. Read on!

This is a special time of the year. It’s a season of homecoming, a return to what’s comforting and familiar.

JANET EVANS HINMAN 6

October/November 2019

The House & Home Magazine

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PUBLISHER James L. Blanks EDITOR Janet Evans Hinman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kim Boisvert Bob Cerullo Janet Evans Hinman Jackie Nunnery Dianne Saison L.B. Taylor, Jr. Deb Weissler ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER Kirstin Canough ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE James L. Blanks: 804-929-1797 JLB Publishing, Inc. P. O. Box 2564 • Tappahannock, VA 22560 Office: 804-929-1797 • Fax: 1-888-747-2267 thehouseandhomemag@gmail.com

The House & Home Magazine is a free, four-color publication that specializes in providing home ideas, real estate, and lifestyle articles.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from JLB Publishing, Inc. The information contained herein are opinions of sources and interviews.

JLB Publishing Inc. claims no reliability or accuracy to any information contained within. The House & Home Magazine is published for reference purposes only and is not materially responsible for errors.

The House & Home Magazine is published bimonthly and is distributed at over 500 locations throughout Essex, Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, Gloucester, Richmond, and Mechanicsville as well as subscriptions, direct mail, and trade shows.

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Contents

The House & Home Magazine • October/November 2019

14 Poinsettia

The Christmas plant with the tropical roots

18 Nuttall Store

Past, present & future

24 Stingray Point Hotel 28 There Be Pirates in These Waters

How pirates and privateers on the Chesapeake shaped Virginia

34 Looking Through History

The Jamestown Glasshouse

38 The Intrepid

www.thehouseandhomemagazine.com

46 Murder of Crows 54 Going Wild for the Holiday Bird

62 Holiday Food Around the World

70 Focus on Faces in Business

82 The Spirits of

Stratford Hall

86 Fine Properties 94 Meet Some of the New Faces

Of local, compassionate health care

Workboats of the Chesapeake

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Poinsettia

By Janet Evans Hinman

THE CHRISTMAS PLANT WITH TROPICAL ROOTS

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ne of the most cheerful harbingers of the approaching holiday season is the sea of red, pink, white, speckled and otherwise vibrant poinsettias greeting Christmas shoppers at garden centers, nurseries and retailers. Poinsettias are the best-selling potted flowering plants in the United States. The Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans spent $250 million on poinsettias last year. This exotic tropical flower has evolved to become a yuletide favorite in all climates.

The poinsettia, also known as La Flor de Nochebuena (the flower of the “Good Night” or Holy Night), is native to Central America and needs warmth to grow and specific light conditions to flower. Historically, it flourished in an 14

area of Southern Mexico known as Taxco de Alarcón in the state of Guerrero. Its peak blooming season is November and December, and it can grow up to 12 feet tall. It’s also grown in other warm-winter regions like Southern California and the Hawaiian Islands. Encinitas in San Diego County, California, is the poinsettia-growing capital of the United States. Though bright red poinsettias are the best known, followed by white and pink specimens, there are about 100 different varieties, in a multitude of colors including yellow and purple.

The Aztecs used the plants for decorative purposes but also put them to practical use. They extracted a purplish dye from the plants’ leaves for use in textiles and cosmetics. The milky white sap of the poinsettia, today called latex, was made into a preparation to treat fevers. The botanical name for the plant is Euphorbia pulcherrima. In Latin, that means “most beautiful euphorbia.” There are hundreds of related plants — including

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THE STAR-SHAPED LEAF PATTERN IS SAID TO SYMBOLIZE THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM, AND THE RED COLOR REPRESENTS THE BLOOD SACRIFICE THROUGH THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS.

rubber trees, with sap that can be processed into solid products like tires; the castor plant, used in pharmaceuticals for its oil (but with seeds that contain the poison, ricin, one of the most toxic substances known); and the cassava, used for its edible roots.

The flowers of the poinsettia are very small and do not attract pollinators. They are grouped within small yellow structures found in the center of each leaf bunch. Around the flowers are the colorful leaves, called bracts. These bracts are what give the plants their beauty. As a buying tip, what you see in the garden center is what you get. If your poinsettia doesn’t have an abundance of colorful bracts, don’t expect them to show up once you get the plant on your windowsill. In order for the leaves to achieve their bright colors, the plants need a complicated cycle of light and darkness in the fall, and the color is set by this pattern. It won’t change once they arrive at a retailer.

The plant’s association with Christmas began in sixteenthcentury Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’s birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. It is said that crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as flores de Nochebuena. From the seventeenth century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the blood sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus.

The poinsettia may have remained only a regional beauty in its homeland were it not for the efforts of Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), for whom the plant was named. The son of a French physician, Poinsett was appointed as the first United States Minister to Mexico (1825-1829) by President John Quincy Adams. Poinsett had attended medical school himself, but his real love in the scientific field was botany. Poinsett was also a founding member of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, which later became the Smithsonian Institution.

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He maintained his own hothouses on his Greenville, South Carolina plantations, and while visiting the Taxco area in 1828, he became enchanted by the brilliant red blooms he saw there. He immediately sent some of the plants back to South Carolina, where he began propagating the plants and sending them to friends and botanical gardens. The plant became popularly known as the poinsettia around 1836, and the U.S. Congress honored Joel Poinsett upon his death in 1851 by declaring December 12 as National Poinsettia Day. In the 1920s, Albert Ecke and his son Paul became interested in the poinsettia’s ability to flower in winter.

Paul Ecke thought it would be a good plant to display at Christmastime. They started a farm near Encinitas, California.

At first, Paul Ecke, and later his son, grew large plants in fields. They sent the plants to growers by train. Growers would divide the large plants into cuttings, to raise smaller ones in greenhouses until the holidays. In the 1960s, the company developed poinsettias that grew best in containers. The Eckes started to sell cuttings from these vigorous new plants. The Ecke Ranch remains a major supplier of poinsettias in the United States and around the world. As of 2008, the company served 70 percent of the domestic market and 50 percent of the worldwide market.

In areas outside its natural environment, the poinsettia is commonly grown as an indoor plant. It prefers good morning sun, then shade in the hotter part of the day. Contrary to popular belief, flowering poinsettias can be kept outside, even during winter, as long as they are kept frost-free.

Instructions about reblooming poinsettias are widely available, but the results are unreliable. The plant requires a daily period of uninterrupted long, dark nights, followed by bright sunny days for around two months in autumn, in order to encourage it to develop brightly colored bracts. Any incidental light during these nights (from a nearby television set, from under a door frame, even from passing cars or street 15

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lights) hampers bract production. The colors of poinsettia bracts are created through photoperiodism, meaning that they require darkness (12 to 14 hours at a time for at least five days in a row) to change color. At the same time, the plants require abundant light during the day for the brightest color.

Commercial production of poinsettias has been achieved by placing them inside a greenhouse and covering the greenhouse completely, to imitate the plant’s natural biological habitat.

Unless you’re a particularly dedicated horticulturist, perhaps it’s best to leave the science of reblooming to the experts.

One common myth of the poinsettia plant is the widely held belief that it is toxic, even lethal, to people and pets. To be clear, according to the National Capital Poison Center and other experts, there is no component of the plant that is known to be poisonous to humans and animals (unlike the leaves of the nightshade family, which includes potatoes and tomatoes), and exposure to any part of the poinsettia plant in children or pets has little if any effect.

It’s no surprise that curious puppies, kittens and human babies may be attracted to munch on the colorful leaves of the poinsettia, so to err on the side of caution, it’s best to place the plants out of reach until the babies are older, as ingesting any unfamiliar plant or food could cause stomach irritation.

Also, anyone who is allergic to the latex produced by rubber trees can develop a mild skin rash from poinsettia plants.

For sure, babies and pets that chew on poinsettias can get sick, but experts say the plant is not nearly as poisonous as people think. For instance, an Ohio State University study says that a 50-pound child would have to eat 500 poinsettia leaves to accumulate levels of toxins found to be harmful, and there have been no documented reports of poinsettia fatalities.

As the season draws near, don’t hesitate to deck the halls with this iconic Christmas favorite. Display them in groups for a wave of color, or place an impressive specimen at the center of the holiday table. Keep them long after the festive decorations are stored away, and know that in the depth of winter’s cold, poinsettias are yearning for warmer weather just as much as you. H The House & Home Magazine

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Photos courtesy of Mark D. Lowell unless otherwise noted.

N U T TA L L S T O R E

Past, Present & Future

By Deb Weissler

The building is not just a repository of the past, but a dynamic community center anchored by Nuttall Store and the US Post Office.

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nough has been written about Nuttall Store in Ware Neck that articles, photos, and historical memorabilia fill several binders and represent snapshots of life in Ware Neck over the years. Thousands of receipts, bills, advertisements, and shopping lists spanning decades were discovered in the building’s attic and are now in the hands of William and Mary archaeologists and conservationists.

Carrol Boyd watercolor of storefront 18

For the Ware Neck community, these scraps of paper represent a rich inheritance, and in the minds of the store’s many supporters, it’s a marvel they have survived the ravages of time. It wasn’t until its future was in question, and concerned Ware Neck residents purchased the property, that the old records were discovered and deemed potentially historic.

These records underscore the important ways this landmark has served the local community since its founding in 1877. The building was placed on the Virginia Landmark October/November 2019

Four vintage mailboxes have fronted the country store for decades. Photo courtesy of Deb Weissler Register and National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The building is not just a repository of the past, but a dynamic community center anchored by Nuttall Store and the US Post Office.

PAST Gloucester County’s history dates back to the first English settlement at Jamestown in 1607. It was on Gloucester’s shores that the Powhatan had one of several villages. The county grew rapidly in the seventeenth century thanks to the many royal land grants issued to the English gentry who established large profitable plantations. By the eighteenth century, Gloucester was one of the wealthiest counties in the state.

Ravaged during the American Civil War, the county rapidly recovered during reconstruction compared to other parts of the South, thanks in part to the steamship lines that ran between West Point, Norfolk, and Baltimore. Residents clustered in small communities along the banks of the county’s innumerable waterways to profit not only from the steamship trade but from the Chesapeake Bay’s bountiful waters. It was in one such community, Ware Neck, that Arthur Tabb opened his general store in 1875.

Tabb’s store occupied a strategic location near Hockley Wharf, the most important steamboat landing on the Ware River. Goods were offloaded at the wharf a half-mile away and transported to the store by wagon. Anything and everything could be ordered at the store and brought in by boat.

A general store carried a variety of merchandise obtained from warehouses near and far and from local sources. It served as the middleman, providing the local community with muchneeded goods and services. By the dawn of the automobile, there were at least 39 such stores throughout the county, three alone in Ware Neck. Today, only Nuttall Store remains in business.

In 1884, the Tabb store was sold to brothers Richard and H.E. Taliaferro and was commonly called Ware Neck Store.

By then, the two-story rectangular building served as a store The House & Home Magazine

on the ground floor and a millinery shop above. In 1886, the Taliaferros established the Ware Neck Post Office inside the store, an addition that would prove fortuitous. Not only did this increase daily traffic, but it provided a gathering spot for locals to exchange information, gather socially, and served as a place to vote.

In 1902, the Taliaferro brothers divided the 8.1-acre property between them, with Richard keeping the store. The building’s value steadily rose during the first two decades of the twentieth century and in 1928, Richard willed the property to his wife, Fannie. She later sold the property to her son, Earl. In the decades that followed, it changed hands several times until it was bought by E. Randolph Nuttall in 1946.

RUDY’S STORE Rudy Nuttall was a Ware Neck native, a 1931 graduate of Botetourt High School, and a US Navy veteran of World War II. Rudy and his cousin, Walter Nuttall, took over the store in 1946, and Nuttall & Co. would operate for more than 55 years.

Rudy became sole owner of the store in 1952 and also served as postmaster.

By the mid-fifties, general stores across the country were in decline, displaced by specialized retailers. In Ware Neck, Hockley Wharf had been destroyed by the great 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane. Despite the loss of this strategic stop, close ties to the community enabled the store to survive while others foundered.

Nuttall Store became the heart of a growing community, and Rudy stocked his shelves with all the necessities residents and visitors could desire: dry goods, kerosene, lamp oil, crab nets, oars, work clothes, paint, fresh meat, cold drinks, and greeting cards. Within its walls, the store was like a museum, filled with vintage shop furnishings.

Rudy was a wealth of knowledge; he could tell you where the fish were biting and how to plant your garden. He greeted almost everyone by name and would extend credit when 19

Ware Neck Store vintage. Circa 1929.

Photo courtesy of Nuttall Store

needed. As times changed and larger commercial stores sprang up in nearby Gloucester Courthouse, Rudy adapted, staying one step ahead of his competition.

By 2002 at age 88, he decided to retire.

The question in everyone’s mind was: What would become of Nuttall Store?

PRESENT

NUTTALL STORE BECAME THE HEART OF A GROWING COMMUNITY, AND RUDY STOCKED HIS SHELVES WITH ALL THE NECESSITIES RESIDENTS AND VISITORS COULD DESIRE

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As the business passed through two subsequent owners, a group of visionary residents led by Bill Perrin spearheaded a project aimed at preserving and maintaining the building. A group of approximately 25 investors purchased the store and the building in 2007.

In 2011, Friends of the Ware Neck Store (FOWNS), a 501C3 charitable organization, acquired the historic building.

Rather than converting it into a museum filled with relics of the past, donors envisioned an active store and post office that would continue to serve the community. The building required extensive renovations and repairs, among which was a new HVAC system, septic, and backup generator; expensive but necessary to keep the building viable.

In 2010, Deanna Murphy of Ware Neck became the new store manager.

Formerly the manager of the Nancy Thomas Gallery in Yorktown, Murphy sensed great potential in the store and recognized its challenges. Her business acumen was just what Nuttall Store needed to ensure a successful business, now and into the future. “We needed someone who would take the reins,” explains Will Grant, a founding member of FOWNS. Murphy was looking to make a change closer to home, and Nuttall Store was in her own backyard. “I didn’t know a thing about country or general stores, but knowing the group wanted to improve and expand the store, but unsure of the direction it would take, I decided to go for it and it’s been wonderful,” she says.

The group knew that not every idea or vision would be successful, and some experimentation was required. “I originally thought that the novelty and gift side of the business would grow faster, not having any clue the deli and kitchen area had the greatest growth potential. It wasn’t my specialty, but I adapted,” Murphy laughs.

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“Looking back, we are located on a long road, and there are lots of folks who work here. The people who come into the store on a daily basis, often because of the post office or to buy a newspaper, discover something they want to take home for dinner or to enjoy for lunch. There’s the local customer, the ones who stop in every day with their needs.

Then there are the visitors and, in recent years, we have seen a huge growth in the Airbnb tourists who stop by looking for gifts but are hungry too. Brent and Becky’s Bulbs have been huge supporters as well. We have filled a niche for them providing boxed lunches for their various functions.”

“We weren’t sure people would drive down a three-mile, two lane country road to buy food,” explains Perrin. “It took a couple of years for members to realize those who had advocated for the kitchen expansion were correct.”

Visitors to Nuttall Store will find tastefully arranged vignettes that invite folks to stop and shop. A coffee bar juxtaposes old and new; a Keurig K-Cup maker alongside a vintage coffee bean grinder. The small but growing wine section encompasses a nineteenth-century counter with bowed front built to once accommodate ladies’ hoop skirts.

Shelves stocked with private-label jams and jellies and a small community library rub elbows with a half-dozen dining tables and chairs in the rear of the store.

A vintage Coca-Cola chest cooler still stores cold bottled sodas, a checker board barrel table invites a friendly game, and cold cases hold a variety of drinks and perishables.

Shelves are stocked with groceries and dry goods as much in demand today as a century ago. Intermingled with the modern are vintage antiques that were once essential to the store’s business. Fragrances coming from the kitchen lure customers new and old to linger, thanks to Nuttall’s new chef, Winslow Goodier.

Chef Goodier was active on the Nuttall Store board of directors for five years before the proposed kitchen expansion attracted his attention. With more than 30 years’ experience in the culinary arts, he has worked as a chef at several prestigious locations throughout Virginia: Hermitage Country Club in Goochland, The Tobacco Company in downtown Richmond, The Chamberlin Hotel in Hampton, and Colonial Williamsburg.

As former president and chairman of the board of The Virginia Chefs’ Association, Goodier has twice been the recipient of the Virginia’s Chefs’ Association’s Chef of the Year Award and a two-time winner of the American Culinary Federation’s Presidential Medallion.

As he worked with the board to enhance the store’s business, he mulled over his next career move carefully. His vision for the food service end of the business piqued his interest, but the existing kitchen was so small he couldn’t envision making it work. “When we decided to expand the kitchen into an area that was formerly a garage, I realized I now had suitable space.”

He developed a lunch menu and oversees the deli prep.

His long association with meat suppliers enables him to order choice cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken he cuts on-site. As butcher shops have declined across the region, demand for his expertise has increased. His meals-to-go are popular year-round as commuters stop by to pick up a full The House & Home Magazine

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Chef Winslow Goodier

Nuttall Store Community Room Proposal conceptual drawing

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course meal to take home. Customers have taken notice of the improvements and business has grown 25-30 percent. That’s sweet music to a store owner’s ears.

FUTURE

Boards presidents Will Grant (L) and Bill Perrin (R) flank store manager Deanna Murphy.

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FOWNS and Nuttall Store have no plans to rest on their laurels. FOWNS will kick off an annual capital campaign beginning in November to raise money for additional restorations and expansion. Supporters come from all walks of life, either residing in Ware Neck, have been frequent customers, or have generational or business ties to the region.

At the back of the building lies an annex heavily damaged by fire some years ago. It is into this space FOWNS plans to renovate and expand, including an additional restroom, storage, and meeting rooms.

As for Nuttall Store itself, “I would like to expand the gift and private label items,” says Murphy. “Perhaps some gourmet gift items, gift baskets, and higher-end wines. We’ve already had a few events like quarterly wine tastings. Everything we’ve experimented with so far has been a hit.”

Chef Goodier hopes to offer a few intimate private dinners, perhaps an occasional Sunday brunch. The five-acre lot would be perfect to host outdoor events and fundraisers. The group hasn’t even scratched the surface of opportunities. Ultimately, the one goal everyone keeps in mind is that to compete in the busy grocery market today, the store’s ultimate success is due to outstanding customer service. Fans of Nuttall Store all agree they do this with aplomb. H

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The Stingray Point Hotel. Circa 1959.

Photo courtesy of Edmund Harrow Jr.

Stingray Point Hotel

By Bob Cerullo

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ne of the most breathtaking sights in Deltaville is at a small beach near where the infamous explorer John Smith is alleged to have tangled with a stingray. Smith skewered a stingray only to have the stingray deal him a near fatal slice with its venomous tail spine. It was close to that spot at Stingray Point where once stood a much loved and long remembered hotel. The view from the front porch once included the Stingray Point Lighthouse off in the distance to the left. Gwynn’s Island stands directly across the water, which generally shimmers like sunlit diamonds and is often dotted with the multicolored sails of a regatta in progress. At that spot there was a hotel. In fact, there were two hotels in years gone by.

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The land and its sandy beach were once part of the Stingray Point Farm owned by Mr. John T. Saunders of Deltaville. Its ownership by the Saunders family dates back to 1851. In 1923, Saunders sold the farm to Deltaville businessmen, Jerry Harrow and Samuel Moore. The Hotel Samore was built there and opened for business on Memorial Day in 1932. The name Samore was a combination of Samuel Moore’s first and last names. Located where General Puller Highway (Route 33) meets the Chesapeake Bay, it was a success from the day it opened. The average family stayed for two weeks enjoying bathing, fishing, great food and relaxation. All the rooms had private baths, and those facing the bay were $18 a week.

Samuel Moore died in 1939. The property was sold in 1941, but in August of that year, fire from a bottled gas leak leveled the building and the nearby structure, bowling alley, dance hall and bathhouse owned by E.W. Harrow.

Seeing a good opportunity, E.W. Harrow began construction on the Stingray Point Hotel and opened in 1942.

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Stingray Point Hotel up for sale. Circa 1964.

Photo courtesy of the Deltaville Maritime Museum

Hotel Samore news clipping. Courtesy of the Deltaville Maritime Museum

Sandy beach was once a part of the Stingray Point Hotel resort. Gwynn’s Island is in the background.

Photo courtesy of Bob Cerullo

The old Stingray Point Lighthouse guided mariners for over 100 years. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard

ONE OF THE MOST BREATHTAKING SIGHTS IN DELTAVILLE IS AT A SMALL BEACH NEAR WHERE THE INFAMOUS EXPLORER JOHN SMITH IS ALLEGED TO HAVE TANGLED WITH A STINGRAY It featured a bowling alley, snack bar, restaurant, sandy beach and an incredible view of the bay. Folks could come by car, bus or boat. Saturday nights were busy with dances to the music of a five-piece orchestra until 11 p.m. John Melvin Ward has fond memories of the Stingray Point Hotel. Ward grew up there. His grandfather owned the hotel. He recalled that his grandfather, Edward Walling Harrow, developed the land around Stingray Point. For as long as he can remember, Ward spent as much time as he could with his grandfather.

He recalls riding in his grandfather’s Chevrolet and said they went everywhere together. E.W. Harrow built the Stingray Point Hotel with lumber he provided from his own sawmill.

Harrow’s sons all helped to build the hotel. He had three sons, Edmund, Eugene and Walter. All were carpenters. His son Edmund eventually became a renowned builder of deadrise boats. John Melvin Ward remembers having full run of the three floors of the hotel. He remembers the massive foyer, the bowling alley, the restaurant and the snack bar. In particular, Ward remembers the majestic views of the Chesapeake Bay The House & Home Magazine

from the front porch and the wonderful cooling breezes from the bay. He said you could see Gwynn’s Island from the porch and off to the left the old Stingray Point Lighthouse.

Richard B. Cohen, writer and photographer in the Chesapeake Bay Magazine, February 1984, wrote, “What Stingray Point Hotel may have lacked in elegance it made up for in size. Eddie Harrow liked to do things on a large scale.

Spanning almost the entire 150-foot depth of the lot, the hotel dwarfed neighboring cottages. Despite the protests of his sons, Harrow insisted on the addition of a third story which had no purpose other than ornamentation ‘if it hadn’t been for a shortage of materials, he would have gone even higher’ sighed one of Harrow’s sons.”

No liquor was served at the hotel, but diners remember the food as being delicious. The cook was a man named Victor Burrell. He cooked up the greatest fried chicken and all kinds of fresh local seafood. John Melvin Ward remembers that in the fall, folks from all around the area would bring all sorts of ducks, other birds and wild game that they had caught for 25

(left) Dinner plate from the Stingray Point Hotel. Photo courtesy of the Deltaville Maritime Museum. (right) Marker at the sight of the Stingray Point Hotel. Photo courtesy of Bob Cerullo

Hotel Samore brochure. Circa 1935. Courtesy of the Deltaville Maritime Museum

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what they called a “game supper.”

Lifelong Deltaville resident Jack Hurd remembers Chef Victor Burrell in his 12-inch-high snow-white chef’s hat and white chef’s coat. Hurd said he believes that Victor Burrell was one of the most respected men in Deltaville at the time. Hurd said he certainly was a great chef.

Garland Harrow, grandson of E.W. Harrow, grew up spending time at the hotel. He is John Melvin Ward’s cousin and said he recalls working the ice shaving machine to make snow cones. He also worked setting up the duck pins in the bowling alley. Harrow remembers the delicious aroma of the yeast rolls Chef Burrell baked every day.

Thanksgiving Day was a special day for all the Harrow family. They would enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, featuring turkey with all the trimmings in the dining room at the hotel.

Garland Harrow loved the windows in the dining room. There was a wonderful view of the bay for diners to enjoy. Harrow pointed out that his grandfather, E.W. Harrow, had a passion for providing access to the beach at Stingray Point. In fact, he said, the Harrow family still owns a small section of the beach they maintain for use by the public. Harrow said the family wants to be sure to preserve the wish their grandfather had for the beach to be enjoyed by everyone. E.W. Harrow wanted everyone to enjoy the beach as he did.

In 1964, E.W. Harrow sold the hotel to Miss Louise Schooley, a registered nurse who specialized in the care of handicapped children. Her intention was to establish a treatment and rehabilitation center for handicapped children. Unfortunately, the building did not meet the various codes, and she could not get the needed licenses.

Miss Schooley and her partner, Lance Parker, decided to rename the hotel the “Old Red Barn.” In keeping with the name, she had the building painted red and hung a wagon wheel on an exterior wall and reopened it as a hotel resort. The decor included multiple wagon wheels. Booths were added to the restaurant along with wagon wheel overhead lights. Seating capacity of the restaurant was increased from seating for 45 diners to 75 diners.

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The Old Red Barn. Courtesy of the artist, Ann Smith

THE SUN STILL SETS, OFTEN IN GLORIOUS FIERY RED GLOWS AND THE TALL GRASS NOW GROWS ON THE LAND ON WHICH THE STINGRAY POINT HOTEL ONCE STOOD.

A newspaper clipping tells of an Independence Celebration at the Old Red Barn which included a beauty pageant to choose Miss Lower Middlesex of 1967, then at 9:30 p.m. the Fireman’s Ball. For a time, it was the fun place in Deltaville.

It catered to local people and folks from as far away as Richmond. The Old Red Barn closed in the late 1960s.

Abandoned for years, it was razed in August of 1982.

There is nothing left now of the Old Red Barn save for two stone markers showing the spot where it once stood. The sounds of laughter, music, the rattle of dinner plates and the crash of bowling balls against pins is heard no more. The beautiful Stingray Point Lighthouse, a beacon to marinas for more than 100 years, was replaced with an automatic navigational marker in 1965. The aroma of fried chicken and baking yeast rolls no longer perfumes the air. The folks are gone, the buildings are gone, but the memories still linger.

The balmy breezes still blow across the bay. The waves lap the beach in a relentless harmony. The sun still sets, often in glorious fiery red glows and the tall grass now grows on the land on which the Stingray Point Hotel once stood. H The House & Home Magazine

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Map illustration is from Pirates on the Chesapeake by Donald Shomette, Tidewater Publishers, a Division of Schiffer Publishing; used by permission of the author.

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October/November 2019

By Jackie Nunnery

HOW PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS ON THE CHESAPEAKE SHAPED VIRGINIA

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“A lot of what is known about pirates is not true, and a lot of what is true is not known.”

irates. The word probably conjures up images of eye patches, peg legs, parrots and buried treasure. But those are all modern updates of a very real and sometimes brutal practice.

Piracy on the Chesapeake Bay was part of Virginia’s history for more than 300 years. And though most people think of the pirates infesting Caribbean waters, it’s not surprising that they would also be attracted to the Atlantic coast as well. Ships traveling from England were easy picking when fledgling colonies lacked the resources to protect themselves and the supply ships coming to port.

Historian Mark Hanna, who has written about pirates during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries once said, “A lot of what is known about pirates is not true, and a lot of what is true is not known.”

PIRACY COMES TO VIRGINIA’S SHORE The first true act of piracy happened not long after Jamestown was established in 1607. Two years into the endeavor, weakened by attacks from neighboring tribes, starvation, and disease, a group of colonists was dispatched to trade with the Indians for food. Instead of returning to the fort with a quantity of corn and the ship, however, the group, led by Francis West (who happened to be the younger brother of the governor), decided to sail back to England, abandoning the starving colonists and exacerbating The Starving Times.

Another act of piracy ten years later would affect the new colony and those who would inhabit it to this day. In 1619, the slave ship San Juan Bautista was bound for Mexico when privateers on the White Lion and Treasurer attacked it in the Gulf of Mexico, taking its 50-60 slaves with them. The White The House & Home Magazine

Lion arrived in Point Comfort (present-day Hampton), followed by the Treasurer a few days later. Sold into slavery shortly after their arrival, these “20 and odd” enslaved Africans, as they were recorded at the time, were the first of what would eventually be millions that endured grueling slavery conditions in the colonies and American South over the next 250 years.

By the 1630s, with colonies now established in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere along the coast, piracy began to take a foothold in the Chesapeake. But it wasn’t another country doing the plundering at first, it was colonists stealing from each other. The charter from King Charles I establishing Maryland included borders already assigned to Virginia, affecting plantations and trade that had already been established.

To discourage further encroachment by the Maryland colony, which was fighting for the same land, Virginian John Butler seized a small sailing ship bound for Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay and brought the ship, crew, and its cargo to Kent Island, then Virginia territory, near what is now Annapolis. This became the first documented act of “pyracie” on the Chesapeake.

PIRATE OR PRIVATEER? Though it mattered little if you were the plundered vessel, there was some difference between being a pirate and a privateer. It comes down to paperwork.

Privateers carried letters of marque, which were basically licenses from a nation giving the ship the authority and permission to attack and capture enemy ships. Once captured, the spoils — the ship and its contents — would then be divvied up between the captain, crew, and of course, the nation that issued the marque.

In the colonies, this use of essentially a private navy 29

allowed England, France, and Spain, among others, to have a military presence on the other side of the Atlantic and gain wealth, all without the expense of building their own fleets.

It was not without obvious problems. Wars were declared and ended, while news of that spread slowly. Privateers would sometimes attack ships that didn’t fall under the letter of marque, or pirates were sometimes able to get letters of marque from corrupt politicians. As a result, the line between the practices blurred.

A PIRATE ENDOWMENT As trading between England and its colonies increased, so too, did piracy. By 1660, Virginia’s Governor William Berkeley noted that the waters off Virginia were “so full of pirates that it is impossible for any ships to go home safely.”

On June 22, 1688, a small vessel on the Chesapeake was stopped and upon inspection, four men were found with a significant amount of money and other goods. The group was arrested on charges of piracy.

At first, the group maintained their innocence but then decided to take advantage of proclamation from King James II offering pardons to pirates who turned themselves in. But the strategy failed and the group continued to languish in a Jamestown jail.

They were finally released on bail in July of 1689, minus their property. To make a long and twisted tale short, in 1692 King William III decreed that the men would indeed receive their property “with the exception of three hundred pounds” which would “be devoted to the building of a college in Virginia.”

Accounts of the College of William & Mary show 300 pounds received from Davis, Delawafer, and Hinson, three of the men who had been picked up in the Chesapeake four years earlier (the fourth had died in jail). One of the college’s first endowments had come from pirate booty.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY

Sam Bellamy, Stede Bonnet, Benjamin Hornigold — There were many pirates in the early 1700s whose short-lived careers included hunting in the waters of the Chesapeake. But none was more famous than Edward Teach (or Thatch), best known as Blackbeard.

Little is known for certain about Teach, and many historians believe the stories about his fearsome image and behavior have been exaggerated over time, becoming the stuff of legends. It was said that he lit wicks in his full, black beard to scare men in battle and commanded hundreds of men to pillage and murder all along the East Coast, including Virginia.

What is known for certain, is that Virginia Gov. Alexander Spotswood, intent on ending piracy, sent Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to North Carolina where Blackbeard and his crew were said to be hiding. On November 22, 1718, The Battle of the Ocracoke Inlet, as 30

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Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

The end of the oyster war

it came to be known, was short and bloody. And it ended with Blackbeard’s head on the bowsprit of Maynard’s ship.

It is said that the 13 men who survived from Blackbeard’s crew were taken to Williamsburg, put on trial and hung from gibbets or trees along Capitol Landing Road.

Legend also has it that Blackbeard’s head was eventually put on a pole near the mouth of the Chesapeake at Hampton River (now called Blackbeard’s Point) as a warning to other would-be pirates. After many years, the skull was supposedly plated with silver and turned into a drinking cup.

Virginia had long been harvesting bay oysters, of course, and resented the invasion of outsiders. Laws were enacted and ignored. Watermen fought with one another. Oyster pirates, as they were called at the time, dredged under the cover of night.

Conflicts would continue for decades, with shots being fired and boats being sunk, until 1959, when Berkeley Muse, of Colonial Beach, was shot and killed

by police while illegally dredging for oysters at night. Muse’s death would not be in vain, since the oyster patrols were disarmed and saner heads prevailed.

Governments agreed to work together to protect the oyster population and improve the health of the bay.

And with the end of the Oyster Wars, the final chapter was written. After 350 years, piracy on the Chesapeake had officially come to a close. H

OYSTER PIRATES The death of Blackbeard did not end piracy but other factors did. As the mid1700s neared, the colonies were better able to defend themselves and arriving supply vessels, and there was less fighting among the European powers.

In 1807, a French pirate captured the Othello in the last documented act of piracy under sail in the Chesapeake.

That should have been the final chapter on piracy, except something in the bay became incredibly valuable.

Flash forward to just after the Civil War. The oyster industry had exploded, with the Chesapeake Bay providing half of the oysters to the world. Like the Gold Rush decades earlier, men rushed to capitalize on the riches just waiting for them, except this time at the bottom of the Chesapeake.

Watermen from Maryland and The House & Home Magazine

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Green glass pieces, like those below, are unique to The Jamestown Glasshouse.

Looking through History

the Jamestown Glasshouse

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By Dianne Saison

rom out of the depth of a stone kiln, a fiery red orb emerges. Attached to a long metal tube, the small glowing ball is carefully placed onto a metal sheet and rolled out into a cylinder. Then, in an almost magical feat, a single human breath flowing through the hollows of the rod causes the molten material to take shape, and the beginning of a unique masterpiece emerges.

It is a visual experience unlike any other, and it occurs on a daily basis just a stone’s throw away from the Historic Williamsburg Triangle, at The Glasshouse in Jamestown. The Glasshouse is a hidden gem, just off the beaten path of more well-known attractions, and it is not only an astonishing immersive experience, it is also one of the most significant historical sites of our nation.

Dating back to 1608, just a year after Jamestown was founded, The Glasshouse was America’s first English industrial

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manufacturing business. Owned by the Virginia Company, investors sought to show that profits could be made in the colonies. At that time, glassmaking was an extremely lucrative industry; however, it was being choked by regulations and scarcity of materials back in England. The Virginia Company was convinced that it could not only make fine glass, but produce enough of it that the breakage expected to occur during shipping would be of little consequence to the profits.

The original glassworkers in Jamestown were a small group of Germans, who brought the secrets of the trade across the Atlantic to the colonies. Lured by the Virginia Company with the promises of riches, these early workers had huge dreams, but the realities of forging glass in the New World soon came crashing down upon them. What emerged from their endeavors is a story of determination and strife. Captain John Smith wrote that the Germans were the only initial laborers who actually knew what a “dayes worke was,” and evidence indicates the glassmakers labored two months inside James

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Fort just to produce a “tryal of glasse” that was returned to England at the end of 1608. The test glass was probably no more than a small block, or ingot, to prove Virginia’s resources could make glass.

In 1610, the colony’s secretary, William Strachey, recorded the most detailed surviving description of the site, saying materials were in such abundance that The Glasshouse had produced enough to necessitate the construction of a storage building. While they worked hard at their craft, the tradesmen were besieged with a string of events that would ultimately result in the downfall of the nation’s first industrial business. In correspondences, Smith wrote that Powhatan warriors killed some of the initial German workers in an attack. That was followed by a “horrific” winter that brought starvation and disease to the colony, wiping out the remaining glassblowers. More than a dozen years later, another group of glassblowers were in the throes of resurrecting the business, but they too were doomed.

First beset by terrible storms that devastated the area, the Powhatan Uprising closely followed — which saw nearly a quarter of the Jamestown residents massacred. Every industry, including glassmaking, was subsequently brought to a halt in Virginia. In the following years, Venetians were brought over to The Glasshouse but refused to work with the local sand. Later, an Italian group was said to have worked so slowly that they accomplished nothing, destroying the main crucible, a container used to melt glass in a kiln, in their anger over their circumstances. In a letter, the treasurer of The London Company described those glassmakers as, “A more damned crew Hell never vomited.” The entire site was abandoned sometime on the mid-1600s, and lost to the ravages of time, until it was rediscovered by researcher Jesse Dimmick in 1931.

In the 1940s, archeologists began unearthing the site, uncovering a well, clay pit, four furnaces, broken glass and molten glass drippings. Subsequent digs have found extensive proof of the glassworks, including multiple sites where kilns, furnaces, crucibles and other tools of the trade lay buried, suggesting the business may have been more extensive than originally hypothesized. In the 1950s, built next to the ruins of the original company, a new glasshouse was constructed, but in a continuation of the calamities that plagued the site, it was lost to a fire in 1974. The current structure was built in 1976 and was designed to be a replica of the original 1608 building.

Today, nestled back behind foliage and a looping path, The Glasshouse takes you from modern day life to living history with industrious beauty. The large columned building is usually open on all sides, with walls that can be removed so that visitors can witness the process without suffering from the high heat. Artisans in period dress create glassworks with the same types of tools used by the original 1608 craftsmen. Each night, raw material is melted down in a crucible inside the furnace, which burns at approximately 2,000 degrees. Although now fired by gas, the stone kiln is true in shape and construction to those used by the original craftsmen in Jamestown. Each morning, a pool of molten glass is ready for the glassblowers to shape and craft into fantastic creations, most of which are reproductions of The House & Home Magazine

A blower pulls molten glass from the crucible to prepare for shaping.

Old-fashioned, blue glass ornaments are handmade seasonally.

Visitors watch as a molten ball of glass, just taken from the kiln, is prepared for work.

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Through research, artists have been able to render what the original glassworks looked like in 1609.

The super-heated silica (at left) is rolled and meticulously shaped into pieces like the jug (at right) in full view of visitors.

The Jamestown Glasshouse was constructed to replicate the original 1609 building.

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sixteenth through eighteenth-century works. Blowers then use a five-foot-long blowpipe, dip it into the pool of molten glass, gather it up by spinning the rod, and start to form it.

“Initially we roll it into a cylinder on a sheet of steel, then we blow into it and shape it using our breath, gravity and our tools,” explained Eric Schneider, the lead journeyman glassblower at the historic site, adding that workers then use a pontil rod with flattened molten glass on it, attach it to the vessel, break it off the blowpipe, reheat the piece as needed, and then finish the work using various tools to make the work they are striving for.

Interestingly, although they produce four different colors of glass at The Glasshouse, including blue, teal and red using various oxides and additives, green is the most seen in finished pieces. The reason for that, and why so many pieces of antique and ancient glass are that glorious green, is because it is the natural color of glass! When in its original form, the sand or silica that is melted down from nature has rust and a small amount of nickel in it, resulting in the emeraldhued finished product.

The Glasshouse uses the same processes, additives and apparatuses that were used in the 1600s. Visitors are awed by not only the colonial atmosphere, but also the sounds of the tools — from the clinking of jacks, the hiss of water on wooden paddles as the glass is shaped, and the roar of the furnace as it keeps the nearly 400 pounds of molten material hot enough to be worked by the blowers.

“It is almost an instant gratification art, and even the longest piece… you have to work with it quickly,” Schneider said. “There is a rapid, dramatic transformation that occurs right before your eyes.”

Schneider is one of a privileged few in the nation who can call themselves historic glassblowers. All of the craftsmen onsite go through a four-year apprenticeship before they can even be called a glassblowing journeyman.

Although they aren’t considered master glassblowers, because those individuals must own their own shop for that designation, most of the journeymen at The Glasshouse have been working there for more than 15 years. Schneider, who is the foremost expert, has been working October/November 2019

Green glass, the natural color of all fired glass, is one of the main staples at The Jamestown Glasshouse.

“IT IS ALMOST AN INSTANT GRATIFICATION ART... THERE IS A RAPID, DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION THAT OCCURS RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES.”

at the location for more than 25 years after falling in love with the craft during a stint as a gift shop worker when he was in high school.

“There is magic here, and I really think it sticks in people’s heads after they visit because it is so dramatic,” he said. “It is such a cool process to see molten liquid transform in minutes to something aesthetically pleasing.”

Schneider and his team make anywhere from 70 to 100 pieces a day, the bulk of which are sold at The Glasshouse’s gift shop; however, they also ship items to more than 70 other national park stores around the country. Many of the glass objects are authentic to designs from early Jamestown, including medicine bottles, brandy glasses, wine bottles, candleholders and pitchers.

The Glasshouse and Glasshouse Gift Shop are operated by a non-profit organization that supports the National Park Service. All of the glass sales come back to the National Park Service. Any purchase helps support the glassblowing demonstrations and the National Park Service at Historic Jamestown. For more information about this amazing and unique experience, or to plan your trip, visit www.nps.gov/ jame/planyourvisit/glasshouse or call 757-229.2437.

The House & Home Magazine would like to extend its sincere appreciation to Gwyn Johnson, Eric Schneider, and Emily Suth for their invaluable contributions to the research of this article. H The House & Home Magazine

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the

By Janet Evans Hinman

OF THE

CHESAPEAKE

Rosie Parks is a skipjack built in 1955 by celebrated Dorchester County boatbuilder Bronza Parks in Wingate, Md. She’s part of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s floating fleet of historic vessels. Photo courtesy of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum 38

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BECAUSE EACH AREA AROUND THE BAY IS UNIQUE, WATERMEN OVER THE YEARS HAVE TENDED TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN CUSTOMIZED BOATS AND EQUIPMENT WITH WHICH TO GET THE JOB DONE.

Lady Maryland, a replica of a Chesapeake Bay pungy schooner, was built in 1985 by the Living Classrooms Foundation and is owned and operated by the foundation. Photo courtesy of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

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he men and women who make a living by fishing, crabbing and oystering in and around the Chesapeake Bay are an enterprising and resourceful lot. Likewise, the workboats plying the waves are as interesting and varied as the watermen they serve and the thousands of miles of shoreline from which they cast off.

The term “waterman” dates as far back as the eleventh century in England. These early English watermen were actually smugglers who used small boats to transport stolen goods across waterways. When the English settled around the Chesapeake Bay, they continued to use that name, applying it to anyone who worked in the fishing industry.

According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia’s watermen harvested more than 382 million pounds of seafood from the Chesapeake Bay in 2013. This ranks Virginia third in the nation behind Alaska and Louisiana for seafood production. The most popular Chesapeake Bay seafoods are the blue crab and the Chesapeake Bay oyster, but there are at least 50 commercially valuable species in addition to crabs and oysters, including menhaden, soft clams and hard clams, and a wide variety of fish. The dockside value of the harvest in 2013 was upwards of $163 million.

Because each area around the bay is unique, watermen over the years have tended to develop their own customized

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boats and equipment with which to get the job done. Many became skilled boatbuilders and have been sought after for their craftsmanship. Deltaville has long been known as a hub of boatbuilding. A great many watermen built boats for themselves, and when one of them built a particularly handsome and able craft, word spread and other watermen often asked that he duplicate the model for them. That’s how oystermen and crabbers became boatbuilders — they simply built boats by eye, maybe carving a model first.

Dan Knott, a crabber from Mathews with the Virginia Waterman’s Association noted: “Watermen use whatever they have, or whatever they can modify to make it work. It is really all over the place, which is what I love about it. I love skiffs, and eventually when a good deadrise comes along, I will get it just to help preserve it. I seem to have a fascination for them!”

And why not? With quirky workboat names like pungy, bugeye, skipjack and deadrise, who wouldn’t be charmed enough to become fascinated?

SCHOONER Schooners are sailing ships with two or more masts. These Colonial-era workhorses were used for everything from hauling cargo to tormenting the British. They have a long history in the mid-Atlantic as workboats for the watermen who made their living harvesting oysters, blue crabs and

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fish from the bay. The fastest-sailing vessels delivered goods and people to their destinations and often garnered the best price for their cargo by beating slower schooners into port. Over the years, commercial schooner designs evolved for the bay’s routes, taking into consideration shallow waters, local crops and regional needs, with speed being a primary concern to beat competitively loaded vessels into port.

In October, schooners can be seen racing 146 miles down the bay from Annapolis, Maryland, to Hampton Roads, Virginia, as a part of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. This race was started to draw attention to the bay’s heritage and to support environmental education and restoration work.

LOG CANOE Originally built by the native Powhatan tribes along the Chesapeake Bay, these boats were adopted by early English settlers, who discovered that the sturdy craft could handle the rough waters of the bay and carry a heavy load.

The canoes were made of logs from loblolly pine or tulip poplar trees. The log was slowly burned, then the ashes were scraped from inside. The settlers added a sail to the canoe, increasing its speed. Depending on the size of the tree, a canoe could be 30 feet long and up to five feet wide. With an ample supply of logs, the canoe became the standard workboat for the bay until the 1900s. Log canoes were not constructed at a shipyard, but on the owner’s or builder’s property. Requiring only simple tools and no plans, the log canoe was inexpensive to build and easily replaced.

PUNGY The pungy is a smaller form of schooner developed on the Chesapeake Bay to dredge oysters and carry bulk cargo. It was developed in the 1840s and 1850s in the Accomack region of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The name is believed to come from Pungoteague, an area in Accomack County where the ships were built. This workboat has a large, heavy spar projecting forward from the bow (bowsprit), with narrow lines down its sides. The pungy was a common site in 40

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Baltimore’s harbor during World War I and up until the 1930s. The most unusual cargo carried by the pungy was pineapple picked green in Bermuda and delivered to Baltimore — the fruit ripened as it traveled. The problem came in heavy seas, when the pungy’s lowboards allowed wash over the decks and ruined the fruit below. The use of the pungy eventually gave way to newly developed boats like the bugeye and the skipjack.

Only one pungy is still afloat, the Lady Maryland, which takes children out on the bay for the Living Classrooms Foundation in Baltimore. There were no pungies on the bay (or in the world) from the 1950s until the Lady Maryland was built in 1986. Today, she is the only pungy schooner in existence.

Edna E. Lockwood is a National Historic Landmark and the oldest sailing log-bottom bugeye. She was built in 1889 by John B. Harrison of Tilghman Island, Md. Photo courtesy of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

BUGEYE New England fishermen brought the oyster dredge to the Chesapeake Bay. The watermen of the bay used tongs to pick up oysters from the beds. This was difficult and slow work, and when northern fishermen were spotted on the

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Deadrise at sunset

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bay using a dredge, the oyster industry began to change. The small log canoes did not carry enough sail to pull the heavy iron dredge, so a new boat was needed. The bugeye was a hybrid of three boats developed in the bay and peaked in popularity in the 1880s as an oyster dredger.

The builders took from the log canoe the principal design elements of a dugout log hull and sail plan.

From the pungy came the sweeping, low freeboard and log rail. The log rail allowed the oyster dredge to be easily and quickly hoisted onto the deck.

The Chesapeake Bay Schooner lent the idea of a shoal or shallow draft and an unobstructed deck.

There are numerous ideas about how the bugeye got its name; two theories are the most widely recognized. One is that it came from the Scottish word “buckie,” meaning oyster shell. Many Scottish immigrants settled in the bay area, and it is believed that local slang corrupted the word to “buck-eye” and then to “bug-eye.” The second theory is that the name came from the hawse-holes at the bow of the boat, which from a distance

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A Chesapeake Bay deadrise. Photo courtesy of Bob Cerullo

resemble a bug’s eyes, while the bowsprit looked like a nose.

SKIPJACK The skipjack is an elegant V-bottomed boat developed in the 1880s and based on a smaller sailing skiff like a bateau. The two-masted skipjack was used for oyster harvesting, as it was powerful enough under sail to haul two full-sized oyster dredges. Traditionally, skipjacks were called “bateau” by watermen, but in 1900, a newspaper article from the Baltimore Sun described these boats being fitted-out for oyster season in the Baltimore Harbor. The writer portrayed them as a “skipjacks,” referring to their speed on the water. The name stuck, but the words “skipjack” and “bateau” became almost interchangeable.

Skipjacks, long known as the “queens” of the bay, ruled the oyster-dredging trade from the late 1800s through the first half of the twentieth century. Of the estimated 2,000 built, fewer than 30 remain.

DEADRISE Developed in the late 1800s, the sturdy Chesapeake Bay deadrise workboat remains one of the most popular and traditional boats for crabbing and oystering around the bay and its tributaries. Watermen have used these boats yearround for everything from crabbing and oystering to catching fish or eels. More recently, they’ve become popular recreational vessels as well.

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A skiff sails on the Miles River in St. Michaels, Md., the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival in 2019. Photo courtesy of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Traditionally wooden hulled, the deadrise is characterized by a sharp bow that quickly becomes a flat V shape moving aft along the bottom of the boat.

A small cabin structure lies forward and a large open cockpit and work area aft. It has a shallow draft of two to three feet, making it ideal for the shallows of the bay. The average deadrise workboat is 35 to 45 feet long with a beam of nine to 12 feet. The deadrise can use almost any engine, but diesel engines are preferred over regular gasoline because of their reliability.

Over the years, watermen have modified these boats to accommodate the unique characteristics of the areas where they work, which is one reason many watermen eventually became successful boatbuilders. For instance, the round stern style of deadrise, so named for its rounded rear end, is said to have made it a little easier for watermen tonging for oysters to work both with and against the tidal water flow from both ends of the boat. The deadrise workboat is the official boat of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The engine-driven deadrise and its modern recreational kin evolved directly from the sailing skipjacks of the late nineteenth century.

BUYBOAT Buyboats were the middlemen of the oyster trade. Buyboat captains purchased a waterman’s catch while the working craft was still on the water. Buyboats are typically wooden boats 40 to 90 feet long and characterized by a rear wheelhouse and a long deck for cargo.

Buyboats circulated among the harvesters collecting their catches, then delivered their loads to a wholesaler or oyster processing house. This spared the fishermen of the task and its downtime, allowing them to catch more oysters.

Buyboats saw their heyday in the first half of the twentieth century when most oysters from the Chesapeake Bay were harvested by tongers in small flat-bottomed boats, or dredged by sailpowered vessels.

By 2013, only one buyboat operating out of remote Tangier Island was still buying oysters on the Chesapeake Bay; although many of these sturdy, but largely obsolete wooden vessels remain afloat. Some were used to dredge crabs

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The Nellie Crockett, a buyboat on Jackson Creek in Deltaville, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Bob Cerullo into the 1980s, but have since been replaced by smaller deadrise workboats in this role. A few of them were adapted for use in the Chesapeake Bay menhaden fishery during the 1970s and 1980s but have since been retired, and some were used to haul seed oysters to replenish oyster reefs in Virginia and Maryland into the early 2000s. Most of the vessels of this type that are still afloat have found completely new lives as museum pieces, yachts, floating classrooms, and dive charter boats.

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SKIFF Skiffs are shallow, flat-bottomed boats recognizable by their sharp bow and square stern. These watercraft are small and sturdy, made to move through the tributaries and along the coastal areas of the bay. While they can be used as workboats, skiffs are most often used for recreational fishing and other leisurely outings.

Since watermen are known for their ingenuity at adapting any vessel that can

work, it’s not unusual to see a clutch of industrious workers in their skiffs, combing the waters for hard crabs, clams, oysters and fish, and scouring the shallow grass flats for soft crabs — changing out minimal gear as needed and taking the weather as it comes.

For more information on workboats of the Chesapeake, or the men and women who make their livelihoods on the water, visit The Mariner’s Museum website at marinersmuseum.org. H

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Birdbrain: Stupid, Foolish, Or Scatterbrained

Murder of

crows

By Deb Weissler

A

lmost every morning they wake me. Their raucous cries are harsh and grating, like fingernails on a chalkboard. They cluster in a flock known as a murder, cawing their displeasure at an owl or hawk who has chosen my woods for its roost. The crows flutter and dive, becoming more daring with each fly-by. Eventually one of two things happen: the raptor gives up her perch and flies off or the crows grow tired and move on to other mischief.

One cold blustery day I watched seven crows in the bare branches of a tall oak growing on the banks of the York River at Gloucester Point. The upper-most bough bobbed wildly in the wind. As I watched, each crow took a turn, bouncing skyward several times before being displaced by another. It dawned on me that these crows were playing.

Scientists tell us that many birds play. In at least a third of bird species, voluntary, interactive, and stress-free movements have been well documented among chickens, ducks, seabirds, woodpeckers, owls, hawks, and songbirds.

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October/November 2019

But no group of birds has been reported to play as frequently or with such complexity as the corvids.

Corvidae, more commonly known as the crow family, includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies in North America. Crows’ close association with humans predates written history and has inspired art, legends, myths, and language. Archaeological evidence reveals that our earliest ancestors shared the company of crows and ravens. Even today these birds benefit from our road kills, peruse our garbage for food and nesting material, incorporate our voices into their own language, and routinely annoy us with their actions and sounds. But do we benefit from them?

Corvids display high intelligence, playfulness, mischievousness, passion, and sorrow. People from all walks of life have eagerly shared their encounters with these fascinating creatures that give new meaning to the term ‘bird brain’.

Many of our encounters with crows begin with their raucous cries that wake us from our slumbers and disturb our backyard reveries. The crow has more than 20 calls but is certainly not known for the beauty of its song. Its cacophony of caws is strident and annoying. In fact, its frequent cawing is a signal to others in its extended family that an interloper has been spotted.

I watched a flock of crows harass a barred owl perched up in a beech tree one summer. Risking one’s life to harry an eagle, hawk, or owl seems a requirement for many corvids. This behavior may seem analogous to David facing Goliath, but for the corvid the gains outweigh the costs. Predators preoccupied with a mob of crows swooping, fluttering, and cawing are distracted from hunting and their presence made obvious to others. They either hunker down, miserable, awaiting the end of the assault, or fly off to find less hostile territories.

Either way, the risk takers have reduced the chances of a predator’s success and in doing so have participated in a social exercise by displaying valor and flight skills. The more daring crow may gain a mate or higher rank in its avian hierarchy.

The youngsters learn by observing the mobbing. Of course, all this implies that corvids possess reasoning powers.

For centuries, philosophers and scientists have believed that other animals were incapable of conscious thought or emotion. But as we learn more about how information travels through the brains of other species, the more we come to realize that many sentient beings can mull over complex problems and derive solutions.

The crows of New Caledonia have demonstrated on more than one occasion the ability to fashion hooks out of

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plant material or sticks in order to fish for grubs and spiders. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Co., Professor Christian Rutz, lead researcher on crow studies on the island of Okinawa, observed, “We tend to assume that the closer an animal is to us, the more intelligent it should be, and thus we more easily understand that primates make and use tools. But we have to be more humble and accept that many ‘small brained’ animals are intelligent enough to make and use tools, and sometimes are more proficient at this task than our cousins.”

But could crows evolve beyond simple fishing hooks to something more complex?

BACK AT THE TREE, THE CROWS CONTINUED THEIR PLAY. FRIVOLOUS ANTICS ARE ROUTINE AMONG CROWS AND RAVENS.

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Following up with the New Caledonia crows, researchers from Cambridge University devised a vending-type machine that required the crows to drop in small pieces of paper to release a treat.

First the birds had to be shown how to operate the device. Once they learned to drop or nudge a stone or bits of paper into the slot and trigger the reward, they were given pieces of paper too big to flit into the slot. It didn’t take long before the crows would snip the paper into smaller bits to fit into the slot. But was this evolutionary innovation?

To make the test even more definitive, the researchers provided each of the eight crows with a vending machine that would release a treat only when a particular size of paper was inserted. The birds had no template; they just needed to remember the size of the paper token their machine required. All eight adults spontaneously made the right-sized piece of paper for their vending machine.

This past summer, a theme park in France deployed six rooks (European corvids) at the Puy du Fou theme park where they taught them to collect cigarette butts and other small bits of trash. The birds deposited the litter into small boxes

October/November 2019

that would then deliver food as a reward.

Head of the park, Nicholas de Villiers, remarked that, “It was not just about keeping the area clear, but it was also about showing that nature can teach us to take care of the environment.”

For more than two centuries, having a ‘bird brain’ was considered a sign of stupidity. Now it may turn out to be a compliment. In studies conducted at leading universities around the globe, dozens of species of birds have been found to have more neurons packed into their small brains than are found in mammalian or primate brains of equal mass.

A human brain weighs about three pounds, or 1.9 percent of our total body weight. Earth’s largest mammal, the blue whale, has a brain that accounts for only 0.01 percent of its body weight.

For crows and ravens, as a percentage of body mass, they approach or exceed our own, tipping the scales at 1.4-2.7 percent.

Corvids therefore, have brains on par with mammals rather than birds.

Songbirds, of which the corvid is a member, have surprisingly large numbers of neurons in their pallium; the part of the brain that corresponds to our cerebral cortex, which supports higher cognition functions. Although scientists acknowledge the relationship between intelligence and neuron count has not yet been firmly established, when compared to mammals other than man, birds possess higher cognitive power per pound. The mysteries of the avian brain have just begun to be explored.

The accounts of researchers, scientists, and observers have managed to paint a fantastic picture of this clever, social, opportunistic, and associative learner we call crow. Its impressive brain enables these long-living, adaptable creatures to solve problems, test their environments, observe responses, and accumulate experiences. As a group, they function much like a family.

By human standards, crows are not long lived. The oldest wild bird on record lived to be 14; most rarely make it past seven. During that time, they live in communal flocks, youngsters helping parents to raise the young, seeking out food, guarding for threats, and learning from fateful situations.

YouTube videos and news snippets reveal crows and ravens gathered around their dead, circling and circling like some sort of macabre ritual. Rarely do they The House & Home Magazine

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touch the body, and it’s unclear whether they are paying emotional respects or simply acquiring knowledge about danger or contemplating hierarchical opportunities. In all likelihood, corvids gather around their dead because it is vital they learn the causes and consequences of another crow’s death. If crows do mourn, this display is short-lived.

Reports of crows maiming or murdering a flock member has been well documented worldwide. These boisterous gatherings, called crow courts, often result in the driving away or even death of the offending party. Whether these outcasts are members of the extended family or interlopers who have invaded another flock’s territory is unknown. Most of the time the aggression ends when the offending party flees or is killed.

Back at the tree, the crows continued their play. Frivolous antics are routine among crows and ravens. They’ve been observed windsurfing at Rocky Mountain National Park, gripping thin slivers of tree bark with their feet, spreading their wings, and riding the wind currents down a mountainside. In the mountains of Canada, ravens have been photographed sliding down icy, pitched roofs and steep, snowy banks. Numerous reports of crows riding bouncing power lines or tree branches, like the tree at Gloucester Point, are quite common. In the wild, turkeys and crows have interacted in ways that suggest play. Captive ravens have been seen playing with balls or luring a family pet into play with a string.

These glimpses into crow lives suggest that corvids possess a brain capable of complex thought, assuming characteristics once ascribed only to primates and humans. Our cultural interactions with crows have formed our opinions regarding these enigmatic birds. Their association with thievery, uncanniness, fidelity, death, and charisma are deeply embedded in our psyche. The crow’s ability to bond with people has enabled corvids to hold prominent roles in our literature, fables, religion, homes, and hearts.

As we have explored its habits, brain, and emotional behavior, we have observed how this species has adapted and exploited whatever life has thrown its way.

The nature that we may take for granted is home to creatures who think, reason, dream, play, take risks, love, and mourn.

For all their perceived faults, they can also enrich our lives. H 50

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going

Holiday Bird

WILD

for the

By Janet Evans Hinman

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October/November 2019

“IT’S A MATURE, SOPHISTICATED TASTE FOR AN ADVENTUROUS PALATE ...

SOMETHING MORE EXOTIC.”

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is the season — the holiday season and the peak of bird hunting season — a great time to take a walk on the wild side and bring the fall bounty of game to the family table.

Wild game birds make an interesting and savory addition to a holiday menu. Although hunting regulations vary from location to location, it is safe to say that fall is prime hunting season and choices through the holidays should be plentiful — duck, goose, turkey, quail and dove to name a few.

Game hunting and cooking are getting some positive attention on many fronts, from cooking shows to celebrity chefs.

Wild game embodies a “locavore” philosophy embraced by the culinary world — it is local, organic and free range. It also happens to be lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than most other meat, and high in protein, iron and vitamin B. Anne Kirkmyer, Irvington native, cookbook author and globetrotting chef, routinely includes a wild game menu on her list of dinner offerings. Kirkmyer grew up with hunters in her family and wild game of all sorts on the family table. After a career traveling the world as a freelance chef, and continuing culinary education in Paris and throughout Europe, Kirkmyer finally returned home for a time to pursue her passion of showcasing iconic local food and offering unique dining experiences as executive chef at the Hope and Glory Inn in Irvington. Today, she continues to travel the nation and sail the Caribbean as a professional chef, offering her expertise and collecting recipes for her next cookbook.

She recommends wild game for its richness of flavor. “It’s a mature, sophisticated taste,” she noted, “for an adventurous palate ... something more exotic.”

Unlike domestic birds, wild ones have a deep, variable flavor, because they are often older at death, exercise freely and enjoy a mixed diet. Today’s farm-raised birds live a very different lifestyle than their wild counterparts — they are sedentary, eat a uniform diet and are harvested before they reach maturity. It is no surprise then that it takes a different approach to properly cook a wild game bird.

Chef Kirkmyer recommends enhancing the wild flavor rather than covering it up. “Why change it?” she said. “Work with it.

Make it evolve the way it should.”

Experienced game cooks recommend several techniques to successfully prepare wild game — aging, brining, marinating and not overcooking. But first, the consensus seems to be that the key to fresh-tasting meat is to get it cleaned and cooled as quickly as possible. During a hunt, keep the harvested birds cool and as separate as possible. Avoid piling them one on another, as this allows for the growth of harmful bacteria.

Opinions vary about techniques for aging game birds. Proper The House & Home Magazine

aging allows the meat to “rest” so that the muscular fibers begin to break down, and the bird becomes more tender. The larger and older the bird, the more it improves with aging. Perhaps the simplest method is to wrap it in a damp cloth, seal it in a plastic bag and store it in a cool environment (below 40 degrees) for a few days to a week.

Before the Industrial Revolution (and pre-refrigeration), hanging game in a cool, dry place was about the only alternative to preserving fresh meat without smoking or salting it. Aging meat in this way also improved both the flavor and texture, breaking down tough, older game into tender cuts through what amounts to controlled decomposition. Game hung for long periods was said to have high flavor and was prized by certain culinarians.

Aging is a change in the activity of muscle enzymes. At death, the enzymes begin to deteriorate cell molecules. Large flavorless molecules become smaller, flavorful segments; proteins become savory amino acids; glycogen becomes sweet glucose and fats become aromatic. All of this breakdown of cell molecules creates intense flavor, which improves further upon cooking. When in doubt as to aging, it is best to consult a trusted source — hunter, game cook, or butcher.

Brining is an old-fashioned technique that involves soaking meat or poultry in a flavorful saltwater solution to enhance its 55

BOB WARING’S WILD GAME MARINADE

Ingredients: • 1 bottle of soy sauce • 1 bottle of sesame oil • 2-3 bay leaves or basil leaves • 1 tablespoon oregano • 1 teaspoon cumin • 1 teaspoon pepper • 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

Directions: Whisk all ingredients together until combined. Pour over meat and marinate in the refrigerator for at least four hours.

This marinade is particularly complementary for quail and dove.

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moisture and taste. The proper ratio is two tablespoons of salt to four cups of water, with additional seasonings added according to individual tastes and recipes. It is especially good for use with game birds.

Brining does not break down proteins in meat in the way that marinating does.

Instead, it carries salt and sugar inside the cell walls of the meat to trap moisture.

The true purpose of brining is juiciness, whereas the true purpose of marinating is tenderization.

A marinade is best used with muscular cuts of meat on older birds. It imparts flavor and helps break up the connective tissue. After soaking the meat in a marinade for a number of hours, the liquid can be used to baste while cooking.

Game chefs agree that the surest way to render wild game birds inedible is to overcook them. Because there is less fat in wild animals, the moisture evaporates quickly, drying out the meat, turning it gray and giving it that gamey flavor. White meat birds should not be served rare, but can have a blush of pink in them. Dark meat birds, such as ducks, should be served no more than medium-rare. You can cover the roasting bird with bacon strips to add flavor and keep the meat moist, and/or tent with aluminum foil until the last third of cooking time, in order to brown the skin. While cooking, dote on the meat, basting and poaching until the very last second, and be rewarded with a fine, rich flavor and texture. To test for doneness, pierce the bird with a fork in the thickest part of the thigh or breast and if the juices run clear, it is done. A slight pinkish tinge is good as well. If no juices run at all, whip the bird out of the oven quickly, as it is already well done.

In other words, don’t overcome it, enhance it. “Think simple, straightforward, full of flavor,” says Chef Kirkmyer.

Wild game cooking for the holidays is a celebration of the season and an authentic connection to our special place on the planet. It also recognizes a natural fact — that meat doesn’t just come from the grocery store. The reality of our biology is that one life sustains another.

Perhaps Jonathan Miles, Field and Stream magazine’s Wild Chef, said it best in the introduction to his cookbook. “I take to the woods and water to feed an old and particular hunger: a hunger for honest meat, for meat with that sublime range of flavors that only the wild provides...”

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ROASTED WILD TURKEY

Ingredients: • 1 young wild turkey (10 to 15 pounds) • 2 large apples, quartered • 6 to 8 medium red potatoes, quartered • 2 pounds baby carrots • 2 medium onions, sliced • 2 cups water • 1-1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt • 1 teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon pepper • 1/2 cup maple syrup • 1/4 cup French salad dressing • 1/4 cup barbecue sauce • 2 tablespoons ketchup • 2 tablespoons steak sauce • 1 tablespoon lemon juice • Sage leaves for garnish

Directions: Place turkey on a rack in a roasting pan; place apples in turkey cavity. Place potatoes, carrots and onions around turkey. Pour water over vegetables. Combine seasoned salt, salt and pepper; rub over turkey. Combine remaining ingredients; spoon over the turkey.

Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 3-1/2 hours or until a thermometer reads 180 degrees. Baste if desired. Turkey may be uncovered for the last 30 minutes for additional browning if desired. After cooking, remove vegetables to a serving dish.

Place turkey on a platter and garnish with roasted apples and sage leaves.

SCANDINAVIAN ROASTED CHRISTMAS GOOSE The standard Scandinavian way of cooking a goose or duck is to stuff it with apples and prunes. When cooking a duck, adjust amount of stuffing to the size of the fowl; a 5 to 6-pound duck takes about two cups of stuffing.

Ingredients:

Directions:

• 10 to 12-pound young goose, prepared for cooking • Salt • 2 pounds tart apples, peeled, cored and quartered • 1 pound of dried prunes, plumped in water, pitted and halved • 1/2 cup flour (approximately) • 1/3 cup butter • Thick slices of dried apple • More plumped pitted prunes for garnish

Wash goose inside and out with hot water and dry carefully. Rub inside with salt.

Combine apples and prunes and stuff goose. Truss and tie legs loosely to the tail.

Place goose on rack in roasting pan. Roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove goose and turn heat down to 350 degrees.

Drain all fat from pan. Sprinkle goose with a little of the flour. Return goose to oven.

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Combine butter and hot water. When the flour on the goose has begun to brown, start basting with water-butter liquid.

Sprinkle a little more flour on the goose after each basting; this helps absorb fat.

Baste frequently. Roast for about 16-20 minutes per pound, depending on age of the bird, timing from the moment the goose goes in the oven. If goose is very fat, drain off fat several times during roasting. After the first hour, turn the bird every half-hour, roasting the goose on its back for the last 15 minutes.

Test for doneness by moving legs up and down; they should move easily.

Place goose on heated platter. Surround with thick slices of dried apple.

Place a plumped pitted prune on each apple slice. Serve with red cabbage and browned potatoes.

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DUCK BREAST WITH CHERRIES IN PORT WINE SAUCE (Reprinted from Cooking with Anne Kirkmyer) Serves 4

Ingredients:

PORT WINE SAUCE WITH CHERRIES

• 4 large duck breasts (thawed if frozen) • Salt and pepper • Port wine sauce with cherries (recipe on left) • Rosemary sprigs

Ingredients:

Directions:

• 1 tablespoon reserved duck drippings • 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots • 1 cup pitted cherries (may use frozen cherries) • 2/3 cup ruby port • 1 tablespoon sugar • 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water • 3 tablespoons butter

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, sear the breasts, skin side down, until skin is brown and crispy and fat has been rendered (about 4 to 5 minutes). Remove breasts from pan and place on a baking sheet. Reserve duck drippings. Sprinkle duck with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Directions: In reserved duck drippings, sauté shallots for one minute. Add fruit and the port wine. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir to incorporate.

Bring to a simmer and thicken with cornstarch. Whisk in butter.

To serve: Slice duck breasts and place on plate.

Serve topped with port wine sauce. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.

ASIAN GRILLED QUAIL (From Anne Kirkmyer) Serves 4

Ingredients: • 8 cleaned quail (dove breasts may be substituted) • 1 cup hoisin sauce • 1/3 cup soy sauce • 4 tablespoons chili garlic sauce • 2 tablespoons minced ginger • 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Directions: Combine liquid ingredients, ginger and sesame seeds in a bowl and mix well. Place game birds into a flat container and cover with marinade. Rub sauce over birds and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and allow to marinate for a few hours.

Suggestion for serving: Serve grilled birds over a bed of quinoa, couscous or brown rice mixed with dried cherries and pine nuts.

May also just garnish with orange slices and sprigs of rosemary.

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Grill birds on a hot grill, skin side down, for two minutes.

Turn birds and grill for another two minutes. Remove from grill and allow to rest for a minute or two. H

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Holiday Food

around the world

By Kim Boisvert

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October/November 2019

NOT ONLY DOES TRADITION OFFER A SENSE OF BELONGING, IT ALSO SERVES AS A WAY TO RECONNECT WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

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he winter holiday season is almost here.

Anticipation of family gatherings occupies our thoughts as we begin to make plans.

Every family has its unique traditions for celebrating the holidays, and food is a huge part of those traditions. Some would argue that the food is the best part of the tradition. Recipes that have been handed down for generations are lovingly prepared and enjoyed with family and friends all over the world.

Many of the holiday food traditions around the world require some planning. In Ethiopia, farmers begin weeks in advance to fatten lambs which are used for yebeg wot, a thick, spiced stew served with flatbread for Christmas dinner.

Pasteles, Puerto Rican tamales, are very time consuming to make. Family members gather for days making and freezing hundreds of them to serve during the holiday season. In England, mince, the filling for classic mince pies, is made up to a month before Christmas to allow the flavors to blend.

Christmas pudding, another English tradition, needs four to six weeks to mature before its presentation at the holiday meal.

In Japan, preparations for the Christmas Eve meal begin two months in advance with families ordering their meal from KFC. For many countries, the symbolism and the manner in which a food is served is just as important as the actual food.

For instance, saffron buns, a Swedish holiday staple, are served by the eldest daughter. Latkes, the traditional Hanukkah dish fried in oil, symbolize the miracle of a day’s portion of oil lasting for eight days. The Christmas Eve feast in Poland consists of 12 dishes, mostly fish and vegetables, that are meant to be a reminder of the 12 Apostles.

Last, but definitely not least, are the holiday sweet treats.

In Italy, panettone is a favorite. It is a dome-shaped sweet bread loaded with raisins, citron, lemon peel shavings and candied orange. However, panettone is not just a favorite in Italy, Peruvians also enjoy the treat with cups of spiced hot chocolate.

While the Greeks enjoy baklava year-round, melomakarona, cookies made with cinnamon, cloves and orange, then dipped in spiced syrup and topped with chopped nuts, join the holiday table. Chile has its own version of a fruitcake, pan de Pascua, flavored with rum, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

While every culture and family within that culture has different customs for celebrating the holiday season, the significance of those rituals is universal. Not only does tradition offer a sense of belonging, it also serves as a way to reconnect with family and friends. Memories of traditions strengthen family bonds and provide comfort when loved ones are separated. Preparing a recipe that has been handed down is a meaningful way to bridge gaps between generations and provides a legacy for generations to come. Finally, the anticipation of the familiar smells and tastes of the holiday season is exciting and makes the countdown more fun.

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EASY COSTA RICAN TAMALES Makes 20-30 tamales

Ingredients: • 2 pounds banana leaves • 3 pounds beef, chicken or pork, cut into medium sized chunks • 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, cubed and boiled until soft • 5 cups cooked rice • 2 pounds instant corn masa • 2 teaspoons cumin, separated • Raisins • Salt • Pepper • Onion • Garlic • Olive oil

Directions: Brown the meat with onion, peppers, garlic, salt, pepper and one teaspoon cumin. Cover with water and simmer for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Remove meat and shred, reserving the liquid. In a bowl, mix the masa, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon cumin. Add a little olive oil and slowly add the reserved cooking liquid until the dough is tacky. Mix by hand into a paste. Cut the banana leaves into squares and place 3 to 4 tablespoons of the masa paste in the center of each square, then fill with meat, potatoes, rice, a couple of raisins and anything else that sounds good. Seal the fillings by folding the banana leaves and tying with a cotton string.

Cook the tamales in gently boiling water for 1 hour. Enjoy.

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CLASSIC MINCE TARTS Yields 12 small tarts

Ingredients: • 1 cup raisins • 1 cup golden raisins • 1 cup currants • 2 medium tart apples, cored, peeled, and coarsely chopped • 1/4 cup mixed candied peel • Grated rinds of one small orange and one small lemon • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg • 1/2 teaspoon allspice • Pinch of salt • 1/2 cup golden raisins, to add after processing • 1/3 cup currants, to add after processing • 2/3 cup slivered almonds • 3 tablespoons melted butter • 1/4 cup brandy, or to taste • Favorite crust recipe

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Directions to make the filling:

Directions to make the tarts:

Place the raisins, golden raisins, currants, chopped apples, candied peel, grated orange and lemon rinds, brown sugar, spices and salt into a food processor bowl. Process until finely minced. Do not puree.

Add the almonds and process just enough to break up the nuts. After transferring the mixture to a bowl, stir in the remaining raisins and currants, melted butter and brandy to taste. Store in an airtight container until ready to use. Use within a month.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut rounds of dough that fit the bottom of a muffin cup and come 3/4-inch up the sides. Gently line 12 muffin cups, saving the dough scraps to cut stars for the tops. Using a fork, prick the pastry on the bottom of muffin cups to prevent puffing. Spoon about 4 heaping teaspoons of the mince into each cup. Cut small stars from dough scraps. Spritz the stars with water before placing one on top of each tart. Bake for 28-30 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.

October/November 2019

LATKES Yield: 12–14 latkes

Ingredients: • 1 pound potatoes, grated • 2 small onions, minced • 2 eggs, beaten • 3 tablespoons flour • Salt and pepper to taste • Oil with high smoke point for frying — avocado, grapeseed, peanut

Directions: In a large bowl, combine potatoes, onions, eggs, salt and pepper. Add just enough flour for mixture to stick together.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Shape the potato mixture into small balls then flatten and carefully place in the pan. Fry the latkes in batches 4 to 5 minutes per side until golden brown. Remove from pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Serve warm with apple sauce or sour cream if desired.

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CHRISTMAS PUDDING Serves 8 *Should be made four to six weeks in advance

Ingredients: • 1 pound mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants) • 3 tablespoons mixed candied peel • 1 small apple, peeled, cored and minced • Grated rind of orange and small lemon • 2 tablespoons orange juice • 2 teaspoons lemon juice • 4 tablespoons brandy • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon • 1/2 teaspoon allspice • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg • 1/2 cup suet or butter (or a combination of both) • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar • 1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs • 2 large eggs

Directions: Lightly butter a 5-cup (2 and 1/2-pint) pudding basin. In a large mixing bowl, add the dried fruit, candied peel, apple, orange juice and lemon juice. Stir in the brandy, cover the bowl and marinate for a few hours or overnight. In another large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and spices. Add the suet/ butter, orange and lemon rinds, sugar and breadcrumbs and mix well. Mix in the marinated dried fruit. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then stir into the batter. Spoon the mixture into the buttered pudding basin and gently press down.

Cover with two layers of parchment paper and then a layer of aluminum foil. Wrap string around the lip of the bowl, loop

across the top then circle around the bowl again and tie on the other side, forming a handle. Steam the pudding for 7 hours, checking the water level regularly so it doesn’t boil dry. (If you don’t have a steamer, you can place the basin on a trivet inside a pot. Fill the water half way up the side of the basin and cover the pot with a tightfitting lid.) Allow the pudding to cool completely and prick the bottom to add a little more brandy if desired.

Cover with fresh parchment paper and re-tie the string. Store in a cool place to allow the flavors to blend. On Christmas Day, reheat by steaming for about an hour.

SPICED HOT CHOCOLATE Serves 4

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Ingredients:

Directions:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder • 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon ground clove • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon • 2 1/2 cups water • 2, 12 oz. cans evaporated milk

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the dry ingredients. Over medium-high heat, whisk in the water and continue to whisk until the cocoa and sugar are dissolved.

Bring the mixture to a soft boil and whisk in the milk. Remove from heat and serve. Optional toppings include shaved chocolate, cinnamon, whipped cream and candied citrus. H

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We excel in perfectly engineered solutions from traditional systems to unique services such as home automation and geothermal, providing energy-efficient comfort and convenience. We look forward to gaining your trust and finding the best solutions for your home or business. PHA proudly serves the Peninsula including Yorktown and Williamsburg, Middle Peninsula, and parts of the Northern Neck.

4471 GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL HWY. (RT. 17), HAYES, VIRGINIA 23072 (804) 642-6163 | (757) 877-4241 | PHA4U.COM The House & Home Magazine

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RIVERLAND INSURERS

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iverland Insurers is a locally owned independent insurance agency that has been serving the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula and surrounding areas for over 100 years. We are proud to provide insurance service and products to our customers that continue to meet their needs. Riverland offers relationship based customer service, choice and value.

636 CHURCH LANE, TAPPAHANNOCK, VA 22560 | (800) 443-6465 6372 MECHANICSVILLE TPK, SUITE 102 MECHANICSVILLE, VA 23111 (804) 723-4952 WWW.RIVERLANDINSURERS.COM 74

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RAPPAHANNOCK COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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our success matters at Rappahannock Community College!

Established in 1970, RCC serves Virginia’s Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula and surrounding areas.

RCC is home to multiple associate degrees and certificate programs, as well as robust and varied Workforce programs. RCC has been named a “Great College to Work For” by the Chronicle of Higher Education since 2015.

Rappahannock Community College celebrates its 50th anniversary with an open house -- open to the public -Saturday, January 11, 2020, from 1pm to 4pm at the Glenns campus. Free trolley rides will be provided between the Glenns and Warsaw campuses. Celebrate with us at Rappahannock Community College.

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COLDWELL BANKER CHESAPEAKE BAY PROPERTIES

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tarted by Sandra Hargett in 2008, Coldwell Banker Chesapeake Bay Properties was founded on the timeless value of family, community, and integrity. These same values make the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula great places to live. Through a creative approach and a commitment to exceeding expectations, we work hard every day to provide the best possible results for every client. Our team utilizes the latest technological resources and communication channels, including social media, to generate maximum exposure for clients. We skillfully guide property owners through each phase of the selling process, from listing your property through closing. And, since every agent in our firm lives here, we have a higher level of insider knowledge. We know the players, the true value of homes and land in this market, and have the skills to negotiate the best possible deal for buyers. Call Coldwell Banker Chesapeake Bay Properties at 804-436-9145 when you are ready to buy or sell and let’s chat. You deserve to work with a firm who will always be by your side. Remember, “If you want to know everything about a place, you ask a local. That would be us.”

276 NORTH MAIN STREET, KILMARNOCK, VIRGINIA 22482 804-436-9145 | CHESAPEAKEBAYCONNECTION.COM 76

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B.H. BAIRD INSURANCE AGENCY A Towne Family Company

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stablished in 1895, B.H. Baird Insurance Agency has long been providing all lines of insurance, specializing in commercial, personal, and life and health lines. Visit one of our locations in Warsaw, Burgess, or The Tidewater Auto Insurance Clinic in Tappahannock and see why we have been voted “The Best of the Best” since 1999.

5682 RICHMOND ROAD WARSAW, VA 22572 (804) 333-4013 The House & Home Magazine

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VIRGINIA BUILDING SOLUTIONS

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BS is the leader in custom systems built and modular construction throughout Eastern Virginia, the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula to Gloucester, Williamsburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg. We specialize in CUSTOM plans, so bring us YOUR plan for a FREE feasibility review and estimate.

The VBS Difference is that not only do we provide the building structure, VBS will complete the entire project from excavation to landscaping, build your porches, decks, garages, sunrooms and more, TURN KEY. VBS has full-time experienced carpenters and TWO Class A Builders on staff to manage the construction process.

137 HOSPITAL ROAD | PO BOX 820 | TAPPAHANNOCK, VA 22560 (804) 443-4663 | WWW.VABUILDINGSOLUTIONS.COM 78

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VENEY’S HEATING AND AIR

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he year was 1981 when Melvin and Caroline started Veney’s Heating and Air. As time passed, they brought their children into the business, sons Daryl and Dwayne, and Dwayne’s wife Irene. Veney’s Heating and Air started out by servicing the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula and now, with the help and support of our dedicated staff, we do residential and commercial heating and air throughout a large portion of the state of Virginia.

511 S. MAIN STREET, KILMARNOCK, VIRGINIA 22482 (804) 435-3118 | (800) 645-3090 The House & Home Magazine

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KNIGHT CHIROPRACTIC

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t Knight Chiropractic, a patient’s health and wellness is the top priority. When Dr. Joel Knight decided to move his business to Warsaw - September marked a year at the new location - he brought his vision for patient-centered health care to life, encouraging the community to consider the many benefits of chiropractic care. Located at the old florist location on the corner of Route 360 and Hamilton Blvd in Warsaw, open Monday-Friday, call (804)333-3269 to schedule an appointment.

6171 RICHMOND ROAD, WARSAW, VA 22572 (804) 333-3269 80

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FEATHER YOUR NEST

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eather Your Nest is a charming interior design and home decorating shop in Warsaw. The moment you step into the shop, you will discover that consignment items look almost as new as new and at prices that truly are affordable.With Feather Your Nest and Cindy Lloyd Design, you can be assured that my focus is on creating beautiful and comfortable living spaces specifically designed for each client. Knowing you can expect full attention, I hope you will consider me for your decorating project, large or small.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to those of you who have shopped with me and especially to those who have opened their homes for my guidance. I’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

5011 RICHMOND ROAD, WARSAW, VA 22572 | (804) 761.3715 | (804) 333.6463 WWW.FEATHERYOURNESTCINDYLLOYDDESIGN.COM The House & Home Magazine

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AS WITH SO MANY ANTIQUE ESTATES, THERE IS AMPLE JUSTIFICATION FOR GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS AT STRATFORD HALL, FOR ALONG WITH ITS MAJESTIC ELOQUENCE, FAMILY MEMBERS THROUGH THE CENTURIES HAVE HAD THEIR SHARE OF TRAGIC EVENTS.

Spirits the of

By L.B. Taylor, Jr.* Photos provided by Stratford Hall

STRATFORD P HALL

aranormal experts, if there are such things, are in general agreement that Virginia is one of the most haunted states, perhaps the most haunted, in the nation. And for good reason. It is the oldest colony in America and there are more surviving old houses here than anywhere else. Plus, since the experts contend that tragic and traumatic deaths are a leading cause for the existence of ghosts, if there are such things as ghosts, then Virginia surely ranks at the top of the list since there has been more blood shed here over the past 400 years, dating from Indian attacks on the early settlers on up through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

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Accounts of lingering spirits blanket the entire map of the Old Dominion, from Winchester south to Bristol, and from Monterey east to Virginia Beach. The Northern Neck is not excluded from this questionable list and, arguably, one of the most haunted houses in this historic area is Stratford Hall. It was here, of course, that Robert E. Lee was born in 1807. The mansion itself dates to the late 1730s.

Among its long ago occupants are some of the most famous men in American history, including Richard Henry Lee, a leader of the Continental Congress, and Light Horse Harry Lee, a hero of the Revolutionary War and Robert’s father.

As with so many antique estates, there is ample justification for ghostly encounters at Stratford Hall, for along with its majestic eloquence, family members through the centuries have had their share of tragic events. If a visitor to the house today asks a tour guide about ghosts, he or she is told they are not part of the narrative. The guides are trained to “protect” the historical integrity of the site. The key to finding a more positive answer to such a provocative question is to query others. Find a maid, janitor, or better yet, a night security guard, and they may well reveal some of Stratford Hall’s most guarded secrets.

That is precisely what the author did some years ago, and the results were quite surprising. Here are some examples. A domestic worker walked into the library one day to clean it, and then promptly retreated. Her supervisor asked what happened, and she replied that she didn’t want to disturb the gentleman inside. The supervisor replied, “What gentleman?”

The worker said she saw a figure in old fashioned clothes checking over some papers. The two women then reentered the library. There was no one there. The worker became very frightened and fled the house.

Once, a well-known psychic visited.

When she passed through the great hall on the second floor, she stopped and said she felt “so many good impressions.”

She claimed to see the room full of Lees, and that there was dancing, music and entertainment. She added that the Lees were pleased with how the house was being taken care of.

A hostess said her encounter came on a dismal, dark winter afternoon. During a tour, she saw a woman and a child in The House & Home Magazine

Slaves’ quarters

Burial vault

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A dependency cabin at Stratford Hall

a room in colonial period costume. She thought it was another hostess, but when she later asked the other hostess about it, she was told the other hostess hadn’t even been upstairs. Then the second hostess lifted her hand, covered her mouth and said that the first hostess “had finally seen them.” Who? She had seen Ann Lee, the distraught and brokenhearted wife of Black Horse Harry Lee, and their little daughter, Margaret, who had died in the house at age two in 1820 after falling down the stairs.

Others, including tourists, have reported hearing a phantom woman calling for a child, the sound of a child running, and then both of them laughing as if they were playing together.

Security guards, too, have experienced various forms of psychic manifestations. One said that a lot of mysterious things happen here, especially strange noises at night. Like what?

“Loud racket,” he emphasized, and, “the sounds of heavy furniture being moved around when no one is in the room.”

Also, he said: “Other times we heard rustling sounds, like petticoats and skirts rubbing against chairs and tables, but you never see anything.” One officer said he heard fiddle and harp music on occasion.

Another guard said that one night he was sitting in a chair when something unseen grabbed his sleeve and lifted his arm straight up. Also, he added, when he was alone one night reading a book, he got up to make his rounds and when he came back the book had flatly disappeared. One guard told of a new man on the job. “He quit after one hour and wouldn’t even talk about what happened to him.”

Two officers said that on multiple occasions they had seen the apparition of a small boy, about three or four years old, 84

wearing dark purple britches and a light colored purple shirt with ruffled sleeves. Each time they approached the figure, he evaporated before their eyes. One said, “I believe he was a spirit. If he wasn’t, where did he go?” Could it have been the ghost of Robert E. Lee, who moved out of Stratford Hall when he was just three-and-a-half? Another clue suggests that it might be the son of Philip Ludwell Lee, himself the son of Thomas Lee, the founder of the house. According to family lore, this boy fell down the stairs in the mansion one day in 1779.

He was four years old.

Possibly the most terrifying encounters were experienced by J.R. “Butch” Myers, a leather craftsman who lives in Richmond.

He travels about demonstrating how eighteenth-century shoes are made. In June 1989, he was at an exhibition at Stratford Hall. He spent the night in a dependency building near the main house. Getting ready for bed, he lit six candles in stands, then heard approaching footsteps outside and assumed it was the security guard making his rounds.

Myers recalled: “I took a couple of steps toward the door when a sudden down draft of freezing cold air hit me, taking my breath away. It was like walking into a cold storage locker.

I got goosebumps all over. Just as this happened, there was a thunderous noise in the chimney. It sounded like the whole building was going to collapse. I didn’t find this out until later, but the chimney was sealed top and bottom. There was no way anything alive could be in it. If this wasn’t scary enough, and believe me it was,” Myers continued, “I turned around just in time to see the candles go out. They didn’t go out at once, as if blown out by a down shaft of air. They went out one at a time, October/November 2019

in sequence, as if someone was snuffing them out!” At first Myers thought someone was playing a joke on him, but then he realized he was alone in the room. He told a security guard what happened, and the man didn’t seem surprised. He just said, “Oh, you’ve just met our friend.”

Myers returned to his room and relit the candles. He said: “Now you can believe this or not, I don’t care, but the icy coldness hit me again, and the racket kicked up in the chimney, which really scared me now, because the guard had told me about it being sealed. Then, someone or something very methodically extinguished each candle again, this time in reverse order! There definitely was something there, a presence or whatever you want to call it. It was enough for me. I said, ‘Listen, you can have the room. Just let me get my pillow and blanket, and I will get out of here.’ And I got out of there as quick as I could and went over to another dependency, where the guard was, and I told him I was spending the night with him!”

Myers went back to Stratford Hall five years later for another craft show on the grounds. He refused to stay in the dependency where he had been before, but one evening he walked over to it. “It was a nice gentle breeze blowing,” he says, “but when I got in front of the building, everything was deathly still. Nothing was stirring. It was an eerie feeling. I put my hand on the doorknob, and it was like clutching an icicle.

That’s as far as I got. I wouldn’t go back into that room. There was something in there that didn’t want me inside. The guards told me it wouldn’t hurt me, but they hadn’t felt what I had in that room. I’m not saying definitely that it was something evil,

EVERYTHING WAS DEATHLY STILL. NOTHING WAS STIRRING. IT WAS AN EERIE FEELING. I PUT MY HAND ON THE DOORKNOB, AND IT WAS LIKE CLUTCHING AN ICICLE. MY HAND ON THE DOORKNOB, AND IT WAS LIKE CLUTCHING AN ICICLE. THAT’S AS FAR AS I GOT. I WOULDN’T GO BACK INTO THAT ROOM.

but I didn’t want to stick around and find out. It had made its point with me. I’m not psychic or anything, but I believe there is something to ghosts and spirits and there’s a lot we don’t understand about all that yet. But I can say for sure that I am certain there is something otherworldly at Stratford Hall. There was something unexplained in that room, and one experience with whatever it was, or is, was enough for me!”

*Editor’s note: This article is an edited version of one which appeared in a previous edition of The House and Home Magazine.

Mr. Taylor passed away on February 23, 2014. There are 13 independent volumes of The Ghosts of Virginia, covering the entire Commonwealth. Civil War Ghosts of Virginia and The Ghosts of Fredericksburg both include a chapter on Stratford Hall. H

The kitchen at Stratford Hall, where spirits have reportedly been sighted The House & Home Magazine

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New Faces

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O F

MEET SOME

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H E A L T H

OF LOCAL, COMPASSIONATE HEALTH CARE

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f you’ve visited a doctor’s office recently there is a high probability that you’ve seen a Nurse Practitioner (NP) or Physician Assistant (PA).

NPs and PAs (collectively known as advanced practice practitioners, or APPs) are widely used in hospitals, clinics and a variety of health care settings.

Locally, Riverside Medical Group employs APPs in almost every practice.

A LONG PROFESSIONAL HISTORY. For more than 50 years, NPs and PAs have become a valued part of the health care team. Whether helping to provide care to smaller and rural communities or working alongside providers in every setting of care, NPs and PAs are qualified 94

to take medical histories, perform physical examinations, diagnose medical problems, order therapy, counsel patients, and prescribe medications.

NPs and physicians at Riverside work as a team when developing a care plan for patients. This collaborative approach improves access to both primary care and specialty care by allowing patients to be seen by multiple professionals in a practice. That generally means less wait time to get an appointment and more schedule openings for new patients.

WHAT SHOULD WE CALL YOU? It seems like a simple question, but these different provider types leave some patients confused about how to address them – especially when they are used to referring to their provider as “doctor.” Most of the APPs we spoke to prefer to be called by their first name. They are less concerned about the October/November 2019

H E A L T H

KELSI BAUGHAN, NP

SUSAN HERNDON, NP

formality and more concerned with getting to know patients, educating them about their conditions and promoting health and prevention as the best medicine.

QUALITY CARE IS CLOSE TO HOME. Susie Herndon got her Bachelors of Nursing from Johns Hopkins University was a nurse for more than 20 years before she decided to become a nurse practitioner. After earning a Masters of Science in Nursing with a concentration in oncology, she now travels from Mechanicsville to see patients at the Riverside Tappahannock Hospital Cancer Center.

She likes the opportunity to help patients navigate their cancer journey, providing support and education throughout their treatment.

“Everyone deserves high quality care, no matter where they live,” Herndon adds. “I can get to know my patients and develop treatment plans that meet each patient’s unique needs.”

After working as a nurse in the emergency department of RTH for many years, Robin Lee is now a nurse practitioner at Tappahannock Family Practice. She enjoys being able to see patients from youth through adulthood and into their senior years. She holds a Masters in Nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

A Northern Neck native, Lee grew up in Colonial Beach, Virginia. Her many connections to the area are why she chose to practice here.

“This is a wonderful community to provide care,” says Lee. “It’s also somewhere I enjoy spending time with my family.”From her experience, Lee said, she believes patients just want a qualified and knowledgeable professional with whom to discuss their health issues.

Kelsi Baughan, a pediatric nurse practitioner, practices at Warsaw Pediatrics. Baughan is a Tappahannock native and Essex High School graduate. She always knew she wanted to practice in her hometown.

“I love being able to practice in the small, waterfront town where everyone is connected,” says Baughan.

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Virginia, then a Master and eventually Doctor of The House & Home Magazine

ROBIN LEE, NP

STEPHANIE OETTING, NP

Nursing Practice from Old Dominion University, she is happy to take care of “kiddos” in her local community.

“We serve a large area, which means patients don’t have to travel outside of our region for quality pediatric care,” adds Baughan.

When Stephanie Oetting completed her Doctor of Nursing degree from the University of Missouri, she wanted to find a general surgery practice.

She was from a small town in her home state of Missouri and knew she wanted to provide care in a community setting.

She was drawn to the coastal area of Virginia and also enjoyed the idea of providing care that would make a real difference for patients. When Riverside Surgical Specialists came calling, she knew she found the right practice.

“We’re helping improve access to care for patients in a large geographic region,” Oetting explains. “I see patients for colonoscopy consults, preoperative evaluations and minor procedures including skin biopsies and wound care.”

Paul Franklin transitioned from 17 years in a surgical trauma ICU to a private practice NP working with Dr. Tyler “I BELIEVE THE WORK OF APPS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER MEMBER OF THE RIVERSIDE CARE TEAM. WE EMBODY RIVERSIDE’S MISSION TO CARE FOR OTHERS AS WE WOULD CARE FOR THOSE WE LOVE.” - STEPHANIE OETTING Wind at Northern Neck Bone & Joint Center. He specializes in joint injections, splinting, casting and fracture care while helping patients understand every aspect of their conditions and treatment.

At Riverside and throughout the country, APPs not only offer access to health care, but they also add an important dimension of holistic, patient-centered care that is grounded in patient partnerships.

“I believe the work of APPs is no different than any other member of the Riverside care team,” explains Oetting. “We embody Riverside’s mission to care for others as we would care for those we love.” H 95

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