Whiteley Creek Homestead

thomas edison lab factory and home

Dick proudly boasts of his connection to Thomas Edison. He says his grandmother, Olive Clifton Dullum is a second or third cousin to Thomas Edison's second wife, Mina (pronounced my-na) Miller Edison. So, to visit Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory, factory, and home on the day he celebrated his 66th birthday, it was a very special day indeed. He can be seen below in the far right of the left photo walking across the courtyard between the three-story building that was one of Edison's factories, and a long, narrow building that was Edison's lab. The photo on the right shows what the lab looked like in Edison's day. The equipment and supplies used to conduct experiments still remain on the original lab tables and shelves today.

Although some buildings are closed to visitors, there is much to see. Many items are professionally displayed with identifying information, but some areas are as if the workers moments ago left for lunch and plan to return. When we think of Thomas Edison, the light bulb immediately comes to mind, as in this old string of Christmas tree lights, but his patents are varied and numerous. Did you know he invented the first phonograph? While he continued to perfect his phonograph, he restructured one of his factories to begin manufacturing electrical household appliances such as this toaster from his high-end Edicraft line.

For forty-five years, Thomas and Mina resided at Glenmont, a 23-room home on thirteen acres in West Orange, New Jersey overlooking the valley where Edison's lab and factory were built. The house is open to the public for guided tours. (Photos Source: Mina Miller Edison. A Publication of the Charles Edison Fund, 1981.) I would have been perfectly content as a servant there...

In the kitchen maybe? It was the pan of cutout sugar cookies.

 

heirloom bean and ham soup

In May, I purchased six seed packets containing different varieties of heirloom soup beans from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. The spring's warm, moist garden soil encouraged the seeds to sprout and begin the rapid ascent skyward, curling their tendrils to grasp the trellis's grid until autumn's natural dehydrator signaled harvest time.

A fifteen-month old's tiny handprint on my window. A short nine months later, those same hands belonging to my youngest grandaughter had the dexterity to shell beans from my garden...

for a pot of "Ham Bone, Greens, and Bean Soup" from Molly Wizenberg's blog, Orangette. Molly is author of A Homemade Life, which is a mix of recipes and the stories behind the recipes... lovely storytelling. My copy is dog-eared from its frequent use in my kitchen. 

The ham for my bean soup came from hormone-free, pasture-raised Red Wattle Hogs raised at Grass is Greener Farm in Bremen, Indiana. In danger of extinction, the hogs share the farm with other heritage breeds including Red Poll Cattle, St. Croix Sheep, Silver Appleyard Ducks, and Bourbon Red Turkey. We stumbled upon this farm at an amazing farmer's market in Goshen, Indiana. After picking up some items at Goshen's Maple City Market Natural Foods Co-op, a friendly resident outside the store told us about the Goshen Farmer's Market down the street. What a discovery! Open year-round on Saturdays from 8-1 and May-October on Tuesdays from 3-6, the indoor market features a wide array of farmers, bakers and artisans. Live music provides a gentle but energizingly festive atmosphere. Note: A local source for amazing, humanely-raised pork products is Fox Farm Pork in Browerville, Minnesota. Their products are sold at the Crow Wing Food Co-op in Brainerd. To add healing collagen, I added Organic Chicken Bone Broth to the soup pot.

buckeyes

At Henry Ford's Greenfield Village, there is a restaurant called A Taste of History. I am not telling you of it to rave about its menu, since Dick and I did not have a meal there. What we did discover was buckeyes... a sweet confection of peanut butter fudge-like filling coated in chocolate. After buying just one to try, I took a tiny bite and handed it to Dick to taste. In one chomp, it was gone. I whined. My intent was for him to hand the buckeye back to me for another bite. If my whining, which now had transitioned to a rant, was to cease, Dick knew we must go back for another. After a little nibble from the second one, I handed it to Dick. So he could have a little bite. Chomp. It was gone. Huh? Good grief. No way was he, nor I, going back for another. No, I would find a recipe and make an entire batch, and so I did.

My online search turned up two versions... smooth and crunchy. Rice Krispies provide the crunch. The buckeyes that we had sampled at A Taste of History were crunchy, so that's what I made. I used One Degree Organic Foods Veganic Sprouted Brown Rice Crisps made with organic sprouted brown rice, organic coconut palm sugar, unrefined salt, tocopherols (Vitamin E) as an alternative to Kellogg's Rice Krispies. After researching several buckeye recipes online, this is my version. I think I nailed it.

Crispy Buckeyes

¾ cup powdered sugar

½ cup peanut butter

2 tbsp butter, softened

¼ tsp vanilla

½ cup crispy rice cereal (I smashed it a little.)

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

½ tbsp coconut oil

Combine first five ingredients using a mixer or food processor. Form into one tablespoon balls. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes. Melt chocolate chips with coconut oil in the top of a double boiler over simmering water just until melted. Stir to hasten the process. Insert a toothpick into a chilled ball, then dip into melted chocolate to coat. Traditional buckeyes are left uncoated on top. (See photo.) Optionally, you can drizzle melted chocolate over top with a spoon to coat completely. Store in refrigerator. Makes 15 balls.

Do you love the black and white Rice Krispies Treats commercials that have a 1950s vibe? I do. Especially the ones featuring Hawaiian artist Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole's (Kah-MAH-kah-VEE-voh-OH-lay) version of "Over the Rainbow." Like this one. http://youtu.be/BXdNLDFPyPw Listen to it while you nibble on this delectable crispy treat. Then, click over here http://youtu.be/V1bFr2SWP1I?list=RDpYkSHg7RcXU to meet this amazing man who died in 1997 at the age of 38. His ashes were scattered off the coast of the island of Oahu.

 

 

 

henry ford's greenfield village

Adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is expansive acreage where Henry Ford preserved history in another way. Having the foresight to identify those who represent the heartbeat of America... people who would eventually find a place on the pages of our history books, he set about to preserve their memory by relocating 83 homes and businesses to 80 acres that was named Greenfield Village. Although a part of me feels that the buildings would be more authentic had they not been uprooted from their birthplace, I know that it would be difficult to visit all of them if they were scattered in various locations across the country. Also, they would eventually have fallen in disrepair and many would have been demolished.

Left Photo - Built near Columbiana, Ohio in 1828, this brick farmhouse was the childhood home of tire maker Harvey Firestone. It is a working farm where sheep are sheared, pigs are butchered, eggs are gathered, and horses pull plows where crops are planted and harvested. At the farm, and throughout the Village, costumed interpreters complete daily and seasonal chores like washing and mending laundry, churning butter, making soap, canning garden produce, and making apple butter.

Right Photo - When he was a poet-in-residence at the University of Michigan, Robert Frost lived in this house that was built about 1835. It was moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When we stepped across the threshhold of the front door, Robert Frost's voice greeted us as he read his 1920 poem, "The Road Not Taken."

The Road Not Taken 

By Robert Frost 1874-1963

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

    Wilbur and Orville Wright funded their aviation experiments with income generated in their bicycle business. Parts used in the assembly of their planes were built in their shop. In 1936, Henry Ford moved the cycle shop and the Wright family home from Dayton, Ohio to a peaceful street in Greenfield Village where they sit side by side.

 

   Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, the courthouse where Abrahan Lincoln practiced law, Noah Webster's New Haven, Connecticut home where he compiled the first American dictionary and wrote textbooks, and on and on it goes. So many lives. Gathered together in one place.

henry ford museum

The Henry Ford, which includes the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Benson Ford Research Center, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, and Imax Theater is worth driving, say... 810 miles. From Brainerd, Minnesota to Dearborn, Michigan, that's what Dick and I did. Think of the experience as a pop-up book. Our nation's history unfolding and coming to life in 3-D like a page from my Chronicles of Narnia book.

The displays in the Henry Ford Museum feature original objects representative of decades as well as specific events within. 1)This flashy Holiday Inn sign was used when the hotel chain opened in 1952. It was designed as a "beacon in the night" for travelers on the new interstate highways. In 1982, the sign was replaced with a small plastic one that was more energy efficient. 2)In 1994, the number of hamburgers sold exceeded 99 billion. It was decided to cease counting and change signs to read billions and billions served.

The actual bus that Rosa Parks rode when refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger is open to sit and ponder. My entrance onto the bus triggered a ceiling light to shine above the third seat in the right hand row where Rosa was seated. As I sat down in the rear, Rosa's voice describing that day could be heard as clear as if she was present still.  

I was naturally drawn to the displays that impacted my life as a child such as 1)President Kennedy's limousine that he was riding in when he was fatally shot and 2)Written on a school classroom's chalkboard, instructions to follow during a routine civil defense drill implemented when the Soviet Union began nuclear testing. The drill became as routine as reciting the morning's Pledge of Allegiance.

The professionally constructed displays at the Henry Ford Museum summarize historical events sensitively with maximum impact. Viewing the impressive preservation of irreplaceable artifacts at this museum triggers memories and a respect for those who played a role in shaping our nation. I highly recommend a visit.

 

 

reforestation

In May, Dick and I planted 175 confers.

Three different kinds on our 35-acre property.

Then, in October, after harvesting the last of our garden's late season crops, we began to plant again. Three deciduous trees. Larger ones than the conifers. A curly willow (aka corkscrew willow) for landscape interest and cuttings for decorating. According to Organic Gardening's website, "Don't expect curly willow to live for decades; its flame burns quick and bright, perfect if you want a large tree but are unable to wait 50 years." Yes. Perfect. 

The snow began to fall and blanket the ground over the roots of one of two river birch that we planted. A mature tree, planted years ago when it was no bigger than this transplant, oversees its growth in the background. On daily walks in our woods, we looked for our little conifers and were proud.

My fenced garden now slumbers. When the spring thaw melts the snow from our chairs, we will once again sit together to remember where we've been and what we've done then plan what's next.