Adam picked up the car and managed to get back to the condo without a hitch. We loaded up and with Tony navigating (as usual) we got onto the right road. We were priviledged enough to be allowed to cross the Verazano Bridge, at $10 toll, we wish we would have declined the invitation and taken the ferry.
At any rate it did make the trip go much faster and we got into PA in short order. We managed to make another wrong turn somehow but didn’t feel like going back so we stopped for lunch at a Ruby Tuesday’s.
It was a special trip as we think it was the first time we stopped in a restaurant for lunch while on the road. Partly this was due to Tony not feeling well and Adam deciding he needed some soup! While at the restaurant we got our bearings.
We took the back route to get to our destination which was the Peter Wentz Farmstead, the Wentz Family Cemetery and the Wentz Reform Church (notice a theme here?) Adam is a descendant of Peter Wentz and the farm here is a national historic monument as General George Washington shacked up there for a bit during a time of transition for the British.
The farm isn’t open on Mondays. It would have been really nice of them to include that fact on their website, which was remarkably devoid of practical information. Anyhow, we headed off to the church and then to the cemetery. The local historical society has done a great job of clearing and taking care of the cemetery. When Adam last visited 8 years ago, it was kind of hard to find and quite overgrown. This time there were signs, a new fieldstone wall and all it was in the middle of lawn! What a nice surprise!
After this little jog down memory lane we headed off to visit witih Skip and Marie!. We stopped and picked up a bottle of wine from the local wine shop, which happened to have some Delicato wine (made a mile or so from where Adam grew up!) and made it in time for supper! Marie had made a great pot roast with all kinds of goodies!
The house on the farm is amazing! Built about 1825, with an addition in1850 and another in 1950, it is one house but sort of three separate units. We were put up in the Guest Cottage, with our own kitchen and bath and living room. We didn’t use them, because we were always with Skip and Marie, but it was really nice.
This is a picture of someone else's farm, we forgot to get any of the farm on the way out of town!
Marie made pancakes for us on Tuesday morning. Skip isn’t a big fan of pancakes, so she likes to take the chance when company is around to enjoy making some for people that will enjoy them, too! They were really good, if any of you are ever near Kinser, PA around breakfast time, it’s worth the stop!
Tony was still not feeling well, so Adam got to go exploring solo. There is a large barn which has two levels, the lower level is livestock area the upper level is the hay storage. Since it is not used as much nowadays, it is a lot more storage both up and downstairs, with all kinds of neat finds, like 20 or so cute little barn cats and kittens that scurry around, running toward you when they see you then running away when they get too close! Adam re-united a calf with it’s mom, as it had gotten on the wrong side of the fence and wasn’t having any luck getting back (cows aren’t too bright) After the Barn there is the Tobacco dryinig shed, affectionately referred to as the museum. Again is has two levels, the upper level is mostly tractor storage now, with other large pieces of farm machinery from the 1900’s milling about fighting for a space to disintegrate. I think there were three tractors in there, although I think there were enough parts to build at least one more. There was also the fridge that broke down last winter, and the winter before that and the winter before that, and.. well you get the idea! The lower part of the tobacco shed was kind of a workshop, at one time. It now serves as part root cellar (Marie, if you are looking for your iris rhizomes, the are in there,) part workshop and part old dead stuff storage.
This is Fluffy (not to be confused with a barn cat) - she is playing with our travel mascot.
Moving on to the garage, it houses 3 vehicles, I think. It’s one of the newer additions and hasn’t had much time to get the character the rest of the place has developed.
Off to the basements (yes, basements as in more than one!) So much fun!!!! Basement #1 was under the 1850’s part of the house, I think. It had the canning stuff in it, lots of jars just waiting to get filled up with all kinds of goodies! Basement #2 and three are connected, they comprise the newer part of the house and the oldest part. There is a laundry, boiler (or two), workshop area, lots of storage for the yummy sweet potatoes that Skip sorts and sells through the winter and a freezer or two, a spare cat or two and the area where Marie used to do her stained glass work – which is amazing!
Adam had a ball examining all the structural work and plumbing and electrical stuff. There were at least three stairwells to get into the different basements and at least 4 to go up the second floor. He never figured out how many there actually were to get into the attic, although there was at least one, as he made it up there, too!
Marie had a few things on her honey-do list that Adam got a hold of and started. During his farm tour he had run across the door that needed to get replaced on it’s hinges for the winter. He cleaned it up and got it back up so the heat from the wood stove would help warm up the occupied house instead of the one that had no current bodies to keep warm. After that project there was another door that needed to have some modifications made so it would latch closed. Luckily Marie had seen the hardware and was able to find it pretty quickly. With some more searching Adam found some screws to put it together and it still wasn’t quite right, so he found a space, some longer screws and was happy enough with the job to let it rest.
Marie had to work in the evening so Adam and Tony made teriyaki chicken with rice and broccoli. Skip was not feeling too great himself but was a great conversationalist at the dinner table. We all enjoyed sharing stories while we enjoyed the chicken.
On Wednesday Marie, Tony and Adam headed out for a walk around the farm. The edges of the farm that abut the stream (on two sides) is being planted with trees and shrubs to create a more critter friendly place. (Geekspeak: Riparian habitat restoration) So we headed down to see how that was doing and to get some exercise. It was cold and a bit windy but we walked around the perimeter of the farm and Marie showed us all the trees she has been planting for the last several years. We also got to see a rare site… an old American Elm tree. This species has been just about wiped out in North America as a result of Dutch Elm Disease, so it we felt kind of awed that this specimen was still around.
After warming up a bit, the three headed off to see if they could find the ingredients for making cheese. Marie had some eggplant in the fridge that needed to be used so we decided that some fresh mozzarella to make eggplant parmesan was in order. On our route we headed through Intercourse. We like Intercourse. Intercourse is fun. We think everybody should have Intercourse on their list of things to do. After Intercourse, we drove around the country a bit and saw some of the old farms. We stopped in at Millers, this amazing organic, natural foods store that has no electric lighting, but uses gas lights instead. It has tons of great stuff, lots of local items and all kinds of good for you stuff.
We stopped by to see Marie’s, sister-in-law, sisiter. They have built this great house up on a hill that overlooks the valley. It is a log cabin type construction, so it has all this great wood on the inside and, of course, Adam had to tour the basement and look at the plumbing, electrical, etc..
After our visit, we hit the Lapp Family Dairy, another little local jobber in the area there. They were reputed to have great ice cream, but Adam wasn’t so sure based on the ingredients on the carton which included all kinds of weird stuff (gum Arabic, high fructose corn syrup, etc). He thought it tasted rather chewy. But we did get some really fresh milk for cheese making!
Back at the house Adam started the eggplant while Tony and Marie worked on the cheese. All went well, until they discovered the thermometer was in the curds while the whey was overheating. The result was that the cheese lost it’s elasticity later in the process so we sort of had cheese crumbles instead of slices, but it was still yummy and we learned something new about making cheese (or more accurately how to NOT make cheese!) We also had some of the corn that they raise on the farm. Marie and Skip freeze it so you can have it year round. It was excellent!
Somewhere in there Marie found time to make some homemade bread! By some miracle, it remained untouched until we had it in the morning! That more than anything is proof that Tony and Adam, too, weren’t feeling as good as usual! When we did slice into and toast the bread it was delicious!
Thursday rolled around slowly as usual. We had decided the night before to make reservations at a hotel since we were not feeling so great and didn’t think it would be too nice of us to thank someone who might host us by giving them a cold!
We said our goodbyes and headed off into the sunset.
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