Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
Hard Cider Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 13:46This morning we bottled our latest batch of hard cider. We now have a good supply stored away for the coming year. There is another batch brewing and we may get to more or two more batches this year.
The ciders that I’m making have been evolving and I’ve kept some of them from previous years. This afternoon, I’m going to have a cider tasting and open up several older bottles to see how they’ve aged. We’ve invited a bunch of friends over and the goal is to get all of them to share their impressions of the different ciders. I’ll then try to come up with a good summary of which ciders people liked best, what they liked about them and what I did to make them.
Various things that I’ll look at include the strength, color, clarity, sweetness, fizziness, tartness, bitterness, and any other descriptions I can come up with.
It is a beautiful day outside, so we will probably taste the cider around the picnic table in the front yard. We’ll probably have cheese to clear the palate and the dog running wildly around the guests. It should be fun.
If you have thoughts about what makes for a great hard cider, let me know.
Understanding Our New Haven Promise
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 11/09/2010 - 17:25Yesterday, I received a press release from the City of New Haven. It was announcing an event scheduled for this morning that would
be an announcement of national interest that will change New Haven and the region forever...
and will be viewed by every student at every New Haven Public School because the subject of this event will completely change their lives, their families and their neighborhoods.
It sounded pretty exciting. Could this be an announcement about GoogleHaven? Or, would it simply be some overhyped city announcement.
What I found interesting is that it was tied to the site Our New Haven which is being run by the folks from Ripple100 who have been so involved in GoogleHaven and many other social media activities around New Haven.
It coincided with a ‘Social Media Sync’ gathering at The Grove. Many social media enthusiasts sat down to pancakes and share thoughts as they waited for the announcement.
The live stream started, stuttered, and then failed for many people trying to watch it. There just didn’t seem to be enough bandwidth, and GoogleHaven wasn’t the announcement telling people of more bandwidth to come. Instead, it was ‘The New Haven Promise’.
Already, venerable news organizations like the New Haven Independent have their stories about New Haven Promise up and if you want details about the program, it is a good place to start.
The article talks about Ripple100‘s involvement:
To promote the new program, the school board on Monday approved a contract of up to $20,000 with media consultant Andre Yap, and his business Ripple 100 on Chapel Street, to maintain a New Haven School Change/Promise Website from Oct. 26, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The money will come from the school district operating budget.
Andre was at The Grove to talk about The Promise. He talked about how a similar program in Kalamozoo increased housing values by up to 10% when it started. He spoke about people moving to the area. They would shop at local stores. They would build the workforce. They would make New Haven more attractive to companies looking to hire. It all sounded a bit like the liberal version of trickle-down politics.
This is where the discussion got interesting. One noted critic of the DeStefano administration said that he had always been skeptical of the city’s school building agenda. Yet with The Promise, it all came together. To have a successful program like The Promise, you need to have good schools. Promising tuition to students who achieve in high school doesn’t do much if you don’t provide better ways for them to achieve. Yet at the same time, providing better ways to achieve in school without incentives, without a promise, also isn’t going to do much.
There were discussions about how this applies to undocumented students as well as students attending magnet schools. While out-of-town magnet school students are not promised college tuition, proponents argue that local students will be more motivated. This will result in more motivated teachers, and this will benefit all students, no matter where they come from.
Many of the regulars at The Grove are tied to non-profit organizations and the question quickly moved to what can we, the members of the greater New Haven community do to help students succeed. As various people talked about different programs, the Citywide Youth Coalition was highlighted as a potential focal point and clearinghouse for people interested in helping New Haven High School students succeed.
There was also a lively discussion on Twitter. Some spoke about accessibility to post-secondary education for undocumented students and the importance of the Dream Act. Others wondered when a similar program would be available in their municipality. @Gaber205 tweeted, “I am waiting the similar announcement from Quinnipiac about Hamden kids. No?”
The New Haven Independent article noted
Promise will also pay up to $2,500 in tuition for in-state, nonprofit colleges and universities, including Albertus Magnus, Quinnipiac, Yale and Wesleyan.
So, Quinnipiac stands to gain from this, as does Wesleyan. Perhaps Middletown should be considering Promise as well.
The article at the New Haven Independent ended off with the standard back and forth between cynical and hopeful readers. In many ways, the success of the program most likely boils down to how involved the people of New Haven become. Those who sit back doing nothing but predict decay are likely to contribute to that decay. Those who take an active role in revitalizing New Haven can make a difference. It is a choice each one of us makes as we think about our social contract with the people around us.
Hard Cider Sunday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 09:35Saturday, Beardsley’s Cider Mill in Shelton, CT made more cider than it ever has in a single day. Sunday, I was there to get some of the cider. Here’s the story.
A couple of years ago, after we had been pumpkin picking at Jones Farm, we stopped at the Cider Mill to get some cider and donuts. We noticed a Hard Cider Making Kit that they were selling and my wife said that probably we had all the tools we needed to make our own hard cider. Her first husband had been a brewer and we could probably have one of his old “carboys”; a big glass jug.
So, we picked up a carboy and started making our own hard cider. It’s pretty easy and I encourage first time readers to go back and read through the Hard Cider brewing section of my blog to read my experiences and pick up a few tips.
Beardsley’s gets a lot of people coming into their store after pumpkin picking and when the weather is good as it was this year, October can be a great month for them. As the later apples ripen, often with higher sugar content, many claim the cider gets better for fermenting. I must admit that I really like the hard cider brewed from some of the first apples of the year, but that is a whole different story.
So, as the pumpkin traffic dies down and the later apples start coming in, the folks at Beardsley’s Cider Mill make a special batch of sweet cider. Besides the Northern Spy and Winesap which make up most of the apples in the cider, they throw in some other apples and even a little bit of quince to make the cider a little tarter. Then, hard cider enthusiasts from around the state descend on the cider mill on the first Sunday of November. They line up their carboys waiting to get them filled.
As they wait, they share some of their best batches from previous years along with stories and tips about how to brew it. Personally, I like to make a very simple hard cider. I like to use an ale yeast, do two fermentations, and either add a little maple syrup, or nothing at all. This year there were a lot of people sharing ciders they had made with honey added. There was also a really nice raspberry cider that I’m thinking about trying next year.
Last year, the cider mill made 350 gallons, and it got sold out before everyone get their carboys filled. This year, they doubled the batch and made 700 gallons. On Sunday, they sold 440 gallons, so they still have some available.
If you’re a hard cider brewer, or thinking about brewing hard cider, this would be a good week to get over there and get some of this cider before its gone. For that matter, it is also a great fresh cider, so you might consider picking up a gallon or two just to drink as is.
RIP: Florence Rush Nance Woodiel
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/06/2010 - 16:16The Unitarian Meeting House in Hartford, CT was packed with family, friends, and neighbors gathered to honor the memory of Florence Rush Nance Woodiel and I was prepared for yet another memorial service this year, but not for the memorial I attended.
Noted violinist Paul Woodiel started off the ceremony talking about his mother and playing W.A. Mozart’s Sonata no 21 in E minor, K. 304 Tempo di Meuetto. It was a piece that the young Mozart composed after the death of his mother. When he completed the movement, the congregation applauded.
He told us that Florence Rush Nance Woodiel was born in China and named after her grandmother, Florence Rush Nance, who had been in China as a missionary around the start of the twentieth century. He noted that Florence Rush Nance had been one of the first women to receive a degree in science from Vanderbilt.
A little research reveals takes us to the Vanderbilt University Quarterly of January, 1904 It reports that Walter Nance was accepted by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, South for work in China in July, 1895. On September 27, 1897, he married Florence Rush Keiser. Florence Rush Nance taught mathematics and chemistry in the McTyeire School for Young Ladies.
The Open Library provides information about two books written by Florence Rush Nance, The love story of a maiden of Cathay published in 1911 and Soochow, the Garden City published in 1936.
Earlier this summer, I attended a memorial service for Evelyn Lull who had been a close friend of my family when I was growing up. Evelyn, and Flo both came from liberal traditions growing out of missionary families committed to the arts and fighting for the rights of all people, especially women. Like Flo, Evelyn was also the granddaughter of a strong, science oriented missionary woman. I wonder what sort of stories the grandchildren of the current generation will have to say about their ancestors at the turn of the twenty first century.
Later, Flo’s second cousin, Hodding Carter III spoke more about Flo’s unabashed liberalism and spoke about how we need people with Flo’s spirit now more than ever. For those who do not remember who Hodding Carter III is, back in the 1970s President Carter, who I do not believe is an immediate relative, appointed him Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department spokesman. He was often on the air during the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
In the congregation, Congressman John Larson, State Representative Andrew Fleischmann, and other dignitaries sat with others that had come to remember Flo. The great music continued. There was J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in d minor: Largo, ma non tanto. At the end there were bagpipes.
Hodding Carter III went to Philips Exeter and later to Princeton. Others spoke about fellowships at Harvard, and one person quoted Emerson. This was elite eastern intellectual liberalism at its best.
I come from poorer stock. Generations of New England farmers, and nurses that had been raised as orphans in Canada and come down to New England for better jobs. Yet the underlying ideals of the people that gathered to honor Flo were the same ideals that the nurses and farmers in my family tree held and that we desperately need more of today.
There are some today that sneer at intellectualism, that would trample the arts, and that appear to have little use for the compassion that led ancestors to serve as missionaries over seas, to fight for women’s suffrage, or show concern for the impoverished of today. They are willing to trade everything that has made our country great in defense of selfish tax cuts for the most wealthy amongst us.
As for me, I am glad to stand with Flo, her ancestors, and everyone that gathered to honor so much that she has done. Rest In Peace, Florence Rush Nance Woodiel.
Two Governors
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 09:56One of the local blogs that I really enjoy reading is Small Town Mommy. Her post this morning is about how we now have two governors, or at least two candidates, both of whom claim to have won. She writes:
It would seem to me that there are a finite number of votes for each guy. Why can’t someone figure it out? And how does everyone have such different numbers? Who knows.
Well, we will figure it out, and until it is figured out, there will be lots of political posturing and probably even law suits. However, after raising three girls, I’ve learned to be patient. I remember when they were young listening to them count to twenty. They would always end up missing a number, I think it was fifteen, and then they’d hop back to thirteen. Something like that. It seemed pretty confusing.
Here in Connecticut, there were over a million votes cast in the Gubernatorial race. That’s a lot of times to get tripped up counting past fifteen. To make it even more worse, all the time that you’re counting you have people arguing over whether or not this ballot or that ballot should count.
