Living Museum Explores, Celebrates
Contemporary Rural American Life
Behold! New Lebanon, the living museum of contemporary rural American life, has announced its Rural Guide schedule for Saturday, June 11, the second weekend of the 2016 summer programs. The museum without walls celebrates the rich historical and cultural heritage of New Lebanon.
[private]Unlike any other museum in the country, BEHOLD! New Lebanon offers a variety of tours by locals — not costumed docents but Rural Guides who turn the town itself into a museum. These guides welcome visitors to their places of work, avocation, or enjoyment, introducing museum goers to their own roles in today’s rural America.
The June 11 programs will feature a nature walk; reptile rescuing; home restoration; historic printing as applied today; forest foraging; and sausage making. Details include:
9 am-Nature Walk at Hand Hollow: There is more to Hand Hollow, the Columbia Land Conservancy’s magnificent property, than meets the eye. Join fun-loving naturalist Bonner McAllester for a leisurely walk, and you’ll find out first-hand. Visitors amble through Hand Hollow’s meadows and forests, along the streams and ponds with beaver dams, in this home to hundreds of birds…including a heron nesting. All ages welcome.
9:30 am-Reptile Rescue: Have you ever met a cuddly reptile? Now’s your chance. Queen of the reptile rescuers, Rhonda Leavitt will bring her animals for you to learn to love –and maybe even handle, too. Suitable for all ages and temperaments –including the squeamish.
1 pm-Pushing Ink into Paper: Traditional Letterpress: Jerry Grant and Sharon Koomler share the history of letterpress printing, and open their Victorian-style print shop for tours. They will demonstrate their craft on late 19th and mid-20th century presses. This indoors program is suitable for ages 10 and older.
1:30 pm: Rescuing and Restoring an Historic House: What does the skeleton of an old building have to tell us about its own history? How does one start to rehabilitate an old home? What do you save? What do you discard? Discover hidden treasures Deborah has found along the way during excavation…and learn how to help save a house that’s worth saving.
2:30 pm-Foraging walk at Wyomanock Center: Learn how to pick up lunch in the field and forest. Hosted by Wyomanock Center for Sustainable Living, join noted ecologist David Hunt, who has been foraging for wild edibles as a way of life for decades, at the 75 acre Wyomanock Farm and preserve. Visitors will have the opportunity to forage and learn to identify varied habitats under his guidance. David’s background in botany (Ph.d) and his concentrations in natural communities and deep ecology will combine with his intuition to interpret the group’s field observations. This is a three-part foraging series. Each session will focus on collecting seasonal edibles.
4 pm-Stuffed: Make Sausage with Phoebe: Contrary to what some may say, sausage making is beautiful. What goes into a good sausage? Phoebe explains while offering a hands-on demonstration of fresh sausage making. Taste Phoebe’s delicious New Lebanon Baloney while learning how Phoebe was inspired by her childhood experience in Lebanon, Pennsylvania to create this new local delicacy. Take home a half pound of sausage for your labor!
With more than 100 different programs over the course of the summer, Rural Guides greet visitors at their farms, studios and workspaces, where they practice cooking, farming, cattle raising, automobile racing and mechanics, wood-working, foraging and much more. These presenters are not costumed actors recalling old-world skills; they are the real townspeople of today, whose lives and work challenge the quaint myths about country life, and who make there presentations “where it’s happening.”
Tour shuttle buses depart from the new Behold! Station and Store, which serves as a gateway and launch spot for museum tours and other activities, in a picturesque Victorian house located at 438 State Rte. 20. The shuttle generally boards a half-hour before the tour starts, check web site or box office for further information.
Advance ticket purchase is recommended for all programs, which are priced at $18 per program, with discounts for multiple programs, and families; ages 12 and under are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. More information, including full descriptions of all programs and the online box office can be found at www.beholdnewlebanon.org, 518-720-7265, or email info@beholdnewlebanon.org.[/private]