All Over Albany

Old-school cooking and ice cream at Crailo

The Crailo State Historic Site in Rensselaer is hosting two food/cooking-themed events over the next two months:

July 21: Summer Seasonals: Dutch hearth cooking and tours
"What did early Dutch settlers eat? Where did their food come from? Why is it called a Dutch oven? Learn the answers to these and more questions at Crailo State Historic Site! On July 21st join us at Crailo for 'Summer Seasonals', a special educational program featuring Colonial Foods Focus tours at 11:00 and 1:00 followed by a hearth cooking demonstration. Using colonial era recipes and 17th century methods, an experienced hearth cook will demonstrate how early Dutch settlers prepared farm-to-table meals with summer vegetables, fruits, and other seasonal foods."

(Of course, back then people probably just a different term for farm-to-table dining: "dinner.")

The tours are at 11 am and 1 pm, and the cooking demonstrations will immediately follow in Crailo's cellar kitchen. It's $5 for adults / $4 for students and seniors / free for kids 12 and under.

August 18: Colonial Ice Cream Day
"Join interpreters in period dress to discover how colonists in the Hudson Valley would make ice cream in the middle of the summer without freezers and electricity. We will be using a reproduction sabotiere, ice cream molds and trying some period recipes. And learn a simple way to make your own ice cream!"

The event is from 11 am to 4 pm that Saturday. It's $3 for adults / free for kids 12 and under.

Crailo?
The Crailo State Historic Site is at 9 1/2 Riverside Avenue in Rensselaer, right across from the Hudson River (it's a beautiful block). It was once a home for the Van Rensselaer family and now serves as a museum of colonial Dutch history in the Hudson Valley. It was named after the Van Rensselaer's estate in the Netherlands -- Crayloo or Cralo -- which meant "crows' wood" in Dutch.