Council Considers Storm Aftermath, Biomass
Transcription
Council Considers Storm Aftermath, Biomass
THE BRIDGE MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 • PAGE 7 Council Considers Storm Aftermath, Biomass; Welcomes New Member by Robyn Estabrook A new city council gathered on March 9 to discuss recent weather events, hiring a new fire chief, and the distrcit energy project. This first meeting since the Town Meeting Day election began with the administration of an oath to reelected councilors Tom Golonka of District 1 and Sarah Jarvis of District 2, and to Angela Macdonald-Timpone, the newly elected councilor for District 3. Alan Weiss, previously the newest council member, handed over his “newbie badge” to Macdonald-Timpone, whose family came to watch and support her on her first day. The council voted councilor Andy Hooper, Jarvis and Weiss as president, vice president and parlimentarian, respectively. Next up for discussion was the thirdbiggest snowstorm in Vermont on record. City Manager Bill Fraser recognized the Department of Public Works for their handling of the March 7 storm. “I would like to thank the crews of DPW for the great job that they did during the storm,” Fraser said. “It really caught us by surprise, and we had a lot of problems, but they had everything up and running the next day, which was great.” He continued, “We have had some questions about snow removal and pickup. There is a lot more snow than normal, and it is taking longer, and all of our snow dumps are filled, except the one at the Elks Club, so it is a longer haul. It is a longer process, but be patient; we are posting on our website every day which areas will be targeted for that night’s snow removal.” Information about snow removal, warnings and other updates are posted on the city’s website, Twitter account and Facebook page. The council also received an update on the possibility of flooding. With rain and ice chunks breaking loose from the river, Montpelier could have seen floods. Areas of focus included the Main Street bridge and the Pioneer Street dam. Montpelier Fire Chief Gesualdo Schneider wanted to let the public know that the fire department was prepared, but that it was only a warning. “We do want to emphasize first of all that it is only a precaution. Forecasting is a very tricky business, to say the least. But we felt that we would have been negligent if we didn’t give people the opportunity to take action,” Schneider said. Ice could break and flooding could occur rapidly, leaving little time to prevent damages. “If it does occur, the problem with this is that it comes very quickly. It is just a matter of an hour or two to the serious flooding of the downtown,” Schneider said, “Once the jam has started to work down, we have relatively little that we can do when the jam is actually forming. It forms really quickly. What we can do is warn people ahead of time so they can try to take actions to protect their property and be prepared to evacuate if necessary.” The city posted online updates on its Public Flood Monitoring Page throughout the week, reporting March 11 that the immediate danger of flooding had passed. The council also discussed the search for a new Montpelier fire chief, since Schneider is retiring at the end of April. They are currently accepting applications, and the goal is to have someone by the retirement date. Weiss brought up the option of combining the position with other responsibilities. Some councilors, like Sherman, felt that the position was a full-time job. “It would be greatly reducing the services to the community by having a part-time chief,” she said. It was decided that the position is a full-time job. The district energy project update was then led by Gwendolyn Hallsmith, city planning director. The state of Vermont and the city of Montpelier’s Department of Planning and Community Development want to develop a biomass-fueled district heating facility. It will first heat state and city office buildings and then expand to offer heat to businesses and residences in downtown Montpelier, as well. The total project will cost about $22 million. To fund the project, the Department of Energy is giving a grant of $8 million and the state is putting in $7 million of state-capital money. The city of Montpelier is expected to put down $2 million. The remaining money would need to be paid through other funding sources or project cost reductions. The council had mixed feelings about the project. Many councilors felt that it was a good idea but that they could not afford the $2 million. As of now, the council is committed to going forward with the project. Mayor Mary Hooper said, “I believe this will work, and it is the future.” The meeting concluded with councilor reports, including a welcome for Macdonald-Timpone. “I would like to say a very welcome to Angela,” Jarvis said. “I think that it is so valuable for us to have a new member. I think that we have gotten comfortable and a little complacent working together, and I think that it will be great to have a fresh perspective.” Macdonald-Timpone thanked not only the voters but also the councilors for being welcoming and helpful. “I do want to thank the voters of District 3 and I appreciate all of the votes that I did get. I just want to say that I thank everyone for coaching me along and helping me through this process. Tonight was a really fun and interesting meeting.” News To Your Health! Classical Homeopathy Charlotte Gilruth, CCH All ages welcome 229-0519 28 E. State Street, Montpelier [email protected] www.homeopath.vpweb.com Shelly Ehrman RN, CMT Massage Therapy at Montpelier Integrative Family Health Give your immune system a boost through these last days of winter! Flexible scheduling — call today! $1 60 minutes for $60.00 th 0 of 90 minutes for is f co wit Ex $90.00 p. up h 4/3 on 0/2 01 1 802-485-5651 156 Main Street Montpelier, Vt. 05602 www.shellyehrman. massagetherapy.com Tell them you saw it in The Bridge! PAGE 8 • MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 THE BRIDGE tiny bites Sam Clark Design ◆ kitchen design ◆ cabinets ◆ accessible design ◆ ecological kitchens central Vermont food news his weekend, March 19 and 20, is the 10th annual Maple Open House Weekend at sugarhouses all over Vermont. Visitors are encouraged to visit sugarhouses to taste and learn about Vermont’s liquid gold. A list of area sugarhouses is at vermontmaple.org. For those who don’t want to go too far, the Capital City Farmers Market will offer traditional sugar on snow—with local pickles and homemade doughnuts—on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Vermont College of Fine Arts gymnasium. T Office: 802 479 4018 www.samclarkdesign.com ho doesn’t love chocolate? Lee Duberman, chef at Ariel’s restaurant in Brookfield, recently completed a three-day seminar at Barry Callebaut Chocolate School in Quebec. She offers her season’s last cooking class Sunday, March 20 from noon to 3 p.m. She’ll share new chocolate delights and old favorites. Salted-caramel chocolate tart with chocolate sorbet, anyone? Class participants will also taste a variety of different single-source chocolates and use chocolate in a warm alcoholic beverage. $75 per person. Details at ariels restaurant.com; call 276-3939 to register. W W Sugar on snow FREE Maple Syrup Celebration Saturday, March 19 • 10–1 Last few winter markets . . . april 2 & 16, 10–2 Vermont College Gym, Montpelier e Liv ic! s mu Market moves outdoors May 7! montpelierfarmersmarket.com | Find us on Facebook ant to learn more about GMOs? Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, will host a forum on genetically modified organisms on March 31 at 4:30 p.m. The panelists include Nina Fedoroff, science and technology adviser to the secretary of state; Natalie DiNicola, vice president of Monsanto Corporation; Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and Eric Holt-Giménez, the executive director of the Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy. The event is free and open to the public. Details at dujs.dartmouth.edu/ad-fontes. ot gardening? The Skinny Pancake is offering a $500 Community Gardening grant to the local food project that gets the most votes. Any local food project in Washington or Chittenden county is eligible. Submission deadline is April 1; the public will vote during April. Check out skinnypancake.com/grant to submit your idea or to vote for your favorite. G he Northeast Kingdom Farm and Food Summit is shaping up to be a dynamic day of workshops, informational sessions and networking on topics including business planning, composting, farm safety, agritourism, microdairy processing, value-added production, digital marketing, renewable energy and more. The summit, on Saturday, April 2, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lyndon State College, is free and includes lunch! Details at nekfarmandfood .eventbrite.com. T ural Vermont offers a workshop on the ins and outs of starting and maintaining a successful food-focused business on Monday evening, April 11, at Green Mountain Girls’ Farm in Northfield. Attorneys Adam Prizio and Kenneth Miller will discuss the topic and answer questions. A sliding scale fee of $5–$10 is requested to defray expenses, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Details at ruralvermont.org. R G Time to Start Seeds! luten-free, or know someone who is? Learn to cook delicious gluten-free dishes with Lisa Masé at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. Masé will teach participants how to make freshly milled flours from whole grains and cook gluten-free versions of baked goods and dishes. This is an excellent way to bring whole grains into your diet even if you are not gluten-free. Enjoy samples and take home recipes. The class, on April 18 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., is $12 ($10 members). Preregistration is required: 224-7100 or e-mail [email protected]. —compiled by Sylvia Fagin; send food news to [email protected] GUYS HAS WHAT YOU NEED: A Seed starting supplies made from renewable coir fiber A Many greenhouse kits A 2-, 3-, and 4-inch pots A Coco fiber bricks — 1 brick soaks up 2–2.5 gallons of growing medium A Seeds from High Mowing, New England Seed, and Botanical Interests HOURS: Mon–Fri, 8–6; Sat 8–5 Tell them you saw it in The Bridge! THE BRIDGE MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 • PAGE 9 Curry & Spice and Everything Nice Couple Brings Taste of Indian Subcontinent to Central Vermont by Sylvia Fagin T en years ago, I was fortunate to spend two months traveling in India. I stayed in a variety of home-based guest houses and was continually impressed with the warm hospitality and generous welcome extended to me. I’d lost the memory of that hospitality until I visited Bhavna Rauniyar and Rajnish (“Raj”) Gupta, owners of Curry & Spice Indian Cuisine, last week. They invited me to lunch with them in their Montpelier home and sample the dishes that Bhavna prepares fresh every day for take-out customers. Over lunch, the couple shared memories of their childhoods—he is from outside of Calcutta, she was born in West Bengal and raised in Nepal—and their hopes for their professional lives and family here in Vermont. The affectionate couple finished each other’s sentences, nudged each other’s memories and created a friendly atmosphere for a lovely lunch. The Curry & Spice menu lists an impressive array of Indian appetizers, salads, breads, rice dishes like biryani and pulao, and main courses. While we chatted, we enjoyed chicken tikka masala, chunks of tender chicken simmered in a mild sauce of tomato puree, cream and butter; dal makhani, black lentils cooked with onion, tomato and butter and flavored with cinnamon and other spices; steamed potatoes infused with bay leaves; rice with caramelized onions; cucumber raita; and naan, the popular Indian bread. Every dish was as beautifully presented as it was delicious. Bhavna explained that Indian cooking is like many other cuisines: There are some basic recipes, and each cook infuses the dish with her (or his) own culinary personality. A staple of Indian recipes is a spice combination called garam masala, masala meaning “mixture,” and many cooks make their own. Bhavna was tight-lipped about the particulars of her garam masala. The subtle flavor of her dishes is a secret worth guarding. Bhavna started Curry & Spice about a year ago. She makes every dish to order in her spacious kitchen on Forest Drive, cooking enough for lunch for two or a rehearsal dinner for 50. Business is growing steadily by word of mouth. “I never thought it would go so well,” she says, “and people are so nice. I will never be able to leave Vermont because people are so nice.” Bhavna earned a four-year degree in hotel management and catering—roughly equivalent to a hotel and restaurant management degree in the U.S.—from a college in Naipur. There, she studied world cuisine, bakery, quantity cooking, business and finance. She learned to cook Thai and French cuisine and how to speak French. And she met the man who would become her husband—but not at school. Bhavna’s uncle was Raj’s undergrad college guardian, and when Raj fell ill with the chicken pox, he convalesced with her uncle. There he met Bhavna, who was lodging with her uncle while working on her degree. “He fell in love with me,” she says of their first visit. A year later, he popped the question. “I proposed right away, rather than wait and play games,” he recalls. But it wasn’t that easy. “Being ambitious, I never wanted to get married,” she says. “Very sweetly, I said no.” She continued on with her degree, and he continued to pursue her, repeating the question regularly. Her response didn’t change— until her father got involved. “My dad had seen him as a kid,” she says. “Once my father knew it was Raj, it became a family affair.” The more time they spent together the more she knew she would say yes, and soon she did. “I proposed for seven years before we got married,” he recalls. To hear Bhavna tell it, the wait was worth it. “He’s the man that every woman wants,” she says. A little irony exists in the fact that when they met, Raj didn’t cook at all. “When I opened his fridge for the first time . . .” she begins the story. Food Bhavna Rauniyar and Rajnish Gupta, owners of Curry & Spice. Photo by Sylvia Fagin. “It was clean. There was nothing in it,” Raj laughs. “Just a packet of chicken nuggets and some buns,” Bhavna recalls. “He hates to be in the kitchen.” “I’m learning a lot,” Raj says. “She spoils me.” Chicken remains Raj’s favorite dish, and Bhavna says she’s learned a “hundred” different chicken recipes for Raj. They both laugh at this story, obviously still enamored with each other. That was 2003; now he works as an engineer with the Vermont Agency of Transportation, she cooks and plans other projects, and they raise their 4-year-old daughter Jiya bilingually in English and Hindi. Those other projects? “If I concentrate on one thing too long, I get very bored,” she says. So she’s just finished writing a children’s book set in a Himalayan kingdom, based on the Indian myths that she and Raj heard as children. As she waits to hear back from her editor, she’s contemplating a cookbook of Indian recipes using ingredients easily found in the States. One such recipe might be her variation on gulab jamun, a popular Indian dessert consisting of a flour-and-cheese dumpling soaked in a sweet syrup. Bhavna is experimenting with sweetening her version with maple syrup and adding ricotta cheese to the syrup for an extra-rich treat. And she’s just begun preparing take-out meals for Hunger Mountain Coop, where shoppers can pick up lunches like cashew rice with jalfrezi, paneer cheese cooked with onions and peppers; paneer tikka wraps, Indian cheese and vegetables in a wrap for a quick snack; and vegetable croquettes, a combination of beets, beans and peas, breaded and fried. Some have suggested that Bhavna open a restaurant, but for the time being she prefers her home-based business so that she can be available to Jiya. Being so far from so much of her family, she keeps Raj and Jiya close, stating simply, “it’s the family that counts.” View the entire menu at currynspice.net; order at 229-0587. Sylvia Fagin writes about local food and agriculture. Contact her via her blog Aar, Naam ~ Come, Eat, at sylviafagin.wordpress.com, or via e-mail at sylviafagin @yahoo.com. Beef, Pork, Chicken, Duck, Rabbit, Lamb, Pheasant, Guinea Hen, Turkey and Goose A diverse family farm specializing in organic, ethically raised meats — our animals live and taste better. SOLD BY THE POUND OR BY THE PACKAGE Choose a CSA package for months worth of healthy, nutritious meat and eggs. Receive $10–$20 off if you order by May 1! Got Gardening? Apply for The Skinny Pancake Community Garden Grant ($500) now! Voting for the winner starts April 1st. Learn more at skinnypancake.com/grant Old Timey Sessions at the Skinny Pancake! Join Katie Trautz, Tom Mackenzie, and Kathleen Moore at the Montpelier Skinny Pancake. Every Sunday, 4–6 pm, beginning March 27. Open to the public for listening. Intermediate level and up for joining in! City Center building, 89 Main Street, Montpelier Hours: Mon-Thurs: 8-8; Fri-Sat: 8-9; Sun 8-3 262-CAKE | www.skinnypancake.com PAGE 10 • MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 THE BRIDGE THE Hands-On Gardener by Miriam Hansen Lions, Lambs and Greens S now, sleet, rain and ice have brought early March in like a lion, but when late March goes gamboling out as a lamb, my five trays of onions will be ready to go out in the greenhouse. I’ve been snipping the onion tops to encourage root growth, and the stems are filling out. I also have a bonanza of celery seedlings and a newly started tray of lettuce and spinach to transplant into the greenhouse next month. We shoveled five feet of snow away from the greenhouse door to get a picture of the spinach, claytonia, Asian greens and lettuce I planted last fall. As the daylight lengthens, they’re growing again, and harvest should begin in about two weeks. The Blushed Butter Cos lettuce I planted in August is a bit bedraggled but may yet come back. I did harvest pretty aggressively throughout the fall so if those plants don’t produce, I’m ready to pop new seedlings in around them. I’ve planted three lettuce seeds per cell and will use the “cut and come again” method of harvesting one loose head or leaves and leaving the others to grow. By the time I’ve harvested the last of the three, the first one will be “coming again” for the second round. Nancy is a favorite Butterhead, well suited to early spring greenhouse plantings. Other favorites include Forellenschluss, a speckled, delicately flavored Cos, and De Morges Braun, a loose-leaf that matures like a romaine and is one of the last to bolt. Space, with its giant, slightly savoyed (crumpled) leaves, is hands down my spinach of choice for the early spring greenhouse. But I also grow Olympia spring and fall in my cold frames, and Tyee is the best spinach to plant when mud season morphs into summer overnight. I realize that not everyone is addicted to growing as many different varieties as I am. My advice would be to ask other gardeners what they like to grow and then experiment and settle on the varieties you like best. This time of year I get hungry for parsley, so I soaked some seed for 10 days, refilling the bowl twice when the water evaporated. And it worked! Instead of waiting almost a month for the parsley to germinate, the first seedlings were up in one week. I’m trying that with delphinium seeds, too. I’ll let you know how it works out. One of the most common mistakes for beginning gardeners is overwatering. Let your trays and pots get on the dry side before watering. I water my seedlings every two to three days depending on need, using a large plastic Pepsi bottle. The narrow neck of the bottle allows me to control the flow so I don’t knock over the emerging seedlings. Last year I planted broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts early to mid-March for spring crops. It was too anxiety producing because they were ready to go out in early May before danger of hard frost was past. Even with a May snowfall, I squeaked by with floating row covers over the plants as protection. But this year I’ll plant my earliest broccoli and cauliflower the last week of March and wait to plant Brussels sprouts until April. I did have a successful crop of sprouts last year, but I’d rather have them all get sweetened by frost before I start harvesting. A neighbor recently called asking what my favorite varieties of tomatoes and peppers are, so I thought I’d share those with you. Now is the time to start tomatoes for setting out in the greenhouse. They suggest six to eight weeks from germination, so if I plant March 12; the seeds will germinate by March 20 and be ready to put in the greenhouse the first week in May. If you are growing them outdoors, start early to mid April. I like to grow cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. They’re such a treat and will bear well until the end of November. Sweet Chelsea is a large, sweet and tangy variety I’ve grown for years. The cherry you can’t do without is Sun Gold, the sweetest melt-inyour-mouth candy-like cherry tomato on the market. This year, true to my insatiable nature, I’m also going to try Matt’s Wild Cherries—a variety Johnny’s describes as “the wild tomato with luscious taste.” It purportedly grows wild in Hidalgo, Mexico, which means you can save the seed or let it selfsow. If the taste is as fabulous as the description (not always true), this will be a keeper! All the other tomatoes I’m planting are heirlooms. Unlike hybrids, heirlooms are plants whose seed will “come true” or reproduce the original plant. I used to grow the hybrid tomato Celebrity, but Monsanto has the patent now, and I’m happy to report that there are heirloom varieties as good or better that allow you to save your own seed and not contribute to that corporation’s swollen coffers. Opalka Paste is a Polish tomato that produces enormous meaty paste tomatoes for my sauce, which one of my neighbors says makes the best lasagna around! Cosmonaut Volkov and Brandywine are the two I grow for salads, slicing and to add to Opalka for sauce and salsa. Oh, and this year I’m also growing Orange Banana Paste Tomatoes. The description got me. Again. That brings me to peppers. This year I’ll plant them at the end rather than the middle of March. My outdoor peppers produced as well or better than the ones I grew in the greenhouse. I’m not sure why. But tomatoes and cucumbers gave such outstanding yields in the greenhouse; I’ll prioritize those and do my peppers under floating row covers. I’m embarrassed to reveal how many kinds of peppers I plan to grow this year— five sweet and four with various degrees of heat. Of these, I only want to trumpet Apple and Amish Pimiento as varieties that produce large yields of irresistibly sweet red peppers, the kind I can’t often afford to buy at the store! Anaheim Chile Numex Joe Parker produced a huge crop of slightly heated long red peppers that I cut up and froze or put into sauce and salsas. Absolutely delicious! My husband loves pepperoncini so I am trying three new hot peppers this year, Jaluv, Chilipeno and Hot Portugal. I’ll let you know how that turns out. Enjoy your seedlings and save room for the big push in April! Happy gardening. Miriam Hansen lives in East Montpelier, where she and her husband David grow most of their own meat and vegetables on about 1/6 of an acre. If you have specific questions you’d like her to address in a column or would be interested in attending a spring workshop, you can reach Miriam c/o The Bridge. THE BRIDGE MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 • PAGE 11 A Change in Tempo for Rhapsody by Elizabeth Casey I f you are a regular reader of The Bridge, you may already know that Rhapsody Café, a Main Street mainstay, has been advertised for sale. It is now under contract, and current owners, Elysha and Sjon Welters, will close this chapter of Rhapsody Café at the end of March. The Welterses, whose dedication to bringing people into community through food and sustainable, macrobiotic sustenance, have enlarged their vision as their focus has sharpened on an expansion of the production business of tempeh, egg rolls and amazake and offering these locally made products to the larger community. I met with Elysha and Sjon on a sunny winter day at their home in Cabot to talk about the changes they are undergoing. Elysha and I talked as we meandered through the “neighborhood,” viewing fields glistening with bright snow and imagining these fields filled with soybean crops. We sat with tea and animal crackers, enjoying the view from their great room, again letting our minds envision these meadows differently, this time: rice paddies. In our discussions, I learned that both Sjon and Elysha feel that their devotion to a macrobiotic, organic and local food source could best be realized right at home, enabling them to expand their vision of land use—for themselves and for their home community, and perhaps impacting the world at large. Amazake? y first question: what is amazake? Amazake is a sweet, nourishing beverage made from rice. While it is a close cousin to rice milk, it differs in that it has been fermented. For amazake, the rice is first steamed and then cultured with koji, the fungus (or spores) that is used in most Japanese cultured foods and beverages. It is then incubated until the rice starch has been converted into sugars, hence the sweetness of amazake. (If the incubation period continued, the fermentation would then convert the sugars to alcohol; the resulting product would be sake, or rice wine.) Amazake is quite versatile: it is a fine substitute for those with lactose intolerance; it is a high-protein sweetener, especially good on oatmeal (with a touch of ginger) and it is an ideal addition to smoothies. —Elizabeth Casey M All big changes for the Rhapsody family, but the primal vision remains the same: living and promoting the universal benefits of a macrobiotic diet, deriving protein chiefly from beans, legumes and grains. Elysha and Sjon believe that by sharing this diet, this way of life, they support not only themselves, but their neighbors. Elysha explained, “Food is community. It brings people together.” Further, they believe that in adopting this lifestyle, they can live in closer harmony with the Earth. First, they minimize their carbon footprint by raising crops for immediate consumption and use. Second, they promote reducing or eliminating land use for the giant agribusiness growth of meat protein. This is not to say that the Welterses are rigid in their focus on vegetarian diet, for themselves or others. They do eat chicken or fish occasionally. Last, they are able to increase community sustainability with their support for local farmers whose vegetable, legume and grain crops provide for Rhapsody’s business. Things have changed for the Welterses since they opened Rhapsody nine years ago. The café, while a labor of love, began to be too laborious. Sjon found he was drawn to producing tempeh from scratch, and he began to devote more of his time to this endeavor. As he was still cooking for Rhapsody, a full-time job, he found the help he needed to continue his tempeh production from his children. Both daughter Madelief and son Oliver have been involved in the family business from an early age. Currently, Madelief manages the café, and Oliver has been assisting in the building of the new production facility for Rhapsody’s new ventures. Another son, Quint, is pursuing his master’s in fine arts in Holland. The production facility—the “factory,” as it has been nicknamed—is nearing completion. Sjon and Oliver were working on different spaces inside the factory as Elysha gave me the tour; I learned much about the production of the three main offerings that Rhapsody will be marketing and distributing. These are well known to most Montpelier residents as Rhapsody Café’s big sellers: egg rolls, tempeh and amazake. Being able to produce tempeh from the factory is the realization of a dream for Sjon, especially since he began producing for markets other than the café. The factory includes spaces for the walkin cooler and freezer, fryers for the eggrolls and amazake steamers, as well as a great deal of space and machinery devoted to tempeh production, including the incubation room. Next to the factory is a small short silo. Originally this was to be used as a silo—to store Sjon Welters in the “factory,” scheduled to start production next week. Photo by Elizabeth Casey. grains—but as plans changed, Elysha jumped on the opportunity to turn the silo into an office. It is an enviable office space, with 360-degree views, a short walk from the production area and, most importantly for Elysha, not housed inside her home. She is looking forward to her new commute, a five-minute stroll from her kitchen—no need for a car or the 35minute drive she undertakes on the days she comes into Montpelier. Just recently, she and Sjon decided on the footprint and orientation of the desk, and it has been built and installed. When Elysha and Sjon talk about their new directions, one can see the excitement in their faces. Elysha is quite animated about the rice paddies; she is almost in disbelief herself as she educates me about the cultivation of rice, “From each shoot, each plant, the yield is up to 1,600 grains! That is 1,600 seeds to plant for the next crop!” Additionally, Elysha has not given up her love for her Montpelier connection; she and Sjon are considering the possibility of a Rhapsody booth at the Montpelier farmers’ market. Leaving Rhapsody Café is bittersweet. Helping to ease the growing pains that Elysha and Sjon are experiencing is the knowledge that the prospective new owners of the café space value locally and organically grown food as the Welterses do. Sjon and Elysha had hoped for that direction. To say “goodbye and many thanks” to Montpelier and all they friends they’ve made over nine years, Elysha and Sjon are hosting a farewell buffet on March 27 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., on the last day of the film festival. The food will be free. Come and taste your favorites one last time in that familiar spot, wish the Welterses good fortune and look forward, as they do, to a new beginning. They have also prepared a questionnaire; let them know your thoughts about their new ventures. Your suggestions will help refine their business line to offer what you’d like to see. Food If you’d like more information about Rhapsody, their vision and their products, please visit their website: rhapsodynatural foods.org. Tell them you saw it in The Bridge! PAGE 12 • MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 THE BRIDGE • Copies: Black & White, Color • Digital Printing • Engineering Copies • Business Cards • Laminating • Binding • Shipping: FedEx, USPS, & other carriers • Packing 32 Main Street Montpelier, VT 05602 Ph: (802) 223-0500 Fax: (802) 223-4689 Email: [email protected] Hours: M–F 8am–6pm Sat 9am–1pm CE CAN LED THE BRIDGE MARCH 17–APRIL 6, 2011 • PAGE 13 The Past and Future of the Alvarez Block by Nat Frothingham R aymond Alvarez was three days past his 84th birthday on a recent Saturday afternoon when he welcomed me into his Montpelier home. I had phoned Alvarez a few days earlier to talk about the number of vacant downtown Montpelier storefronts and the growing length of time that some of these storefronts have been empty, some for a year, others longer. Alvarez owns a two-story building at 112 –116 Main Street, about halfway between Langdon and School Streets. A granite marker just under the building roofline identifies it as the “Alvarez Block.” It was Raymond’s father, Narciso Alvarez (also called Villa), and his mother, Josephine, whose maiden name was Ghiringhelli, who first opened the Capital Market at 116 Main Street after the 1927 flood. And it was Raymond’s family and the store’s loyal and hard-working employees who made it the success it was. The market was sold after the Montpelier flood of 1992. Longtime Montpelier residents remember the Capital Market, with its oiled hardwood floors with fruit and vegetables out front and the pasta, canned goods and jars of this and that neatly stacked on shelves on either sides of two narrow aisles. These aisles led to a counter where your purchases were added up on the back of a brown paper bag. At the back of the store was a big meat case and, behind that, a walk-in cooler. The heartbeat of the store was the Alvarez family: Josephine, Josephine’s sister Rose Ghiringhelli, Villa at the meat case and Raymond himself. These were the people at the counter greeting customers by name, bagging groceries, taking money, giving change. For 30 years, Amos Dow drove a Capital Market truck and delivered grocery orders. It was personal and friendly. “I probably started working at the store when I was 14 years old,” Alvarez said, “pecking potatoes, sweeping the floor.” The potatoes came in a 60-pound bran sack and were dumped into the cellar through a chute in the sidewalk. It was Alvarez’s job to “peck” potatoes into 10- or 15pound bags. Back then, a 10-pound bag sold for 49 cents. “Now they sell for as much as $4.99,” he said. “We always had two or three meat cutters,” said Alvarez, who was a meat cutter himself. “We had a wonderful meat cutter whose name was Maurice Perusse. When he left the service, he trained to be a meat cutter. He was home from the service for three days when he began working at Capital Market.” Perusse was a fixture at Capital Market for the rest of his working life. Customers shopped at Capital Market for meat, but a number of other elements contributed to the store’s success. As Alvarez explained, “Back then, many women didn’t work outside the home. They called in orders, and they got billed once a month. A lot of customers were National Life employees and their families. Since they got paid twice a month, they would come in every two weeks and pay their bills. People operated on a cash basis.” The Capital Market delivered to your door. This meant that people got fresh food, fresh milk from local farms and fresh bread from local bakers. “Back when we started,” Alvarez said, “there was no such thing as a 40-hour week.” It was 7 in the morning until 7 at night. During the holidays it was turkeys and fruit baskets. “I would be there from 6 in the morning often until 12 midnight.” Alvarez remembers a record holiday season when he and another employee, Pedro Monte, eviscerated and dressed 350 turkeys. The Alvarez family thrived on hard work. Josephine lived to be 98. Villa was still working at the market when he was 104. In his final years, he would come down to the store at 7 a.m. and work until 11 a.m. and then go home. In 1964 the Alvarez family bought the block that now bears their name. It was Raymond who negotiated the deal. He bought the building from Barre attorney Richard Davis. When the Alvarez family bought the building in 1964, it was a four-story block. But in 1972, a fire broke out in an upstairs apartment over the Lobster Pot. The alarm sounded at 7:30 a.m. and the fire from the Lobster Pot apartment “jumped the roof” and badly damaged the Alvarez block. Local contractor Ken Baird was enlisted to settle with the insurance company and put everything back together again, but as a two-story building. “We were fortunate. We had good tenants,” Alvarez said. For a time, upstairs was rented out as an attorney’s office. First, it was rented to lawyer Richard Brock. Later, it was rented to another lawyer, John Burgess. Other upstairs tenants included a federal Fish and Game office and Mass Mutual, and later the New England Culinary Institute (NECI) rented the upstairs space. “NECI was a great tenant,” Alvarez said. At street level, the Times Argus was a longtime tenant, dating back to the 1870s. “They owned the building at one time,” said Alvarez. “The paper was printed in back.” But the Times Argus moved out in June 2010. When Capital Market was sold in 1992, it was sold as a market and subsequently turned over twice as a market. Then Red- VERMONT PROFESSIONAL TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES • TAX PREPARATION • SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTING GERARD M. GALVIN, JD CPA 802-839-6929 MAX @ VTPROTAX . COM Above, the building at 112–116 Main Street, owned by Ray Alvarez, right. Photos by Nat Frothingham. berry Boutique, a women’s clothing store, took over the space. When Redberry closed a couple of years ago, the space was taken over by Adorn, another women’s clothing store. In recent months, Adorn has moved to another downtown location. Today, the Alvarez Block has one remaining tenant, Vy Vy Nails. The upstairs is empty. After the Times Argus moved out, Venus Tattoo came in. But the tattoo business closed in three months. “The owner was taken sick,” Alvarez explained. When there were three storefront tenants, even though the upstairs space was empty, the building was a break-even proposition. With a single tenant left, it’s no longer breakeven. There has been interest in renting spaces both upstairs and down. People have inquired about renting an apartment in the upstairs space. But Alvarez really wants to rent the upstairs as a commercial space. “It’s partly my fault,” he said about the empty space upstairs. “You could make that two apartments.” Then he added, “I’m 84. I didn’t want the hassles.” There’s been interest from hairdressers and exercise people for the upstairs space— even from antique sellers. Hairdressers would require more water and Alvarez didn’t want to get into that. “I had a guy who wanted to start a winetasting business.” But the city council said no. “We’ve had inquiries from some people who couldn’t make the rent,” he added. When someone calls, Alvarez doesn’t start out talking about how much the rent will be. Instead he asks, “What’s your background? What type of business are you in?” Only when he has satisfied himself on these questions will Alvarez proceed to the details. In all the time he’s rented space upstairs and down, Alvarez has never taken a security deposit. “It’s been word of mouth,” he said. “We’ve had good tenants. My word is my bond.” But with his last two tenants, Alvarez has taken a loss, because there was no security deposit. “I don’t think in all the years, I’ve had more than four leases. It’s been a shake of the hand.” His deal with Vy Vy Nails was a verbal agreement. And it has worked: “They pay the first of the month. It’s right on time. They are a reputable tenant. Their word is their bond.”