Repurposing Vintage Objects into Something New

By Jeff Burns

They are as much a part of fall as football, pumpkins, and turning leaves: Fall Festivals.  Nearly every weekend, schools, churches, and communities host festivals, and craftspeople and vendors come from all over to sell their handiwork. 

If you are a fan of history like we are, you are probably a fan of old things and of repurposing old things.  Fall festivals are a great place to discover repurposed things, vintage objects transformed into something else for your home or something to wear, or things made to resemble vintage things. Here are a few things we’ve seen in our area festivals this fall.

 

I’ve previously blogged about my wife’s craft, Patchwork Revival. We find vintage fabrics and unfinished quilt tops and squares at estate sales and other places, and she makes them into placemats, potholders, table runners, teddy bears, and bags among other things.  At every festival and show, we run into people who have something started by a grandmother but never finished.  These are fabrics from the 1930s to the 1960s and even earlier.

 

Bottle trees fashioned from rebar. While it’s not necessarily repurposing, it’s an old idea.  Bottle trees or “haint” trees have been around for ages and have an interesting History. The idea is that old bottles are put on tree branches to frighten and trap evil spirits.

 

Another vendor offered angels made out of old hymnals.

Photo and poster reproductions become new home décor.

 

Colorful baskets made in the traditional Gullah/Geechee/Low Country style that was brought from Africa

 

Chimes made from vintage silverware and from old glass bottles

New cloche hats, 1920s flapper style

These are just a few of the great finds in my area. Go out and explore yours, and enjoy a few funnel cakes on the way!

Discovering All Things Japan at JapanFest Atlanta

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

Domo (NHK Mascot)

“Youkoso Nihon E.” Welcome to Japan!

Maneki-neko (Lucky Charm)

Every year JapanFest takes place in the northern suburbs of Atlanta.  This is a great festival that allows visitors to learn about all things Japan, from history to anime to culture to cuisine.  At JapanFest, visitors can really get a close up look at Japanese culture by sampling authentic Japanese food, playing games, viewing martial arts demonstrations, attending traditional performances and workshops.  Attendees can also buy plenty of items from collectables to art to nick-knacks to food to Anime.  As a parent of girls who love Anime (Japanese animation) and all things associated with Japanese culture, attending JapanFest has been an activity we look forward to each and every year.

 Murata Boy Bicycling Robot                                                

At its core, JapanFest is all about improving the understanding and appreciation between the Japanese people and Americans.  As such, the festival is a two day celebration that promotes multicultural education.  Indeed there are a number of stages and workshops that show off various aspects of the Japanese culture.  During the weekend, I had a chance to learn about Sake in Sake 101, learn about making sushi, learn the different aspects of Japanese cuisine from an award winning chef, and sample quite a bit of Japanese food and drinks. 

 

In order to showcase a variety of performing arts, JapanFest has several stages that offer a number of performances and demonstrations.  Attendees can view a Taiko Brum show.  Taiko Brum is a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments played as an ensemble. We also watched a Samurai show—and even learned to be a Samurai at a boot camp.  The various stages also hosted an acrobatic top spinning, jazz guitar and J-Pop performances.  J-Pop is the mixing of traditional Japanese music with foreign pop and rock music.  It can also have heavy Anime ties. We also had the chance to traditional archery, try on traditional dress (kimono) and paint a Hakata (traditional Japanese clay) doll.

                          J-Pop Performer Junko Fujiyama         Jazz Guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto

 

JapanFest has always had an anime element with vendors and a video room.  Initially, this is why we started attending the festival years ago.  However, this year the festival partnered with MomoCon, the fastest-growing anime convention in the country, to create an Anime Village. Within the village you could shop for all types of anime products, Japanese snacks and drinks.  Visitors could even play a variety of Japanese video games and/or participate in a number of cosplay events.  The Anime video room was expanded and not only offered a lot of anime to watch, but there was also trivia contests with giveaways. 

Re-Discover Japan Street & Celebration

 

The addition of the Anime Village allowed for visitors to be spread out over more area.  No doubt the festival was still congested in areas but it was manageable.  The village also allowed for new vendors in the exhibit hall.  New this year was a Re-Discover Japan Street.  This area allowed for several Japanese cities and traditional arts to be showcased. Overall, there was such a variety at the festival that there was plenty to do for all visitors, no matter the age or interest!

Fall Fun in the Pumpkin Patch

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

Welcome to Fall! The calendar hits October and leaves begin to change, temperatures get cooler, and everything becomes Pumpkin related.  Just walk into any grocery store or Starbucks and the pumpkin flavored food is staggering.  Not sure when the pumpkin fascination began, but it is indeed overwhelming at this time of year. Unlike the Pumpkin Spice Frappe, one thing pumpkin related that has been around for decades, is the Pumpkin Patch.     

Some different ways to enjoy a Pumpkin Patch:

Pick Your Own Pumpkin Straight From the Patch
Going to a pumpkin patch allows you to actually walk the field where the pumpkins actually grow.  My daughters have always enjoyed running around the field looking for their very own special pumpkin. We always get different types of pumpkins, some will be carved, some will get painted. However, the downside can be dirt or mud, especially if it just rained.  One suggestion, if you want to pick your pumpkin from the field, you will need to do it early in the season.   

Picking Pumpkins Already Harvested
Unlike my children, I like picking pumpkins already harvested.  Many pumpkins for sale are not at a true pumpkin patch but on a church lawn or local business parking lot.  While this may not be as much fun as running around the pumpkin field, the end result is the same—picking out the perfect pumpkin! For many communities, this is the most common form of pumpkin patch, and for many organizations it is a seasonal fundraiser.  Simply put, pumpkins just don't grow everywhere and need to be brought in.   

Beyond Pumpkins, many local pumpkin patches offer a lot more to do while finding that perfect pumpkin.  My local Pumpkin patch offers hay rides, a petting zoo, horse rides, and the chance to pick your own sunflower out of the sunflower garden.  Hayrides come in several forms: tractor-pulled, horse-drawn and wagons.  Thanks to allergies, the hayride is not my favorite activity, but it is great fun riding all through the farm.

What to do with your Pumpkin

Carve it!
This is a favorite tradition.  While our pumpkin carving skills are not great, it is the fun doing it that matters.  While we carve, we like to reiterate the story of the Jack O'Lantern.  The legend comes from Irish folklore and is often told on the hayride around the Pumpkin Patch. The story goes:

Jack was a crafty farmer who tricked the Devil into climbing a tall tree. When the Devil reached the highest branch, Jack carved a large cross in the trunk, making it impossible for the Devil to climb down. In exchange for help getting out of the tree, the Devil promised never to tempt Jack with evil again. When Jack died, he was turned away from Heaven for his sins and turned away from Hell because of his trickery. Condemned to wander the earth without rest, Jack carved out one of his turnips, took an ember from the devil, and used it for a lantern to light his way. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern."

For more info on the Jack O'Lantern Legend.

Roast the Pumpkin Seeds
1.  Rinse pumpkin seeds under cold water and pick out the pulp and strings.  This is easiest just after you've removed the seeds from the pumpkin, before the pulp has dried.
2.  Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet, stirring to coat. If you prefer, omit the oil and coat with non-stick cooking spray.
3.  Sprinkle with salt and bake at 325 degrees F until toasted, about 25 minutes, checking and stirring after 10 minutes. You can also add any other spices to the seeds—salty or sweet to create additional flavors.
4.   Let cool and store in an air tight container.

Bake my Grammy’s Pumpkin Pie
1 crust pie
3 eggs
1egg yolk
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups pumpkin puree

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, egg yolk, white sugar and brown sugar. Add salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Gradually stir in milk and cream. Stir in pumpkin. Pour filling into pie shell.
3. Bake for ten minutes in preheated oven. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake for an additional 40 to 45 minutes, or until filling is set.

The Sweetest Onion in All the Land

By Jeff Burns

It’s almost that time of year again!  Each April, onion lovers throughout the world eagerly await the arrival of the new crop of Vidalia Onions, and two separate festivals are celebrated.  This year, the Vidalia Onion Festival is slated for April 23-26, and the Glennville Onion Festival will be on May 9.        

As a native Vidalian (How do you recognize a native Vidalian?  He/She doesn’t pronounce the “L”.  It’s “Vi – day –ya.”), I got used to the usual question asked when I told somebody I was from Vidalia:  “Oh, does your family grow onions?”  Actually, no.  We never grew onions; most people don’t.  We did eat our share, going through hundreds of pounds a season, and we attended the festivals.   And we have relatives who grow onions, but we didn’t.  It was always fun, though, to see mentions of Vidalia in the media.  And there is one other family connection that I found out in my teens when my mother offhandedly said, “You know your Aunt Juanita was the first Onion Queen?”   (More on that later.)

What is so special about an onion that excites gourmets and chefs around the world, has teenage girls vying annually for the title of “Miss Vidalia Onion,” and was officially proclaimed Georgia’s State Vegetable in 1990?  It’s a not uncommon hybrid yellow granex variety of onion, but it is uncommonly sweet when grown in the sandy southeast Georgia soil around Vidalia, a phenomenon thought to be due to an unusually low sulfur soil content among other factors.  By legal definition, onions can only be called “Vidalias” if they are grown in one of twenty specific counties, and they are generally available in spring and early summer, although, special cold storage facilities now extend the season by several months.

In the 1920s and 1930s, farmers around Vidalia were in a similar predicament to farmers throughout the South.  Long years of dependence on cotton and tobacco had led to depressed prices and poor soil conditions.  Then, the boll weevil added insult to injury, destroying cotton crops.  Farmers started looking for other crops to grow, and some experimented with growing vegetables.  Mose Coleman decided to try onions in 1931, and he noticed that his onions were exceptionally sweet tasting.  Word spread, and soon he was selling fifty-pound bags for the astoundingly (at the time) high price of $3.50 a bag.  Neighboring farmers jumped on the bandwagon, and when the state of Georgia built a state farmers’ market in Vidalia in the 1940s, lots more Georgians and tourists alike discovered the delicacy and carted off bags of Vidalia onions.

Coleman and the other farmers realized they had something and started developing modest marketing strategies.  That’s where my Aunt Juanita Burns entered the story.  In 1950, Coleman personally selected her to be the first Vidalia Onion Queen.

Juanita Burns, Vidalia Onion Queen

In the 1970s, national distribution of  the onions began in part because  Vidalia was the headquarters of the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain at the time. The Vidalia and Glennville Onion Festivals were inaugurated then as well.  Yumion became the official onion mascot in 1980.

Now, Vidalia onions are marketed worldwide, and they are the most famous “brand“of vegetables in the world.  At the beginning of the twenty-first century 14,500 acres of Vidalia onions were grown. Vidalia onions represent about 40 percent of the total national spring onion production and have an estimated value of about $90 million in annual gross sales. Today you can enjoy Vidalia onions with recipes like these or visit the Vidalia Onion Museum for a different experience. 


Sources:

"America’s Favorite Sweet Onion." America’s Favorite Sweet Onion. The Vidalia Onion Committee, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.