‘Checking Out’ a spice at Pine Plains Free Library

Lily Kahan, at left, and Jordyn Briehof, clerks at the Pine Plains Free Library, holding ground annatto and guascas respectively. Both spices are from our new Spice Library (seen behind them).

Photo by Dee Ann Campbell

‘Checking Out’ a spice at Pine Plains Free Library

PINE PLAINS — Anyone with a taste for a home cooked Latin American meal need look no farther than the Pine Plains Free Library’s new “spice library” for inspiration, instruction, and the spices needed to make it all happen.

But beyond making a tasty meal, Library Director Dee Ann Campbell says that the decision to focus on the spices chosen is the result of the library working to “build a bridge in the community between Spanish speakers who often come to the area to help pick crops” and non-Spanish speaking residents.

Speaking of the new residents, Campbell says, “We thought it would be a way of engaging them with the library in addition to language classes — to have access to spices they might not be able to get a hold of easily in the community.”

Campbell, a former resident of Texas, says that the current spices includes Epazote, which she uses in preparing Tex-Mex Beans for a touch of home. Others, mainly from Mexico, Central, and South America, are Annatto, Guascas, Chimichurri, and Aji Amrillo, with a variety of others coming soon.

Cookbooks printed in English may be borrowed by curious cooks who who are not familiar with the use of the spices.

As of Tuesday, Aug. 20, the spices have been packaged in small envelopes and are available to all at the main desk.

Although most library loans require a free card from the Mid-Hudson Library System, Assistant Library Director Annie Mallozzi, recognizes that those wishing to access the spices are not always able to show the proof of residency required to register for a card. If that is the case, she says, “We don’t want to deny anyone access, so we will make it work for them.”

That bridge building effort also entails free English language lessons, which currently take place at the library at 7775 S. Main St. on Wednesday at 10 :30 a.m and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Additional classes are scheduled for Mondays at 6:30 p.m. starting the second week in September.

Campbell notes, “With this course, when school starts in the fall, we are going to have cultural exchange events between the Spanish speakers in our class who are learning English and the classes (at Stissing High School) that are learning Spanish.”

She says food will be a touchstone of that event where, “They will all get together,” practice their new languages, “and we will build a community that way. It’s a component of an over all plan.”

For more information or to check library hours which will change as of Sept. 1, go to pineplainslibrary.org. or call 518-398-1927.

Latest News

'A Complete Unknown' — a talkback at The Triplex

Seth Rogovoy at the screening of “A Complete Unknown” at The Triplex.

Natalia Zukerman

When Seth Rogovoy, acclaimed author, critic, and cultural commentator of “The Rogovoy Report” on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, was asked to lead a talkback at The Triplex in Great Barrington following a screening of the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” he took on the task with a thoughtful and measured approach.

“I really try to foster a conversation and keep my opinions about the film to myself,” said Rogovoy before the event on Sunday, Jan. 5. “I want to let people talk about how they felt about it and then I ask follow-up questions, or people ask me questions. I don’t reveal a lot about my feelings until the end.”

Keep ReadingShow less
On planting a Yellowwood tree

The author planted this Yellowwood tree a few years ago on some of his open space.

Fritz Mueller

As an inveterate collector of all possibly winter hardy East coast native shrubs and trees, I take a rather expansive view of the term “native”; anything goes as long as it grows along the East coast. After I killed those impenetrable thickets of Asiatic invasive shrubs and vines which surrounded our property, I suddenly found myself with plenty of open planting space.

That’s when, a few years ago, I also planted a Yellowwood tree, (Cladastris kentukea). It is a rare, medium-sized tree in the legume family—spectacular when in bloom and golden yellow in fall. In the wild, it has a very disjointed distribution in southeastern states, yet a large specimen, obviously once part of a long-gone garden, has now become part of the woods bordering Route 4 on its highest point between Sharon and Cornwall.

Keep ReadingShow less
Schlock and Awful: winter edition

A scene from “Exterminators of the Year 3000”

Courtesy IMDB.COM

The Lakeville Journal’s Bad Cinema desk sincerely hopes everyone had something better to do last summer than sit inside and watch appallingly bad movies. Anything would do. Hiking. Antiquing. Going for coffee.

Even — and we realize this is strong stuff — writing poetry.

Keep ReadingShow less