New England Makers
Season 6 Episode 602 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Co-hosts Amy Traverso and Richard Wiese travel across New England for region made goods.
Co-host Richard Wiese is in Shaftsbury, Vermont, to meet Tammy White and her flock of sheep. Head north to Goshen, Vermont, where a young couple is keeping alive the tradition of making maple syrup the old-fashioned way. Finally, co-host Amy Traverso pays a visit to baker Ahmad Aissa, who brings the sweet flavors of his native Syria to Concord, New Hampshire.
Weekends with Yankee is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television
New England Makers
Season 6 Episode 602 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Co-host Richard Wiese is in Shaftsbury, Vermont, to meet Tammy White and her flock of sheep. Head north to Goshen, Vermont, where a young couple is keeping alive the tradition of making maple syrup the old-fashioned way. Finally, co-host Amy Traverso pays a visit to baker Ahmad Aissa, who brings the sweet flavors of his native Syria to Concord, New Hampshire.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends With Yankee, Richard is in Shaftsbury, Vermont, to see all the hard work... >> Here you go, girls.
>> NARRATOR: ...and rewards of turning fleece into one-of-a-kind yarn.
>> RICHARD WIESE: These are beautiful.
>> NARRATOR: Next, we meet a young couple who's keeping the maple syrup tradition alive in Goshen, Vermont.
>> There's no other relationship like the sugar makers that goes back to the same tree four or five times a year.
NARRATOR: And then Amy meets up with baker Ahmad Aissa... >> AMY TRAVERSO: Nice to meet you.
>> NARRATOR: ...who has turned family recipes from Syria into a thriving business in Concord, New Hampshire.
>> TRAVERSO: This is extraordinary.
>> NARRATOR: So come along for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee Magazine.
Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and his co-host, Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.
It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.
Weekends with Yankee.
>> Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.
Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree Magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.
>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.
What's first for you?
(rooster crowing) >> WIESE: We're in Shaftsbury, Vermont.
Traditionally, this was farmland, sheep and wool.
(sheep bleating) Many of the large farms have now disappeared, but we're now going to Wing and a Prayer, and this represents an artisanal farm, a small production that is really farm-to-fashion.
♪ ♪ >> Who's hungry?
(hay rustling) >> WIESE: Good morning.
>> Hey, good morning.
>> WIESE: Hi Tammy, how are you?
>> I'm well, how are you?
>> WIESE: Looks like it's breakfast here.
>> Yeah, do you want to feed?
>> WIESE: Yeah, it's not always I get to see such beautiful alpacas.
>> And then there's also a cashmere goat in there, Christopher Robin.
If you toss it that way, he'd love some.
Give everybody space, because they don't always want to eat from the same pile.
Here comes Fluffhead and Layla.
>> WIESE: They seem very gentle.
>> Oh, they're super sweet and very gentle.
I've had alpacas since... 2010, I think.
They've come to me as rescues; they all have very, very distinctive personalities, very sweet.
They're excellent fiber producers, they have amazing alpaca fiber that we use, so soft.
>> WIESE: When you say rescues, are there that many alpaca in Vermont that are abandoned?
>> So, when we use the term "rescue," we mean a place for them to come to.
There was like, an alpaca craze, and then there's been a llama craze.
Everybody wanted to have alpacas or be an alpaca farmer and so there was an overpopulation of these beautiful animals that people learn about what kind of a commitment it is, and they don't necessarily want to be in it for 15 years, so they need homes because their people want to have another lifestyle.
>> WIESE: You're like the female St. Francis of Assisi.
>> Well, I would be flattered to be thought of in those ways, but I think that most farmers like myself, like, we all do what we can to help our animals.
♪ ♪ >> WIESE: It sounds like there's quite a few animals to feed here.
>> We have a lot of mouths to feed.
We need to toss the geese some grain.
Char, my daughter, she's going to take care of the goats and the chickens while we go ahead over and see the sheep.
>> WIESE: So when did you come to Vermont to become a farmer?
>> In 1986, at this place, a dozen acres at the time and mostly flat and clear.
When my kids were little, they did all the research and we decided to get some sheep, and we learned about sheep from books because we didn't have the internet yet.
And then we went around to different farms in Vermont for about a year.
We ended up choosing Shetland sheep, came home with our first three sheep in 2001.
In 2010, my kids were off to college, so instead of downsizing when my kids grew up, I upsized.
And so then I turned it from a hobby farm into a production farm.
We started with Shetlands, but we also have Valais Blacknose and Cormo, and on the farm, I have nine breeds, altogether, of sheep.
Let's feed them.
(sheep braying) Here you go, girls.
(sheep bleating) (happy bleating) >> WIESE: Why do you have so many varieties?
>> Some animals have come via rescue situations, and that's how we first started to sort of diversify our, our sheep breeds, and now over the years, I'm really grateful that we have such diversity.
It's better for the planet and we're protecting rare and heritage breeds by being open to having different types of breeds of sheep here.
The length of the wool, the crimp, the different breeds, they all have different fleece and different properties.
>> WIESE: You know, this looks idyllic.
It's a beautiful fall day, but I mean, there must be life-and-death situations that you're running to on a fairly regular basis.
>> There are.
For example, when Jubilee was born, we had a lot of complications.
Her mom had been inseminated, we thought she was carrying two.
It turned out she was carrying five lambs.
>> WIESE: Five.
And so, were there problems with the birth or with her being able to get milk or any of those things?
>> Yeah, every problem.
>> WIESE: Well, she doesn't look like she has a problem now, she's big.
>> We nursed her, and now I always say she's a bounder.
She's really thriving.
>> WIESE: When you have stories like that, that's such a personal connection, the sacrifice you went through, and Jubilee looks like this beautiful, magnificent sheep, but yet you have this personal connection to her because you saw her as this little baby.
>> I just think that in life when you give to somebody, because it is your nature just to do that, you don't do it because you expect anything back, right?
>> WIESE: Right.
>> Would you like to go to the barn and see Char shear?
>> WIESE: Okay, let's do it.
>> Let's do it.
♪ ♪ (blade shearing) >> (softly): Yeah.
>> WIESE: Okay.
>> (softly): Yeah.
>> WIESE: I see a lot of wool.
(door sliding closed) >> Hey, Char.
>> Hi.
>> I'm going to introduce Richard to you.
>> WIESE: Hi, Char.
>> Hi, Richard.
>> WIESE: So you are the shearer?
>> Yeah.
>> WIESE: Wow.
>> We are just about done with Gwen here.
She's a Swiss Valais Blacknose, not even a year old yet.
>> WIESE: So, has she been sheared before?
>> This is her first time getting sheared.
She is doing really well.
>> WIESE: And this just feels... you know, wonderful.
And so what will this be made into?
>> With Gwen's wool, we'll probably make a woven fabric that then gets fulled for blankets.
And we go to sheep and wool events, and we have booths where we sell them and we have an online shop where we also sell the products.
♪ ♪ Usually we make yarn with all of our wool.
>> WIESE: These are all beautiful, so how did they become this color?
>> Sometimes we retain all of the same colored fleeces to come together.
For example, all of the Cormo sheep's fleece is this color naturally, so then we can dye it if we want to, using dyes that we grow in our dye garden over here.
>> WIESE: From flowers?
>> From the flowers, from roots, from bark, from the stem, the leaves.
>> WIESE: This is old school.
>> Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪ We grow quite a variety.
I grow color-- you know, blue from the woad, indigo, I grow yellow from marigolds, reds from the madder roots and the amaranthus.
♪ ♪ So now I'm just going to add these flowers.
We're going to add the yarn, and then I'm going to add heat and we'll let it simmer all together overnight, turn off the heat after 45 minutes or so, and tomorrow morning, I'll pull it out.
It's going to have some really beautiful rich gold color.
>> WIESE: When you think of dyes, it sort of is in that area of "they do it somehow," but when you actually see flowers that you just picked and wool from the sheep you knew, the process becomes so much more personalized.
>> There's a real connection.
It's a connection to my flock and to the earth and to the future.
I'm making a commitment to the next generations that I'm going to try to be the best steward I can, so that you guys will have a good life here on, you know, this green planet.
♪ ♪ >> WIESE: These are beautiful.
>> Every stitch is meaningful, every color is meaningful.
A woman named Sarah Barca in Ohio designed this shawl, which she called, "From Wool, With Love."
And she's using three different kinds of yarns from our farm that I've dyed with marigolds and some of natural undyed.
So, it's, it's just fun to see this show up in my, the mail, and say, "Oh my gosh, this is... you know, this is part of my flock."
>> WIESE: I mean, it must be so satisfying.
>> It's like a member of the family.
>> WIESE: Each one of these sweaters not only has a breed or a color that you've dyed from a plant that you've selected, but it has a lineage, too.
So, to me, it's sending out more than a sweater from Wing and a Prayer.
For me personally, coming here, it's such a good feeling to know that people like you exist here in New England.
>> Thank you.
♪ ♪ (motor buzzing) >> You know, you'll have a forester or a logger and they'll visit a patch of woods or a tree, you know, once or twice, but there's no other relationship like the sugar makers that goes back to the same tree four or five times a year.
And you just build these relationships with certain areas of the woods, even certain trees.
♪ ♪ My wife and I had the idea of making some maple syrup in the backyard, and we turned an old wood shed that we had into a sugar house with a little tiny evaporator and leftover firewood that we would throw in there.
I think we tapped 80 or 100 trees that year.
We were planning to tap like 30, but it's an addiction, so it grew quickly from there.
Long nights boiling, super inefficient little evaporator, and we might have made like, you know, 20 gallons of syrup, but that planted the seed for both my wife and I, we just-- it was great.
(steam hissing) Maple syrup is like the best thing in the world.
It's the starting point-- it's, it's an incredible product.
It just tastes delicious.
Looks amazing, the color when you hold it up to the light, but the process becomes an addiction because, you know, you have five maple trees here, and you put some buckets on them and you say, "Well, you know, there's five more over there, it'd be pretty easy to put five more buckets on those trees.
It gets out of hand very, very quickly.
The potential of an entire forest and then you add the tubing systems in there with the plastic blue lines you'll see in the woods, and the efficiencies of that, and it just, you know, it appeals to certain people's minds, I'd say, and I... fortunately or unfortunately, it really caught a hold of me.
(chuckles) (steam hissing) (flames crackling) ♪ ♪ (clanking) People were a little mystified that we were embracing this thing, this agricultural pursuit that we had just done in our backyard for one season, but that didn't deter us.
(laughs) And it's very New England, you know, it's got the whole aesthetic there, even with the technology and the way sugaring is done now, it's still-- you know, a sugar maker from 120 years ago could walk into a sugar house now and be like, "Oh, you know, I understand what's happening here."
♪ ♪ Earlier in the season, we tend to make lighter syrup and that has a lighter maple flavor.
It's a more delicate syrup, they used to call it "fancy."
And then towards the end of the season, you make a more of a dark, robust syrup that has a lot more maple punch to it, it's darker in color.
The running the business and the sales and marketing and design and web stuff and accounting, all that stuff I love, but I wouldn't want to do that full time.
To me, it's just, it's perfect, and that's why my wife and I are doing it, because it fits our lifestyle and we can raise our kids right here, around the operation and show them what hard work looks like.
You know, a lot of parents come home and their kids don't see them at work and our kids very much are involved at every level.
It really fit for us, and I don't know what else I would do.
(laughs) I don't know that there is another option.
I think there will always be the Vermonter who gets addicted to sap and maple syrup production and the allure of the whole process and the tradition, but the feasibility of making a career out of it or having an operation that is financially viable, that's the real question.
There'll be people making maple syrup.
We're not the last ones, I hope.
But if we are, we're going to do it with vigor until it ends.
(laughs) ♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: This is a story about finding home in unexpected places.
In 2012, the Syrian civil war forced Ahmad Aissa and his wife, Evelyn, to flee to the United States, a country he'd never been to.
They settled in Evelyn's home state of New Hampshire, and there, a homesick Ahmad began baking the sweets he'd loved as a child.
That soon became a business, which has now expanded all over New England.
So today, I'm going to be meeting up with Ahmad to hear his stories and bake some of his delicious recipes.
Hi, Ahmad.
>> Hi.
>> TRAVERSO: It's so nice to meet you.
>> Nice to-- good to see you, too.
>> TRAVERSO: Well, it looks like I might need to put on some protective gear.
>> Yes, I got something ready for you.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay, great.
And a little Laverne and Shirley moment with the hair net.
Okay, great.
(laughs) >> Walk with me.
>> TRAVERSO: All right, so, take me to the baklava station.
>> So, that's where the phyllo dough... >> TRAVERSO: Okay.
>> ...processing spot.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
>> And that's the first step to kind of, you know, get started.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
Ooh, I see some beautiful dough.
>> Yeah, so, we're going to dust the dough... and go for it.
>> TRAVERSO: So, I imagine this is sort of like a giant pasta machine, where you can make the rollers closer and closer together to get it thinner?
>> Correct.
>> TRAVERSO: Ah, look at that.
Now, is this something you watched at home?
>> We did it by hand.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> And it was really intensive to do it by hand, but it was a lot of fun, so like, rewarding.
>> TRAVERSO: There's still a certain amount of hand work to this, even though you're using a machine.
>> Oh yeah, phyllo dough is a very intensive labor product, it's not easy.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
Miles of phyllo now.
>> So it is not-- not very thin at this point.
>> TRAVERSO (laughing): Really?
>> But it does get much thinner.
>> TRAVERSO (laughing): Looks thin to me.
>> You really want to go and make it as thin as possible, and that what makes the crunch better and everything better.
>> TRAVERSO: It's incredible, the elasticity of this dough.
>> And this is why it's difficult to make gluten-free baklava.
>> TRAVERSO: Yes.
>> (chuckles) >> TRAVERSO (chuckling): Yes, you really need those rubber bands, those gluten rubber bands.
>> And then, basically, you can see, like, it's really, like, very thin.
>> TRAVERSO: This is extraordinary, and I am now so curious to see how you turn this into the layered dessert of baklava.
Hello.
>> Hi guys.
So, this is Pamela.
>> TRAVERSO: Hi.
>> And this is Sam.
>> TRAVERSO: Nice to meet you.
>> This is my awesome team.
(Traverso laughs) And so, in this station here, we get the cut phyllo... >> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.
>> And we, we top it with cocoa powder... >> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.
>> And walnut... >> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.
>> And chocolate chips.
>> TRAVERSO: Mm.
>> And then we layer it on the top, and then we take it to cutting and then baking next.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay, well, watching how beautiful the process is now, I'm very eager to try the final product.
>> Awesome.
And I have some ready.
>> TRAVERSO: Oh, I can't wait to try these.
This looks beautiful.
>> Enjoy.
>> TRAVERSO (chuckling): I imagine you eat enough of these day-to-day, huh?
(crunching) >> I do a lot of, uh, product testing.
>> TRAVERSO: Mmm.
Oh my goodness, it's not too sweet and it has this really rich chocolate walnut, mm.
So, I hear we're going to do a little baking lesson at your house now?
>> Yes, looking forward to it.
>> TRAVERSO: All right, let's go do that.
>> Awesome.
♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: So what are we going to be making?
>> We'll be making mamoul cookies, >> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.
>> So those cookies are traditional to the Middle East.
They're made in the holiday celebrations, and it makes an actually wonderful snack.
>> TRAVERSO: I have to say, this does not look like an intimidating list of ingredients.
I mean, there's five ingredients.
>> Yeah, it's very basic, and then the filling is just dried, dried fruit paste.
We're doing dates, yeah.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
So... okay, so how do we make the pastry that surrounds it?
>> So that's what we're going to start with.
We grab the butter, we toss it in.
We'll add the sugar, about three ounces, and then the last thing you add is flour.
♪ ♪ So the next process is basically just portioning the dough.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
>> Into little tiny miniature balls.
>> TRAVERSO: Walnut size?
>> Yeah, something like this, almost like an inch diameter.
>> TRAVERSO: Is that okay?
>> Yeah, perfect.
Now we're moving to the filling.
You can flavor it, I prefer the orange blossom water.
>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.
>> In the spring, if you walk around Damascus, they have the lemon trees in the house garden, and that's what you smell a lot around the city, sometimes evening particularly, like the breeze comes out and it's like so aromatic.
So, yeah, it's easy to squish, it's not really sticky once you have the liquid on it.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
Oh, that's interesting.
>> So the next step, basically, into kind of creating little, slightly smaller balls of the dates for each one of those.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
I'm being slow.
You're a little faster than I am.
>> That's me, I'm so used to it.
>> TRAVERSO: You're experienced.
>> It's like autopilot.
(chuckling) We'll bring the dusting plate.
>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.
>> We'll grab one of those guys.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
>> We'll put them here, give it a squish.
And, and we try at this point to work it less, because that's where it gets too melty.
>> TRAVERSO: Oh, because the butter.
Right, the butter will melt.
>> Yeah.
And then dust it from the sides, knock, knock, put it in here, give it a squish.
>> TRAVERSO: Gosh, that's so cool.
>> And then, it comes out.
>> TRAVERSO: (gasps) Wow.
That's really gorgeous.
Yay, so pretty.
I love it.
>> Awesome.
>> TRAVERSO: What's your earliest memory of making these cookies?
This is actually the first thing I helped my mom with.
>> TRAVERSO: Really?
>> Yep.
So I would be shaping those little balls of the fruit, and I'd get so proud of it.
So these go to the oven for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
>> And that's it.
>> TRAVERSO: Great.
♪ ♪ Oh, these look great.
Mmm, mmm, they're so tender.
I think some people grew up eating Fig Newtons, these are so much better.
(laughs) I'd love to hear a little bit more about how you met.
So you grew up in New Hampshire.
>> Yeah.
>> TRAVERSO: But you really just fell in love with Syria and were prepared to live there indefinitely?
>> Yeah, just a wonderful place, loved the people that I met, felt very at home there, and I had met this guy.
So... (laughs) >> TRAVERSO: Now, Ahmad, in Syria, you were not baking at all.
>> No, it was a really nice hobby that I enjoyed so much.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> Yes.
I think growing up, my mom was the person who kind of, you know, imprinted a lot into my personality.
She was a really a strong woman, but also she had, like, beautiful cooking skills.
>> TRAVERSO: Mmm.
>> And that's...
I think had a more, like, positive impact on my desire to kind of dive into the food world, even though it wasn't my, my profession.
>> TRAVERSO: And so when did you realize that your lives were changing beyond your control?
>> So the revolution in Syria started in March, and... this would've been in 2011.
Not long after that, the U.S. embassy was attacked and closed down for a month, and we knew that we needed to leave.
>> I never thought I would be at the other side of the world with the possibility, maybe, not coming back any... anytime soon.
>> TRAVERSO: I remember reading recently that, and I think anyone who has, you know, immigration in their family history could relate to this, that recipes are something you can always bring with you.
They take no space in your suitcase, you know... but yet they are so powerfully able to connect you to home.
So how, how quickly did your thoughts turn to, "I need to make a life for myself here and the food is going to be the way I do that?"
>> When I first came, first of all, I thought, "Okay, I need to create a path for a career."
And, of course, in terms of the nostalgia, in terms of the, the emotional kind of connection, that's, that's kind of kept me going in a way, because I kept trying recipes and tried to kind of simulate things to what we used to do.
And I realized this is something, this is a nice piece of my culture that I can bring onboard and present it in this country.
Considering the the news were really negative, I thought this is a positive thing to go for.
So that was a motive for me to get started with, you know, thinking about how to start a food business.
>> TRAVERSO: After you've been here for nine years, do you feel that this has become home as well?
>> Absolutely, absolutely.
I feel like this is my home and I... and this is, this is part of also where I think it's always better to look forward.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> So I'm looking always forward.
This is, this is where I belong now.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> Yeah, and I have my daughter here, wife, and this is, this is all I wanted.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> TRAVERSO: I think these are exactly the stories we need to hear right now.
>> Certainly.
>> TRAVERSO: And also, I mean, these are so delicious, these treats are such a delight.
And we are eating better because you took this chance to come here, so I thank you for that.
>> Thank you, thank you so much.
>> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.
Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.
Six issues for $10.
Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.
>> ANNOUNCER: Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.
Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree Magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.
>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.
What's first for you?
>> ANNOUNCER: Closed captioning provided by Plymouth, Massachusetts, home to Plymouth Rock, the ship Mayflower, and so much more.
♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Closed captioning for Weekends with Yankee provided by the Woodstock Inn and Resort, an American legacy resort in Woodstock, Vermont.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> I think that most farmers like myself, like, we all do what we can to help our animals.
♪ ♪ >> Even with the technology and the way sugaring is done now, it's still... you know, a sugar maker from 120 years ago could walk into a sugar house now and be like, "Oh, you know, I understand what's happening here."
♪ ♪ >> Smaller balls of dates for each one of those.
>> TRAVERSO: Okay.
I'm being slow.
You're a lot faster than I am.
>> That's me, I'm so used to it.
>> TRAVERSO: You're experienced.
♪ ♪
Weekends with Yankee is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television