I did a lot of pie-baking last week, eight pies for the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society’s Thursday evening event at The Commons in West Bethel, and then four more for the First Universalist Church of West Paris’s annual Rhubarb Festival on Saturday.
Well, it was supposed to be four pies for the church. Sadly, I managed to drop one on the oven door when I was rearranging them on the racks halfway through baking. It was a big mess, and I grabbed a big spatula and scooped it all back into the foil pie plate, thinking I’d have to just throw it on the compost heap. After the other pies finished baking, I thought better of it, flipped the whole scrambled mess over into a glass pie plate, and finished baking it for us. It had a crumb topping, which ended up mostly on the bottom, and the pastry that started out on the bottom ended up upside down on the top, but you know, if you add a little vanilla ice cream, even upside down strawberry rhubarb pie isn’t half bad.
I just wrote and posted last week’s online-only column two days ago, but since this is a print week for the Citizen, I’m writing this one on Sunday morning, well ahead of when it will appear. I haven’t received any new announcements of events since the last print edition, so this week’s calendar will be mostly about upcoming events at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, where there is plenty going on. Here you go:
Thursday, June 19 (Juneteenth), at 6 p.m. in the Howe Exhibit Hall of the Mason House (14 Broad Street, Bethel): “Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Maine.” Mary Tibbetts Freeman, Assistant Professor of New England History at the University of Maine, will discuss the long history of slavery and emancipation in Maine before focusing on anti-slavery activism in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Professor Freeman will pay particular attention to the role of African Americans in advancing the cause of abolition in Maine and the complicated relationship between myth and historical fact in understanding Mainers’ involvement in the Underground Railroad. This free program is co-sponsored by the Hastings Homestead Museum and the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society. (Note that Mary Tibbetts Freeman is the grand-niece of the late Margaret Joy Tibbetts—Bethel native, diplomat, historian, college professor, and remarkable figure in local history.)
On July 4 and 5, the Bethel Area Arts and History Celebration, a collaboration of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, Bethel Area Arts and Music, and other local artist organizations, will take place at several locations around town. Here’s the schedule:
Friday, July 4, at 11:30 a.m.: Annual Picnic and Concert by the Portland Brass Quintet on the grounds of the Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House on Broad Street. Bring a picnic and a lawn chair and join us for this always-popular celebration, which continues a tradition begun by the Masons when they occupied the house in the 19th century and held outdoor summer gatherings of their friends and neighbors.
Saturday, July 5, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.: Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show at 18 High Street. This is the 21st annual show by local artists, hosted each year in Janet Willie’s home, and is always a wonderful and varied exhibition of some of our less well-known local talent.
Saturday, July 5, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.: BAAM Summer Art Market at the Philbrook Place, 162 Main Street.
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.: Bethel Plein Air Artists Open House at the Isham farm, 1006 Vernon Street, Albany (about five miles from Bethel Village).
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.: Western Maine History Fair at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society. More than a dozen historical societies and other organizations from across the region will be participating in this event, which will feature workshops and demonstrations, games, exhibits and displays, music, and refreshments
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.: Neighborly Views Art Show in the Mason House Barn at 14 Broad Street, featuring selected local art from the MBHS Collection.
If you have news or events you’d like included here, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or call 207-890-4812. The next print issue of the Citizen will be out on June 27, but you can read the Locke’s Mills column online every week at amywchapman.com, or subscribe for free to have it emailed to you each week.
“The homemade pie has been under siege for a century, and surely its survival is endangered.” – Janet Clarkson, Pie: A Global History