Month: December 2007

Chillin’

Custom flavors, on ice

Design-your-own cone: If supermarket ice cream just doesn’t deliver what you need, try ordering custom flavors from a local kitchen.

So your BFF has a birthday and you know her favorite treat is apple pie ice cream. You design her ice cream’s base and ingredients, name it and write a note. Then it shows up at her door, shipped in dry ice. Such is the scenario imagined by Lynsie Watkins, whose new business enterprise—Perfect Flavor, a sustainable, environmentally-conscious boutique ice cream kitchen (what will they think of next?)—is set to be in full swing by mid-December.

The idea was born when Watkins was flipping channels and saw Paula Deen make ice cream without an ice cream maker. "I was so blown away by it," she says, "that I started creating different flavors." Neighbors started calling for their own bowl of lemon-curd custard or strawberry ice cream, people started asking Watkins to cater their events, and the idea took off.

Watkins’ interest in the local food movement, fueled by a move to Charlottesville, has led her to create a business that aims to be as local and sustainable as possible. "When I was growing up in Northern Virginia, I didn’t know where my milk came from," this ice cream maven confesses. In her adult life, Watkins is trying to change that. "We use all local products for everything we can," she stresses, and she has based her kitchen in Waynesboro "because we’re closer to the suppliers that way." Get your fix—starting at $49.99 for four pints—at www.perfectflavor.com.—Lee Vanderwerff

And we all shine on

How to polish your pieces

There’s more than one way to get the gleam.

Hauling out that old silver tea set or those cute little sterling dessert forks for your holiday meals? You’ll have to polish more than your lingo (hint: your better families just call it "the silver"). Especially if it’s been in storage for a while, silver may be tarnished, so you’ll want to shine it up before it graces your table.

Renee Baker, who works at South Street’s home shop 2 French Hens and collects vintage jewelry, told us that she’s relied on Wright’s Silver Cream ever since she brought a tub home from her grandmother’s house. Wright’s comes with its own foam pad for scrubbing, and—along with "good old-fashioned elbow grease," says Baker—works just fine. She’s much less enthusiastic about so-called "dips," which require no scrubbing but, she says, are "too harsh. …What’s so beautiful about silver is the age and the patina, and I just think that the silver dips strip everything away."

Baker hadn’t heard of another method we’d read about: Line a bowl with aluminum foil, fill with hot water, add salt and baking soda, then submerge silver pieces until they look clean. An electrochemical reaction does the cleaning here. If you’re feeling skittish about possible damage to a family heirloom, try this method out first on something less valuable.

Oh, and one final tip: Never wear rubber gloves while polishing silver; they corrode it. Instead, go for cotton or plastic.—Erika Howsare

Farm fresh

What makes a table a farm table?

A farm table made by John Casteen IV exemplifies the genre: sturdy and simple.

We keep spotting heavy, rustic "farm tables" dotting kitchens and dining rooms around town—not to mention the displays of certain retailers—and got curious: First of all, what the heck is a farm table? Turns out, they’re either antique tables from country houses or reproductions of same. Local craftsman and owner of Fern Hill Furniture, John Casteen IV, weighs in: "Most older farm tables were designed to do double-duty as work surfaces and dining tables." So, Casteen says, sometimes their dimensions don’t exactly lend themselves to our purposes—ie, dinner parties rather than butchering or canning. 

Still, even with contemporary reproduction pieces, "what makes it a farm table is the design, not the dimensions," Casteen says. "They tend to be free (or almost free) of the kind of jewelry furniture makers put on fancier stuff—inlay, carvings, that kind of nonsense."  But, what they are is "simple and pretty, made of vernacular materials, and they’re designed to address what we now recognize as a modernist ideal: form and function are united." 

To unite form and function in your own pad, check out Casteen’s own design at http://fernhillfurniture.com or browse the farm table line-up at Les Yeux du Monde or Verity blue.—L.V.

To market, to market

Finding a real home for a Charlottesville favorite

Pining for the tomatoey days of yore? Help Market Central ensure their return.

If you’re a devotee of the City Market, you might be fighting withdrawal since the Saturday morning fixture ended its season for the year. But there is a way to stay connected. Four years ago, a combination of vendors and customers interested in the future of Charlottesville’s farmers’ market got together and formed Market Central. They are in the midst of a membership drive, having attained nonprofit status last year, which allows them to take your money and give you a tax deduction in return.

For an annual membership fee of $10—heftier donations welcome—Market Central will keep you updated through newsletters and e-mails on their efforts to secure a permanent site, as well as plans to add amenities such as real bathrooms with running water and permanent stalls for vendors.

The market’s current open-air location on Water Street is one of the last pieces of undeveloped land Downtown and thus an unsecured base for a weekly event like the farmer’s market. Market Central’s focus is on creating a conduit for the public to influence the use of this space. Future plans include building on the market’s long-standing ties to the community through educational programs tied to cooking, healthy eating and the sustainable gardening that feeds them.

Hungry to get involved? Send e-mail inquiries to marketcentral@bnsi.net.—Cathy Clary

Lay your head here

Anita Davis’ Pilow Mint will sing you a lullaby.

If you’ve seen the chalkboard signs for Pillow Mint around the Glass Building lately but were unsure exactly where this mystery shop was hiding, look no further. Pillow Mint is tucked into the back side of the Glass Building, on the opposite side from the X Lounge. This two-month-old boutique offers customers a friendly bowl of complimentary, er, pillow mints, as well as walls of "contemporary fine bedding" of both the adult and kiddie variety. Also on the shelves are childrens’ books, royal-looking slippers, paper star lanterns, candles, and lots of other good-smelling stuff. "Zen" alarm clock, anyone?—L.V.

Quote:

"From the earliest human gatherings to the era of radio and television, the setting for transmitting family and cultural lore was the gathering place defined by the fireplace, chimney, and semicircle of seating."
– Anthony Lawlor, A Home for the Soul

You got questions? We got answers. If you’ve always lived with a heat pump and a knob on the wall that you twist to make things get hotter, using a fireplace might carry visions of primitive tools—splitting wedges and pokers—and a whole bunch of flaming, smoky, insurance-policy-canceling danger. Yes, managing a fire in your house is more complicated than other forms of home heat, but it can be well worth it. After all, nobody writes Christmas songs about heat pumps.

Don’t forget about the chimney: You’d better have it cleaned now and then, or it will remind you of its presence by catching on fire.

Here’s everything (well, a lot of things) you need to know.

How do I build the fire, anyway?

Obviously you weren’t a Boy Scout! Here’s the basic idea.

You’ll need three main materials to start your fire (well, besides a match.) The first is crumpled newspaper. The second is kindling, which means small twigs, sticks and other thin scraps of wood. The third is split logs.

After checking inside and around the fireplace for anything you wouldn’t want to catch fire (duh), make a loose pile of crumpled newspaper in the fireplace, then stack kindling above it (lean pieces inward to form a pyramid, or stack like Lincoln logs). Leaving space for air to flow, stack a couple of smaller split logs over the pile.

When it comes to efficiency, woodstoves have it going on—at least compared to open fireplaces. They’re less polluting, too.

Light the newspaper in two or three spots around the perimeter of the pile. These will light the kindling which in turn gets the logs going; this process might take about 10 minutes and a watchful eye on your part. Once the logs are burning, you can begin to add more and heavier logs. Pour yourself a nice glass of Cabernet and enjoy.

Does it matter what species of wood I burn?

Yep, it does—both in terms of clean burning and in terms of getting the most BTUs for your buck. (That’s British thermal units, a measure of heat produced by your crackling fire or any other heat source.) Stay with harder woods; Bryan Parlee, a salesman with Acme Stove Company, tells us that hickory, locust, white oak and apple are good bets, while pine and cedar are no-nos.

Can I cut down a tree on my property for firewood?

Hold on, Tex. "It’s always good to burn dry seasoned wood," says Parlee. "It burns cleaner and hotter." Seasoned wood has been split and dried for at least six months; season your own or, if you’re buying firewood, ask when it was cut. "When you burn damp or green wood," Parlee explains, "it will create more creosote in your chimney."

Creosote? What’s that?

"When the gases burn off your wood," Parlee says, "they cool down and solidify." The resulting substance, when it builds up inside your chimney, can catch fire. And nothing ruins a cosy night around the hearth faster than having to call 911.

So, if I have a big buildup of creosote, what should I do?

Call a chimney sweep. According to Parlee, there’s no hard-and-fast rule about how often to have a chimney professionally cleaned, since every house is different. But a general guideline is to do it twice a year if you use your fireplace quite often; if you’re a recreational user, once a year is probably enough.

O.K., the chimney sweep came over and told me I need to have the chimney lined. What does that mean?

"If you have an older chimney, and you’ve had a chimney fire or had a chimney sweep tell you you have a cracked liner, it’s a good idea to have your chimney relined," says Parlee. A chimney liner, he explains, is essentially a 6" or 8" flexible stainless steel tube wrapped in insulation, which installers feed down into your chimney from the top. "If you have a cracked liner, it keep the creosote from settling in [the cracks]," says Parlee, who estimates the cost of relining at $1,600 or more.

Meanwhile, down in the fireplace, I’ve got tons of ashes building up. What should I do with them?

Well, you definitely shouldn’t just dump them at the edge of the yard. Warns Parlee, "When you take the ashes out of your fireplace, they can stay hot for a couple of days. Put them in a closed metal container with an air space underneath it"—for example, elevated on a couple of concrete blocks, to allow circulation. "It’s not a great idea to put them on a wooden porch," he continues, "because if wind were to blow your ash bucket over, it could start a fire." A paved driveway, he says, is the ideal cooling location for the ash bucket.

And after the ashes are cool? Then what?

As luck would have it, if you are a gardener, you can make good use of the ashes to amend soil and protect certain plants from pests. Ash contains calcium and potassium—good for balancing acidic and low-potassium soils, but not so good for acid-loving plants, including rhododendrons and azaleas. Ashes are also a good addition to the compost pile, and some gardeners sprinkle ash around the base of their plants to discourage insects, snails and slugs.
 
Not a gardener? Ashes on icy sidewalks make a safer walking surface. And there’s always this not-too-green option: When they’re completely cool, simply throw them away.

Speaking of green, am I causing air pollution with this thing or what?

If it’s an open fireplace, the answer’s yes. You’re sending particulates into the atmosphere through your chimney (up to 50 grams per hour, according to experiments by Canada’s Combustion and Carbonization Research Laboratory (CCRL)), and you also may be contributing smoke and carbon monoxide to the indoor air that you’re breathing.

Behold the insert: a 500-pound way to make your fireplace work harder.

Because they burn hotter and are meant to be airtight, enclosed woodstoves are much less polluting and come with fewer hazards to indoor air quality. Parlee tells us that newer stoves are built better: "Stoves now have new regulations they have to meet. No stove can emit more than six grams of particulate an hour. All of your newer woodstoves and inserts have a reburning system that burns extra gases a second time, reduces creosote and grams of particulate."

Inserts? What are those?

Essentially, says Parlee, they’re a way to retrofit your fireplace and make it act like a woodstove. "An insert slides into the fireplace opening and weighs 200-500 pounds," he says. The insert has doors and looks like a woodstove whose front is flush with the front of the fireplace. "Typically those are installed with blowers," he says, which push the heat into the room. Getting an insert for your fireplace can cost $1,500 or more.

Sounds kinda weird.

O.K., Picky, you have another option: a freestanding woodstove. "[You] place it on the hearth right in front [of the fireplace]," says Parlee. Blowers aren’t necessary here: instead, heat radiates outward from the stove.

If I decide I don’t want to burn wood at all, could I convert a wood fireplace to gas?

Yes, you could. "You call a certified gas technician, they run a gas line from natural gas or from propane tank into that fireplace," says Parlee. From there, you have options: gas stoves, gas inserts or decorative gas logs.  

Let’s get down to brass tacks. Can I actually heat my house solely with a fireplace or woodstove?

Trying to heat your house with only a fireplace will probably end in tears. "When you burn wood in a fireplace it’s fun," Parlee says, "but all of your heat’s going up your chimney." Indeed, the CCRL study found that fireplaces have an efficiency rating of between 10 percent and negative 10 percent—meaning that they may actually make your house colder, as they draw warm air from throughout the house to feed combustion.

The efficiency picture gets rosier with woodstoves. "[Inserts and woodstoves] are designed to heat your home," says Parlee; advanced combustion systems, says the CCRL, can approach 70 percent efficiency. "Woodstoves will heat from 300 square feet up to 3,000 square feet, depending on the layout of the home," says Parlee. "If you have a large open floor plan with cathedral ceilings, it’s tough to keep that heat." A more closed-in house plan will work better with a woodstove.

So are you saying I should never use my fireplace? What was all that about how much fun they are?

Well, they are fun. And there’s no reason not to enjoy the occasional flaming log on an open hearth (just try roasting chestnuts inside a woodstove!). Just don’t think of it as clean-burning or efficient.  

Got a light?

The beginning of winter marks the return of the sun. The winter solstice on December 21 is the shortest day of the year, with the angle of the sun at its lowest. Every day afterward is a little longer as the sun begins to climb back higher into the sky towards spring.

The high point in the hollow now, where I live, is awaiting the descent of the robin hordes upon the two autumn olive trees at the edge of the garden, planted many years ago by previous owners to stabilize the creek bank and feed the creatures—squirrels, possum, foxes, deer. Weighted branches rest their silvered ruby berries on the ground like kabuki dancers with heavy kimonos.

"I can’t bring myself to cut them down, home to countless birds that roost and feed there, but increasingly I am aware of intruders along the edges of our country road."

Last year hundreds of birds feasted through a rainy weekend providing a Hitchcockian drama through my office window. They swarmed over the course of two days, devouring every berry. As they flew farther south with their tummies full of nutritious seeds, their droppings spread this aggressive alien species to the detriment of many native habitats and their flora.
 
I can’t bring myself to cut them down, home to countless birds that roost and feed there, but increasingly I am aware of intruders along the edges of our country road: thorny barberry dangling bright orange seeds at the woodland edge; masses of privet infesting road banks, swaths of escaped miscanthus grass running through the woods crowding out the native coralberries, viburnums, hydrangeas and spicebush.

Asian bittersweet vine is particularly pernicious, infesting large swaths of Rtes. 250 and 29, strangling native hardwoods with its rampant growth. If you get a holiday wreath containing the seductively beautiful orange and red berries, send it to the landfill instead of tossing it out the back door or on the compost pile.

If you’ve managed to clear an area of invasive vines or shrubs, or just annual crabgrass, lay down thick layers of newspaper or cardboard topped off with mulch to create a spring planting bed. By March or April, plant pansies, violas and candytuft for a flower border; drifts of itea, abelia or spirea for shrubs.

Mild weather gives time to continue manicuring the grounds and a last dash outside can still make a difference before holiday guests arrive. Rip out frosted weeds and annuals and stuff them in the compost bin. Topdress bare areas with good organic mulch like compost or leaf mold to nurture the soil over the winter and give prominent beds a beveled edge with a good sharp spade. Wear your wellies and pretend you’re Prince Charles.

Pull up dead zinnias or marigolds and clip off dried flower heads into the bed. Many showy annuals—larkspur, poppies, nicotiana, tassel flower and sweet William—reseed themselves if managed properly. Get bulbs in the ground by Christmas, New Year’s Day at the latest. Plant two to three times as deep as the bulb is tall.

As the year turns, scented geraniums, jasmine vines and a gardenia that lived outside all summer on the deck have come inside for their winter sojourn. A back room with no direct heat is ideal; away from heat vents and drafts, a necessity. One foot square tiles make a good barrier between saucers and the floor or carpet.

Putting plants to bed for winter offers a multitude of satisfying tasks and gets us outside to feel the changing of the seasons, the air and soil becoming colder even as the sun rises higher in the sky. It’s no coincidence that holiday celebrations occur at the same time the light increases; the rhythm of our solar system sustains us.

December in the garden

-Beware the bittersweet
-Create beds for spring
-Scatter seed

Garden questions? Send them to Cathy Clary at garden@c-ville.com.

Frank Sinatra might have crooned the songs that make the world sing, and Steve Jobs may very well single-handedly create the toys that make the world shop, but nobody (but nobody) can set the price of real estate, not even your agent. That, my friend, is the market’s job.

Buyers may well look suspiciously at a house with a price that is frequently, and incrementally, being lowered.

So with a glut of housing on the market and home sales currently slumping, many would-be home sellers are having to stare down that dirty word: repricing. And even though it may hurt—and chances are that slashing the price of your home is going to—adjusting your asking price may be a necessary evil if you want offers to start coming in.

And if this realization comes after the economic equivalent of watching tumbleweeds blow through your living room for the last six months, well, you might have waited a bit too long to adjust your expectations.

"What I do is essentially redo the market analysis about every 30 days and look at what is sold, and more importantly, what has gone under contract," says Lori Chapman, a Realtor with Real Estate III. Markets change fast, so it’s important to keep an eye on homes similar to yours, to see what they’re selling for and to understand at what price buyers are willing to write contracts.

This is information that is constantly changing, so the more up-to-date the data is, the better. And upon seeing that data, some steely-eyed realism is essential.

"What we try to get people to focus on is that they or we don’t set the price of the market," says Chapman. "You have to look at the market data and price according to that. You can’t look at what you’d like, or what the agent would like, or even what a buyer might like. You need to look at market facts."

Median home prices have essentially remained the same from the second to the third quarter, though according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, sales are at their lowest point since 2003. But thanks to low interest rates (which just seem to be getting lower), buyers have a growing incentive to move aggressively. The trick to netting a sale, though, is pricing your home right.

And sometimes, this means pricing your home right after you’ve priced it wrong.

After taking a close look at what homes like yours are fetching (number of bedrooms, square footage, acreage, age, etc.) price it firmly in that range. Buyers may well look suspiciously at a house with a price that is frequently, and incrementally, being lowered. As real estate blogger Jim Duncan says in his post on repricing, "Beat the market down, don’t chase it."

Of course, you won’t have to dance with an ever-changing market as much if, as the advice goes, you do it right the first time.

"It’s always more desirable to get yourself close to the correct price the first go-around," says Chapman. "If you misjudged it, it’s more difficult in a changing market."

And no matter what anybody tells you, the market, forever changing, is in charge.