The Caledonian VOL. XXXVI NO. 1 January 2019
THE SCOTTISH-AMERICAN SOCIETY OF THE SOUTHERN TIER, INC.
Please join us in celebrating the 260th
birthday of ROBERT BURNS
with
2019 Officers & Board of Trustees DINNER & CEILIDH
Chief: Rick Mason 10 Manning Avenue, Savona NY 14879
(607) 583-4256 [email protected]
Assistant Chief: Russell Gridley 15 Foothill Road, Elmira NY 14903 (607) 562-7046
Secretary: Nedra McElroy 4 Lackawanna Avenue, Bath NY 14810
(607) 776-6727 [email protected]
Treasurer: Alastair Cormack 76 University Street, Alfred NY 14803 (607) 587-8295 [email protected] On Saturday, January 26, 2019 TRUSTEES At the Horseheads Elks Club Jan Kostolansky, [email protected] Gathering at 4 PM Ray Margeson, [email protected] Bill Sitzman [email protected] To make your reservations for the Tim Swan, [email protected] buffet dinner*, Sam Watson, [email protected] call 962.7726 or 368.8385 or send
Editor: your check for $35/person to Nedra McElroy, [email protected] Jan Kostolansky, Editor Emeritus: 7 Highland Drive, Herb MacDonell, [email protected]
Caledonian Highhlanders Pipes & Drums: Corning NY 14830 Pipe Major, Lee Adelsberg, by Saturday, January 19, 2019 [email protected] Bring a friend!
Like us on FaceBook and *Haggis, Cottage Pie, Chicken Skirlie, Penne Visit our website at www.SASST.org Pasta baked with Garlic, Olive Oil and Romano Cheese, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Webmaster: Sean McElroy, [email protected] Assorted Vegetables, Sticky Toffee Pudding ST. ANDREWS DINNER & ANNUAL reading the ashes, the way some people MEETING read tea leaves. After the big cleanup, A grand time was had by all those who someone goes from room to room carrying attended this gathering at the Corning a smoking juniper branch to discourage evil American Legion. We were made welcome spirits and chase away disease. by the attractive table settings and the First Footing After the stroke of midnight, excellent food, neighbors visit each other, bearing and enjoyed a traditional symbolic gifts such as bagpipe shortbread or black bun, a kind of fruit concert by cake. The visitor, in turn, is offered a small select whisky - a wee dram. The first person to members of enter a house in the New Year, the first our favorite foot, could bring luck for the whole year to band. All come. The luckiest was a tall, dark and agreed that handsome man. The unluckiest a red head the Legion and the unluckiest of all a red-haired might be woman. the perfect Bonfires and Fire Festivals Scotland's fire location for festivals at Hogmanay and later in January next year’s may have pagan or Viking origins. The use dinner and of fire to purify and drive away evil spirits is annual an ancient idea. meeting, and we The Saining of the House This is a very old thank the rural tradition that involved blessing the Caledonian Highlanders for the wonderful house and livestock with holy water from a pipe music! local stream. Although it had nearly died out, in recent years it has experienced a WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT revival. After the blessing with water, the woman of the house was supposed to go HOGMANAY? from room to room with a smoldering Source: https://www.tripsavvy.com/hogmanay- juniper branch, filling the house with traditions-in-scotland-1661711 purifying smoke. Of course, this being a Hogmanay became important to the Scots Scottish celebration, traditional mayhem in part owing to the ban on Christmas was sure to follow. Once everyone in the celebrations under Cromwell’s Parliament household was coughing and choking from in 1647. Even after restoration of the the smoke, the windows would be thrown holiday under a new Parliament, the strict open and reviving drams (or two or three) of Scottish Presbyterians kept the ban, and whisky would be passed around. Christmas remained a normal working day in Scotland until 1958! TASTE TREATS DEPT: CROWDIE Here are some traditions you may not be Source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/crowdie familiar with: -cheese-scotland Historical accounts vary when it comes to the Redding the House - families traditionally origins of the raw milk cheese known did a major cleanup to ready the house for as crowdie. Some say the fresh dairy spread the New Year. Sweeping out the fireplace comes from Scotland’s Viking era, which began was very important and there was a skill in at the end of the eighth century, while others point even earlier, to the Picts, a northern Shortly artist Alexander Stoddart’s sculpture Scotland–dwelling group who first appear in of the great Scottish Enlightenment thinker historical texts in the late third century. Although was installed in front of the High Court it gradually became popular in single-cow Building, philosophy students began making homesteads across the country, this spreadable, pilgrimages to his likeness and rubbing his mousse-like product is now a rare find. toe for luck and wisdom. Over two decades Crofters (farmers who tended small, rented plots later, hordes of tourists crowd around of land) traditionally made crowdie using raw milk left to sour on a Hume’s foot at all times of day, rendering the windowsill or by the sacred toe a shiny golden sphere from all the fireside. They gently contact. curdled the mixture, This popular Edinburgh landmark portrays then added salt and Hume as an ancient Greek philosopher, cream after straining though Hume was also an influential out the whey. Today, historian, economist, and writer who lived in modern regulations the Scottish capital from 1711 to 1776. ban raw crowdie- One of the best-known figures to come out of making due to the resulting cheese’s high the Scottish moisture content and short shelf life. Despite the Enlightenment, potential for pathogenic breeding grounds in commercial production environments, steadfast Hume was invested artisans stick to making the real deal on the down in the natural -low. Industrial renditions that use pasteurized sciences, the milk result in little likeness to traditional crowdie. necessity of Scots spread the tangy topping on sweet and government, and savory dishes alike, akin to cream cheese. empirical Crowdie works just as well with trout and potato observation. In as it does smeared alongside jam on scones. staunch opposition Bakers also use it as a dessert cheese in to superstition, cheesecakes and trifles. Food lore traces the which “rouses the origins of cranachan, a popular Scottish dessert vain fears of medley of whisky- and honey-soaked oats, unhappy mortals,” he wrote in his six- raspberries, and fresh cream, to an older meal of crowdie cheese mixed with oats and honey. volume History of England, Hume would likely Though crowdie most often refers to the soft frown upon his statue’s ritual significance. cheese, the term has culinary and linguistic associations with oats. Scots have historically PAY YOUR DUES! referred to oatmeal-based gruel as “crowdie.” Look at your mailing label. If it says “lifetime,’ Over time, the cheese won the official title, but or ‘benefactor’, ‘fellow’, or ‘comp,’ you are lest we forget the battle, crowdie is still often sold current in your membership and will remain so. coated in oats. If there is a year above your name, and it is not 2019 or later, you are in arrears. If it says ‘trial’ above your name, you need to pay your DAVID HUME’S TOE dues. If you are not current with your dues Source: https://ww.atlasobscura.com/places/david- (Single $10, Family $15, Patron $25, Benefactor humes-statue $50 or more, Life $250) please remit them to Local tradition dictates that a touch of David Nedra McElroy, 4 Lackawanna Ave., Bath NY Hume’s toe will bring good luck, though the 14810 straight away, or tell her practice ironically defies the philosopher’s
Nedra McElroy 4 Lackawanna Avenue Bath NY 14810-1650
Address Service Requested
DATES TO REMEMBER
BURNS DINNER: Horseheads Elks Club, January 26 Details Page 1 ALLEGANY CELTIC GAMES: Cuba NY, June 1 DUNDEE SCOTTISH FESTIVAL: Dundee NY, July 13 CENTRAL NEW YORK SCOTTISH GAMES: Liverpool August 10
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