November 2009

Dutch service and dinner at the Old First Reformed Church

Posted Sat, 11/28/2009 - 12:46pm

The Old First Reformed Church of Brooklyn organized a Dutch service and dinner on Sunday November 15. The event was part of the 5 Dutch Days in New York City. The church, affectionately called “Old First”, dates back to 1654 when what is now New York was still New Amsterdam. Until 1824 services were held in Dutch.

Pastor Meeter welcomed us before the service and gave a tour of the historical building. “Heel goed” and “uitstekend” were the first Dutch words from the New Jersey born pastor, who speaks Dutch well and has a slight Frisian-Gronings accent. He explained that he learned Dutch from his grandparents and that he studied a few months in Groningen, the Netherlands. His PhD dissertation studied the English translations of Dutch liturgy.

The stained-glass windows of the Old First building carry the names of influential New York families of Dutch descent such as Suydam, Cortelyou and Schenk. The organ is a 1891 Roosevelt organ, made by cousins of ‘Teddy’.

Geliefde gemeente, dames en heren, mensen en kinderen

Paster Meeter started his sermon with a greeting in Dutch: “Geliefde gemeente, dames en heren, mensen en kinderen.”

The service incorporated many Dutch elements. The 15 children in the choir were dressed in old Dutch costumes and sang three Psalms in Dutch — quite impressive. During the service Pastor Meeter talked about the history of the church: throughout its existence the congregation has had five buildings at three different locations. At its peak Old First had 1,000 members. In 1792 the church added an English language service and until 1824 the church used the Statenvertaling, the first official Dutch translation of the Bible.

During the sermon the pastor asked: “Why does our church participate in 5 Dutch Days? For many of the same reasons that school or a museum or a gallery or consulate would do this: knowledge, relationships, fun… but the driving motivation is love, The Love of God.”

Avondmaal bekers

The church owns two antique communion cups (avondmaal bekers), crafted in 1684. Pastor Meeter showed us one of them; the other is on display in a museum in New York. The service was attended by around 130 people.

Dutch without potatoes

Dinner was served after the sermon. “Dinner” is used in its original meaning: the first meal of the day, eaten about noon. A team of many volunteers worked for two days to prepare the meal.

Ken Nieuwenhuis, a third generation Dutch-American, developed the menu and managed the kitchen. His grandfather immigrated from Noord-Holland to set up an American branch of a tulip export company in Wyckoff, NJ.

Ken knows Dutch food well: “This is what I grew up with. When I was first thinking of the menu I thought it would be fairly easy: just boil a large amount of potatoes and make a Dutch stamppot or two. But then I realized: no potatoes! The potato was not known to the Dutch colonists in New Netherland at the time. We tried to cook the food as it was done in New Netherland and with ingredients available in the 1600’s. We used Peter Rose’s historic cookbook ‘The Sensible Cook’ for guidance.”

“The dishes had a lot of Dutch cultural influences, but also incorporated what we knew the colonists appropriated from the native Americans, which is why there was a corn meal based bread pudding on the table, and pancakes with pumpkin mash. I also tried to stick with fall vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, celeriac and squash (another New World staple), and with foods that the colonists would also likely have preserved, such as dried peas and smoked metworst. Interestingly, spices such as nutmeg and pepper were available in the 1600’s, due to the Dutch spice trading”.

Ken: “My favorite dish? The rabbit.”

The meal was served and eaten with large wooden spoons. Dishes included:

  • Peasoup with carrots and ham
  • Metworst with cabbage
  • Stewed rabbit
  • Rodekool (red cabbage)
  • The desserts included a boter letter, Dutch apple pie and home-made speculaas

The highlights of the dinner for a number of first generation Dutch-Americans we spoke with were the stewed rabbit and the sauerkraut with authentic metworst. Good metworst is hard to find in the United States and this was the real thing. Metworst is more flavorful than Polish kielbasa and coarser consistency. Ken Nieuwenhuis shared with us the secret of the sausage: it’s from the Market Basket, a specialty store in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

Over a 100 guests attended the dinner, which was a great success thanks to hard work by the staff and many friendly volunteers.

Old First Reformed Church of Brooklyn
http://www.oldfirstbrooklyn.org

Thanksgiving, the Dutch way

Posted Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:15pm

In early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims of the Mayflower celebrated their successful harvest and that moment is remembered as the First Thanksgiving in Plymouth.

This Thanksgiving was modeled after celebrations that were commonplace in contemporary Europe. One of the influences on that First Thanksgiving, according to professor J.W. Schulte Nordholt, were the celebrations for Leiden’s Ontzet that some of the Pilgrims had seen during their stay in Leiden, the Netherlands.

There are four official Thanksgiving events in the Netherlands tomorrow:

The well-known painting the The First Thanksgiving by Jenny Brownscombe is on display in the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden, the first time that this painting is on display outside the United States. It is loan from the Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, MA through January 4, 2010.

Dutch documents and Bibles in the Lefferts Historic House

Posted Sat, 11/21/2009 - 2:50pm

Last weekend the Lefferts Historic House organized an exhibition of its Dutch documents and Bibles. This display was part of the 5 Dutch Days, a city-wide event in New York City.

The House was built circa 1783 and is located within Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. It is the former home of Continental Army Lieutenant Pieter Lefferts and his wife Femmetie.

It houses a children’s museum on the first floor. For the 5 Dutch Days a guided tour of the rooms upstairs was available every 30 minutes which introduced the history of the house and its inhabitants.

Eight historic documents, most of them in Dutch, were on display. One of the most interesting exhibits is the land grant with the signature and seal of Petrus Stuyvesant, Director General of New Netherland, dating from 1661. Written in Dutch, this document establishes the Lefferts family’s property in New Netherland.

On display was a slave bill of sale which described the purchase of a young woman named Jenny by Pieter Lefferts from her former owner Hendricks van Buren. The bill was discovered in one of the family Bibles of the Lefferts family.

Also on view was a quilt show, “Sewing Threads of New York: The 400 Year Anniversary of Henry Hudson’s Voyage”. For the kids there were old-fashioned games such as walking on stilts and hooping. Dutch snacks were provided at the end of the tour: Dutch cheeses and speculaas cookies.

Lefferts Historic House
Located in Prospect Park, Brooklyn
(Inside the Park’s Willink entrance, at the intersection of Flatbush and Ocean Ave. and Empire Blvd.)
www.prospectpark.org

Dutch-Scandinavian relations in Brooklyn, NY

Posted Fri, 11/13/2009 - 6:55am

Pascal Theunissen.Yesterday was the start of 5 Dutch Days, a series of events around Dutch-American Heritage Day. In the Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY the Scandinavian East Coast Museum presented two speakers on Dutch New York and Scandinavians in Dutch New York.

The Scandinavian Museum has the goal to establish a permanent museum recognize the contributions and stories of immigrants from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to the United States.

The first speaker, Pascal Theunissen, is a journalist and Dutch national. When he moved to New York he was inspired by Russell Shorto’s book about New Netherland to start looking for traces of Dutch history in New York. His book, Van Jan Kees tot Yankees, was published earlier this year. While he didn’t immediately realize that 2009 would be the year to celebrate 400 years of Dutch-American relationships, it obviously fits in nicely in this year’s theme and it the book received positive reviews in the Netherlands. His book is currently not on sale in the United States; it is available in Dutch in bookstores in the Netherlands and on-line. (Disclosure: we received a free copy of the book to review).

Mr. Theunissen provided a lively introduction to the history of New Netherland, and the role of the Dutch in New York’s early history. Keeping in line with the evening’s theme of Dutch-Scandinavian relations he described how Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant moved an army to New Sweden in 1655 and captured the Swedish colony. Mr. Stuyvesant clearly did not come to Manhattan to make any friends.

Dutch millstones in the pavement
Mr. Theunissen gave a number of examples from his book of Dutch places in New York, such as the Voorlezer’s House, the first school in the United States, and the Wyckoff House in Brooklyn. He also mentioned 17th century millstones in the pavement in Queens, Sinterklaas’ influence on Santa Claus and the game ‘double Dutch’. “New Amsterdam is long gone but there are signs all around you”. The most remarkable is the Brooklyn’s slogan: Eendraght Maekt Maght — strengh in unity, in old Dutch.

Bergen Street and beyond
The second speaker, Victoria Hofmo, is the driving force behind the Scandinavian East Coast Museum and President of the museum. Ms. Hofmo introduced the history of Scandinavians in the 17th century. Against a background of internal conflict in Scandinavia, war, unfavorable inheritance laws and a massive loss of population due to the black plague many people from Norway moved to Amsterdam, and later to the New World. Scandinavians around New York often blended in to the Dutch culture and even used the Dutch language. A nice example of a Dutch-Scandinavian relation is the story behind the Bergen Street and Bergen Place — named after a Norwegian-Dutch/French couple.

Only a few people in the audience were Dutch; most of the people attended had a Scandinavian background. Ms. Hofmo explained that the long common history between the Dutch and the Scandinavians encouraged the Scandinavian Museum to start participating in 5 Dutch Days a few years ago.

After the official program there were drinks and Dutch and Scandinavian cheeses as well as herring, a treat in both Scandinavia and the Netherlands. A highlight for your correspondent was the plate with marzipan and Swedish cookies that were very similar to speculaas.

Scandinavian East Coast Museum
http://www.scandinavian-museum.org

Van Jan Kees tot Yankees, Pascal Theunissen
http://www.pascaltheunissen.com
Mr. Theunissen will be in the library in Alkmaar, the Netherlands on November 22.

75th Annual Verboort Sausage & Kraut Dinner

Posted Sun, 11/08/2009 - 8:11pm

This weekend was the 75th edition of the annual Verboort Sausage & Kraut dinner in Verboort, Oregon, about 25 miles west of Portland.

The festival is an annual fund-raiser for the Catholic school. The main event is the beer garden style meal, where for $15 you get all-you-can-eat homemade sausage, sauerkraut (zuurkool) and other dishes such mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, lemon and apple pie. Besides the feast people line up early in the morning for a chance to buy sausage and sauerkraut in bulk. Sales start at 9.00 am but the line forms as early at 3.30 am.

The tradition started in 1934 when 198 lbs of sausage were served to 150 diners. This year about 15 tons of sausage and over 2,000 pounds of homemade kraut — more than 50 barrels — were served to thousands of diners. Due to unforeseen circumstances your local correspondent could not attend in person but next year we will sample the sauerkraut and sausage for you.

All the ingredients are produced in Verboort (except the meat for the sausage). The smoked sausage is prepared by tens of volunteers in Verboort and consists of a mix of beef, pork and a secret spice blend. Sauerkraut with sausage is a popular winter dish in the Netherlands and sauerkraut features in many Dutch dishes, for example stamppot zuurkool, boiled potatoes mashed together with raw sauerkraut.

Verboort
The small farming community of Verboort was established by six Catholic families who traveled from the Netherlands to De Pere, Wisconsin and settled in Oregon in 1875. In the same year, Father William Verboort transferred from the diocese of Milwaukee to the Archdiocese of Oregon City. Upon arrival Father Verboort and the community built an informal school and a church. In 1876, Father Verboort and his parents died of fever and the community was named Verboort that same year.

Verboort Annual Dinner, organized by the Visitation Catholic Church
4285 NW Visitation Rd, Forest Grove, OR
http://www.verboort.org/

Dutch-American Heritage Day 2009

Posted Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:31am

In 1992 President George Bush Sr. proclaimed November 16 to be Dutch American Heritage Day, a day to celebrate the historic ties and mutual friendship between the Netherlands and the United States. On that day in 1776 the Governor of St. Eustatius ordered a salute to a warship of the United States, making the Netherlands the first foreign power to officially salute the flag of the newly-independent United States.

In 2009 there are many celebrations, big and small, throughout the U.S. and in Holland. We have a complete overview on our site; here are some highlights this year.

The Netherland-America Foundation organizes an elaborate gala in the California Club in Los Angeles, honoring internationally renowned actor, director and painter, Jeroen Krabbé (this event is black tie). The Zwaanendael Museum in Delaware organizes an educational afternoon for young & old: “Discover when and where Delaware’s relationship with the Dutch began, and make an origami windmill or tulip.”.

There is a Dutch Day in Winchester, California with live performances and there are “5 Dutch Days” in New York City. One of the events worth looking out for is an Historic Worship Service followed by a “New Netherland Dinner” at the Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, NY. The meal that is served is based on 400 year old recipes and includes metworst with cabbage, a boterletter and oliebollen (reservations are required, as is the case for many of these events).

In the Netherlands there is a celebration at the ESA campus/Space Expo in Noordwijk. The U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam has the text of the proclamation by President Bush Sr.

Dutch-American Heritage Day
November 16, 2009 (not all events are on the 16th)
Events, places and organizations

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