Weekends with Yankee

>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends with Yankee, Richard Wiese heads north to Maine for an insider's tour at Nubble, one of the country's oldest lighthouses.

>> People have this infatuation with this lighthouse because it is a little, tiny time capsule.

>> NARRATOR: Next senior food editor Amy Traverso visits Boston's North End, stopping in at the revolutionary-era printing office Edes & Gill.

Amy then heads to one of the neighborhood's famous seafood restaurants, Neptune Oyster, and tops it off with a cannoli at Modern Pastry.

>> I think, and a lot of people agree, this is the best Italian neighborhood in the country.

We try and maintain our traditions here.

>> NARRATOR: We then make our way to Woodstock, Vermont, to meet well-known potter James Zilian, credited with having elevated the farmhouse look.

>> Such an old material and craft in the modern day was sort of missing.

>> NARRATOR: So come along with us 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 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: >> 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?

>> Series funding provided by the Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard to find since 1946.

>> The Barn Yard, builders of timber frame barns and garages.

>> And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

>> NARRATOR: The Nubble Lighthouse is one of the country's most photographed lighthouses.

Visitors can only take in its beauty from a distance, as tours and access to the craggy islet it stands on are not open to the public.

Richard begins the day with breakfast at local favorite Norma's Restaurant.

He's here to meet Norma Clark, whose mother, Barbara Fennimore, was the last baby born at the Nubble Lighthouse, and in the middle of a storm.

>> WIESE: Good morning.

>> Good morning!

How are you today?

>> WIESE: I'm good, are you the famous Norma?

>> That I am.

>> WIESE: You know, when you come into town everybody says you've got to start your day at Norma's.

>> It's a good time of the day to be at Norma's.

We have a great group every morning.

>> WIESE: I'm going to the Nubble Lighthouse, so is there anything particular on the menu that I should order?

>> I think maybe the Nubble Light Special.

>> WIESE: Okay, so the Nubble Light Special, and maybe a cup of coffee to get me going.

>> Right now.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> Okay.

Here you go.

>> WIESE: Okay-- wow, wow!

>> Look at that.

>> WIESE: I noticed behind me you have this beautiful mural.

Is there any story behind that?

My mom was born on the Nubble in 1927, and she would go to school across, they called it "the Gut," and they'd go either in bad snowstorms, whatever.

>> WIESE: When people always talk about growing up and they say, "Oh, when I was a kid, "I used to have to walk in a snowstorm every day to school" and so forth.

>> Uh-huh.

>> WIESE: But, I mean, your mother actually had to go in a boat, a rowboat.

>> In a boat, in a boat, yes.

>> WIESE: The painting, what's the story behind that?

>> Bill Thompson.

He and my mom got to be very good friends because Bill did a lot for the Nubble.

He loves to draw and paint.

And so when mom passed, he painted this in memory of Mom.

It's just a nice community spot.

Everyone knows everyone.

It's like family.

>> NARRATOR: Next, Richard meets up with Matt Rosenberg, who has served as Nubble's lighthouse keeper since 2012.

Matt knows all about the lighthouse's rich history, what makes it unique, and the details of how it's now been carefully restored.

>> It gets really rough here.

It's usually much rougher than this, even on a good day.

>> WIESE: I have to imagine that back in the day when they built this, you had to be pretty self-sustaining on here?

>> Yes, they had to keep months' worth of food and water on hand at all times because there could be an entire month where they wouldn't get off the island.

So this is the entrance to the tower.

On the other side of this is all the equipment that runs the lighthouse.

So, head on in.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> This lighthouse was built in 1879.

It makes it one of the newest lighthouses in the area.

They've been kicking around the idea of having a lighthouse here for decades before that.

In the mid-1800s, there was a wreck on Baldhead Cliff, which is just north of here up the shore.

A ship called the Isadore, where several men died, and that's when they got more serious about putting a lighthouse in this place.

So they used coal oil for their lamp, and the lamp had to be extinguished and refueled every four hours.

So a couple times a night, the lighthouse keeper would have to get out of bed and go up there.

In fact, during storms, he'd actually sleep up in the tower near the lamp, and he'd have to run five gallon buckets of coal oil up from the fuel house, which is way down on the front of the island up to the lighthouse in order to fuel it.

So they would do this year round, 365 days a year.

So this is the heart of the Nubble Lighthouse.

It is the Fresnel lens.

Before a lens like this, you had to put out a tremendous amount of light to be seen.

What this lens does is it concentrates the light into a single beam through these stacked prisms.

So it all comes out in the middle on a much more intense flat beam.

This light right here can be seen for 14 miles on a clear night.

>> WIESE: Lighthouses are very iconic of the New England coast.

It seems that this lighthouse is perhaps the most iconic of all of them-- why is that?

>> You know, I think people have this infatuation with this lighthouse because it is a little, tiny time capsule.

They look at it and it seems to be frozen in time in its own little bubble on an island, like, completely untouchable, and it stays kind of perfect.

When I work on the lighthouse and I do stuff, I know that I'm doing things that people have been doing for over a hundred years, almost 150 years, over and over and over again.

Like, we've painted the same piece of wood so many times, or, you know, I've replaced the same hinges that have been replaced by generations of people before me.

And I, like, sometimes it gives you a little chill to think about, like, all the people who have worked on this lighthouse over that time.

>> NARRATOR: If you want to know why Nubble Lighthouse is one of the most photographed in the world, Matt has some insights.

He's been photographing it in all seasons.

>> WIESE: Matt, this is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world, and I see a lot of people taking pictures.

But if someone wants to come here down onto these rocks and take a picture that you can frame, you know, what do you tell them?

>> Well, a lot of times when you have clouds like we have today, people are a little bit disappointed.

But I think this is the ideal kind of day.

When you have no clouds, everything looks really flat.

Here you get a sense of depth and you can feel that the lighthouse is across the water.

Really working the sky and making sure that that's a prominent part of your photo, and these nice clouds that we have developing, that is gonna be something that'll help you make a picture you want to frame.

We've got some wave action in the front, so I want to make sure I can capture some of that.

>> WIESE: So you're not pushing in too much with the zoom?

>> No, I feel like once you start to take the lighthouse out of its environment, it just doesn't have that same special feel that you get, like, when you're looking at it just like we're looking at it now.

If you watch the sets of waves that come in, they kind of build and then collapse and build and collapse.

So sometimes if you spend five or ten minutes out here before you take your photo, you'll get, like, that breaking wave that's doing exactly what you want, that shows the action.

So here's what I have.

>> That's a nice shot.

I like the foam.

I think that looks really, really good.

You've definitely got, like, that depth with all the clouds that you've got.

>> WIESE: And I'm glad you did positive reinforcement because it only encourages me to shoot more.

So thank you very much.

>> You're welcome.

There's nothing bad to say about this photo.

>> WIESE: Thank you, thank you.

Your photos have a different perspective.

For example, we're looking at Montauk daisies.

>> I love Montauk daisies because they are not a real daisy, they're a chrysanthemum, so they bloom in the fall like when mums do.

And the other thing you get in the fall is sometimes you get like, these kinds of layered sherbet-colored sunsets that are happening here with the light reflected behind the lighthouse.

>> WIESE: So the starfish view of the Nubble is interesting.

>> A couple times a month we'll get very, very low tides that expose the starfish and we'll see starfish of all colors, and they're just kind of littering the rocks over there, which is kind of cool.

The waves here are spectacular, and the funny thing about them is that you get, in specific places, the same kinds of shapes.

>> WIESE: Winter reflection.

>> You know, you got those really nice calm days in the wintertime sometimes when the air doesn't move at all, and that's when you can get, like, a perfectly still reflection.

>> WIESE: This last shot we're looking at out of the fog, to me, is taking advantage of really bad weather and turning it into spectacular art.

>> This is the photo that kind of started my journey into photography because before I felt like I was just taking pictures.

And when I took this photo it became, like, something that I felt was art for the first time ever.

So the one that represents your experience in that moment, that, I think, becomes the photo that you love the most.

>> WIESE: All right, I'll have to go out there and take more photos.

>> Go do it.

(chuckles) (fiddle music playing) >> NARRATOR: Nubble Lighthouse has not only inspired great photography, but great music.

Grammy and Emmy-nominated artist and composer, Mirad Nesbitt, joins us to share stories and play a little music.

(playing fiddle music) (fiddling continues) (fiddling continues) >> WIESE: That was fantastic!

>> Thank you, Richard.

Thank you so much.

(laughs) >> WIESE: I'm inspired.

So those songs, those are...?

>> Some great, great Irish tunes for such a beautiful, beautiful place that reminds me of the West Coast of Ireland, it's so rugged and so beautiful.

I think Celtic music, really what inspires it is nature-- you know, the land, the water, the waves.

It's passionate, it's soulful.

I think it's, it's really food for the soul.

>> WIESE: And so when you come here to Nubble, you're in Maine.

>> Yes.

>> WIESE: You know, it does look a little like the Rocky Coast.

>> It does.

I love the water, the beautiful lighthouse.

You know, it's so amazing.

>> WIESE: So how long have you been playing this type of music?

>> I think since I've been about four.

(laughs) So a long time!

>> WIESE: Since about four?

Do you have a musical background in your family?

>> Yes, my whole family play, my mother and my father.

I have four brothers, and my sisters, so we all play music and we all play together.

>> WIESE: Now I know that you have done quite a few albums.

What's your new album that's coming out?

>> My new album is Celtic Spells, so I can't wait for everyone to hear it.

And you just got a little taster there, but obviously it's epic, and it's just epic Celtic music, I hope everybody will love it.

>> WIESE: And so maybe you'll play me just a little more, and play our audience out.

>> Yes.

>> WIESE: With this beautiful scenery here.

>> Absolutely, I would love to.

>> WIESE: And what's the piece you're gonna play?

>> Well, I love "The Skye Boat Song" from Celtic Spells because I think it's so beautiful and it's so suitable for here.

>> WIESE: All right, take it away.

>> Thank you.

(playing "The Skye Boat Song") (fiddle playing) (fiddling continues) (fiddling continues) (song ends) >> TRAVERSO: Today, I'm in one of my favorite places, Boston's North End.

This is the oldest residential neighborhood in the city-- dates back to the 1630s, and it has seen waves of history since then.

For the past hundred years or so, it's really been Boston's Little Italy.

And, in fact, this is where I first lived in Boston, right around the corner.

But I'm going to see another historic building.

It's the Ebenezer Clough House, which was built in 1712 and where an exhibit on early American printing really tells the story of the American Revolution.

Is this the Printing Office of Edes & Gill?

>> That it is, Madam, how are you?

>> TRAVERSO: Doing great, nice to meet you, I'm Amy.

>> Nice to meet you, Amy.

>> TRAVERSO: Hi.

I don't even know what I'm looking at.

I recognize these are letters, right?

>> Yeah, letters.

So this is technology really from the 15th century.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

>> So Gutenberg in Germany invents the printing press.

>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

>> Maybe about 2,000 books in all of Europe in the year 1450.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

>> Just 50 years later, after the introduction of this machine, by the year 1500, there's over ten million books in Europe.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh my gosh.

Can you show me a little bit about how you actually print with a machine like this?

>> Yes, of course.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

There's about 9,000 individual pieces here.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh my gosh, how long would it take you to...?

>> If you're good at this, that's a seven-hour job.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, seven hours.

>> For one person.

So once we place the paper on the form, this is called the frisket, we're gonna lower that over because these high-tech tools are called ink balls.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> They don't look like much.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> But for 400 years, this is how you ink the pages of every book and every newspaper printed.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

>> And then do you want to try one?

>> TRAVERSO: Sure, I'd love to.

>> Okay, so what you're going to do is this.

All over the whole thing twice.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

Here we go.

>> By the way, that's real ink.

If it gets on your clothes, it's not coming off.

>> TRAVERSO (laughs): Okay!

>> This folds over, and now we're gonna turn the routes.

We're going to turn that counterclockwise.

Now here's the fun part.

Right foot forward, left hand, right there.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Now just give that a yank straight back.

Perfect.

>> TRAVERSO (laughs): Oh, okay!

>> I was ready.

Both hands on this.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Now wrap around a little bit and lean back hard.

That is it, good, let it go.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, okay.

(laughs) Ooh, I made our country free!

>> You did.

The Boston Edition of the Declaration of Independence.

This isn't any edition, this is the Boston Edition.

>> TRAVERSO: Well, now that we've touched on the very rich history of this neighborhood, I want to also go touch on the very rich food of this neighborhood.

>> Absolutely.

>> TRAVERSO: (laughs) Thank you so much again.

>> Pleasure, Amy.

>> TRAVERSO: Now I want to take you to my probably favorite restaurant in the North End.

It's Neptune Oyster, and it's kind of a European-inspired oyster bar-- now I'm going to try some oysters and I'm hoping I can try my favorite dish, which is a johnnycake with smoked blue fish and creme fraiche on it, it's so good.

Hey, Fernanda!

>> Hi, Amy.

>> TRAVERSO: I want to try some oysters with you.

>> Oh, that's perfect.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

I'm going to come around.

Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful.

>> Enjoy.

>> TRAVERSO: So we're going to start with the Neptune Pearl.

I'll try this one.

Mm.

Oh my God.

>> That's great?

>> TRAVERSO: It's so good because it starts out really briny and then you start to get this rich buttery-ness.

And then the sweetness is incredible, wow.

So now we're moving up to Maine, Unicorn from Damariscotta, Maine, mm.

It's so interesting how different, you know, the different oysters are from the different locations.

I'm going to stop here, as good as these are, because I don't want to get too full.

I want to go back and see Chef Joaquin and ask him to make that amazing johnnycake.

>> That's perfect.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

>> You're welcome.

>> TRAVERSO: Hey Chef Joaquin.

>> Hi, Amy.

>> TRAVERSO: Nice to see you.

One of my favorite dishes here, among many, is the johnnycake that you guys do, where you top it with, like... >> That's correct, that's the johnnycake.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, could we do that now?

>> Sure.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, I want to see how you do it.

>> It's just flour.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hm.

>> Semolina.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hm.

>> Whole milk.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, interesting.

>> Sugar, salt, buttermilk, and black pepper.

>> TRAVERSO: Yum.

>> So this is the mix, so be ready.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> We put, like three spoons.

This is, like, a cup.

>> TRAVERSO: A cup, okay, great.

Okay, so you're going to let it set?

>> Drop it in the oven.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, wow.

That's fast.

So you just let it set a little bit on the bottom and then it goes in the oven?

>> Yep, just go in the oven.

Just wait, like, what I say, five minutes?

>> TRAVERSO: Five minutes?

>> It'll be ready.

>> TRAVERSO: So the toppings that we're going to do today?

>> Boston smoked bluefish.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, I love smoked bluefish.

>> Orange zest, lemon zest, shallots.

>> TRAVERSO: Ooh, yeah.

>> And creme fraiche.

All the ingredients in there.

>> TRAVERSO: And then you make this little cork of bluefish pate.

>> Little tower.

I want to compliment it with a little bit of creme fraiche on top.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> And a little touch of caviar on top.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, mm.

Look at that, that's so pretty.

Oh yeah, you can't forget the... oh, that looks beautiful.

>> All right.

So you want to see the color over here?

>> TRAVERSO: Yes.

>> That's a little dark.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> A little black on it, so it's been ready.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> So just turn it.

>> TRAVERSO: Ah, you're good at that.

>> Put some, like, a tablespoon of honey butter.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, I see.

So while it's in the pan, okay.

Finishing the cooking in the honey butter.

>> So it's be ready.

>> TRAVERSO: Great.

Oh, that's gorgeous, look at that.

>> And some of the smoke on top.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm.

Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful.

>> You need a try.

>> TRAVERSO: I need to try.

(laughs) Okay, yeah.

>> Careful, that's just a little hot.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, here I go.

All right... mm.

>> Sweet, salty.

>> TRAVERSO: This is just such a treat, thank you.

>> Oh, thank you so much, thank you for coming.

Now one of the quirks of the North End is that a lot of the restaurants here don't serve dessert.

Now that's partly because the kitchens are so small, but it's also because the neighborhood operates like a sort of ecosystem.

The restaurants send their customers to the pastry shops for dessert where they can pick up cannoli or other sweets.

And so I'm going to be doing that at Modern Pastry, where I'm hoping to fill a cannoli myself.

Hey, Gianni.

>> Hey, Amy, how are you?

>> TRAVERSO: Good, it's so nice to meet you.

>> Welcome to Modern Pastry-- you as well.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you so much for having me here.

>> Absolutely, our pleasure.

>> TRAVERSO: I've been coming for years, so it's so nice to meet you.

>> Great, thank you so much.

>> And I'm Sarah, one of the owners.

>> TRAVERSO: Hi, Sarah.

>> My aunt.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, so this is a family business, right?

>> It is.

>> TRAVERSO: So what generations are you now?

>> So she's fifth, I'm sixth generation.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow!

>> But that's going back to Italy.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> In this country, she's the second generation, I'm the third.

>> TRAVERSO: So tell me a little bit about what your signature-- obviously, we have cannoli shells.

>> Yeah, let's start, you know, with the king-- cannolis.

Sicilian, from the region of Palermo.

>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

>> Pretty classic.

Your crunchy cannoli shell filled with your ricotta cream that's sweetened with, you know, in some cases, honey, sugar.

>> TRAVERSO: You can tell when a cannoli has been pre-filled.

Because it is soggy!

>> Absolutely.

And that's not right-- and this is lobster tail?

>> That's a lobster tail.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, so this has to be a New England invention, or is it an Italian thing?

>> No, this is actually... it comes from Naples.

>> TRAVERSO: Really?

>> In Italian, coda di aragosta which means, literally, lobster tail.

You can see the similarities between a real one.

>> TRAVERSO: That's so funny.

>> Yeah, it just so happened that, you know, New England lobsters.

>> TRAVERSO: So let's talk about some of these additional things.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

I guess we'll move right on over to the Savoy, it can be known as a rum cake.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh my god!

>> So this is your classic Italian rum cake.

Here, I'll pass that over to you real quick.

>> TRAVERSO: That is beautiful.

Oh my God, these are my childhood.

Any, like, wedding funeral, birthday, you would have a platter of these cookies.

>> Of course, yeah.

>> TRAVERSO: So you guys make these here in house.

>> Yes, that's all in house.

>> TRAVERSO: That's a lot of variety.

>> It's worth it, our customers love them.

That's why people come back and we're staying in traditions.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, and then another thing that, all year round, these are so beautiful.

>> The Marzipan, staying in Sicily.

>> TRAVERSO: They're so pretty.

>> Almond paste, made by hand.

Painted by hand.

Also, something that is a dying art.

You won't see people doing it anymore.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> My grandfather had, this was, like, above all, his baby.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, this neighborhood it still feels very much Italian, even though it has changed a lot.

>> In terms of being still an Italian neighborhood... >> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> ...I think, and a lot of people agree, this is the best Italian neighborhood in the country; we try and maintain our traditions here that you can't find anywhere else.

>> TRAVERSO: All right, well, let's get on this cannoli craft.

>> It's really easy.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Just the bags going right in and you're going to squeeze.

And as you're squeezing, you're pulling out right there, and you're gonna cut it right at the end.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, I'm gonna, so you would just dip it in?

>> Right on top, just dip it right there.

Really press it down, don't be afraid.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, press it down.

>> Yeah, there you go.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, there we go.

Be confident.

>> A little powdered sugar on top because why not?

>> TRAVERSO: And just for the fun of it, can we see one of the pretty boxes with the string?

Because that's so iconic.

>> Absolutely.

>> Oh my God, the twine.

>> TRAVERSO: I love that you have the dispenser built into the counter.

>> Yeah.

This is Italian American ingenuity right here.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah!

(laughs) >> We make it work.

>> TRAVERSO: This stuff, like, it would not be a pastry box from the North End if you didn't have that twine around it.

>> Yeah.

>> TRAVERSO: It's just lovely.

Whoo, nice.

>> Snap it, you're ready to go.

>> TRAVERSO: This is happiness in a box.

Thank you so much.

>> Bye-bye!

>> TRAVERSO: Such a treat.

NARRATOR: Traveling north to Woodstock, Vermont, to meet well-known potter James Zilian and his Farmhouse Pottery.

Zilian has offered to give us a private tour of his famous Woodstock studio and showroom.

I founded Farmhouse Pottery in 2010.

I think the initial vision was just, I saw an opportunity and wanted to kind of create a marketplace for handmade pottery.

We expose the making process to everyone so they see all the steps it takes to make a piece of pottery.

We really do touch the pieces about 25 times or more.

It just seemed like such an old material and craft in the modern day was sort of missing.

Clay can be very forgiving and kind of immediate, which is quite nice about it.

I love that it's from the earth.

The fact that, like, we've been using clay for so long, it's such, like, a primal material to me, and we've been making vessels, but I feel like it's very sort of close to the human spirit.

My earliest memory working with clay is way back in Mr. Burrow's ceramics class.

I think it was sixth grade.

Like, the first time I sat down at the wheel with a lump of clay, I was mesmerized, and I, I felt...

I felt good.

I felt like I was in my place, but it was, like, so magnetic for me.

Woodstock Village is just a really quaint, beautiful, charming Vermont town and, really, New England town.

Being here has just sort of helped inspire the creative work I do, which has been so nice.

>> 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.

>> Major funding provided by: >> 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?

>> Series funding provided by the Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard to find since 1946.

>> The Barn Yard.

Builders of timber frame barns and garages.

>> And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.