Weekends with Yankee

NARRATOR: This week, we're celebrating ten years of Weekends With Yankee and 90 years of Yankee magazine with a behind-the-scenes visit to the office where the magic happens.

AMY TRAVERSO: Yeah, we call this The Wall.

The whole thing is here.

NARRATOR: We also explore the local area of Peterborough, New Hampshire, which continues to be a source of inspiration.

- Bookstores are in many ways mirrors of the community that they're in.

NARRATOR: In New Hampshire's Monadnock region, Richard joins the acclaimed naturalist and award-winning author Sy Montgomery, and her friend wildlife artist Matt Patterson, to get up close and personal with some of Matt's rescue turtles, and to learn all about these fascinating creatures.

- You never, never give up on a turtle.

NARRATOR: Finally, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Richard meets with the clam man, Matt Rocheleau, to learn how to shuck an oyster.

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.

- You may not know that our show, Weekends With Yankee, was actually born from our magazine, Yankee magazine, which was founded here in Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1935.

TRAVERSO: So, because we're celebrating 90 years of Yankee magazine and ten years of Weekends With Yankee, we thought we'd take you behind the scenes, show you where we make the magazine, and also give you a little taste of this beautiful corner of New Hampshire that we call home.

- Let's go.

TRAVERSO: All right, let's go inside.

- So, my grandfather, Robb Sagendorph, was a frustrated freelance writer.

He was about 35 years old when he started the magazine, and he felt like if he couldn't get published in the magazines he admired, he would start one of his own.

And honestly, I don't know if I'd say this to his face, but he wasn't a great writer.

- (laughing) - But he had a really, really good idea for a magazine.

In the very first issue of the magazine, he wrote that the mission of Yankee was to express and perhaps indirectly preserve our great New England culture, because he believed that New England culture, which he cherished, you know, the modest, rural culture of New England, was threatened by the homogenization of American culture.

He even wrote about chain stores being that threat.

You know, we still talk about that today.

And Yankee has survived to this day expressing that culture, and New England culture has survived.

Visitors come to Dublin, New Hampshire, and they see the Yankee office, they say, "Wow, that's just like I thought it would be."

TRAVERSO (laughing): Right.

A rambling red building next to a white-steepled church, right?

- (laughing) - That's right.

- (laughing) Welcome to our front office.

TRAVERSO: So, here's the very first issue of Yankee, from September 1935.

It has an article called "An Evening With Gertrude Stein."

(laughing): Which I kind of love.

- Yeah, one of the pleasures of working here is that we have this incredible archive that goes right back to the beginning, that very first issue, all the way through.

TRAVERSO: And these are only some of the bound volumes we have that go back nine decades.

But, you know, going back and finding inspiration in these old issues, seeing how were people cooking in the '30s versus the '40s.

- And you and I have been here a long time now.

And one of the joys is going through the archives during the period that we're here.

TRAVERSO: I know.

- Do you want to look at some of the old issues?

TRAVERSO: Yeah, let's do it.

- The print magazine is still very central to what we do.

It is an idea generator.

It's a, sorts of different content that we can use in lots of formats.

But it's so important that our audience be able to find us wherever they are, whether that's on social media, on a website, watching television, listening to a podcast.

We have to be in all those places, and I think it's a real credit to you editors that you've been able to adapt in that way.

- Great job, Amy.

TRAVERSO: Great job, Ian.

(both laugh) TRAVERSO: So, Ian, this is the first issue I worked on, from 2002.

Look at this photo.

I was such a little baby!

- Oh, my God.

You look the same.

TRAVERSO: Oh, yeah, right.

Well, it was... - You do.

TRAVERSO: You know, I was so thrilled.

I'd grown up reading Yankee as a kid.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO: And I never imagined that I'd end up working here.

It was really exciting to come here.

- Well, I remember when you came here, because I predate you.

My first issue that I worked on, the very first issue I had a story in, was 2001.

TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh.

- And I remember what a thrill it was, because I got paid to go mountain biking.

I couldn't believe it.

TRAVERSO: Let me see.

- So here it is, Amy.

"Where the Mud Is."

TRAVERSO: Aw.

Aww!

- I still remember, I went out with this guy Steve Goldfarb.

He had us singing as we were going down the hill.

I had this amazing poetic line.

Here are two guys who can barely hold a tune in the woods, you know, just... (both laugh) TRAVERSO: That's great.

- The hills were alive with two guys who could barely sing a tune.

TRAVERSO: I have my own.

my first column, "Getting to Know You," and I ran my grandmother's apple crisp-- which I still think is the greatest apple crisp recipe ever.

And then look at this one.

This is so gorgeous, it's a little, just, photographic feature on the inns of Connecticut.

- Oh, boy.

TRAVERSO: I mean, don't you want to just jump into that picture and, and just go there?

It's so inspiring.

- We've both been here 20-plus years.

We're writing stories that people will look back on themselves, in the future.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

- Do you think about sort of that... TRAVERSO: I know.

- The legacy of Amy Traverso?

TRAVERSO (laughing): I don't think about it in terms... But I do love the idea that the stories we're writing now, maybe somebody will be inspired by in 50 years or something like that.

And that there's a record of these little inns and these farmers and writers and people who, you know, small-town life, city life during the decades in New England.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO: I love that.

More recently, we have some issues that inspired segments on the show.

What about the Joel Woods story that we did?

- That's one of my favorites-- Joel Woods is a lobsterman, and picked up the camera just to kind of begin photographing his world.

And his stuff is just, it just pops off the page.

And we knew he'd be a great TV segment, and he was.

One of our favorites.

TRAVERSO: Right, yeah.

Yeah, he really was great.

And another favorite day of mine was spending with Joanne Chang, who has the bakery Flour in Boston.

We made dumplings.

- I tried making dumplings after watching that segment, yeah.

TRAVERSO (laughing): Oh, you did?

- They didn't turn out like yours.

TRAVERSO: Aw.

(both laugh) It was great to learn from her, and it was really her mom's recipe from Taiwan.

They were so delicious-- such a charming family.

Oh, and one other thing I want to show you.

Um, we have this history of Yankee.

So, the founder of the magazine, Robb Sagendorph, had a wife who was a painter.

And in the early issues of the magazine, we used her paintings on the cover.

- Robb and Trix Sagendorph lived just up the hill from where we're sitting right now.

And I should say that Trix Sagendorph was really central to the founding of Yankee.

She illustrated the covers for 30 years, and it was her family money that got the business off the ground.

- Why don't we go upstairs and look at the issues that we're working on right now?

TRAVERSO: Yeah, let's do that.

- Okay.

Amy, as editors, there's a lot of solo work we do, right?

TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

- But one of the joys of being at Yankee is this collaboration that we get to see when we put it, the magazine, up on The Wall before we send it out to readers.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, we call this The Wall.

And we're working individually in our little stories, and then suddenly, the whole thing is here.

- We're now at our 90th birthday, and, in 2022, the family that still owned the business decided to sell the business to employees.

We're now 100% employee-owned.

The family felt it was really important to keep the business independent, and that this was the best way to do that, and also to reward the employees who had made the business what it is.

- One of the things I love about Yankee is, not only do we get to write about these communities, but a lot of us live in these small communities that we celebrate.

And one of our favorite small towns in New Hampshire is Peterborough, which is right next door.

So, enough work, let's go play.

Let's go see Peterborough.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

(both laugh) - Peterborough, a long lineage of arts and culture.

We are going to meet Emerson Sistare right now, because he is a local kid who moved back to his hometown a few years ago to buy his local bookstore.

It was a dream of his always to own a bookshop.

And he owns one of the premier bookstores in New England, I think.

TRAVERSO: Let's go see it.

- All right.

- Emerson, thanks so much for having us.

- Thank you guys so much for coming, it's a joy.

TRAVERSO: I feel like in a town like this, a bookstore is more than just a place to buy books, it's kind of a gathering place.

- Absolutely.

For me, I went to college in a different state.

I went to grad school on the West Coast.

And then I went and taught in New York and Maine.

So, coming home for me was always a big deal.

And whether I was coming from Massachusetts or coming by plane, seeing the mountain and seeing the Toadstool always let me know that I was home.

So, for me, it's, it's been everything.

TRAVERSO: I think that sense of community is something that all of us are craving so much in this very virtual, online world.

And I think New England in a lot of ways represents that.

- Yes.

TRAVERSO: That kind of small-town, very connected life.

And I see that people who watch the show or who read Yankee magazine often comment on the values that they see reflected here.

- Oh, yes.

TRAVERSO: And that's what they love about it.

- Well, I think you hit the nail on the head in that local businesses, particularly bookstores, are in many ways mirrors of the community that they're in.

And so when we are picking our inventory, we handpick every book that comes in the store.

And the ones we want to buy are the ones that reinforce the values of who we are, challenge the values of who we want to be, and remind us of who we have been.

TRAVERSO: Mm.

- And those are really, really important aspects of local bookstores that people will often lose sight of as they move into larger chain stores.

I think of individual people when I'm buying books.

We're always thinking of people in our community.

And it's, it's a beautiful little moment when they come in and they see a book that we've handpicked just for them.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

Well, another local business that we're gonna be visiting... - Mm-hmm.

TRAVERSO: ...is called the Cranberry Meadow Inn.

- Oh, that's a fantastic inn.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

TRAVERSO: It's so good, and we're gonna be meeting up with our colleagues from Yankee and having a little celebration of our 90th anniversary up there.

- Oh, my gosh.

- She's got a mocktail to make for us.

- Oh, fantastic, yeah.

TRAVERSO: I even have a cocktail.

- Ooh.

- (laughing) Very nice to meet you.

TRAVERSO: Thank you very much.

- Thank you so much for coming.

- Great to see you, Emerson.

- Great to see you.

TRAVERSO: I'm going to make a cranberry rosemary spritz for my colleagues-- very easy to do.

With a splash of Prosecco or a sparkling wine.

Or you can make it a virgin cocktail with just some seltzer.

A few slices of ginger, about six sprigs of rosemary, three tablespoons of sugar.

Then I'm gonna just kind of crush them a little bit.

At this point, I'm going to add a third of a cup of lime juice, about three cups of cranberry juice, stir.

I'm gonna add a little bit of ice now.

Finishing it off with a little more cranberry.

Just to bump up the lime flavor, I'm gonna just squeeze a tiny bit more in.

About a half a glass of the sparkling wine or the Prosecco.

Okay, and then we'll just top it off with our mix.

I like to drop in some cranberry or a sprig of rosemary-- whatever you like.

Well, we don't often take a minute to celebrate these milestones, but I'm glad we could get together for this.

- Yeah.

Cheers to 90 years of Yankee.

TRAVERSO: And ten years of Weekends With Yankee.

- Cheers.

(people talking and laughing in background) WIESE: When you think of wildlife in New England, maybe you picture a big moose lumbering through the woods or a bald eagle cutting its way through the blue skies.

But there's one creature that lives here that walked alongside the dinosaur, and that is the magnificent turtle.

Today we're in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Not only are we going to meet those creatures, but two people who are telling their story.

NARRATOR: Acclaimed naturalist and award-winning author Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson are two friends with a great shared interest: turtles.

Matt invited us to meet some of the rescue turtles he has taken into his home.

WIESE: Hey, Sy, Matt.

Hey.

- Hey, Richard.

- How are you?

- We're looking for Fire Chief.

WIESE: What are you doing?

- Looking for Fire Chief.

WIESE: We're looking for a fire chief?

Okay, what... What and who is Fire Chief?

- (laughing) - Fire Chief is a... WIESE: Good to see you.

Good to see you.

- 42-pound snapping turtle.

WIESE: Okay, and so he lives in your, your pond here?

- He does.

- We've known him for years.

He's a really nice snapper-- you will love him.

WIESE: 42 pounds.

- He's a big one.

WIESE: Wow-- so, how does one find Fire Chief in a pond that looks a little murky?

- Well, we have to get in.

WIESE: We-- we?

- Me.

WIESE: How deep is this pond?

- About three-and-a-half feet.

WIESE: You know, it's a little chilly this morning.

- It's a little cold, that's probably why we can't, can't see him-- he's probably... WIESE: Okay.

- ...not moving so much.

WIESE: Fire Chief doesn't have bad days to, when you get in, he's... - No, he loves it.

I love it.

WIESE: All right, well, I'll love to meet Fire Chief, sure.

So, Fire Chief is 42 pounds.

- He's a big turtle.

WIESE: Why is it that he doesn't bite you?

- He knows us-- we've known him for years.

WIESE: Really?

My cat knows me and my dog, and I occasionally get... - (laughs) He was hit by a car, and we met him at a turtle hospital, where he was recovering.

And we did physical therapy with this turtle for years.

WIESE: So, Matt, how long was it before you figured out that Fire Chief wouldn't bite you?

- Well, pretty early on.

We had a moment where we were working with him in physical therapy, and we both just reached out at the same time and scratched his neck-- which you shouldn't do with a snapping turtle.

- Yeah, with a turtle you don't know.

WIESE: No, but I mean, typically, you don't think of sort of interspecies communication between turtles and humans.

- You can see their personality and you get to know them.

They don't have the same facial muscles as us, so you can't see it, because they're kind of frozen, but you can watch their body language, and... We just spent so much time with him.

WIESE: That's amazing.

- And we knew it, wordlessly, at the same moment, that this guy wasn't going to bite us.

We could feel it.

And it is kind of amazing to know that you can read a reptile like that.

WIESE: Did you find him?

- Mm-hmm.

There he is.

WIESE: Oh, my gosh, he's immense.

Oh, my gosh, that, that's huge.

- Hi, angel.

WIESE: Oh, my gosh.

What a beautiful guy.

So this is a rescue-- he was injured, huh?

- He was injured, and you can see his scar on the top of his shell right here, and then right here.

WIESE: Oh, this was all a scar, and it, and it grew back.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, he was in a turtle hospital for several years.

WIESE: Is there anything at this point that doesn't work correctly?

- His tail and his back legs work, but not perfectly.

So he still has trouble if he flips over.

He can't, can't right himself.

WIESE: So, most people, if they were this close to a snapping turtle, would be a little panicky, right?

- Well, the turtle would be panicking.

WIESE: Well, I guess the turtle would be panicking, too.

What are some things that people don't realize about snapping turtles that you may change their mind on how they look at them?

- Well, snapping turtles, they're really important-- they're, like, vultures of ponds and lakes and, and rivers.

They eat dead things, and they're only defensive when they're out of the water and, you know, trying to protect themselves.

When you're swimming, they don't want anything to do with you.

- Yeah, they'd never swim over and bite you.

They mostly are detrivores.

They, they eat detritus in the pond, which is why you're not up to your lips in dead fish when you go in your favorite swimming hole.

WIESE: Is it all right for me to touch him?

- Oh, yeah, absolutely.

- Yeah.

- Totally, he won't bite you.

WIESE: Can I, can I lift him?

- Yeah, just grab him from the back here.

WIESE: Grab him here?

- Yeah, he's a little nervous about that, but he can't, he won't hurt you.

WIESE: Wow, look at that, huh?

That is really... What a beautiful... - Isn't he so prehistoric?

WIESE: Yeah, it really is.

So, what are these enclosures?

- Well, these are all the turtles.

There's 12 turtles here.

And this wire is to keep out predators, like a skunk or a raccoon or a fox.

WIESE: And so, what got you into rescuing turtles and rehabilitating them, as well?

- Well, me and Sy worked at a turtle rescue, and a lot of these turtles we got while working there.

WIESE: Oh, my gosh.

- That's Eddie.

WIESE: Eddie is also huge.

- Eddie's big, yeah.

Eddie is a sulcata-- I've had Eddie for 19 years.

She eats grass-- I can pick her up if you want.

WIESE: Yeah, I'd love to see her.

She looks a little friendlier than our snapping turtle.

- Yeah, she's, she's got a little bit of a rounder face, right?

- She's such a terrific turtle.

She's so sweet.

WIESE: So, what is the broader mission of all of this?

- Well, turtles are one of the most endangered groups of animals on the planet, and they've been around for a long time, so turtles really do need our help.

All these turtles are non-native, so they can't be returned to the wild.

Like, these are box turtles, three-toed box turtles.

A lot of these are really, really old.

But just getting people aware of the dangers they face, and finding homes for turtles that can't be released, that need to be cared for.

- They live a long time, and they deserve to have a good, full, interesting, natural life, and that's what they get here in these beautiful enclosures that Matt has built.

WIESE: So, what's the difference between a turtle and a tortoise?

- Yeah, that's a good question, because people ask that a lot.

A tortoise is a turtle, but it's a land turtle.

So, all tortoises are turtles.

Not all turtles are tortoises.

And the same with terrapins.

Terrapins live in brackish water, but they're turtles, too.

WIESE: So, what would Fire Chief be?

- He's a turtle.

- He's a turtle.

- He's a freshwater turtle.

- He's a common snapping turtle.

WIESE: And would a box turtle be a tortoise?

- A box turtle is... It's called a turtle.

It's confusing, because they do live on land.

- They actually swim really well.

- But they do go in the water.

WIESE: I bet you guys could talk turtle all day.

- We do.

(laughing) - Let's do it.

(laughing) WIESE: What do your spouses say when you two get together?

- Oh, they love it.

(laughing) - Not so much.

- They say, "Stop!"

WIESE: "Stop, I've had enough..." - "Enough turtle talk."

WIESE: So, how did you guys meet?

- We met at an art festival about eight years ago, and I had read Soul of an Octopus, and I had emailed Sy, and so we'd been talking, and then that's when we actually met.

We started doing turtle things together.

- Yeah, he introduced me... - And then it went from there.

- ...to the wonderful world of turtles.

WIESE: And so how long was it before you wrote a book on turtles?

- About two years, I think.

- A couple years, yeah.

- Because I... - Before we started researching it, yeah.

- Yeah.

You know, after Soul of an Octopus, I was looking for a book to devote years to.

And hanging out with this guy, the answer was obvious: turtles.

WIESE: What do you think the big takeaway from what you've learned from Fire Chief that you may not have realized before-- I mean, you obviously built a huge enclosure for him.

- Well, I think focus, and, you know, a turtle, whatever it's doing, it locks in on it.

And in this world, we're always distracted with, like, social media and, you know... Slipping into turtle time and letting everything melt away around you.

Focusing is something I've learned from him.

WIESE: What do you hope that people come away with when they look at your turtle work?

- I hope they see how amazing these animals are and see them as individuals, and maybe think, like, "What is it like to be that, that animal?"

WIESE: So, you have a book coming out, and what's some of the messaging that you're gonna do on this tour?

- Well, the latest one, I think it's resilience.

It's the story of Fire Chief.

You never, never give up on a turtle, and they never give up.

They have been here for hundreds of millions of years.

They can survive some of the most incredible injuries that would kill another animal.

And I think at this time, in this world, we need to have that kind of faith that turtles can show us.

WIESE: So, Matt, the road has ended-- where are we?

- Well, we are at one of Fire Chief's favorite places to swim, Lake Nubanusit.

But before we do, we have a surprise for you.

WIESE: Okay.

- We're making you an official turtle... Member of the turtle clan.

(Wiese laughs) So Sy will tie that on.

- I'll do the honors.

WIESE: Thank you, Sy.

I take this with a lot of pride and responsibility.

All right, well, let's unleash the beast.

- All right.

WIESE: I have to admit, this is a little unusual.

You know, I hear of swimming with dolphins, even a golden retriever, but this is the first time I've heard of somebody actually swimming with a snapping turtle.

- We love swimming with him, and we dreamed of doing this when we first met him, after he started to rehab.

- And he was so weak, and his back legs didn't work, and we dreamed of the day that we would see him weightless and graceful and whole, and restored to his natural habitat.

WIESE: What stops him from just swimming off?

- Well, we swim with him, so we, we keep an eye on him.

He doesn't move very fast, and he, he stays in the shallows, so... WIESE: So you can put him in the shallow water right here?

Let me see what he does.

What a joy to go through a rehab and bring a creature that was close to death and be able to enjoy this kind of moment.

- It really means a lot to us, and it shows that you should never give up on a turtle.

WIESE: Yeah, he looks happy.

- (speaking softly) WIESE: I don't know who's happier, you or the turtles.

- (laughing) WIESE: All right, let's get our masks on.

WIESE: You know, I think Fire Chief enjoyed his day, and you could travel around the world, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a creature that has survived as long as these turtles.

And you know, living here in New England, this is part of our heritage, and it's a heritage worth preserving.

Right, Fire Chief?

Yes.

WIESE: We are in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

I'm at the Clam Man with the clam man, Matt.

Matt, I think a lot of people who like oysters or even clams are intimidated bringing them home, as they're kind of perceived as a dangerous activity to open and enjoy.

So, you're a pro at this.

Why don't we start with an oyster?

- Okay.

WIESE: How does one open an oyster and not get killed?

- Well, I use a rag on my hand-- most people can use a glove.

And I like to just take the oyster, put my knife right in the hinge, wiggle it, pop the shell.

Scrape the top shell to get that off the meat.

Clean any debris of the shell off, and then scoop the meat right out, flip it over, and there's your oyster.

WIESE: That's beautiful.

- All right, Richard, so I want you to try a different method that everybody at home can try, kind of on a pretty safe method of opening the oyster.

Put it down like this.

Take a rag like that.

If you want, you can cover your oyster a little bit.

Put a little pressure down on it.

Come in from the back hinge, wiggle right in down-- you'll feel your knife into the shell.

Once your knife's into the shell, you can pop a twist.

Scrape that off.

That way, there, you have a nice, firm oyster, all in contact.

You pick it up, hold the cup in your hand.

There's only one muscle that holds all this meat into the shell.

So what you want to do is go under, scoop that muscle, and flip the oyster.

WIESE: Here we go.

- Just remember to go, go nice into the crack of the oyster until you can feel the knife hit that soft spot.

Then you can pop the oyster.

There you go.

WIESE: Scoop that muscle, squeeze a little lemon... - Oh, lemon's good for you.

WIESE: Mm.

You know, they say you should try one thing that scares you, and, you know, opening an oyster or a clam definitely scares most people.

Thank you very much.

- Thank you, Richard.