GARRETT COUNTY CELTIC FESTIVAL FRIENDSVILLE, MARYLAND

 Garrett County Celtic Festival

 

SATURDAY 

JUNE 4, 2022
9:30AM to 6:00PM

 

FRIENDSVILLE COMMUNITY PARK 

FRIENDSVILLE, MARYLAND 

On the bonnie, bonnie banks of the Youghiogheny River 

 

 Tickets: Adults - $20

Youth 13 - 18 $10
Kids 12 and under FREE
DISCOUNT ADULT TICKETS NOW ON SALE!

 

 WORKSHOPS - Ages 12-22

 Celtic Instruments

Dance

Storytelling

Writing

Pipes and Drums

Field Performance 

 

FEATURED MUSICIANS

 

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IONA: AMERICA’S PAN-CELTIC BAND

SEAN HEELY CELTIC TRIO

SHANTY IRISH

AURORA CELTIC

SPECIAL GUEST

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

 

DODDRIDGE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: MOUNTAIN STATE SCOTTISH AND CELTIC GATHERING 2022

 Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering 2022

  

May 21  8:00am to 10:00pm

May 22  8:00am to 10:00pm

Doddridge County Parks

1252 Snowbird Rd.
West Union, WV 26456 United States

Doddridge County Parks will host the 2022 Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering May 21 and 22.

Scottish/Celtic ancestry is the largest demographic presence in North Central West Virginia. The Gathering features the music, games, art and family/clan history associated with this group and how North Central West Virginia represents that area.

Traditional Scottish games will be held, with professional competitors taking part. 

Musical entertainment will include bands playing Scottish, Irish, Blue Grass, and Folk arrangements.

Food Vendors will provide typical fair food and traditional Scottish fare. 

New to the 2022 Gathering will be a rugby tournament and an armored combat display with traditional medieval weapons.

Gathering Mission: To display, educate, and inform residents of West Virginia and surrounding states of the rich Scottish and Celtic heritage found in North Central West Virginia and to showcase Doddridge County Park and the surrounding community.

Exploring Scottish Cookery

Making Scottish Tablet - For the First Time

 

The recipes found for Scottish Tablet were basically the same: sugar, sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, and butter. Some added a little salt, and one added corn syrup. Surprisingly, they didn't all use vanilla.

The recipe used called for 4 1/2 cups sugar, 8 tbsp. butter, 1 cup of milk and a 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk. To that a 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tbsp. of corn syrup was added.

The butter was melted in a heavy cooking pot, then the other ingredients were added and thoroughly mixed together. It was stirred and stirred and stirred over medium heat until the temperature reached 245 degrees on a Fahrenheit thermometer. Some recipes required the mixture be removed from the heat when the temperature reached 240 degrees. Others suggested removing it at 250 degrees. I compromised at 245 degrees.

After removing it from the heat, it was mixed with a hand mixer, but it set up much more quickly than planned. By the time it was poured (scraped) into the parchment lined pan, the tablet had to be patted out by hand.

Another tablet maker had advised scoring the tablet while still warm, or it would break into untidy pieces when cut. That was good advice. After cooling for a few (very few) minutes, the tablet was cut (it cut very smoothly along the scores) and arranged between layers of wax paper in glass storage containers.

Of course, it had to be tasted and, oh, my goodness!

Tablet lovers describe it as addictive, melting in your mouth and having a grainy texture. The texture of this tablet attempt was a bit grainy. Though it didn't exactly melt in your mouth, like an M&M, it slid around the tongue quite nicely and did, eventually, melt and slide over the taste buds and down the throat.

While it has the look of peanut butter fudge, after cooking for so long, don't be fooled. It isn't like vanilla (white) fudge, either. The flavor is a heavenly buttery, milky highly heated dairy that, thankfully, didn't burn on the bottom. It's kind of like a Sugar Daddy, but, maybe, more like the Sugar Baby. This is a weak comparison and not exactly right. You just have to taste it for yourself.

I remember an older brother, too many years ago, sitting close to the burner of the gas stove, in our kitchen, stirring the candy he was making, using the recipe on the back of the Hershey Cocoa box. Sometimes, it turned out perfectly, so soft, smooth and wonderful. Other times, after cooking too long, it turned out a little too hard, making it difficult to cut, and the texture was more grainy than smooth. Tablet is similar to that kind of graininess, almost.

If tablet is made again, two things will be done differently. It will be cooked to a lower temperature: 240 degrees. And, it will be poured into the pan much sooner. Possibly, the recipe will be halved to reduce the temptation of eating too much.

A good recipe for Scottish Tablet:

https://scottishscran.com/traditional-scottish-tablet-recipe/

 

NORTHERN IRELAND - COUNTY ANTRIM AND THE GLENS

Ireland and Northern Ireland

In the beginning of my genealogy journey, I was in a state of woeful ignorance about the land of my ancestors. When a mystery presented itself, the internet was scoured and online book sellers searched to find the information that would provide some understanding and satisfy the need to know. Since those very early days, many notebooks have been filled and books of all sorts have been purchased. 

Three ring binders have been at the top of many shopping lists, and the mail truck still brings new/old books and drops them on the front porch for me to find. (Some books about the Scots-Irish are due to arrive, shortly.) New shelving has become a necessity.  

The constant search for information has cleared up some of the confusion about the, sadly, small amount of knowledge that was known about Ireland and Northern Ireland. For most people it might not be a priority. If you have been bitten by the genealogy bug, though, and your ancestors, at one time, called this part of the world home, taking a deep dive into the history and geography of the place, to learn as much as you can about it, might be a good idea. 

This is a little of what was learned after a giant leap into the fuzzy unknown:

The Island of Ireland

• Ireland is an island.

Ireland is surrounded by water on all sides. Ireland just happens to be the name of the island.

Country of Ireland

• Ireland is an independent country located on the island of Ireland.

The country of Ireland does not cover the entire island of Ireland, only five-sixths of it. (Eire, Irish for Ireland, or The Republic of Ireland - its official descriptive name)

Two Countries on the Island of Ireland

• The island of Ireland is divided into two countries.

Northern Ireland and Ireland are the two countries that share the land mass of the island of Ireland.

Northern Ireland

•  Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.

Along with the citizens of England, Scotland and Wales, the citizens of Northern Ireland are subjects of Her Majesty the Queen.

• The capital of the country of Northern Ireland is Belfast. 

Counties of Northern Ireland

• Six counties comprise the country of Northern Ireland:

    1. Antrim
2. Armagh
3. Down
4. Fermanagh
5. Londonderry
6. Tyrone

• The capital of the country of Ireland is Dublin.

Counties of Ireland

• The country of Ireland is divided into twenty-six counties.

    1. Carlow
    2. Cavan
    3. Clare
    4. Cork
    5. Donegal
    6. Dublin
    7. Galway
    8. Kerry
    9. Kildare
    10. Kilkenny
    11. Laois
    12. Leitrim
    13. Limerick
    14. Longford
    15. Louth
    16. Mayo
    17. Meath
    18. Monaghan
    19. Offaly
    20. Roscommon
    21. Sligo
    22. Tipperary
    23. Waterford
    24. Westmeath
    25. Wexford
    26. Wicklow

In learning the geography of a place, much of the local history is, also, learned. The island of Ireland was not always separated into two countries. The story of our ancestors is the somber story of a divided country.

Credits

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-counties-of-ireland.html

https://www.mappr.co/counties/northern-ireland/

https://dontstopliving.net/being-northern-irish-an-identity-crisis/

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/99/35/5a99358aaa2ecb05ed01678cb5b4ec56.gif

https://www.writework.com/essay/northern-ireland-conflict-3

https://www.countrywatch.com/intelligence/countryreviews?countryid=82

EXPLORING SCOTTISH COOKERY

Haricot Beans

Traditional Scottish Cookery

The little bitty cookbook “Traditional Scottish Cookery”, is one of the cookbooks on my Scottish cookbook shelf. In this itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy cookbook, there is a recipe for “Haricot Bean Soup”. Reading through the recipe, printed just large enough to be discerned with 2.50 magnification power reading glasses, it looked like it would make a “yum” meatless meal. Haricot beans were new to my vocabulary, so I had to find out what they were.

It turns out that another name for haricot beans is navy beans. Navy bean is a bean I know. The United States Navy has served the bean to its sailors since the mid-1800s. That is how the bean got its name.

During World War II there were many American troops stationed in Australia. (I have a friend whose mother was an Australian war bride.) The United States military encouraged the planting of the Navy bean in Australia as a means to help feed all those men. In Australia, the bean became known as the "Yankee Bean".

Naval Food History

The Navy bean is also the main ingredient in Senate Bean Soup, and the recipe has an interesting story.

Senate Bean Soup has been served in the United States Senate for over a hundred years, with one exception. During World War II, because of food rations, for one day only, the soup did not appear on the Senate menu.

There are two stories for how bean soup came to be served, daily, in the Senate cafeteria. These stories might be more legend than fact, but some will argue about which story is true.

One story goes that at the turn of the 20th century the soup was served at the request of Senator Fred Dubois of the state of Idaho. Idaho being the home of potato farmers, Dubois expected potatoes to be part of the bean soup recipe. The story says that Senator Dubois had a resolution passed that the bean soup be on the menu every day.

Senate Navy Bean Soup

Another story is told that the request for bean soup came from Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, back in 1903. He had a fondness for bean soup.

In whatever way the soup came to be an everyday meal on the menu in the Senate cafeteria, it is an economical choice for lower paid workers who serve the Senate.

Senate Bean Soup and Haricot Bean Soup are very similar. Haricot Bean Soup includes turnips, potatoes, flour and milk which Senate Bean Soup does not have. At one time Senate Bean Soup included potatoes (see Senator Dubois, above), but the soup served in the Senate cafeteria, today, no longer does.

Haricot Bean Soup

The Haricot Bean Soup recipe from Traditional Scottish Cookery

No Author Named

Haricot Bean Soup Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 12 oz. haricot beans
• 3 pt. beef or bacon stock (made from 2 lb. marrow bones or 2 lb. bacon bones)
• 2 small onions, diced
• 1 turnip
• 1 lb. diced potatoes
• 1 tbsp. flour
• ½ pt. milk
• Parsley

Instructions

1. Wash beans and soak overnight.
2. Put into a saucepan, with stock, diced vegetables, salt, and pepper.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 2 to 2 ½ hours, or until beans are tender.
4. Force through a sieve and return soup to pan.
5. Blend the flour with a little of the milk and stir into soup.
6. Add remaining milk and reheat.
7. Before serving, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

The official Senate Bean Soup Recipe from a former U.S. Senate Staffer 

Senate Bean Soup (The Official Recipe) Servings: 4 people 

Ingredients

• 1-pound dry navy beans
• 3/4-pound smoked ham hock
• 2 quarts cold water
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• kosher salt, to taste (I do about 2 teaspoons)
• fresh black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Rinse the navy beans and pick over.

2. Place beans into large pot with two quarts of cold water and the ham hock.

3. Bring just to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for approximately three hours in a partially-covered pot, stirring occasionally, until the beans have fully softened.

4. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool.

5. Meanwhile, lightly brown the onion in butter and add to the soup.

6. Pull meat from the ham hocks and return to soup.

7. Stir.

8. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.

Credits

https://www.delightedcooking.com/what-are-haricot-beans.htm

https://www.cop.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/bean_soup.htm

https://copykat.com/senate-navy-bean-soup/

https://unpeeledjournal.com/u-s-senate-bean-soup-recipe/

https://hurstbeans.com/recipes/navy-bean-soup-aka-senate-bean-soup

https://www.navyhistory.org/2016/04/chow-navy-bean-soup/