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Chef Valerie Hanson, Kitchenaire
Growing up on a family farm, Valerie Hanson learned
bygone kitchen and farm skills as they were passed from mother to daughter
for generations.
She was one of eight children growing up near the Silver Lake
sand dunes in western Michigan's Oceana County. With the oldest children in
their 20's, she has continued these home arts for decades. She and her husband, John, also have eight
children.
Often one of their six daughters assists as “scullery maids” during the exclusive private Bygone Basics' heritage
experiences.
Truly, a family endeavor, Valerie's mother Nancy may well put on an apron and be found helping also.
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Origins of Bygone Basics |
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After spending 41 years living in a very old fashioned family farm environment, Valerie suddenly was living in suburbia.
She and John Hanson met, and then married, at the local Book Nook and Java Shop. They created Bygone Basics together. It was born in suburban Whitehall, Michigan.
The idea for it began when they engaged a Mexican woman in Cozumel, MX to demonstrate her own generational culinary knowledge. Of that, and the existing passion for their own heritage, Bygone Basics was created.
Valerie, with degrees in business and accounting, has successfully run businesses as the executive; and, John, with a technical position at a local company, and many years of re-modeling experience; knew they could create this very unique niche company that began as a way to teach local families the value of traditional cost saving and health beneficial home arts (canning, baking, and gardening) and has become a tourist destination for culinary tourism. Guests arrive from all over the U.S.A. for a few hours of immersion experience in heritage culinary traditions.
The experiential business soon outgrew the suburban residence and the Hansons searched for a suitable home for their culinary arts business that embraced historical traditions. The perfect place was found. The Hansons and Bygone Basics moved to Montague where they had a few acres and a big historic home. It needed a lot of work, but it has been a labor of love.
Beginning in March of 2012 guests can extend their experience into a Stay and Play. Amanda's Bequest Bed & Breakfast is opening at Bygone Basics, to allow further immersion in a style of living that celebrates the simple farm-country life.
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History of the Home |
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The history of the new home of Bygone Basics is long and its beginnings, impressive. Many in the City of Montague know much of the related story.
William Montague Ferry (lumber baron & founder of the City of Grand Haven, MI) and his wife, Amanda White Ferry, were the parents of Noah Ferry, founder of the City of Montague (also a young lumber tycoon).
Noah, sadly, was lost in the Battle of Gettysburg to Robert E Lee’s forces in 1863. His mother, Amanda, left a bequest upon her death in 1870 toward a church and manse to be built in honor of her son. Noah’s brother Edward commissioned the building of the church and its parsonage (formally known as a Manse) in his brother’s name. He used the manse as a bargaining point so the parishioners could demonstrate their own comittment to the church. They had to use their own labor to build, (under the direction of George Dowling) the Manse. Once it was completed, they would get their church. They built it (likely 1872-73). Convinced they could care for the church and manse, Edward Ferry added his money to his mother’s and in 1874 the completed church (today known as Ferry Memorial Reformed Church) and the parsonage/manse were opened.
As a parsonage built by a lumber baron family, the style of home is best described as modestly grand with its high arched ceilings and enormous window heights; yet an absence of overt grandeur that would not have been becoming of a parsonage. The home was moved about a mile away (circa 1980) when the church decided to expand its building. It was lost for a while to the frailties of human memory and became a three apartment rental home. But low and behold …underneath the 1970’s carpeting and paneling lay waiting the original parsonage, 140 year old knotty pine floors and massive arched front door still intact.
It is this parsonage (now known formally as an Old Manse, as a pastor no longer resides here) that houses Bygone Basics’ heritage kitchen, and soon, Amanda’s Bequest Bed & Breakfast.
We look forward to showing this home to our guests and will preserve it in the spirit of its heritage. It is truly the perfect home for an immersion experience to occur and as a heritage Bed & Breakfast where guests can experience some of the culturally almost lost, heritage ways of life such as butter churning;
growing and preserving food stuffs; making soaps & candles, and traditional baking.
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| Qualifications/Licensure |
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Better Process Control School - Acidified - FDA/USDA |
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Better Process Control School - Low Acid - FDA/USDA |
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Food Establishment License - Michigan Department of Agriculture/Food & Dairy Division |
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Special Use Permit - Bed & Breakfast - City of Montague |
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41 years of training and experience |
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The home of Bygone Basics and Amanda's Bequest:
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