Herbs and brick oven used in 19th-century cooking demonstration
HARMONY — The 19th century brick oven reconstructed behind the Harmony Museum provided the heat to make “tomato pie“ for an event by the museum Saturday morning, Aug. 29, but the herbs in the garden were the real secret to making pizza the Harmonist way.
Nancy Wilson, of the museum’s Board of Directors, said the museum this summer grew plants like garlic, oregano and most recently, flax, which were used by the original Harmonist settlers not only for cooking, but as material to make other useful supplies. Flax could be peeled away to reveal hair-like follicles within, which Wilson said could be used to create handkerchiefs, tools and playthings, while gourds could be cut open and used as jugs to carry liquids with.
Wilson said that although offering people the chance to make their own pizzas was the main draw of Saturday’s event, she hoped to share knowledge about the plants with visitors.
“Besides having the herbs, we also have the fruits and vegetables they used to survive,” Wilson said of the Harmonists. “Just the fact that you cane grow utensils and playthings in a garden I think is inspiring.”
Saturday was the first time the Harmony Museum hosted an event dubbed “Father Rapp’s Tomato Pie,” which was what organizers called the recipe they were using to make the pizza with. Although some of the ingredients came from modern grocery stores — the flatbread would have been tough to make from scratch — the Harmonist Bake Oven provided a learning experience all its own.
Susan Franz, a volunteer with the Harmony Museum, manned the pizza preparation station, where the ingredients were all laid out for anyone to use on their tomato pie. A few people came through the historic preservation organization Saturday to tour the garden and make a pizza. Franz said that even though the oven has been at the Harmony Museum for decades, visitors don’t often get to see it in use, which the organizers wanted to capitalize on.
But sharing an oven with others was also the Harmonist way.
“A big oven like this would have been communal,” Franz said.
Franz said the volunteers for the museum started the fire early in the morning Saturday, so the oven could get up to at least 400 degrees and optimal for baking pizza. After a person prepared their pizza with ingredients, it would only take about five minutes in the bake oven to be ready to eat.
Emerson Osiecki, 11, was visiting Harmony with his family Saturday, and took the opportunity to make his own pie. It was the first time he used a bake oven, even though it was Franz who put the pizza in and out of the oven.
“It’s good,” he said of the pizza.
The event also got attendance from other history-focused organizations, including the Friends of the Old Stone House, which supports the historic structure outside Jennings Environmental Education Center in Brady Township.
Beverly Heasley, with the Friends of the Old Stone House, made a tomato pie Saturday, and said she and the group are always open to collaborations with other history-based organizations.
Stan Malecki, a gristmill baker at McConnells Mill State Park, also visited the Harmony Museum Saturday. He said he uses any opportunity he can to share resources with organizations that provide free programming.
“We like to share knowledge with the people here,” Malecki said.
A few other people took a tour of the gardens Saturday. The pizza-making event was scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wilson said the museum is mainly based around sharing the culture of the time that Harmonists settled in the region, which was in 1804 and later. She said food is a good way to draw people in and demonstrate the differences between now and then.
“They used everything they had,” Wilson said of the Harmonists.
