History of Valentines and Chocolate at Old Sturbridge Village Feb. 9-10
Chocolate-making demonstrations, birth of America's Valentine industry explored
Historians at Old Sturbridge Village will celebrate the history of Valentines in America and demonstrate old-fashioned chocolate-making with "Be Mine: Chocolate and Valentines," a weekend program set for Saturday and Sunday Feb. 9-10. Antique Valentines will be on display, and Village interpreters will demonstrate chocolate processing and will make chocolate foods and beverages using historical "receipts." Visitors can meet a historian portraying Esther Howland, who pioneered America's Valentine card industry in Worcester, Massachusetts, and guests can also make their own Valentines. Watch the OSV chocolate-making video; program details: 800-SEE-1830; www.osv.org.
After seeing an English-made Valentine in 1847, Esther Howland, the daughter of a stationer, was inspired to design and sell her own fancy hand-made valentines. Esther originally hand-crafted valentines with friends in her family's Worcester, Mass. home with paper lace and floral decorations imported from England. Her business flourished as the popularity of the ornate and sentimental cards grew. Eventually, she sold the business to the Whitney Valentine Company, and Worcester would remain the center of the commercial valentine industry in America until World War II.
To most people in the early 1800s, the word "chocolate" meant a tasty beverage rather than a candy bar. That is because chocolate, from its Central American origins some 6,000 years ago until the 1850s, was enjoyed almost exclusively as a drink, not a food. To show visitors how chocolate is made, OSV historians use the traditional Mexican method of processing chocolate by hand using cacao. Freshly roasted chocolate "nibs" or cacao seeds are ground on a heated stone slab, a "metate," with a pestle called a mano. As the nibs are ground, the cocoa butter starts to melt, resulting in a semi-liquid mass known as chocolate liquor, used to make a hot, spiced chocolate drink.
Old Sturbridge Village celebrates life in the 1830s, and is one of the countryâs largest living history museums. Located just off the Massachusetts Turnpike and Routes I-84 and 20 in Sturbridge, Mass., the Village is open year-round, but hours vary seasonally. Winter hours are Wed. - Sun. 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (the Village is open on all Monday holidays); Admission is: $24 for adults; $22 for seniors; $8 for children ages 3-17; children 2 and under are admitted free. Each admission includes free parking and a free second-day visit within 10 days. Woo Card subscribers get 25% of adult daytime admission; college Woo cardholders receive 50% off adult daytime admission. For event details, visit www.osv.org or call 800-SEE-1830.