Your Invitation to: The Leavening- A Mythic Catskills Weekend

An extraordinary history of food, philanthropy and innovation. An extraordinary vision of the future. And yeast. All in one rollicking, evocative, flavorful weekend.

"Leavening: a substance used in dough to make it rise. And, even more to Spillian’s point, a quality or element that permeates and transforms something for the better."

Join us as we evoke the exquisite era of Spillian’s founders, the  Fleischmann family, and their wide-flung community of artists, leaders, makers, and imaginers in a celebration of community, culture, food, and the 150th birthday of Fleichmann’s Yeast®.

We are thrilled to be a part of the weekend’s Fleischmanns Founder’s Day Celebrations, sponsored by AB Mauri, owners of Fleichmann’s Yeast®, and Fleischmanns First, an extraordinary local community organization.

Take your place in the creative energy that has been emerging from the Catskills for over a century as we throw a birthday bash for a company that changed how America ate, and a family who changed how we imagine ourselves. Let us be leaveners together, and imagine how we will help the world rise.

With music, art, conversation, dreaming, the inspiration of history and community, and food, glorious food. A feast of flavors inspired by the Fleischmanns Vienna Bakery in New York City in the era that they spent summers here. And baking. With yeast. Of course.

The Leavening. It’s mythic. Local. Real...

he Leavening: A Mythic Catskills Weekend | What’s Included

Friday

• 5 PM: A robust farm-to-table charcuterie, including local meats, cheeses, spring greens, house-made hummus, relishes, chutneys, tarts, and more from our neighboring farmers and food producers; as well as our house-made carmelized onion, leek, and goat cheese tarts; trout rollmops; and our famous house chocolate bark.
• 6:00 PM Cash bar cocktail hour featuring Union Grove Distillery’s special label Vly Creek vodka made with Fleischmanns Yeast®. (Open to the public. Reservations required if you’re not staying with us. See below.)
• 7 PM: Founders’ Day Panel discussing the area’s history, the Fleischmann family, and local connections to baseball. (Free admission and open to the public. Reservations required if you’re not staying with us. See below.)
• 8 PM: Special VIP Concert and Reception for Spillian guests, press, and invited guests from the community and the baking world, with a tasting array of historic Fleischmann’s Yeast® breads and baked goods from their early cookbooks, cheese from local farms, Spillian Spiked Root Beer Cocktails (inspired by an historic Fleischmanns Yeast® root beer recipe), with a very special performance by Justin Kolb, pianist, and Executive Secretary of the American Liszt Society on our 1914 Steinway grand piano. We’ve asked Justin to join us in celebration of the Fleischmann family’s close friendship with Anton Seidl, and their support of his work leading the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, as he was also an accomplished performer of Liszt and often spent his time in the mountains playing the piano.

Saturday

• 9 AM: A classic Spillian Catskills breakfast featuring eggs from Spillian Farm’s ridiculous chickens and house-made cocoa bread from an historic Fleischmanns Yeast® recipe.
• 10 AM: Moving Meditation with Spillian co-founder Leigh Melander, Ph.D. A bit of yoga, a bit of breathing and imagery work going deep into metaphors of the wild mountains, streams, and forests, and the generative energy of creativity.
• 11 AM to 4 PM: Wander down the hill to celebrate Fleischmanns Founders’ Day! A parade, an old-fashioned mountain league baseball game, bake off contest, 19th Century kids games, live music, food vendors, and more!
• 5 PM: Cocktail hour featuring the Spillian Trout Tail cocktail (with vodka from Union Grove Distillery and maple syrup from Tree Juice Maple Syrup;  the Spillian Wallflower, with wild-crafted pine simple syrup, pear syrup, blackberries, candied ginger Prohibition Distillery gin, …smoked! (and invented by our guest Marin Gardner of Embercraft Creations); and the Fleischmanns Sparkling Martini, with special Fleischmanns Yeast® Union Grove Distillery vodka and Awestruck Cider. And we’re working on some special musical guests for this evening as well…stay tuned!
• 7 PM: The Leavening Feast around Spillian’s grand table, celebrating the creative energies that have been drawn to this part of the Catskills for over a hundred years, accompanied a seven course dinner with a menu drawn from a 1906 menu at the Fleischmanns Vienna Bakery in the city. Bring your best ideas of how to change the world. We will leaven together.

Sunday

• 9 AM: A Spillian Catskills breakfast.
• 10 AM: A cooking class with Chef Christian: learn to make Fleischmanns Yeast® cocoa bread so you can make it at home to fulfill what we’re quite sure will be your new addiction.
• 11 AM: A farewell toast before you wander back to reality, filled with energy to raise your piece of the world.

The Leavening Feast

A chance to break bread with fellow revolutionaries, revelers, and risers. A family style feast around our extraordinary mahogany dining table. This table is a true place of convivium, where tales are topped, ideas are birthed, and friendships created. Menu coming soon!