The Valatie Farmhouse of Jamie Cat Callan
(Originally published in February 2018)
A writer, a gentleman farmer, and their 19th-century farmhouse in Valatie
By Mary Angeles Armstrong
There's a certain storyline that goes like this: A big city heroine, with a fast-paced career filled with wealth and success, feels her life has lost its charm. So she chucks it all away, and, in an attempt to recapture simplicity, pursues happiness in some bucolic, Old World setting. In some stories, the protagonist finds herself in Tuscany, in others on a Greek island, and in many it's a tiny French village where she goes to reclaim her joie de vivre. Whatever the setting, there's always a lovely old farmhouse, rich with history but often in need of restoration; there's a garden that needs tending; and there's a historic village where life is slow and the locals may be quirky, but always have something to teach. Somewhere in the course of the story the hero slows down. Somewhere along the way of restoring the old farmhouse, rediscovering the earth, and lingering over good meals shared with new friends, the hero gives up her endless pursuit of happiness, and pauses long enough to savor the moment.
The twist on this tale, for author Jamie Cat Callan and her husband Dr. Bill Thompson, was that the life of simple pleasures and the lovely, old farmhouse in the historic village with lots of character wasn't found abroad, but right in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Valatie. It wasn't just a garden that needed tending, but also an orchard, hay fields, and a barn. And instead of escaping to the Old World, they discovered some of the Old World's secrets and brought them back to the States—to share with friends, readers, and now neighbors who stop by their booth at the Valatie farmers' market.
American Sweethearts
Both Connecticut natives, Callan and Thompson left the countryside years
ago to pursue their respective career paths. Thompson began as a
musician and music store owner and then became a geologist with the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod. Callan, a graduate of
Bard College, has enjoyed a successful writing and teaching career for
over 35 years. She started out in Manhattan writing "color stories" for
the ad world and then published her first young adult novel, Over the Hill at 14
(1982). It was a success she could build on, and, after publishing two
more young adult novels, she made her way to Hollywood, where she worked
as a script reader for Paramount Pictures and then became an assistant
to Meg Ryan during the actress's reign as "America's Sweetheart." ("She
is actually adorable and very, very kind," Callan reveals.)It was the Northridge earthquake that sent Callan and her daughter back to the firmer shores of New England, where she began a job teaching creative writing at Fairfield University in Connecticut. (It's also where she met Thompson—a romantic tale featured in a 2006 New York Times "Modern Love" column.) The relocation also spurred a deeper investigation into Callan's French heritage—particularly the feminine side of French culture and specifically the story—and style—of her French grandmother. "For a long time, I was very much an American and I was out of balance," Callan explains. "I would do everything to extreme—buy more stuff than I needed because it was cheap. I wanted more and more and more and it had to be fast, but it was never quite enough." Callan went searching for a simpler, more meaningful way of life. This quest led her to her grandmother's homeland, France where she returned on multiple occasions, exploring villages and cities and interviewing French women from all walks of life recording their take on French culture and social history.
French Kisses
She found herself in the 11th-century French village of Auvillar, in the
south of Bordeaux, where she was granted a month-long residency. The
slower pace of Auvillar and the time to immerse herself in small town
French life revealed an important value that Callan believes we in
America have lost as a culture: savoring simple, ordinary moments. "We
have this pursuit of happiness," Callan explains, "But the French don't
have that. Why does someone have to go chase after happiness? It's right
there in front of you." This revelation, and the friendships she'd made
over her many travels, lead to the first in Callan's series of
best-selling books exploring the French life-style, French Women Don't Sleep Alone (2009). It was so successful she went on to write three more books, the most recent—Parisian Charm School—was
published in December. It's her deepest dive into French philosophy and
culture yet. "I feel like I got to the core—it's really about knowing
who you are, and that begins with reading and appreciation for the
intellect, then being aware of the world you live in," Callan explains.After the series' success, Callan decided to stop just writing about the Francophile philosophy of happiness and actually live it, here in the States. Thompson was all in—they both wanted a return to the simpler country lifestyle they'd enjoyed as children in Connecticut, but the Connecticut they'd loved as children had become too suburban. They began searching the wider East Coast for a rustic farmhouse with some land, but both were attracted to the Hudson Valley, which Callan knew well from her days at Bard. They loved the area's bucolic landscape and its strong ties to arts and culture. They came across the farm in Valatie in 2015. Like many charming farmhouses, the home had a long, rich history. The Federalist-style main house first appeared in public records in 1856, but the couple suspects the property actually dates back to the 1820s. Once part of the much larger estate, the 50 acres include barns, a hay loft, corn crib, a granary, and a smoke house, as well as a Greek Revival carriage house across the road. At one time the 3,200-square-foot home had even been split for two families, with an extra kitchen added in the rear, southeast wing of the house. The farm's most recent incarnation was as the center of a large homeschooling consortium with small classes and learning spaces throughout the house and barns. "We could feel the joy when we walked in," recalls Callan. "The floors quivered."
La Belle Farm
Although the farmhouse was romantic and rambling, it didn't need too much restoration. The three-bedroom, three-bath home had been well preserved by previous owners. Eight foot ceilings throughout the house featured ornate crown molding and wainscoted walls. It also retained the original wide-plank heart pine floors, which stretch through both stories. "The floors are really what made us fall in love with the place," says Callan. "You can't get floors like this anymore."Downstairs, the original entrance leads to a long hallway with doors on either side; one leads to a cheery parlor and the other to a formal dining room, both with working fireplaces. However, the couple and their guests more often enter the home through the kitchen door—it's become the heart of their newly cultivated farm-to-table lives. Updated in the 1980s, the space includes a large, V-shaped island and the appropriate accoutrement for a modern chef. Another fireplace, this one closed, is hung with drying garlic and herbs. At the back of the house, a covered porch was converted into a solarium and the former second kitchen is now Callan's office, filled with books, a long desk, and notes, as well as prototypes for her upcoming projects.
Upstairs, the master bedroom includes a fireplace and an en suite bathroom. The two additional bedrooms are saved for guests, with one room especially outfitted for the couple's grandchildren. It's also an homage to Callan's French grandmother, who worked in the family vaudeville act, playing music and sewing costumes. A rack of colorful clothing hangs along one wall, and Callan converted her grandmother's original sewing table into a desk for her grandchildren.
It's the surrounding 50 acres of gardens, orchards, and fields that have really given both Callan and Thompson the chance at that life of simple happiness espoused in her books. "It's the classic New England, three barn set-up," explains Thompson, describing the large red barns at the edge of the property where the couple keep chickens and turkeys and have an adjacent fenced garden for vegetables and herbs. As a "gentleman farmer," Thompson has enjoyed working with the seasons and says the slow process of nurturing seedlings has reconnected him with the cycles of nature. He begins with planting seeds in early spring in the solarium and then hardens the seedlings right outside on the porch. By summer, the garden is in full bloom and the couple sell part of their harvest at the Valatie farmers market on Saturdays. (Thompson also ferments his own hard cider from their apple orchards.)
However, plenty of the farm's bounty is set aside for Callan and Thompson to enjoy themselves or share with friends. This, more than anything, Callan discovered, is the crucial ingredient for a life well-lived. "There's an old French saying," she explains, "'The sweetest happiness is the one that we share.'"
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