Annual Bloomer Tea in Peterboro Honors Little Women

Caption: Participants enjoy the 2008 In the Kitchen tea. This year’s birthday tea for Elizabeth Smith Miller is Sunday, September 27 at the Smithfield Community Center in Peterboro. Reservations are due by September 18.

(Peterboro, NY) Reservations are due September 18 for the In the Kitchen Tea to be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, September 27 at the Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, in Peterboro. The annual event celebrates Elizabeth Smith Miller, her birthday, the creation of her trouser outfit, and the women’s reform movement. Attendees are encouraged to wear mid- 19th Century styles – especially bloomers.

This year’s tea party also celebrates Louisa May Alcott. Roxanna Spano, Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Cazenovia College, will discuss Alcott as a suffragette and as an abolitionist, and read selections from Alcott’s works. Spano received her M.A. in English at New York University and has performed in area theatre productions. Syracuse soprano Nora B. Fleming will sing songs from the opera Little Women. Fleming received her Master’s in Music from Westminster Choir College and has performed in opera productions in various locations in the U.S. Within the last few seasons, Fleming has been in Syracuse Opera productions and is currently the soprano soloist and section leader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral.

Jody Luce, chair of the event, and her committee transform the community assembly hall into a lovely afternoon tea room with individual tea pots and tea cups for the attendees. With an eye to Libby Miller’s 1875 cookbook In the Kitchen and with its Pride of New York pledge to source food from local vendors and farms, the Copper Turret once again caters a delicious and interesting menu including chilled mango soup, an assortment of tea sandwiches, and black currant scones with lemon curd.

The afternoon activities also include a basket auction and a new shipment of “tea” shirts announcing “I found my bloomers in Peterboro.”

Reservations of $35 to Smithfield Community Association, P.O. Box 42, Peterboro NY 13134 by September 18. Seating is limited. The presentation is part of a summer series provided by the Stewards of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark. The Estate is on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and the Heritage NY Underground Railroad Trail as part of the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. For more information contact sca-peterboro.org, 315-546-5583, or jody@thetailorofpeterboro.com.

Annual Bloomer Tea in Peterboro Honors Little Women

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