Inspired by age—the abandoned past.
Helga S. Orthofer understood that
these preserves … represented the
history of the house and the family
that resided there for generations.
There they sit in a cupboard all to themselves: jars and jars and jars of preserves—peach, blackberry, strawberry, you name it. Their age is unknown, possibly 100 years old, more or less.
What tale do they have to tell? Who picked the fruit and then lovingly preserved and stored them in this ancient basement?
Many new owners of an antique home would toss out the jars and strip the space bare to create a new, modern one. After all, the preserves will never be eaten. But Helga S. Orthofer understood that these preserves were the ghosts of East Street in Stockbridge. They represented the history of the house and the family that resided there for generations. And they would become one of her subjects and her inspiration.
Helga is a still life painter. She is known to imbue inanimate objects with personality and character. It’s her eye. It’s her talent. Her childhood and upbringing held hints that Helga would become both a great fine artist and also an amazing culinary artist.
Helga was born in Vienna, Austria, and spent most of her formative years at her grandfather’s house on the Semmering. Much like the Berkshires for Bostonians and New Yorkers, this summer resort for the Viennese is of similar natural beauty and its splendid villas are comparable to the Berkshire cottages.
Preserving the preserves
Helga recalls living a very frugal existence in the difficult post–World War II years but never felt deprived because of the loving environment that her mom, grandmother, grandfather and aunts created. Her grandfather, the director of a steel factory until it was confiscated after the Anschluss by Hitler, turned his attention to providing for his extended family off his estate. They survived on a huge garden and raised chickens, rabbits and goats.
The family still had a cook and Helga saddled herself up to the cook and learned everything she could about preparing meals and preserving foods.
She reminisced that every Monday was noodle day; it’s a time when Helga began to understand that cooking was an art. That one used a feeling or an intuition to “know” that the dough was the right consistency. The cook taught Helga how to hold a knife and how to cut an onion. Onion tears still take Helga back to those days.
In later years, she moved to Graz with her brothers and parents, with her father finally being released from confinement at war’s end. Summers were still always spent on her grandfather’s estate. It was the fruit orchard that captivated Helga— imagine being able to run your grandfather’s apple press and make fresh apple juice.
But perhaps the best memory Helga shared was squishing the plums with her hosed-off feet to help her grandfather make slivovitz, aka plum brandy.
Helga S. Orthhofer, preserving the fruits of her labors
Helga recounts that preserving fruits and food was a necessity. Back then, eating seasonally was not a choice. It was the only way to eat. Later, as a teenager, Helga admits she was seduced by everything American. So much so she refused to waste her precious time picking string beans when one could readily buy Del Monte canned string beans imported from America. Fortunately, Helga’s taste buds recognized how inferior canned beans were and she remained a real food enthusiast.
Meanwhile, Helga’s love of art and painting was ever present. There wasn’t a coloring book or piece of paper that didn’t bear Helga’s mark.
She craved to become a painter. Sadly, this was not a skill that was fostered in young Austrian women. She was told all great artists were men. So she accepted that art would be a hobby and concentrated on architecture, designing environments for children and working with architectural firms that specialized in exhibition design.
Only when she moved to Manhattan in the 1970s did she see that America offered the promise that she could be both an amazing homemaker and a serious artist. And so be it: Helga would do both. She entered the National Academy of Art in New York City and studied under renowned Russian painter Serge Hollerbach. She quickly gravitated to becoming a still life painter and a student of color, light and shadows. Her favorite subjects were of the harvest: fruit, vegetables, preserves, barns—those objects from her youth that spoke legions to her.
The well preserved barn
In the 1980s, she and her now-late husband, John M. Kaiser, purchased an 1830s Federal brick house in Stockbridge, which she restored. Helga had come full circle. She now could create her own gardens with fruit trees and an array of fresh vegetables that she could both cook up and paint.
The intuitive skills of her grandfather’s cook live on through Helga, as she never uses a recipe. She uses what she calls fingerspitzgefuhl, a German word that basically means a deep, intuitive knowing, like the feeling on the tip of your finger.
When asked for her recipe for preserves she laughs and explains there isn’t one. She makes them all the same way, be it rhubarb, red currant, peach, raspberry or plum. She makes them with the timetested knowledge she acquired as a young girl.
Helga’s is a tale not unlike the jars in the old basement. Her canvases carry her DNA—her unique vision—of subjects near and dear to her as both a child in Austria and an adult in America. Like the ghosts in the basement, her paintings preserve her perspective for eternity.
Helga has had several one-person and group shows and her paintings are collected internationally. She will be hosting her first open studio over Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30–31, and again on Sept. 13–14 at 17 East St., Stockbridge.
She’s ready to see her creations go off to new homes to be enjoyed by others. HSOrthofer.com
Carole Murko is a home cook, writer and host of “Radio Heirloom Meals” on Robin Hood Radio (NPR) at 91.5 FM in Sharon, Connecticut. She has hosted and produced TV specials for PBS. HeirloomMeals.com
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