From Politics to Preserves: Silda Wall Spitzer's Sweet Transition

Transcription by Jerome Kazlauskas

[00:00:00] Silda Wall Spitzer: It's a grilled cheese, but this is involving brie and some blueberry elderflower jam grilling on the stove in some butter, and I'm hoping you're going to find it quite delicious.

[00:00:16] Brett Barry: I think I will. It's not every day a First Lady invites you for lunch, but that's exactly what happened when Silda Wall Spitzer welcomed me to her Hudson Valley home for a gourmet sandwich featuring her very own line of jams. Stay tuned for our conversation about jam, of course, plus the privileges and, well, perils of her tenure as New York's First Lady. All that and lots more, right after this... [sponsor copy]

[00:01:06] Silda Wall Spitzer: I'm Silda Wall Spitzer, and I have been coming to the Hudson Valley for over 30 years now, so I have the blessing of being able to share life between New York City and Columbia County, Dutchess County, and then going over to the other side of the river and the Catskills.

[00:01:28] Brett Barry: And we're here because... not just because you love the podcast and invited me to come have lunch with you, but...

[00:01:34] Silda Wall Spitzer: A big part of it.

[00:01:36] Brett Barry: But you've got... you've got a jam business going, and it's called Silda's Jam, and we're going to get all into that today. You grew up in North Carolina...

[00:01:44] Silda Wall Spitzer: I did.

[00:01:44] Brett Barry: ...and that's where you kind of got started with jam with your parents and grandparents?

[00:01:48] Silda Wall Spitzer: Well, I certainly grew up with that all around me, and I feel a little guilty trying to take any credit for that at all because I was young, and a lot of it was just watching them do it and probably wanting to go outside and play. When I first started coming up to the Hudson Valley, we had a big orchard, and they had a lot of peach trees, and my parents came up to visit one summer, and peach trees don't necessarily produce great quantities of fruit every year. This particular year, they had just, like, fallen off the trees, fruit, and my parents looked and said, "You know, what are you doing with all of this fruit? You can't just let it go to waste. We're good coming out of that depression-era family. You waste nothing," and so I was like, "Well, I don't know," and my dad said, "Well, you could make some jam, some preserves," and I was like, "Well, I have no idea how to do that," and so he said, "Oh, it's easy, so we went to the store, we got the jars, we got some pectin, got some sugar, got some lemons." I came back home, and he and my mom showed me how to make jam, and so that was my first experience actually cooking the jam, and we had made like 70 jars, and we're like, "Now what am I going to do with all this... all the jam?" And so we began to give holiday gifts to friends, and we love doing it. The girls love getting involved, and so one year I gave some jam to Amanda DiRobella, who was the Chief of Operations for New York Makers, which was a digital magazine and marketplace that I had started for the state. We were looking at ways to try to increase our margins. The digital business is tough if you ask anyone who's there. She had this jam, and she said, "Oh my goodness, this is so delicious! We have to make the jam, and because it was all about New York Makers and we're makers at heart, we thought that would be perfect, and so that's how we got started in the jam making for Silda's Jam."

[00:04:14] Brett Barry: is Silda a family name?

[00:04:16] Silda Wall Spitzer: It is. It is a made-up name, and I usually just say I'm from the South and my mother's name is Trilby, and people go, "I understand," so there's kind of an odder story behind that, that my mom, sorry, I've never cooked and talked at the same time. She was a psychology and religion major, and she had this theory, I'm the oldest, that if you name your child something that is different, but not so different that people would make fun of it, that it would give you a leg up in life, and I heard her tell this story for a while, and then one day when I got a little older I realized my sister, her name is Susan, and my brother's name is Jim. He's a family name. He's a second, and I'm like, "Okay, that theory did not work," and so, "Mom, don't ever tell that story again," but yes, so I got the Silda, but my dad made it up.

[00:05:19] Brett Barry: But you're right. I mean, she was right. It led to great things.

[00:05:23] Silda Wall Spitzer: I think the jury is still out, but it's made for a lifetime of being very conscious of people's names and having to explain to people what my name is and how to spell it, so...

[00:05:39] Brett Barry: Can we talk about some of the great things?

[00:05:41] Silda Wall Spitzer: Sure.

[00:05:43] Brett Barry: The Silda's Jam story points right to your tenure as former First Lady of New York.

[00:05:48] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yes.

[00:05:48] Brett Barry: Very cool.

[00:05:49] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yes, that was a real privilege.

[00:05:51] Brett Barry: At this point in our conversation, I had to ask the question that I suspected listeners would be waiting for. In light of Silda's warm welcome, and currently grilling me a sandwich, no less, it wasn't a question I was eager to ask. I'm going to touch on something quickly.

[00:06:09] Silda Wall Spitzer: Okay.

[00:06:10] Brett Barry: The First Lady/Spitzer combination does come with some baggage, and many listeners will associate that with the governor's scandal and ultimately a traumatic implosion. How are you able to balance all the good things that came with that position with the shadow?

[00:06:29] Silda Wall Spitzer: Well, what I would say is that in everyone's life, you have things come up that are certainly not expected that are not... that are... that are difficult and challenging, and I think what's important is... is how you respond to that, and so for me I did feel like it was a real honor and privilege to be able to serve as First Lady. I love the state, and so I've also always believed that you can... you can serve. My background is always about serving, being part of community, and so for me it's a question of you can do it in the private sector, you can do it in the public sector, you can do it in the nonprofit sector, and so it just depends on where you are... what's available to you to be able to use it for the goals that you want to...

[00:07:31] Brett Barry: Silda's dogs, Sam and Tuck, were as uncomfortable with my question as I was, but Silda graciously put them out on the porch, and she continued.

[00:07:42] Silda Wall Spitzer: ...and obviously I wish that it had lasted longer because I feel like we were doing a lot of good work, and I was trying to do everything that I could to support the administration, especially around green energy, sustainability... keeping the next generation in New York to help with the economic future for our state, so all of those things that we were working on were very exciting, and when faced with a situation where your world changes all of a sudden, that doesn't mean that what's important to you and what you're working towards has to change, but the way that you approach it can change, and so before I was First Lady, I was running a non for profit that I had started that was about engaging young people and volunteering in service from an early age. Other things that I was doing in the official capacity, I had been doing privately before, and so continuing after that, I just did a sort of strategic plan around what was important to me, what I wanted to keep working on, and then how could I move that forward most effectively with the avenues that were... were available, so I started, for example, New York Makers to be able to create an economic platform for all the makers around the state to be able to reach more people with what it was they were making and doing and telling their story and also just telling the cool stories from all around the state that people don't necessarily know who are living one county away. It's very atomized, and so part of what I wanted to do was be able to have, you know, more people appreciate, more people of the whole state experience parts that they didn't know about, have people who hadn't been here come here and... and feel connected. That was one way of continuing the effort of trying to keep the next generation in New York and... and encourage business—new businesses and sustainable ways of living—and so it made me feel wonderful to be able to stay connected and be able to tell those stories.

[00:10:05] Brett Barry: I want to go back to your accomplishments in the Executive Mansion. I know sustainability has always been a driving force in your life. Were you able to make inroads during that time in Albany and specifically in that building?

[00:10:16] Silda Wall Spitzer: Well, we did. I think you're referencing we greened the mansion, which was a very, very fun project. The chef at the time had a garden where he was growing a lot of the vegetables that we were eating... a lot of the herbs. We did send out some preserves that year. Some of it was with things that had been grown at the mansion from other places as well. I toured around the state to all 62 counties looking at different sustainable building achievements. I was really focusing on how you could take, say, older buildings and make them so that they were more energy efficient, more sustainable—where we would go and highlight green building first.

[00:11:03] Brett Barry: Did you implement things that are still there?

[00:11:06] Silda Wall Spitzer: You know, I haven't been back, so I don't know.

[00:11:10] Brett Barry: You're not buds with the First Gentleman?

[00:11:12] Silda Wall Spitzer: I haven't connected with the First Gentleman, but I do think the energy goals for the state have continued to be in the forefront, and I think that organizations like NYSERDA have certainly been doing amazing, amazing things, and NYPA [New York Power Authority] has also been doing some really interesting work, so I've kept up with a lot of that work through my work on the Urban Green Council board, and that's all about looking at how to make the built environment in more of the metropolitan area of New York and the surrounds more efficient, cleaner, more sustainable, and so, through that, I'm still connected back with a lot of the different programs, both locally and in the state, and what Urban Green is trying to do is really serve as a model for other cities and working [not just in New York] but also connecting with other large cities in the states and across the globe, too.

[00:12:16] Brett Barry: One more First Lady question for you and we'll move on. What do you think the public ought to know about First Ladies and First Gentlemen? Is it luxurious? Is it stressful? Is it surreal? I mean, you're in the same club as Eleanor Roosevelt.

[00:12:29] Silda Wall Spitzer: It's a... well, that is a true honor for me. It is a strange role because it is not elected in and of itself, and yet you are very much expected to serve and to be a presence, and so it's just... it's just a fascinating kind of unique position, I think, and so I'm loving that they're now first gentlemen who are having to navigate that as well as first ladies.

[00:13:01] Brett Barry: You know, I looked up First Ladies of New York in Wikipedia, and it... and it comes up First Ladies and First Gentlemen.

[00:13:07] Silda Wall Spitzer: Uh huh.

[00:13:08] Brett Barry: We have our first First Gentleman...

[00:13:09] Silda Wall Spitzer: We do have our first.

[00:13:11] Brett Barry: ...and I don't mean to take you away from whatever you want to do here.

[00:13:13] Silda Wall Spitzer: It's just your lunch.

[00:13:14] Brett Barry: No, then I definitely don't want to take you away from it. Let's talk a little bit about your other career... careers outside of Albany: corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity firms, and the list goes on. Plus, you're called on to speak about environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, women's leadership... where does that drive come from? Maybe it goes back to the name Silda, and is there some thread or consistency in your goals?

[00:13:44] Silda Wall Spitzer: I really think the thread or consistency is about community, sustainability, service, giving back because I feel like that's where my purpose lies, and I feel like that's where each of us can find our purpose. There is no moment, or no person, I should say, for whom there's not something they can't do for someone else, and there is no person who doesn't need the help of someone else to live their life, and so I think that is the great commonality that we all share, and when we stay focused on that, a lot of the divisiveness can go away because we realize first and foremost what's most important is looking out for each other and being there for each other.

[00:14:36] Brett Barry: Okay, so why jam?

[00:14:39] Silda Wall Spitzer: Well, jam kind of brings it all together in a way because it's making so, for me, the active voice is very important, as you say. You know, being driven to do things. It's... we can't wait for someone else to do things for us. I was brought up where we had to look out for ourselves, and we had to do for ourselves, and so there was hardly ever a moment where someone wasn't moving, doing, making... was the way my family lived, and so that's in my DNA, and so that's why I'm so active and moving forward and always wanting to look for. How can I help? How can I achieve what it is that I want? I'm not waiting for someone else to do it.

[00:15:29] Brett Barry: And true to your entrepreneurial spirit, you've innovated jam itself, I hear, replacing granulated sugar with New York State maple syrup and updating the recipe with natural fruit pectin. Can you explain what both of those things mean?

[00:15:45] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yes, so what the pectin is, is it helps the jam kind of thicken and hold together, and so I was also using another kind of pectin that was, it was a citrus-based at the time. We're using kind of a more broad fruit-based now. The all-fruit pectin is a little bit more firm, so that comes from apples and other different kinds of fruit, so that's been interesting that the taste is pretty much the same. The maple syrup came from loving maple syrup, having maple syrup be so identified with New York as a product, and it's delicious, and so I just tried that one time because I just wanted to see what it would taste like, and we really liked the... it's got a nice sort of after flavor. It just felt a little bit more rich from a taste point of view, and so started incorporating that and use that. I would say it's not the most cost-effective because if you compare five pounds of sugar with the equivalent amount of maple syrup, they're very different price points, but it's been worth it to us to bring that experience.

[00:16:58] Brett Barry: So the flavor combinations are described as evoking warm memories of childhood and home, like cherry pie, gingerbread peach...

[00:17:06] Silda Wall Spitzer: Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:17:07] Brett Barry: There's a nostalgic element here, and also I guess these combinations highlight your creative side.

[00:17:13] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yes, so I play around with different flavors, different ideas. We are offering five different flavors at this point, but we have offered up to 11, and there are some more that are in the hopper, so to speak of, you know, thinking about and experimenting that we're going to do, so I've got elderflower bushes that I started growing. One thing that I will say that was inspirational when I came to the Hudson Valley and started thinking about jams beyond that first session with my parents was I couldn't believe the fruit that is grown here in this Hudson Valley area. I always thought peaches could only grow in Georgia because of the temperatures, and so it was amazing to me when there was that bountiful, you know, peach crop that we were trying to do something with, and then I learned you actually can grow apricots here, and we had raspberries and blueberries and blackberries, and then the cherry trees, and I love cherries, and so I've just been amazed at what actually grows here, and so I really, really feel like we're so lucky to have that be part of... part of our kind of agricultural world, if you will, so...

[00:18:35] Brett Barry: We're looking at the Catskill Mountains from your house, and it's a beautiful view, but we're on the other side of the river, where it's much more farmland. All the main ingredients are coming from this area?

[00:18:44] Silda Wall Spitzer: Well, as much as we can, we're trying to get the fruit from this area, but some years the peaches are bountiful. Other years they're not. Some years the blackberries and raspberries are... other years they're not, and so we go as local as we can to be able to access the fruit that we need to be able to produce the jam, so we start in New York, and we definitely try to find it here. Same for the maple syrup. We love to find that, but certainly regionally and locally as... what our focus is.

[00:19:19] Brett Barry: Can you explain what you're making here? So the audience is, like, hearing these delicious cooking sounds.

[00:19:23] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yeah, I wish they could smell it. It's... it's pretty simple variation on a theme. It's a grilled cheese, but this is involving brie and some blueberry elderflower jam, and it's cooking, grilling on the stove in... in some butter, and I'm hoping you're going to find it quite delicious.

[00:19:44] Brett Barry: I think I will. Stay tuned for my highly anticipated first bite and the conclusion of my interview with Silda Wall Spitzer. "Kaatscast: The Catskills Podcast" is a biweekly production of Silver Hollow Audio. Please consider joining our monthly member listeners like Carol, Bill, and Elizabeth Anne. Click the "Support" tab at kaatscast.com to learn more, and if you'd like to join us as a business sponsor, please get in touch. You can reach me directly through our contact form at kaatscast.com/contact. Alright, let me take a bite of this before my next question because I can't not.

[00:20:28] Silda Wall Spitzer: I feel like I'm making an awful lot of noise eating.

[00:20:30] Brett Barry: Mmm, that's delicious, so that's a grilled cheese, but the cheese is brie, and what kind of jam is on here?

[00:20:39] Silda Wall Spitzer: That's blueberry elderflower.

[00:20:41] Brett Barry: Great.

[00:20:43] Silda Wall Spitzer: And the other one's turkey, cherry pie, and brie.

[00:20:47] Brett Barry: Well, now I know where you live, so if I just happen to pop by for lunch, don't be surprised.

[00:20:50] Silda Wall Spitzer: Absolutely, anytime you like.

[00:20:52] Brett Barry: And so give me a sense of the team now.

[00:20:59] Silda Wall Spitzer: We've been working with a co-packer that's here in Columbia County, and we have a distributor that we're working with. I love this. We're working with the Columbia County Coarc, and they're doing our distribution.

[00:21:12] Brett Barry: For people who don't know, Coarc is... people with disabilities?

[00:21:15] Silda Wall Spitzer: Yes, it's to help people with special needs and find jobs for folks with disabilities as well and provide other services. It's a really, really fabulous organization. They put the string and the spoon on the jars, and that makes it such a nice gift, so we love being able to do that, and then they ship out, so we work with them on doing all of that distribution, and they've been fantastic.

[00:21:44] Brett Barry: So from a business perspective, are you close to taking on Smucker's, or do you have other aspirations for Silda's Jam?

[00:21:53] Silda Wall Spitzer: I just... I want people to try it, and I want people to love it. Most of our retailers are here in the Hudson Valley, but we are actually starting to get folks who are reaching out from other places to carry it, and that's thrilling, and we think it makes a great gift, so people can order it online and be able to give it that way, so we're smaller... would like to keep growing, but I think Smucker's is safe for as long as they want to be there because I think our audience is a little different. They're looking for some more unusual flavors. They appreciate the maple syrup, and so it's more of a gourmet item, I would think, and so we like being able just to make people happy, and that's how I think we can do it the best.

[00:22:42] Brett Barry: For a list of shops that carry Silda's Jam, recipes, and more, head over to sildasjam.com, and I hope you're a subscriber to the "Kaatscast" newsletter because that's where you'll find a promo code for 10% off your order at sildasjam.com. It's a special code just for "Kaatscast" listeners. There's a simple sign-up form at kaatscast.com. Just enter your first name and your email address, and you're in. Thanks to Silda Wall Spitzer for kicking off our first episode of the new year. We have lots more to share, so please be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a story, and if you can rate and review, that helps other listeners find us. For more information, please visit kaatscast.com and follow us on Instagram [@kaatscast]. I'm Brett Barry. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.