February 2015

EwEind Fs R the

a

A Winter’s Tale Our writers’ stories for warm reading

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Volume 10 Issue 2

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Of Ice and Men

Of Life and Hope

By Don Knaus Ellsworth “Brownie” Brown (left, in warmer weather) and his band reinvent winter fishing.

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

The art of Connie Sickler at the Weigh Station Café.

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The “Sweet” Smell of Success

By Kim Metzgar

7 The Fire of Youth

A skunk, a distress call, and Grandpa to the rescue.

By Linda Roller Unable to get her horse shod, Lindsey Waltz forged a life as a farrier.

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For the Birds

By Jo Charles

Cooking up a treat for our feathered friends.

12 Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio

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Back of the Mountain

By Cornelius O’Donnell It’s back to (cooking) school at Corning’s 171 Cedar Arts Center. Brud Holland (left) conducts one of the classes.

By Roger Kingsley The roundabout.

Cover by Tucker Worthington; cover photo by Bernadette ChiaramonteBrown. This page (from top): courtesy of Don Knaus and Patricia Brown Davis; by Elizabeth Bowman; and Courtesy of 171 Cedar Arts Center.

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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m

Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publishers Dawn Bilder George Bochetto, Esq. D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y Elizabeth Young, Editor Tucker Worthington, Cover Design Contributing Writers Angela Cannon-Crothers, Patricia Brown Davis, Alison Fromme, Holly Howell, George Jansson, McKennaugh Kelley, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Adam Mahonske, Cindy Davis Meixel, Fred Metarko, Dave Milano, Gayle Morrow, Cornelius O’Donnell, Roger Neumann, Gregg Rinkus, Linda Roller, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Mia Lisa Anderson, Bernadette Chiaramonte-Brown, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, Ann Kamzelski, Nigel P. Kent, Ken Meyer, Tina Tolins, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Terry Wild S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Brian Earle Michael Banik Linda Roller Administrative Assistant Amy Packard T h e B ea g l e Cosmo (1996-2014) Yogi (Assistant) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 25 Main St., 2nd Floor, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2010 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won 66 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 25 Main St., 2nd Floor, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www.mountainhomego.com.

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Photos courtesy of Don Knaus and Patricia Brown Davis

In his element: Ellsworth “Brownie” Brown at his drafting table and (clockwise) a classic Brownie cartoon; the snatch hook he developed for ice fishing with his pals; Brownie the sportsman, ready for adventure.

Of Ice and Men

Ellsworth “Brownie” Brown and His Band Reinvent Winter Fishing

By Don Knaus

B

rownie was Ellsworth Brown. He was one of the most talented— and multi-talented—men I have ever known. He was a design engineer for Corning Glass Works (CGW) and the company so valued his skills that he was “borrowed” from the Wellsboro plant to lend his services to their far-flung plants in Rhode Island, West Virginia, and even the home

base Corning plants. When the plant needed a new Christmas ornament design, Brownie was their man. When the plant needed a new design for glass tanks, Brownie was their man. When the town needed a giant chandelier to stretch across Main Street at Christmas, Brownie was their man; a Christmas ornament flag at the Penn Wells Hotel, Brownie was their man. Each year, he

designed the CGW float for the Laurel Festival Parade and every member of the crowd gathered for the parade waited for that float. It won the festival’s “Best Float” award so many times that, eventually, CGW declined to accept the prize and entered as a non-compete float.

But Brownie could have made a living as a cartoonist. He could produce See Of Ice and Men on page 8

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Of Ice and Men continued from page 7

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banquet programs, Christmas cards, or Valentines highlighted with his cartoons and poetry. When Tioga County offered a bounty on rattlesnakes, he became “Mr. Rattler.” His hat had a snakeskin band; his belt was snakeskin, too. Then he fell in love with the reptiles and declined to dispatch them.

His artistic skill led him to perfect a method for painting realistic snakeskin belts. I remember that he patiently led workshops for my Boy Scout troop as he guided us in creating our own “snakeskin” belts. He might have done quite well as an artist. His very first attempt at painting in oils was so good he was encouraged to enter it in a show.

He was told that he must put a price on his work. He really didn’t want to sell it, so he checked on the prices of the other paintings and doubled the highest asking price. To his chagrin, his oil was the first painting sold.

Old-timers might have thought that “Brownie’s Band” referred to his group of musicians. Brownie, after all, was a dance band pro and he played with all the local greats, eventually forming his own band. But that wasn’t the band.

My mother said it best when griping to my dad before an expedition to the outdoors: “If you keep taking that boy around that band of reprobates you fish with, he’ll never amount to anything.”

I was about ten when I first started running with that band of reprobates, and they were my heroes. I was just a pup. The crew was made up of old men and me. Actually, the men were in their thirties, with one really old codger in his fifties. But they were ancient to a ten-year-old kid.

Brownie was the brains of the outfit, no doubt about it. The entire ice fishing scheme was created in his fertile mind. It was February 1955, and his pals followed his lead. Deer season was over. The holidays had passed. They’d shot too many rabbits to count, and it was a long winter’s wait until trout season opened. An outdoor frolic in frigid February sounded like fun.

He gathered a group of friends to go along. But first, equipment had to be manufactured. Brownie drew up the plans for a snatch hook. My grandfather was the machine shop foreman, and the shop was put to good use. The machine shop got busy on a “government project,” a term that referred to personal projects other than actual company business. Stiff, three-eighth-inch aluminum rods were fashioned. Wooden handles, originally intended to top rasps and files, were requisitioned from the tool room and attached to the rods. Later models would have threaded male and female ends for ease in takedown and construction. The threading also facilitated the addition of sections necessary to adjust the length of rods depending on the depth of the water. At the ends of the rods, large hooks with two-inch gaps and barbs were brazed to the shafts. Viola! The snatch hooks were born.

Next came the stompers. They were made in the carpenter shop by a fly fishing buddy. Long maul handles were attached to six-by-six wooden blocks.

When pounded up and down on the ice they made a loud thump as though someone was stomping his foot.

All snatch hook fishing took place in New York State so, upon crossing the border, the group of grizzled fishers would stop at the Lindley town clerk’s to buy licenses. All of the men fished in New York for trout in the spring anyway.

Licenses in hand, the convoy headed up the Cohocton River to… just about any spot past Savona. We’d hike to the river and the ice, toting axes, snatch hooks, and stompers. Often, one of the men, in a show of bravado, would edge out toward the open water and try to snatch a fish—a dangerous practice.

One time Shorty fell through and was doused with near-freezing water.

The men just piled snow over him for insulation and proceeded upstream to fish. Fortified by his ever-present hip flask, Shorty did just fine. When the

guys picked him up on the way back, he was asked how he could have fallen in and, feeling no pain, he did it again for an encore.

The first order of business, once on the ice, was to use the axes to chop holes through to the water. (This was way before the invention and use of ice augers.) Once the holes were open, Brownie and Wimpy would skim the ice chips out of the holes with rubber gloves, which had also been requisitioned from the tool room at the factory.

Then, “watchers” were chosen to man the holes with snatch hooks. The rest of the cadre moved upstream with the stompers. The stompers began, and it was like a deer drive—only with fish for prey. The fish, mostly suckers and carp, swam slowly ahead of the stompers. The guys manning the holes would wait with snatch hooks resting on the bottom of the Cohocton. When a fish glided through the hole, the guy manning the snatch hook would jerk up and snag the fish in the belly. A quick pull up and out, a flick of the wrist, and the fish flopped on the ice. The snatch hook was immediately jammed back in the hole to hook the next fish. The suckers were a foot long and the carp sometimes exceeded a yard in length and twenty pounds in weight.

Brownie was always trying to improve the system. On the very first trip, he was disgruntled that kneeling on the ice, watching a hole, got the knees of his Woolrich pants wet. By the next trip, the carpenter shop had constructed kneelers that kept knees three inches above the ice—high and dry. Eventually, foam padding was added to the kneelers. Sometimes the water was so deep and torpid, the guys manning the holes couldn’t see all the way to the bottom. Brownie brought along five pounds of white beans and a length of galvanized downspout. The duct channeled the beans to just the right spot and viola—the bottom was white and the fish formed a perfect

silhouette against the beans.

One time I snagged the biggest carp I had ever seen. I weighed all of eighty pounds and was on my knees on slippery ice. I refused to give up but the carp was winning. It had pulled my wool-clad arms into the icy water to my elbows. I would have been resolute enough to allow the darn fish to drag me under the ice. Suddenly, I felt a strong hand on my collar, pulling me up. That was enough to win the battle and the fish was soon flapping on the ice. I looked up to my savior…Brownie.

The guys would never eat suckers or carp caught in the summer. But caught in the ice-cold waters of winter, the suckers were pretty palatable. It got so a young dairy farmer from Savona would tag along and take half the carp and a dozen suckers. He used bailing twine to string the fish and then he would happily drag the catch through the snow toward the barn. Shorty knew an old lady who would pickle the rest of the carp. The suckers that were left were ground into fish patties.

I especially enjoyed the debriefing over eats at the Savona diner. The men would order soup and sandwiches and laugh about the day’s fun. Every trip, Brownie would whip out a pen, grab a napkin, and proceed to draw cartoon cels of the day. It amazed everyone. I wanted to impress the older men, so, when George Hatherill gave me a nickel for the jukebox, I punched the keys for some Lawrence Welk tunes. With a wide smile, George pronounced, “That boy sure knows his music.” How much better could a fishing trip get for a kid?

I loved it…and I loved that band of reprobates who warmed my heart on frigid February fishing trips.

Retired teacher, principal, coach, and life-long sportsman Don Knaus is an award-winning outdoor writer and author of Of Woods and Wild Things, a collection of short stories on hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.

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WELCOME TO

Of Life and Hope

The Art of Connie Sickler at the Weigh Station Café

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

Y

ou will recognize it immediately if you travel to Ithaca, a massive oak tree that sits beside Route 13 as the northbound highway divides. Connie Sickler has known it since she was a child, and it has become, in her artist’s hands, “The Tree of Life.”

The painting (pictured above) is among Sickler’s limited-edition prints now on display until the end of February at the Weigh Station Café in Towanda.

It all started in 2012, “the year of the tree of hope,” says Sickler. She mentioned to her husband, Greg Sickler, owner of Settlement Post & Beam in Sylvania, that she wanted to portray a huge tree, breaking out of the ice, growing into the warmth. A significant tree. And she needed a model.

Her husband, it turned out, knew the perfect specimen, growing in Sylvania on his former family farm. The massive white oak, its crown 100 feet wide, had been aged at roughly 400 years. She painted it slowly coming to life from bottom to top, its trunk deep in the ice of the ages, the life in the painting ascending from dormant to red buds to full leaf, the sky correspondingly shading upward from darkness to light.

That painting spawned a new project, and 2013 became the year of The Lonely Oak Tree, a children’s book based on the tree of hope. But, says Sickler, “I always knew that the tree of hope needed a tree of life, especially where we live in the north. We are always looking to big trees for shade, for birds,” for the life in them and around them.

So when friends mentioned the Ithaca oak, Sickler knew she had found the sequel, and 2014 became the year of the tree of life. Painted with twenty-seven local birds in the crown, jumping in its branches, pecking at its bark, “The Tree of Life” is something of a field study, says Sickler.

She continues that motif on the ground at the great tree’s feet. “Under the base of the tree is every wildflower I could possible find in July and August,” says Sickler. “I would pick them and bring them in and paint them. Like the birds, they became a field study. The tree is hoisting all these birds and protecting all these wildflowers.”

For more of her work—and that of over fifty Pennsylvania and New York artisans—visit Sylvania’s Settlement House.

Connie Sickler’s Settlement House is just one of the fascinating places along the PA Route 6 Artisan Trail.

Find more places to discover the talents along PA Route 6, call for an Artisan Trail Guide 1-87-PAROUTE6.

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Elizabeth Bowman

For want of a shoe: farrier Lindsey Waltz works on a horse’s hooves.

The Fire of Youth

Unable to Get Her Horse Shod, Lindsey Waltz Forged a Life as a Farrier

By Linda Roller

I

t’s a career that started with the kind of all-consuming impatience that only a teenager can have. Lindsey Waltz was so tired of waiting.

“As a junior or senior in high school, I took the day off to meet a farrier, who didn’t show. I decided to learn to do it for myself...” and, upon graduation, enrolled in the North Carolina School of Horseshoeing & Lameness. There, she found a hands-on program on both shoeing and correcting lameness. What began as a quest to acquire the skill to shoe her own horse led to a passion for helping many horses and the people who love to ride. At the end of the fourmonth program she was asked to stay on as an assistant instructor for another 12

three months, both teaching others and expanding her skills. She never thought that it would become her profession. But shoeing horses is indeed what Lindsey Waltz has done for the past thirteen years.

Shoeing horses and starting a business take both physical and mental strength, qualities Lindsey Waltz has in abundance. “At first, I took night jobs and shoed horses in the daytime.” In the very beginning, people were afraid that she couldn’t do this hot, heavy job.

But anyone watching Lindsey in action can feel the confidence and strength she brings to her work. She is an experienced horsewoman, and the horses sense this immediately. For Lindsey, getting the horse into cross ties (tying a horse using

short ropes or chains to a solid surface) is part of calming and communicating with the horse, and preparing to work with an animal that often weighs over 1,000 pounds.

The once impatient girl moves smoothly and without rushing, in a process that is simple and rhythmic.

Once settled, she removes the shoe from a hoof and trims the hoof. “If you don’t trim a hoof, the toe gets long and can bow a tendon.” This will make a horse lame and unrideable. After the trim, Lindsey files the hoof, and, if the old shoe is to be reused, will inspect it and adjust it so the horse’s hoof is level. Then, the shoe is reattached with special horseshoe nails that cant outward through the hoof

wall and are secured, or “clinched.” Then, it’s on to the next hoof. The entire process usually takes about twenty to thirty minutes per horse. If the horse is a “show horse,” the hooves get polished, but that makes the hoof wall thinner. For trail riding horses, Lindsey usually leaves that extra hoof thickness. Most people want to be with their horse during the procedure, but Lindsey can do it alone. Either way, the entire job is built on the trust that both the owner and the horse have for the slight woman in the big leather apron. It wasn’t long before she had a full-time farrier practice, with over 200 horse clients. She works in Lycoming, Clinton, and Sullivan counties, and will travel farther for large jobs. She is also the farrier for the Lycoming County SPCA. For Lindsey, “85 percent of my work is shoeing and 15 percent hoof trims for older horses and ponies.” She also has a couple of “corrective shoe” clients, where the shoes help the horse to have level hooves.

In this kind of work there are plenty of surprises, and mishaps can happen. It takes the ability to both see a problem developing and to be able to literally move out of the way to avoid those mishaps. And not all horses like the process of shoeing. The horses are not sedated, and, even in cross ties, a horse can kick explosively or bite if given the opportunity. So the act of shoeing becomes a dance of flexibility and strength, often outside in the elements.

And it’s a process that, once started, must be finished. On one occasion, Lindsey hammered her own finger working on the first shoe. The solution was to wrap that hand with waterproof vet wrap to contain the bleeding so she could continue—for a horse cannot be left with one hoof done and the others unfinished. Once in a great while, a horse will get “nailed.” A horse’s hoof has several sensitive areas, and a nail can accidently hit one of those areas. If it happens, Lindsey can’t use that hole to attach the new shoe, and she must also calm a horse that is now feeling a bit of discomfort.

Sometimes the farrier is actually correcting for disease or injury. One of Lindsey’s clients had a horse who had navicular disease, which is a painful condition that affects a horse’s “heel” and is a major cause of lameness. This horse needed special care but, at the same time, was very agitated when anyone touched his hooves. Like many horse owners, this client lived in an area where Lindsey could not call someone if there was a problem, and there was an aggressive dog who would keep her away from the owner’s house. Lindsey always took extra precautions when working there.

Perhaps the most extreme correction was a horse with a crack that separated his heel from his hoof. Lindsey took him to a sawdust stall, dried out the hoof, removed the damage, and then rebuilt his foot. In six months the

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See The Fire of Youth on page 15

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WELCOME TO

14

HORSEHEADS

WELCOME TO

WELLSBORO

Nancy Roller

From horseshoes to history: farrier Lindsey Waltz restored—and, in two cases, recreated—the vintage lanterns on Williamsport’s Genetti Hotel.

The Fire of Youth continued from page 13

separation healed to a small “V” where the former crack was. This horse is still alive and healthy today.

As Lindsey’s clients, business, and reputation grew, Marc Schefsky, the general manager at Williamsport’s Genetti Hotel, found the woman with the forge, and realized that she was the solution to one of his longoverdue projects. This vintage hotel had six large cast iron lanterns adorning the exterior, but the lights were broken, with one light completely missing. In 2012, the Genetti received a small grant from the Main Street program in Williamsport to restore these lights to their former glory. A former employee of the Genetti suggested Lindsey for iron restoration and fabrication.

It was something Lindsey had never done before, but she felt she had developed the skill to do the work. An engineer, Tom Boatman, made the blueprints of the lamps, and Lindsey went to the forge. She refurbished four of the existing lanterns and made two reproductions of the originals to grace the Genetti. The job took three months of design, fabrication, and finishing. According to Marc Schefsky, “I didn’t think they would be able to reconstruct these vintage lights...but they did!”

Now Lindsey’s work lights one of the main street corners of Williamsport—and enhances a landmark. That work has led her in a new direction, as Lindsey has begun developing a trade in wrought iron furniture, coffee tables, pot racks, and sconces...in short, anything that needs hard iron, a hot forge, and an eye for beauty. A far-removed harvest for a craftswoman who started as an impatient young girl.

Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.

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Dan Dzurisin

O U T D O O R S

The “Sweet” Smell of Success

A Skunk, a Distress Call, and Grandpa to the Rescue

By Kim Metzgar

T

his is a true story as told to me by a friend and neighbor, a humorous tale that might only occur in north-central Pennsylvania.

We should set the stage a little and provide you with some background on our friend. We’ll call him Dean, but his real name will remain anonymous for the purpose of this story. Dean is a true outdoorsman, an avid hunter who spends countless hours hunting game in Tioga County, on his property, as 16

well as numerous big game expeditions to other states. He is by no means a stranger to the wilds. He has recently retired from a successful career in a local school system. Dean has been very fortunate to have several of his grown children, along with his grandchildren, living within a stone’s throw of his home. He and his wife reside in a beautiful home that overlooks the Niles Valley area of Tioga County. This time of year, with

hunting season behind him, he looks forward to rising early and relaxing at the window with his coffee as the woods around him come to life each day.

Today is a cold day, very cold, with temperatures in the single digits, as they have been for the last few mornings. An inch or two of hardcrusted snow covers the ground, and Crooked Creek in the valley below boasts ice along both edges threatening

WELCOME TO to come together and finally cover the fast moving water with a layer of thin ice. A typical February day in these parts. A great day for relaxing and watching the outside world from inside your cozy warm world.

Up the road a piece Dean’s daughter prepares her twin girls for school. Breakfast, schoolwork together, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and every other task that goes into getting two ten-year-olds ready for the school day. Today she will drive them the nine miles to school and then on to her job in town. A typical daily routine for a school day. One last check and everyone piles into the SUV with backpacks and gear for the day.

Turning onto the hard road below the house they cross the bridge over the creek, around the curve, down the straight stretch to the railroad tracks. The girls watch, disinterested, as the world goes by, but as the SUV slows to cross the railroad tracks they both look down the tracks and at the same time they see it.

“Mom, stop, stop!” they shout together. Mom crosses the tracks and stops the SUV. She looks in the direction they are looking, down the tracks about 150 yards near the railroad bridge over the partially frozen creek. What is that? A possum? A coon? No, it looks like a skunk alongside the rail, moving but not getting anywhere.

What could be its problem? Why is it not moving on?

And then the girls ask Mom, “What if the train comes?”

With time fleeting, they drive away thinking about what they just saw and what course of action should be taken.

Oh, the wonderful world of cell phones. The phone rings at Dean’s house and as he reaches for it he’s wondering who would be calling at this hour. It can’t be good. As he answers he hears the familiar voices of his granddaughters, both talking excitedly at the same time. “Grandpa, on the tracks down here by the road near the bridge there’s a skunk next to one of the rails and he looks like he can’t move. You have to help! What if a train comes?”

Sorting through the information and quite content and comfortable sitting in his chair on such a cold morning, Dean foolishly replies, “Well, that would take care of his problem.”

“Grampa, you have to help!” the twins plead in unison.

Hesitation, and then he finally concedes, “OK, OK, let me get something warm on and Grandma and I will drive down and check it out.”

The old but dependable Ford F-150 sputters but comes to life on this very cold morning. Dean goes back in and dresses for the cold day while the truck warms up.

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The “Sweet” Smell of Success continued from page 17

Today he wonders if being a grandpa is such a great idea.

With the truck finally warmed up and he and wife Mary dressed for the weather, he grabs his favorite walking stick and climbs in the truck.

The trip down the road takes only a minute, and as he stops near the tracks he peers down towards the bridge and sees something against the rails. A small white and black ball of fur. “It’s a skunk,” he mutters to Mary.

“You stay here, and I’ll wander down there to see what the problem is.”

Mary comes to attention with words of wisdom: “If that’s a skunk, you best keep your distance.” Dean climbs out and starts down the tracks with his walking stick in hand. It’s hard not to feel the frigid air in his lungs. The cold quickly permeates his warm clothes.

Approaching slowly he tries to see what is holding the skunk near the rail. Maybe he’s tangled up in something, or maybe he has gotten caught in a trap and pulled it loose from its anchor and has dragged it to this point but can go no further? As he nears the animal he approaches from the front to avoid the business end of the skunk.

All the while he talks to the animal. “Hey, buddy, what’s going on here? Cold morning to be sitting here next to the tracks. You just calm down here while I check this situation out. Don’t do anything stupid now, I’m here to help.” Using his stick he tries to push the skunk away from the rail. Somehow he’s stuck. The skunk comes to attention while Dean probes and continues to talk.

Finally he sees what has happened: apparently the skunk swam or waded across Crooked Creek and then, while still wet, he tried to cross the tracks and froze his wet fur to the frigid rail. The classic tongue on the flagpole caper.

Dean knows there is no set strategy for this situation.

It’s him and the skunk. The skunk sees Dean as the enemy and as a result he’s at full attention. Dean continues to talk to the trapped skunk as he probes to try to free his fur from the rail. First pushing from the front, then from each side, but always with his trusty walking stick.

Progress is slow at best. “Hang in there, little buddy. We don’t want to hurt you, only help you. Just be patient, little fellow, we’ll get you out of this jam.” He’s going to have to work from the rear of the animal now, something he’s tried to avoid so far. He talks more as he moves around to the rear using the full length of the stick to keep as much distance as possible.

From up the tracks he hears Mary’s words. “You’re going to get sprayed being that close, you best keep your distance.” Good advice, but nothing he didn’t already See The “Sweet” Smell of Success on page 22

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Gustin’s Gallery Goldsmiths 71 East Market Street Corning NY 14830 Join us on Saturday mornings this February through May to taste, learn, and be inspired! Demonstration-style classes are limited to 25. Reserve your spot today!

607.936.3568

A Warming Dinner in Sunny Palermo Garrett Saunders 2/7/15

Fish II Blake Swihart 3/14/15

Cooking with Finger Lakes Wine Paul Mach 2/21/15

Hors D’oeuvres Louise Richardson 3/28/15

A Rustic Make-Ahead Dinner Jamie Fry 2/28/15

New Ideas in Vegetarian Cooking Michael Lanahan 4/11/15

Braise, Bake, and Be Irish Brud Holland 3/7/15

Fine Finger Lakes Cuisine Suzanne Stack 4/25/15

See more and register now!

171CedarArts.org

171 Cedar Street • Corning, NY 14830 • 607-936-4647 20

Spring Concert Sunday March 1, 2015 4:00pm

Clemens Center

Of The Southern Finger Lakes Ravel

Elmira, New York

Featuring

The Mother Goose Suite Performing Side-by-Side with the Youth Orchestra and Junior String Ensemble

Tickets and subscriptions: OSFL Office 607-936-2873 or OSFL.org

Overture to La forza del destino Side-by-Side with the Youth Orchestra

Students: $5

The Chorus of the Southern Finger Lakes

Verdi

Soloists

Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major: First Movement I-Hao Cheng, Violin 2014 Hertzog winner

Tamara Acosta, Soprano Ivy Walz, Mezzo-soprano Carl Johengen, Tenor

Adults: $45, $35, $15

(Processing and facility maintenance fees apply)

Mozart Requiem Chorus of the Southern Finger Lakes

Brad Hougham, Baritone

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The “Sweet” Smell of Success continued from page 19

know. He’s making progress working from side to side, then the front and finally pushing from the rear. He almost has him free. Talking, pushing, probing, keeping as much distance as possible, little by little, just one more push from the rear.

And he was free.

“Hey, little fellow, I told you we’d get you out of this little jam.”

And then it happened. Free and now fully able to use all of his defenses the tail comes up and in one ungrateful action the cold morning air is filled with the pungent celebratory spray from the skunk. As Dean freed the skunk, he backed up quickly but stumbled and fell.

Seeing the spray pass over his head, he can’t move away quickly enough to escape the mist as it settles down to the ground. Eyes burning now, he mumbles some unprintable phrases concerning ungrateful skunks as he staggers away half blind and eyes watering. Walking back to the truck he watches the skunk wander down the railroad bed and out of sight. The thought of seeing him as road kill somewhere seems appropriate now.

Mary smells the results before he reaches the truck. “I told you that was going to happen. You’re not going to get in this truck, are you?” Dean strips off all the clothes he can before climbing into the truck for the short, smelly, and very silent trip back to the house. Stripping to the bare minimum in the garage and then a quick dash to the house for a long shower that includes numerous home remedies for removing skunk odor, Dean was finally able to reduce the odor to a livable level. He chucked all his clothes in the washer for repeating washings, which filled the house with the faint hint of “skunk.” They don’t make a Yankee candle in that flavor.

Several hours later Dean settled back into his favorite chair, coffee in hand, looking out the window as the sun in the clear sky tried to warm the February air. It was barely at the ten-degree mark. It was really just another winter day in Tioga County. He was grateful for this beautiful February day, for his home, for family all around him, and for the opportunity to answer the call for his granddaughters. It didn’t turn out exactly as planned, but it turned out well. In the distance, from the valley below, he heard the Tioga Central Railroad train rumbling up the tracks towards the bridge over Crooked Creek. All clear ahead!

Mountain Home contributor Kim Metzgar is retired and lives in Holliday, Pennsylvania, with his wife Kathy.

22

Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital Nationwide You don’t have to travel far to find one of the top cardiac and vascular programs in the nation. Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital has been rated a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital Nationwide for the 9th time – one of only 10 hospitals in the nation to receivethis award nine or more times since 2001.

Our team of 32 cardiac and vascular providers are ready to care for your needs in 15 regional locations.

• The region’s most experienced, fellowship-trained surgeons.

• The region’s only hybrid operating room.

• The first in the region to offer transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a life-saving and life-transforming procedure for severe aortic stenosis.

Visit www.Guthrie.org/Top50 to see all the hospitals with this elite designation or to find a Guthrie location near you.

www.Guthrie.org

23

FOOD

&

DRINK

Photo courtesy 171 Cedar Arts Center

Fine dining: award-winning Finger Lakes chef Suzanne Stack will be teaching one of the season’s cooking classes at 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning.

Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio

It’s Back to (Cooking) School at Corning’s 171 Cedar Arts Center

By Cornelius O'Donnell

S

ometime back in the early ’90s I was gabbing with a friend of mine and the subject was food—what else? We both had experience giving cooking classes (mine stretched back to the ’70s), and we deplored the lack of professional cooking classes in our area. After all, we had each given classes at our friends’ cooking school up in Pittsford. Our chat coincided with the opening of a kitchen design showroom in Corning—and the appliances in one of their beautiful vignettes were “live.”

We didn’t mind the prep work.

24

Selecting themes such as “A Cozy Dinner for a Winter’s Night”—that sort of thing. Nor did we mind selecting recipes and making shopping lists. And even the shopping for ingredients and schlepping pots and pans. But taking reservations, hauling chairs from a rental company, printing the recipes— well, it was overwhelming.

Would 171 Cedar Arts Center be persuaded to take up the field of culinary arts? We asked for their help and they quickly agreed. And we could even use their large performance space,

but what about a kitchen set? Happily, the Corning Rotary came to our rescue and provided funds to requisition three cabinets with butcher-block work surfaces (these needed to roll and fit on the elevators for storage in the basement). We got a rock-bottom price on a new stove from The Corning Building Co., and we were almost in business. Our future was assured when Wegmans agreed to furnish the groceries.

We’ve tried various times to schedule the classes (“learn and lunch,” See Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio on page 27

25

Seriously good wine!

Remember your special someone with roses from Lakewood.

26

Abby Rose

Mon-Sat 10-5 Sun noon-5

Long Stem Red

Long Stem White

Tasting and sales daily.

4024 State Route 14, Watkins Glen, NY 14891 877-535-9252 www.lakewoodvineyards.com

Also available in local stores.

Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio continued from page 24

autumn programs, and even outdoorcooking programs) but the best times seemed to be in the winter and early spring and on Saturday mornings.

Developing a Home-Grown Faculty In the beginning days, Pat Dugan and yours truly were the sole instructors.

When Pat married and found herself doing more traveling, I turned to some of our local and talented cooks. And this program continues today. Most are chefs and surprisingly all of them have taken to teaching as chipped beef does to a cream sauce. (If I wanted to evoke “gourmet” cooking that won’t do it.) As a person with years and years and years (whoa Neal) I do the introductions and help out with the planning of the classes, the food shopping, recipe editing, and drop the helpful hints of an experienced cook during the class.

We are still at 171 Cedar Arts’s Drake House on the corner of Cedar and First in Corning, and classes start at 11:30 on selected Saturday mornings from February to late April.

We thought that there would be an interest in teaching cooking on a professional level in our area and, boy, were we gratified by the response to our offerings over the years. Classes are demonstrations with plenty of time to “Ask the Chef.” That’s something you can’t do sitting in front of the telly watching food shows. This year’s crop is as diversified as it gets. Have a look see.

Trail-Wide

March 21:

March Preferred Pairings March 27-29:

CRUISIN’ THE TROPICS WEEKEND April 24-26:

SPRING WINE & CHEESE WEEKEND

Classes for 2015 Chef Garrett Saunders starts off the series on February 7 with a class on Italian cooking. We can accommodate twenty-five students, and, unfortunately for those just hearing about this now, his class filled several weeks ago. Garrett is the gifted chef at the Harbor Hotel in Watkins Glen.

Chef Paul Mach, who is an assistant See Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio on page 28 27

Readin’, Writin’, and Radicchio continued from page 27

professor of culinary arts in the School of Business and Hospitality at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, has chosen as the theme of his class on February 21 wine and grains. His focus on the former will be on Finger Lakes wines. During the summer he often gives demos at Hunt Winery in Branchport, so the Hunts will provide the vino; meanwhile he’ll explain the mysteries of the various varieties of rice and the new favorites, quinoa and faro and grano wheat…well, you’ll be able to taste each as he creates his favorite recipes for these very “in” grains.

On February 28 Jamie Fry, the executive chef at the Penn Wells Hotel in Wellsboro, will have a very topical (for winter) subject—stews. And if you thought stews were no more than some meat cubes thrown into a pot with root vegetables—well, Jamie will change your perception. He’ll give you tips and tricks that will make your stews truly company fare. And want to

Restaurants

28

know how to get the most out of your slow cooker? Come hear Jamie. One hint—he often uses the slow cooker to reheat food that may have been made ahead on the range-top or in the oven.

You won’t want to miss this—and I can almost smell the aromas as I write this.

Brud Holland who has been our goto chef for many years, has chosen the subject of braising for his March 7 class.

As a run-up to St. Patrick’s Day Brud will feature dishes from the Emerald Isle—a place he has recently visited.

Braising involves cooking meats, fish, or vegetables in a minimum amount of liquid (stock, wine, water) to achieve maximum flavor with minimum fuss.

This is great winter fare. And there’ll also be a tasting of the condiments— salsas and sauces—that Brud developed for his company Finger Lakes Made.

Think local!

Attention fish lovers (or even passive fish people): put March 14 on your calendar, as Blake Swihart, a consultant to the major food companies, returns to 171 with his latest class on fish cookery. His appearance last year was truly sensational and his menu for this one is fabulous. Check this out by going to the 171 Cedar Arts Web site (www.171cedararts.org) and click on “Culinary.” Then go immediately to the phone or check in online as this class is sure to sell out. Something fishy is something wonderful.

Louise Richardson has staked out a place in the pantheon of party planners. Her class on March 28 will help you throw a party minus the jitters. Learn her scheme, and enjoy her top-requested hors d’oeuvre just in time for the spring into summer party season. Serve these delectable morsels as finger food with comestibles or why not sit around a table, passing platters of goodness, and make it an informal dinner? You will learn a lot, taste a lot, and enjoy the party at 171 and, later, in your home.

Saturday April 11 will star Michael Lanahan, the irrepressible chef at Corning’s swanky restaurant The Cellar.

He feels the urge to plan delicious vegetarian dishes whether you are a true vegetarian, a part-time vegetarian, or simply have friends or family who are—and you’d like to entertain them with simply marvelous food. Trust Michael to make this class a lively one.

And he’s agreed to demonstrate knife skills, so bring your favorite knife and participate! Hurry, this class is dy-nomite.

Our final class on April 25 is already fully booked. That’s because Suzanne Stack is such a well-known and beloved teacher, having whetted her skills as an assistant at Macy’s De Gustibus cooking school in Manhattan. Suzanne and husband Bob moved to the Finger Lakes from New Jersey several years ago and opened Suzanne’s Fine Regional Cuisine in Lodi in 2003. In subsequent years they have garnered all sorts of awards and accolades and Suzanne was one of twenty semi-finalists (out of 28,000 nominations!) for the James Beard Foundation Best Regional Chef Northeast Award in 2011. And she gathers so many ingredients, in season, right on the restaurant’s property. Need we say more? Go.

Good Cooking is Alive and Well… …in the Twin Tiers. We are blessed with talented people who are eager to share their knowledge. The 171 Web site will give you all the details—tuition for each class, etc. The classes bring together folks who like to cook and want to hone their skills. Besides, they are fun. I usually have a joke or two to share, but don’t let that discourage you!

Chef, teacher, author, and award-winning columnist Cornelius O’Donnell lives in Elmira, New York.

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REAL ESTATE

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Nature Framingham / flickr.com

For the Birds

By Jo Charles

W

inter has arrived! Fluffy piles of snow have accumulated on all of the surfaces. One of my bird feeders is completely encased in snow. It’s time to clear that snow and treat my feathered friends to some birdseed cakes.

I found this recipe for birdseed cakes years ago. They are easy to make with ingredients you likely have on hand.

Consider making a batch with the kids when they have a snow day from school and give one to a neighbor. They may not want to go out in the snow but they will enjoy watching the birds feasting on these homemade treats at their bird feeder!

Birdseed Cakes ¼ cup melted suet or bacon grease ¼ cup peanut butter ½ cup birdseed 1¼ cups yellow cornmeal Place paper cupcake liners in four of the cups of a regular size cupcake or muffin pan. Mix all of the ingredients together. Divide the mixture among the four lined cups and press down to pack together. Refrigerate until set and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To “serve,” remove the paper from the cake and place it in the bird feeder or other flat outdoor surface where you feed the birds.

The birds—and squirrels—will thank you!

Yield: 4 cakes Jo Charles is the pen name of a Tioga County resident who spent thirty years working in telecommunications. She enjoys traveling with her husband, planning family functions, cooking, canning, baking, and collecting recipes.

32

Mountain Home

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33

B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

The Roundabout Photo by Roger Kingsley

O

ne of my favorite pastimes is walking around our farm during the first daylight of the morning, with a camera. With 865 acres to wander, I’m blessed to be able to point my feet in any direction and go. One cold, calm, dead-of-winter morn I headed out past our farm landmarks: north up the ravine, past the big rock, across the field that we call the spear lot, then east through the Holcomb woods, across the Warren Deved lot, then down into the swamp. I’d already laid down some major tracks between me and home at that point. By the time the sun had appeared I was headed south walking parallel with the Christmas tree field. My feet took me into the shadows of the hemlocks at the top of Bellucci’s woods, and from there out across a cold, windswept field dotted with round bales. I captured an image of the winter scene then continued on my journey, heading across the orchard, homeward bound. Just like the roads that lead me through life, I never know where my walks will take me. I just know they will always get me back home...even if it is in a roundabout way. ~RK

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