Mountain Home, June 2019

E E R F he wind

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Up on the Farm

Kids, Cows, Community, and Chocolate Milk

By Jan Smith

The Hundred Dresses Project Comes to Penn College Celtic Artists Gather in Andover Family Legacy Lives on at Paradiso’s in Montour Falls

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Volume 14 Issue 6

5 Great Journalisim, “Free

as the Wind”

By Michael Capuzzo

Up on the Farm

14 The Mighty St. Joes March

on Wellsboro

By Jan Smith Kids, cows, community, and chocolate milk.

By Maggie Barnes

16 2019 PA State Laurel

Queen Candidates 18 Understanding Everything

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By Leslie Bresee

24 A Smokin’ Good Time

The Hundred Dresses Project

By Gayle Morrow

Smoked Country Jam brings great bluegrass (for a great cause) to Cross Fork.

WEDDING SECTION 28 Blessings from the

Homestead

By Beth Williams

At 100-plus, a Caton barn has renewed purpose.

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38 In the Footsteps of Milly

Impressing with Imprinting

By Nicole Landers

Kids feed kids with summer food program in Penn Yan.

42 Art and Artistry at Walker

Metalsmiths

By Gayle Morrow

...and an international Celtic artists conference comes to Andover.

44 Summertime, and the

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Cookin’ Is Easy

By Karey Solomon Laughing Owl Press in Kane does things the old-fashioned way.

All That We Needed and Most of What We Wanted

By Cornelius O'Donnell

Say a seasonal farewell to your oven.

50 Back of the Mountain

By Linda Stager

Until the cows come home.

Cover by Tucker Worthington, courtesy Hess Farm Camp; (from top) courtesy Hess Farm Camp; courtesy Pennsylvania College of Technology; courtesy Laughing Owl Press; courtesy Kathy Paradiso (pictured).

By Linda Roller A timeless story graces the walls of the gallery at Penn College.

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By Janet McCue A delicious Paradiso family legacy lives on in Montour Falls.

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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 Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Joseph Campbell, Robin Ingerick, Richard Trotta Gallery Manager/ Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y Tucker Worthington, Cover Design

Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Leslie Bresee, Mike Cutillo, Ann E. Duckett, Elaine Farkas, Carrie Hagen, Paul Heimel, Lisa Howeler, Don Knaus, Nicole Landers, Janet McCue, Dave Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, Peter Petokas, Peter Joffre Nye, Linda Roller, Jennie Simon, Jan Bridgeford-Smith, Karey Solomon, Beth Williams C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, Katie Finnerty, Roger Kingsley, Emma Mead, Heather Mee, Jody Shealer, Linda Stager, Mary Sweely, Sue Vogler, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Ardath Wolcott, Gillian Tulk-Yartym, Deb Young D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Layne Conrad, Grapevine Distribution, Duane Meixel, Linda Roller

Our reputation is

T h e B ea g l e Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) 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, 871/2 Main Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2019 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 over 100 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, 871/2 Main Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www.mountainhomemag.com.

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Maggie Barnes

Alison Fromme

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Linda Stager

Brendan O'Meara

Great Journalism, “Free as the Wind”

By Michael Capuzzo

D

riving toward Whitneyville at dawn last June, Wellsboro photographer Linda Stager was stunned by an “amazing technicolor dreamsky” forming over a distant barn by some miracle of fog and sunrise, and raised her camera for Mountain Home.

Photographer Bernadette Chiaramonte was rounding a hill in Tioga County when two little foxes dove into the sluice pipe under a road.

Bernadette waited patiently as if they were just two boys, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, whose curiosity would get the best of them and “Yes!”–the young critters “peeked out and posed for me, a moment I will never forget.” Up along Cayuga Lake, science writer Alison Fromme took a sip of the finest champagne-style hard cider in New York, “the color of pale sunshine,” at the Finger Lakes Cider House in Interlaken, while in Horseheads our legendary food writer Cornelius O’Donnell dreamed of the Easter hams his mother used to make, and in Waverly our humor columnist Maggie Barnes tried not to kill anyone with her annual attempt at baking. “My coworkers fell on those cupcakes like a hobo on a hot dog,” and happily none reported “sudden onset stomach pain, fever, or visual hallucinations.”

Linda’s technicolor dreamsky won the First Place Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association as the best Feature Photo in any weekly or monthly Pennsylvania publication in 2018.

Bernadette won Third Place for her “Fox Tots” and Second Place for a breathtaking photo of snow-frosted trees in Ives Run, which prompted

our managing editor Gayle Morrow to quip, “Mother Nature delivers once again.” (And Linda and Bernadette deliver a clean sweep). Alison won Second Place for a business story for her cover story, “We Love NY Cider.” Gayle, when she wasn’t editing these stories, won First Place for her outdoor column, while Maggie won First Place and Cornelius Second Place for column writing.

These seven awards were among ten Keystone Awards for excellence in journalism that Mountain Home picked up in May in Harrisburg, including the “Best Niche Publication” in Pennsylvania for the ninth near in a row.

Life isn’t always a plate of cupcakes in the Twin Tiers, and Alison was there, too, to chronicle Pete Sides’ heroic and triumphant battle against Lyme disease in “The Piano Man’s War,” a story that won First Place among all feature stories in the state; Brendan O’Meara’s story of Troy large animal veterinarian Seanna Brown’s triumph over a benign brain tumor took a second place.

When my wife Teresa Banik Capuzzo and I founded Mountain Home magazine in 2005, we never dreamed the magazine would win more than 120 state and international journalism awards and be called one of the best magazines in America. You can blame these talented folks for that.

– Michael Capuzzo

5

Up On The

Kids, Cows, Community, and Chocolate Milk

Courtesy Vanessa Hess

By Jan Smith

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Farm

Happy homestead: the Hess family (from left, Dave, Claire, Tuck, Jackson, Graham, Vanessa, and Sophie) shares their love and knowledge of farming through a one-of-a-kind farming experience for kids.

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his is a big love story, a love story about a way of life and how to save it. The tale involves family, friends, community organizations, businesses, chickens, goats, pigs, puppies, cows, Penn State, and Diamond Sparkle, a horse. At the heart of this story are Tuck and Vanessa Hess and their five children—Graham, Dave, Claire, Jackson, and Sophie, a sturdy, loquacious two-year-old.

They live in Chatham Township in Tioga County, near Middlebury Center, an area loaded with woods, streams, valleys, and steep side hills. This time of year, it’s every shade of green, everywhere you look.

Aesthetically amazing it is, but that’s not the reason the Hess family chose to live here.

They came to farm. More precisely, to be a dairy farm family. It was a courageous choice.

In the global marketplace, the European Union—a single economic bloc of twenty-eight nations—is the world’s largest producer of cow’s milk. The United States is number two followed by India, Russia, and China. But the number of “federal milk producers” in the United States has been steadily shrinking. In the past two decades, the drop has been precipitous. Though ninety-five percent of dairy farms remain family-owned and -operated, these farms have been shutting down at an alarming rate. The decline of this vanishing entity, a staple of American life and lore, has been well publicized, often with headlines like the one in last December’s Washington Post: “Dairy Farming Is Dying...I’m Done.” But the trend has continued.

There were 650,000 dairy farms in the United States in 1970. By 2017, that number had dropped to 40,000. In 2018, Pennsylvania was fifth in the nation when it came to number of milk producing cows. And there’s more dispiriting news.

In 1987, American dairy farms with eighty or fewer cows numbered about half of the total operating in the business; by 2012, that figure had risen to 900 cows at the halfway mark.

Ironically, though the number of cows and farms have steadily diminished, the amount of milk produced per bovine has increased. This increase is also driven by the strategy farmers use when milk prices are high—sell as much product as possible to build a cushion for when milk prices decline and you must sell as much product as possible to make ends meet. The result

welcome to is a glut of milk in the American market. Since 2014, prices have been declining. By June 2018, it cost farmers approximately $1.92 to produce a gallon of milk. That same gallon sold to processors for $1.32. This defeating trend has continued into 2019.

The picture has been less than encouraging for decades when it comes to the viability of a small family dairy farm. As the writer of the Washington Post dairy-is-dying opinion piece noted, “What kind of determination does it take for someone young and hopeful to begin a life of farming in times like these?” For Tuck and Vanessa, it took faith, family, a shared vision of how they wanted their lives to look, and bushels of optimism.

Tuck and Vanessa grew up in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, about 200 miles due south of Middlebury Center. Tuck was a farm kid. Vanessa was not, though she was familiar with farm life from visits to her grandmother’s home. The pair met during their junior year in high school and weathered the odds—the youthful romance survived and thrived. This summer, they will have been married thirteen years.

After marriage, the couple lived with Tuck’s parents on their farm. Vanessa taught elementary school, and Tuck continued assisting his dad in running the family farm. But Tuck dreamed of his own, and Vanessa supported the plan. Six years later, in 2012, they found a 166-acre spread they could afford near Middlebury Center. The young Hess family, which now included three children under the age of six, made the move.

Milk prices were still rising in 2012 in the wake of the disastrous 2009 price hit the commodity had absorbed, a victim of the 2008 Great Recession. A small herd dairy farm of less than 100 milking cows could still make ends meet and, with frugality, show a small profit, if only on paper. That price trend continued for the next two years. But starting in the last quarter of 2014, pricing storm clouds were gathering. In September of 2014, the price received by a farmer for 100 pounds of raw milk was $25.70.

By March of 2019, the amount paid for that hundred pounds was $17.50. No one needs a degree in higher math to appreciate the impact on a household of a thirty percent income drop. And of course, during the same period, expenses continued to rise.

For Tuck and Vanessa, the five years meant welcoming two more children and engaging in a constant juggling act to stay financially afloat. They inched a bit closer to solvency when Tuck’s parents retired from their Waynesboro farm and moved to a house across the road from the younger Hess household. It’s been a boon. Even with a modest milking herd of sixty cows, the work is physically demanding and persistent. Tuck’s father regularly works with him to stay on top of the perpetual chores that farmers build their daily lives around. And the two younger children, Jackson and Sophie, spend their weekdays with their grandparents while Vanessa continues her career as a second-grade teacher in the Northern Tioga School District. Her salary is crucial.

Yet, despite Vanessa’s employment and assistance from parents, the scramble to make ends meet is constant and had, in fact, reached a critical tipping point. Enter the Hess Farm Camp for Kids, a creative undertaking implemented in 2018 to prevent the loss of yet one more small dairy farm.

The name may conjure up an image—perhaps a cross between a state park campsite with lots of small cottages in a semi-circle or an experimental farm operation run by a major university. But See Hess on page 10

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Hess continued from page 9

(4) Courtesy Hess Farm Camp

the Hess farm is the genuine article. It’s situated on a rolling hillside that has a significant pitch from crest to road. Barns, sheds, outbuildings, fenced pastures, calf pens, and round, plastic-covered hay bales that look like giant white snakes spread across acreage on both sides of the long dirt drive to the house. A tractor tire flower bed sits near the house. The covered entryway before the front door holds the requisite muddy boots, shoes, and heavy work clothes that are a staple of farm wardrobes. Inside the home, an unpretentious brick and wood ranch situated vertically to its hilly backdrop, the family-centered ambiance is palpable.

This is a house where comfort and easy hospitality are valued, and where children are welcome and easily blend into and out of conversation.

The commitment of Vanessa and Tuck to make the farm viable is apparent within a few minutes of talking to them. They are candid and thoughtful. They acknowledge the financial challenges they face in keeping the farm operational. They also recognize they may not be successful in maintaining their current situation. But there is no bitter tone, no complaining, no tirades directed at forces beyond their control. Instead they have an engaging practicality and talk about how You reap what you sow: the farm serves them and strengthens the kids learn more than sentiment of teamwork that animates their milking at Hess Farm family life.

Camp (from top) Tuck One way to keep household costs shows how to properly manageable is to keep grocery store food tag calves; J. Craig tabs lean. And raising much of their Williams, Penn State Cooperative Extension, own food gets everyone involved. A large shows how to make vegetable garden, fruit trees and bushes, butter; a camper uses and egg-laying hens helps with this. All a bulldozer to plant five children participate in the planting, seedlings; and a few harvesting, and canning of the home-grown boys experience working produce. in the kitchen.

To supplement the beef and pork provided by the farm’s livestock, Tuck hunts deer and fishes. He’s introduced all the children to these endeavors, and emphasizes that the point is not aimless sport but to eat what you take by gun, bow, or rod. He admits that for the youngest children, these outings are more of a walk-in-the-woods adventure with plenty of snacks. And even if the woodland forays produce nothing beyond an outdoor exploration, the central mantra of the Hess family has been affirmed—everyone pitches in. Vanessa and Tuck echo each other on that point.

“We want the children to understand this is a team effort,” they say. “Everyone is needed.”

Another example of family-as-team comes in the care and feeding of animals. Graham, the oldest, works with the cows. He is modest about himself, but he not only works on the farm but is also a fine athlete. His sports are football (he’s a quarterback) and baseball (he’s a pitcher). Dave, also a baseball player, is next in age. He works with the goats and has developed a goats’ milk soap sideline. His handmade bars are a gift hit with family and friends. He also fills special orders for church and school groups.

Claire, who’s learning to ride and plays on a softball team, takes care of three-year old Diamond Sparkle, the family horse.

Jackson starts kindergarten in the fall. For now, he’s up

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See Hess on page 12

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early to assist his dad with morning chores before they both head over to Tuck’s parents for a midday meal. Jackson says he wants to be a buffalo farmer when he grows up. He’s quite insistent on it, actually. As for Sophie, well, there’s a new litter of ten Labrador puppies—another venture the family hopes will generate income—to cuddle, not to mention baby goats, chicks, piglets, and calves.

But despite the family’s teamwork, economies, and bill juggling, by 2018 Tuck and Vanessa faced a dilemma. Either Tuck needed to get a second job and farm as a sideline, or Tuck would secure a job and they would sell. Both choices were bleak.

They needed inspiration. And they got it—a revenue generating business that could be accomplished with limited resources, involve the whole family, and make use of their beloved farm. It came together as Hess Farm Camp for Kids, which had its first run in the summer of 2018.

For Vanessa, the camp made sense on lots of levels. She and Tuck both enjoyed and appreciated children. They were patient. They liked being instructors—Vanessa in the classroom and Tuck as a volunteer coach for youth sports. They knew their own children were enthusiastic about farm life and the benefits were evident: the children had an appreciation for the sometimessorrowful ebbs and flows that are endemic to all living things on the planet; the thrill of birth and the inevitability of death; they knew where their food came from and how challenging it could be to obtain; they developed a sense of purpose and a regard for work.

And, in Vanessa’s words, there’s the pleasure of watching

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Happy campers: Kids attending Hess Farm Camp experience an up-close look at the workings of the farm; from cows to chickens and gardening to cooking.

kids find enjoyment in simple pursuits.

“Seeing how the farm sparks excitement and curiosity in my own kids, even though they are there every day, is fun to watch,” she explains. “This is a life that many children don’t get to experience.” The camp is also an investment in the future. By exposing youngsters to what farm life offers, there’s the hope small family farms might continue to be part of the landscape in American agriculture. As Vanessa says, “By us opening up our farm we are opening [children’s] eyes to the blessings of agriculture to hopefully increase their appreciation of it.”

Tuck also reasoned that if it worked well, the camp would enrich their children by giving them an opportunity to share their life with others and learn leadership skills in the process. For the children who attended, the goal was to create an environment where the lessons on food, farm practices, woods, and streams were fun and experiential. The campers would get an up-closeand-personal look at the labor involved and machinery needed to operate a farm. They would be learning by doing, with encouragement to explore and experiment, whether coaxing a garden plot or a crabby cow. They would share in the secrets of how foods are combined to create yummy concoctions like ice cream and preserves. And, the kids would be untethered from electronic gadgets and pixel screens for at least a portion of the day.

Experienced at developing lesson plans, managing behavior, and attending to the logistics required when moving groups of children from one activity to another, Vanessa had no difficulty

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Courtesy Mighty St. Joe’s

The Mighty St. Joes March on Wellsboro

By Maggie Barnes

A

ll over the country, musty uniforms hang in the backs of closets.

Suspended with them are a thousand memories of summer days spent marching Main Streets, with the stirring echoes of patriotic music ringing out. The Mighty St. Joe’s Drum and Bugle Corps offers alumni of corps throughout western New York and parts of Pennsylvania a chance to relive those memories—and make new ones.

“We are an all ages, all talent-levels group,” says Corps Director Bob Wielgosz.

Their mission statement reads “Dedicated to keeping the good times alive in the drum corps world,” and, more than two dozen times a year, the group of seventy strong does just that, visiting communities for parades, concerts, and a mutual love affair with Americana. With members ranging from fourteen to eighty years old, the corps encourages young musicians to stick with it and the older ones to pick up their instrument again.

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Bob says the annual Pennsylvania Laurel Festival parade in Wellsboro is one of the group’s favorite happenings.

“We love that parade, especially the wind-up as you come down Nichols Street,” Bob laughs. “People actually get in front of us with signs asking for a particular song. The lawns are crowded with folks. They throw money to the band members. It’s crazy!”

Their repertoire is based largely on the music of the ’60s and ’70s, with a healthy dose of classic patriotic songs. “Grand Old Flag,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and “In the Mood” are some of the well-known tunes that keep the Mighty St. Joe’s playing loud and stepping proud.

“That’s the other nice thing about the Laurel Parade. Everybody stands and salutes our honor guard. We don’t always see that,” Bob says. The group includes both honor guard and flag-carrying color guard.

While the music brought them

together, it’s the relationships they build that has kept them together throughout the group’s twenty-eight-year history. Bob “Sully” Sullivan was a part of the junior corps group who decided there was no reason the band couldn’t go on after the time in school ended. The Mighty St. Joe’s don’t compete during their appearances—in other words, they are not judged like some of the bands are. But you can hear the smile in Bob Wielgosz’s voice when he mentions that they often win whatever “People’s Choice” trophy might be in play.

Recruitment is a constant activity to keep the group marching strong. The Mighty St. Joe’s are based near Rochester and are always on the lookout for someone who remembers how to keep the hat straight, keep in step, and keep up the tradition of great drum and bugle corps. Visit them at mightystjoes.org, and see them the third Saturday in June here in Wellsboro.

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(3) Courtesy Leslie Bresee

Understanding Everything

By Leslie Bresee

T

he swale field lays west of the house, down low in the corner near the big woods. Spring growth would offer plenty of grass for the milking herd, but by late summer the grass yielded to tall thickets of goldenrod, a perfect refuge for cows seeking privacy while calving. When the expectant mother didn’t return to the barn with the rest of the herd, the first place we looked was down by the swale. Jumping to her feet when our rustling through the weeds deemed us a threat, she would pump her head nervously up and down, warning us to stay away while commanding the calf to remain motionless. A long trip back to the barn ensued, either carrying the calf or helping it walk, while the mother cow circled us anxiously. Neither was sure who was predator or who was prey!

Silently watching this drama from the entrance of the swale field was the big oak tree. One of my ancestors, likely in the 1860s, decided not to clear the field of this oak sapling. Perhaps stone piles surrounded the young tree and they saw no need to cut it. Alone in the open field, the oak tree

stretched its arms till they could reach no more, becoming a massive sphere. At eye level, the trunk measures twelve feet around, craggy branches extending forty-five feet in all directions.

I am the seventh generation of my family to farm this land—four Gillette and three Bresee. Since the tree’s birth near the time of the Civil War, centuries have changed twice and wars have never ceased across the earth. Nor has love. An everchanging procession of Holsteins and Jerseys have passed beneath its limbs to deliver new life into the safety of the goldenrod. The oak tree has watched, hearing all and saying nothing, reaching for the brilliance of light, gripping the darkness of earth.

Across the pasture and up on the hill from the oak tree is the farmhouse where now it is my turn to live. Here generations of farmers, in whom I was a seed, awoke each morning to face whatever events life offered. Fulfilling everyday barn chores, washing dishes, feeding the stove, eating a tired supper, listening for the first wood thrush in May, marveling at how low the

December sun rests over Cow Hill, joyfully preparing the house for a wedding, grieving a death in the parlor bedroom, longing for those far away—we have all passed under the oak tree, each immersed in the private world our thoughts created. I am one with my past.

My faithful oak friend is showing signs of wear. What just a few years ago was a dark stain working its way down the center of the trunk has become a widening split. The heavy limbs are pulling the tree apart. Someday ice, wind, or lightning will bring the tree down with a crashing sigh, to rest its arms upon the earth. Someone, maybe me or those who follow me, will cut the limbs for firewood.

To look deeply into the oak tree is to understand everything. Heraclitus (6th-5th Century B.C) said that in change there is rest. I sense the oak tree knows this already.

Leslie Bresee lives with his wife on their century dairy farm in Ulster, Pennsylvania. He spends time working in the woods, tending their garden, and keeping Bailey, their border collie, from becoming bored.

19

Courtesy Pennsylvania College of Technology Timeless style: focused on having the courage to be yourself, the students of Lycoming County share their dresses in the Hundred Dresses project.

The Hundred Dresses Project

A Timeless Story Graces the Walls of The Gallery at Penn College

By Linda Roller

E

leanor Estes’ The Hundred Dresses was one of my favorite books as a child— the story of Wanda Petronski and the hundred dresses. Wanda is an immigrant girl from a war-devasted Europe of seventyfive years ago, who, living in small-town America, is teased for her accent, her name, her clothes, and her poverty. Her story is as pertinent now as it was in 1945. It has never been out of print since it was published and won a Newbery award that same year. For Crystal Cawley, a New England artist who works with paper, textiles, collected objects, and all sorts of “repurposed” material, the story held special meaning.

“I first read the book about eight years ago,” says Crystal. “The mother of a student

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of mine asked if I’d heard of it because I was telling her about some work I made called One Hundred Drawings of the Same Thing. She, like so many who cherish this book, loved the story for its ending—for not having a tidy ending where everything gets settled and everybody becomes friends.

As an artist who explores the issues of identity, of time, and of loss, this book is the snapshot of those ideas as a young person.

“The Hundred Dresses is all about being included—or not,” Crystal continues. “It perfectly describes bullying. The story is told from the [perspective of a] friend of the most popular girl, who is afraid she will be the next child bullied, for, like Wanda, she is poor. And in Wanda, the reader is shown

the courage to be who you are, anyway.”

Crystal’s artistic response will be on view here in Williamsport in The Hundred Dresses Project: We Are All in This Together from June 4 to July 23 at The Gallery at Penn College. For this project, Crystal printed 200 yellow dresses complete with a border and label. In March of 2016, she invited people of all ages, genders, and walks of life to read the book and make a dress that was their personal response to the story. Like the story, where Wanda submitted not one drawing for a contest, but instead sent all 100 dresses she made, this exhibit includes every dress that was returned to her.

It was the promotion of the exhibition in New England that sparked the interest See Dresses on page 23

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Dresses continued from page 20

of Penny Griffin Lutz, director of The Gallery at Penn College. “I already owned the book, and I thought it would be wonderful if [Cawley] could exhibit here,” she says.

Penny also wanted the children and the community to get involved, much like what she saw at the first exhibit in Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. There, Crystal and The Hundred Dress exhibit truly engaged the community.

“The show ran from September to December, and, through the course of it, the artwork of the students at the school was added,” Penny says. “By late November, there were notebooks full of black and white prints by the middle and high school students, collage dresses by the youngest children, and some absolutely breathtaking large cut paper pieces by the advanced art students. Every time I went back to the gallery there was more art to see.”

Here in the Keystone State, Penny reached out to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for a small grant to bring this exhibit to third, fourth, and fifth graders in the school districts in Lycoming County. Art teachers from six school districts accepted the invitation and received a copy of the book for the students, along with markers and dress prints for each participating student.

Over 1,300 dresses from Lycoming County students will also be on display in this exhibition.

There is also a collaboration between Studio 570, a Williamsport-based theater company, and The Gallery at Penn College to create an adaptation of the Estes book. This group creates theater in “found spaces”—often public spaces—to bring theater to the public and to expand the local arts community. Jared Whitford, founder and artistic director, is producing a forty-five minute performance based on the book. Seven local performers will be featured, and one, the actress playing Wanda, is learning Polish for her role. Performances will be at the Gallery on June 13, 20, and 27 at 6 p.m., and on June 16, 19, 23, 26, and 30 at 2 p.m.

It’s the kind of community involvement Crystal hopes for.

The public, and especially the local school children who have dresses in the exhibit, are invited to the artist’s opening reception and gallery talk on June 6 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at The Gallery at Penn College. For more information call (570) 3202445, send an email to gallery@pct.edu, or visit pct.edu.

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Smoked Country Jam Brings Great Bluegrass (for a Great Cause) to Cross Fork

By Gayle Morrow

R

on Kodish likes to say that Smoked Country Jam, the music festival he and his wife, Teresa, started in 2004, includes “all branches of the bluegrass tree.”

And, he adds, paraphrasing a famous line from a famous song, it is a “peaceful, easy feeling festival,” a time and place you can “forget about what else is going on in your life for three days.”

“We try to make everyone feel like they’re the most important person there,” Ron continues. “I’ve done my best to get the word out. It’s been a slow growth, but we’re happy where we are.”

Where they are is annual attendance about ten times what is was when they started, with folks coming from as far away as Hawaii and Iceland (!) to enjoy three days of music in the heart of the Pennsylvania Wilds.

Ron explains that the impetus for Smoked Country Jam came after Teresa’s diagnosis of systemic lupus in 2002. Lupus is an autoimmune disease for which there is presently no cure. Symptoms vary from individual to individual, and range from

24

mild discomfort to chronic fatigue, joint pain and swelling, and organ damage. The couple wanted to raise awareness about the disease, raise money for the Lupus Foundation of Pennsylvania, and, well, have some fun. Their son plays bluegrass music, they’d been to Wellsboro’s Hickory Fest and got some inspiration (“It was the first festival we went to,” says Ron. “We’re appreciative that they’ve shared lots of ideas.”), and, so, “we thought we’d do it.”

“It’s been a labor of love,” he notes.

They started at a site in McElhattan, moved to Loganton in southern Clinton County, and ended up in 2011 at Quiet Oaks Campground in Cross Fork, where they’ve been ever since.

“There’s no reason we ever want to leave,” Ron says, and, honestly, many folks who come to Smoked Country Jam seem to feel the same way. People leave with a smile, he continues, but they don’t want to leave, and “they’re sad when it’s over.”

The 2019 festival gets underway Thursday, June 20, at 4 p.m., although there is an open mic session on Wednesday

evening, June 19, for early arrivals. Music continues through midnight-ish on Saturday, June 22, on two different stages.

There are programs and activities for kids, a “beautiful vendor midway” with food, crafts, and other merchandise, bluegrass workshops, and “a lot of camaraderie.”

Open field camping is included with the full ticket price, which is seventy dollars for the three days if purchased by June 19.

Single day tickets are also available. Music fans under age twelve get in free.

There are over twenty performers scheduled so far, including the Hillbilly Gypsies, Van Wagner, Well Strung, Mama Corn, Fireside Collective, and Cold Chocolate.

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“Make Much of Precious Time While in your Power”: An Exhibit of American and European Needlework Samplers June 7, 2019 – September 1, 2019 Thomas T. Taber Museum of the Lycoming County Historical Society 858 West Fourth Street, Williamsport 570.326.3326 www.tabermuseum.org

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Š Katie Finnerty Photography

Welcome to

MOUNTAIN HOME

WEDDING C

ourtney and Eric said their “I do’s” on a rainy day in Geneva. The weather didn’t stop us from capturing incredible photographs to document their big day, and this backlit silhouette showing the beautiful stained glass in St. Stephen’s Church ended up being one of my favorites! ~Katie Finnerty, photographer

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Courtesy Susan Efthimiou Reason to Celebrate: the Efthimious’ barn in Caton, once on its last legs, was restored and reborn as Homestead Blessings, an event space for any occasion.

Blessings from the Homestead At 100-Plus, a Caton Barn Has Renewed Purpose

By Beth Williams

F

or a barn that has been around for more than a hundred and fifty years, Homestead Blessings Barn is aging very well.

It’s had some help.

Over twenty-one years ago, Susan Efthimiou and her husband, Marcus, went looking for some property. They found what they were looking for just outside of Corning in the town of Caton. They initially purchased a huge old farmhouse and some land, and eventually ended up with 100 acres, the farmhouse, the barn and some other buildings. A “hobby farm,” as Susan calls it.

They raised nine children on the land and home-schooled them. The old barn was an integral part of their family life—the scene and source of imaginative play for the children. Around five years ago, though, after a very harsh winter, the barn lost its main foundation and the family knew it had to either be torn down or restored.

Susan and Marcus had a fondness for old barns and would often drive through

the New York and Pennsylvania countryside looking at them. They were upset when they saw old barns in a state of disrepair and neglect. Faced with their own barn in disrepair, they knew what had to be done.

“We did most of the work ourselves, along with the help of a very good friend,” Susan says. “Two of our boys were eight and ten at the time, and were being homeschooled. They would rush through their homework as fast as they could so they could go out and help with the barn. They were so interested in all aspects of the barn renovation and architecture plans.”

The barn was lifted three feet on pilings, and figuring out how to raise the barn up without everything falling was quite the engineering feat. When the barn was again on a solid foundation, and a great deal of repair completed, their daughter, Christianna, led her horse, Rebel, into the barn. Christianna, who had recently become engaged, looked around and decided this was where she wanted her wedding. Susan recalls leading Rebel out.

“Sorry buddy, we can’t put a horse in here; this barn was meant for something else,” Susan told him.

And that is how the old barn started its new life as a place for celebrations and new beginnings. Fitting, since the barn itself certainly was given a new beginning. The before and after pictures show the amazing transformation.

After several months of intense work to outfit the barn with everything it needed to be a comfortable, practical, and functional place to hold a wedding, in October of 2016 Christianna and her fiancé became the first couple to get married in it. One month later, Susan and Christianna joined forces to start Homestead Blessings. Susan is the owner-operator and Christianna is the director of operations.

Susan describes her daughter as an amazing wedding director, phenomenal director of operations, and the best event planner she has ever seen. “She is completely on-point, and handles everyone in every wedding party in the best way,” Susan says.

See Blessings on page 30

28

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Blessings continued from page 28

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“She has been like that since she was a child. Even though she was our third born, she took charge of family events and directed her brothers and sisters,” her mother laughs.

“We initially thought we would just be doing a few weddings a year, but our first year in business we did twenty-two weddings!”

Susan continues, somewhat amazed. Clearly a rustic barn lovingly restored and sitting on a beautiful piece of land calls out to many couples looking for the perfect place to be married.

There are multiple ceremony sites outside. From grassy knolls to deep woods to open sites under towering hemlocks to a gazebo, there is no lack of space for the betrothed to exchange vows in the special way they want.

“There are no cookie-cutter weddings here,” Susan says. “We had one bride who wanted to come in a horse-drawn carriage.

Another bride had her husband-to-be’s favorite old tractor restored to mint condition and didn’t tell him. She rode that tractor out of the woods to their chosen wedding site. The look on the groom’s face was priceless—he was so moved.”

Homestead Blessings, in addition to the barn and land, also offers rentals of vintage furniture and place settings to provide another way of giving each wedding couple just the right touches for their ceremony.

“We have buffets and tables in purple, green, blue, burgundy, black, and ivory—all colors—and we give them names—Amelia, Heather, Victoria,” says Susan. And if Homestead Blessings doesn’t have what someone is looking for to provide that special wedding day touch, they will do their best to find it. “I would love an excuse to buy a red velvet couch!” Susan exclaims.

Last May, five days before her daughter, Mikaela, was going to be married at the barn, a fire broke out at their farmhouse and destroyed everything. Family mementos, tools, linens, all of her wedding dresses were gone. But that did not stop the wedding. An outpouring of help from friends, the community, and Corning, Inc. made it possible to have the wedding happen as planned. “We can’t let something like a fire steal our joy,” Susan says.

And that kind of attitude has endured at Homestead Blessings Barn. “When something goes wrong, we fix it. Last summer (the wettest summer on record in our region for those of you who forgot!) contractors set up a tent over a drainage ditch instead of where we told them to set it up and there was almost a river in the tent, but that didn’t stop the bride and groom from having a positive attitude. We put in a thirty-four- by forty-four-foot heated concrete pad so that will never happen again. You can put a huge tent on that pad!” Susan laughs.

Weddings generally happen May to the beginning of November. Wedding parties can rent a farmhouse on the property if they want to be on site for a few days before the wedding. They have a Christmas market every December and smaller events during the winter months—vow renewals, elopement parties, wedding and baby showers, to name a few. And based on Susan’s enthusiasm and positive outlook on life and love, any event held at Homestead Blessings Barn (10981 West Caton Road, Corning, New York 14830, (607) 368-4306), will be very special.

Beth Williams lives in the wilds of Steuben County, New York, works in the wonders of the library at Mansfield University, and is perpetually writing a novel.

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Alex Bond PHotography courtesy Laughing Owl Press Pressing work: Andrea and Joe Lanich offer customers hand-made distinction from their museum-like print room.

Impressing with Imprinting

Laughing Owl Press in Kane Does Things the Old-Fashioned Way

By Karey Solomon

W

hen Andrea and Joe Lanich got married, Andrea, already an architect, designed their wedding invitations. The project was so satisfying, she decided this sort of work might be enjoyable to do on the side. Then she learned about letterpress printing and was immediately intrigued. Together with design, it used some of the same detailoriented skills she’d trained in. She and her husband, who worked as a robotics engineer, decided they might invest in a small tabletop printing press and run it just for fun. After a short search, they discovered other letterpress enthusiasts and presses for sale.

Then living in New Jersey, the couple discovered a printer who lived only twenty minutes away. He had a sort of museum— “It was in his garage with everything he’d ever saved in his life!” Andrea says. After seeing his collection, “we decided we would go big or go home.” A short time later they encountered an older man with a letterpress for sale, one he’d mostly used 32

for small jobs like numbering tickets. He was ready to retire, and, “he wanted to see them go to someone who would use them.

So we bought everything we’d start our business with for 100 dollars, and set up in our garage.” For two years they printed things as a hobby after their work.

Finding it as rewarding as they’d hoped it would be, they decided to quit their day jobs.

“We could do it full time, but not in New Jersey because of cost of living,” Andrea continues. So, seven years ago, they moved to McKean County where Andrea grew up and set up shop in their garage in Kane. They built their brand through the Etsy marketplace and online sales, bought more machines, then rented a storefront in 2014. The business continued to grow, and in 2016 they purchased a historic department store building and expanded some more.

Today they have eight large, heavy, letterpress printers—some weigh as much as a ton. One of their initial renovation

tasks was reinforcing the first floor by adding a load-bearing wall in the cellar.

Their oldest and quietest press dates from 1908. It’s treadle powered, so work is cycled by foot. The newer printers—their newest is of 1960s vintage—feed the paper in automatically, run on electricity, and, of course, are noisier.

Work printed by letterpress has the imprint of a job done by hand. Words or designs are literally pressed into the paper, unlike the inked words and images floating on the surface of the paper in this magazine.

“You kind of have to hold it in your hand to see it,” Andrea says. “You can feel the impression of the printing on the paper, it’s so crisp. Hand someone a card and you can see them feeling it as you talk.”

Letterpress printing can be distinctive in additional ways—the transparency of the ink becomes a factor in the design, meaning at times using two colors means getting three where the colors intentionally overlap. The nature of the ink means words See Owl on page 48

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Mark Twain Country NATIONAL SOARING MUSEUM

Open Daily 10-5

Hess continued from page 13

in organizing the flow of each day, and knowing expert resources she could call on, like Penn State’s Cooperative Extension 51 Soaring Hill Dr. specialists and the local Back Road Creamery, for presentations Elmira, NY 14903 and demonstrations.

607-734-3128 As word of the camp project percolated through the community, Vanessa and Tuck were moved by the offers that Featuring one of the largest came in their direction to assist with the endeavor. There was, for collections of instance, close-by expert advice on the ins and outs of running a Gliders and camp from Jared and Elaine Davis, owners of Triple-D Farms, a Soaring Capital of America Sailplanes in the full-service equine facility just six miles away. world. info@soaringmuseum.org “This is a community that cares about kids,” Tuck says.

“So many people and local businesses have made this camp Exits 48 or 51A off Route 17 & 86 possible,” adds Vanessa. The couple says they have felt blessed by the outpouring of support, which has included donations of materials by individuals and businesses, as well as received dollars for camper scholarships. Volunteers were also integral to the camp’s 117 East Mill Street, Horseheads NY 14845 operations.

607-739-2531 With approximately thirty children in daily attendance, and Featuring 3 Floors, over 9,000 sq. feet, 50+ Vendors different activities happening simultaneously at different locations An;ques, Country, Home Décor, Local Ar;sans and More on the farm, campers work, learn, and explore in small groups.

It makes sense. Learning-by-doing is best accomplished in this “Like us on Facebook” NEW SUMMER HOURS kind of structure. And there’s the safety factor. Hay still needs to to view dates of our upcoming (June, July, August) be mowed, animals moved, and truck deliveries accommodated. sales and events There are a lot of moving parts on a working farm, one more reason Mon – Sat for small groups always accompanied by an adult. Supervision is 10 – 5 unobtrusive but constant. Volunteer adults, family, friends, and Sunday - Closed community members were crucial to the camp’s success in 2018. www.facebook.com/HorseheadsMillStreetMarket.com So, with summer approaching, the Hess family is looking forward to Farm Camp 2019. Registrations are underway. If all goes well, ninety children will attend—thirty per week over the three weeks in July that camp is in session. A new activity added to this summer’s agenda is the Chocolate Milk Toast Challenge, a dairy industry campaign championed by local Pennsylvania State Take a walk Representative, Clint Owlett, Jr. And no, it’s not the kind of social through time and media challenge that involves chugging quarts or pouring the liquid over someone’s head. The idea is to post a picture or short discover treasures video that shows a group of friends, co-workers, or in this case, from the past campers, raising a glass or carton of chocolate milk in a toast of through interpretive appreciation for the state’s farmers. In addition to promoting the exhibitions, importance of dairy, Vanessa hopes the challenge will illustrate the education tie between farm families and the legislators who represent them. programs, and Make no mistake—though Vanessa and Tuck are effusive publications that about the community’s involvement, the camp is a lot of work. tell the county’s Whether the enterprise succeeds in generating the income needed history. to keep the farm in the Hess family remains to be seen. But no matter how the farm story ends, the immediate rewards of the camp for Vanessa, Tuck, and their children go beyond money. As Vanessa says, “Smiles are huge, laughter is plenty, and eyes are sparkling.”

Now that’s what love looks like.

Find the Hess Farm Camp for Kids at 591 Glenn Road or on Facebook, call (570) 376-2908, or email 7HessFamily@gmail.com.

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Jan Smith, a freelance writer from Ithaca, has written for numerous national and regional publications including Smithsonian Air&Space, History Magazine, and Life in the Finger Lakes.

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Courtesy Paradiso’s Village Bakery Lasting legacy: Paul Paradiso with a counter girl at the Snack and Shake, back in the day.

All That We Needed and Most of What We Wanted

A Delicious Paradiso Family Legacy Lives on in Montour Falls

By Janet McCue

I

n 1902, Clementine Specchio arrived at Ellis Island. With a toddler in her arms, a suitcase at her side, and a sign reading “Watkins Glen” around her neck, she first boarded a ferry to Manhattan, then took a series of trains headed for the Finger Lakes to join her husband, Dominick Paradiso. Clementine’s arrival in the U.S. heralded a long line of intrepid women.

The little two-year old, Orazio, renamed Horace on Ellis Island and Ratsie in the close-knit Italian-American community on the Flat, grew up to become a baker and the first in a long line of Watkins Glen Paradiso family entrepreneurs. As a young man he trained in Elmira, returning to Watkins Glen to open a series of bakeries, first on 2nd Street, then on 4th Street.

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When a fire destroyed the 4th St. bakery and the family’s home on the second floor, Horace, his wife, Angie, and the six children escaped injury. Undeterred by the tragedy, this determined man opened a third bakery on Franklin Street, then the Snack and Shake, and, finally, Paradiso’s Restaurant. Early photos of the bakery, the snack shop, and the restaurant show that they were family affairs, with mom, dad, and children helping out. Jo Pat Wright, one of six siblings in Horace and Angie’s family, remembers working at the restaurant after school, beginning when she was eleven years old. She loved the bustle and the sense of community at the restaurant, as did some of her siblings; others were eager to escape the family business and establish their own

careers. When Horace was no longer able to manage the restaurant, son Jim took over in 1963, running the restaurant for thirty-four years.

Like Jim and Jo Pat, brother Paul worked summers and after school in the snack shop and the restaurant. It was here that he fell in love with another future baker, Carole Bierline. Paul left the family business to become a banker while Carole, a claims adjuster by day, became a baker by night. For nearly a decade, Carole’s cheesecakes were on the menus of Seneca Lodge in Watkins Glen, Pierce’s in Elmira, and Turback’s in Ithaca. Her two daughters, Kathy and Margaret, were her helpers.

Beginning with an apprenticeship on her Easy-Bake Oven, Kathy made daily batches

GAFFER of brownies for her family, eventually graduating to folding boxes for mom’s cheesecakes.

It’s not surprising now to find Kathy pulling almond, lemon, and vanilla cheesecakes out of her commercial ovens at Paradiso’s Village Bakery at 320 W. Main Street in Montour Falls. She’s using mom’s secret recipe. Kathy also puts her baking talents to work on specialty breads, following mom’s butter bran bread recipe, and showcasing her own culinary talents in delicious chicken pot pies and cinnamon babka bread. Her husband, Bill, is the chief bread baker and son, Josh Moll, the head cook. Are we startled to find Paradiso’s Village Bakery (less than three miles from the former Paradiso’s, now the site of Bleachers Bar and Grill in Watkins Glen) a family affair?

In the intervening 100-plus years since Dominick, Clementine, and Orazio arrived in Watkins Glen, generations of locals and tourists have enjoyed the flavors at one of the Paradiso establishments. Kathy, the most recent Paradiso generation to enter into the family business, first detoured into a nursing career for several decades—a skill that helped her care for her father, Paul, in his last years. Kathy once shared her dream with her father, telling him, “someday, I’m going to open a bakery.”

Without skipping a beat, he proclaimed, “And I’m going to be your greeter. I’m going to bring everyone in, help them find a seat and when they ask ‘what’s good?’ I’ll tell them ‘everything!’”

Although her father passed away in 2018, having made the decision early on not to follow his father, Horace, into the restaurant business, Paul’s presence is seen and felt in the bakery. Family photos adorn the walls and the menu—a gallery of ancestors welcoming you into Paradiso’s Village Bakery. One poignant photo captures Horace, dressed in his white baking uniform, holding his newborn son, Paul, in his arms. According to Aunt Jo Pat, “everyone, starting with my father [Horace], who pursued their own business was successful.” She can speak from experience, since it was she and her husband, Jack, who ran Wright’s Liquor Store for thirty-two years. She sees her niece having those same family talents—an intrepid nature, a culinary passion, an entrepreneurial drive, and a community spirit.

“Kathryn is living up to the path that was laid before her.

Like her father, who was very community oriented, Kathy has that same spirit,” says Kathy’s aunt.

Paul was most proud of his role in Watkins Glen Tomorrow, a successful initiative that spurred development of the waterfront and pier in Watkins Glen. Aunt Jo Pat proudly points out that her niece donates rolls to local food banks. She hosts preschool children on excursions to learn about bakeries, and Boy Scouts focused on earning new merit badges by using weights, measures, and ingredients in a pizza making event. Kathy says that her parents gave their children “all that we needed and most of what we wanted.” What better legacy could parents bestow on their offspring?

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Janet McCue is a freelance writer, avid hiker, and chair of the Seneca Lake Scenic Byway Committee. She’s currently at work on a biography of Horace Kephart, dean of American campers, who, like Nessmuk, believed you don’t go into the woods to rough it but to smooth it.

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(5) Courtesy Milly’s Pantry, Inc.

Sustaining spirit: Milly Bloomquist (top left) championed compassion and charity in Penn Yan, earning her the distinguished Presidential Citizens Medal, presented by President Obama (bottom right) in 2011. Ashley Owens and Natalie McFarland (top right) along with Chey and Kenna Bradley (bottom, left and middle) keep her vision alive.

In the Footsteps of Milly

Kids Feed Kids with Summer Food Program in Penn Yan

By Nicole Landers

T

he old saying that “charity begins at home” is a truism Mary Camilla “Milly” Bloomquist lived by.

Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, during the Great Depression, Milly credited her parents for providing her with good examples of compassion and charity—they said “feeding people is a family tradition.”

By the time Milly and her husband, Rev. Earl (Bud) Bloomquist, made Keuka Park their family’s home in 1958, Milly had over ten years of experience in practical and public nursing. While working for public health in Yates County, she became aware of local families’ exceptional need for food, fuel, and clothing. Social services were lacking at that time, so Milly would gather resources herself, calling on church groups and friends for donations. Later, as a Penn Yan school nurse and teacher, she discovered children were coming to school hungry.

She wasted no time enlisting community assistance, and started a free school breakfast

program in 1966. When a need arose for children’s clothes and toys during the holidays, Milly began the Christmas for the Needy program in 1986. She advised the Food for the Needy Program (started by two local women in 1984), and eventually took it over, providing monthly boxes of food for families.

A program now in its twelfth year was born from a suggestion by Milly’s daughter, Becky Holder. A teacher at the time, Becky noticed that children could hardly wait for the school kitchen to open on Monday mornings. As a result, the Weekend Backpack Program, funded by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, was fledged in 2007, starting with just twenty-seven backpacks full of food kids could fix for themselves. The program now sends home 500 backpacks every weekend, totaling 15,879 bags a year.

Milly was quick to acknowledge the volunteers who undertook her heart’s

work, and in 2008 they returned that acknowledgement by establishing Milly’s Pantry, Inc. (millyspantry.org) as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Later that year, a generous grant from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund allowed Milly’s Pantry to purchase the building at 19-23 Main Street in Penn Yan that now houses a revenue-generating social enterprise known as the Pinwheel Market. Spending five dollars at the market feeds one child in the community for a weekend. Shoppers can enjoy hot drinks, baked goods, and lunch while browsing through crafts and food items offered on consignment by local artisans.

In October of 2011, President Barack Obama presented Milly with a Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the highest awards a civilian can receive. Susan Wolff, current board president for Milly’s Pantry, calls Milly “Penn Yan’s guardian angel.” Milly was ninety-four when she died on December See Milly on page 40

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Milly continued from page 38

11, 2014, but her passion for feeding people lives on in new and far-reaching ways.

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Ashley Owens says that she and fellow Penn Yan Academy junior Natalie McFarland were “up for the challenge” when their Future Business Leaders of America teacher, Cathy Fritz, asked them to take on a project. George Schaeffer (Milly’s Pantry president at the time) presented them with the goal of feeding 500 children at five sites across Yates County during the summer of 2016. Ashley and Natalie successfully presented their business plan for the Summer Food Program to Milly’s board of directors, accounting for every last detail. They hired fellow high schoolers to carry out the work. Denise Shay, executive assistant to the board, acts as program director.

Their days began at 7:45 a.m. at the Penn Yan Elementary School. Ashley and Natalie received practical tips about feeding a crowd from the school’s cafeteria supervisor—i.e. making masses of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches using squirt bottles was fast.

Lunches were made, packed, sorted into coolers, and dispatched out to libraries, schools, and outdoor recreation sites. The girls planned so well that there were funds left over to be used the following year.

Ashley recruited twenty-one-year-old Chey Bradley, a former FBLA member, to manage the program in 2018. Chey, a business major with supervisory experience, formed a balanced team with her sister, sixteen-year-old Kenna, who had restaurant experience.

Chey described the transition as smooth, although challenging, as the entire crew—Kenna’s classmates—was new. Kenna took over as program manager the following year. As word about the program spread, the number of sites has now climbed to eleven and the per-day meal count is 550.

Both sets of managers demonstrated creativity in their approaches. Ashley and Natalie developed algorithms to streamline the stacks of paperwork required by the funders. They offered their team the opportunity to pick local blueberries to include in the lunches; it turned out the kids loved them so much that the extra lunch bags would come back missing the fruit!

When Chey took over, she posted flowcharts on the kitchen walls to increase efficiency. A couple of weeks into the season, she was informed that kids were coming to a ten o’clock program hungry. In true “Milly’s fashion,” she tapped into Milly’s Pantry Supplemental Food Program and added the delivery of milk, cereal, and fruit for that site.

The young women described their involvement with the program as a rare and unique opportunity that provided them with leadership training and team-building skills, and expressed gratitude toward the organization for entrusting them with this responsibility.

“Milly’s Pantry has a great reputation,” Kenna says. “We’re actually here to help and learn, and to carry out that good reputation.” The sisters will continue managing the program again this summer because, as Chey, says, “How can you say no to feeding kids?”

Nicole Landers is a freelance writer in the Finger Lakes. Her interests include the arts, agriculture, nature, and community involvement.

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(3) Gayle Morrow Courtesy Walker Metalsmiths Celtic Jewelry

Fiery craft: Steve Walker (pictured) uses techniques ranging from blowtorch to dental mold techniques to form beautiful Celtic jewelry.

Art and Artistry at Walker Metalsmiths ...and an International Celtic Artists Conference Comes to Andover

By Gayle Morrow

Y

ou might envision a crafter of fine Celtic jewelry and metalwork hunched up at a workbench, mulling over whether to use rose gold or silver, maybe using a loupe and an array of tiny, pointy dentist-like tools, all the while employing an oh-so-delicate touch to create a St. Brigid’s Cross pendant, or to shape a replica of the Ardagh Chalice, or to fashion a one-of-a-kind engagement ring.

There is, certainly, a fair amount of that happening at Walker Metalsmiths Celtic Jewelry on Main Street in Andover, New York.

But there is also Steve Walker, using sturdy tongs to remove super-hot containers from a kiln, flipping the visor down on his welding mask, putting a lighter to his blowtorch, melting some metal with the flame, then turning on the centrifuge. This combination of heating, spinning, and then rapid cooling is one technique—it’s called centrifuge or centrifugal force 42

casting—Steve uses for making jewelry. This particular method was used by a “pioneering Celtic designer in the 1950s,” he notes, adding that 1930s-era dental techniques for making molds from wax have also been applied to jewelry creation.

The first Celtic artists—folks who were creating in the early European Iron Age around 800-450 B.C.—did not have blowtorches or centrifuges, and their dentistry was probably kind of scary. Yet the world remains fascinated with what they did, and in love today with Celtic art in general and Celtic jewelry in particular— the knotwork, the spirals, the colors, the abstract animal, human, and plant designs all woven and interconnected, all unique yet instantly recognizable as “Celtic.”

Steve, who, with his wife, Sue, has been one of the Walkers in Walker Metalsmiths Celtic Jewelry since 1984, explains that, as Celtic crafters today, the tools and

techniques he and his staff and apprentices use range from the primitive to the medieval to 3-D printers.

“Techniques keep coming around and being recycled, and Celtic design has gone through a lot of different revivals,” Steve says. Today’s Celtic renaissance, Steve notes, had its beginnings in the Celtic revival of the 1840s. As an art and jewelry form, it is, and always has been, an evolving style. Even the nomenclature is a work in progress. Steve mentions that he is currently working on a Celtic cross design based on an old gravestone marker. He describes it as “‘coherent geometry’—nerdy, Celtic arts stuff.”

“I’ve been doing this since I was eleven or so,” he continues. His grandfather was a Scottish immigrant; his grandmother visited Ireland in 1968 and brought him a Book of Kells souvenir book, which, along with bagpipes, piqued his interest in Celtic lore

and art. The Book of Kells (along with the Book of Durrow) may be the most well-known example of what we today consider to be a masterpiece of Celtic art. Created in medieval times, it is the text, in Latin, of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John— accompanied by glorious illustrations, and all hand-painted on calfskin. It is on display, most of the time, at Trinity College Library in Dublin. Steve saw it in 1977 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when it was part of the traveling Treasures of Early Irish Art exhibit.

As a student at Andover Central School, Steve’s interest and enthusiasm for Celtic art and history, and for playing the pipes, was encouraged and inspired by William “Scotty” MacCrea—the real deal from a Gaelic-speaking Scottish Canadian family—who taught art, and art with Celtic influences. He was Steve’s teacher from sixth grade until graduation.

Now eighty-six, Scotty MacCrea will be one of the presenters at the International Celtic Artists Conference in Andover June 7 to 9, a spin-off, of sorts, from the International Day of Celtic Art which is celebrated June 9—the feast day of St. Columba (Columcille in Gaelic), an Irish monk associated with the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow. Steve explains that the first IDCA, just three years ago, was proposed by a group of contemporary Celtic artists and Celtic art aficionados—many of whom he knows—who had been exchanging ideas and inspiration online for two decades. This first-ever celebration will likely be—as is its namesake—an evolving, fluid, let’s-see-what-works kind of event.

The weekend begins on Thursday with a reception at the Hann Homestead, a restored nineteenth century inn about two miles from Andover. Friday and Saturday events include lectures and presentations, with artists showing and discussing their own works and the history, techniques, and culture of Celtic art and metalwork. There will be an open house/reception at Walker Metalsmiths on June 7 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. On Saturday evening, break out the bodhran if you have one and join in the cèilidh (traditionally a Scottish or Irish social visit, but these days a kind of house party), where there will be food, live Celtic music, and maybe a few tall tales.

Sunday, Chicago-based artist Michael Carroll offers a threehour workshop in freehand knotwork and key pattern drawing.

Other artists scheduled for the weekend hail from Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the U.S., and include Dr. Donncha MacGabhan, who will present a talk on “A Magnificent Obsession: An Artist’s Response to the Book of Kells”; Mike King, who will present on conservation efforts to save and refurbish the Saint Patrick Cross and the Downpatrick Market Cross; Steve Walker, who will give a presentation on medieval casting techniques; and Greg Hardy, from nearby Scio, with a talk on “Modern Celtic Art: The Local Tradition.”

Artists Steven Johnson, Ed Rooney, Ruth Black, and Catherine Crowe are in the lineup as well.

Pre-registration is $100, $50 dollars for youth and students, and includes all events, receptions, lunch on Friday and Saturday, Saturday night dinner, and cèilidh. Tickets for just the Saturday dinner are $35 per person. Walk-ins and registration after June 6 are $110 and $60 respectively. Lodging is not included.

Visit walkermetalsmiths.com or celticartday.com for more information, or call Walker Metalsmiths at (607) 478-8567 or (800) 488-6347.

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Summertime, and the Cookin’ is Easy Say a Seasonal Farewell to Your Oven

By Cornelius O'Donnell

I

t’s that time of year, time to say hello to your outdoor grill and, gasp, your microwave (according to statistics, you probably do have this appliance in your kitchen). It’s time to be totally cool and grill and zap your way to meals. Or you just might add some no-cook recipes to your repertoire. Why heat up the house when a trip to the farmers market or your own garden can yield a wealth of ingredients that are easy to prepare and serve? I’ve been looking through a folder I marked “summer cooking” and I’ve some suggestions.

Chill Out with Soup So often when I read an article on chilled soups, the word “refreshing” is used to describe the dish. Pick the right ingredients, do prep work early on, set the table ahead of time, and then pull the main

44

course from the refrigerator as your guests settle themselves. I promise you’ll be and stay refreshed I found this red soup recipe online last year, and I gave it my own five-star rating.

It sounds a bit weird but, trust me, it is tasty and refreshing, also low in calories, so you’ll still fit into your bathing suit. Red and green are thought of as Christmasy, but they certainly star in the warmer weather.

This makes four servings, but I’ve easily doubled it. You can make it more substantial by adding a bowl of croutons to the table. The addition of the ground almonds is a thickener trick you’ll find in many Spanish recipes for gazpacho, of which this is a kissin’ cousin. I use a blender to puree—it results in a smoother texture than either a processor or hand-held

immersion blender, but either of those will do in a pinch.

Watermelon-Tomato Soup 2 c. cubed seedless watermelon—or remove the seeds 2 large red, ripe tomatoes, quartered and peeled with a serrated peeler 2 Tbsp. unsalted ground almonds (see note) 1 fat clove of garlic or shallot, peeled and minced 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp. red wine or sherry vinegar 1 tsp. olive oil 2 Tbsp. crumbled feta cheese 1 Tbsp. Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped 2 tsp. chopped fresh mint See Summertime on page 46

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Summertime continued from page 44

Blend watermelon, skinned and cored tomatoes, ground almonds, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, and oil (you may have to do this in two batches). When smooth, divide among four bowls.

Chill. Just before serving, garnish each bowl with feta, olives, and mint. Cruets of vinegar and olive oil are as welcome as salt and pepper on the table.

Note: Make sure none of your diners have a nut allergy. You could substitute fine, unseasoned bread crumbs as a thickener.

Chilled Cucumber Dill Soup You can make this with regular (but peeled) cucumbers or with the long English variety that I only half peel. Although called “seedless,” I still split them and scrape away the watery cores. For more of a main course, add halves of cooked shrimp or even some crabmeat (yum) or whitefish scattered over the soup. Or serve with smoked salmon on baguette slices. Add some seeded lemon quarters to the platter to spritz on the fish.

Not into fish? Try passing a serving plate with slices of pâté on pita chips. Finely chopped parsley sets this off tastefully. And now’s the time to use those small plates that you’ve collected over the years.

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2 cucumbers, peeled (see above) 2 c. 2 percent Greek yogurt 1 shallot, peeled and finely diced 1 fat garlic clove, finely minced or passed through a microplane ¼ tsp. ground cumin Juice of one lime 2 tsp. fresh chopped dill, plus sprigs Sea salt or Malden salt to taste 6 rounds of skin-on cukes for garnish (optional) Cut the peeled cucumbers in half and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Add to the blender along with the rest of the ingredients except the cuke rounds. You might want to mix the ingredients in a bowl and puree the mixture in two batches. Use a processor if you must, but the soup will not be quite as smooth. Taste for salt and then chill for at least one hour. Taste again and then serve in chilled bowls with a sprig of dill for décor. Incidentally, the soup looks great in those big-bowled wine glasses if you have some. Cut partway into the round disks of cucumber and slip one onto each bowl’s rim.

Briefly Cook, Blend, Chill, Serve That’s a mouthful. But wait until you taste a mouthful of this delicious soup. I had to include it because it includes three of my favorite ingredients: asparagus, leeks, and spinach. They are easily sourced these days (perhaps in your garden plot) and, with a guacamole-like garnish, it’s so easy to “eat your greens.”

I found this recipe on Kathleen Flinn’s food blog. She adapted it from Hubert Keller, the Las Vegas chef and TV personality. I also caught the TV show in which the chef demonstrated the soup.

Chilled Spinach and Asparagus Soup 1 large (or two small) leeks, white and pale green parts 3 Tbsp. butter 2 shallots, peeled and coarsely chopped 1½ pounds asparagus, tips reserved, coarse stems lightly peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 4 c. low-salt chicken broth 2 c. chopped spinach leaves (about 3½ ounces)

3 Tbsp. parsley (preferably Italian), roughly chopped ¼ tsp. cayenne Salt and pepper to taste ½ avocado, peeled and pitted 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp. sour cream The best way to clean the leeks is to trim off the root end and tough outer leaf or two. Then chop the white and light green parts into about 1-inch pieces. Add these to a bowl of lukewarm water and agitate the vegetable to loosen any trapped soil. Rinse with more water and drain well.

Melt butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks and shallot and sauté until softened—about 5 minutes. Add trimmed asparagus and broth. Bring just to the boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover, and cook 7-8 minutes, or until the asparagus is tender. Uncover and add spinach, recover until the spinach wilts, 2-3 minutes. Add the parsley and let the soup cool slightly off the heat.

Puree the room-temperature soup in a blender in batches.

Add salt, pepper, and cayenne and pour into a large bowl, cover (use a sheet pan if your bowl doesn’t have a cover.) Refrigerate until soup is chilled, about 2 hours or overnight. Meanwhile, place the asparagus tips in a small microwave bowl with ¼ cup water. Cover with a microwave-safe plate and cook 2 minutes or until the tips are tender.

Just before serving, check for salt and pepper to taste. Mix the ripe avocado with the lemon juice and sour cream. Ladle the soup, dividing it into six bowls. Top each bowl with the cooked tips arranged dramatically, then add a dollop of the sour cream/avocado mixture to each.

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An Easy Summery Dessert Ever tried strawberries in red wine? It’s a simple and seasonal red-on-red treat, and a favorite of mine. This serves 4.

2 pints fresh strawberries 2 Tbsp. granulated white sugar 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar 2 c. dry, fruity red Finger Lakes wine (ask the clerk) Zest of one well-scrubbed lemon Toppings: dollops of whipped cream or crème fraiche or vanilla yogurt (the Greek stuff is great) Rinse the berries, stem them (an inexpensive strawberry huller is a low-cost investment that speeds prep), and cut them into ¼-inch slices. Place them in a shallow dish. Add the sugars and toss. Add the wine, making sure the berries are covered. Cover with a lid (again, a flat cookie sheet or sheet pan will work). Let the berries macerate for up to 2 hours at room temperature. Spoon them and some of the liquid into a wine glass and top with a dollop of your choice—crème fraiche, lightly whipped cream, or yogurt.

As for me, check the nearest lawn chair. I’ll dive into the latest Agatha Raisin, the sleuth in several “cozy” novels, or any old book by that other Agatha—Christie. I hope I’ve solved the mystery of what to serve on a warm day.

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

47

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Owl continued from page 32

have to be placed away from the flow of color, and type has to be large enough for clarity. It also means every job can be customdesigned to fit its purpose, whether that’s thousands of imprinted coasters for a bar or a wedding that are printed and cut to size in the same process, or a special business card where the ink has to be a particular custom-mixed color.

Most of Laughing Owl’s work orders arrive via the Internet, which means they’re often designing, printing, and mailing to customers who know their work but have never met them face to face. “The area we’re in, the cost of living isn’t too bad, so we can be very competitive on pricing,” notes Andrea. “That’s our advantage. We ship a lot to California and New York, even internationally.” Some requests have been unexpected, like the Canadian customer who wanted them to print and die-cut six different original shapes for air fresheners. “One was a samurai,” she says. Luckily, they can create dies digitally, but “I don’t know how they got the scent on,” she muses.

A large segment of their business has to do with wedding printing. “The invitations are the first glimpse of your wedding for the guests,” she says. Many brides work with Pinterest boards and then share them with her so she can get a sense of their aesthetic.

This also finds the business on the cutting edge of wedding trends—“Last year everyone was getting huge invitations!” For the big day, they might also be printing wineglass stem tags or tags to go over the top of a beer bottle for those couples whose weddings feature craft beer, little notebooks as favors, door hangers for guest rooms, or favor bags. “As long as it can go on paper, we can do it,” she says. “We can do anything we want on the computer and still print it on a press that’s 100 years old.”

The paper, too, can add variety, though the presses are happier with machine-made paper that looks handmade rather than the unevenness of the real thing. One customer wanted paper thick enough to cast a shadow on the table it sat on; sometimes customers will send paper with their order. Sourcing unusual paper is part of the fun. And they have to love their work—at the time of their last expansion, they were both still working seven days a week.

“I was nine months pregnant [with their second son] when we bought the building we’re in now, and we were just starting the renovations. I came home from the hospital after having Henry and went back to printing.” Now things are a bit easier and she no longer needs to work every single day. “We’ve got such a good team now!” she enthuses.

Expansion thoughts continue to engage the couple’s imagination. Because they’ve got the space, they’ve considered offering printing classes and workshops. They also have yet to set up a long-planned retail area offering printed products and village souvenirs for sale. “Kane is going through a resurgence,” Andrea says. “People may want souvenirs about Laughing Owl Press, cards, and other fun stuff we can think of.”

But for the moment, they’re concentrating on the more, um, pressing business of custom work. Visit the business at 59 N. Fraley Street, Kane, at laughingowlpress.com, or call (814) 561-1191.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and admirer of waterfalls and the natural scenery of the Finger Lakes.

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

Until the Cows Come Home

By Linda Stager

I

’ve loved cows since I was little. My grandma used to let me visit with their cow, Ginger, and what a sweetie Ginger was. So when I saw this bovine group munching grass in the pasture one afternoon, I felt I wanted to stop and make friends. As I crouched down to shoot a photo or two through the fence, they came to greet me. They were obviously curious about the person with the camera and I was thrilled with their expressions. Cows are awesome!

50

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We accept most major health insurances at all of our hospitals and physician offices including Geisinger Health Plan, Highmark, UPMC Health Plan, and more.

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