May 2013

An Orchid

E E R F wind

as the

Grows in Ithaca A family business supplies the legendary bloom across the Mid-Atlantic

By Alison Fromme Photos by Elizabeth Young

Calling All Turkeys TIOGAchanges on Stage Corning’s Crystal Couple

MAY 2013

When Dr. Guthrie came here from mayo clinic, he brouGht With him more than just a meDical baG.

He also brought a belief, that patients deserve a team of specialists working together, focused on one thing, the patient.

It’s the way we’ve practiced medicine since Dr. Guthrie arrived more than 100 years ago.

Carrying medicine forward.

listen to our patient stories at carryingmedicineforward.org.

Volume 8 Issue 5

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An Orchid Grows in Ithaca

CREP: Prescription for the Chesapeake

By Alison Fromme A family business supplies the legendary bloom across the Mid-Atlantic.

By Gregg Rinkus Dr. Jon Grigg of Wellsboro is helping protect the Chesapeake Bay—one tree at a time— through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

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Calling All Turkeys

10 Cultivating Community

By Roger Kingsley Bradford native Al Holbert makes a call with every material imaginable, to lure the elusive bird.

By Cindy Davis Meixel Thriving since the ‘70s, the Williamsport Growers Market steps back outdoors for the season.

37

The Storytellers

By Rebecca Hazen TIOGAChanges, a play exploring just that, premieres this month in Tioga County.

47

Corning’s Crystal Couple

33 Chic on Market Street

By Cornelius O’Donnell Master glass engraver Max Roland Erlacher and wife Kitty share a love of crystal.

By Rebecca Hazen Courtney Leonberger, owner of Posh Boutique in Corning, provides high-class fashion for young women of all ages.

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Glass Act

By Holly Howell What goes best with a hearty red?

The right wine glass.

70 3

53

*Bleep* on a Shingle: Memories of Army Days

By Cornelius O’Donnell Cornelius reminisces about his days in the army, and a daily dish that you can dress up for civilian life.

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It Is What It Is

By Gayle Morrow Our writer muses on how her garden grows.

67

Wild Offerings

By Carol Myers Cacchione The fiddlehead fern pops up with the arrival of spring, and Carol shares her love—along with a recipe.

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Back of the Mountain

By Wade Spencer Aurora Wellsborealis.

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 George Bochetto, Esq. Dawn Bilder Derek Witucki Managing Editor Rebecca Hazen D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y E d i t o r Elizabeth Young Cover Artist Tucker Worthington Assistant to the Publisher Meghan Elizabeth Lee Contributing Writers Angela Cannon-Crothers, Patricia Brown Davis, Jen Reed-Evans, Alison Fromme, Donald Gilliland, Holly Howell, Roger Kingsley, Adam Mahonske, Cindy Davis Meixel, Fred Metarko, Dave Milano, Gayle Morrow, Tom Murphy, Mary Myers, Jim Obleski, Cornelius O’Donnell, Roger Neumann, Gregg Rinkus, Linda Roller, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice, Brad Wilson 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, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, Ann Kamzelski, Ken Meyer, Tina Tolins, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold S e n i o r S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e Brian Earle S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Lynette Lehman Duane Meixel Linda Roller Jae Zugarek B ea g l e

and

Assistant Cosmo & Yogi

to

B ea g l e

Mountain Home is published monthly by Beagle Media, LLC, 25 Main St., 2nd Floor, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901.

Copyright © 2010 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

To advertise or subscribe e-mail info@mountainhomemag.com.

E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag.com. Call us at (570) 724-3838.

Each month copies of Mountain Home are available for free at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania; Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in New York. Visit us at www.mountainhomemag.com.

Get Mountain Home at home. For a one-year subscription to Mountain Home (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 25 Main St., 2nd Floor, Wellsboro, PA 16901.

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Kyle Ober Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band will be performing at the Deane Center on May 4. The band is revolutionizing children’s music with “contagious rhythms and lyrics that grab your heart and soul.”

May Cheers to the Best Yeah! It’s GlassFest!

Doings ’round the Mountain

What’s filled with live entertainment, local vendors, awesome food, tons of activities, craft beer and wine, and show-stopping glass? Why, the 4th Annual GlassFest of Corning, New York! This four day extravaganza has so many exciting events, it might not be possible to see them all. So, clear your schedule and prepare to make memories. You can visit several local museums and tour their oneof-a-kind works and check out the Corning Museum of Glass to watch glass blowing demonstrations. After you have your fill of the arts, fill your belly with fantastic food on Market Street. Work off that meal and shop ‘til you drop at local stores and vendors— be sure to take advantage of awesome sales and offers during GlassFest!

Later, unwind by taking part in the local wine and craft beer tasting and bring home your souvenir wine and beer glass. Finally, prop open that lawn chair in Riverfront Centennial Park and rock out to live music by DSB, the multi-faceted house band from CMT’s hit show “The Singing Bee” and Nik and the Nice Guys, an eleven person group of rock and roll musicians and performers. Pair the energy from the jamming music with a fireworks display that rivals the Fourth of July and your night will be one to remember. Pack up the family and head to Corning, May 23-26, Thursday – Sunday for all the glassand-more-fun! For a complete list of dates and times for all of the exciting events, visit www.glassfest.org.

By Jen Reed-Evans Big City Feel Quaint Country Appeal

It’s an average day and the thought of catching a play, taking in an art exhibit, or listening to a gorgeous concert performance crosses your mind. It would be great to catch a cab to Broadway or the Met, but big cities mean big travel. Take advantage of the performing arts center right in your backyard! The Deane Center for Performing Arts always has amazing opportunities to get your fill of the theatre, music, art, and other events and it’s nestled right in charming Wellsboro, which is riddled with great shopping and dining opportunities.

This month catch the Dominion Kids n Kin Concert, featuring Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band, on Saturday, May 4, at 2:30 and 4 p.m. for great free shows. All four Hamilton-Gibson Choirs celebrate their year-long theme “Water” in music with a heavenly performance on Monday, May 6, at 2:30 p.m. Craving some art? The Bob Blair Art Show will be featured at the Deane Center from May 15 through June 30 with a free reception on June 16 from 2 to 4 p.m. If classical music is your cup of tea, don’t miss Irena Portenko’s “The Art of the Classic Pianist.” Works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Piazzola will delight the audience. This performance is Sunday, May 19, at 3 p.m. and tickets are just $20 in advance and benefit the Deane Center. Aside from all the limited-time events, don’t miss out on favorite Poetry Open Mic Nights and Taiqi/Qigong and Yang 24 Classes with Karen Meyers. So whatever you’re craving, you don’t have to travel far, just head to the Deane

Center! Check out their calendar of events every month at http:// deanecenter.com. (The Deane Center for Performing Arts, 104 Main St., Wellsboro,; (570) 724-6220).

Busy as a Bee Making a Difference

It’s almost the time of year again— summer camp time! The pristine Hidden Valley 4-H Camp is an American Camp Association accredited camp that is nestled in beautiful Watkins Glen. This camp has been providing a safe, fun-filled, educational experience to children since 1945. Whether you’re a Hidden Valley alum, are interested in sending your children to camp, or simply want to give a little back, then head over and check out the Open House and take part in the Work Bee. You can help plant the Sunset Garden, clean-up the grounds, stain cabins, or just walk and view the lovely grounds. The camp also would be greatly appreciative of any donations such as chicken and rabbit related equipment, arts and craft supplies, rocketry supplies, science equipment, canoes and paddles, and more. Bring the kids and teach them early about the value of giving back and helping maintain the beauty of nature. When you’re done, check out the amazing camps that they have and sign your children up for an amazing summer program. Come out and make a difference on Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. (Hidden Valley 4-H Camp, 2860 Hidden Valley Camp Rd., Watkins Glen, NY; (607) 535-7161; (607) 535-5048; www. hiddenvalley4hcamp.org).

Are You a Fun Guy? Fun Times with Fungi!

Walking through local forests, one can’t help but notice the abundance of one of nature’s most delicious bounties—mushrooms! However, not knowing exactly what you’re looking for isn’t exactly safe. If you’ve ever wanted to grow your very own Shiitake mushrooms or be able to correctly identify mushrooms in the wild, Mushroom Field Day at Cornell’s Arnot Forest is right up your alley. Dr. Ken Mudge of Cornell University will conduct educational and fun sessions on Shiitake mushroom cultivation and information on identifying mushrooms in the wild. When you’re done with the sessions, you will bring home your own inoculated logs to grow your own mushrooms, as well as a wealth of knowledge about harvesting those yummy, natural gems. The first session about growing Shiitake is from 9 a.m.

-12:30 p.m. and space is limited, so preregister online at https://reg.cce. cornell.edu/MushroomFD_244. The second session in from 1-4 p.m. and is open to the public. This session includes a hike in moderately rough terrain, so dress appropriately and be sure to bring some bug spray.

No pre-registration is required for the walk. Meet at the Arnot Forest Sugarhouse by 1 p.m. Get ready for mushroom madness on Saturday, May 11, starting at 9 a.m. (The Arnot Forest, 611 Schuyler County Rt 13, Van Etten, NY; www.arntoforest.info; for additional information contact Brett Chedzoy at (607) 535-7161; bjc226@cornell.edu).

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Doings ‘Round the Mountain

The Last Great Place

Our Miller’s Daughter, and Local Talent

By Michael Capuzzo

D

own by Pine Creek is the last chance general store in lonely Blackwell, Pennsylvania, known as Miller’s Store. Climb the ramp past the five wooden bears and you’ll find life’s essentials, such as trail groceries, rental bikes, pioneer memoirs, hand-dipped ice cream, and Anne Sutley Miller, the owners’ daughter and a sixteen-year-old photography prodigy. Anne, who has the kind of natural talent akin to the sun rising and the creek slipping by, this month will take home a major award that establishes her as one of the best young photographers in Pennsylvania.

Kudos to Anne for winning a Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association First Place Keystone Award for a photograph in last November’s Mountain Home. Professional shutterbugs from publications like The Philadelphia Weekly will go home disappointed from the May 18 award ceremony at the Hilton Harrisburg. Amazingly, Anne took the photo, of an American flag, when she was fourteen—shocking but not surprising for Mountain Home readers, who know that civilization may end somewhere hereabouts but the talent goes on forever.

Thanks to our readers, advertisers, and the bounty of local talent that makes Mountain Home, the magazine won nine prestigious “Keystone Press Awards” awards for journalism excellence this year. We’re grateful and humbled to say that’s fifty-four “Keystones” in our first seven years, including the “Best Niche Publication” in the state of Pennsylvania for the third year in a row. We’re awfully proud of our entire staff for that one because the competition is daunting, including the Philadelphia Business Journal, owned by a national media empire.

Anne Sutley Miller

1st Place, Feature Photo

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In addition to Anne, special congratulations to:

Mountain Home Managing Editor Rebecca Hazen, who won second place in personality profile for her heartwarming telling of Wellsboro pastor Bob Morris’s story in “A (Brain -Damaged) Sinner Saved By Grace.”

Our “Mother Earth” columnist Gayle Morrow, who won second place in sports/outdoor column for a collection of stories.

Ace Potter County photographer Curt Weinhold (www. curtweinhold.com), who took time from snapping for clients like National Geographic Adventure and The New York Times to shoot Coudersport fisherman Pete Ryan mid-cast. It won third place, sports photo.

Our Ithaca, New York science writer extraordinaire Alison Fromme, who won third place in feature story for “Picking Up the Pieces,” a historical look at the 1972 flood damage to the Corning Museum of Glass.

Brendan O’Meara, upstate New York sportswriter and author of Six Weeks in Saratoga, who won second place in the sports story category for “History’s Turn at Milliken’s Corner,” about the advent of modern stock-car racing in Watkins Glen, New York.

The Mountain Home staff also won second and third place for headline writing.

Our associate publisher, Derek Witucki, put it best: “We are proud to tell the story of the Twin Tiers. What the Mountain Home shows is that the human story trumps all.”

Rebecca Hazen

2nd Place, Personality Profile

Gayle Morrow

2nd Place, Outdoors Column

Doings ‘Round the Mountain

Doings, cont.

Music 11 Mother’s Day Eve Concert – The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes delivers a gorgeous Mother’s Day Eve Concert as their last performance of the season. Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada leads the talented musicians and the Chorus of the Southern Finger Lakes through favorites by Adams, Mozart, and Sibelius. This must-see for everyone is on Saturday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45/$35/$15/$10 for college students/$8 for students under 18. (207 Clemens Center Parkway, Elmira, NY; (607) 7348191; www.clemenscenter.com).

17 The Corral – Get ready for a night of toe-tapping music when The Corral hits the stage. Their mix of rock, country, and bluegrass promises to be a crowd pleaser.

Enjoy tunes from Steve Earle, Waylon Jennings, and more! The show is on Friday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are two for $25/$15/$8. (The Community Theatre League, 100 West Third St., Williamsport, PA; (570) 327-1777; http://ctlnet.org).

19 George Reed Jazz Heritage Concert – Enjoy an afternoon of jazz as Syracuse’s Salt Lake City Jazz collective, a seventeenpiece big band, delivers historical favorites.

Sway to works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, and original compositions by band members. This amazing concert is on Sunday, May 19, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children and are available at Steve Seaberg’s State Farm Insurance in Langdon Plaza, Elmira, Cappy’s (205 W. Clinton St.), and at The Park Church office. (The Park Church,

Curt Weinhold

3rd Place, Sports Photo

208 Grey St., Elmira, NY; Steve Seaberg (607) 592-1459; steve.seaberg.c39g@ statefarm.com).

24 The Texas Tenors Orchestral – Former finalists on America’s Got Talent, The Texas Tenors are back to light up the stage with their triad of irresistible voices. A talented, regional orchestra will join them on stage for a musical explosion. The whole family will love all the genres of music, from country to classical and everything in between. Catch this exciting performance on Friday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25/$37.50/$45. (Community Arts Center, 220 West Fourth St., Williamsport, PA; (570) 326-2424; http://caclive.com).

30 Project Trio – Brooklyn, NY—based Project Trio is bringing their unique talents to Wellsboro! Flutist Greg Pattillo, cellist Eric Stephenson, and bassist Peter Seymour perform jazz, hip-hop, and rock numbers.

Project Trio also provides educational programs for students of all ages that meet the National Standards for Music Educaiton. Enjoy this musical experience on Thursday, May 30. (Wellsboro Community Concert Association, Wellsboro, PA; www.wellsborocca.org).

GALLERIES/MUSEUMS 1–17 Design: 2013 – The Gallery at Penn College will host its annual graphic design student exhibition. Senior graphic design students will showcase their work that includes posters, books, magazine spreads, and logos. Check out the graduates impressive skills and talents this May until Friday, May 17. (Pennsylvania College of Technology, One College Ave., Williamsport, PA; (570) 326-3761; www. pct.edu/gallery).

3–31 Hampsher & Wood’s Intentions

Alison Fromme

3rd Place, Feature Story

– Artists Jayme Hampsher and Brett Wood will be unveiling their collection, “Intentions,” at the Gmeiner Center this month. There will be a reception on May 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. and it is an excellent chance to both enjoy their work and meet the artists. Get some art in your life the month on May! Admission is always free and Gmeiner is open daily from 2-5 p.m.

(Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center, 134 Main St., Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-1917; http://gmeinerartscenter.com).

3–31 Recent Works by Tom Gardner – Talented artist Tom Gardner has done it again! Come out to West End Gallery this month and marvel over his recent masterpieces. His gorgeous paintings will be on display until June 7. Join fellow art lovers at the reception on Friday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. As always, all events are free and open to the public. Regular hours are Mon.-Fri. from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sat. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (West End Gallery, 12 West Market St., Corning NY; (607) 936-2011; www.westendgallery.net).

23 GlassFest Bead Extravaganza – Corning Museum of Glass gets even more interesting with this hot evening! Enjoy live music provided by Fishtank Ensembe and hot glassmaking demonstrations.

This event is free and open to the public.

Refreshments will be available. Join the extravaganza on Thursday, May 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (The Corning Museum of Glass, One Museum Way, Corning, NY; (607) 937-5371; www.cmog.org).

THE THEATRE 9 Dreamgirls – Sing along as the Tony and Academy Award-winning musical, Dreamgirls, shines like never before.

Follow the drama of an up-and-coming

Brendan O’Meara

2nd Place, Sports Story

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Doings ‘Round the Mountain

Doings, cont.

1960’s female singing group as they hurdle obstacles and reach for their goals. Enjoy the fantastic cast and the hits like “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” and “One Night Only.” This sparkling performance is on Thursday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30/$45/$55.

(Community Arts Center, 220 West Fourth St., Williamsport, PA; (570) 326-2424; http://caclive.com).

10–12, 16–18 Tioga/Changes – Hamilton-Gibson’s inaugural Theatre of Place production is filled with music and local tales. Join friends and neighbors to experience this exciting and affirming celebration of our community. Admission

by FlexPass or Adults $15; Children/ Students $6. May 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 at 7:30 and May 12 at 2:30. (Tioga County Fairgrounds, Whitneyville, PA; (570) 724-2079; hamgib@gmail.com; www. hamiltongibson.org).

29 Spank! – This Fifty Shades of Grey musical parody is guaranteed to be the best girls’ night out ever! The hilarious new musical brings all the naughty fun of the book to life with the side-splitting humor, musical performances, and leading man in the grey tie. Come early and enjoy pre-show cocktails, then stay and meet the cast after the show. Be part of the fun on

Wednesday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $29.75/$39.75. (Community Arts Center, 220 West Fourth St., Williamsport, PA; (570) 326-2424; http://caclive.com).

COMMUNITY EVENTS 10 Tioga County Special Olympics – Go for the gold! Special Olympic athletes will compete in running, walking, and field events. When they’re not competing, there will be an Olympic Village with activities for the athletes. This is a great opportunity to come out and cheer on the participants and volunteer. Join in this community event on Friday, May 10. (Tioga County Special Olympics, Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-5308; sopatioga@yahoo.com).

10, 11 Private Landowner Conference – Owning land in Pennsylvania can truly be described as having your own piece of “Wonderland.” This first ever opportunity, Private Landowner Conference: Saving Penn’s Woods, focuses on learning more about your land and what to do to keep it as pristine as it can be. Nationally and locally known experts, up to 1,000 participants, 100 seminars, field trips, exhibitions, and more will help you begin the process of becoming an expert on your own “Wonderland.” Join fellow landowners Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11. (Brought to you by the Penn State Center for Private Forests: Blair County Convention Center, Altoona, PA;

(814) 865-3208; www.ecosystems.psu.edu/ private-forest-conference).

25 Classic Car Cruise-In – Show off your classic beauty or stroll through the gorgeous cars from the good old days. Registration is free and includes a dash plaque, raffles, and door prizes. When you’re done admiring the cars, explore charming downtown Wellsboro and enjoy the many shops and restaurants. (Wellsboro Chamber of Commerce, Wellsboro, PA; (570) 7241926; info@wellsboropa.com).

26 Fly-In Breakfast – What goes great with pancakes? Why, airplanes, of course! Join the Grand Canyon Airport near the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania for a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and more. Enjoy all of the new and vintage planes while you’re there. All are welcome on Sunday, May 26, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Grand Canyon Airport; Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-3746; usaf197696@hotmail.com).

FESTIVALS 18 Springfest – Put Spring cleaning aside and head outdoors for Springfest at Hills Creek State Park. Enjoy kayaking, canoeing, fishing, biking, bird watching, hiking and more! This free event is a great way to take in the beauty of local nature.

Have a blast on Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Hills Creek State Park, Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-4246).

See Doings on page 46

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An oncidium orchid.

10

Kate Liu, along with many of her family members, owns The Orchid Place in Ithaca, New York.

Orchid Grows in Ithaca An

A family business supplies the legendary bloom across the Mid-Atlantic.

By Alison Fromme Photos by Elizabeth Young

A

n orchid oasis blooms inside a modest, low-slung building on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York. Something quite unique bursts with color and warmth here, in all seasons, even amidst the dark of winter and the fickle spring. The Orchid Place, as it is so simply known, houses thousands of lustrous orchids with tender flowers—colors delicate or bold—perched like butterflies on graceful arching stems. These beauties are destined for sale throughout the region, bringing any number of sentiments—like love or gratitude or hope—to their recipients.

See Orchid on page 12

11

An Oncidium orchid

Orchid continued from page 11

If you stop in the showroom at The Orchid Place, you might meet Kate Liu, the current overseer of the operation.

Plants, pots, and other supplies are displayed for sale here, but the true bustle of activity is in the next building over, where tractor-trailers back up to the overhead door to unload seven or eight thousand plants at a time.

Meanwhile, several white, nondescript delivery vans await their loads in the gravel parking lot.

The flowers themselves are slow growing, but The Orchid Place is far from slow going. The three in charge here are constantly on the move. Kate’s husband, Wayne, arranges delivery schedules, her brother Henry manages the greenhouse, and Kate herself handles orders—and keeps her cell phone on her hip, answering calls about orders or job applications as she attends to other tasks. They all hustle from one place to another.

The family operation originated in 2005, when Tony Liu, Kate’s father’s cousin and the creator of this enterprise, transformed his self-described hobby into a booming—and blooming— business. Kate explains that, as a boy, Tony learned the art of orchid care from his grandfather in Taiwan, who grew the alluring flowers as a hobby.

In 2004, after a career in rental real estate, Tony noticed that the local Wegmans in Ithaca sold orchids, and he decided to send a sample plant of his own to the floral department.

Impressed, the purchaser ordered a couple dozen plants, which sold quickly.

Soon, Kate says, Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans, admired the plants at the Ithaca store, and with that, the orchids had cast their spell.

Wi t h i n m o n t h s , Ta i w a n e s e architects were working to improve the design of Tony’s greenhouse to make it more orchid-friendly. He imported more nascent orchids from his family of growers in Taiwanese greenhouses and ramped up his production to supply all

12

the Wegmans stores in the region.

The timing was perfect. The United States had just opened its doors to international orchid growers. Previously, most orchids sold in the United States were grown in Hawaii. Imports had to be shipped “bare root” (a precaution to avoid pests and diseases being transported in soil) and many plants died in transport, causing buyers to lose money. But new, relaxed rules allowed Phalaenopsis orchids planted in moss to be shipped from Asia, so more survived their journey. Plus, the Taiwanese government was infusing money in the form of construction grants and lowinterest loans into its orchid industry, aiming to become the worldwide leader in orchid production.

“The problem for Taiwanese farmers is that they know how to grow, but they don’t know how to sell,” says Kate.

The Orchid Place is something of an intermediary between Asian growers and American consumers.

Today, The Orchid Place supplies every Wegmans store, from New York to Maryland, selling at about $35 per plant. Tony became something of a legend in the region, drawing busloads of orchid enthusiasts from hours away and speaking for gardening clubs.

Orchid enthusiasts were keen to learn from him, and now from Kate as well.

Tony is retired now, but the business is thriving with the next generation.

“I have a lot of passion for plants,” says Kate, who is part of the younger Liu generation. As a child in Taiwan, she learned the names of orchids and hybrid crosses, along with their preferences, from her grandfather in the southern part of Taiwan. “I learned the language of orchids. I learned to listen to what the orchid tries to tell you,” she says.

Kate and her family moved to New York City when she was fifteen for educational opportunities. She studied accounting and business at Baruch College in New York City, aiming for a high-powered career. After five years as a senior manager at a financial institution,

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See Orchid on page 14

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Orchid continued from page 13

her extended family asked her to join the orchid business in 2010. “I really struggled at the time,” she says. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to become a farmer. “My family always told me: ‘Farming will make you poor.’ And then they were asking me to farm!”

“But it’s in our blood,” she explains.

Even her father, who was not a farmer, worked in soil science, analyzing soil composition and pollution for growers. “I wanted the family tradition to continue. I wanted our orchid— growing secrets passed down to the next generation.”

Even though the elders in the family had previously encouraged the younger generation to go into banking, computers, medicine, or the law, Kate knew that growing would make her happier than sitting in an office all day.

When her mother passed away the same year her family offered her the opportunity, Kate had made her decision. Joining the business became a way to honor her mom. Kate’s husband had studied pharmacy in graduate school, but he, too, felt a duty to support the family business.

Today, about eight employees including three of Kate’s aunts tend orchids, prepare shipments, and drive delivery trucks. Who else but family would want to work seven days a week and as many as twelve hours a day? Kate asks. Although working with relatives is tough sometimes, family will stay past 5:30 p.m. when other employees would rather go home, she says. Even the family dogs wander around the loading dock.

The type of orchid growing Kate learned from her grandfather was quite different from her business today. Her grandfather grew wild orchids, varieties that were tricky to keep alive once indoors. There, a single wild orchid could sell for as much as $40,000 US dollars.

He r e i n T h e O r c h i d P l a c e greenhouse, Kate oversees a sea of more than 150,000 orchids, a riot of purples, See Orchid on page 16

14

A phalaenopsis orchid.

See Call of the Stream on page 16

15

Call of the Stream continued from page 15

A large selection of orchids wait in the greenhouse to be shipped off to their destinations.

Orchid continued from page 14

pinks, whites, reds, oranges, and yellows that sit leaf-toleaf on metal racks under natural light. These orchids originate in Taiwan, in labs and greenhouses that use mostly tissue cuttings to propagate unique colorations and flower shapes, petals ranging from rounded lobes to spidery tendrils. Plants are bred to survive household conditions, offering a chance of success for a novice.

Baby plants grow in bottles at first, then move into pots during their first year and a half in Taiwan. Later, they travel by boat and container for as long as a month, until they finally reach Ithaca. Here they acclimate for a few months before heading to market. Most potted orchids will bloom for three to six months, and then go dormant until perfect conditions coax more flowers to emerge.

Although orchids grow worldwide in the wild— from Mexico to Mongolia—Taiwan is the most prolific commercial exporter in the world. Until recently, only aficionados could locate them, obtain permits to import them, and figure out how to grow them. In the 1980s, a single orchid might cost about $85. Now, orchids are 16

Curtis Frye

the second most valuable potted plant crop in the United States, with more than $190 million dollars in wholesale sales annually. The price of individual orchids is dropping.

The flowers show up on big box store shelves for as little as $15. Some people fear that they will become as common as poinsettias.

Perhaps, but Kate believes in the quality and value of her orchids. If a single bud drops from a plant, she says she won’t sell it. It’s rewarding, she says, when customers come back to say that their orchid is still surviving after a year. She says that other orchid sellers expect people to buy the plant for the blooms and then discard it. Her orchids are intended to survive for decades, she says.

Given the thousands of fantastical varieties, harboring flowers that, as Charles Darwin wrote in the 1800s, “present a multitude of curious structures,” it seems unlikely that orchids could lose their appeal.

What is so alluring about orchids, anyway? Perhaps we’re attracted to flowers the size of a child’s palm or tiny as a bee? Or butterfly-like symmetry? Fuchsia zebra stripes, delicate wine-colored freckles, shades of gold? Broad See Orchid on page 18

17

The Orchid Place family business started in 2005. Now Kate (middle) is handling orders, her brother Henry (right) manages the greenhouse, and her husband Wayne (left) arranges delivery schedules.

Orchid continued from page 17

petals, wispy tendrils, and frilly labella?

Arching, strong but supple stems? A finicky nature? Orchids are the stuff of legend and of love.

In The Orchid Place greenhouse on a recent day, Kate rubs a broad verdant leaf between her fingers. “It’s soft, not brittle,” she says, noting its quality. The grass-green leaf is strong when she bends it, not cracking.

Behind her, a few workers unload pots from an incoming delivery while others trim and sort plants in an acclimation area before they’ll be loaded into insulated trucks for delivery.

Kate says her team cares for each plant individually, but she won’t give away any secrets about fertilizers or watering regimens. A homemade cookie will always be better than a factory-made one, she says, just like these plants. And so, nothing about the orchid care is automated here in Ithaca. Plants are watered and misted one at a time. Workers adjust layers of 18

plastic sheets to regulate the amount of natural light filtering in, depending on the weather outside. The metal trays of plants hover over hot water pipes, for flexible heat. The place feels warm, humid, and breezy—more like a mountain climate, not a tropical jungle. Each finesse of the temperature, light, and humidity is an attempt to charm the flowers from their buds.

Kate mentions that some other growers use chemicals to force flowering so that their plants will sell. But this is not wise, she says. A weak plant base can’t support fantastic flowers for long.

Perhaps that’s a bit like love.

Nurture the foundation, and beautiful blossoms will follow.

Science Writer Alison Fromme is a freelancer whose writing has been featured in Mountain Home since 2011, and recently won a Keystone State Press Award for her writing here.

19

OU t d o Or s

CREP:

Prescription for the Chesapeake

By Gregg Rinkus

Photos by Elizabeth Young

Studies have shown that lotic water bodies passing through agricultural land contribute to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Chesapeake Bay. (Right) Jon Grigg holds a biodegradable tube used to protect vulnerable saplings.

M

ost folks in Tioga County would consider Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay a long way from home. But, in the mind of Wellsboro resident and physician Dr. Jon Grigg, it’s just a short float downstream.

Through participation in the federal CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program), Grigg is doing

something tangible to preserve and enhance his own land, while, at the same time, contributing to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, hundreds of miles away.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed is huge, covering over 64,000 square miles in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and Virginia. From these states, water from

countless small tributaries, streams, and rivers feed the Bay. Studies completed in the 1970s d o c u m e n t e d t h a t i n c re a s e s i n agricultural development, population growth, and sewage treatment plant discharges were negatively affecting the Bay to become excessively nutrient See CREP on page 22

20

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21

Outdoors

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njoy the views from our deck overlooking Pine Creek and relax with a drink in our bar.

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Trees planted along stream banks can lessen erosion by binding soil tightly with their roots.

CREP continued from page 20

enriched, mainly with nitrogen and phosphorous. This originated from municipal and industrial waste, cropland, animal wastes, urban and suburban runoffs, and airborne contaminants. Among the leading contributors was nitrate contamination from agricultural fields.

Similar to how Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring helped launch the U.S. environmental movement, these studies alerted the nation to what many had feared: their treasured Bay was slowly being poisoned. In 1983, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation was formed with its highest priority being restoration of the Bay’s living resources. In partnership with the Foundation, CREP is one of many initiatives helping to achieve that objective.

CREP is a federal voluntary conservation program that financially rewards producers and landowners for implementing conservation practices on their properties, and offers up to 100 % cost share reimbursement for installation, annual rental payments, and cash incentives.

22

Outdoors

It’s administered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Department Farm Service Agency whose Tioga County office, located in the Wellsboro Plaza, is under the direction of Pam Reese. It was here during the fall of 2007 that Grigg first inquired about CREP opportunities for his farm in Delmar Township. Currently, he has eighty of his 474 acres enrolled in fifteenyear CREP contracts.

Ac c o rd i n g t o Re e s e , t h e program is available to anyone with “qualified land” as determined through a free assessment, typically conducted by program technician Catherine Lingle. “It’s a step-bystep process and we never pressure the landowner,” Reese emphasized.

“There is never a commitment until contracts are signed.” No minimum amount of land is required to become CREP eligible.

While leasing much of his acreage for growing corn, soybeans, and hay, Grigg suspected that his unused pastures and other marginal land might be perfect for CREP involvement. His greatest interest was in providing riparian buffers along the many springs and streams on his property. Reparian zones are critically important natural biofilters, protecting aquatic environments from excessive sedimentation, polluted surface runoff, and erosion.

Under CREP, planting a riparian buffer is considered Conservation Practice 22 (CP22), which is one of many conservation practice types.

Once approved, Grigg contracted with Mike Hale of Hale Forestry Company in nearby Westfield to provide native hardwood trees and shrubs, protective plastic growth tubes, wood stakes, and labor to plant selected areas. Upfront material and labor costs for his CP22 projects were paid by Grigg, but were eventually reimbursed 100 percent through federal and state See CREP on page 24

Jon keeps an array of additional tubes, wooden stakes, and zip ties to maintain the plantings.

23

Outdoors

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Deer have learned that those plastic tubes have something living and nourishing inside them which they love to browse.

CREP continued from page 23

cost sharing.

According to Hale, planting a minimum of 100 trees and shrubs per acre satisfies CREP requirements. A plant survival rate of 70 percent is expected to maintain participation in the program.

“It is not a ‘plant-and-forget’ technology,” Hale advised. “The key to success is an engaged landowner who is willing and able to maintain the plantings.” Not surprising to those who know him, Jon Grigg is the model of involvement.

With undoubtedly the same care he provides his patients, Dr. Grigg nurtures his trees and shrubs with the passion of a master horticulturalist. He considers animals and weather the two greatest challenges to maintaining his plantings. Deer have learned that those plastic tubes have something living and nourishing inside them which they love to browse. In the fall, bucks frequently take out their rutting urges on tubes and trees with

Curtis Frye

Outdoors

their antlers. Even passing black bears are attracted by the tubes. The buzzing of nesting bees within the tubes incites their curiosity, and they occasionally rip the tubes apart in search of an easy meal. Field mice and voles damage both the tubes and the plants themselves with their incessant gnawing. As for weather, winds in excess of forty mph can wreak havoc on the tubes and damage the trees.

But, even with these day-to-day trials and tribulations, Grigg characterizes his time afield—driving his Kubota ATV among the trees, sometimes with friends and family, but most times alone—as “peaceful and tranquil.” In the hands of Dr. Jon Grigg, CREP has become effective therapy for his Tioga County farmland, the Chesapeake Bay, and even himself. In fact, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Mountain Home contributor and nature writer, Gregg Rinkus, hails from Franklin, PA and is Regional Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager for Penn E&R in Wellsboro.

25

THE 22

TH

ANNUAL

BLOSSBURG COAL

Celebrating the history and heritage of the mining

industry in Blossburg and the surrounding communities.

In 1792 coal was discovered in the Blossburg area during the building of the

Williamson Road. The coal quickly became a valuable resource that brought people to the area to work in the coal mines, and many of the towns in our area were created because of the mining that took place.

Blossburg was home to William B. Wilson, the first US Secretary of Labor. This man helped shape the United States, advocating eight-hour workdays, strong unions, workers compensation, child labor laws, and workplace safety during his years of labor activism and political influence.

After Wilson’s death in 1934 the family farm was sold to the American Legion Post No. 572 of Blossburg. The Legion Post is still located there today.

Although mining no longer takes place in the area, we honor our past with the annual Coal Festival. The first Coal Festival was held Memorial Day weekend in 1993, 201 years after coal was discovered in Blossburg.

The event continues to be held on Memorial Day weekend each year. We invite you, your family, and friends to help us celebrate.

MAY

ENTERTAINMENT

LOCAL PERFORMERS TAKE THE STAGE CARNIVAL & COAL MUSEUM FOOD AND FUN FOR ALL! WEDNESDAY May 22 • Booths & Carnival open 6:00 p.m.

• New Coal Museum opens 6:00 p.m.

• First Position Dance Studio 6:30 p.m.

THURSDAY May 23 • Booths & Carnival open 6:00 p.m.

• New Coal Museum opens 6:00 p.m.

• Tom Kelly (Strong Man) 6:45 p.m.-8 p.m.

• Morning After Band 8:30 p.m.

FRIDAY May 24 • Booths & New Coal Museum open 6:00 p.m.

• Flea Market 6:00 p.m.

• King and Queen Pageant 6:00 p.m.

• Billy D & Rosie 7:15 p.m., 8:15 p.m., & 9:15 p.m.

SATURDAY May 25 • Gates open at 8:00 a.m.

• 5k Run 8:30 a.m.

• Car Show: Registration starts at 9:30 a.m., Awards at 3:30 p.m.

• Antique Snowmobile Show • Horseshoe Tournament & Other Entertainment • 8th Annual Coal Run - Registration at 9:30 a.m.

• Parade 11:00 a.m.

• Chicken BBQ • Booths & Carnival Open at Noon • Flea Market Opens at Noon • New Coal Museum Opens at Noon • Denny Huber Magician & Ballon Artist 12:30 & 3:30 • East West Karate Demo 12:30 p.m.

• Horseshoe Tournament 2:00 p.m.

Contact Cliff Welch (570)659-5921 • Smooth Country 1:00 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.

• Country Twilers 2:00 p.m. & 3:30 p.m.

• Duck Race 3:30 p.m.

• Pat Cole’s Karaoke Contest 3:30 p.m. until Fireworks begin • Raffle Drawing before Fireworks

• AREA’S LARGEST FIREWORKS DISPLAY -Starting at dusk

26

FESTIVAL

22-25

Island Park, Blossburg, PA

MH Bloss AD_Layout 1 4/20/13 1:55 PM Page 1

ADMISSION

All visitors must purchase a $3.00 pin that is good for all four days of the festival and all events held at the Coal Festival in Blossburg.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m. except on Saturday when we open at 8 a.m.

Blossburg Beverage Co. Like us on Facebook

570-638-2474

Get your mortgage or home equity from the #1 Mortgage Lender in the Northern Tier!

Apply online at www.firstcitizensbank.com, or visit one of our five Tioga County Offices today!

Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender

(800) 326-9486

For more Information call 570-638-3313 or visit www.blossburgcoalfestival.org

27

Outdoors

Calling All Turkeys

By Roger Kingsley

A sampling of the fronts and backsides of six calls that Al builds. They are a perfect partner for a well-tuned shotgun!

O

ne day while reading Turkey Call magazine, I noticed an article about traveling turkey calls. Four custom-made calls were selected to be used by turkey hunters scattered across sixteen states. What was the point? Feedback! Those four turkey calls ended up crossing over 22,000 miles, which exposed them to a wide range of hunting climates and wild turkey sub-species.

One of the turkey calls chosen for that cross-country trip—named Pennsylvania Thunder—was made in Rome, Pennsylvania, located in eastern Bradford County. Since turkey hunting had recently become an obsession of mine, I dialed the number that was visible in the photograph of the call, and was soon talking to the call maker himself, Al Holbert. Al invited me to visit his workshop in Windham Township—which I gladly accepted—to not only see where, but learn how and why the Pennsylvania Thunder was built.

Al grew up in Northern Bradford County and attended Athens High School. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy where he spent four years as a shipfitter. Returning home, Al landed a job at the Bendix Corporation in Elmira, New York, where he put in thirtyone years as a machinist. It was during those working years at Bendix that Al’s interest in turkey hunting blossomed.

His first sighting of wild turkeys happened in 1959 in Chemung County, New York—the year prior to his navy enlistment. Al was fascinated by the sight of those birds and the 28

encounter left a permanent impression. In those days, the wild turkey’s long-established range in Pennsylvania consisted mostly of the south-central counties.

It wasn’t until 1968—the year Pennsylvania held its first spring gobbler season—that Al tagged his first wild turkey on Armenia Mountain Al Holbert in his in western Bradford County. workshop in Windham Township, Because of the lack of Bradford County. wild turkeys at that time, it was rare to find a turkey call in a sporting goods store in these parts, and that sparked a desire for Al to create his own call. Years later, when he finally succeeded, Al started demonstrating his calls to co-workers, who eventually began waiting in the parking lot for him to show up because they wanted one, too. That’s because turkey populations were rapidly expanding, and with it an urge to hunt them.

A turkey call—for the uninformed—is an apparatus used to imitate the social vocalizations of the wild turkey. Emitting such sounds in a realistic manner tricks the birds to approach within range of whatever a hunter is armed with. There are many different call designs, but they fall into two categories: friction and air-activated.

Outdoors

At first, Al concentrated on perfecting his own style of mouth call. But after experimenting with other designs, he focused on the ambidexterity of friction calls.

The downside to mouth calls is the heap of practice most people must undergo to achieve some level of proficiency.

Friction calls require hand movement to scrape something across an abrasive surface, and a specific design known as the pot-and-peg is what Al began building in the early 1980s. The pot holds the surface, which is the foundation for the sound, while the peg or striker controls a percentage of the volume and tone. If you desire a different tone, you can opt to change the pot or the peg.

A single species of wood—preferably dense or tight-grained—used to be the only practical base for a pot, but experimentation with other materials found that laminated woods and synthetics can be equal, if not superior, depending on who you ask. Regardless of the material, if it creates a sound that appeals to Al, he shapes it into a call. “But why so many models of the pot and peg?” I ask. “Different materials produce different tones,” Al explains, “which is why I make so many variations. Everybody likes something different.

“Some like walnut for its higher-pitched version, while others might prefer a mellow, raspier sound typical of black cherry. And their preference is usually based on whether it helped them tag a bird.”

“Turkeys—especially mature gobblers—are notorious for being overly suspicious,” says Al. “So I encourage hunters to master as many calls and sounds as possible to use under different circumstances. That’s because there’s no telling what a gobbler or hen will respond to on any given day. Stuffing your vest with a variety of calls will enable a hunter to quickly mix up the calling to sound like more than one bird, which might be the key to luring in a stubborn tom.”

Hardwoods like walnut, cherry, and oak are widely used for turkey calls and will never go out of style, but space-age synthetics, plastics, and composites have become commonplace. Corian is one such material. Created by Dupont, it’s used primarily for countertops because of its non-porous structure.

The density of corian transmits superior acoustics.

Striking surfaces of pots are typically glass, aluminum, or slate. Slate is a hard, bluish-gray rock that has been used in turkey calls for decades. Al uses Pennsylvania slate and purchases it from the Big Bed Slate Company located in Slatington, Pennsylvania—a town named for its abundant, high-quality slate quarries.

Striking surfaces must be roughed up or sanded to prepare the call for the striker. A striker or peg can generally be made out of a wide variety of woods, even laminated, but plastic and other materials have

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See Turkey Caller on page 30

29

Outdoors

Turkeys are blessed with phenomenal vision... supposedly capable of seeing 300 degrees without moving their heads. Possessing such an ability puts predators and hunters at a great disadvantage.

Turkey Caller continued from page 29

Morris Chair Shop

hit the market thanks to creative thinkers. In recent years, carbon pegs matched against an aluminum or glass surface have become well-known for their ability to generate excellent turkey sounds even when wet.

Al hits the road every year to take part in shows, such as the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, and the PA Bow Hunters Festival in Forksville. “ENTICER TURKEY CALLS—The Calls Hunters Swear by...

Not at!” is his sign. At his booths, Al points out to interested onlookers that he’s not a salesman. “I’m just showing you what I’ve got,” he explains. “The calls sell themselves and every one of them carries a lifetime guarantee.”

Al currently builds eighteen pot and peg calls, of which ten are part of his Wet Wonder Series, which specifies 100 percent waterproof.

His number one best seller is the Wet-One Classic, which is no surprise since it can be used rain or shine.

His most recent introductions, the Next Generation and Spring Tradition, feature the corian pots with an ingenious, adjustable sound chamber.

Personally, I love the beauty of a wood pot like the rich walnut of the Pennsylvania Thunder...but maybe I’ve been influenced by the way it coaxed in a twenty pounder for me one spring morning.

My acquaintance with this seventy-year-old Windham Township resident obviously revealed a man with an uncanny knowledge of the wild turkey and their vocalizations. That knowledge clearly shows in his finished products and demonstrations.

You can find Al Holbert’s custom-made turkey calls and accessories at his Web site www. enticerturkeycalls.com. Or, to speak with the builder himself, call him at (570) 395-3279.

A hunter, photographer, and writer, Roger Kingsley’s articles and photos have appeared in Deer & Deer Hunting and Pennsylvania Game News, among others.

30

Our top local doctors and medical professionals answer your questions.

Special Advertising Section

Va s c u l a r s u r g e r y

Q A

: What are varicose veins? How can a Guthrie vascular surgeon help in treating them?

: Varicose veins can be unsightly and uncomfortable, but it is rare for them to be dangerous. They start out as normal veins, usually in the leg, that become stretched and weakened, leading to bulges that can be tender.

About 50 to 55 percent of women and 40 to 45 percent of men in the United States suffer from some type of vein problem. For most people, varicose veins are not an issue. There may be tenderness and if you bump or cause trauma to the vein, it will bleed quite a bit. But, for some people varicose veins do cause pain, aching, itching, burning and ankle swelling.

Robert Larson, MD, RVT, FACS Chief, Vasular & Endovascular Surgery

Fellowship-trained in vascular surgery from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa., Dr. Larson specializes in:

• Endovascular repair of abdominal

and thoracic aortic aneurysms

• Carotid artery surgery and stenting

• Endovascular treatment of

peripheral artery disease (PAD) Dr. Larson and the entire vascular surgery team offer nine convenient locations in Pennsylvania and New York.

Guthrie Vascular Surgery Locations:

• Big Flats, N.Y. 607-795-5100

• Corning, N.Y. 607-936-9971

• Ithaca, N.Y. 607-257-5858

• Owego, N.Y. 607-687-6101

• Sayre, Pa. 570-887-2848

• Towanda, Pa. 570-265-6165

• Wellsboro, Pa. 570-724-4241

The risk factors for varicose veins include a family history, a troublesome pregnancy or a lifestyle that demands a lot of standing. As gravity is the culprit in keeping the blood in the lower extremities, the area from the knees down tends to be the place of greatest impact.

There are some non-invasive approaches to managing varicose veins that a patient should try first. These include compression stockings that can slow the swelling of the veins. Another tactic is to simply get off your feet more often. Elevating your legs will reduce the pressure on the veins. In fact, upside down is the ideal position, but not very practical.

If more aggressive treatment is warranted, there is now an option that is much easier and far less intrusive into a patient’s life than earlier interventions. Many medical providers now use radiofrequency ablation of varicose veins, which can be done right in a doctor’s office. It’s a safe procedure that does not require anesthesia, although sedation is available for special needs patients.

Radiofrequency ablation works by numbing the site of the varicose vein at the knee and an IV is inserted into the vein. A thin catheter tipped with a round, 10-cm long radiofrequency probe is introduced into the IV and advanced up the vein into the thigh. Under ultrasound guidance, the probe delivers radiofrequency energy to warm and collapse the vein. Some people worry that the procedure will negatively affect their blood flow by closing off varicose veins, but those veins are already malfunctioning and shutting them down will not have any impact on circulation.

No one has to accept the discomfort of varicose veins as just a natural part of aging. There are options available to address this.

At Guthrie, our vascular surgeons work with patients to get prior approval for vein ablation.

If coverage is not available, patients often choose to have the treatment as a cosmetic procedure and pay out-of-pocket. In either case, the first step is a consultation with one of our vascular specialists at one of our many convenient locations throughout the Twin Tiers.

B i ll t o w n

Bountiful crops line rows at the Williamsport Growers Market, a popular Saturday morning ritual in the city.

Cultivating Community Story and Photos by Cindy Davis Meixel

S

hoppers will be coming to their senses this month when the Williamsport Growers Market returns to its traditional Saturday morning post—in a large parking lot at the intersection of Little League Boulevard, Hepburn, and Pine streets.

With delights appealing to all five senses, the popular rite of spring offers simple pleasures—the smell of burgers grilling, the sight of vibrant blossoms, the sound of cheerful voices, the taste

of fruit-filled crêpes, the warmth of neighbors’ hugs.

There’s community growing here.

Held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday, the Growers Market is a yearround event, wintering over in facilities owned by the Williamsport Parking Authority. But, the gathering is in full bloom with the return to its outdoor venue. This year, that occurs on May 4, and outside activity will continue through mid-November.

With thirty-four vendors at peak season, the market features local products: fruits, vegetables, meats, artisan breads and other baked goods, cheeses, eggs, oils, syrups, sauces, soaps, fiber goods, clothing, pottery, dog biscuits, bedding plants, and flowers.

Each vendor must create at least 80 percent of the goods they sell and the items must be Pennsylvania-made.

Anne Nordell, board president of See Growers Market on page 34

33

BILLTOWN

Warm smiles and handmade soaps by Rose Valley Naturals are always on hand.

Growers Market continued from page 33

the Williamsport Growers Market and owner of Beech Grove Farm, a certified organic farm near Trout Run, says the market has been in existence in some form since the 1970s, but has flourished in recent years along with the national “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” movement.

“There’s a renewed appreciation for local products, and we have grown substantially,” Nordell said, noting that some vendors have been at the market for over twenty years while others are more recent additions to the scene. All market members follow a set of rules and regulations that ensure a high quality of merchandise, she adds.

The bylaws appeal to Alison Kaminski, owner of her home business, Simply Mediterranean, who is beginning her eighth year at the market.

“There’s a lot of integrity behind the scenes as far as the products,” Kaminski stated. “I really like the fact that eighty percent of what you sell has to be produced by you; you can’t 34

Apple mint is among the sweet 'scent-sensations' of spring.

resell product. The strong integrity of the market is one of its biggest pluses.”

Affectionately called “The Crêpe Lady” by some customers, Kaminski credits her entire business to the outdoor Growers Market. When she

first started selling at the event, she simply sold “a few loaves of bread,” but she soon spotted an opportunity for expansion.

“I was able to find a niche that no one else was doing and the business grew itself into what it is today,” she said.

Kaminski says she “has always followed a Mediterranean diet” and her creations have emerged from that devotion. Traveling to Europe for cooking classes, she sought out European farmers’ markets for ideas to bring back home. It was there that she got the idea to make crêpes. Now in her fourth year of creating crêpes at her stand on Saturdays, she revels in gathering fillings from fellow vendors and crafting breakfast and lunch crêpes.

She also sells soups, hummus, spanakopita, and spelt flour baked goods. Her biggest seller at the moment is macarons, a meringue French pastry.

Kaminski is sweet on the friendships See Growers Market on page 36

BILLTOWN

35

BILLTOWN

Free samples, made with locally grown beef, breads, and garden produce, are often distributed at the weekly event.

Growers Market continued from page 34

she has developed at the Williamsport Growers Market.

“Out of all the markets I’ve been in, this one is the most supportive,” she offered. “We have a great rapport with our customers.”

David Mundrick, of Mundricks Greenhouse in Cogan Station, agrees that it’s the people that he appreciates most at the gathering.

“I enjoy the customers. We have a really good clientele,” Mundrick said. “And, I like the other vendors, too. They’re super. We try not to step on each other’s toes.

We’ve got a real good selection of vendors. We’ve definitely gotten larger.”

Nordell says the return of the outdoor market is exciting for customers and vendors alike.

“Every year, we’re meeting friends again that we haven’t seen in a couple of months,” Nordell related. “They’re not just somebody buying your food—you’ve formed relationships with them. And, they’re so appreciative of what you’re producing.”

Asked if she has a vision for the market’s future, Nordell noted three prospects. For starters, she’d like to see the hiring of a market manager since volunteer time has reached its maximum capabilities and marketing opportunities abound thanks to the Internet and social media. Also, at some point, market vendors hope to expand payment methods to include the acceptance of credit, debit, and SNAP cards. Long-term, Nordell dreams of one day having a covered, open-air, post-and-beam structure that would suspend the need for the weekly set-up of canopy tents.

Cultivating community—and thriving itself—the Williamsport Growers Market appears to have a healthy future.

Cindy Davis Meixel resides near Williamsport and loves to buy different products at the Williamsport Growers Market.

36

Ar t s & L e i s u r e

Director Gerard Stropnicky and Assistant Director Emily Mendelsohn.

The Storytellers Story and Photos by Rebecca Hazen

P

erhaps you were born and raised in Tioga County. Or maybe you came here recently because of a job prospect. There are probably quite a few who fit somewhere in the middle of the two. Regardless of the label, you fit into the community of Tioga County.

TIOGAchanges, a play debuting this month at the Tioga County Fairgrounds, will dive deep into just that—discovering what community means.

About eight years ago, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts asked director, writer, and actor Gerard “Jerry” Stropnicky to do workshops in eight counties across the Northern Tier.

“We did day-long workshops where we told stories, turned them into little plays, and performed them in a day,” Stropnicky said. “I did one here, with Hamilton-Gibson Productions.”

“When it is your own story of your

own place, a flame is ignited. I got an e-mail out of the blue from artistic director Thomas Putnam asking if I remembered them,” Stropnicky said.

“He told us that their board was looking into what was happening with the gas industry. They said, ‘Can we talk about making a play here?’ I had a sense that the community was in transition and the timing was right to do a story See Storytellers on page 38

37

Arts & Leisure

Director Gerard Stropnicky and Assistant Director Emily Mendelsohn give advice to actors Bonnie Kyofski and Tom Reindl. The actors rehearse their lines from the TIOGAchanges script, a play about Tioga County and the people living in it.

Storytellers continued from page 37

THOMAS T. TABER

Museum

of the Lycoming County Historical Society

858 West Fourth Street Williamport, PA 17701-5824

Phone: 570.326.3326 Fax: 570.326.3689

Museum | Archives | Library Join us for our…

• Outdoor Activities • Local History Coffee Hours • First Friday Activities • Children’s Events • Frequent New Exhibits

www.tabermuseum.org 38

project.”

Stropnicky, the co-founder of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, was awarded a prestigious USA Fellowship given to “America’s greatest artists” for his local history storytelling plays, which have taken him from Kentucky to Wellsboro. He has teamed up with assistant director Emily Mendelsohn.

Mendelsohn, also a director, has spent time in Africa on a Fulbright Fellowship, assisting local communities in Kampala, Uganda; and Kigali, Rwanda to tell their own stories. She met Stropnicky in Rwanda, while he was traveling with a friend. Mendelsohn knew that she just had to work on a project with Stropnicky, so the two kept in touch.

“Jerry is asking deep questions about how to partner with communities to celebrate local story,” Mendelsohn

said. “I mean local in every sense of the word—connected to a place, but also connected to what is local in ourselves: the images, and connections that we hold deepest in our hearts. I was thrilled to be able to join the project.”

For people who see the play, debuting on May 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 at 7:30 and May 12 at 2:30 at the Tioga County Fairgrounds, it is guaranteed that everyone will relate to at least one of the stories told.

Whether it is the dialogue about boomtown Blossburg in its mining days, or the fantastically funny story about a group of women taking a shopping trip to Elmira, you will recognize yourself, or maybe a neighbor in these stories.

“The community is still in people’s hands,” Stropnicky said. “It hasn’t been ripped away by larger commercial forces See Storytellers on page 41

Arts & Leisure

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1-800-661-3581 or 607-426-5898

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Arts & Leisure

40

Arts & Leisure Storytellers continued from page 38

Wellsboro

wellsboropa.com 570-724-1926

or other forces in our world. It is a community of people worshiping, singing, and doing things together..”

“I definitely have a sense of getting to know the place,” Mendelsohn said. “We have been met with extraordinary hospitality. The stories that I have been listening to have been playful and joyful stories of perseverance. There are a lot of stories of community support.”

Stropnicky and Mendelsohn gathered up the stories and information over the course of a year, and they are still going.

“So far we have interviewed 125 people,” Stropnicky said.

“It was two separate processes,” Mendelsohn said.

“Jerry and the team interviewed the people from all over Tioga County, and some of the scenes in the play take direct images from those stories. We talked to doctors, nurses, and we talked to people involved in the gas industry. We talked to teenagers and farmers.”

During a rehearsal at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts, some of the actors took some time away from the scripts to talk about what the production meant to them.

Bonnie Kyofski, portraying a miner, an abstracter, and a farmhand, said, “What is exciting is seeing the process of the play happening, and seeing the stories changing. I was one of the primary interview guides, and I think we really tried to get a true cross-section of everybody in Tioga County as well as things we knew as being important to the history of the county.”

“I’ve been involved with Hamilton-Gibson performances before, and I knew I just had to be in this one,” Tom Reindl, who portrays a father of a farming family and a miner, said. “I have lived in Tioga County almost thirteen years now and I have grown to love this county. This play celebrates that.”

Because the script is still being developed, people who see the play this month will only see phase one, but will have an opportunity to see the final production during the summer of 2014.

“Right now we have a cast of eighteen, and it is going to be as good as we can make it. It is a risky thing, though. We realized that it was going to take longer than we thought to really pull it together.

When we do the full one, we may have a cast of 100 or more,” Stropnicky said.

“There is a fascination in the real. I do know that when I do this in other communities, they come in large numbers, and I hope this happens here,” Stropnicky said. “There is an energy that happens when it is your own story.”

41

Corning’s Gaffer District

gafferdistrict.com 607-937-6292

23 -2 6, 20 13

Can’t agree on where to go for a quick, fresh meal? Come to our Market Café. Our variety of freshly made foods ranges from quick grabs like pizza, subs, and Asian classics to comfort-food favorites, salads, and sandwiches. Familyfriendly foods at budget-friendly prices—that’s Wegmans.

M AY

Something for everyone

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Welcome to Corning’s Gaffer District We carry an array of products to compliment your hair care and beauty needs.

For more GlassFest 2013 info, visit www.glassfest.org, or call 607.937.6292

43

GLASSFEST EVENTS AT A GLANCE Simmons-Rockwell presents Rock the Park 8:00pm to 10:00pm Glass Ribbon Cutting featuring live music – “DSB” (Journey trib5:00pm ute band) 2300o GlassFest Fireworks over Riverfront Centennial Park 5:30pm to 7:30pm 10:00pm

THURSDAY, MAY 23RD

FRIDAY, MAY 24TH

Eric Goldschmidt Demonstration 12:00pm to 1:00pm Outdoor Hot Glass Show

2:00pm to 9:00pm GlassFest FlameOff

2:00pm to 9:00pm Oral History Project

3:00pm to 7:00pm Live Music – “Distilled”

4:30pm to 7:30pm Finger Lakes Wine & Craft Beer Tasting 5:00pm to 8:00pm Simmons-Rockwell presents Rock the Park 8:00pm to 10:00pm featuring live music – “Nik & The Nice Guys”

SUNDAY, MAY 26TH

Outdoor Hot Glass Show 11:00am to 5:00pm Puppen Meister Kids Carnival 11:00am to 5:00pm Street Exhibit, Artists & Vendors 11:00am to 5:00pm GlassFest FlameOff Awards 12:00pm Live Music – “Nothin’ New” 12:00pm to 1:30pm Magician – Joe Cappon 1:00pm to 2:00pm Glass ID Clinic 1:00pm to 3:00pm Live Music – “Jamie O’Neal” 2:00pm to 3:30pm SATURDAY, MAY 25TH Zooperstars GlassFest 8K race 4:00pm to 5:00pm 8:30am Puppen Meister Kids Carnival Other kids activities and events happening 11:00am to 7:00pm all weekend are listed @ glassfest.org Street Exhibit, Artists & Vendors 11:00am to 7:00pm Outdoor Hot Glass Show 11:00am to 8:00pm GlassFest FlameOff 12:00pm to 7:00pm Magician – Joe Cappon 1:00pm to 2:00pm Live Music – “Wiseguys” 4:00pm to 6:00pm Smokin’ HOT Barbecue 5:00pm to 8:00pm Live Music – “Boogiemen” 5:00pm to 8:00pm Live Music – “Tongue & Groove” 6:00pm to 7:20pm

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Arts & Leisure

Doings, cont.

22–25 Blossburg Coal Festival – Come out and enjoy the five-day celebration packed full of fun and entertainment for everyone!

This annual event celebrates the town’s rich history and culture and has a huge car show, horseshoe tournament, royalty pageant, rides, games, live entertainment, and lots of food. Be part of the fun from Tuesday – Saturday, May 22 to 25. (Blossburg Coal Festival, Blossburg, PA; (570) 6383313).

22–24 Mary Wells Days – Come out to charming Wellsboro to honor one of the founding residents of the town. Join your neighbors in celebrating during Mary Wells Days. There will be sidewalk sales and nonprofit organizations will set up fundraising stands on Main Street. Have fun Wednesday – Friday, May 22 to 24. (Wellsboro Chamber of Commerce, Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-1926; info@ wellsboropa.com).

WINERIES/BREWERIES 11 Sparkling Wine Dosage Experience – Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see how delicious, bubbly, sparkling wine is made at Glenora Wine Cellars. Watch as wine is disgorged and dosaged to create the perfect level of sweetness. This informative, fun demonstration will feature lots of amazing samples to taste. When you’re done, bring your favorite sparkling wines home with you. Join the fun on Saturday, May 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are required and tasting fees will be donated to FookLink in Yates County. (Glenora Wine Cellars, 5435 State Rt 14, Dundee, NY; 800 243-5513; www.glenora.com).

OUTDOORS/SPORTS 10 Golf Tournament 2013 – Fore! Get that hole-in-one while you’re supporting a great charity. All proceeds benefit Animal Care Sanctuary. The captain and crew- style competition at Corey Creek Golf Club starts at 9 a.m. with registration and breakfast, then hit the course, and enjoy the awards ceremony and buffet. Tee off and support local animals in need on Friday, May 10, at 9 a.m. Cost is $80 per person and includes: continental breakfast, buffet lunch, green fees and cart, awards, and closest pin contest. (Corey Creek Golf Club, 18795 US Rt 6; Mansfield, PA; http:// www.animalcaresanctuary. org/2013-golf-tournament/).

18–19 Upper Pine Creek Trout Tournament – Pull on that lucky fishing hat and get ready to land the big one. Join other participants along beautiful Pine Creek and catch that monster trout.

The thirteen-mile stretch between Galeton to the Ansonia Bridge will provide plenty of scenery and fish.

Cash prizes will be awarded for marked catches. Enjoy the family fun on Saturday – Sunday, May 18 to 19. (PA Grand Canyon Snowmobiling Club, Wellsboro, PA; (570) 724-2888; johnm@chilitech. com; www.pagrandcanyon showmobileclub.com).

25 Family Kayaking – This family friendly event is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and is held at Ives Run Recreation Area. The event teaches the sport of kayaking in a fun and safe environment.

Splash around on Saturday, May 25. (Fish and Boat Commission phone: (570) 835-0113).

E-mail listings@mountainhomemag.com to notify us of your events.

46

F i n g e r

l a k e s

Corning’s Crystal Couple

By Corneilus O’Donnell Photos by Elizabeth Young

M

eet Kitty and Max Roland Erlacher, a couple I’ve shared many a meal with, and been the happy recipient of armloads of Max’s garden bounty and cuttings from the flower garden—you should see his white iris plants! The Erlachers live high on a hill near Campbell just west of Corning, New York. That’s the site of Max’s Austrianinspired home and his extensive garden. An adjacent building houses his studio and showroom. Kitty has owned several businesses filled with previously-owned furniture (she has also managed household sales in the area). But always there were cabinets

filled with sparkling Steuben pieces.

I’m happy to say Kitty is back on Market Street in Corning with a mindboggling collection of glass.

Max, whom many experts believe is the most talented glass engraver in the world, came to Corning from Austria in 1957. He was born in Innsbruck in l933. As Kitty tells it, Max was “the youngest person ever to attain that ‘Fine Art Master, Copper Wheel Engraver’ degree involving a “certificate, recognition, and title from the state of Austria.” And Kitty believes the record still stands. On completion of his formal studies Max received an offer from Steuben Glass Works.

They knew a good thing—make that engraver—when they saw his student work.

He arrived at the Corning train station with a few dollars in his pocket, a new suit, and his extraordinary talent.

A couple of years later he met Corning native Kitty O’Bryan, who had attended New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, majoring in retail merchandising. (Her extraordinary talent for displaying products to highlight their intrinsic beauty is clearly evident at her Steuben shop.)

Cue the chirping lovebirds: these two extraordinary people met and married See Corning’s Crystal Couple on page 48

47

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Corning’s Crystal Couple continued from page 47

and produced two extraordinary kids and they, in turn, produced five grandchildren.

Max’s Turn Many of you might remember seeing photographs of the Presidential gifts presented to a variety of world leaders: the massive glass sculpture “The Great Ring of Canada” was presented in 1967 to Canada’s Prime Minister by Lyndon Johnson. “Forest Spires” was a gift to the Emperor of Japan when President Reagan visited his nation.

That’s just a sample of major pieces that were all brought to life through the incredible engraving of Max. Perhaps the most famous of the masterpieces was the “Crusader Bowl,” a large oval vessel with Corning’s Crystal Couple continued on page 49

Finger Lakes Corning’s Crystal Couple continued from page 48

figures cut and engraved along the rim, presented to England’s Prince Charles and Lady Diana by President Reagan as a wedding gift from the people of the United States. Over the years, the Corning Museum of Glass has displayed copies of some of these strikingly beautiful pieces. If the gift was truly important, Max Erlacher was chosen to interpret the designer’s ideas, in many cases creating effects such as cameo carving to achieve incredible dimension. Many are proudly displayed in palaces around the world.

You can hear Max describe the backstory on “Crusader,” as well as watch him at work on a longer video showing his technique engraving a piece.

Watching Max at work and deflecting quips from onlookers prove that he has a grand sense of humor.

Go to the “Stories of Glass” blog (at www.CMOG.org) where you’ll find several interviews with key employees.

Favorite Piece, Favorite Flower I asked Max to name his favorite piece—and by now he has engraved hundreds of one-of-a-kind spectaculars.

Without hesitation he named a very special glass sculpture called “The Romance of the Rose,” designed

by Donald Pollard and telling the story of a young man’s romance. Imagine an oversized crystal flower with six petals (with, typical of a rose, rippling edges). Max engraved scenes on both sides of each petal, which were then set into a base that mimics a rose’s stamen, only here it is made up of precious gems. This amazing object was bought by a wealthy collector and hand-carried to the owner in Venezuela.

Torn between the Tractor and the Engraving Wheel Speaking of roses, right now Max is giving equal attention to his garden and his glass. The planting is almost done. In his studio he is putting the finishing touches on a large sculpture consisting of individual cubes of engraved glass designed by Eric Hilton. If you’ve seen the incredible “Innerland” piece by this artist, now in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, you can get an idea of this new design.

I’ve gone to dinners at Cornell’s Statler Hall and admired the wall of crystal plate/plaques that are engraved with the names of honorees—notable alumni and donors. That’s all Max’s work. Two more plates are in the works: “It’s like a regular check from a trust fund,” quips Max. Kitty’s Unique Shop When Steuben Glass Works disappeared, Kitty

11_MountainHome:Layout 1

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8:19 AM

Page 1

Visit the Woolrich Flagship store, located in the village where the company was founded over 181 years ago!

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Corning’s Crystal Couple continued on page 50

49

Finger Lakes

Kitty Erlacher at her Steuben Glass showroom in Corning, New York.

Corning’s Crystal Couple continued from page 49

recognized an opportunity. She had long dealt with pieces of Steuben that folks who were downsizing were willing to part with. “Why not keep a presence of this quintessential Corning product in town?” thought Kitty. So she found a perfect spot at 5 West Market Street just off Centerway Square, in what old-timers like me call the Baron Steuben building. She performed some Kitty-magic and voila, an elegant and beautifully-lit showroom was filled with stunning and varied Steuben objects. You’ll find glittering animals, vases, serving pieces, beverage glasses, and even presentation pieces.

Corning’s Crystal Couple continued on page 51

50

Finger Lakes

Seriously good wine!

Memorable hospitality.

Family friendly.

A great view!

Open Daily: Mon-Sat 10-5 Sun noon-5 Corning’s Crystal Couple continued from page 50

She also attends major glass shows and has a customer base that is seeking additional pieces that Kitty the Hunter tracks down. So, it’s best to call ahead if you plan to visit: 607-794-4759.

And examples of Max’s work are in the museum for all of us, just blocks away.

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

Chef, teacher, and author Corneilus O’Donnell lives in Elmira, New York.

(Above and below) A few of the best pieces Erlacher has engraved have been cameo vases. in these pieces he created shadows by engraving at different depths into the top layer of glass.

51

Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes Wine Review

Glass Act

By Holly Howell

I

was skeptical when I first heard that a wine will taste different depending on the shape of glass in which it is served. After all, it is still the same wine, no matter how it gets to your mouth. Then I attended a glassware seminar, and I am now a believer.

It is true that a glass cannot change a wine. But I have discovered that a glass can enhance and promote the wine’s best characteristics.

Here’s what happens. Think of the wine in your glass as a river as it flows out of the glass. The shape of the glass will define the direction of that river. The glass has the power to turn that river into a wide Mississippi that just keeps rolling along, dispersing the wine onto your tongue like a big delta. Or that glass can take the river and funnel it into a small concentrated stream that will stay direct and focused and hit only the middle of your tongue.

Now, this is the reason why the shape of the “wine river” coming out of your glass is so important.

The human tongue is made up of sensory units called taste buds. The concentration of the sweet ones are up front, the sour guys are mostly on the sides, and the bitter and salt are towards the back. Although that is the simplified version, it is ultimately the arrangement of these taste buds that matter in wine appreciation.

For example, wines with lots of acidity, or “tartness,” should be served in a glass that will accentuate the fruit to balance the tart (sour).

A glass can do that by directing the flow of wine to the front and center of your tongue where you taste “sweet” or fruit. The glass should steer the wine away from the sides of 52

your mouth where it would over-emphasize the sourness. The glasses will be larger at the bottom and smaller towards the top to focus that river.

On the other hand, a wine with very little acidity (sourness), but lots of fruit and dry tannin (bitter) should be served in a glass that will direct the flow of wine towards the sides of your mouth—adding tartness to balance the fruit and tame the tannins. The glasses will have wider openings to let the river spread wide.

The wine glass has the ability to bring out the wine’s best attributes.

It has the power to help that wine taste the absolute best that it can be.

When choosing the right wine glass to use at home, it doesn’t have to be an ultra complicated decision. You do not have to purchase a unique set of glasses for every different style of wine on the planet. You can just purchase an “all-purpose” wine glass.

It will dispense sparklers, whites, and reds and will probably last you for years without protest. Good enough.

Warning: Read on ONLY if you are keen on learning more about wine and ultimately spending more money.

Here’s the real deal. Simply think about the kind of wine that you like to drink, or as I like to say, “go to your happy place.” If you prefer a fullerbodied Chardonnay to a delicate Riesling, then buy Chardonnay glasses (yes, they are a different shape).

If you prefer an elegant, mouthwatering Pinot Noir over a monster red Cabernet Sauvignon, then you know what to do. Go with the Pinot glass. Your wine will taste better.

Remember, these glasses are scientifically designed for that specific wine, and who are we to argue

with the glass technology specialists?

Look for the wine glasses that are labeled for the wines that they serve best. As you become more diversified, don’t panic. These glasses can also work for other wines that share similar characteristics. For example, a Chianti that has good acidity would taste fine in a Pinot Noir glass.

Also, take notice of the rim (top edge of the glass). This can be a key factor in the “delivery” of wine to your palate. As that river of wine is being delivered to your tongue, it doesn’t need any obstacles in its way. The rim of the glass should be thin and polished. A thin “cut” rim allows the wine to flow smoothly and evenly from the glass to your palate. Glasses with thick, rolled rims present a barrier to the flow of the wine, causing a “dam” effect. The wine builds up until it breaks over the rim and pours into the mouth in one big rush. This means the wine will miss the “sweet” taste buds at the front of the tongue, and hit the “bitter” and “acidic” sensors first.

Once you have a good glass, another thing to remember is that it should never be filled to the top. A glass should be filled only to the widest diameter point of its bowl. This ensures maximum development of the wine’s bouquet in the glass. It also allows for adequate “swirling” space to release the aromas of the wine before drinking. And appreciating the aromas of a wine is just as enjoyable as drinking it. Don’t think of the glass as half empty. In this case, it is half full and at its best!

Holly is a Certified Specialist of Wine (by the Society of Wine Educators) and a Certified Sommelier (by the Master Court of Sommeliers in England).

Food

&

Drink

The recipe for creamed chipped beef on toast, also fondly known as "bleep on a shingle" calls for these ingredients: dried beef, butter, flour, milk, and toast. Creamed chipped beef on toast was a staple in military diets, including for this writer while he was stationed in Korea.

*Bleep*on a Shingle: Memories of Army Days

By Cornelius O'Donnell

W

Photos by Liz Young

e all have memories of food past, some good and some not so. My memory was piqued recently reading the pages of the book Life is Meals by Jay and Kay Salter. It’s in the form of a diary—one entry about food for each day of the year.

Some are just a paragraph long; some discuss menus, some about ingredients and their home cooking. You’ll also find lots of advice for hosts, and a very few recipes. I have the book next to my computer and so, while I was waiting for

this thing to warm up, I read the essay of the day so to speak.

My computer is elderly, but so am I, and just as I require hot, black coffee, this relic needs time to warm up.

A mid-January entry in the Salter’s book contains a recipe from the Manual for Army Cooks, circa 1910. If you figured out the headline, you’ll know this is the infamous and classic Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast. It brought back memories.

See On a Shingle on page 54

53

ROTC and Me I spent four years in my college’s ROTC program learning all about the field artillery. In a cruel trick of fate I ended up in a mortar battery in Korea in 1958 assigned to an infantry battle group.

There were so many of us artillery officers I eventually found myself moving to the post(s) of adjutant, assistant adjutant, personnel officer— and honcho of the Officer’s Club, where we served breakfast, lunch, and, on tablecloths yet, dinner. Camp Casey, just minutes from the DMZ, was fairly primitive but, by golly, every evening— with help from our houseboys—we dressed for dinner: clean and very pressed khakis in warm weather, and a woolen ensemble in winter, all of this topped off by white silk neck scarves (during the day these were in the color of our Army branch—artillery was red.)

It was all veddy Stewart Granger.

I met weekly with the mess sergeant to plan the menus, and, believe me, Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast was served daily, usually as an option to the over-cooked eggs that were made from powdered eggs and were perfectly awful.

Thanks to the Salter’s, here’s that basic Army recipe:

The Classic CCB 1 (4.5 lb.) jar dried beef 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons Wondra flour (an all-purpose flour perfect for lump-free gravies and sauces) 1 cup milk (2% is okay) (more or less, depending on desired thickness) Toast

Soak the dried beef in water to eliminate most of the salt, pat dry, and tear into pieces. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium/medium-high heat, and add beef. (Jim Beard and others want you to cook the meat until it is slightly frizzled at the edges.)

Shake in the flour and lightly sauté. Add milk gradually while stirring and heat until the mixture thickens.

54

Add more milk to achieve desired consistency. Serve over toast. Serves two.

Now if you’re a pretty good cook you may think: how bland—and how right you are. Look at the recipe and let your mind wander through any number of tastier possibilities. I did a bunch of research on the dish, and here are some ideas.

The Salt’s Gotta Go I found two recipes for CCB at the Saveur magazine Web site. In one, the excess salt was eliminated by soaking the dried beef—available in glass jars or, in some markets, in the deli case— in cold water (as in the above recipe) for a few minutes, then draining and cutting it into slivers or just chopping it.

Other sources, specifically my culinary guru James Beard in his monumental work American Cookery, suggests using boiling water, waiting five minutes, and then draining, patting dry, and cutting the beef into strips. Personally, I’d soak it in milk, because that’s what I do when flushing excess salt from anchovies. Drain.

I tossed one of those Saveur recipes aside as it suggested bacon grease as the fat in the white sauce, although I bet many an army cook did just that. I will now repeat my mantra: butter is better.

Beard offers a recipe for the desalted chipped beef combined with scrambled eggs. Sounds nifty, but let’s get back to my meeting with the mess sergeant in Korea. The “shingle” he often used was split and lightly toasted biscuits. And he sometimes used ground beef as I imagine dried beef was difficult to obtain.

Again I cite Beard whose variation combined a half pound of thinly sliced mushrooms, sauteed in butter with a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and six ounces of soaked, dried, and shredded chipped beef. His cream sauce is a winner: five tablespoons each butter and flour (cooked until flour is pale golden) then finished with one cup of

chicken broth and three-fourths cup heavy cream. When thickened add the beef and mushrooms. Heat, and serve over crisp toast.

An A-Peeling Variation I’ve been mulling over this culinary topic for a few days, and one recent evening I had a mild “Eureka” moment.

I was reading as my bed-book another sort of memoir by one of my favorite authors. It’s called Dispatches from Maine, a collection of the columns John Gould wrote for sixty-odd years (that is not a misprint) for the Christian Science Monitor. I reached page ninety-seven, and an essay called “That One-Time Simplicity” from 1962, in which John realizes that he’s been missing “a great way to stretch short pennies into the greatest good for the greatest number, namely creamed dried beef.” Being as the setting is Maine, he advises that to “raise supper into the milliondollar category…bake the potatoes.”

(Beard also liked this idea). The cooked potatoes got halved (skin on I assume) and “smashed on the plate, with a gob of butter on the top, and then we dipped into the bowl to cover it with the creamed dried beef. The top notch kind would have a half-dozen hard-boiled eggs worked into the sauce, and the little chunks of yolk would look up and grin at you like a burst of sunshine.”

Suggestions from Foodies I queried several of my food-writer friends about their ideas. My friend Marie suggested, instead of the “shingle,” a bed of steamed or sauteed spinach or kale, or perhaps baked sweet potatoes, crispy potato pancakes, cooked Quinoa, or corn bread. In any case she’d add a pinch of fresh ground nutmeg to the sauce and have bottled hot sauce on the table. My favorite local foodie, David de Horseheads, would top each portion with a poached egg. Another friend suggested an over-easy egg. As for an alternative to the toast, Dave would use a toasted English muffin. Sounds good.

See On a Shingle on page 58

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7 days a week, 24 hours a day. (570) 724-4556, 7 Main St.

Eddie’s offers home-style cooking with homemade daily specials.

Their specialties include hot roast beef sandwiches and chicken & biscuits, both served with real mashed potatoes. They have homemade pies and serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (570) 662-2972, 2103 S. Main St.

LAMBS CREEK FOOD & SPIRITS

}DUNKIN’

Tioga County Mansfield

}EDDIE’S RESTAURANT

56

Dumpling House specializes in Hunan, Cantonese, and Szechuan Cuisine. It’s family owned and operated and located on beautiful Main Street in Wellsboro. You may dine in or carry out. (570) 7244220, 31 Main St.

NATIVE

BAGEL

The Native Bagel offers bagels made fresh daily, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches, soups and salads, and homemade desserts.

Bagels are mixed, kneaded, rolled, boiled, and baked onsite.

All soups, breads, and baked items are “made from scratch.” 1 Central Ave, (570) 724-0900, www. nativebagel.com.

PAG-O-MAR Pag-O-Mar offers subs, salads, and deli sandwiches at the head of the Wellsboro Junction Rail Trail, across from the Tioga Central tour train station. They also offer soft custard and Hershey’s hard ice cream. And there’s a farmer’s market in season.

(570) 724-3333, 222 Butler Rd. (just past junction of Rts. 6 & 287).

Food & Drink

Mother Earth

It Is What It Is

By Gayle Morrow

O

ver forty years ago, members of a family in northern Scotland found themselves in a new living situation and with a need to feed themselves. Despite, or perhaps because of, a decided lack of experience, money, and basic garden niceties, they prepared as best they could the gritty turf that passed for soil at the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park.

They planted.

Then they reaped. They reaped in spades. They became the recipients of amazing bounty from a little-bitof-nothing patch of sand and gravel on a peninsula jutting into the North Sea. Year after year they put into the land; year after year the land gives back to them. The Findhorn garden story (go ahead, check out Findhorn. org) is an inspirational and magical one, an extraordinary combination of hard work and intimate communication with the natural world.

My new garden this season will be as much of an experiment for me as the first Findhorn garden was for those unrelenting Scots. I’ll keep you posted. The ground is rocky, the dirt is different, the altitude is higher, and the leaf canopy is impressive.

I don’t know what, if anything, will do well here. Should I focus on herbs and forget the tomatoes? Where will the sunflowers be happy? Can I pos-

sibly coax an onion to adulthood?

Radishes are hardy, but after a while, like zucchini, you can’t give them away. Maybe just put the whole thing into chives—they grow anywhere.

But what a learning experience it will be! Part of the lesson of Findhorn, of your garden, of my garden, is appreciation for the miracle of everything that grows and of our part in making that happen. Of course, the world is full of living things that get along just fine (better, in most cases) without any input from us. But when our actions, our care, our participation result in an increased richness of the soil, in the palpable pleasure of verdant rows, in the heaviness of stems dripping with fruit, well then, our incredulity may be justified. When we can leave a little chunk of the planet in better shape than it was before our involvement, that’s cause for celebration, isn’t it?

So plant! I’m going to. We can grow in long rows or short ones, in containers on the porch or on acres of loam—it’s our intent that matters. The garden will be what it will be—it is what it is—and we can help it be the best it can be by putting the best we can be into it.

Gayle Morrow, former editor of The Wellsboro Gazette, cooks locally, and organically, at the West End Market Café. Gayle recently won a Keystone State Press Award for her columns.

57

FOOD & DRINK

Yorkholo Brewing

Co. & Restaurant

3rd Annual Memorial Day Pig Roast Yorkholo Brewing Co. & Restaurant

@ 19 N. Main st in Mansfield, PA starting @ 11 am.

570-662-0241

Pig & smoker from Hiillstone Farms

58

On a Shingle continued from page 54

The most delicious-sounding version came from the Cook’s Country Web site. Go look: it’s a bit complicated, as they suggest cooking a corned beef, and saving some of the cooking liquid. You want two cups of the chopped meat and one cup of the liquid to add to the cream sauce. What I really liked about their version were the additions to the four cups sauce of a teaspoon of dried mustard, a teaspoon of minced fresh thyme, and a dash each of cayenne pepper and nutmeg. And don’t forget a couple (or three) tablespoons of chopped chives to sprinkle over the final product to relieve all that white and brown.

I’m sure this would have brought cheers in our quonset hut dining room. Who knew?

Cooking and Serving The next time I make chipped beef I’m going to dig out and wear my old army-issue dog tags. (I throw out nothing). This will add a jangle of authenticity when I present my creation, and reinforce its “memories-of-mess-halls” past aura.

Serve this on Armed Forces Day,Saturday May 18, which happens to be the fifty-fifth anniversary of my arrival in Korea.

FOOD & Drink DRINK Food

}}TIOGA

RAILROAD

All aboard Tioga Central Railroad! Take a scenic ride while enjoying dinner on Saturday night or Sunday brunch. Wine and beer available. See website for menu selection. (570) 7240990, 11 Muck Rd, www. tiogacentral.com.

}WELLSBORO

soups, salads and baked goods daily, premium hot and cold sandwiches. Enjoy breakfast all day. Located on historic Rt. 6 at the light, Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, Saturday 9am-4pm. 4 W. Main Street (Rt 6), Galeton, PA (814)- 435-2444

CENTRAL

DINER

Wellsboro Diner, a famous Wellsboro landmark, serves sumptuous home cooked meals, fresh baked pies, cookies and cakes, and the very best prime rib on Saturday nights. They offer more than ample portions to all hungry guests. (570) 724-3992, 19 Main St, Wellsboro, PA 16901

New York

Steuben County Corning

}THE GAFFER GRILLE AND TAP ROOM

The Gaffer Grille and Tap Room offers fine dining, atmosphere, food, drinks, and friends! We serve lunches, dinners,meetings, or small parties up to 30 individuals.

Visit us on Historic Market Street in Corning’s Gaffer District. (607) 962-4649, 58 W Market Street, www. gaffergrilleandtaproom. com.

}WEST

END MARKET CAFE "Globally inspired,

locally sourced." A place of nourishment and respite, celebrating local food & creativity. We feature fresh, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible & Fair Trade coffee products Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3 p. m. (570) 6050370, 152 Main St. www. westendmarketcafe. wordpress.com

}RADISSON

CORNING

Grill 1-2-5 serves creative regional specialties: small plates, grilled sandwiches, and tender filet mignon.

The Steuben Bar offers appetizers, light meals, your favorite beverages, and is known for the best martini in the city! 125 Denison Parkway East, (607) 962-5000, www. radisson.com/corningny.

Potter County Galeton

}}BRICKHOUSE DELI

Features

CAFE

&

homemade

HOTEL

Spices, Fresh Ground Peanut Buuer, Snacks, Candies, Gluten Free Items, Organics Items, Coffees, All of Your Baking Needs and So Much More!

7686 Route 6, Troy PA Phone: 570-297-1015

Open: Mon.- Frid. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sat. 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Find us on facebook

We Proudly Serve Starbucks® coffee

WWW.CAFE1905.COM

60

Glenn Fleishman; (inset) Stephen Klein

H o m e & G a rd e n

Fiddlehead ferns can be cooked in a variety of ways, including adding salt and butter to taste, or vinaigrette.

Wild Offerings

By Carol Myers Cacchione

R

emember Euell Gibbons as pitchman for Post GrapeNuts cereal in the early 1970s?

Spooning up a healthy-sized helping of the crunchy nuggets, he’d declare, “Reminds me of wild hickory nuts!” This tag line, delivered so enthusiastically, tickled my sister and me. At the dinner table we’d scoop up mashed potatoes and gravy, soup, pudding—anything decidedly not nutty or crunchy—and intone, “Reminds me of wild hickory nuts!” then dissolve into gales of laughter while our bemused parents looked on.

Euell Gibbons would be labeled a locavore today. Back then, he was a vocal proponent of the back-to-the-

land movement, when hippies and homesteaders alike took to the hills and hollers to fend for themselves and live off what Mother Nature provided.

Gibbons wrote a book devoted to finding, preparing and eating wild plants, aptly entitled Stalking the Wild Asparagus, (David McKay Company, Inc., 1962), that became one of my mother’s most frequently referenced backwoods bibles. Her other favorite, A Natural Year, by Grace Firth (Simon and Schuster, 1972), was similar in tone and content.

Right around the time Firth and Gibbons were promoting healthy, all-natural eating, my parents carved out a five-acre chunk of land from my

sister and brother-in-law’s much larger farm in Cherry Flats. There, beside a pretty stream running through a stand of mature maples and copper beeches, they built a cabin where they could get away from the hustle and bustle of town life. My father would relax on the stoop and enjoy the solitude and a can of beer on a warm afternoon. My mother, armed with a bucket, a trowel, and the knowledge gleaned from her back-to-nature books, would set off to find edible earthly delights.

She tempted our taste buds with tender dandelion and pigweed and purslane greens, simmered and seasoned with butter and salt and pepper.

See Wild Offerings on page 62

61

Home & Garden SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Mothers’ Day

Gift Ideas

Brian Robert Marshall

Limited Edition 2013 Series Tioga County Puzzles; Pop’s Culture Shoppe, Wellsboro, PA; 570-723-4263

Named for their distinctive appearance, the coiled top of a fiddlehead fern looks like the head of a violin or fiddle. Fiddlehead ferns can be picked in the springtime, from April to May in the northeast region.

Wild Offerings continued from page 61

Honeypot Luminaries by Bee Natural; Enchanted Hollow, Wellsboro, PA 570724-1155

Merino Wool Smartwool Socks; Wild Asaph Outfitters; 71 Main Street, Wellsboro, PA

62

Blanched young milkweed pods (excessively bitter—cover with boiling water, boil one minute, drain and repeat at least three times, then boil ten minutes more before even attempting to eat, according to Gibbons) proved to be less of a culinary hit. The woodland around the cabin was dappled with May apples and wild ginger, which inspired my mother to make May apple jelly (tasty on toast) and candied ginger root (zingy eaten all by itself, and a satisfying palate cleanser, especially after milkweed pods). But I remember best her sautéed fiddlehead ferns.

Nothing else compares in my memory to the exquisite form and delicate flavor of this early spring taste treat.

Also known as bracken, fiddlehead ferns abound in low, moist lands from

Canada to Virginia. In late April or early May they begin to push out of the ground in a distinctive shape resembling the curled head of a violin or fiddle. Grace Firth describes how she prepares them in her book: “To cut them, the coiled fiddleheads are snapped off. Their coat of fuzz is easily rubbed off by pulling each head through your hand. Bracken are usually cooked in boiling water for about a half-hour, seasoned with pepper and salt and dressed with melted butter, oil and vinegar, or sour cream…Mature fronds of bracken are reputed to be toxic to grazing animals, but as long as the ferns are coiled and tender, they are edible to man.”

Duly noted. Only select the youngest and tightest-coiled fronds for this wild dish or you might end up

Home & Garden

in the local emergency room.

You can get as fancy as you want with this springtime delicacy. A recipe I adapted from Saveur.com, one of my goto online recipe sources, elevates the simple to the sublime.

Fiddlehead Ferns with Browned Butter and Prosciutto (Serves six) 2 pounds fiddlehead ferns, defuzzed and washed 24 paper-thin slices prosciutto 6 tablespoons butter ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Kosher salt 1. In a large pot bring two quarts water and one tablespoon salt to a boil. Fill a medium bowl halfway with ice water. Drop the fiddleheads into the pot and cook for one minute. Drain in a colander, then submerge in the ice water until completely cool. Drain the fiddleheads in the colander and wrap them in a clean kitchen towel to dry.

2. Arrange four slices prosciutto on each of six room-temperature plates.

3. Brown the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the fiddleheads and toss gently, adding ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper.

Heat for a minute or two until they are warm, then divide among the six plates. Serve at once.

I suggest adding a dash of balsamic vinegar or a gentle squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and perhaps a grating or two of aged parmesan cheese, to top off this tempting appetizer.

Pair it with devilled or sliced hardboiled eggs and a glass of iced tea and you have an elegant light luncheon.

But I like the way my mother served fiddlehead ferns the best. She would blanch them in boiling water for a minute or two, drain, and add them, along with two to three tablespoons of butter, to the heavy old iron fry pan she always kept on the back burner of the gas stove at the cabin. Saute over a medium flame, stirring frequently, for another minute or two. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve. This is a purist’s recipe. Nothing gets in the way of the marvelous taste of the fiddleheads. When she first made them for my father, she asked him how he liked them.

Forking a few of the delicate fiddleheads into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully, he replied, “Reminds me of wild hickory nuts!”

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Wellsboro writer Carol Myers Cacchione is the daughter of Mountain Home contributor Mary Myers.

63

www.npennrealestate.com

Real estate

Licensed in NY and PA Kim Buchanan Ronald Gilbert (607) 857-6125 (607) 483-2241 215 West Church St. Elmira, NY 14901

For the Best in the Business Call 607-733-2700

301 Oneida St - Sayre, PA Beautiful remodeled, well maintained, spacious 1604 sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath. Walking distance of hospital/ clinic.

5631 Thompson Hill Rd - Gillett, PA Great starter or retirement home. This 3 bedroom home with a detached 2 car garage sits on about 1.2 acre lot. Large living room features a wood burning brick fireplace.

1545 Kilgore Rd - Gillett, PA Beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bath log home on 3.17 acres with 100% OGM rights.

Horse barn, shed, generator, pond, and tree house are just some of the extras.

215 W. Main St - Knoxville, PA Victorian home w/ 4 BR, 3 BA and hot tub room w/ skylight, spacious rooms, ornate oak woodwork, large foyer, oak staircase, fireplace in living room, 2nd staircase from kitchen, large rear deck, front wrap around porch, walk up attic, 2-car garage, large backyard.

Kim Buchanan, (607) 857-6125

Kim Buchanan, (607) 857-6125

$149,900

$318,000

Ronald Gilbert, (607) 483-2241

Ronald Gilbert, (607) 483-2241

$49,500

$166,900

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Real estate

FIRST

Scott Bastion, Broker 18 North Main St, Mansfield, PA 16933 • 570-662-2200 mansfieldremax@yahoo.com • www.twintiersrealty.com

Serving Tioga, Bradford, & Potter Counties, and Surrounding Areas LAND

LAND

OSCEOLA TWP

WARD TWP

15.99 Acres - $39,900 80.97 Acres - $239,900 WELLSBORO BORO

As Good As It Gets! You must see this 3 BR, 2.5 BA home to appreciate it. Hardwood floors, granite counter tops, top-notch bathrooms featuring tile, granite, marble & more as well as great covered wrap-around deck provide the feel of comfort & luxury! 1-car garage too! Only $235,000 M123710

Kim Case

570-404-0794

Chris Gilbert 570-404-1268

1.50 Acres - $32,900 LAWRENCE TWP

3.55 Acres - $29,900 DELMAR TWP

4.00 Acres - $59,900

Gwen Heyler 570-854-8528

We have over 250 listings!

176.96 Acres - $545,880 200.78 Acres - $617,340 Great Home! Great Location! Come see this 3-4 BR home & all of the lovely features inside. Full basement for storage & dining room that could easily be a first floor BR, there are lots of options with this move in ready place! Easy commute to Corning or Mansfield, just minutes from Rt 15.

Just $149,000 M123769

Joan Miller

570-439-4313

Cat Ostrom-Rush 570-447-8861

PINE TWP

16.30 Acres - $87,000 DEERFIELD TWP

33.60 Acres - $79,900 JACKSON TWP

55.55 Acres - $149,900

Dick Pino

570-404-0852

Wynnette Richardson 570-439-1841

www.twintiersrealty.com Check Them All Out Online!

Each Office Independently Owned & Operated

www.npennrealestate.com

Real estate Lisa Linn 121 West Church Street Lock Haven, PA 17745

570-748-8550

Kettle Creek Great cabin at a great price! Kettle Creek is across the road and there are 2 state forests within a few miles. $50,000

Cammal Pine Creek frontage lot across the stream from Cammal. Unique location! $55,000

Cedar Run Pine Creek frontage in Cedar Run! This 4 bedroom, 2 bath home offers beautiful views from the huge rear deck! Make this your vacation home in Pine Creek Valley! $469,900

Waterville The Pine Creek Valley Lodge is a long established business in Waterville. Includes restaurant, motel, bar and service garage.

Offered at $595,000

570-660-0626 lisa.a.linn@gmail.com www.recreationalpropertiespennsylvania.com

English Center Beautiful log-sided cabin on 9 acres with a pond and bordering state lands. Located in English Center. $178,000

Waterville Immaculate, large ranch with Little Pine Creek frontage near Little Pine State Park, rail trails and state lands! $299,900

Cedar Run Secluded log home on over 12 acres in Cedar Run. Ride on the rail trail, enjoy Pine Creek and be in awe of the amazing views.

Offered at $869,000

Find your dream home at www.mountainvalley-chris.com Chris Costanzo-VanDergrift REALTOR 477 Tioga ST., WellSboro, Pa direct: 570-419-7185 moutainvalleyrealtyllc.com

chrisrealtorpa@yahoo.com

Profitable business opportunity in downtown Wellsboro! This turn key business includes all inventory, which is guaranteed to be at least $30,000 worth. Income and expense reports available with a signed confidentiality statement. No real estate included. Take advantage of this established, awesome opportunity!

MLS 123643 $169,900 ONLY $109,000!

Looking for a classy rustic mountain home that would be a great home or camp?! This property provides the best of both worlds, you can snowmobile from the secluded property and have a home that is like brand new! Home offers log siding and has a very nice kitchen and open floor plan. Property sits outside of Germania on 2.62 acres and was built in 2005 with a 2 car heated garage. Furnishings negotiable.

MLS 123825

CLASSIC 3 BR RANCH IN A GREAT LOCATION - rare find! This gem sits on 3.83 acres, offers a beautiful lawn, 2 garages, paved and concrete drive and views. A little updating to freshen it up inside and this could be your “diamond in the rough.�

MTHDLM 123695 $139,900

SHORT WALK TO PINE CREEK, Rails-To-Trails & State Forest - nice camp for large group, or home on 1-1/2 acres. Vinyl-sided, garage, snowmobile from property - great property for year-round sports.

MTHDLM 123621 $139,900

OUTSTANDING 4 BR COUNTRY HOME featuring a family room w/stone fireplace and flagstone floor; vaulted ceiling in living room, large master suite, huge attached garage w/kitchen and laundry room, great outbuildings, close to State Land, walk to Pine Creek, 4-wheel and snowmobile from home.

MTHDLM 122993 $219,000

VERY NICE 3 BR RANCH HOME W/NICE VIEWS in a very secluded setting with quick access - fronts Route 44 and Dry Run Road. Wood stove in walk-out lower level, nice 48 x 30 metal pole building.

MTHDLM 122966 $249,000

www.npennrealestate.com

Real estate 317 N. Franklin St. Watkins Glen NY

Office: 607-535-2586

CabinsCastlesRE@aol.com www.CabinstoCastlesRE.com Admiral Peabody ’s Lakeside Lodging 5-Unit Motel ~ Owners Home ~ 213’ Seneca Lakefront

2 Docks and Plenty of Deck Space on the Natural Beach!

$650,000 $650,000 Winner’s Circle Ice Cream and Owners Home Located on State Route 414 Watkins Glen NY (just minutes from WGI Speedway) is your opportunity to own a successful Ice Cream Stand (or start a new business out of the 2000sq.ft. retail space) and Immaculate 3 Bedroom Ranch built in 2010 w/attached apt.

$439,000 www.pennoakrealty.com

(570) 724-8000 65 Main Street Wellsboro, PA

Charming 4 BR house with many desirable features: 1st floor BR and bath, in-town, close to schools, park, hospital, library, theater. Carefully maintained, thoughtfully remodeled offering comfort and convenience. Four Seasons glass

Time to Build!

sunroom off the kitchen adds to the sunny exposures, while the 2 zone hot water BB and insulation offer economical heating.

For those with a motor home, there is a hook-up to the sewer system. This home has been smoke-free for 47 years, has a nice back yard and a paved driveway.

MTHLSM 123773 $194,500

and for a limited time...

we’ve added ANOTHER FREE UPGRADE!

Granite Kitchen Countertops!

Call Brookside today and get all the details!

Custom Built Homes

www.brookside-homes.com www.brook kside-homes.com Mansfield 570-662-7900 Selinsgrove 570-374-7900

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Real estate Convenient Downtown Location 78 Main St., Wellsboro, PA 570-724-5921 FAX 570-724-8077

SCAN TO VIEW ALL OUR LISTINGS

Email: c21wd@yahoo.com Visit online: www.century21wilkinsondunn.com

Wilkinson - Dunn Company

Looking for a Home with lots of Room! Home features large eat in kitchen, family room with wood stove, large master bedroom/bath with walk in closet and an additional 5 bedrooms. Garage is oversized with lots of storage. Enjoy eating outside in the summer in a screened in room that looks out to long views of the country side. Private but yet close to town. Call for details.

Delmar MH-123306 $199,900

Exquisitely handcrafted home on 130 acres with top of the world views! Over 11,000 sq feet. Features gourmet cooks delight kitchen, open flowing floor plan, ceramic tile floors, cherry floors, winding open stairway to 2 bdrm suites & loft. Master bdrm suite, his & her offices. Lower level has full kitchen, bath & bdrms plus huge family/living room. Brick exterior, 4 car garage plus storage.

Shown by appointment only.

Charleston MH-123752 $2,500,000

S TA B IL IT Y — S ERV ICE — S UCCES S

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Lawrenceville

Jackson

MH-122977

$1,821,600

Beautiful cabin in the heart of Canyon Country!

Cabin features an open floor plan of living room/ kitchen/dining, full bath and bedroom. Exterior has a 2 car detached garage with guest quarters.

Lot has been nicely landscaped with lots of perennials. Come & enjoy the peace & quiet while sitting out in your screened gazebo.

Gaines MH-123753 $135,500

MH-123104

$157,000

Huge old house used to be a 2 unit needs some TLC to bring back to its original splendor! Detached garage on small lot. 2- 200 amp services into house, Upstairs was an apartment, the kitchen cabinets and all were removed but plumbing is still there. It is divided up to be 2 apartments but could be home with 4-5-6-7- bedrooms. Call to see.

Wellsboro MH-123810 $74,900

Westfield

MH-123277

$175,000

Most popular eatery in Galeton is now for sale!

Here’s your chance to own a Deli/Restaurant in a quaint community. Buy into an established business with large convenient living quarters above.

Enjoy the friendliness of a small town. Possible 3rd floor apartment for extra income. This is the opportunity you can’t resist call today for an appointment.

Galeton MH-123814 $295,000

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated

Where Creativity Meets exCellenCe in real estate

23 East Avenue, Wellsboro, PA www.flynnco.com — (570) 326-2600 Kathy Doty – (570) 404-1900

Located on a quiet street in Hills Creek this home features a great view of the lake! Over-sized sliding doors open to a covered front porch. The spacious living room has new carpet and high ceiling.

Lots of storage space, wooded lot, and open feel. $159,900 and open to offers!

This very special place, tucked back in a wooded setting, is a welcome retreat.

Timber frame and stone construction anchor this home to its surroundings. From custom tile work to built-in cabinetry this home offers unique features in every room! Gardens, deck, covered porch; so much to see! $215,000

107 Main Street Wellsboro, Pa. 16922

570-723-1600 www.wellsboroparealestate.com

Magnificent 3,065 sqft 4 BR residence on over 3.6 acres in a desirable location within 3 miles from Wellsboro and easy access to major commuting routes. Features unique varieties of exotic natural stone, 5” Brazilian cherry floors, 5’ wide staircase and hallways, 8” crown molding.

Master suite features bath w/floor to ceiling travertine, radiant heat floors, Kohler jetted soaking tub. Spacious working/entertaining kitchen with up to date style and amenities.

Front porch relaxation leads to beautiful views. $349,500 MLS #122218

This lovely 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home is ready to move into. Featuring fresh paint, some new carpet, family room with wood insert, basement den and a detached 2 car garage. The yard is level and the home is an easy walk to Wellsboro, PA amenities. The front porch adds to additional entertaining. Please call today for a tour! $176,000 MLS #123730

Robbins Rd., Mainesburg Seller’s relocating - Just reduced by $75K! This secluded estate is conveniently located, and has beautiful country views for peace and relaxation. This is an amazing, must see home, so call us today!

REF#10620 $499,953

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Call the office at 570-723-8484 Real estate 477 Tioga Street, Rt. 6 West One mile west of the Wellsboro Diner Wellsboro, Pa. 16901

www.mountainvalleyrealtyllc.com

NORTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA’S CHOICE FOR: COMMERCIAL, HOMES, ACREAGE, FARMS, CABINS, & RENTALS “Professionals working hard for YOU”

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RANCH HOME 13 ACRES-SECLUDED SETTING! – Gorgeous Ranch Home in a secluded 13+ acre Pine forest! This awesome home features 3 bdrms, custom high end kitchen w/stainless steel appliances, 3 car attached garage, fireplace, low cost Geo Thermal heating system, 2.5 baths, and privacy! EZ drive to Mansfield & Wellsboro! $332,000 #123713

LOG CABIN ON 33 ACRES WITH 100% OGMS – VACATION, HUNT, SNOWMOBILE! Here’s your dream property with 33+ acres, unleased 100% OGMs! Log cabin offers secluded setting in the PINE CREEK VALLEY with long views, ROW to State Forest, great solitude for relaxation. Short drive to PA Grand Canyon and Wellsboro. Call for pertinent details!$299,000

EXCEPTIONAL VIEWS -SECLUDED SETTING2.87 AC – This Potter County attractive comfortable home offers a long list of wonderful amenities including attached 3 car garage, central vac, central air, concrete driveway, lg. composite deck, maintenance free exterior, etc.

2-3 bdrms. 1.5 baths. EZ to Wellsville, NY or Coudersport,Pa.$209,000 #122599

STUNNING LOG HOME-PRIVATE 39.94 ACRES – Newer 3 bdrm log home offers spacious loft, 2 baths. Lower level with walkout provides a sophisticated master suite with bathroom which leads to private porch and hot tub. Cathedral ceilings in kitchen and living room. Attached lg 2 car garage and lg 3 car detached garage/ workshop, $450,000 #122992

ATTRACTIVE HOME WITH GRAND CURB APPEAL – Delightful mix of modern updates and the charm of a past era throughout this exceptional home. Newer kitchen and appliances with sunroom dining, formal dining room, lg living room with fireplace, elegant parlor with beautiful staircase, lg bedrooms, and hardwood flooring. $179,000 #123242

REMARKABLE SECLUDED WELLSBORO RANCH HOME – Stunning 4 bdrm Wellsboro ranch home. Secluded setting on 8.73 acres. Multiple heat sources, open flr plan,sunroom,finished basement, mother in law suite,A/C, stream, wine cellar and underground storage units. Fronts Rt. 287 and Meade St. only 3 blocks to the hospital, shopping etc. $499,000.#123408

STUNNING LARGE HOME OFFERS COUNTRY SETTING – Finish to suite your style. This home offers 5 bedrooms with 6 bathrooms. Stylish open floor plan, spacious bright rooms with large windows, two car attached garage, and beautiful country views all around. Offers EZ drive to Wellsboro or NY State. Loving setting on 2 acres. $429,000 #123285

CLASSY COMTEMPORARY CEDAR HOME! – Quite a substantial attractive home offering open floor plan with cathedral ceiling, loft, stone fireplace, 5 bdrms, 3 baths, and sits on 7.59 ac.

Home also offers attached 2 1/2 car garage and also a barn/workshop with woodstove and electric. $339,000 #123597

PEACEFUL MOUNTAIN SETTING NEAR PINE CREEK. – Wonderful woodsy setting on 2.03 acres for this attractive 3 bdrm ranch home with 2 bathrooms, open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, beautiful fireplace & deck with views. Walk to Pine Creek & State Game lands from this rustic contemporary home. Bring the snowmobiles & fishing poles! $259,000 #123612

15.35 AC AWESOME VIEWS! – Outstanding setting with no close neighbors! Long mountain views from the 4 bdrm attractive home with lg living room, formal din rm, walkout basement with oversize garage all on 15.35 acres mix of open and wooded land. Easy drive to Wellsboro from this private setting. $269,000 #123645

75 AC SURROUNDED BY STATE FOREST – Words can not describe this outstanding parcel where the Stars and Heaven itself touches the ground! Deep in snowmobile country and completely surrounded by State Forest, this is a truly a remarkable piece of Real Estate. Call for pertinent details. 24 hr. notice required. $750,000 #123667

YOUR OWN PRIVATE CASTLE ON 65 AC – Indescribable detail in this custom home w/ unique post & beam design,open floorplan, cathedral ceilings,lg windows & double glass doors throughout.Access the lg deck from 4 rooms.Stylish kitchen. Custom amenities including lavish master bathroom. 65 acs offer future timber potential $699,000.#123432

22.54 AC-WOW THE VIEWS...BETWEEN TROY AND MANSFIELD – Meticulously maintained Lindel cedar log multi-level home. Raised basement for add’l living space. Elegant & rustic w/open flr plan. A/C, Harmon coal stove, lg.new garage, new well & spring, 22.54 ac open & wooded land. At $375,000 Seller will convey 100% gas rights. $345,000 #123839

PRIVATE LOGHOME RETREAT 32 ACRES – Attractive log home features a 2 sided stone fireplace with wood insert. Cherry steps to the second floor loft which offers 2 bdrms & bathroom. Spacious great rm offers cathedral ceilings & slate floors. Home boasts beautiful master suite. All this on 32 private acs!EZ to Wellsboro.$435,000.#121313

OUTSTANDING EXECUTIVE STYLE HOME-24 AC – OGM’s! Sitting majestically overlooking the valley. 4 bdrm home offers exquisite spacious open interior with list of tastefully designed amenities. Must see wooded property offers a very spacious basement that could easily become an apartment . EZ to NY, Mansfield, & Rt.15/I-99. $429,000 #123654

M a rk e t P l a c e

Shop Around the Corner

Chic on Market Street Story by Rebecca Hazen Photos by Elizabeth Young

Posh Boutique 40 East Market Street Corning, New York (607) 542-7674 Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

T

he definition of “posh” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “elegant, fashionable, typical of or intended for the upper class.”

Courtney Leonberger, the owner of Posh Boutique on 40 East Market Street in Corning, New York, definitely had this description in mind when she named her new clothing store.

“I have had such great feedback from customers,” Courtney said. “People tell me that I have items that they would expect to see in New York City or Los Angeles. It is really a big compliment

70

Courtney Leonberger, owner of Posh, wanted to create a place where younger middle-aged women could shop.

because that is what I wanted to achieve.”

Courtney, who was a hairdresser on Market Street in Corning for the past eighteen years, had to transition into a new career when a chemical allergy that she developed prevented her from cutting hair on a regular basis.

“That is how the store came to be, because you cannot live off of working only two days a week as a hairdresser,” Courtney said. “It was natural for me.

I always had an interest in fashion and I always loved to shop.”

Courtney felt that clothing options for women in their twenties up through middle ages were lacking in the area.

And so, in May 2012, she opened the doors of Posh.

“There are stores for young girls and then there are a lot of things for my mother. There is this big gap inbetween. I thought it was something that was needed here. I think Posh compliments Corning’s Market Street because it is a little boutique-like shop,” Courtney said. “I think it is a quaint street.”

MARKETPLACE

Posh Boutique carries a wide assortment of fashion items, from clothing to accessories like perfume and handbags.

Not forgetting about her first love, Courtney has a small salon at the back of the shop, where she cuts hair for two days a week. Her friend and fellow hair cutter, Jeremy Grimins, takes the rest of the appointments.

“It made sense to put a salon in the back. That way I can always be there,” Courtney said.

Courtney’s own motto for her store is “A style, a fit, and a price for everyone,” and it shows through her products, which are a wide range of clothes, shoes, handbags, and accessories.

“A misconception is that a lot of people think that the clothing is for young girls, both style and size-wise. We have something for everyone, though, and we are looking to expand our size range,” Courtney said. “I would say my typical customers are mid-twenties to sixties. That is the age range I was looking to fill.”

Courtney’s favorite items in her store are the jeans, but she admits that most times it is hard to pick.

“The thing that I wanted to make sure that I had when I opened the store was high-end denim. People love good jeans and they are really hard to find around here. I myself would have to travel to Rochester and other larger cities just to find good jeans,” Courtney said. “I love our denim. I love the patterns on our jeans, which are trending for spring and summer. We also get great dresses in. We have casual dresses that you can wear in the day and cocktail dresses that you can wear to a party. It is hard to narrow it down, though, because we also get really great pieces of jewelry and shoes.”

Budget shoppers, don’t fear! Clothing in Posh comes with a price tag that can work for everybody.

“We have jeans that are at the higher price point, but we do also have tops

that are only $15. There is a wide price range and a wide range of styles. We keep more trendy stuff that my younger customers would like, but there are also conservative blazers and things that my corporate client could wear.”

Everything that shoppers see in the store, Courtney picked out herself.

“I go to show rooms in New York City and order there. I also go to shows in Las Vegas to do my buying. It is definitely fun, but, yes, it is overwhelming,” Courtney said.

Last year, Courtney attended a show called Magic Marketplace in Las Vegas.

There were over 5,500 designers there.

“You have to go with a plan and know what you are looking for, otherwise you can get totally distracted,” Courtney said.

“Yes, I gravitate towards what I like, but not everyone has the same style that I do, so I have taught myself to broaden See Chic on page 72

71

�on�� �e� �o�r dream� go �o�d . . . �e�ig� ��e �ife����e �o���e been dreaming of.

230 Market Street Lewisburg, PA 17837 570.524.2300

www.ralad.com

We offer residential home design based on your specifications.

Contact us for a FREE consultation & discover how we can make your dream home a reality.

Many of the items in Posh Boutique were picked by Courtney from showrooms in New York City and Las Vegas.

Chic continued from page 71

my horizons a bit. Just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean other people won’t. I think I have the intuition at knowing what will be hot in the next few seasons, but magazines and television helps,” Courtney said.

Retail Therapy Parties, which are private events for someone who would like to shop with four to twenty friends, puts Posh Boutique a step up in the unique direction. The store is opened after hours for the party, and everything in the store is discounted. The hostess will receive a gift certificate to the store for a percentage of the party’s sales.

“People should definitely shop local and support the small businessperson.

We offer a variety that is hard to find around here. We offer unique and unexpected things,” Courtney said.

Scott Walker, 570-295-1083 72

Mountain Home

Professional Services

Service Directory Beneath The Veil, The Realm of Faery Awaits

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Mind…Body…Spirit An Enchanting Gift Shoppe Est. 2000 6 East Avenue Wellsboro, PA (570) 724-1155 www.enchanted-hollow.com

Games Imagination Fun U.S. Made Wooden Puzzles 15% off in May Check out our facebook page for events.

www.popscultureshoppe.com 2 East Avenue Wellsboro, PA 16901

570-723-4263

Advertising Executives The region’s fastest-growing media company, Beagle Media LLC is seeking dynamic central PA advertising sales executives to grow and lead our Web sites, new products and renowned flagship Mountain Home magazine with marketleading 150,000 readers in NY & PA, 50 journalism awards, Pulitzer nominations on staff, soaring revenue, “Best Niche Publication” in state 3 years running. We’re a “Top 100” employer in PA 2012, salary plus top commission, limitless opportunity with our local family business.

Send cover letter and resume to mikec@mountainhomemag.com 73

B a c k o f t h e M o u n ta i n

Aurora Wellsborealis

By Wade Spencer

A

recent solar flare promised a dazzling light show for lucky clear-sky viewers in the Twin Tiers. Wade Spencer captured these Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis (literally Dawn North, after Latin gods Aurora and Boreas) over Wellsboro in October 2003. An aurora is the interaction between high-energy particles from the sun trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and pulled into the upper atmosphere. The red color is produced from ionized oxygen and the green from ionized nitrogen. An aurora at these latitudes is rare, but happens more frequently during solar wind “storms” that affect the magnetosphere, which peak with the Sun’s eleven-year sunspot cycle.

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I’M A SUSQUEHANNA CANCER SURVIVOR. “I was blessed to be treated at an amazing comprehensive cancer center, right here in Williamsport. I knew I was in good hands the moment I walked into the Susquehanna Health Cancer Center, with its bright, airy and modern facilities. They treated my breast cancer with the latest technology and therapies. Throughout it all, I was impressed by the skills and compassion of the doctors, nurses, nutritionists and social workers who treat you – body, mind and soul. They provided comfort and guidance for me and my family every step of the way. Now that my cancer is cured, I’m exercising regularly and have already dropped 30 pounds. I’m healthy, strong and feel like a new person – and I appreciate every magical moment of life.” – Sue Danneker, Linden To learn more about our Cancer Center and Sue’s story of survival, visit SusquehannaHealth.org/Cancer