Busy Weekend Ahead: July 24-26

The tourist season is well and truly here and two big events in the area are likely to pull in the crowd this weekend: Induction Weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and the Great American Irish Fair in Herkimer. You can find all the details here:

• Induction Weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• The Great American Irish Fair in Herkimer

Of course, if the crowds get too much, take a break and swing through Cherry Valley and Roseboom. And if you find you need some good sandwiches for the road, stop in at Bob’s Country Store at junction of 165 and 166. Great subs made to order (just remember they’re closed on Sunday).

Finally, Photos from 2008 Antique Power Days

I finally uploaded a batch of 10 photos from last year’s Antique Power Days to the photo service Flickr.

Anyone should be able to view them.

Only took me 11 months to get round to it! Will try to add more soon.

Next up? Some short video clips on YouTube (although video of an automatic corn shucker is somehow not as exciting as seeing it for real). And somehow that reminds me of when a young Bill Gates was interviewed on the BBC about computers in education. He enthused: “Imagine kids in a classroom being able to click on a picture of a violin and hearing the sound it makes.” At which point the interviewer said “Why not just show them a real violin?”

P.S. Mark your calendar for this year’s Power Days and download the handy program in .pdf format.

Roseboom Antique Power Days, August 15-16, 2009!

Yes folks, Roseboom’s Antique Power Days are just a month away!

(And there I was last week thinking it was about time I put up my photos from last year’s event–I guess Tempus has Fugit big time.)

The 2009 event looks to be bigger and better than ever. And this year there is a handy program you can download in .pdf format. Here’s a quick overview:

• Antique & Classic Tractors – Trucks – Cars
• Antique Hit & Miss Engines – Domestic – Agricultural – Industrial
• Chinese Auction Sunday, August 16.
• Pancake Breakfast 8-12 Sat. & Sun, August 15/16
• Outdoor Church Service – Sunday, August 16, at 10:00 Am
• Tractor Parade – Sunday, August 16, at 1:00 Pm
• Followed by Tractor Rodeo

A big turnout of tractors is expected, but also some very rare farm machines, the sort of contraptions that can shuck corm by the bushel loads or automatically cut roof shingles from rough lumber. More tractors in one place than you are ever likely to see anywhere else, and the great folks who take care of them.

This year’s event is sponsored in part by: Napa Auto Parts Cooperstown, Springfield Tractor, Jim’s Tractor Service, and Pitcher’s Trucking and General Repair.

If you would like to help spread the word about this event you can download the program in .pdf format then print it out and hand it out (in accordance with all no-bill-posting laws and ordinances, etc. of course.)

They’re Baaack! Rose & Kettle has re-opened

Clemm and Dana have returned from Italy and the Rose & Kettle is now open again, to the delight of Cherry Valley and Roseboom residents, as well as the hordes of tourists who are flocking to the Glimmerglass region this Summer.

As you might expect there are some fresh Italian touches to the always enjoyable menu. Check it out here. The Rose & Kettle is now open (at 5PM) on every day except Wednesday and Thursday. There’s always good music and room at the bar for one or two more.

Another Roseboom Blogger: Full of beans

Great to get a comment recently from another blogger in Roseboom! Check out Full of Beans. Some delightful posts, many of them about a subject dear to hearts around here: food, preparing it, growing, digging it.

As tourists start to return to the area–many motivated, no doubt, by the prospect of a less expensive vacation this year-they are seeing one of the best seasons. Apparently it is the “Spring is sproing!” season. If you’ve never experienced this part of New York state before, let me tell you, the way that plants and trees and crops burst into life in the month of May is amazing (get the double pun there: aMAYzing/aMAIZE-ing, sorry).

No wonder there were so many people living here in the centuries before us Europeans arrived. Many parts of this area were planted for maize in fields set among managed forests that had been carefully tended over time, planted with a specific mix of trees.

I’ve been reading about this recently in a book titled 1491. There’s a lot more in this book than the short title suggests. Okay, so the full title is 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbusbut what I’m saying is, this book is stuffed with good stuff.

In fact, it’s such a good book that I am now reading it for the second time. I don’t read many books twice, so this is quite the accolade (others so honored in the decades since college courses include Gibson’s Neuromancer and Count Zero and Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World (the last of these having more than enough ironic content to warrant the long title).

What I’m doing with 1491 right now is dipping into several different sections at once. It is a testament to the superb authorship of Charles C. Mann that one can do this. I can flip from the amazing city of Cahokia on the Mississippi to the feuding among Mayan city states. I can read about the vast earthworks of the Beni and the sophisticated aquaculture of the Amazon, then travel via Norte Chico, a Peruvian civilization older than Egypt, to the indigenous forest-scaping of the North Eastern U.S.

And all the while I can follow the plot, which is basically this: America was a heavily populated and highly civilized land before contact with the Europeans. This truth had been slowly emerging in scientific papers and publications for decades, but Mann pulled all of the data together and the effect is almost overwhelming. At last, the sophistication and scale of indigenous culture and civilization is now being revealed.

So, some food for thought to go with what you grow.

Come on April: Make up your mind

Well, April is here, but who is April? Warm one day, cold the next? The frogs down in the flats have been up and croaking for over a week now, yet we’ve had several snow showers in that time. All we can think is: Pretty tough bunch of frogs we’ve got around here.

March! Time for Maple Syrup: Let the sugaring off begin

Check out Sugaring Off Sundays all around upstate New York! This is a celebration of the process, called sugaring off, by which raw sap from maple trees is turned into the delicious syrup we know and love on our pancakes.

Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce just one gallon of maple syrup? In fact, 40 is a handy number to remember when it comes to maple syrup.

Maple trees need to get to be years old before they are tapped. (There is an extensive article on maple syrup on Wikipedia.)

One of the advantages of checking out maple syrup production in New York is that if you tour the producing regions, like Otsego County, during March, the weather is often milder than in other areas like Vermont and Quebec.

One of the best events is the Sugaring Off Sundays at the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown. Here are this year’s dates:

• March 1, 2009
• March 8, 2009
• March 15, 2009
• March 22, 2009

There is a great pancake breakfast served from 8:30 am – 1:00 pm and the maple-sugaring activities run from 9 am-2 pm. Todd’s General Store and The Farmers’ Museum Shop are also open from 9 am-2 pm. Reservations are not required. (Price $7 for adults and $3 for children 6-12, 5 & under free.)

Contact info for Famer’s Museum:
5775 State Hwy 80, Lake Road
Cooperstown, New York 13326 US
info@nysha.org or (607) 547-1450

Sugaring Off Sundays is sponsored in part by Otsego County Maple Producers including Roseboom’s own Stannard Farm. And Stannard’s is the syrup I have every day, usually on my cereal.I’m a big believer in the health benefits of maple syrup which is a good source of zinc and manganese, important for heart health, immune system, and male health, as described in this article.

Surviving February?

By most accounts, 2009 has been a rough winter. Above average snow and below average temps. As a relative newcomer I try not to be the first person to say things like “I’m so tired of this cold weather.” It only makes you sound like a wimp and any locals within earshot are likely to chime in with something like: “This is nothing, you should have been here in ____” (fill in the year).

Thankfully I am now hearing long time residents say this winter’s been worse than usual. But to be honest, we haven’t done too badly. The work we had done last Fall on our long, steep drive, definitely paid off. We only got stuck a few times going up. And although there were a few times when started to slide going down, we avoided both the ditch (right) and the dropoff (left).

We’ve learned a lot about plowing, like the need to move snow piles well away from the driving areas otherwise the piles grow into the driving areas. We brought the small Kubota up from Florida to help with this (as soon as I get it serviced and winterized–Kubota’s are tough but Florida to Roseboom has to be a shock).

We continue to be fortified with sausage bread and other treats from the Upper Crust Bakery in Cherry Valley. And Bob’s Country Store on Roseboom continues to make the county’s best subs, a great standby when nobody feels like cooking supper.

With good food, good cheer, and good friends, I think we will make it to March.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and a Happy New Year!

Here’s a Christmas video we made and posted on YouTube. For more about the video, scroll down the page.

If you don’t see a video play button visible in the box above, can see the video by clicking here.

What you are looking at in the video is a driver’s eye view of the snow plow going down part of our drive near Roseboom after about 18 inches of snow fall. The vehicle doing the snow plowing is a four wheel drive Arctic Cat ATV or “quad” (specifically a 2004 TBX 400). The plow itself is made by Warn, the company that makes winches.

Need More Pie? Delicious new bakery opens up

First of all, a slightly belated Happy Thanksgiving!

By now most of the pie and turnkey has probably been eaten, but if you need more pie, or some delicious bread for the last few rounds of turkey sandwiches, check out Upper Crust Bakery in Cherry Valley (12 Main Street to be exact).

We picked up a sampling of their bread and pastries this weekend and wow, was it yummy. The sausage and cheese bread is several lunches in one loaf. The sliced bread, baked fresh daily, makes great toast but also tastes good cold with just a thin layer of butter. There are also good muffins and turnovers. The sticky buns looked great but we had to draw the line somewhere. We will report on them later.

Check it out and consider putting in your order for Christmas party pie and pastries. For exact opening hours call 264-3391. (We do know they are open Sunday mornings, which is just right for that coffee and roll with the New York Times.)