The Ithaca, NY Farmers Market - Buying Local and International

Today, I made my first trip in a couple of years to the Ithaca, NY farmers market at Steamboat Landing.  Ithaca is about an hour from where I live so I don't visit too often. 

Ithaca is the home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, and when you see what they have available to their citizens, you would think the population is a lot higher than it really is.

Traffic is always terrible (one of the downsides of Ithaca, sadly) and if you don't get there early, you may as well give up on getting a parking space. (Yes, we should use mass transit or bicycle - but we do live an hour away and are not athletes.)

It's fall in upstate NY, and the harvests are in. "Buy Local", a sign implores.

One booth at the entrance displays pumpkins and squash.  No pumpkin shortage here.

Beets and radishes filled a display at another booth, with other veggies.  (There were a lot of different types of radishes, too - daikon, and watermelon, to name a couple you usually don't see in our local farmers markets.).  This stand was also selling heirloom flat cabbage and other brassicas.

No shortage of organic produce here, either - or organic animal products.  We bought eggs at one vendor and corn at another; garlic at a third and eggplant at a fourth.

Bread not Bombs. (remember, this is a college town).

There are a number of ethnic food booths, reflecting the multiculturalism of the Cornell and Ithaca College communities.  While buying local, you can take a trip around the world both in produce and in prepared foods.  And, because there is a large population practicing the various types of vegetarian lifestyles, the booths adopt accordingly.  (I would have taken a picture of the Macrobiotic Mama booth, a fixture at the Market for years, but it was, as usual, crowded with customers.)

But the crowning glory of today's market was apples.  And it was such a crowning glory that I am going to devote another post, next week, to the apples at the market - and at Cornell..  Why?  You'll just have to come back next week and see.  Prepare for a treat.

The Power of Nature

A lot of my blogging this past month has been connected to major flooding in my area of upstate NY that occurred September 7 and 8, because the damage was so powerful.  We in this valley have been taught a lot of lessons by nature.  The most important one: how powerless we are. But we can pick our selves up and strive to bring our lives back to normal, the same as so many others in our country have had to do this year. 

Today, on a philosophical morning, I have these emotions:

1.  Gratitude.  My spouse and I both interact at our jobs with people who lost their homes.  We have neighbors who lost so much more than we did.

2.  An appreciation of "The Things You Take For Granted".  We left on vacation with an intact neighborhood.  We returned to - well, something totally different, and we weren't even able to get back into our neighborhood on the first night.  A curfew we didn't know about had fallen and a deputy sheriff turned us away.  We were suddenly homeless in our own neighborhood. What a feeling that was.

3.  Interdependence.  So many people had to depend on the kindness of others. Just blocks from us we saw  people who set up impromptu lunch stands.  The person who posted a large "Everything Will Be All Right" sign on the side of his flooded out business, encouraged his neighbors perhaps more than he will ever know.

4.  Trying to be good to ourselves and being good to others.  We don't know what others we interact with on a daily basis have been through.

5.  Seeing the best and the worst in others. Sadly, some of the stories do not highlight the best of human nature.

I, finally, wanted to share some pictures of a beautiful park in our area, Otsiningo Park,where I take some of my wildflower pictures.  These pictures were taken two weeks after the flood and show the forces of nature that were at work on those days in September.

Building knocked off foundation.

It's hard to tell without a scale, but that plastic thing hanging from a tree was above our heads.

No picnics for the rest of this year.

Another no-picnic zone.

Thank you for allowing me to share this moment with you.

Kicking the News

It's ironic, in a way.  I was going to post today about a series of YA books that were so intense, so loved by me, that I didn't just read them.  While I was devouring the series, I didn't feel I was just reading them.  I was living in the books.

I read somewhere that a book only truly succeeds if you find yourself living in that world.

If not for Steve Jobs, that series (the Uglies series and the related book "Extras" by Scott Westerfeld), never would have existed, I don't think.  "Extras" certainly would not have.  So rather than post a tribute to Steve, I want to talk about a YA book I recently read - and lived.

I enjoy certain types of YA (Young Adult) literature.  I don't get into the vampire stuff or horror.  Rather, I like dystopias - as a teen and young adult I read a lot of science fiction and as a middle aged adult some alternate history - the dystopias are a logical extension.

A dystopia, briefly, is a nightmare Earth of the future, where everything has gone wrong in society.  They can sometimes combine with utopias, which are the opposite - ideal worlds of the future.  The dystopia genre has taken off among teens - perhaps a reflection of so much going wrong in their lives in the here and now.  But even worlds that seem ideal on the surface....aren't.

In the Uglies trilogy, our society (the "Rusties") has self destructed.  We Rusties have been replaced by what seem to be an ideal, controlled, ecological world wide society-a Utopia. At the age of 16, all citizens undergo a mandatory surgery that strengthens their bodies and makes them Pretty - a type of irresistible prettiness.  And what do the young Pretties do?  They party by night, every night, in a party that never ends.  No wonder every 15 year old counts the moments until surgery day.

SPOILER ALERT

Well....there's a dark side to that surgery, too (enter dystopia).  And, by the end of the trilogy, our heroine....well, I am not going to give it away, except to say that that society undergoes a very rapid revolution.  That is where the related Extras book comes in, and is it fascinating. 

In the Extras world, the society of Pretties, in just a few years, has changed tremendously and become a Reputation Economy.  Everyone has a "face rank"  Your ability to get goods, to have a spacious house, to have luxuries, depends on your popularity rank in a city wide type of Facebook.  Everyone is interfaced to that future Facebook and receives feeds from each other through "skintennas".  For those who aren't popular, there are several ways to boost your popularity, your face rank.

One way is to "kick", or to post such fascinating videos (a type of self-journalism, really) that people pay attention.  Our heroine is a kicker and she ends up stumbling on a secret...not that I can tell you what it is.

Absorbed in that world, I found myself miles from home in the middle of my home town being flooded in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee.  And, I followed it on Facebook through videos and pictures my son took. (He even tried to take a video of him evacuating where he lives, with a flash flood impending.)

He was....kicking, 21st century version.  He was using a smart phone - not an I Phone, but these smart phones would not have existed without the IPhone.  In fact, his interest in computers can be dated back to when he was around 12, and someone gave him an old Apple IIe. (that's a story for another day).  Without Steve Jobs?  I don't think any of that would have happened, not the way he did it.  He didn't do it to increase face rank but he did it to report and to fill some kind of human need to witness.

A primitive "Extras" was taking place in front of my eyes.  And when I returned home, and was able to get into my neighborhood, I did a little bit of picture taking to bear witness, too.  And I posted some of those photos to Facebook.

In the world of the Uglies there would have been no record of Steve Jobs.  Very little information about the Rusties survived the fall of our civilization.   But his technology lived on in their world, just as it will live on for us.

Steve Jobs may have achieved a type of immortality.  His death impacted everyone.

I end this blog post with the You Tube video of the 2005 Commencement Speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford.  It is autobiographical, funny, and sobering.  If you have 15 minutes of free time, please play it.  You'll be glad you did.

So will the people of the future.

Fight All Cancer

I posted the below about Pink Cartoons a year ago.  I posted it again, with some new comments, last Thursday.

I was watching Jeopardy a few minutes ago when the network broke in with a news bulletin. Steve Jobs has just lost his eight year battle with pancreatic cancer.

I started to cry.  Not only for cancer taking the life of another person who has changed and enriched all of our lives (both Mac and PC users) but because pancreatic cancer has taken the lives of an aunt, an uncle and a great uncle.  It has been the great fear of my life.  I fully know how deadly it is.  It was a cry of frustration.

There is no diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer.  Nor is there for stomach cancer and other digestive cancers.  One is needed desperately. By the time you have symptoms the cancer has spread and it is too late.  Meanwhile......

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Binghamton had its walk on Sunday.  This sea of pink engulfed Binghamton once again.  The long list of "pink" products you can buy at your local store seems endless.  I'm sure enough of them were worn Sunday as the pink tide spread from Recreation Park.

I won't buy those products.  It's out of principle.  Because I don't think one cancer should be pitted against another.  All cancers need to be fought, not just one or two.  I say this with respect for those I know who have battled breast cancer but I said it a year ago, I said it last Thursday and, in honor of the passing of Steve Jobs, I will say it again.:

One cancer should not be singled out for special attention.  One particular cancer should not get special walks and special fundraising.

When, on a Sunday last October, I found many of my Sunday paper's cartoons were tinted pink, it was the last straw for me, and I wrote this post. (It talks mainly of women but, as we all know, cancer is an equal opportunity killer.)

I say it again. Fight cancer. Fight and work towards a cure for....all cancer. 

The Pink Cartoons that Made Me See Red

With deep apologies to one of my dear regular readers, I have to speak out.

Since when is breast cancer more important than other cancers?  It is, if you have it.  But there are a lot of women suffering and dying right now, from other cancers that barely see the light of day.  The light of funding, that is.  Funding for their cure.

Why does breast cancer rate a special fight, while other feminine cancers, such as uterine or ovarian, don't rate as high?  Do they not deserve our attention?  And our funds to "find a cure"?  Or at least a good test, which ovarian cancer needs desperately?

I am sorry, Pink Cartoonists, but I feel you have disrespected my Aunt Trudy, who died from pancreatic cancer.  You disrespected my Aunt Shirley, who died from stomach cancer.  You disrespected my late co worker Madeline, who died from melanoma.  You disrespected my late co worker Patricia who died from lung cancer.

You disrespect a co-worker for many years, whose grandmother and mother both died from colon cancer.  You disrespect the fear she faces every day that she will be next.

You disrespect a former neighbor who lived next door to me. Two years ago she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer (she was way too young for a routine colonoscopy, in case you are wondering.)  You disrespect my late neighbor, a respected teacher in the Johnson City middle school, who succumbed to ovarian cancer and left her husband, also a teacher, to raise their two children.

Their cancer struggles deserve respect. Their cancers deserve walks and a special color and products whose sales help to fund the fight for "the cure".

All cancers deserve a cure.  Not just breast cancer.  I am sorry, I know women fighting breast cancer now and I do not disrespect what they are going through.  What I fight against is this "women united against breast cancer" -while people seem to turn a funding blind eye to those women who were unfortunate enough to come down with a different type.

Don't they deserve a fight for the cure?  A day of cartoon colors in their honor?

I think of the other friends and females relatives in my life.  The survivors (two survivors of thyroid cancer, a survivor of ovarian cancer and a number of breast cancer survivors) and those who did not survive.

Their struggle was heroic, each and every one.  The courage my friend Pat, who knew from the day she was diagnosed that she would not survive and prepared her family for that day without flinching, moved me in particular.  I remember the last time I visited her, when she was in a coma, mere days from death.  She lay there in her living room, with her favorite country music playing.  "She won't respond", her husband said, "but she hears everything you say."  It was so hard to say goodbye.  The words stuck in my throat.  I could swear she weakly squeezed my hand.

My co-worker Madeline struggled for nearly four years against melanoma.

My mother in law, who had two breast cancer diagnoses in one year, with a 10 year old daughter at home, faced her own struggle.

Don't women deserve a race to the "cure" against CANCER, no matter what type?

Wildflower Wednesday-Erigeron Into Fall

We have a good chance of frost tonight.  Even if the frost doesn't come, we are close to the end of wildflower season.  Right now, the majority of wildflowers are asters - or something called Erigeron, which are related.

The name "Erigeron" fascinates me.  It sounds like a name better suited to a fantasy series.

This photo, and the identification as Erigeron, was given to me by the guest photographer I have been featuring in recent posts.

Contrast to a photo I featured last week, purple asters and goldenrod.

Say goodbye to the last of our wildflowers.  Replacing them will be fall foliage.  This year, the fall foliage turning is uneven and doesn't seem to follow the patterns of past years.  But last week in Otsiningo Park, I took this picture.  Call it "coming attractions".  This is only the beginning.

Hopefully there will be a lot better to come.  Stay tuned - I hope to have fall foliage pictures for you next Wednesday.

The Glads that Could

Looks like a gladiolus opening up its flower spike, doesn't it.   And it is.  I took this picture right after the flood that struck the Triple Cities of upstate NY the first week of September (due to Tropical Storm Lee).

But there is quite a story behind the Glads That Could.  A story of beating impossible odds, defying neglect, and blooming where you are planted.

I haven't grown glads in years. When I first started gardening in 1978 (started because I finally had land - I had been aching to garden since at least 2nd grade, but living in a NYC apartment building doesn't do much for that feeling) my reference book was the Gurney's catalog.  In those days, they were located in Yankton, South Dakota.  I was located in Wichita, KS and their offerings were just right for the zone 6 prairie climate of Wichita.  Scorching summers, short but cold winters, lots of sun, lots of wind.

I fell in love with their glads.  Although we had to dig them up every fall before hard frost, they would come back the following spring and give us spikes of lovely blooms in the summer.  Then, in 1981, we moved away from Kansas from good.

Glads fell out of favor in the gardening world.  It may have been due to an association with funeral home bouquets, some say. But we didn't try to grow glads again - until last year.  By then we were solid residents of zone 5 upstate NY.

A local supermarket had a clearance on glads.  Although there is such a thing as hardy glads now, I don't think these were then.  I confirmed with spouse, who would have to do the digging up (I have back problems) and he agreed to buy a package of six as an experiment.

We planted them on the side of our house.  They never bloomed. (I think they weren't getting enough sun.)  We forgot about them.  Fall faded into winter, winter dumped snow and cold all over us, and we never gave them a thought.

Sometime in late spring, I saw these blades coming up.  We have daffodils and irises planted on the side of our house.  I had no idea what these were.  My spouse, who has a better memory, remembered at once.

The glads!  They had survived our harsh winter of 2010-2011 (almost 118 inches of snow at the airport).  But would they bloom?

It rained and rained this spring. (if you live in Texas, that's where your rain was.)  A heat wave struck in July.  The rains returned in August.  It rained and it rained and it rained and....finally the rivers (we have two) cried uncle, and spread all over our land.

When we were able to return to our house on September 11, I took pictures of my blooming plants for use with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  I didn't include this one because it was in a vase by then.

This glad was actually the second to bloom.  One, a similar color, had already bloomed in late August.  The third one is opening now.  The blooms are orange.  One more plant has a flower stalk. Whether it will make it to the frost is unknown, as we may come close to having frost tomorrow night.

No matter.  These glads have shown the character we admire in people - and then some.

Lorem Ipsum

I love it when paper traditions are continued in our electronic age.

Today, I needed to go to a website which was recently reorganized.  I saw a link that hadn't been there before, and it sounded interesting.  I clicked and....the page was in Latin.  It contained one paragraph.

"Lorum ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adpisicing elit..." the paragraph began.  (I have a feeling many people reading this know where this is going, but I wasn't in on the secret.)

Hmmm.  Why does this website have a page in Latin?  For all my love of history, I've never studied Latin. (Languages are not my strength.)  What could this possibly be saying?  Or, was someone practicing their Latin homework while designing a web page?

A quick Google search and some information from a friend told me what was happening.  But even if you know about Lorem ipsum, you may not know all of the story.

The paragraph I saw is what is called a "placeholder".  Some call it "Lorem ipsum". It is a form of "greeking".  Although it resembles Latin, it really is "dummy text" used when laying something out or where you just need nonsense text.  We've all seen it.  Software has used it since the 1980's and it has been used (for print) since at least the 1960's.  Another website I investigated suggested its use may have originated in the 1500's.

The rest of this story deals with where the dummy Latin text originated from.  It isn't simply a stringing together of various random Latin words.   It turns out it was originally taken from a writing of the Roman politician and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero.   As Cicero was murdered in 43 B.C.E., this means the text Lorem Ipsum comes from is some 2000 years (more or less-math is not a strength of mine, either) old.

Now I was excited!  (It's obvious that the web page I saw went live just a little bit early.)

We love to read about the Romans. We love TV series based on the Romans. (Spartacus, Rome, just to name two recent ones.)   We still use Roman numerals.  Various professions still use Latin extensively.

And now, Roman tradition has reached the Internet.

The more things change....

Civil War Sunday - Beer and The Little Woman

Welcome, Ultimate Blog Challengers, to my blog.

I published my post yesterday before I decided last-minute to sign up, so I did not post a welcome yesterday.

In this blog, I write about anything that I am inspired to write about, with two scheduled exceptions.  Every Wednesday, I have a Wildflower Wednesday where I post pictures of wildflowers.  I am someone trying to learn about wildflowers so we can learn together. (Here in upstate NY, the flower season will be ending soon. So that is going to be changing in the next month to - well maybe you can help me decide)

Every Sunday, I post something related to one of my interests, the United States Civil War of 1861-1865. (Some would argue we are still fighting it.)  Since we are now commemorating the 150th anniversary of the war, I should have a lot of material.

I do not intend to "recreate" the war as we come up on the 150th anniversary of each event.  I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Virginia in July for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of First Manassas, (First Bull Run) but I won't be able to visit too many anniversary events, or reenactments. 

To me, the real interest of the Civil War is the people, many of them everyday people who would never have been destined for fame if not for them being (so to speak) in the right place at the right time.

I like to explore the Civil War from some less-than-usual angles.  If you do this, you will be surprised to see where the Civil War pops up in daily life.  You don't even have to visit the South, or view a single battlefield.

You just have to visit a beer and wine store in downtown Portland, ME.  Or walk the streets of a college town about 30 miles away.

Last month, we decided to visit Mid-Coast Maine.  We stayed in a college town, Brunswick, and visited Portland (among other places).

I ended up bumping into the Civil War at every turn.

Maine has a thriving beer industry.  The above brand, Shipyard, is a Maine brand of beer.  One of their commemorative bottles honors a Maine native, Joshua Chamberlain.  
He's the man on the middle label, dressed in a Federal uniform.

This was his house in Brunswick.

 Who was Joshua Chamberlain?  Very simply put, he was a college professor who, when the Civil War started, felt he needed to fight for his principles.  He enlisted and saw action in several battles.  He was wounded very seriously, but survived.

His actions at the Battle of Gettysburg may well have directly lead to the Union victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863.  The Union victory stopped a Confederate invasion of the north.  After the war, he returned to Maine and served for four years as its Governor.  After that, he became president of the college he had once taught in, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME.  (Longfellow also has a connection with Bowdoin College and this house, a story for another day.)

Meanwhile, there was a woman whose husband was teaching at Bowdoin College.  They moved into this house on the campus and the woman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, ended up writing a book that changed the course of history.  It was published in installments between 1851 and 1852. 

This white house is where the book Uncle Tom's Cabin was written.


Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband attended a church which is still standing, not too far away.  The church is open to visitors (the house is not).

Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the White House on November 25, 1862.  There is a legend that Abraham Lincoln greeted her, saying "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

Just one more Civil War connection - the Lee's Surrender blanket I bought elsewhere in Brunswick, a blanket that taught me a valuable lesson about research.

A man on a beer label and a" little woman".  You'll be surprised what can change history.

Oops I Did It Again

I can not turn down an orphaned plant.

Today, after visiting the Vestal Farmers Market and picking up cucumber, yellow squash, 2 ears of corn (can't believe I bought local sweet corn in October!), an eggplant and 1/2 peck of assorted apples, I said those famous last words to my spouse.

"Let's go to the local garden center and look around."

He should know better by now.

You have to understand that in the Binghamton area, we have a new game show.  It's called "Open or Closed?"  It will never beat Deal or No Deal in popularity but you sometimes get several chances a day to play.  And you don't get taunted by "The Banker" either.

The rules are simple:

You need to buy something.
You try to figure out if the store you need was closed by the flood.
If you can't figure it out, you go there and find out.

There's a lot of black humor involved. Black humor has become a major coping mechanism around here.  So if I seem to have a mocking tone  - I am not mocking at all.

We head towards contestant #1.  The place is Farmer Brown, and we are good customers of theirs. They are open.  The owner (actually, the owner's daughter) knows us by sight, and greets us.  The place is empty of customers, but not mums.  There are hundreds of mums. 

It should have been empty.  All the mums on display should have been snapped up by eager customers. 

"Please, tell your friends we are open", the woman tells us.  It is cold, with a stiff wind.  I shiver.  "The mums are all reduced in price.  Tell your friends. "  We pick up a lovely white mum that will give our front yard some color.  We ask if she has pansies.  "Yes", she responds, "but they look so bad after all the rain that they aren't sellable."

Then she astounds us.  "Take a couple or three.", she insists.  "They will overwinter and come back in the spring.  I can't sell them, anyway."

I am keeping my promise to the daughter of Farmer Brown.  They have been a favorite of ours for years, and I hope they can stay in business.  If you live in the Binghamton area, please tell your gardening friends they are open, and have lovely mums for sale.

Then, it is onto contestant #2, Tioga Gardens.  This one is a gamble.  It is on the outskirts of Owego, a small town that was terribly hit by the floods.  Could they have survived?

Yes!  But most of their stock was gone.  And what was left was all reduced, anywhere from 25% to 75% off.  Looking at it, you could see why. But I had to adopt...er, buy something. 

There was a little garden angel statute that had this look on her face, so deep in thought, and I had to buy her.  I had been thinking of a little garden statue.  After I rejected some others (for some reason I just can't get into frogs or snails) I decided.  And then there was this plant, so beautiful, with purple leaves.  No price on it, just a name.  And some care directions:  partial sun, medium water.

The plant was called a Persian Shield.  I couldn't put her down, either.  I took the resin angel, the Persian Shield, and a bottle of African Violet fertilizer to the checkout.  We chatted with the people there.  They were coping as best they could, hoping for next spring.  I was told the Persian Shield would make a good houseplant.  We'll see.  In the meantime, please know they are open, too.

Our small businesspeople need our support more than ever.

The resin angel and the mum are now in our front yard.  The Persian Shield is on my living room table, awaiting my decision on if I should try to bring it to the office.  May they bring us all luck.

On the Cover of the....Flood Book?

October should be a month full of inspiration, ripe pumpkins, fun in Ithaca, and fall foliage. What it will be, though, is a saga of recovery and frustration for many.  I find myself one of the relatively lucky ones in a neighborhood full of suffering.

Now I find our local paper advertising a book they will be publishing later this year about the Binghamton area's September flood.  Although there is a disclaimer that the cover is not final, yesterday's ad had a picture of the book with a cover.  The book they were advertising had, as its cover - something that looked suspiciously like an aerial photo of my neighborhood during the height of the flood.

Why do I feel exploited?

I really don't care that "a portion of the proceeds" will go to flood relief.  One question I ask is:  what percentage?  2%?  50%?  And is this percentage worth a rehash so soon?  Aren't there better ways to raise money for flood relief?

Do we need a written history and "best of" photos so soon (the book is supposed to come out in November) when every moment of this is engraved forever in the minds of those who went through it?  Especially hard hit communities such as Owego, NY are still trying to find their way.

Is the November release so that it can be on everyone's Christmas list?  Or am I just being cynical?

I may not be feeling reasonable about this. But maybe I'd like to see something happier.  I like the idea of a flood relief concert, which is being planned.  We get to hear great music, mingle with others in our community, and are given the opportunity to forget our troubles for a few hours.

The holidays are going to be a big challenge for many of us.

Music, yes.

Flood book, not yet.  Too soon.  Let us recover first.

Why I'm Not Buying Pink Again This Year

I posted the below a year ago.  Now, we are nearly into October again.  October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we will be beseeched to buy pink carnations, pink wristbands, pink "Fight Like a Girl" T-Shirts and pink almost-any-packaged-item you can think of.  All to fight breast cancer.

And I won't buy any of them.  It's out of principle.

Before you boo me off the internet, please bear with me.

When, on a Sunday last October, I found many of my Sunday paper's cartoons were tinted pink, it was the last straw for me, and I wrote this post.  I still stand by every word.  I will gladly join in the fight against cancer (I've participated in several Relay for Life's, for example).  All cancer. 

All cancer deserves a cure, all cancer patients deserve support, and all cancers deserve our attention.  We should not, ever, pit one cancer against another for available funds.

As a sad update, one more person I know passed from cancer this year. This person  fought a valiant fight against multiple cancers.  And none of them was breast cancer.

All cancer sucks.

The Pink Cartoons that Made Me See Red

With deep apologies to one of my dear regular readers, I have to speak out.

Since when is breast cancer more important than other cancers?  It is, if you have it.  But there are a lot of women suffering and dying right now, from other cancers that barely see the light of day.  The light of funding, that is.  Funding for their cure.

Why does breast cancer rate a special fight, while other feminine cancers, such as uterine or ovarian, don't rate as high?  Do they not deserve our attention?  And our funds to "find a cure"?  Or at least a good test, which ovarian cancer needs desperately?

I am sorry, Pink Cartoonists, but I feel you have disrespected my Aunt Trudy, who died from pancreatic cancer.  You disrespected my Aunt Shirley, who died from stomach cancer.  You disrespected my late co worker Madeline, who died from melanoma.  You disrespected my late co worker Patricia who died from lung cancer.

You disrespect a co-worker for many years, whose grandmother and mother both died from colon cancer.  You disrespect the fear she faces every day that she will be next.

You disrespect a former neighbor who lived next door to me. Two years ago she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer (she was way too young for a routine colonoscopy, in case you are wondering.)  You disrespect my late neighbor, a respected teacher in the Johnson City middle school, who succumbed to ovarian cancer and left her husband, also a teacher, to raise their two children.

Their cancer struggles deserve respect. Their cancers deserve walks and a special color and products whose sales help to fund the fight for "the cure".

All cancers deserve a cure.  Not just breast cancer.  I am sorry, I know women fighting breast cancer now and I do not disrespect what they are going through.  What I fight against is this "women united against breast cancer" -while people seem to turn a funding blind eye to those women who were unfortunate enough to come down with a different type.

Don't they deserve a fight for the cure?  A day of cartoon colors in their honor?

I think of the other friends and females relatives in my life.  The survivors (two survivors of thyroid cancer, a survivor of ovarian cancer and a number of breast cancer survivors) and those who did not survive.

Their struggle was heroic, each and every one.  The courage my friend Pat, who knew from the day she was diagnosed that she would not survive and prepared her family for that day without flinching, moved me in particular.  I remember the last time I visited her, when she was in a coma, mere days from death.  She lay there in her living room, with her favorite country music playing.  "She won't respond", her husband said, "but she hears everything you say."  It was so hard to say goodbye.  The words stuck in my throat.  I could swear she weakly squeezed my hand.

My co-worker Madeline struggled for nearly four years against melanoma.

My mother in law, who had two breast cancer diagnoses in one year, with a 10 year old daughter at home, faced her own struggle.

Don't women deserve a race to the "cure" against CANCER, no matter what type?

Wildflower Wednesday - The Flowers of Fall

The calendar has turned and it is fall at last.  (And it's still raining....)

Asters, and similar flowers, are taking the stage here in upstate NY.  Here is a nice clump, blooming among some goldenrod near a restaurant parking lot in Vestal, NY.

Remember, you don't have to live in the country to enjoy wildflowers.  Wildflowers are everywhere, there for your enjoyment.

The next several photos are taken by my guest photographer, whose photos you enjoyed a couple of times back in August.  She lives out in the rural part of our county, and lends a nice contrast to my urban photos.

Here is a picture of her purple asters.  These look to be a different variety than mine - the petals in her seem to be thinner and more "bent".

My guest has also, recently, started to see pink asters - not just the purple ones we are used to.

I also want to share two photos of viburnum my guest provided me with. I know I've seen these on the Vestal Rail Trail and if so, I know what they are now.
This picture, which is from this weekend, shows the ripe berries of maple-leaf viburnum.

And finally, this stunning picture from earlier in the year shows these witch-hobble viburnum in the red berry stage.  I love the shadows on this picture.

Next week, I am planning to have some pictures of fall foliage.  We are just about finished with new wildflowers, but fall foliage is starting to take center stage.

What is your favorite wild flower or plant of autumn?  (or, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere - spring?)

The Non-Intentional Tourists

Since my blog started, I've written (more than once) about the need to attract tourists to our area, and how other cities I've visited do it.


Upstate NY gets no respect.  When people think "New York" they think New York City.  Not that New York City doesn't have a ton of things to do, but 98% of New York State is NOT New York City.  No disrespect meant.  We don't have world class museums, the Statue of Liberty or skyscrapers.  We do have fall foliage, pumpkins, bountiful harvests of apples, apple cider, candied apples, pears, the last of the sweet corn, the 3rd largest library booksale in the country, mountains, scenery that can't be beat, Cornell, cheese, ice cream.

I wonder if peoples' perception of upstate NY is about to change....because of our flood.

People from all over the country have converged on upstate NY (and Vermont and New Jersey - let's not forget about them) to help with the cleanup.  I need to point out that our flood stricken community is only one of many. And right now, we are hosting a lot of out of towners.

One such group was the crew from Servpro who showed up earlier this month to help with our basement.  They were from Bangor, Maine.  And when the crew chief met with us to go over the costs and services, and we got the business talk out of the way, he said something very interesting.

"I didn't think New York was like this at all.  It's beautiful country here!" (and yes, he admitted he thought the entire state was one huge extension of the NYC metropolitan area). 

I don't know how many out of town workers are in this area.  Our FEMA inspector was from Michigan.  Our homeowners insurance adjuster (who finally made it out yesterday) was from Louisiana.  We have all the major cleanup companies out here and they have mobilized crews from all over the Northeast.  We have the specialists who are cleaning up the BAE Industries plant (they are hiring local but there a lot of specialists from elsewhere). There were the firemen who were pumping basements in our neighborhood on September 11.  The Salvation Army was in our neighborhood. The Red Cross has been many places.  The list is long.

Each of them is seeing Binghamton and its people on display.  I hope they are being favorably impressed, because each of these people are unintentional tourists.  They are staying (some of them) in our homes, eating in our restaurants, driving our streets.  In a moment of rest, perhaps they are looking at our trees, which are starting to turn color.  They are certainly interacting with our people.

And who knows - maybe some of them are calling home and telling their families "Hey, this upstate NY is really pretty.  The people are wonderful. We should come back and visit one day!"

We can only hope.

 

Blues on the Bridge

Yesterday, on an amazing warm and sunny day (both rather lacking around here the last month), we finally had a chance to forget our troubles for a few hours.

Blues on the Bridge!  10 hours of music from local and regional bands.

The bridge was in the flood, and pieces of Binghamton still stick to it.

Three weeks ago, both sides of Binghamton near the bridge were under water.  The effects linger, although the land is dry.  The businesses on the south side of the bridge (including my doctors office) are closed. 

Generators were needed to power the instruments.

It was almost a miracle that the concert was held.  The original date, September 11, was three days after the flood, and it was obviously postponed.  It was supposed to be held last Sunday, and had to be postponed again.

The annual organizer of this event was himself a flood victim. Several of the musicians were also victims.  But it was time to forget that for a day.

The concert has outgrown the Washington Street Bridge and now takes place on Riverside Drive.

The crowd starts out small, but builds throughout the day.

If any of you watched the Weather Channel coverage of the flood, this is a faraway view of where the Weather Channel broadcaster was broadcasting from.    Today, the view was tranquil, and the river is finally blue again.

Recovery is underway, so Mayor Ryan of Binghamton joined Blue Shift (I love that name) in a song, singing and playing blues harmonica.  Mayor Ryan is in the sky blue shirt to the right of the woman on stage.

A city whose mayor sings the blues can't go wrong.

Today, we returned to the hard work of our recovery.

Civil War Sunday - Hoax or Truth?

Last Sunday I decided to step out of my U.S. Civil War comfort zone and post something on quilt patterns, prompted by a blanket I bought on sale in Brunswick, ME that featured something called the Lee's Surrender pattern.  (I haven't started the fringe project, by the way.)  In so doing, I made mention of something I found in researching the Lee's Surrender pattern. This was a statement that there was an Underground Railroad "code" connection with quilts.  It sounded logical, and was found in several different sources - so it must be right.

Not so fast.

I have a very faithful reader, someone I know, perhaps my very first follower.  She read last Sunday's post and immediately tried to comment.  I have been having commenting issues on my blog (someone helped me, but now people are having problems again.)  So she emailed me, saying "Your blog post on the Civil War quilts reminded me of something I read on the Daily Kos site last month. There's a woman named Ellid who posts a weekly feature there called Books So Bad They're Good which has become a must-read for me. (She writes incredibly well and her taste in books lean toward the SF/Fantasy genres, but basically, she reads everything!) She also happens to be a quilt historian, and she devoted one of her columns to debunking the myth of the Underground Railroad "quilt code." Thought you'd be interested - here's the link:".

I followed the link and found a most fascinating article, which took me back years to the late 1960's and the Erica Wilson crewelwork craze...a story for another time.   Anyway, the "Underground Railroad Quilt Code' Ellid states, is a myth.  A myth that has fooled a lot of people.  Including me.

This is far from the only myth that has made it into history, and yes, that includes Civil War history. 

So, I did a little backtracking.  I am not knowledgeable of quilts, and I do not have the time or training to try to do really in-depth research. (getting that training is a dream of mine, by the way.)  With a simple Google search, I would have easily seen (if I had bypassed the top hits) that the theory has been quite controversial.  A couple of examples of online resources discussing if this is a myth or not: 
National Geographic Examiner.
U.S. News and World Report

This even extends past our borders into Canada, as this official Canadian website shows. 
Therefore I should not have presented this code as a fact but rather as a controversy.

So, this simple blanket out of a Maine Woolens store has proved to be quite educational.  Besides introducing me to this controversy, it also shows how careful (since I do not use source material as much as I should) I am going to have to be in bringing the usual and lesser know stories of the Civil War to you.

Farmers Markets on the Cusp of Fall

The Farmers Markets are back. And even our local newspaper is excited about it.

Taking the advice I gave readers last Saturday, we again visited two local markets, Vestal and Otsiningo Park (Binghamton).  Both markets are showing the transition from summer into fall, and both markets (I believe) will be closing up shop by the end of October.  (The Otsiningo Park market goes indoors, but only meets once a month.)

The Vestal market is in the parking lot of the Vestal Library, which has been closed since the flood. (the good news is, they are reopening Monday at 2pm.)  We bought some unusual decorative gourds there.  If we were so inclined, we could have bought either white or orange pumpkins from him, too.  I have been hearing of a  pumpkin shortage and I have to believe much of the local crop was lost.  I hope I'm wrong.

From another vendor, we bought a 4 lb organic free range chicken for a special occasion later this week. This is a special treat for us.  I must admit the price, while fair, (and we have actually visited this farmer so we know these are true free range chickens) is rather pricey for our budget.  But we decided to splurge.

If we hadn't had plenty of honey, a nearby honey stand would have taken care of that.  Fall honey is coming in.  The fascinating part of local honey is the different types:  the mild summer variety and the full bodied, deeper colored fall types.  Of course, that is due to the types of flowers available.  I'm sure the Japanese knotweed kept the bees happy but we noticed, when we visited Otsiningo Park, that a lot of the knotweed had been killed off by the flood.

Another stand sold us two ears of corn and a few pounds of Honeycrisp apples.  It appears the apple crop weathered the flood well.  The market was full of the seasonal Macoun, Galas, Cortlands, Ginger Golds, the beginning of the Empire crop (my favorite, next to Honeycrisp), and some unusual varieties such as Wicked Pucker.  Pears were plentiful, too.  One stand still had Pennsylvania peaches.  The winter squash are coming in, too - acorns, butternuts, and some other varieties.  At the same time, tomatoes (thanks to the heavy rains) are disappearing, as are some of the other summer crops.

Although we didn't purchase any, there were huge cabbages and cauliflower for sale, and even some eggplant (for whatever reason, it was a wonderful year for eggplant-just when we decided not to try to grow it ourselves anymore).  I wonder if this is due to all the rain.  One person's misfortune....

At Otsiningo Park we took a 4.6 mile walk to view the damage, which is extensive. (I will blog about that later this week)  At the market, people were flocking to purchase.  A couple of men provided music.  We picked up a couple of other items.

Again:  support your local farmer.  Support your local farmer's market!

Purple Sweet Potato Lasagna

Back in July, I blogged about some ethnic supermarkets we shopped in when we were staying in the Centerville/Chantilly, VA area.  We bought a couple of different vegetables there that we brought back to try.

One of the things we bought were purple sweet potatoes.  

We have always enjoyed growing unusual colored produce.  We grew (back in the 1970's, before most people heard of them) purple potatoes, yellow and white tomatoes, and yellow watermelon.  So the purple sweet potatoes were a natural.

Soon after we got home, spouse cooked a couple of them in the microwave.  Yuk.  They were dry and mealy.  I'm one of those persons who loves their food wet.  I have pasta with my tomato sauce.  That frustrates my spouse, who grew up in the Italian tradition of serving pasta with just a dab of sauce.

But even he agreed that the dry texture was a bit much.

We let the situation (and the sweet potatoes) lie until tonight, when it became apparent that the purple sweet potatoes wouldn't last much longer.  Apparently, they don't last as long as the sweet potatoes we are used to.

Spouse decided to use a recipe he's used for butternut squash and also for the sweet potatoes we are used to in U.S. markets.  And it worked!  Here, noting my spouse doesn't really measure, is what my spouse did.  Note, this is not a vegetarian recipe and he feels it would not work the same with out the ham.  And also note I also tried to make sense of his verbal narrative.  I suspect you will have to be an expert cook to follow this one.

Spouse's Purple Sweet Potato (or Yam or Winter Squash) Lasagna

You need lasagna noodles or any kind of flat pasta, or even bowties.   Then you need your favorite winter squash or sweet potato, cooked (microwave works great) until soft, let cool, and mash.  Ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced smoked ham (like Black Forest) or smoked sausage.  You'll need a little milk (skim is fine).  Finally, grated Romano or Parmesian cheese, and parsley to taste.  I can't tell you quantities.  Lots of luck.

For the sauce you need your choice of garlic, sage or rosemary.  Olive oil and/or butter, if desired.  Chicken stock.

First:

1.  Thinly slice ham or sausage, the mozarella cheese, and a couple of cloves of garlic.
2.  Chop garlic slices.
3.  Mince sage or rosemary.
4.  Start boiling water for pasta.
5.  In the meantime, mix the mashed potato/squash and mix with about an equal amount of ricotta cheese.
6.  Add a little bit of milk so that the mixture is smooth but still thick. (this is important).
7.  Chop your parsley and add to the mix.
8.  Add grated cheese to taste.

This is your filling.
 
9.  Cook pasta until al dente or even a little firmer. Do not overcook!

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce.

10.  Heat, on medium heat, anywhere from 2 tbsp to 4 tbsp of oil or oil/butter mixture.
11.  When hot, add garlic and chopped sage/rosemary.  Let garlic start to sizzle but don't let it brown.
12. When garlic just starts to turn golden, add 1/4 to 1/2 c chicken stock.
13.  Turn heat on to medium high and bring to boil.  Let it cook while the pasta is boiling and you assemble the dish.  You want it to boil down a bit but don't boil away.

Next:

14. Drain and immediately put back in pot; fill pot with cold water, swish around and let the pasta sit for several minutes until cools down. This keeps pasta from sticking.
15.  Preheat oven to 365 F.  While it preheats:
16.  Spray backing dish with cooking spray or lightly coat with oil
17.  Drain pasta that is sitting in the cold water.  Put back in pot.

Assembly:
18.  Assemble like a lasagna.  Layer of pasta first, then several scoops of filling.  Spread out evenly.  Another layer of pasta,  Then a layer of the ham/sausage.  Then another layer of pasta . Then a layer of mozzarella cheese.  Then repeat.  (I somehow think I messed up this part, as my head was pounding by now.)

At this point sprinkle some of sauce over the mozzarella.

Then another round of the above.

Finish with plain pasta. Then sprinkle top with more sauce. Reserve some sauce.   Place in oven and bake for 30 min.  Let it rest 10 minutes. Serve with rest of sauce.

Now you know why I don't write a cooking blog.

It's Raining It's Pouring And My Heart is Not Soaring

A few minutes ago I got out of my evening bath, dried off, and prepared to sit in front of my computer to blog.

Then I heard this sound.

There are a lot of sounds around here nowadays.  There are the backup beeps of heavy equipment, going day and night (24/7) at the BAE Industries plant, thanks to the flood recovery contractors. There's the sound of garbage trucks coming around to pick up flood debris (using back end loaders and dump trucks.) There are the contractors, coming around to give estimates for damage repair or new furnaces.  For a while there were the scavengers, hoping to wrestle scrap metal or scrap something to sell out of a pile of someone's 30 years worth of soggy memories.  Thankfully the last has mainly stopped, due to the garbage pickups.

But there is one sound in the neighborhood that we all dread.

It's the sound of rain.

There was just a burst of rain.  Heavy, pouring rain.  It stopped a few minutes after it started.  But more rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.  They say maybe 1 1/2 inches of rain by Monday.  But they could be wrong. And I'm thinking, and I know my neighbors are thinking:  will it be like two weeks ago?  Will the basement we just paid Servpro good money to steam clean and dehumidify in an effort to keep our first floor living room floor from warping further overwhelm our new dehumidifier?

I used to love the sound of rain.  Even after the flood of 2006 that affected parts of this area I still (after a while) fell back in love with its sound.  I don't know if I'll ever like that sound again.  If it starts to rain again, my heart will not be soaring.  It will be in the pit of my stomach.

Wildflower Wednesday-Recovery Flowers

Our two major walking trails in the Binghamton, NY area (Otsiningo Park and the Vestal Rail Trail) were both impacted by the widespread flooding caused by Tropical Storm Lee on September 8 and 9.  Otsiningo Park had to close for over a week.  I am not sure if the Vestal Rail Trail closed completely but I suspect it did.  One part runs on the edge of a neighborhood called Twin Orchards that was one of the most impacted by the flooding.  Last Thursday, that end was still closed.  But the other end was open, with its wildflowers alive and well.

Late summer/early fall belongs to the asters. Fall is almost here; it begins on September 23 this year.

I am not going to pretend I am a wildflower expert.  There are so many different kinds of asters out there, so if I am wrong about these, just jump in and let me know.

The first aster is (I think) is a New England aster.  They are so showy they almost take your breath away.  The second one was smaller.  This might be a New York aster. 

 
Time for my mystery plant of the week.  I wish I had gotten more of a close up of this white flower.  It's been blooming for a few weeks.  The closest I can get to this is something called "buttonbush" but what I read seems to imply buttonbush wouldn't be blooming this late in the year.  These flowers are small, round, and don't seem to have a center.  (the yellow flowers with them are goldenrod.)

Finally, I want to share a wildflower sight with you that I hope you never see.  This is a stand of goldenrod and other plants.  The grey foliage is what remains when a plant is covered by flood.

I hope you never see anything like that.

The Stripped Down Y

The YMCA's in Binghamton and Johnson City were both closed by our flood of September 9.  I've been a member since 1995 and take water aerobics classes there nearly ever week.

Within the next several days, Servicemaster trucks gathered in the Johnson City Y parking lot.  It was obvious they were trying to get back into business.

To realize the extent of the flooding, you must be aware that almost all of the non profits such as the YM and YWCA, the Boys and Girls Club, and similar, were closed at some point due to the flooding.  Many people depend on these organizations for exercise, recreation, socialization and child care.  At least two of these organization provide housing.

Late last week I received a letter from the YMCA.  They were doing everything possible to reopen on Monday, September 19.  They met this goal but when I entered the lobby last evening, I was in shock.

Turns out (when I chatted later with one of the front desk staff, who lives in my neighborhood) I wasn't the only one.

 I don't know exactly what I was expecting but...
The front desk was gone, replaced by some covered card tables and a computer. The carpeting was gone, replaced by stripped down concrete floors. The comfy chairs were gone, replaced by some folding chairs. In the locker room, the lockers were gone, as was almost everyone else.  They thoughtfully provided some hooks to hang clothes on. (I declined)

I took my clothes into the pool area so I could keep an eye on them.  The pool, normally heated, was 71 degrees.  There was only one other person there for the class.  The instructor could have cancelled the class due to policy as there were less than 6 attendees, but there was no way any of us were leaving.  She taught a class of two freezing middle aged women, and probably never had a more enthusiastic class.  (and probably none more fast moving, as we fought to avoid freezing in place.)

It was wonderful.

In chatting with my desk clerk neighbor (she's been working there since before I was a member), she disclosed that the cleanup cost over $1 mil per location.  I asked "how is the Y going to pay for this?"  She told me she really didn't know, but it was being discussed.

In recent years, the Y in Johnson City has become "fancier" - in fact they completed a front desk area remodeling a year or so ago that replaced benches with comfy chairs and even included coffee for the members.

Know what, YMCA?  Last night, all I needed was a water aerobics class in a chilly pool.

The Claim Processes Begin

Yesterday, the FEMA inspector came to look at our house.  As I've mentioned before, our neighborhood was one of many hit September 8-9 in the Binghamton, NY area due to torrential rains (and both flash and river flooding) caused by Tropical Storm Lee.  We were relatively lucky but just a few streets from us they were hit horribly.

However, all affected residents are being urged to register with FEMA. We weren't originally planning to seek help from FEMA, but right now the final amount of our damages are somewhat up in the air.

What I want to do with this post is let people know what happens during the inspection process.

The first step in filing a claim with FEMA is to either register online or call a toll free number.  We did this on Thursday after the newspaper ran stories encouraging everyone to register.  The process is relatively simple.  You will be asked for various information.  One piece of information you must be prepared to give is your annual gross income.

Saturday night we received a call from an inspector, who announced he would be at our house at 8am Sunday.  And, we had to have the declarations page of our homeowners insurance policy handy. (Good luck if where we kept papers had been flooded, I guess, as there would have been no time to contact our insurance agent at 8:30 on a Saturday night!).

He did arrive promptly, with a computer.  This gentleman, incidentally, was not an employee of FEMA but rather a contractor.  I found that most interesting.

After looking at our insurance, he asked us various questions including
-if we had extra expense due to having to find another place to live (our neighborhood had been evacuated);
-if we had suffered any medical or dental issues due to the flooding;
-if we had bought a dehumidifier after the flood;
-if we had lost medication or medical supplies as a result of this event.

and a final question, which totally threw me.

Were we planning to move?

You know, that is a complicated question.  But we told him "no" which is true at this time.
Where would we go?  This was such a widespread event.

The inspector also went (twice) into our basement.  He took measurements with a laser device.  (he did not have a moisture meter).  He went into our upstairs.  He did, from the outside, an inspection of our roof.

He entered all this into a computer, sort of a folding device (not a regular laptop or tablet).  And then he told us we would get a decision in about 8 days, and left.

I finally want to mention that we spoke today to a contractor (recommended by a co-worker) who will do the needed repairs to our first floor living area (the floor is buckling) and he told us, based on previous experience with FEMA, that he feels they are going to deny all claims where there wasn't at least 1 foot of water in the first floor.   He basically told us that FEMA doesn't care about basements.  I find that interesting, since people tend to have their furnaces and hot water heaters in the basement.  And, winter is coming.

We can only see what happens - not so much for us, but to all the families a few blocks from us who were so much more heavily impacted. 

Our insurance adjuster won't come until next Monday, so things will remain uncertain for a while.

Civil War Sunday -The Lee's Surrender Pattern and the Language of Quilts

I have never gotten into quilting - I am not what one would call an expert sewer - but I have always admired those who can quilt, and their handiwork.  Similarly, I am in awe of weavers.  I look at a loom, and my brain freezes up.  I can not even begin to imagine how weaving works.  To me, it is in the realm of calculus or algebra, two other things that freeze me up.

Earlier this month, I spent some time in a store in Brunswick, ME called "Maine Woolens". They had very reasonably priced, Maine produced, blankets and other items. They also sold coned yarn.  I was after a thin blanket for the summer (yes, we need blankets here sometimes during the summer) or at least yarn I could use to crochet one.  It only had to be big enough to cover me, as my spouse is somewhat warmer blooded.

I found an interesting blanket, thin enough for my needs.  It was on a good sale because it had a flaw - one I did not care about - and the price was right.  It was only $10.  But what really struck my eye was the name of the pattern:  "Lee's Surrender"

Yes, the proprietor explained to me, this was indeed an old weaving pattern.  The blanket I purchased was red and white.  The proprietor told me that the particular blanket wasn't finished right and needed to be fringed, something I know how to do.  So once I get this finished (and it will be delayed now due to the....no, I refuse to use that F word that has afflicted our area the last 10 days!) I will take a picture and share it during another Civil War Sunday.

Needless to say, I had to do some research on this fascinating pattern.

Not only weaving, but quilting, is an important part of Civil War history.  This only makes sense as both crafts were widely practiced before, during, and after the Civil War.

A quilt exhibit on the Civil War explains more about the importance of quilts, including the use of quilts to mark houses on the Underground Railroad.  How they were hung would communicate to the escaped slave if the house was safe to enter or gave information regarding the direction the slave should head in.

Maybe one day (if I can ever retire!) I will try to take up one or both crafts.  Some retirees paint.  Why shouldn't I quilt or weave my love of history?

Even At the Farmers Markets - We Must Get the Word Out

(Sign on the edge of the parking lot of the Vestal, NY Public Library - which is closed until further notice - where the Vestal Farmers Market sets up).

The Vestal and Otsiningo Park farmers markets reopened today.  Both of them had gaping holes in their lineup of tents.  They were the missing in action, due to our local floods.

 One local family owned farm, Engelbert Farms, is a staple at the Otsiningo Park farmers market.  They will continue to be there, but they sustained major damage and do not know if they will be able to continue in business.

As we spoke with them (and purchased some cheese), they asked us to "get the word out". I am more than happy to.
 
Your local farmers need your help now more than ever, especially if you are in an area of the country impacted by floods, or any other natural disaster.  I am well aware that the Binghamton area is only one such area out of many.

I would like to make an appeal on behalf of local area farmers markets:  If you are in need of produce and/or meat/honey/baked goods/other farm products, please consider visiting one of your local farmers markets. Like other local businesspeople, they deserve our support and work hard to serve their loyal customers.  They can be expensive, yes, but please patronize them as you are able.  In many instances, we've found they can be cheaper, or the same price as, the larger supermarkets.

Produce selection at today's markets was very impacted. (We did not visit the Binghamton market yesterday, and I fear what I am going to find on Tuesday after I return to work.)  We spoke to several farmers at both markets, who told us what was on display was all they were going to have - the late maturing crops have been ruined.

So - if you haven't yet learned the joys of shopping at a local farmers market - now is the time to discover them.  Thank you!

The Thankful Week

Earlier this month, I read a post in a blog called Bike with Jackie that discussed three reasons to say "Thank You" more often.

Little did I know that I was going to have an opportunity to put her teachings into practice sooner than I thought.

Last Sunday, I returned from a vacation in Maine, about 8 hours from home, to a flood devastated area (as my regular readers know, as I keep returning to that topic).  Now that I have been home for 6 days, I need to take a few minutes to thank some people who meant a lot to me, my family, and/or my area.  Here goes - in no particular order.  If you are listed last, that doesn't mean I am thanking you the least!

1.  The workers of BAE Industries in Westover (a portion of the town of Union, near the village of Johnson City). This area, including the BAE plant on Main Street, was devastated by the flood.  The employees did not know when they would be called back to work or where they would be reporting for work. (And, rumors still persist that BAE is going to leave our area all together.) With that in mind, what did the BAE workers did?  Well, they walked across Main Street and started to help out a very hard hit Westover street, Evelyn Street.  What wonderful corporate neighbors we have!

2.  Area garbage people - working long hours to pick up the moldy stuff we've all dumped in front of our houses.  And may I add how stinky it is?

3.  The police and National Guard, who kept evacuated areas safe.

4. The desk clerk at the Comfort Inn on Upper Front Street in Binghamton.  When we weren't allowed to reenter our neighborhood Saturday evening after a long drive from Brunswick, ME, we started to scour area motels for a room - rooms we knew didn't exist.  Several desk clerks turned my spouse away pointblank.  (In their defense, they must have been totally overwhelmed by the events of the previous 3 days)  This particular desk clerk called another Comfort Inn, in Cortland, NY (about 35 miles from Binghamton) and secured a room for us.  You'll never know how comforting that room was.

5.  All the news people who worked tirelessly to keep us informed.  The Internet, Twitter, and Facebook were a lifeline to me when I was so far from home.  (I will write more about that another time).  A special shout out for Chris Straub, a former copy editor at our local newspaper, who now is an "area manager" of social commerce.  He took it upon himself to broadcast live, from beautiful Downtown Binghamton, as the flood waters rose, and he was another lifeline to me.  I promised him I would contact his managers, and I will.  I know (through someone I know at another Gannett paper, I know how precarious job positions are at Gannett.)

6.  Friends.  Neighbors. Co-workers.  Any and all of the people who lent emotional and other support to us.

7.  The people who banged on the door of my sleeping son Wednesday afternoon (he works nights) telling him to evacuate his home immediately due to flash flooding. And the people who patrolled his mobile home park to keep looters away.

8.  The people setting up fundraisers, and private citizens who just set forth on their own to help out.   One example, the people who set up in the parking lot of America's Attic in one of Johnson City's stricken neighborhood, and started to cook.  And cook. And cook.

9.  And last, but not least, the utility workers who came from out of town, and the first responders from other parts of NY (and Pennsylvania), to help our stricken neighborhood on September 11, 2011.  And all the out of town cleanup specialists who are working around the clock to get businesses back up and running.

The YMCA, just as one example, plans to reopen Monday.  For other businesses it will take longer but these specialists will be key to that recovery. 

Thank you!