Mountain Home, October 2023

FLX SOUR CULTURE IS AGING WELL

By Jimmy Guignard

12 On Art’s Trail

By Maggie Barnes

Follow the paint crumbs during the Naples Open Studio Event.

24 Wedding Meals on Wheels

By Karey Solomon

Have it your way with a food truck nuptial feast.

28 Planet of the Grapes

By Terence Lane

Fizzical therapy.

30 Another Brick in the Bridge Street

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Corning’s northside gives a whiskey welcome.

32 Music from the Mountain

By Linda Roller

Above Ralston, pickers and players continue an old-time tradition.

34 Mother Earth

By Gayle Morrow

Bats in your belfry? Lucky you!

36

Who Will You Call?

By Gayle Morrow

Tioga County’s Dale Rumsey, for starters.

42 Back of the Mountain

By Linda Stager

So much depends upon a red barn.

FLX Sour Culture Is Aging Well

By Jimmy Guignard

Explore the craft brewery trend on tap in wine country.

The Wilds Are Brewing

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Tastefully crafting community far from big cities.

If These Stones Could Talk

By Susan Shadle Erb

They’d thank Terry Erway.

Cover design by Wade Spencer, (top) Derek Edinger by Wade Spencer; (middle) Courtesy New Trail Brewing Co.; (bottom) Terry Erway by Susan Shadle Erb.

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E ditors & P ublish E rs

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Michael Capuzzo

A ssoci A t E E ditor & P ublish E r

Lilace Mellin Guignard

A ssoci A t E P ublish E r

George Bochetto, Esq.

A rt d ir E ctor

Wade Spencer

M A n A ging E ditor

Gayle Morrow

s A l E s r EP r E s E nt A tiv E

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A ccounting

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c ov E r d E sign

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All beer used to be sour beer. Before Louis Pasteur isolated yeast in 1857, beer was created by the yeast and bacteria floating in the air or living in the wood that held the liquid, what brewers call wort, that ultimately became beer. Pasteur’s discovery helped brewers isolate strains into brewer’s yeast and set beer drinkers on the path toward “clean beer,” the mass-produced kinds like Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and, more locally, Yuengling and Genesee. Reproducing the same beer flavor from batch to batch is an impressive feat. You could say those yeast strains flattened the beer world like McDonald’s flattened the world of food.

Some might also say those yeast strains made the beer world boring, that PBR every day can get old. Thankfully, as a part of the microbrew revolution, brewers in the US saw a need to explore some of the older beer-making processes, ones involving a little more creativity, some funkier organisms, and a little less control. The Finger Lakes region was already fermenting, a place swirling with flora and fauna and imagination, and some of that is now making its way into beer.

For beer drinkers, it’s a damn good time to be alive.

When good cherries go sour: Cory Edinger mashes 200 pounds of Balaton cherries to add to the lambic that will spend at least six months aging in barrels.

FLX Sour Culture Is Aging

By Jimmy Guignard

Courtesy Brewery Ardennes

Don’t let the word “sour” fool you. The flavors run the gamut from funky and tart to sweet, from fruity to barnyard. Some taste like chewing on a hay field. Some taste like they are chewing on your face (in a good way). And the Finger Lakes brewers are, like sours themselves, everywhere when it comes to the beer they are producing. The beers are at once historical and local, old and new, Old World and American.

Jammin’ with the Wild World of Sours

Sours come in many versions, the edges of which are constantly blurred, but they can be divided very roughly into four categories. (Part of the fun of drinking beer is getting into the weeds about differences.) One style is lambic, which are tart, fruity beers spontaneously fermented. A winelike beer, lambics taste like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sound: a little edgy, a little funky, a little dry, though sometimes bright and fruity. Another winelike style, Belgian-style reds and browns, taste fruity and sour and complex, a sign partly of the blending of old and young beers. Think Allman Brothers here: layers of flavors mingling in a long, soulful jam. Though the taste doesn’t hang on as long as Duane’s solos, it’s just as rich. Other styles are German-style gose (say “goes-uh”) and Berliner weisse (say “bear-lean-er vice-uh”). These are tart, bright beers generally with a low alcohol content. Eminently drinkable, especially on a hot day, they call to mind the B-52s or R.E.M. Poppy and fun and refreshing. Some brewers say that gose and Berliner weisse are the precursors to fruited or smoothie sours, which are like punk versions of the originals with some sweetness mixed in.

Drink that funky sour, wine boy: Three kettle sours from Keuka Brewing's Sticky Drips line (top); Brewery Ardennes' cherry lambic surprises many beer drinkers with its color; breweries get barrels from local wineries and distilleries in which to age their sours; (opposite page) Mark Musso, head of brewing operations, keeps an eye on his latest creation.

Can’t forget the farmhouse ales (sometimes known as saisons, though defining these is complicated). Another complex, earthy beer, farmhouse ales are all over the place in terms of flavor, more like Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo than just one band. Bonus category: American wild ales (see Wilds on page 16). Another style all over the place. Think Jason Isbell or Lucinda Williams. Though we’re talking music, be sure to get your nose involved. That’s a big part of the experience, too.

The organisms—some brewers say “bugs,” some say “microflora”—that kick out the jams are the yeast strain Brettanomyces or “Brett” and the bacteria strains Lactobacillus or “Lacto” and Pediococcus or “Pedio.” Brett creates funky flavors in beer that adds complexity. As Derek Edinger of Brewery Ardennes says, “the funky flavor makes the beer safe” by creating a beer inhospitable for bad cultures. (Remember, these styles of beer were made before pasteurization. Back then, beer was often safer than water. How we’ve devolved.) Lacto and Pedio lower acidity, which gives beer tart, tangy flavors. Some sours are created using mixed fermentation, which means a beer was made with both brewer’s yeast and some combination of the organisms mentioned above. Some sours involve mixing old and young beers to balance out flavors. Others are created solely from wild organisms, or whatever floats into the wort and eats the sugars.

Sours have been growing in popularity over the last ten or fifteen years, partly because beer makers are creative people with a sense of history and partly because beer drinkers desire something besides clean beer. Think of FLX as a giant beer list when you’ve got a hankering for something different. Many breweries have a sour or two on tap, so you’ve got options. One good place to start is Keuka Brewing outside Hammondsport.

Sour continued from page 6

Courtesy Brewery Ardennes

Wade Spencer Wade Spencer

There Gose the Neighborhood in Keuka

Rich Musso started Keuka Brewing in 2008, the first brewery on Keuka Lake and one of the first in the Finger Lakes. The brewery sits high above Keuka’s southwest corner, and manages to feel like a day at the beach in an outdoor living room. Hop vines crawl up wires lining the parking lot, tables and umbrellas dot the outdoor seating area, and the wall that abuts the outdoor area can be raised in nice weather, bringing inside and outside together. There’s a long L-shaped bar and long tables inside, which encourage people to mingle. Chill dogs are welcome. If Rich or Mark (his son) is around, ask one of them to show you the building’s original footprint. It’s tiny, compared to the current version, and reminds you that big things come from small ones, like beer from yeast.

Rich looks like the artist he was prior to opening a brewery, sporting wire rim glasses, a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, and joy wrinkles radiating from the corners of his eyes. Quick to smile, he beams the happy vibe of a person who has spent a life creating art and beer. To Rich, making beer carries an artistic dimension. He uses phrases like “requires a palette” and “sparking emotion” when talking about beer.

Mark, head brewer, projects a more serious demeanor, which reflects, perhaps, his days studying political science and criminal justice at York College. He graduated with a double major and worked in DC until he left to become the assistant brewer at Keuka in 2010. He added an environmental science degree from Finger Lakes Community College, taking all the biology courses he could that might be relevant to brewing. One time, he even travelled to White Labs in Asheville, North Carolina, for a three-day course on yeast.

Keuka’s sour beers reflect Mark’s and his dad’s personalities, in that they hew to tradition while exploring new territory. The work and artistic vision have paid off. In 2014, Keuka won the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup, which goes to the “best craft brewery in New York State.” In 2017, they won a bronze medal for their Ghost of Rita

Wade Spencer

Gose. The refreshing Ghost of Rita is a tart beer that hints at margarita without laying you out. Think bright and crisp with lime and a hint of salt. A beer that would be welcome in Margaritaville. Good for a day on the lake or after a hot bike ride. Or during, if you happen to be cycling past Keuka Brewing.

Other sour beers to sample at Keuka come from the Sticky Drips line, which Mark calls “fruited pastry sours.” These are kettle sours, as are many in the Finger Lakes. Kettle sours are a quick way of making sour beers that involves primarily Lacto and whatever fruit (or, in Mark’s case, more experimental flavors) the brewer throws in. The fun, loud, brash, tongue-tapping tart tastes leave you wanting more. You can get the original Orange Creamsicle (killer!), this year’s Bomb Pop (while it lasts!), and local favorite Grape Pie, made with Jeni’s Pies Grape Pie. (How can you make beer in the Finger Lakes without getting grapes involved somehow?)

While kettle sours are yummy, sours that taste complex take time. In Keuka’s case, this is the Oubliette, a mixed fermentation saison created from a traditional saison which is then aged in red oak wine barrels, called puncheons, with a dose of Brett. A delicious beer that offers funk and fruit and interesting layers. Think

Blues Traveler or Wilco jamming in an old barn next to a big old hay field. Mark creates the beer using a solera process, meaning he mixes old and new beer in a series of steps and ratios over time. The old and new flavors complement each other, and the process calls to mind the practice of Belgian breweries like Rodenbach.

Mark states that making sours has gotten easier over time as the demand for them has increased. Back in the day, he would isolate Lacto from a particular yogurt brand, then use it to inoculate his beer. Now, he can buy blocks of it. That frees up time to experiment in other ways. Mark also explains that the father and son brewery “owes a lot to the wineries.” They were supportive, and Mark ages Oubliette in their puncheons.

You don’t have to go to Keuka Brewing to enjoy their beer—it’s sold throughout the region and beyond—but you should.

No Waffling on Belgian Beer

Brewery Ardennes sits on the outskirts of Geneva on Seneca Lake. Just two years old as of Memorial Day, the brewery was founded by Derek and Stacey Edinger, two Cornell grads with backgrounds in engineering and hospitality respectively, a potent combina-

tion when planning and running a brewery. Derek and Stacey are strongly influenced by Belgian beer traditions, and the place looks like it would fit into the Belgian countryside. Derek had been brewing beer for over twenty years at home, for which he won some awards. He started making Belgian-style beers after Stacey told him he “could brew it himself.” Thanks, Stacey!

The brewery is built in an old barn on the early 1900s farm once owned by Katharine Bell Lewis, noted suffragist and sheep breeder, and her son. Derek speaks of gutting the French Norman style barn completely and rebuilding it to its current pristine state, replete with a short history lesson about Lewis and the farm. The brewery offers an intimate, classy feel with low lighting and beams, tables tucked in corners, and outdoor seating on a patio surrounded by greens and beiges highlighted by lupine and snowball hydrangeas. It gives off a pastoral vibe—reflected in the painting behind the bar—and you almost expect to see a couple of sheep mosey by. The place reflects the owners’ attention to the little things. Ardennes is immaculate and detail-oriented, right down to the beer signs hung throughout the brewery: Orval, Tripel Karmeliet, Rochefort, Chimay, Duval, and others. They know their Belgian beers.

Sour continued from page 9

Wade Spencer

Not baaaaad for a sheep barn: Derek Edinger stands before the French Norman style sheep barn he and his wife, Stacey, have turned into Brewery Ardennes, a unique taproom and kitchen in Geneva.

Not surprisingly, Ardennes’ offerings model pretty closely to traditional sours. As Derek says, they came to the microbrewery game a bit late, so they needed to be sure to add something new. Ardennes is a place that looks forward by looking back, and you can taste it in the beer. They have a lovely kettle sour line, tart and refreshing for those hot FLX days, and the beers rotate each summer depending on what local ingredients are available and what the brewers feel like making. The sours often use local fruit from their neighbor Red Jacket Orchards. Derek has made—and in some cases, still makes—standard sours like Cherry Sour, Raspberry Sour, Blackberry Sour, and more experimental sours like Dragonfruit and Hibiscus Passionfruit.

Derek also works on traditional sour beers, like lambic and a version of a Flanders Red. The Cranberry Orange lambic tastes bright, crisp, and fruity, a lively beer that gets part of its vibe from aging in orange bitters barrels from Fee Brothers. “Love Shack,” baby. The Flanders Red riffs on the tongue like a soulful Allman Brothers jam— “Statesboro Blues” comes to mind. The beer unwinds in stages that each blend together, starting with fruit and ending tart. Though you could be sitting at the bar in Geneva, the beer takes you to Belgium where beers like Rodenbach and Duchesse de Bourgogne have been brewed for centuries. The Flanders Red is a beer that, like a great red wine, offers a lot to the drinker’s palate. You’ll want to ponder it as it unfolds.

Derek shared samples of an apricot saison that was around two months old and aging in an Ancient Age bourbon barrel along with Brett, Lacto, and Pedio. The beer will stay in the barrel another four months, letting the microflora and the wood interact and create some magic. Derek looks for “neutral” barrels, meaning barrels that do not get in the way of the organisms doing their thing. (Ardennes also uses barrels from Black Button Distillery in Rochester and Finger Lakes Distilling in Watkins Glen.) He wants the wood to “behave” while the “wild cultures do their thing.” Though, he admits, any time someone experiments with wild cultures, what turns out is a bit of a wild card.

Two more things to note about Ardennes: their food pairings are designed to complement their beers, and their chef, Jayden White, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America and in kitchens in Europe, consults with Derek and Stacey to create beer-pairing dinners. It’s an example of European and FLX wine culture inoculating beer culture, and, apparently, it’s working. They won the 2022 and 2023 awards for New York State Belgian-Style Brewery of the Year.

Like Keuka, Ardennes is a family affair. Derek’s brother, Cory, helps brew, and Derek’s parents help out on the weekends. Then there are the dogs, Barley and Hops. Two Frenchies whose “don’t take life too seriously” attitudes inspire the atmosphere, and their images adorn the canned beer. Well-behaved dogs are welcome at Brewery Ardennes.

Derek stresses that the Edingers prefer “quality over quantity,” which suggest they want to keep things regional and communal. One way to do this involves Derek’s vision for adding what the Dutch call a koelschip (“coolship” in the States) on the second floor of the barn. A coolship is a shallow container open to the air that allows wild organisms to float in and inoculate the wort while it’s cooling.

“This is the Finger Lakes,” he says. “There’s got to be good stuff in the air.”

The Finger Lakes Is a Giant Coolship

Keuka Brewing and Brewery Ardennes are not the only breweries

On Art’s Trail

Follow the Paint Crumbs during the Naples Open Studio Event

By Maggie Barnes

Art festivals aren’t really a new idea. Most of us have been to a park somewhere to wander among the displays of paintings, photographs, sculptures, and the like. But the Naples Open Studio Trail turns this concept on its head. Instead of the artist packing up and traveling, the art patrons move from studio to studio, watching the artists in action in their own environments.

More than twenty years ago, a few artistic ladies came up with the idea. They chose the first full weekend of October because of the incredible beauty of the Finger Lakes as autumn switches out nature’s palette. Organizer Jo Anne Alliet says they defined an area with a high concentration of artist studios.

“The general rule of thumb for participants is to be within a fifteen mile radius of the village of Naples,” she says. “There

are artists from the Naples, Middlesex, and Canandaigua areas.”

This year, on October 7 and 8, the home studios and galleries will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

“There are twelve artists participating in their home-based studios, and nine guest artists who will join in sharing space with these artists, many of whom are winners of regional and national awards,” Jo Anne says.

One of those artists is her husband, Albie Alliet, who is a fine art acrylic painter.

“I create paintings in many styles from realistic and impressionistic, to contemporary and 3-D paintings,” says Albie, who’s been with the Trail for two decades. “Visitors to my gallery think they’re looking at several different artists’ work.”

Many of Albie’s pieces depict the scenic places he has visited, including sea

grass-covered beaches at Cape Cod and a variety of sweeping overlooks—like one on Canandaigua Lake.

While art may be a solitary pursuit, the artists on the Trail relish the chance to visit with patrons and talk about their work and methods.

“I most enjoy having dozens of people each day join me in my home-based gallery and studio,” Albie says. “They can view and purchase art, or have me create commissioned pieces designed to their own personal taste, and create memories that last a lifetime.”

Fellow Trail artist Darryl Abraham, whose work has graced the cover of this magazine, agrees.

“I’ve always loved to draw watercolors and do carvings and wood burning,” Darryl

See Art on page 14

Darryl Abraham

Meeting your makers: Study the studios and work habits of a dozen artists in and around Naples on October 7 and 8.

says. “This is a chance to bring the public to us by opening our studios.” The fun of the Trail, he adds, is the variety of art and the interaction. “The great thing about the Trail is that there are many different styles and venues—something for everyone. It’s always nice to see folks having a good weekend centered around art.”

In these intimate settings, the artists can tell their stories, not just the story of the art. And visitors get to experience the artistic process as it unfolds before them.

Jo Anne says there is a type of art to meet the taste of any buyer. There are, of course, paintings to hang on a wall, but so much more.

“Artists and craftsmen are creators of fine art in oil, acrylic, and watercolor, as well as wall 3-D art, pottery, glassblowers, and woodworkers creating furniture and utensils,” she says. Visitors will also find jewelry, sculpture, photography, fiber art, and weavers.

Because of the timing of the Trail—it is fall in the Finger Lakes, after all—many of the visitors choose to spend the weekend, giving a tangible boost to the local economy.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that the holiday season is looming on the horizon, and a customized piece of art directly from the hands of the artist is a gift that cannot be beat for a special vibe.

How does the Trail work? It is basically a self-guided tour, Jo Anne says, and the visitor’s best guide is the event brochure.

“The brochure includes a map along with address locations of the studios participating that are suitable for GPS guidance,” she explains. The community has embraced the annual event, as evidenced by the amount of local donations and advertising that go into the brochure. Jo Anne notes that the involvement of local businesses is an especially nice part of the Studio Trail, making it a true partnership with the artists. More than 1,000 brochures are dropped off to local businesses, along with 3,500 shipped out to a robust mailing list.

So, go where you want, when you want, and spend as much time as you want. Participants have total control of their experience. This is an intimate experience, however, this watching of artists while they work. A vision that may have only existed in their minds

somehow comes to life before your eyes. You can ask questions and learn about the process. The artists, often spending their creative time in solitude, draw energy and inspiration from their studio guests. It’s true that art is a moveable feast. But how often do you get to stand in the studio where such beauty is born? What a delightful concept—to allow the artist to stay in their place of inspiration and invite the public to feel their energy at work.

Art-loving Trail guests can also reach out to the artists well after their visits. Sales, and relationships, go on throughout the year.

If you want to be a part of this special happening, get the most up-to-date information at naplesopenstudiotrail.com. Or grab one of those brochures from a local business, and, while you’re there, do thank them for their support of the arts. You can also call Nancy Napurski at (585) 967-3348 or Jo Anne at (585) 749-2248.

Maggie Barnes has won several IRMA and Keystone Press awards. She lives in Waverly, New York.

We happy few, we band of brewers: In May, eighteen breweries gathered in Williamsport at New Trail Brewing Co. to collaborate on The Wilds Are Calling IPA, which raised money for the PA Wilds Entrepreneurship Center.

The Wilds Are Brewing

Tastefully Crafting Community Far from Big Cities

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Whether you’ve gone on a beercation (a vacation planned around breweries) or not, you’re probably aware that breweries can help define a place. Small, independent, craft breweries can help revitalize a downtown, contribute to a culture centered around shared values, and provide an economic boost. This year, members of an informal collaboration throughout the thirteen-county PA Wilds region went a big step further and created a beer aimed at promoting the whole region—The Wilds Are Calling, a Hazy IPA with juicy citrus and light tropical aromatics.

Nestled in the region’s southeast corner in Williamsport—population under 30,000 and the Wilds’ biggest city—is New Trail Brewing Co. Wanting to find a way to give back to their home where they work and play, owner and brewer Mike LaRosa and marketing director Don Rieck contacted the nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., about their idea for a drinkable postcard promoting the Wilds. Communications director Britt Made-

ra loved their idea: get as many craft brewers as possible in the region to come together to produce one beer.

On May 18, 2023, the eighteen breweries that signed on to the project met at New Trail. “We all came together here in Williamsport with the team from the Wilds, and had a great brew day,” Don says. “We met brewers from up to three hours away, shared beers, stories, and advice, and by the end of the day our yeast was fermenting away on it. When it was finished, we coordinated with our wholesale partners to deliver kegs and cans to the breweries themselves and a few bars and retailers. The goal was to say to the consumer ‘if you want to try this...then you need to come up here and experience what we have to offer.’”

That resulting can of beer carries the logos of all participating breweries and the PA Wilds logo. The name plays off of a quote from American preservationist and outdoor enthusiast John Muir: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”

Britt explains, “The beer label’s design

inspires residents and visitors to think about the PA Wilds as a place of adventure, a place that they are called to explore. It’s also just a really delicious beer!

“In fact,” she continues, “I was recently asked to speak on behalf of the PA Wilds Center and give a presentation during the Penn State Extension Master Watershed Stewards’ retreat. The theme was ‘A Taste of the Wilds’ and featured a tasting of four beers in the PA Wilds region. The attendees were asked to anonymously rank the beers and choose a favorite, and The Wilds Are Calling came out on top!” They brewed ninety barrels and raised $2,509.40 for the Wilds.

This collaboration isn’t the first time New Trail, which brewed their first beer in 2018, has made an extra effort to give back to the region. Mike, from the Philly area, recalls the first time he drove into Williamsport on Route 15 and stopped at the overlook. “I could see for miles,” he recalls, “and thought, ‘It’s beautiful here.’” He grew up helping his

See Wilds on page 18

Hannah Brock, PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship

father, a home brewer, then studied environmental studies, business, and sociology at Albright College. He knew he wanted to work in a business that could make a positive impact environmentally.

In July, 2021, New Trail started their state park series, which donates $1 per case sold to the named park through the nonprofit Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation. Altogether, the ten parks so far, including Cherry Springs and World’s End, have received just under $12,000. Most of these beers are one-offs—when they’re gone, that’s it. But Hyner View, brewed in April, 2022, to help plant native trees at that park, became the basis of the Replenish IPA Project. Replenish, a West Coast IPA, is a perennial beer that raises funds to plant native trees. In almost a year they’ve donated $50,000. Don says, “If we don’t give back and take care of the area, who will? We have the platform to bring awareness to this beautiful swath of wilderness and drive tourism.”

Where the wild drinks are: Mike LaRosa takes a brief rest from making beer at New Trail Brewing Co. (top); The Wilds Are Calling can was designed with the logos of the eighteen breweries that collaborated; Jarrod York shows off the Yorkholo Brewing Co. PA Wilds ale series.

New Trail is the largest brewery in the PA Wilds—in 2022 it was the ninety-seventh largest craft brewery in the nation based on volume. They’ll brew about 50,000 barrels in 2023. An hour north, and also an eastern gateway to the Wilds, is Yorkholo Brewing Co. in Mansfield. A nanobrewery, owner and brewer Jarrod York produces only 100 to 150 barrels a year. He enjoyed the day in Williamsport when “everyone brought beer to share and shoot the shit. New Trail did the heavy lifting.” The Wilds Are Calling sold well in his place, a lovingly renovated brick building on Main Street that is also a restaurant. Jarrod likes the creative freedom that being so small gives him. The freedom to go wild, literally, as he has with his PA Wilds ale series. The beers, different every time, are farmhouse style fermented with native yeast. These sour beers (see the cover story for more on sours) sit in a coolship, a brewing pan, open to the air, gathering wild bacteria and yeast. Then Jarrod transfers it to a tank, adds a primary yeast, and finishes in a used oak barrel.

“A production brewery is never going to brew some of the weird styles I like,” he laughs. He uses local ingredients as much as possible, including Cascade hops he grows for his 1890s IPA. “An IPA is like a Marvel movie,” Jarrod says. “A mixed fermentation sour beer is an indie film.” He names his beers for local places, events, and people, and one of the favorites is the Pine Creek Raspberry Wheat. “Expect something different every time,” he says. “Different hops, different yeast, different malt base…playing around with stuff is the whole reason to be a brewer.”

Will they brew The Wilds Are Calling again next year? Probably, but there’s no reason to wait for it. Almost anywhere you are playing or staying in the Wilds is near a craft brewery. Look up any in the collaboration and taste the fun.

Additional participating breweries are: Bald Birds Brewing Co. of Jersey Shore, Bent Run Brewing Co. of Warren, Boom City Brewing Co. of Williamsport, Boxcar Brew Works of DuBois, Bradford Brew Station of Bradford, Bullfrog Brewery of Williamsport, Clarion River Brewing Company of Clarion, Floating Feathers Brewing Co. of Mill Hall, John Ryan Brewery of Williamsport, Lost In The Wilds Brewing of Shippenville, Mechanistic Brewing Co. of Clarion, Riepstine’s Pub & Brewery of Williamsport, Robinhood Brewing Co. of Bellefonte, Rosko’s Brew House of Williamsport, Therapy Brewing of Montoursville, and Wicked Warren’s of Warren.

Wilds continued from page 16

Courtesy New Trail Brewing

Lilace Mellin Guignard

Lilace Mellin Guignard

If These Stones Could Talk They’d Thank Terry Erway

By Susan Shadle Erb

By 5:45 most mornings, a big, red, pickup truck rolls through the stone gates of the cemetery near Wellsboro Area High School. Terry Erway climbs out, ready to do battle with the decades of dirt, salt, lichens, moss, and water and grass stains on stones of all shapes and sizes that mark some of the more than 9,000 graves in the twenty-two-acre cemetery.

“I drive by and some stones talk to me,” he says.

Stones like the one marking the grave of Archibald Laird, MD, (1902-1988) and his wife Ruth (1906-1999). Dr. Laird was a physician, surgeon, historian, US Army brigadier general in World War II, and author. Ruth was a musician, teacher, homemaker, and devoted wife. Terry is sure he heard their stone say, “Why aren’t you cleaning me?” He doesn’t know why he got that feeling, but he cleaned the large stone. Walking in the cemetery as morning mist

clears and birds chirp, it’s easy to understand that feeling Terry gets.

It’s a big task, even for the ambitious retired educator, now in his seventies. But he’s extremely glad to be doing it, because, in 2006, he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and thought he had only five years to live. He then retired as superintendent of Galeton School District, after a thirty-four-year career as an educator. That career included being a math teacher, coach, principal of Coudersport Junior/Senior High School, and principal of Wellsboro’s Rock L. Butler Middle School.

Terry survived, and is enthusiastic nearly two decades later as he opens the truck’s tailgate to reveal supplies: three fivegallon buckets of water, a water sprayer, Dawn dish detergent, D/2 Biological Solution (a very mild soap), plastic-bristle brushes, toothbrushes, and plastic scrapers.

“Never use a metal brush,” he cautions.

“They damage stones. Seventy-five percent of the stones can be cleaned with water and plastic brushes.” Some do require more. For extremely dirty stones, he uses Dawn. If a stain remains, he decides if D/2 treatment is needed.

The project started when Terry wanted to clean gravestones of thirty-six of his family members. With those done, he has a stone-cleaning list for about 100 other families graves, including some in other cemeteries—West Branch Cemetery in Delmar Township, Riverview Cemetery in the Knoxville area, and a cemetery in Mansfield. He cleans some stones upon request and does others, such as the Laird stone, that “speak” to him. He has a particular interest in those of military veterans.

“Stone cleaning involves a lot of scrubbing and in many cases, it’s rinse, scrub, rinse, scrub, spray, rinse,” says Terry. From April through August he’s cleaned more

Susan Shadle Erb

A heart for stone: Terry Erway volunteers to clean memorials in the Wellsboro Cemetery, including this large granite Leonard Harrison family headstone, whose nooks and crannies gather rain and make it particularly susceptible to staining.

than 350 stones and plans to keep going as long as weather allows. He usually cleans six to eight stones a day and often has several in process simultaneously.

It’s all done as a volunteer, and Terry refuses payment. Instead, he suggests donations to the cemetery. He pays for the materials, including the D/2, at about $62 a gallon, of which he has used well over ten gallons. “Don’t tell my wife,” he says with a smile.

He starts early and works until about 10 a.m. for two reasons: He can’t deal with the heat, and the D/2 solution can only be used in temperatures of 45 to 85 degrees.

The biggest and most difficult monument Terry has tackled so far is the large, granite Leonard Harrison family headstone, with its many nooks and crannies, and its four limestone footstones. “It was in terrible condition,” Terry says of the large monument. “It took a week to clean all five stones.”

Terry enjoys genealogy research, and, as he moves from one part of the cemetery to another, he talks about the people buried there, some from as far back as the early 1800s. While the first burials in the cemetery were in the mid-1850s, some from earlier were moved from Academy Cemetery on Wellsboro’s Pearl Street and from elsewhere.

He’s happy others are taking interest in cleaning gravestones. Some are for family, but others just want to help. He gives instruction and provides supplies for willing volunteers. Pip Burrous, who works at the nearby school administration building and walks daily in the cemetery, is learning from him.

Pip loves seeing the information on gravestones. She saw Terry cleaning stones, and he subsequently showed her what to do. She has since cleaned dozens of stones herself, and has begun working on the stones of Mary Wells Morris, for whom Wellsboro is named, and Mary’s family. She also tackled cleaning one of the oldest stones in the cemetery, that of Levi Sherwood, which she describes as “stubborn.” But she kept working at it with four D/2 treatments.

Most of the stones she’s cleaning are military veterans and their families. “I want to honor them,” she says. “When I’m cleaning the stones, I always pray for their living descendants. There’s somebody out there who’s related to them. I don’t know who they are, but God does.”

Cemetery manager Cheryl Furrow is grateful for Terry’s work and for that of others, including Pip, who take interest in stone cleaning and various ways of maintaining and beautifying the cemetery, and of honoring the lives of those laid to rest within.

“There’s an absolute wealth of history here,” Terry says. It’s clear that he plans to keep learning from the place and cleaning stones as long as he can.

With this experience, what kind of stone would Terry choose for his own grave? He points to a beautiful black polished stone that he and his wife selected. It has sloping edges that will allow water to run off without creating damage.

“Avoid a flat top,” he advises.

Sue Erb's career includes twenty years in newspaper journalism and twenty-four years at Highlights for Children magazine. The Erbs moved to Wellsboro in 2021 for Sue's husband, Ed, to be rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

(18 and younger)

Welcome to MOUNTAIN HOME WEDDING

Wade Spencer

They do! Chris and Martina Catherman celebrate on their special day at the Ives Run Recreation Area.

Wedding Meals on Wheels

Have It Your Way with a Food Truck Nuptial Feast

By Karey Solomon

There are weddings where the arrangements made for guests are so uniquely astonishing, albeit lovely, they feel opulent enough to break the bank. Conversely, there are weddings with a creative touch of a do-it-yourself vibe that leave the happy couple with a bit of a nest egg. Both are simultaneously possible.

Food trucks are mobile kitchens, staffed by chefs enthusiastic about preparing custom orders at speed, and generally offering a particular genre of food varied with an array of sides and toppings. Beloved by hungry customers at both urban and rural locations, they can also serve weddings, and the accompanying pre and post parties, nearly as quickly as a buffet-style meal. Better yet, the cost per person is often far less than one would pay a caterer offering a buffet or plated meal with waitstaff, china, and linens. The usual range for a food truck is fifteen to thirty dollars per guest instead of

upwards of seventy-five. A lovely outdoor venue can be the perfect setting for fresh food made to order, including sometimesunusual choices that can satisfy every guest.

Planning is still involved—often more than if you’re leaving details to a caterer. Will you need to rent tables and chairs? How about plates and cutlery? Could you live with the food-truck’s usual to-go wrapping? Who will bus tables and be responsible for cleanup? What about beverages? Do you want different food trucks for cocktail hour or after-hours snacks? What about a hybrid of a catered main meal with a food truck for the after-party?

Because a food truck at your event is losing their slot at another place where customers expect to see them, operators may require some guaranteed number of people and a minimum charge. They’ll want to be paid in advance by those responsible for the event, rather than being dependent on

individual guests paying them. This allows them to concentrate on quick service.

“I wouldn’t go [with my truck] to an event where the guests were expected to pay,” one proprietor said bluntly. “And if I was an invited guest, I wouldn’t pay, even if it was only twenty dollars!”

While some surveys of food trucks at weddings suggest having one truck per 150 guests, many food truck proprietors are experienced caterers who can easily handle a larger crowd.

“We’ve done a wedding for as many as 350 people, or as few as fifty,” says Jonelle Andrus, one of the owners of the It Was Good ice cream truck, based in Franklindale, where the family also has a restaurant, JJ’s Ice Cream and Pizza. Like their truck, it’s a family business with all hands on deck for special events. Their on-the-truck grill prepares lunch and dinner on the street;

See Meals on page 26

Traveling Portraits Photography

We all scream for true love: Hope Stranger and her husband Dale treated their guests to It Was Good ice cream when they tied the knot in May 2023.

for a wedding, they’ll often narrow down food options with the couple, like the chicken and pulled pork they’ll bring to a wedding this month. As for the ice cream, will the guests want cones or bowls—or hot fudge sundaes?

“I love weddings,” Jonelle says. “There’s such a sense of fun! People are just hanging out and there’s not a lot of stress.” Everyone on the truck works together like a well-practiced ballet, she continues. There’s an order line and a pick-up line. A full meal is generally no more than thirty-five dollars per person, depending on the menu. Contact It Was Good via Facebook or at (570) 364-6405.

In the Finger Lakes, My Eva Authentic Mexican Food is generally at the top of any “best food trucks” list. Tracy Garcia, who runs the truck with her husband, Chef Alfredo Garcia, says they’ve brought their truck to cater both rehearsal dinners and weddings. The wedding couple will typically select three or four items and a few sides from their menu. The price is usually around eighteen dollars per person.

“When you get your food, it’s really fresh and it’s hot, which is not always the case with a sit-down dinner,” Tracy points out. And there’s another benefit to custom-ordering your meal at the food truck. Like most chefs, Alfredo is well aware of allergy protocols— he gets help from Tracy, who is allergic to nuts. Before preparing food for a customer with special needs, he’ll thoroughly clean the grill to ensure there’s no cross-contamination. Find out more on their Facebook page or call (607) 425-0695.

Trish Burns, of Burns Gourmet Dogs out of Athens, once catered a wedding afterparty with 600 people and only one other food truck. But, after working the Finger Lakes Wine Fest where there were 50,000 attendees, 600 felt very do-able.

“It’s just my husband and me, and we work well as a team,” she says. “I take orders and look pretty, and he does the cooking. We keep it fun.” At a wedding, Trish continues, “It’s all about what the customer wants.” If the bride and groom opt for just a few main menu items, they’ll customize the dogs with a wide variety of add-ons.

“We have forty-eight different toppings. Everything is made to order. Nothing is sitting around.”

Their menu also includes paninis, wraps, and salads. Big fruit salads, cookies, cheesecakes, and other desserts can be added. Sometimes they’ll set part of the meal out as a buffet. “We can do a redneck wedding or a fancy wedding,” she says. “It all depends on what the bride and groom might want.” This is their ninth season on the road, and Trish says, “I love it!” Find them on Facebook or call (570) 423-6261.

Food your guests will love, relatively low cost, and happy providers can all add up to a good experience for everyone involved with your special day. Food truck owners choose this work because they enjoy it. As Jonelle says, “We want to be a blessing, give people something they can afford.”

Karey Solomon is the author of a poetry chapbook,Voices Like the Sound of Water, a book on frugal living (now out of print), and more than thirty-five needlework books.  Her work has also appeared in several fiction and nonfiction anthologies.

of the Grapes

Fizzical Therapy

A Toast to Finger Lakes Sparkling Wines

By Terence Lane

I’ve consumed sparkling wine in celebration, apology, in punctuation to a busy work day, and for no reason at all. It’s my go-to choice when hanging out with friends on a sunny afternoon by the lake or on a boat. Unfortunately, sparkling wine consumption in the States feels beset by a celebratory mentality. We drink it at the steakhouse for big Donnie’s fiftieth. We raise a glass when Brenda and Eddie tie the knot. Or we crack a bottle when Janice nails a hard-earned pay bump. It seems like we’re always waiting to drink it, holding out for a holiday, when what we’re actually doing is denying ourselves the panoply of sensory pleasures that only good sparkling wine can deliver.

The Finger Lakes makes excellent sparkling wines utilizing distinct techniques, from the hallowed méthode champenoise (champagne method), to force carbonation, to pétillant naturel.

At Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery on Keuka Lake, Eric Bauman leads the charge as sparkling wine maker, continuing the legacy of méthode champenoise wines first made in 1985 starting with Willy Frank. The traditional champagne grapes used to make these wines—chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier—are the first picked each year while natural acidity remains high. All grapes are hand-harvested and sorted for quality.

Pioneered in the cool, rainy region of Champagne, the champagne-method of making sparkling wine involves the meticulous secondary fermentation of an already fermented base wine. Secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle under crown cap creating trapped CO2, making up those millions of sizzly bubbles. The base wines may be a blend of the three main champagne grapes, a blend of only red grapes (blanc de noirs), or a blend of only white grapes (blanc

de blancs). While méthode champenoise is practiced at Dr. Konstantin Frank and across the Finger Lakes, the wines are never labeled as champagne. Champagne is only made in Champagne, France, expressing the nonpareil character of that cold, mystical land north of Paris.

From a grape-growing standpoint, the climate in the Finger Lakes is more similar to Champagne than elsewhere in the States. There’s similar disease pressure and similarly high acidity in the grapes that is so important for sparkling wine. Some champagne styles, however, may be more viable here than others.

“Blanc de blancs is going to put us on the map,” Eric affirms. “The chardonnay is far more reliable than the red grapes.”

I confirmed this in a subsequent tasting of Dr. Frank’s sparkling wine portfolio. The 2019 blanc de blancs was a show-stopper.

Terence Lane

What is red or white and bubbly all over: Eric Bauman, sparkling winemaker at Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery, stands in the winery’s sparkling wine cellar, which is full of varieties ranging from blanc de noirs to blanc de blancs.

Clocking in at $39.99 a bottle, it had both weight and precision, and the flavor profile sang of toasted brioche and lemon pastry. The first pour I drank like water. The second, I savored, feeling lucky to have such incredible wines being made in my own backyard.

Lakewood Vineyards uses force carbonation for their topselling Bubbly Candeo, a fruity, prosecco-inspired sparkler. In this approach, a still wine is pumped into a pressurized tank and injected with CO2. It’s far less expensive and time-consuming than méthode champenoise. The result is also completely different. Force carbonated wines are frothier and simpler than wines that have undergone a secondary bottle fermentation. Lakewood’s Bubbly Candeo and Sidekick Session Spritz, a low-alcohol sparkling rosé, are perfect wines for everyday drinking on the patio with cheese and crackers or tailgating the rock concert.

Which sparkling wine style is best simply depends on what’s happening.

“It all has a place,” explains Meaghan Frank, vice president at Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery. “Some just go great with Netflix. Sparkling wine is all about context.”

A third sparkling style is pétillant naturel, referred to as “pet nat” by a predominately young and hipsterific following. A great example is Osmote’s Cayuga White Pet Nat. It’s a refreshing porch-pounder riddled with limey-melon notes. Typically associated with the natural wine movement and minimal intervention winemaking, pet nats are simple, rustic, and cloudy due to lack of filtration. “Funky” is an adjective frequently applied by fans. “Unfinished” is a term I’ve heard used by its detractors. Instead of fermenting in a barrel or steel tank, the yeast-inoculated grape juice is pumped directly into the bottle and sealed. A single fermentation takes place under cap, creating dissolved CO2. Where champagne is disgorged to clarify the wine of lees (dead yeast cells), pet nat is not typically disgorged and remains murky in appearance. The wines are pleasant when they’re good, but can also be austere, even awkward. I recently enjoyed a glass of Osmote’s pet nat with fundraiser BBQ chicken and it was delicious. The simple precision of the local Cayuga white grape was the perfect counterpart to tangy chicken, salt potatoes, and mac salad. My favorite pairings are often the simplest.

When I asked Eric Bauman if he likes pet nat, his response was equitable. “Yes and no. It’s a hard sell for me. I really have to try each one. I really have to know who’s making them.”

Sparkling wine in the Finger Lakes is still a niche poised to pop, all too often hindered by a traditional association with celebration. Unlike oak-bomb chardonnay and big bold reds, sparkling wine is challenging, and not all consumers are interested in being challenged. It demands your participation. It wants to be noticed, tickling your skin as you bring it to your lips and sending comet-tails across your palate, leaving you thirsty for another sip. Remember that you don’t need an occasion. You don’t need the fancy dishes. While a glass of bubbly at a wedding is a must, a glass with dinner on a Tuesday night will make you feel fancy. Even heroic. That’s something it does every time. And therein lies its power.

Terence Lane is a Certified Sommelier. His short fiction and wine writing has appeared in a number of magazines including Wine Enthusiast. Since leaving New York City after the closure of city dining in 2020, he now lives in the Finger Lakes and works at Lakewood Vineyards where he is the tasting room lead.

Photo by Jenn Morris

Another Brick in the Bridge Street

Corning’s Northside Gives a Whiskey Welcome

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Shanadel Fenstermacher, who turned thirty-five in June, is a busy woman.

Over the last four years she’s turned her bar and grille in Painted Post—called Del’s, after her—into a hopping place, open till the wee hours of the morning and known for its wings. She’s even busier now, because she and her husband, Brett, bought the historic building at 1 W. Pulteny Street, on the corner of Bridge Street in Corning, that once was T.O.P. (That Other Place) and more recently the Brick House Brewery. “People ask me ‘How’re you going to do both?’” she laughs.

Well, forget how. She is. The Brick, a bar and eatery, opened August 19.

The building is beautiful, and she fell for it right away. In fact, this is the type of place she was looking for when she first opened Del’s. Outside, a huge, colorful mural painted by Hammondsport artist Brett Steeves in 2017 takes a viewer back in time. The arches painted on the brick frame views

of the Chemung River and the Little Joe tower. On the other side of the wall, where the river seems to serenely flow, there are actually happy patrons raising a glass or dart.

Inside, one wall is brick (the one with the mural), one wall has windows onto the street, and the others are rustic wood. There is a dance floor, a pool table, and a dartboard (they are still looking for dart league teams). The long wooden bar has metal drink coolers across the top to keep your pints chilled, and a barrel on the wall with three taps that she plans to use for whiskey.

“I really wanted Buffalo Trace, but there’s a shortage,” she explains. Until then, she has many bottled options—including Bullet, Basil Hayden, and Knob Creek—for two of their specialty cocktails, a smoked oldfashioned and smoked Manhattan. There are also eight taps for brews.

The new manager, Jen Johnson, enjoys working closer to home than her previous job. She moves easily from bartending to

food preparation as Fleetwood Mac plays. The Brick is very much a place for folks getting off work to come have a drink and appetizers before heading home.

Shanadel is holding on to Del’s and says the two places have different feels. “This is fancier,” she says looking around the Brick, “with mixology, versus Del’s where we’re way too busy pouring Bud Light and Coors to make smoked cocktails.” The small kitchen has only a convection oven for now, and the bar menu consists of flatbread pizzas, spinach dip, and a half-pound of brisket.

Shanadel plans events and live music to bring people in. They are currently open seven days a week: Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Sunday noon to 11 p.m. To find out more, look them up on Facebook at Brick Corning NY or email brickcorningny@outlook.com.

Wade Spencer

Tending a high bar: Jen Johnson manages the Brick with aplomb—and often a cherry and twist of orange peel.

Music from the Mountain

Above Ralston, Pickers and Players Continue an Old-Time Tradition

By Linda Roller

Local legend tells of a group of miners who lived and worked up on the top of a ridge overlooking Lycoming Creek. They played their musical instruments on a cliff, overlooking the valley—it’s called Band Rock Vista. Although the mine, the village, and the musicians have been gone for well over 100 years, all left their imprint, and their names, on the land. In honor of that legacy, Cindi McCarty, of McCarty Mercantile in Hillsgrove, is bringing the music back to Band Rock Vista, in McIntyre Township, starting at noon on October 8.

The village was McIntyre, in Lycoming County, and was just to the east of the village of Ralston. The township is named for that village, which had been, in turn, named for Archibald McIntyre, one of the founders of

the Williamsport and Elmira railroad. The overlook is still called Band Rock Vista, and it is in Loyalsock State Forest. But beyond the names hinting at what was once here, there is little information. The proof, what there was, was not in Lycoming County, but with the mining company itself. McIntyre, the mining town, had a short life. It was a company town, more specifically a J. Langdon & Company town. Jervis Langdon, the president of the company, was a nineteenth-century coal baron, a friend of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and, oh yeah, Mark Twain’s father-in-law. Though Jervis died the year the McIntyre operation started, the company, including Olivia, Twain’s wife, continued to develop this mine and small town from its offices in Elmira, New York.

According to Dr. Thomas Registad, this

ridge-top mine was a bit of a distance from the Pennsylvania Railroad line that traveled the narrow valley from Williamsport to Elmira. To get that coal to the rail, the company built “a steep (45-degree angle), long (2,300 feet) inclined plane to transport the coal from the mine to the waiting railroad cars. For eight years, the McIntyre mine supplied 200,000 tons of coal per year for consumption as fuel coal in New York and Canada.” The mine was busy, productive, and closer to Elmira than the great coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania. Filled with miners and families in a remote village, they made their own entertainment, and used the overlook to the valley as a natural amplifier for the music they enjoyed.

But the coal, the village, and the music did not last long. Founded in 1870, the mine

Cindi McCarty

There's music in them thar hills: Tunes will trill down from Band Rock Vista into Ralston on October 8, just like they did a century ago.

played out in 1886, and the J. Langdon coal company, already working a new field of soft coal in western Pennsylvania, simply closed up shop. By 1900, the last of the people of McIntyre were gone, and the forest began to take over again. Today, hikers in the McIntyre Wild Area can find the cemetery, some sections of rail, and old foundations. The rest of the hamlet, once the home to 300 people, was erased. But the memory of the music persisted.

It was this musical memory that fired Cindi’s imagination. She is no stranger to the music of these hills and valleys. McCarty Mercantile has become a local music institution, providing a home for many local bands. The Saturday night concerts in Hillsgrove are free, starting with a home-cooked meal Cindi prepares, and then the music. But the story of the miners and the music had stirred her soul. She wanted to hear the local musicians the same way that it was done in McIntyre, all those years ago.

“It’s time for the hills to ring with music,” she says.

It’s taken a bit of work, as the area is now a wildlife preserve. But Cindi was stubborn enough to keep calling and making things happen—this particular happening is on a Sunday, which, historically, was the only day available for miners to rest from their back-breaking labor and have a bit of fun at the overlook.

One of the bands that regularly plays at McCarty Mercantile will be featured on the vista. Owl Hollow Ramblers began a few years ago as nothing more than friends who enjoyed playing music together.

“We came together in north central Pennsylvania in 2019 and found our groove mostly in songs from times long past. We are determined to not let these songs be forgotten,” says guitarist Jim Leta. With Linda Wagner, Chloie Hollenbach, and Kaylee Corter on fiddle, Jason “Biff” Wagner on guitar, and Kirk Kriner on the clawhammer banjo, the songs and style will please any ghosts of the musical miners on this land, local folks, and all lovers of traditional tunes.

The best place to hear the concert will be in Ralston itself, as the valley makes a perfect amphitheater. The bands playing in the valley will include the McCarty Mercantile House Band and the Sully Sock Pickers, Onion Wine from Dushore, Cornflower Jam, and the Grey Fox Band.

There’s a fall antique machinery show all weekend in Ralston, as well. Travis Brooks, president of the Loyalsock Valley Antique Machinery Association, says the Central Pennsylvania Museum of Agriculture and Industry, located in the former Brooks Lumber Company building on Route 14 in Ralston, will host the show, along with food vendors and a flea market October 6, 7, and 8.

The way to the vista is treacherous and requires a vehicle designed for off-road that can handle deep ruts and mud holes. Head into the McIntyre Wild Area of Loyalsock State Forest from Route 14 in Ralston on Thompson Street. Half a mile after crossing Lycoming Creek, you’ll come to a fork in the road. Take the fork to the left and start heading uphill. It’s between four and five miles up to the end. There are paths and small pull-offs on the way up, but it’s the only road. About 100 yards from the overlook, there is a small parking area.

There's no reason to brave the drive because there's music planned in the valley on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the music floats down from Band Rock Vista, as it did a century ago.

Bats in Your Belfry? Lucky You!

By Gayle Morrow

Isaw a few bats over the summer. Maybe three. In years past, summer’s night skies would be teeming with the flitting, dipping, diving, insect-eating little guys. Seeing their tiny bodies and uniqueamong-mammals wings outlined against the enchantment of a still-light-at-9:30-sky was its own kind of magic.

Not so much these days. White nose syndrome has taken its toll across the country in the seventeen years since it was first detected, killing millions of little brown bats, northern long-eared bats, and tri-colored bats. Pennsylvania has lost an estimated 99.9 percent of its little brown bat population as the result of this fungus-caused illness. Of the 154 different species of bats in North America, 47 percent are considered to be vulnerable to extinction due to white nose syndrome, loss of habitat, and climate change.

White nose syndrome probably came from Europe, where it’s been around for a while and where the bats seem to have developed some resistance to its effects. The fungus— Pseudogymnoascus destructans—which thrives in cold, damp places, is irritating enough to hibernating bats to wake them up; they then go out in search of food, which they won’t find in great abundance in

winter. They die from starvation or exposure. I remember seeing a bat flying around one winter afternoon a couple of years ago. I would have tried to help it if I had known what to do.

Mary Warwick, the executive director of the Houston Human Society TWRC Wildlife Center, would have known. Around Christmas time last year, Houston was in the midst of a cold snap. The Mexican freetailed bats living under a bridge near the city’s downtown (it’s a colony of 250,000 that’s been there for nearly thirty years, and is actually a tourist attraction) got so cold they began dropping from their roost to the concrete below. Hundreds of them. Mary put as many as she could in boxes and took them home. Then she went back for more. Others helped. The bats—about three inches long, with little body fat to help them ward off the cold—were in hypothermic shock. She warmed them, fed them, eventually returned them to their colony, and, in between all that, hosted a Christmas dinner for her family (search for “woman in Houston who saved cold bats,” or something like that, for stories on it).

While most of us would not likely go to the lengths Mary Warwick did to save bats,

it’s good to get past the fear and hype around them. There are 1,100 species worldwide— big ones, like the flying fox, with its six-foot wingspan, and little ones, like the bumblebee bat, weighing less than a penny. A bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquitos per hour. They pollinate plants and disperse seeds. Oh, and bat guano was Texas’s largest mineral export before oil, BTW.

Two of Pennsylvania’s nine species are on the federal endangered species list; the state also has its own list of endangered bats. Bats are non-game animals and are protected by state law when flying or hibernating. Nobody likes bats squeaking and flapping around in the living room—the bats would prefer to not be there, either. When you get a bat in the house, put the tennis racket down, open doors and windows, do your own flapping with arms and/or a towel, and the bat will likely vacate the premises. Visit pabatrescue.org for more information.

My friend Janelle, who lives nearby in a lovely old farmhouse, says her attic is full of bats and has been for years. There’s no getting rid of them, she says matter-of-factly.

Let’s hope not.

© Mushy / Adobe Stock

Who Will You Call?

Tioga County’s Dale Rumsey, for Starters

By Gayle Morrow

Some people do, some people don’t. Remember that scene in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy et al. are heading into the haunted forest? It’s a creepy place, for sure, and the flying monkeys haven’t even arrived yet.

“I do believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do, I do…” intones the Cowardly Lion, twisting his tail in anguish, perhaps hoping that acknowledging said spooks might somehow mitigate their behavior. Alas.

So—do you believe? Dale Rumsey does. And he’s out and about looking for them, with some success, he says—mostly in local cemeteries but hoping to soon be finding spirits and ghosts in a home near you. Perhaps yours.

What would make a regular Tioga County guy buy equipment—dowsing rods, various types of meters, something called a ghost box—and then go wandering around cemeteries, hoping to encounter some-

thing or someone otherworldly? Dale, who lives with a nice wife in a nice house (that is probably not haunted, but could certainly entertain ethereal passers-by), a pool in the backyard, and a genial man cave that is part classic rock and part X-Files, has a simple explanation. His sister died in 1969 in a bad car accident, and, well…

“I want to be able to talk to her. I wanted to find out what happens after you die.”

And has he found out?

“No.”

But he’s trying.

Dale is a fan of paranormal reality-type TV shows such as Haunted Hospitals, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Lockdown, Ghost Adventures, and Haunted. In 2018 he acquired his first two pieces of equipment—a spirit box and a small recorder. A spirit box, also known as a ghost box or Frank’s Box (named for creator Frank Sumption), cycles through FM radio frequencies. The resulting white

noise of that scanning activity is allegedly a means for spirits to communicate with us. You pose a question, then hope for a break in the scanning to hear some kind of intelligible response. If there is nothing, you might assume the location has no spirit activity or that the spirits who may be present can’t, or don’t want to, respond.

“I’ve never really talked to a ghost yet,” Dale says.

He’s had more success with seeing and feeling things, however. His first ghost-hunting gig was right before covid showed up. He went to the cemetery in Fall Brook, which seems to be a fairly active site for paranormal happenings, although not much went on during that first visit. The second time, however, he took his daughter with him. She reported feeling someone’s finger in her ear; the spectral wet willy provider then moved on to Dale. Go figure. Dale has no explanation for

Gayle Morrow

He ain't 'fraid of no ghost: Dale Rumsey sits in his man cave amongst his ghost-hunting gear.

Call continued from page 36 what happened, he just knows it did.

Another time at Fall Brook, Dale was using the Ovilus, a speech-synthesis device that uses electronic sensors to detect changes in the electromagnetic field. Paranormal activity reportedly creates the kind of changes that an Ovilus, or other similar device, could detect. What the Ovilus then does is show a word on its display screen and give an audible version of that word. The words can seem random, or can give the paranormal investigator insight into the current situation. In Dale’s man cave, for instance, with the Ovilus on, series of words appeared over the course of a couple of hours. One of them was “gateway.” Gateway to what? The Ovilus does not elaborate.

But, on that visit to Fall Brook, the words indicated “kids” and “walking.” Otherworldly children? No, it turned out to be actual people. But, says Dale, “that’s when it made me believe in it.”

Other equipment, like meters measuring EMF and ELF—electromagnetic field and extremely low frequency, respectively—are valued by some ghost hunters and disparaged by others, as they can give a false reading around power lines, fuse boxes, and home electronics. You have to know your equipment and your surroundings. Dale and a helper were again at the Fall Brook cemetery (Fall Brook is a ghost town, after all), using an EMF meter. The meter lit up, indicating—something—and the helper reported feeling a hand holding hers. And there was the time one of Dale’s co-investigators experienced the feeling of someone holding on to her arm. And, after leaving the cemetery during that same visit, she discovered her newly charged smart watch was drained of power. Hmmm.

Dale also frequents the cemetery in Ansonia. A trip in 2022 resulted in a video of a child running between the trees (the brief video does seem to show something running). On a more recent visit, his phone, placed on the top of a gravestone, inexplicably flew off its perch. He’s taken pictures at other sites that show things you don’t see with your naked eyes. One particularly unnerving shot depicts what looks like the face of a demon—at least what some of us might imagine a demon to look like—in the flames of a bonfire. Eeewww.

So, if someone calls with a request for a paranormal investigation, what’s the process? Dale will initially try to determine the basic and obvious: “What’s going on?”

“The first thing you’d try to do is de-bunk it,” he says. “People try to fake stuff. I don’t want to fake anything.”

He will then find out how the people involved are feeling. If it’s demons they’re dealing with, that can be scary, Dale acknowledges, but adds he hasn’t found anything scary about the ghosts he’s encountered.

“I don’t do exorcisms,” he says. He suggests turning to the appropriate holy person of your particular faith if an exorcism is necessary.

He would then use his EMF meter, the Ovilus, and other detection devices to determine what, if anything, might be present—it could be a shadow person, a spirit/ghost, a poltergeist, or a demon.

“They’ll give an indication if something is here,” he says. Then he’ll get his cameras and recorders at the ready, and, with luck and a cooperative apparition, will get a photo or a sound.

No need to ask the question about who you’ll call for assistance with an otherworldly visitor. You can reach Dale at (570) 439-4748 to schedule a visit.

Pennsylvania Lumber Museum

SHOW & SAWMILL RUN - Oct. 7 & 8, 2023

Sour continued from page 11 creating sour beers. Others spread out across the region like the bugs that float through the air, fermenting the imagination of brewers as much as brews. Geneva’s Lake Drum Brewing offers lovely traditional sours in a small, groovy place that gives drinkers a chance to spin vinyl from a huge collection of albums. The Other Half in Bloomfield feels like a modern beer hall with an outdoor space, hop vines, food truck, and an indoor drinking area overlooking the brewing facility. It’s a welcoming space for everyone from kids to old guys tapping away on computers while sampling a flight. Check out their fruited sours, especially The Cannibals, P.O.G. Cannibal, and the MMM…Fruit Series. Be prepared though—the former two are known as smoothie sours, a take on sours that’s a long way from gose and Berliner weisse, like the difference between Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and the bluegrass version by Iron Horse. Grist Iron Brewing projects a national park vibe and offers a solid take on a kettle sour called That’s My Jam! Other breweries to put on the sour (in a good way!) list: Lucky Hare Brewing, Frequentum Brewing Company, and Big aLICe Brewing.

Life is complex and unpredictable, there are no guarantees. It’s a lot like making sour beers. Microbrews everywhere are making it possible for beer drinkers to explore what beer was like before mass production. The brewers work with wineries, distilleries, local farmers, and whoever else can help them make good beers. It’s one big happy fermentation process. FLX sours reflect the attitudes and imaginations of the people making beer and injects new wildness into a place already bubbling with creative vivacity. Sours represent the past but are made in—and sometimes stretch—the present. So much beer. You gotta get out there and try some. Put down the light stuff. Take a break from wine. Grab a flight of sours at a brewery or take some home. Set up the tasting glasses and call your friends. Expand your horizons with FLX flavors.

Born in North Carolina, Jimmy Guignard teaches at Commonwealth University (Mansfield Campus) and tries to keep up with his family. Northcentral Pennsylvania reminds him of the North Carolina mountains, though with more bears and bald eagles and fewer barbecue joints.

From the Farm Fall Festival!

So Much Depends Upon a Red Barn

By Linda Stager

I’d heard about this farm and set out in search. It wasn’t long before I was driving country roads and hopelessly lost. I finally found a farmer and his son working outside and stopped to ask if they knew where East Troupsburg was. Of course, they did—it was “right over a couple of hills from us.” Off I went. Not only was the scene everything I expected, but the owner of this gorgeous barn was just as accommodating as the neighbors. Sometimes you find the perfect location for the perfect photo. And sometimes you do even better than that—you make friends along the way.