It seemed like summer’s close snuck up this year. I don’t know what it was –quick-to-change weather, the onslaught of backto-school demands, the return to “real life” – but it felt like fall came sudden ly. And while I love lots of things about this time of year, I found myself mourning summer, or the shift from slow(ish) to fastpaced, more than in the past.
But in an elemental way, fall isn’t harried. Yes, the leaves this year were patchy and fleeting, falling quickly and some only half-turned. But the actual season, and what it ushers, nudges us toward coziness, toward turning inward, slowing down and sinking in.
According to an article at exploredeeply.com, autumn is “a meaningful time of year to honor the harvest, whether that be a ‘real’ harvest of the things planted in your garden or the harvest of efforts and intentions for your life path that you set earlier in the year.”
In this time between summer’s merriment and the fast-approaching frenzy of the holidays, it feels appropriate – even necessary – to pause. Hard, I know.
“Fall represents … a time to acknowledge growth and expansion as a natural evolution of our organic being,” the article states. “Our lives go through cycles of growth, harvest, death and rebirth, just as we see in nature. (In fall), you may want to honor all that you have in your life and shift your consciousness from one of lack to one of prosperity and gratitude in some way through a small ritual or cer emony, such as lighting a candle, giving thanks or speaking your gratitude for all that you are and all that you have.”
A friend recently (and generously) said the arrival of each edition of Upstate Life marks a bright spot for him because, for just a little while, he gets “swept away” in its contents. Maybe this autumn edition can be that respite, maybe not. But I hope that, somewhere in this season, you find pause.
As temperatures begin to drop and we prepare to gather with friends and family, it’s important to remember those in our community who might need a helping hand. Food banks are a great way to ensure that we give back in a meaningful way to those who need it most.
Erik Kjellquist, board president at Saturday’s Bread in Oneonta, said, “Technically we’re not a food pantry, but we do give away packaged food – both perishable and non-perishable – on a weekly basis on Saturdays.
“You can bring items to us on Saturday mornings (and) we can do our best to give them out, or someone may be able to receive them at some scheduled time,” he contin ued.
Kendra Beijen, coordinator at Saturday’s Bread explained the importance of giving back, noting that she and Kjellquist got their start with the program as volunteers.
Saturday’s Bread volunteers help prepare the meal-included fresh garden salad.oneonta is one of the only plaCes Where you Can eat for free seVen Days a Week, anD that is a faCt We are prouD of. the proGram sees an inCrease in Visitors later in the month, When Benefits haVe Been useD. no one shoulD haVe to Go hunGry.”
Top left, clockwise: Two cooks work to prepare the main entree at Saturday’s Bread. Members of the community volunteer at Saturday’s Bread to help make meat-andcheese sandwiches. Local students serve the community, helping to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Student volunteers prep sandwiches for guests of Saturday’s Bread in Oneonta.
While food donations are always welcome, she said, the pro gram’s greatest need is for volunteers.
“Since the start of the pandemic, our volunteers have not been able to rotate, so we are starting to feel some of that burnout of working every weekend,” she said, noting that the program has several open and unique opportunities, including food prepara tion, goods sorting, delivery driving and more.
“Oneonta is one of the only places where you can eat for free seven days a week, and that is a fact we are proud of,” Beijin said. The program, she said, sees an increase in visitors later in the month, when benefits have been used.
“No one should have to go hungry,” she said, adding that the program is very much an extension of the family, helping to celebrate birthdays, holidays and other special occasions. “We have yet to miss a Saturday.”
To learn more about volunteer and professional opportunities,
how to donate or to enjoy all that Saturday’s Bread has to offer, contact 607-386-0522, info@saturdaysbread.org or visit the “Saturday’s Bread” Facebook page.
Saturday’s Bread, 66 Chestnut St., is grateful to receive abun dant donations from several chain and local sources, Beijen said. “We always welcome donations that are needed and wanted.”
Upcoming Saturday’s Bread events include a collaborative Thanksgiving dinner, sponsored by St. Mary’s Church; a collab orative “Friends of Christmas” event, with the Bandera family and the Community Alliance at the American Legion Riders Post 259, 279 Chestnut St., from noon to 3 p.m. on Dec. 25; and sit-down Saturday meals from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church.
Find additional information, events and delivery details at the “Saturday’s Bread” Facebook page. +
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED
Feeding America outlines
of the most-needed items
food pantries. Items include:
Peanut butter
Canned soup
Canned fruit
Canned vegetables
Canned stew
Canned fish
Canned beans
Pasta; whole grain preferred
Rice; brown preferred
Monetary donations
Also, Feeding America advises against donating the following:
Refrigerated items Expired food
Leftovers
Food with damaged packaging Baked goods
To find more local food banks near you, visit feedingamerica. org/find-your-local-foodbank.
Thirty years ago, Bertha Rogers hosted a reading from her home with late hus band, Ernest Fishman. The idea was to gather lovers of literature and read po etry because, Rogers said, she “always believed poetry wants to be spoken, not just read.” That was the start of Word Thursdays.
The reading program would become the cor nerstone of Bright Hill Press & Literary Center of the Catskills, a nonprofit organization at 94 Church St., Treadwell that, according to its social media, is “dedicated to increasing audiences’ appreciation of the writing arts and oral traditions that comprise American literature, and to encouraging and furthering the tradition of oral poetry and writing in the Catskills and beyond.” Today, alongside Word Thursdays, Bright Hill boasts a unique library, children’s literacy and STEM programming, workshops for adults and children and the organization has published nearly 100 poetry chapbooks and anthologies.
Rogers said she was spurred to start the salon-style readings after moving upstate.
“I had moved up from Manhattan in 1989 and I liked going to readings and used to do it a lot in New York, and I missed them,” she said. “Ernie and I had met in 1991 … (when) I was part of a reading of four women writers at Huntington (Memorial Library of Oneon ta). We decided to try this reading series in ’92 and it has never stopped.
“I put a press release together and sent it to the Star,” she continued. “It said it was going to be a reading series, it gave the address and about six people came. That was January 1992. It was in my house for the first 10 years, then we were able to get funding and we bought the building in Treadwell, and that was funded in part by the O’Connor Foundation and Walter Rich (Charitable Foundation) and some indi vidual (donations).”
Though Rogers brought decades of literary and organizational experience to the venture, it grew organically.
“My first husband and I ran a not-for-profit theater in California and worked for a nonprof it off-off Broadway theater in New York,” she said. “I knew that you start something like this and it sort of takes on a life. In a way, I sort of knew that it would grow without putting that into words. I wasn’t surprised that it grew and (of) the people that came, some of them are still around and still connected, which is really nice.”
Rogers, who retired in 2017, credited the caliber of programming and people’s regard for it with buoying Bright Hill.
BY ALLISON COLLINS Bright Hill founder, Bertha Rogers, is pictured in this undated photo.“I think it’s lasted because people know that, one, there’s always an open-mic and two, there have been really good writers who’ve come here from all over the country and elsewhere,” she said. “I think people see it as a quality reading source. If they come to hear a reading, they’ll hear good material, and who doesn’t like good quality?”
Executive Director Beatrice Huestis echoed: “We fill a void in the cultural landscape of the upper Catskills and Southern Tier. There is not another cultural center in our region that’s devoted to publishing literary works or offering educational programs in the literary arts for our communities. I would say that’s why (it’s lasted). I think that our programs and our mission make a deep impact on our participants and audiences – young and old – and I think it makes our mountains all the more special that we’re here.
“We nurture the talents of local residents writing poetry and literature and we also provide enriching arts educa tion opportunities to our area youths,” she continued. “When kids come to one workshop, they then come to the next 10 years. And 99% of our kids go on to higher education, which is pretty staggering. I think that speaks so much to the power of arts education … and how pro grams like ours help kids to feel included and important. I think a lot of the kids that come to our programs don’t necessarily fit into the world of sports – which is huge around here and wonderful in its own right – however,
programs like ours give kids that don’t want to do sports a place where they can dive in and really let their creativ ity and imaginations grow, and I think that’s so critical to critical thinking skills and social-emotional (develop ment).”
Rogers said it took collab oration and happenstance, too, to bring Bright Hill through three decades.
“Looking back, it’s like things just sort of tumbled into place – of course it doesn’t really work that way – but it seems that way, and I’m real ly grateful for the people who stepped up and were happy to help us,” she said. “It’s been a really good thing to do, and when we got to 2017 and it was 25 years, I said, ‘It’s enough, and the organization should be able to continue without me.’ Beatrice has been a terrific director; she’s enthusiastic and she’s worked with outside people and brought people in … and I am so thrilled that it’s gone to 30 years.”
Highlights, Rogers said, have included developing a New York State literary map, building a library, hosting festivals and continuously expanding Bright Hill’s reach.
“We started applying to the New York State Council on the Arts in 1994 and got our first funding from them,” she said. “When we built the library addition, that was in 2004, and we got funding from the Council on the Arts for that and that was a really wonderful thing, because nobody was building libraries. It was absolutely thrilling to get that funding and the support that we had from other sources.
Executive Director, Beatrice Huestis, is seen in this undated photo. Huestis began her directorship in 2017.
Bright Hill Press
nurture the talents of
We also proViDe enriChinG arts eDuCation opportunities to our area youths.”
To mark Bright Hill’s return to publish ing and its 30th anniversary, the organi zation released “What Lightning Spoke,” by Oneonta’s Robert Bensen, this fall. Bensen, a retired Hartwick professor and award-winning poet, is the facilitator of Bright Hill’s Seeing Things workshop.
“This book is new and selected poems,” Bensen, 74, said. “It’s got the poems I selected from six previous books, as well as a nearly book-length group of new poems that I hope will stand some test of time. I think, at this stage in a writer’s career, it’s proof that, if you hang around long enough, good things happen. It’s 50 years of writing from which I’ve selected; almost a lifetime’s worth of work.”
Rogers and Huestis said Bensen’s oeuvre made an obvious choice for the milestone.
“We walked (publishing) back during the pandemic, but we published this year Robert Bensen’s ‘What Lightning Spoke,’ which is an extraordinary selection,” Rogers said. “Bob is one of the people who would come to the readings at my house years ago, so it’s really great.”
“Normally, our publications are a juried, anonymous competition, annually,” Huestis said. “We choose one chapbook and one fulllength anthology, and the submission process is anonymous and highly competitive. We had paused due to COVID … and this year,
when we considered, there was no other choice than Robert Bensen’s opus for us to publish in celebration of our 30th anniversary, given that, Robert Bensen, like Bright Hill Press & Literary Center, is a local treasure. The honor and opportunity to publish what … got up to a 300-page book was a no-brainer.”
Bensen called having Bright Hill publish the collection “a tremen dous gift.”
“It’s just a wonderful relationship,” he said. “A writer wants a rela tionship with a publisher, not just a one-shot book, and I’ve always hoped to have that kind of relationship.”
The breadth of Bensen’s work, Huestis said, is exemplifying.
“The poetry is so diverse – there are so many stories that are told in such a beautiful way, and they literally take us all around the world and all the way through every human emotion, and the work is done so in a maestro kind of a way,” she said. “When I’m reading the book, it’s like Pavarotti singing, because (Bensen) is so technically adept, and yet he doesn’t lose the heart when he skillfully executes a form or a translation.”
“A lot of my poetry comes from a sense of place,” Bensen echoed. “I like the poem to bring the reader to the place where the speaker is discovering the world. A lot of the poems are set in places I’ve trav eled … and I’ve been influenced heavily by poets who ground their poems in images of the moment. I like the reader to be able to enter the poem and share the moment in time and space and emerge from the poem a little surprised to be back where (they) started.”
“What Lightning Spoke” is available through Bright Hill, The Green Toad in Oneonta and amazon.com.
Robert Benson Top left, clockwise: Participants in a 2004 Bright Hill youth workshop are pictured with founder, Bertha Rogers. Bertha Rogers is pictured at an outdoors Word Thursdays session in 1992. Youth workshop participants are seen in this 2000 photo. A Word Thursdays session takes place in the Bright Hill library in this 2009 photo. PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED“We premiered my translation of ‘Beowulf’ in 1994 on the hill up behind my house, (with) a cast from New York and they stayed here for a week,” Rogers continued. “We have a stone circle up there … and we had an aeolian harp and torchlight and, oh, my god, it was just wonderful. Artists have loved coming here. We had Speaking the Words Festival for several years, and we’d bring in poets and writers from all over the country for a three-day event. But the thing I think I’m proudest of was in 1996, (when) we did the Iroquois Festival, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Maurice Kenny, a Mohawk poet. We worked with Hartwick, SUNY Oneonta, Delhi, all these things; there were panels, a won derful Onondaga rock ‘n’ roll group and it made me so happy that Maurice opened all these doors for us, because when you do a thing like this organization that has lasted 30 years, you can’t do it all by yourself; you really have to have the help and the appreciation of other people and other groups. We were lucky in that regard. So, there have been lots of things that have, I think, contributed to the community and served the artists. You watch things, and see them fall into place, and you realize they don’t really fall into place – it
takes a lot to make them happen – but it always seemed as if we were going in the right direction. It grew and I think we’ve made a valuable contribution to literature in the state of New York. It’s been a good way to spend my life.”
The organization’s future, Rogers and Huestis said, lives up to its name.
“Beatrice is very good at writing grants – you have to be with a not-for-profit – so she’s doing that and has expanded certain things like the Seeing Things adult poetry workshop,” Rogers said, noting that she continues teaching the children’s workshops. “We would have a poet come in intermittently and do workshops, but nothing on this scale. These adult workshops have added a lot and Bright Hill is still publishing. We weren’t publishing as much (during the pandemic), but I think we’ll be publishing more again. Sometimes, I think people think everything has to keep growing and getting bigger. And while Bright Hill has done that, it’s also stayed much the same. If people come to a Bright Hill reading, they know what it will be like.”
The boy I was, was walking with his sack of newsprint blurring in the rain. Lightning curtained the road around me, branched and hooked in myriad brilliances streaming, its rivers and rivulets flooding me with one idea: in plain air, power makes infinite ways.
I bolted after its afterimage. I swarmed through its fading cage. No one home would mind a feverish child’s tale, so I retold it, next blue day, to a lone white feather of a cloud that bloomed and boiled its furious head over the rooftops. Maybe it was something I’d said, maybe just weather.
But sure some eminence had graved itself in my eyes’ twin caves, had scorched there the smoking claw of a thundergod. I close my eyes and summon, against the curtain of blood, that first light, its flickering net of tongues. At the time, there’s only a lightening, a lift like waking at last, a vault toward the zig-zag stars. And ever after, retrace the flight of its fiery shaft, its echoes volleying down the stunned alleys of the head, so that, when the thunders come, the heart races to greet them again.
D ANIEL R OBERTS“This year, we forged a wonderful partnership with Delaware Acad emy (in Delhi),” Huestis said. “We were able to add four additional workshops … that include iPhone photography and artistic story telling with Nick Kelsh, who is a photographer … and we brought Bertha’s workshops to Delaware Academy – free to all Delaware Academy students – and my hope is that partnership will grow in 2023 to enhance their remedial learning opportunities during the summer with our high-quality arts education programming. I’d love to expand our summer offerings and perhaps strike up new partner ships with other area schools.
“I would like for Bright Hill programs to become mobile,” she continued. “I’d love to be able to bring Bright Hill programming
to Cooperstown, Oneonta, while retaining our brand, which is essen tially this storybook setting in the hamlet of Treadwell; I’d like to recreate that vibe and bring it out to the tri-county area. I would love to find funding that would enable us to reopen our library and our Word and Image Gallery, which both closed due to COVID. Right now, we’re not offering exhibits, but we do need funding in order to bring that programming back, which I think people really miss. The whole operation is funded by grants, as well as private donations … by donors who support our program, our mission and the impact that those donations make on our community and beyond.”
For more information or upcoming events, find “Bright Hill Press” on Facebook or visit brighthillpress.org.. +
Members of Bright Hill’s adult poetry workshop, Seeing Things, are seen during an in-person 2019 session. The workshop went virtual during the pandemic and is in its eighth iteration this fall.
We liVe in an inCreDiBle area of neW york state, riCh With loCal apples, pumpkins, CiDer Donuts anD more.
Brooke and luca Crognale,
and 10, of Down home acres, sort fresh-picked corn and pumpkins
their family’s unadilla farm stand.
BY CHELSEA FRISBEE
An assortment of pumpkins is grown at Bucks Pumpkin Farm.
We’re tryinG to Create a traDitional fall feel, a Wholesome experienCe anD all the fooDs that are assoCiateD
With it.”
With Halloween approaching, it’s time to consult your spooky checklist: Costume? Check. Candy for the neighbors? Check. Pumpkin for carving? Bobbing for apples? Cider donuts for your Halloween party? Luckily, we live in an incredible area of New York State rich with local apples, pumpkins, cider donuts and more.
If you’re looking for a great family-friendly activity for Halloween weekend, or want to stock up on pumpkins for carving, seeds or pie, check out these U-pick or pre-picked pumpkin options in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie counties. There’s something for everyone, plus an abundance of other harvest treats.
Echo Orchard Farm Stand is just outside of Ham den, along the West Branch of the Delaware River. Surrounded by the rolling foothills of the Catskills and wide floodplain valley, visitors enjoy a bucolic barn filled with pumpkins, decorative pumpkins, local squash varieties as well as farmstand essentials: honey, maple syrup, cider donuts, fresh cider, bacon, eggs and milk.
“We grow organically, though we’re not certified,” Steve Jewett, co-owner, said. “We have 10 acres of pumpkins, with about 5,000 plants that are grown from transplant. Our fall season starts off with people wanting porch decorations and edible squash, like blue hubbard. Of course, we have big jack-o’-lanterns availa ble, especially for the Halloween season.”
Now in their second year, Steve and his wife, Jess, are grateful to have inherited the business the nearby Donnelly farm had built up. They have an apple or chard with about 20 trees, but mostly sell those apples to cideries or keep them for themselves. “We’re really a pumpkin and squash farm, as well as a wool farm.” Jewett said, noting that their sheep provide wool for Jess’s wool business. “We’re trying to create a traditional fall feel, a wholesome experience and all the foods that are associated with it.”
Between the quiet roadside setting, beautiful historic barn, delicious local products and range of decorative and edible squash and pumpkins, the Jewetts are doing just that.
Echo Orchard Farm Stand is open daily through Oct. 31, with U-pick pumpkins available on weekends.
We’re an aGritourism farm, so We haVe a hay fort for kiDs, anD also a small Corn maze anD a hayriDe, all for free.”
Middlefield Orchard is a must-visit farm destination in Otsego County with activities for the whole family. Just seven miles from Cooperstown, their season begins in June with U-pick strawberries and continues with raspberries, blueberries, grapes, apples and pumpkins. With a corn maze and farm store stocked with products made on-site, it’s wise to come hungry and ready to en joy the breadth of the Middlefield Orchard experience.
“We’re an agritourism farm, so we have a hay fort for kids, and also a small corn maze and a hayride, all for free,” owner Willy Bruneau said. “We’re family-friendly and cater to those families.”
The farm spans 130 acres, with about 45 acres in fruit and 45 in vegetables. Middlefield grows 28 varieties of apples in a 10,000-tree orchard. Complete with home made pickles, jams, honey, applesauce and pre-picked vegetables and fruit for sale in the farm store, Middle field Orchard offers a delectable experience. And don’t miss the freshly made cider donuts!
Decorative pumpkins and squash are pictured at Echo Orchard. Apples and cider are staples at Middlefield Orchard.
The farm started about 20 years ago after Bruneau retired from working in the high-tech industry.
“It started with just an apple orchard, then we started growing berries so we could make our own jam, and people started wanting to come pick their own,” he said. “It’s grown a lot since then.”
It’s easy to see why Middlefield Orchard has become a popular des tination for visitors and the local community alike. If you can’t make it to the farm, visit the weekly farmers’ markets in Delhi, Coopers town and Oneonta to find their fruits and vegetables.
Middlefield Orchard is open Monday through Saturday, through the end of October, with U-pick options and products available at the farm store.
Tucked away on the idyllic North Road outside of Jefferson in Schoharie County, Bucks Pumpkin Patch & Sunflower Field of fers a hands-on, fami ly-friendly experience, including a corn maze, U-pick pumpkins and opportunities to visit the cows and farm store, featuring their maple syrup.
Chase and Danielle Buck stopped dairy farming in 2018 and started growing pumpkins to crop-rotate their fields and keep their land productive.
“People can pick the pumpkins right where they grew – the only thing we do is cut the stems,” Danielle said. “We also make our own cider donuts. We love having people just come to pick pumpkins.” The next generation of farmers, Cash, 4, Cora, 2 and Clay, 1, is excited to host visitors to the farm, as well.
Chase and Danielle represent the fourth generation to run the 200acre farm.
“It’s a different side of things,” Danielle said. “When you’re selling milk in bulk as a commodity, you’re never really seeing the customer. It’s cool to see people come year after year and see their kids grow. It’s been a lot of fun.”
This year has been one of the Bucks’ better pumpkin-growing seasons, due to the heat and dry weather, which pumpkins prefer. One thing making their farm unique is their homemade cider donuts topped with maple sugar, made right there on the farm.
Bucks Pumpkin Patch & Sunflower Field is open weekends in Oc tober for U-pick pumpkins, a corn maze and a year-round farm store featuring maple syrup and local milk, eggs, cheese and butter. +
By Chelsea frisBee
earn about the past and become part of the future” is the motto of the newly re-formed Town of Maryland Historical Society in Maryland. With extensive programming and an active volunteer board of trustees, this vibrant group is creating opportunity for the community to be that bridge.
The Maryland Historical Society turns two in December and, with more than 100 mem bers, is moving toward its goal of 200 mem bers by its second anniversary.
Trustee Charlene Rubino said the histori cal society exists to educate the community about the past.
“There’s a lot of history in the town of Maryland,” she said. “Many people who live here now are either newcomers in the past 10 to 15 years, or third generation, and there’s no one here to remind them or show them pictures or teach them about everything that made this town so productive and famous.”
“There was a thriving community on South Hill,” Bob Parmerter, trustee and town his torian, said. “There was a church, a school house, lots of farms, a community center, activities and a Grange.”
The original Maryland Historical Society was formed in 1952 and underwent revivals and declines until dissolving in 2000. An or ganizational revival meeting took place in Au gust 2017, and a new certificate was issued by the New York Board of Regents to the Town of Maryland Historical Society in December 2020.
While there’s no physical location yet, the historical society is grateful to the Schenevus AM-Vets for sharing their space for events, and they have big plans.
“Our goal is to eventually have a building that we can call our own, hopefully within five years, that will be open to the public and where we can display historical items that have been donated to us,” Rubino said.
Main Street, Schenevus is seen in this January 1958 photo from the Barb Bookhout Collection.
The society has an active Facebook group of 500 members and would love to see younger families getting more involved. Recently, they were an integral part of getting the Schenevus Carousel High way Marker for the historic carousel in Schenevus, built more than 100 years ago. Members hosted an unveiling of the historic marker and dedication ceremony, with funding provided by the William C. Pomeroy Foundation, in August. This is the first historical marker placed in the town of Maryland, and the group hopes to pursue funding for many more.
Popular historical society programs have included a talk on gas stations in the area, a tour of the Maryland Cemetery and a talk about ice cut from nearby Schenevus Lake.
“The cutting of ice was a major economic factor in the county,” Parmerter said. “Ice was used to cool milk and other things they transported on the D&H Railroad. It was used in the cars that pro vided food in the passenger trains, and it was used in the warehous
es to store things all year. They packed it in sawdust and it would last until the next winter.”
Members said such programming gives important historical con text, allowing for a deepening understanding of place and history.
“We’ll do anything we can to make the history come to life,” George Beams, trustee, said.
The Town of Maryland Historical Society is one of many histor ical societies in the area. Find your local historical society and get involved, or join this growing organization. At the Maryland His torical Society, membership is $10 per year for an individual and $15 for a family. The group meets the last Sunday of the month at 2p.m. and will also host a Christmas party, open to the public, in December.
Contact Charlene at crubino24@gmail.com to learn more or become a member. Also, find “Maryland Historical Society” on Facebook. +
there’s a lot of history in the toWn of marylanD. many people Who liVe here noW are either neWComers in the past 10 to 15 years, or thirD Generation, anD there’s no one here to reminD them or shoW them piCtures or teaCh them aBout eVerythinG that maDe this toWn so proDuCtiVe anD famous.”Left to right: Members of the Maryland Historical Society make donuts in this 2022 photo. A marker designates the Schenevus Carousel’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places. PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED
By allison Collins
They may not be as ubiquitous this time of year as pumpkin spice, but everyone loves cider doughnuts. In New England and the Northeast, they are a staple of the season at cider mills, apple orchards and roadside farmstands.
According to newenglandsfinest.com, “ap ple cider doughnuts are synonymous with fall, particularly in New England, where apple orchards from Connecticut all the way to Maine use their own cider to flavor the golden fried rings of deliciousness.”
While watching doughnuts fall from a mechanized fryer belt into hot oil can be mesmerizing, this baked alternative offers a (slightly) healthier option without forfeiting that favorited fall flavor. And the smell of them baking is better than any autumnal candle. A doughnut pan is essential (though you could certainly fry them in oil; I just find that to be a next-level mess), and available at most large stores or online for between $8 and $14.
Though traditional, cider doughnuts only went mainstream in the 1950s. Their seasonal tie-in, however, predates that popularity.
Cider doughnuts, newenglandsfinest.com
notes, are derivative of a traditional cake doughnut or buttermilk doughnut, with European origins and pre-Lenten ties. State side, they became associated with autumn, the site states, because “fall is the traditional season for harvest and hog slaughter, mean ing it was the time of year enough fat was available to fry doughnuts, which tradition ally were cooked in lard.”
“Colonists … were not looking to waste any part of an animal (and) would store animal fats for preservation and frying foods. After a bountiful fall harvest, there would be leftover apples with no purpose. They would … combine them with fried dough (making) probably the rawest form of apple cider doughnuts known, and not the smooth, coated, delicious iteration that we think of in today’s world,” ciderscene. com echoes.
Adolph Levitt, a Russian immigrant, is credited with popularizing the cider doughnut. Levitt founded the Doughnut Corporation of American in the 1920s. The DCA launched the cider doughnut in 1951 as, according to a 1951 “New York Times” article referenced on newenglandsfinest. com, part of its “23rd annual campaign to increase doughnut sales.”
“A new type of product, the Sweet Cider Doughnut, will be introduced by the Doughnut Corporation of America,” it states. “The new item is a spicy round cake … expected to have a natural fall appeal.”
Levitt’s cider doughnut, ciderscene.com notes, was a “classic buttermilk doughnut, (that) added apple cider into the batter for a more moist and elevated experience, (in cluding) coating the exterior with a blend of cinnamon and nutmeg.
“From this campaign … stores and many local orchards began making these dough nuts,” the site continues. “Across the coun try, local orchards could tinker and create their own family recipe (and) add in cider from their fields and pair this with a fresh glass of apple cider. The apple cider drink could be hot or cold, same with the doughnut, and bring the consumer a delightful hot/ cold experience bursting with sweet, spiced and tart flavor.”
1 ½ c. flour or gluten-free flour blend
½ tsp. xantham gum (if making gluten-free; otherwise, omit)
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¾ c. sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened 2 eggs
¾ c. apple cider
Topping:
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp.
Cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, melted
1. Blend all dry ingredients together. Cinnamon and nutmeg give these doughnuts the classic seasonal spice.
Apple cider makes a great addition and accompaniment to these doughnuts.
Crack eggs into a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
PHOTOS BY ALLISON COLLINS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahren heit. Lightly grease a doughnut pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingre dients with a whisk until well blended.
Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add eggs, butter and cider. Stir to combine. Batter will be soft, but similar to a thick pancake batter.
Scoop batter into a piping bag or a heavy-duty plastic bag with a corner snipped off and pipe into the prepared doughnut pan, filling each doughnut mold roughly three-quarters of the way up. Tap the pan gently against the counter to remove air bubbles and flatten batter.
Bake doughnuts on the center rack of the oven for about 13 minutes, or until
the tops are golden brown and springy to the touch.
While doughnuts bake, prepare the topping and melted butter.
Remove doughnuts from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes.
While doughnuts are still slightly warm but cool enough to handle, brush on melted butter and dip or roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Place on parchment paper to cool fully and serve.
Doughnuts will keep, uncovered, for about two days. Also, freeze doughnuts in a sealed, airtight container.
Yield: This recipe made about nine doughnuts for me, though it could easily be doubled.
Recipe modified from glutenfreeonashoestring.com. +
4.
No matter what its capacity has been, the walls of the onetime Pyramid Mall have always en closed a place to be “one stop” for fulfilling the many needs of Oneonta-area residents.
When it opened 50 years ago just east of the city of Oneonta on state Route 7, the Pyramid Mall was the place to get groceries, flowers, a book, a bite to eat; there, you could do some banking or browse through a department store, enclosed and climate-controlled under one roof.
Today, in the same building, one can receive a vari ety of outpatient medical services, get fit and still get a bite to eat, all at the Fox Care Center.
BY MARK SIMONSON
“Construction of a major new shopping center, the largest to date in the Oneonta area, will get underway this spring in Oneonta’s fast-growing East End.”
This was the big story of the day in “The Oneonta Star” Friday, Feb. 18, 1972, as officials of the Syracuse-based Pyramid Investors Corp. announced that they would build a fully enclosed, air-condi
tioned shopping mall.
Oneonta’s East End was considered fast-growing because Jamesway had built a discount department store in the nearby area in 1962, then the Oneon ta Plaza, which housed a W.T. Grant Store, Victory Market and Carl’s Drug Store, opened in 1966.
Plans called for the mall to have “anchor” stores, in cluding an 80,000-square-foot department store and a 22,000-square-foot grocery chain store, with several other small stores between them. No specific names were revealed at the time.
Construction began once the winter weather sub sided in May. Finishing touches on the enclosed mall were made that October.
A large display ad appeared in the Star Monday, Oct. 2, reading, “The new kid comes to Oneonta! White-Modell Grand Opening, Tuesday, Oct. 17.” A news article roughly a week later detailed how the White Modell store would employ nearly 300 people, and esti mated the local payroll at about $250,000 annually, depending on sales.
Top: The Pyramid Mall is seen under construction in 1972 | CONTRIBUTED Below: Shoppers anxiously await the opening of the then-new Nichols Department Store at the former Pyramid Mall in Oneonta in this Tuesday, March 19, 1985 Daily Star photo.
“Also occupying the Pyramid Mall,” the article said, “will be Loblaws supermarket, Fay’s Drugs, an assortment of smaller shops, and branches of the Oneonta Savings and Loan Association and Mechanics Exchange Bank.” The bank was housed in an outside building, now vacant. Parking was available at the mall for 692 cars.
Other original tenants at the mall’s Oct. 17 opening included Brandow’s Barber Shop, Ardy’s Snack Bar, Quality Cleaners, Bar bara Briggs Beauty Shop, the Oneonta General Store, Coddington Florist and Friar Tuck Book Store.
According to the Wednesday, Oct. 18 Star, “The mall opened at 9:30 Tuesday morning with a series of brief speeches by Pyramid and White Modell executives. County Representative Richard Schlee, of Oneonta, cut the ribbon and shoppers waiting at the
Top to bottom: A nearly vacant Pyramid Mall is seen in early October 1993. A.O. Fox Memorial Hospi tal President John Remillard, pictured on April 4, 1997, shows the floor plan for the Fox Care Center, which opened in early August that year. A view of the construction plan to change the building from a shopping mall into an outpatient center is seen in this 1997
door since 9 a.m. poured into the mall. By the end of the day, White Modell officials estimated nearly 12,000 shoppers visited their store, and indicated the sales throughout the day were good.”
As many shoppers may recall, the mall ceiling had skylights and the interior sides were painted in green, blue and yellow pastels.
The mall had a good run of success, but things began fading around 1983, roughly coinciding with the opening of the South side Mall. In addition to the White Modell anchor department store at the Pyramid Mall, others included King’s, Barker’s and Nichols, with Nichols closing in 1990. The mall remained afloat for just a few more years, closing Oct. 31, 1993.
Why Pyramid died was a mystery to many. Some speculated that, with the Southside Mall’s opening, business was drawn away. New retail development, such as the Oneonta Towne Centre, known today as the Price Chopper Plaza, was slated for 1994, so retailers weren’t avoiding Oneonta as a site for new stores. There was specu lation of a Walmart coming to Oneonta at the time.
But Pyramid wasn’t alone in losing retailers. In downtown One onta, F.W. Woolworth, a fixture store on Main Street for more than 75 years, also announced its pending closure on Oct. 15, 1993.
The property sat vacant for more than a year, until late 1994, when it was announced that Bettiol Enterprises had bought the property, but with no decision for the fate of the once-thriving mall.
Word finally came in March 1996, when interest gave new pur pose to the site. Readers of March 18 Daily Star that year learned, “A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital is shopping for a location to expand its outpatient services:
“‘There’s diminishing demand for inpatient care and increasing demand for outpatient care,’ said John R. Remillard, Fox president and CEO, adding that the expansion will help meet the demand. “The hospital has had its eye on the former Pyramid Mall on Route 7 for a while, and now is taking a closer look at the site’s suitability, both structural and financial.
“‘It’s convenience for our patients,’ Remillard said of the mall’s advantages. ‘There’s excellent parking, no stairs and it’s close to the hospital.’”
A deal was made, and, as reported on June 29, Fox signed a purchase agreement for $1.5 million. The hospital anticipated spending $4.5 million to renovate the 140,000-square-foot interior and the exterior to meet the hospital’s needs. Funding came from bonds left over from a 1992 expansion and renovation project on the main hospital on Norton Avenue. Additional funds came from donations.
Before the project could begin, the hospital had to obtain a cer tificate of need from the New York State Health Department. The approval came in late November. Construction was set to begin in mid-January 1997.
As reported on Jan. 31, a floor plan of the new center was released. Progress on the construction was shown to about 20 com munity members and the local media on April 4.
“Hospital President John Remillard unveiled a new logo of con centric blue and white circles and explained reasons for developing the space. Primary among them are changes sweeping through the health care industry.
“‘All the insurances and the whole industry is discouraging care in expensive inpatient settings,’ he said. The project will pull diverse Fox services together under one roof and provide easy access to the single level of offices.”
A July 30 Star advertisement for the Fox Care Center showed that several offices at Norton Avenue were relocating to the new East End site, all set to begin seeing patients Aug. 4. From the Aug. 6 edition of The Star came news, “Patients are starting to use the new FoxCare Center. Several physician practices and the Outpatient Service Center opened there Monday, in a vastly changed space.
“Heading out across the tiled floor, beneath skylights and along side potted plants and trees, Dorothy Robinson of Davenport was pleased.
“‘I think it’s quite nice,’ she said, after picking up a prescription from the Fox Internal Medicine/Oncology office. ‘My husband and I see about six different doctors, so this will be convenient.’”. +
City historian Mark Simonson grew up in Oneonta, but like many, left to explore opportunities elsewhere. He returned in 1997.
Before returning, Simonson worked in public relations, marketing and broadcast journalism. He worked locally in Norwich and the greater Binghamton area, and for a short time in Boston.
Simonson was appointed Oneonta City Historian in 1998. Since then, he has been doing freelance research and writing for a twice-weekly column in The Daily Star. Additionally, Simonson has published books about Oneonta and local history in a five-county region.
Through his years of research, Simonson has come across many interesting stories about old buildings in the upstate region. He will share those stories in this and upcoming editions of Upstate Life.
As often as we can, we like to highlight local lands, showing them as you have never before seen.
It’s only natural for us to take you back through geological time to when winters were really winters: the Ice Age. Have you been to Robert V. Riddell Park?
It’s been open for years. Take state Route 7 east until you get to the Route 28 exit and turn right. The park is a short distance to the south. You enter the park and there is always very good parking.
Hike east on the trail, which runs across an old, abandoned railroad line. See our first photo. Then, look to the left and see a broad flat platform. See our second photo. So far, all this may seem like just a nice walk on a pretty trail, but there is much more; now you have entered the Ice Age. a perplexing platform
What on earth could be interesting about that flat surface? How could it be of any importance to anyone? Are the two of us nuts? Well, here’s the rub: That flat surface is the bottom of an Ice Age lake, namely Glacial Lake Schenevus. Look up about 50
feet into the sky; that takes you to about where the water level was. This was a big lake. The lake was there because, off to the west where eastern Oneonta is, the valley was clogged with Ice Age sediments that dammed the Susquehanna Valley and created the lake.
Remember the part where we said you would see the land as you never have before? We would like you to go for a bit of a geological joy ride. Drive north on Route 28 toward Cooperstown. Then come back and get on I-88 heading east. Then return on I-88 driving toward the west. In short, drive around on the Susquehanna River and Schenevus Creek valley floors. Start noticing how much flat valley floor there is in the immediate area. You might have called it floodplain, but it is not. All this is the bottom of what’s known as the Upper Susquehanna Lake Chain. Our friend and retired geology professor, Dr. Jay Fleisher, did most of the early mapping of these lakes. His work has long transported the two of us into the Ice Age past.
You can do a little time travel, too. From now on, whenever you are out driving in our region, we would like you to be aware of what you have learned in this article. We want you to always be seeing the glacial lake bottoms that are so common, transforming your upstate vision. +
Contact the authors at
Catskill Geologist”
Facebook. Also, visit thecatskillgeologist.com.
The Daily Star’s premier glossy publication, is in need of creative, energetic freelance writers to cover lifestyle stories of interest in our four-county coverage area. If interested, contact Allison Collins, editor, at alliedcollins@frontier.com
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