wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

Baltimore Woods Nature Center and The Iron Fork Competition!

Last Sunday one of our local nature centers, Baltimore Woods in Marcellus, New York put on their third annual Harvest Dinner.  Food grown and produced in Central New York were available and Gary and I could not pass up an opportunity to taste the local flavor.  We savored every bite grazing from station to station that was presented by the hard working folks who provided the bounty.  This is a great occasion to get familiar with local food producers and farmers .  Gary and I often talked about holding a locally grown dinner at our own farm.  Theirs another one for the bucket list.

 Participating farms were: 

Drover Hill Farms, Earlville; Early Morning Farm, Genoa; Elderberry Pond, Sennett; Flour City Pasta , Fairport; Forty Weight Coffee Roasters, Freeville; Horsford Farms, Weedsport; Meadowood Farms, Cazenovia; Mu Mu Muesli, Sharon Springs; Owens Orchard, Weedsport; Shotwell Brook Farm, Skaneateles; Stone's Throw Farm, Nedrow; Wake Robin, Jordan; WW Texas Longhorn Ranch, Bernhards Bay; Yummy Tummy Sweets, DeWitt.

Meadowood Farms, Cazenovia

 It was great to see so many people come out to support local farms.

 The pasta dish from Flour City Pasta and the Turkey and Chicken dishes from Shotwell Brook Farm were so tasty.

 I rounded off my meal with Apple Crisp from Owen Orchard Farm.

What a great place to be on a chilly night.  It warmed our hearts.

This weekend we ventured to the Iron Fork Competition in Syracuse, NY.  Local chefs and their team from 12 different restaurants and food providers competed.  This Food Network type of cooking competition benefited the Rescue Mission. Locally grown (Cazenovia) Rock Star Chef, Author and Television personality, Ann Burrell and local  WIXT-TV news archor, Carrie Lazarus and Post-Standard food writer, Don Cazentre rounded out  the judging team.  

Each team had 50 minutes to create an appetizer, a main course and a dessert using the secret ingredient, fennel.  

Competitors:

Camillus Country Club, Century Club of Syracuse, Free Range Catering, Brewster Inn, Papa Gallo, Sysco Syracuse, Turning Stone Casio Team #1 and Team #2, Francesca's Cucina, Daniella's Steak House, Basil Leaf Ristorante, Wise Guys Bistro

Team member from Century Club of Syracuse were ready to plate their appetizer.

After sampling 13 different meals I'm sure the judges could not take another bite.

Our dear friend and cooking instructor at Syracuse University, Nancy Rissler introduced us to some talented chefs and food providers from the area.  We sampled food and wine from all the participating vendors.  Yummo!

Nancy recently retired from S.U. and is exploring new ways to fulfill her life.  We do not know what we would do without her help during the Lavender Festival.

And the winners are:

The Brewster Inn came in first

SYSCO - second

Century Club of Syracuse - third

We can't wait to see what the future holds for the next competition.

Could we have Iron Chef's in the making?

wordless wednesday

It's a Girl!

Another black lamb was born yesterday and I had the opportunity to video a little mother and daughter communication. You can hear them baa to each other.

Sheep use smell in a number of ways. One way that is often observed is when smell is
used to identify other sheep, particularly when a ewe uses smell to pick out her lamb.

Ewes will stand during or shortly after the birth of their lamb and begin to nuzzle and lick.  This period, referred to as the "critical period" it is an important time for them to establish the maternal/offspring bond.  The licking/cleaning behavior, serves to stimulate the lamb while also drying it.  The cleaning is probably also part of the initial bonding process and is typically accompanied by low-pitched, gurgling vocalizations.  Lambs learn to recognize the characteristic voice of their Moms.