The skies have cleared here in the Finger Lakes and the work of preparing the fields for planting corn has just gotten underway. Back in the fifties when I was growing up, corn was used mainly as an animal feed for the hogs and the dairy cows that we raised. But today, corn goes into a variety of our foodstuffs as well as a feedstock to make ethanol alcohol which is added to the gasoline that we burn in our cars, light trucks, and other small engines. I like to watch the big tractors as they pull the chisel plows…read more

Considering that the little village of Skaneateles, NY is located in the middle of nowhere in Upstate, NY one has to ask the question, “what is so special about Skaneateles? Is it the size of the village (population 2,450 in 2010) which was incorporated way back in 1833? Or is it the Sherwood Inn which had its beginnings in 1807 or the restaurants and the shops that are located along Genesee Street? Probably all of the above as the little Upstate NY village was humming with visitors for Mother’s Day. Perhaps it’s the crystal clear waters of Skaneateles Lake which…read more

Sunday is Mother’s Day. It’s a day when all of the restaurants will be packed with families celebrating Mother’s Day. And of course, the greenhouses will be extra busy this weekend selling all kind of flowers and plants as gifts for Mother’s Day. My mother is gone now but that doesn’t prevent me from thinking about her and perhaps planting some geraniums for her to see this weekend. You see, geraniums were her favorite flower along with gladiolus. Perhaps it was because geraniums are fairly hardy and once you get them going, they can pretty well take care of themselves.…read more

It was rather cool spring day when I visited Seneca Falls and the sky was mostly overcast. But, this kind of day offered me the opportunity to take some spectacular water reflections along the Seneca-Cayuga Canal waterway and to think about the upcoming boating activity which occurs along the canal. The people who live along the waterway have already brought out their lawn chairs in preparation for warmer weather and a “canal side seat” to all of the boating activity along the canal. Susan, Jeanette’s daughter, wants to learn about how the locks work and so when she brings the…read more

Spring is now flirting with us as she changes back and forth from her winter garb into her finest spring colored outfits. And when she decides to put on her brightest face, who are we to let a day go by without taking advantage of the show? I can remember when the tasting room at the Keuka Spring Vineyards winery used to be in the old white barn just a few hundred feet from the present entrance (click here). But now the winery is up on the side of the hill and although I am partial to old barns, the…read more

A good friend of mine Mike Lada who lives in Canandaigua remarked that our recent snow last Monday killed about half of his tender plants which he had just bought. I told him to go by his lilacs as they are fairly accurate predictors of when you can safely plant tender plants. It was something that I read in the Old Farmer’s Almanac (click here) a long time ago. The article said to wait till the flowers on the lilac bush are half out before attempting to plant any tender plants. But Mike said that his lilacs were already out…read more