Greetings, everyone! Our summer is flying by here at Pathfinder
Village, and we invite all our friends and neighbors to come down to Pathfinder
Produce this week to get the best flavors of the season. We're open on Thursday
at the Village Commons, from 1 to 5 p.m. Our friendly and courteous staff is
looking forward to helping you with your fresh produce needs.
We want to say hello to our current week of Camp Pathfinder
campers … this is a great program that has been happening for seven years here
at the Village, and through it we meet some wonderful young adults from
throughout the country. This is our third week of one-week camp, and we're
having a great time welcoming back some of our veteran participants, as well as
some new friends.
Also, our 20th annual Summer Concert Series is going
strong! We invite everyone to come to the Pavilion this coming Saturday night
as Pathfinder welcomes a new group, Crow Ridge, this year. The four-member band
specializes in a unique repertoire of modern country, alternative country and
Americana, and provides high-energy, danceable cover songs. You can bring your lawn chair, kick back and
enjoy the music!
The Summer Concert Series is made possible with public funds from the
Chenango Arts Council’s Decentralization Grants Program, a re-grant program of
the NYS Council on the Arts, with support from Governor Cuomo and the NYS
Legislature. The Series is also made possible with funds from private
donors, Stewart’s Shops Holiday Match Program and WGY’s Christmas Wish.
***
This weekend our family took
advantage of the dryer weather to catch up on the mowing and trimming. As we
were whacking weeds, I noticed we have some wild grapes growing through the
hedgerows, and that the raspberries and black raspberries are nearly ready to
pick. We don't have enough to collect, so we generally just grab a few here and
there as tantalizing samples.
The black raspberry or black cap,
aka rubus
occidentalis, is different from the blackberry, also of the rubus
genus, in several key ways. First, it is generally smaller, has some small
hairs, and when one picks the black raspberry, the berry is hollow. The black
raspberry is also not as tart as the blackberry.
Black raspberries are similar too
to red raspberries, but their stems tend to have more barbs. Black raspberries'
taste is different from the red ones … here are some thoughts on black
raspberries and some recipes from simple good and tasty.
According to another website, the
black raspberry buzz, black caps
offer a lot of health benefits: “Black raspberries are one of the healthiest
berries on the planet. They are lower in
sugar than most berries and also contain a lot of fiber (around 8 grams per
cup). They contain large amounts of anthocyanins, and around three times the
antioxidants found in blackberries. They are also one of the most
well-researched berries, especially in the area of cancer prevention.”
The World's Healthiest Foods website
says that wild raspberries’ origins are obscure, and they appear in different
forms on five continents. Humans began
cultivating raspberries in Europe at about the time of Christ. Today, cultivated raspberries rank third in popularity for berries, and Russia,
the U.S., Serbia, Poland, Chile and Mexico are among the top producers.
It’s funny how just picking a few
black caps can bring about lots of fun memories. When I was about ten, we would
go berry picking with my older cousins on their dairy farm in Columbus, near
the Chobani plant (which was then owned by Breakstone and started off as the Phenix Cheese Company
plant). We'd never end up with tons of
black caps, but our moms would have enough for a pie or two, and we’d just eat
them by the handfuls too. They were well worth the bug bites and scratches from
the brambles.
Another memory from those
summers’ past is of riding around on some ancient single speed, coaster-braked,
balloon-tired bikes my cousins owned. They dated from the early ‘60s, were really
heavy, and could withstand the bumps of country roads. We just always had to make sure the tires
were full of air, which of course meant removing the black caps to the tire
stems and using my uncle’s handy compressor.
That smidgen of bike mechanics set me on the path to later attempt
more-involved repairs through the years, including a couple of modest rebuilds.
Our knowledge of bike safety in
those days was nil – no bike helmets, and we
would do things that today would make me blanch if my kids did them – like
riding down really steep hills onto major roads. But ever since those days, I’ve loved casual bike riding for exercise and will be
taking a few “upcycled beach cruisers” I’ve
cobbled together on our summer vacation.
Thanks to my analytically minded son, we’ve finally figured out what was
wrong with a “forever flat front tire” … a small
staple, which you couldn’t see on the outside, had penetrated the tread and
kept puncturing pin-holes into the tubes as they were pressurized.
Until next time, enjoy some
berries, and keep cruisin’!
Lori
