Hi and welcome to Locally Sourced! I hope this newsletter finds you in a cool place. I have the AC cranked while I’m writing this, but I know that this weekend I’ll be out in the thick of it.

Before I start, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to last week’s newsletter. Folks shared their favorite local bookstores and summer festivals, and I confirmed what I already suspected: there is no consensus about what we call this region of ours.

In this issue, we’re bringing you:

🎸 Local music with our chief engineer Mike Micha

🥐 Brunch recs from our CEO and President Natasha Thompson

🧚 ⚾ Whimsy in various forms

Here in Ithaca, summer means, among other things, trips to the Farmers Market, which was just named best farmers market in America by the American Federation of Farmers Markets (just kidding, it was Newsweek). I would regale you with food recommendations from the market, but I am a Solaz breakfast burrito loyalist, so I leave the food recs to the boss (see below).

For me and my kiddo, end of June means the New York State Faerie Festival in Harpursville. I am not exaggerating when I say she has been looking forward to this for an entire year. When I was talking fests last week, it was mostly street festivals and food festivals, but Faerie Fest happens in what I would describe as a hollow (abandon cell reception all ye who enter).

Think of it as Renaissance Faire Lite. It’s certainly smaller-scale than the Sterling Ren Faire, with the whimsy levels set to high. It’s also a little less spendy than the Ren Faire; once you make it through the initial gauntlet of food and craft vendors, it becomes a barter economy of tiny tokens and trinkets. 

I do hear (from Locally Sourced’s theatre reporter, Amelia Pena) that the mermaids may be on strike this year due to working conditions. In this house, we respect unionized mermaid labor.

If the Faerie Festival doesn’t suit your whimsy needs, perhaps whimsical baseball?

Correction: base ball.

You could certainly argue that the Binghamton Rumble Ponies are already whimsical enough (Fairytale Day with the Rumble Ponies isn’t til August), but I’m talking about Delaware County’s vintage base ball team, the Bovina Dairymen. 

I’ve only just become aware of these guys today (thank you to our Managing News Editor, Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo), and from the photos, I half expect them to help me raise a barn, or possibly fix me a bespoke cocktail in a Brooklyn bar in the early aughts. 

In fact, they play base ball (yep, two words) according to the original rules from the 1800s, which means, among other things, no gloves. My hand stings just thinking about it. They’re playing a free game this Sunday at the Mountain Athletic Club in Fleischmanns, and if you want to make a day of it, there are rides available on the vintage Delaware & Ulster rail line nearby, and a fireman’s barbeque at the game (which takes me back to the 1980s, rather than the 1880s, but still). 

That’s what I’ve got this week, Sourcers (is that a thing? I’m trying it out). Drop me a line and let me know what’s your summer sport of choice? Neighborhood basketball league? Competitive lawnchair occupation? A tournament of local ice cream samples?

More to come.

Bob

Locally Sourced Editor

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Between 2015 and 2020, people who frequently booked local shows with original music in Broome County coordinated with each other so they wouldn’t book shows on the same night. The worry was that one show would take away from the crowd at another show. The local music scene was coming out of a lull where there was only enough audience to fill one show at a time, or two shows at smaller venues. Around 2018 and 2019 a younger group of people started going to shows and forming new original bands. In the same night you could catch bands like Stay Off the Fence, Bunk, or Rude World at The Bank or The Bundy. Or you could go see Tom Jolu, Yard Party or Shout At the Robots at The Grassroots Cafe, or Galaxy Brewing. Pretty quickly, there were a lot of shows with young people filling the rooms. Because more people were attending shows, the practice of coordinating show dates stopped. People had to make decisions about what shows to go to, because there were multiple shows happening on the same evening. 

Tom Jolu performing at Grass Roots Cafe. Photo credit @Karalxn

As a lover of music, especially local original music, it was exciting but also difficult to choose one band over another. Once the Covid lockdown hit, several bands split up because of a lack of shows and local support for original music. 

As Broome County came out of lockdown, in the summer of 2021, things picked up right where they left off. More shows were booked at multiple locations, with more original bands forming and audience numbers growing. 

Fast forward to April of this year. I went to see a show at Atomic Toms, knowing there was a show down the road at Cielos. The plan was to go back and forth between the  locations to see as many of the bands as possible. Once I was at Toms I realized there was a show across the street at the Crowbar. Three shows, on the same street, each showcasing multiple bands from multiple genres and they all had strong audience numbers. 

Something that once seemed to be a problem—having too many shows in one evening—is now a sign of strength in the Broome music scene.

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Out of My Way- sharing stories of food across the region that I would go out of my way for…and so should you!

The State Eatery on Route 13 in Newfield combines two of my favorite things- baked goods and BBQ- and unlike many other aspirational mashups, they do both amazingly well.

Their brunch offerings have something for everyone from breakfast sandwiches to waffles to yogurt parfaits. Where they differentiate themselves is in the quality of every ingredient that comprise each.

Take the breakfast sandwich options. The croissant egg & cheese sandwich is served on a house made croissant and comes standard with gruyere cheese and caramelized onions, but you can also add house made sausage or house smoked bacon.

At my recent visit, I went with the brisket biscuit because I love both brisket and biscuits and this sandwich did not disappoint! The biscuit was flakey and buttery without being too crumbly. It was stuffed with tender, house smoked brisket and topped with a perfectly cooked fried egg and a delightful red pepper aioli.

If you’re not into breakfast food, they have a wide assortment of BBQ meats (and beets!) available by the ½ pound for brunch. And if you like to sleep in on the weekend, they also recently received their liquor license and added dinner service on Friday and Saturday evenings.  

Of course, they have an impressive selection of baked goods that may be impossible to resist so why deprive yourself? My husband and I brought home an almond croissant and a cinnamon croissant which, not surprisingly, looked like a cross between a cinnamon bun and a croissant. It’s was divine and I regret not taking a photo of it before it was devoured but I guess you’ll just have to go there and see it for yourself.

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