Hello and welcome to the first issue of Locally Sourced!

I'm so happy you're here.

I want to start by letting you know what you’re in for in this issue.

👋 🤝 How do you do and shake hands

🍓 Strawberries and other festivals

🍺 Beers on the roof

☕ Coffee on the streets

First off, I’m Bob, I’m the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement here at the station, and now I am the lead Wrangler of Cats for Locally Sourced. I live in Ithaca and work in our studios near Binghamton, but I will try to spread the love and attention across the region when it comes to choosing what we cover here. That said, I am always open to learning about new stuff going on in the region, and generally up for hopping in the car to check new things out.

If you have suggestions about upcoming happenings, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

Also a quick word on what Locally Sourced is and isn’t, and it’s actually the latter I want to clarify. We are not a comprehensive list of every event going on across the region. I wish that we could be, I wish that such a thing existed, and I can say we’re working on something that will have a little more of that function. More on that at a later date.

For now, let’s talk fests. Because fest season is surely upon us here in the…Southern T—I mean the Finger La—here in Central...

Okay, actually, we’ve hit our first snag. What do you call this place we live? Is it Central New York? The Southern Tier? The Finger Lakes? Upstate?

(I’m kidding; if you answered upstate, we are quite possibly destined to be enemies.)

Anyway. Back to the thing. It is surely festival season. I’ve already marched in one festival parade with my kiddo dressed as a 20-sided D&D die and bought tickets for the New York State Faerie Festival, which is in an odd little hollow that it turns out is not far from the WSKG studios. There will be classy music festivals and hippie music festivals. Binghamton will celebrate garlic and spiedies, both of which I fully support. Ithaca briefly tried a Banana Festival, for reasons which remain unclear to me. And if you’re willing to clock a little extra mileage in September, Naples has a Grape Festival where you can get concord grape pie.

Yes, I know it sounds strange, but please trust me: you need a concord grape pie in your life.

This weekend, you’ve got the Polish Festival up in Syracuse, which, having grown up in a very Polish part of Buffalo, is a little slice of home for me. By slice I mean sausage. There’s a Fermentation Festival here in Ithaca, because of course there is. There's the Ithaca Reggae Festival, and the Chittenango Bacon & Bourbon Festival (yes I double-checked the order and bacon comes first). And that is just this weekend.

And there’s the Strawberry Festival in Owego!

You may have mixed feelings about garlic, or fermented foods, or hippie music, but strawbs we can all get behind. The celebration in Owego kicks off Friday and runs through Saturday, with three stages full of music running pretty much non-stop. There are vendors selling shortcakes and smoothies, and of course local farmers who are happy to sell you a pint or a quart or, I don’t know, a bushel, maybe? A bushel seems like a lot, but I’m not here to police your strawberry consumption.

I can tell you where you’re most likely to find me among Saturday’s festing: wandering the stacks at Riverow Bookshop. I’m honestly angry with myself for not having explore this spot before yesterday, when I poked my head in just long enough to realize I should not step in unless I had hours to explore. It’s the kind of cavernous meander of a bookstore you can only find in the oddest of places, and might never find a second time. 

I can neither confirm or deny that there is a cat among the stacks at Riverow. But this building does, as labeled, contain books.

If the Strawberry Festival feels overwhelming, come over to Front Street and find me browsing.

Before I hand things off, I want to throw out a couple questions, because I do want Locally Sourced to be a way for us at WSKG to connect with our communities. So tell me your favorite summer festival. Or where you’ve found a bookstore that feels like the setting for the beginning of a fantasy novel.

Or what you call this place you call home.

More to come.

Bob Proehl

Locally Sourced editor

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Christine: I'm Christine Dempsey. 

Pete: I'm Peter Zayac 

Christine: And this is Hops Along, where Pete and I try out craft brews from the Southern Tier. 

Pete: We've got some places we like to visit on a regular basis that are close to our homes, but we're open to your suggestions. 

Christine: Recently, we visited the Owego Brewing Company in downtown Owego. This is a fairly new nano brewery. 

Pete: A nano brewery is one that produces less than 15,000 barrels a year, so it's still a lot of beer. We went and checked out their rooftop deck. It's partially covered, which is good, because it started raining when we got there, so it was really nice. 

Christine: One of the things I really liked about the selection that Owego Brewing Company has is that they all had a low ABV percentage. 

Pete: Everything was under 6%

Christine: Lately, I've been leaning towards Wheat Ale, as the weather gets warmer. The first thing on the menu was a Raspberry Wheat, so I had to try that one. First of all, on the nose, you get those raspberries right away. I shoved my glass in front of Pete's nose, like “You’ve got to smell this.” When I poured the beer, I thought there would be a red highlight to it, but there wasn't. It was a darker straw color, and it was unfiltered. There was not an overabundance of sweetness, but you definitely got the raspberry flavor in that. And it came in at 5.2%

Pete: That was one of the great things with everything being low ABV. I started with the Misty Morning IPA and it came in at 4.8%, which, for an IPA, was great. It was light and refreshing, but still had that hazy look and the punch of hops that you really expect from an IPA. It made me think about days out at the lake, you know, nice warm sun. That's a beer that I would just love to enjoy out on the boat, kind of things on a really good summer day. I really enjoyed that they had a wide range of styles too. 

Christine: Owego Brewing Company is located at 187 Main Street in Downtown Owego. They host an Open Air Jam night on the rooftop on Wednesdays, a game night on Thursdays (Pete and I were there on a Thursday, but we did not play). And also a Five Flight night on Fridays, their flights are usually four beers. You can get five on a Friday night, and they are also open on weekends. 

Pete: Next time we go, I'm taking you up on Jenga. And don't forget to walk up on the rooftop, even if it's raining. It was a great spot. 

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Hi! I’m Marley Vavra, WSKG’s Early Learning Coordinator. I’m always on the move, connecting with educators, families, and communities across our region. Along the way, I stop into local coffee shops to refuel and soak up the cozy, creative energy these spaces offer.

Recently, I stopped at Roasted Coffeebar in downtown Owego. This place is “cozy meets cool in all the best ways”. It’s the kind of spot where you could settle in with a book, meet up with a friend, or grab a drink on the go.

I’m firmly on Team Iced — even in the fall, and even if I have to wear gloves to hold my cup. So naturally, when I saw their Blueberry Crumble Macchiato on the seasonal menu, I had to order it iced.

This drink was everything I hoped it would be — sweet but not too sweet, with just the right pop of blueberry and a hint of warm, crumbly dessert vibes. It tasted like summer and fall had a baby. The espresso was smooth and well-balanced, and honestly, I could’ve happily had a second one.

But what really stood out was the staff. Every time I visit Roasted Coffeebar, the team is smiling, kind, and genuinely helpful. They’re quick to offer suggestions if you’re stuck deciding, and their positivity is contagious. Whether you're a regular or just passing through, they know how to make your day a little brighter.

Coffee shops like Roasted Coffeebar aren’t just about caffeine — they’re about community. Whether you’re a parent with a stroller, a student catching up on homework, or an educator like me planning your next event, it’s nice to have a place where the vibe is just as good as the coffee.

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