Hello Sourcers!

Let’s see what we have for you this week.

🍏 Apples, briefly

🐦‍⬛ Birds on the move

🍽️ A dish to pass

First off, I would be derelict in my duty as an Ithacan if I failed to mention that this week is Apple Harvest Festival. And yes, it’s great, and yes, it’s the most highly attended of the downtown Ithaca fests, but it’s just so commercial now. It used to be about the apples, you know?

I’m kidding, obviously. You should go to the festival. But I did want to add that if you want apple cider donuts, your better bet is to hit up Littletree Orchards at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market and skip the lines.

And as far as apple picking, my favorite spot is the heirloom orchards at Indian Creek Farms. They have dozens of weird apple varieties for picking. The heirlooms tend to be a little later in the season, but they’re worth the wait. Try the winecrisps, they’ll change your life. Or at least the part of your life that involves apples.

A little farther north in Seneca Falls, the Saunders Finger Lakes Museum and the Eaton Birding Society are hosting a Birding for Beginners event at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday from 9am to 11am. The end of summer is a big moment for migration around here, and it’s a chance to see a wide variety of species, and get a few tips from the experts on species identification.

This is a ticketed event. And it’s BYOB (Bring Your Own Binoculars).

Finally, I heard about an event in Cooperstown that, honestly, even just the concept is cheering me up this week. Every year, Cooperstown shuts down an entire block of Main Street and sets up a 300 foot long table for their annual Community Harvest Potluck Supper. The 11th installment of this annual event is taking place on Sunday, September 28 from 4-7 p.m. Everyone brings a dish to pass (ideally with locally sourced ingredients, of course), there’s some music, and some games for kids on the library lawn. Generally, if I include something in Locally Sourced, the idea is to get Sourcers to hop in their cars and head out, but this one I’m including in the hopes it might inspire some copycats.

Big regional festivals with tons of music and vendors and fried dough are great, but I think we could all use more block parties in our lives this fall.

What are you doing to connect with your neighbors as the days get shorter, Sourcers?

Yours,

Bob Proehl

Locally Sourced editor

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