The Grand Island farmers' market

On Monday, August 29th, I went to visit the Grand Island farmers' market, located on the grounds of Tom Thompson's farm, 2487 Long Road. It is quite a delightful place to have a farmers' market. Every now and then, a chicken will walk up to you, ready to make a new friend. Tom's chickens are not shy. They seem to be fascinated by all of that human activity that occurs every Monday, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

The farmers' market has been in operation for only a few weeks but, already, it seems as if it is quite the Grand Island social event. People get together with friends. They buy fresh produce, eggs, honey, meat, and baked goods. Everything is produced in Grand Island. There is a truck with sausages and other foods for people who want a quick meal. You can buy corn that, just a few minutes earlier, was still out in the field. 

Mmmm, plump cherry tomatoes, ready to go into a salad!

There were also some handmade items that were sold at the market. In the basket are holders for those small purse-sized containers of tissues.

People could also buy baked goods and jams and jellies made in Grand Island.

Mmmm... apple sauce. 

Steve and Trish Birtz have a farm on Grand Island, where they grow all sorts of produce, including several varieties of garlic. Before the farmers' market started, they sold their produce at a roadside stand in front of their home. Now they have the opportunity to have more customers than just the people who happened to see the roadside stand as they drove by the farm. When they are not taking care of their garden, Steve and Trish also enjoy hunting for interesting gems and rocks. Above is a piece of pyrite that they brought for display.

Bryce and Robin Shipman also sold a variety of produce and honey, as well as some hand crafted items. Bryce is a wood worker who made this cabinet that serves as a nice way to display small jars of honey, as well as a few other items.

Here is a pretty collection of cherry tomatoes, which I purchased. It was too pretty to pass up. The tomatoes have also proven to be too tasty to pass up.

This was one of the more unusual offerings at the market. There were taste tests at this booth and at many of the others. I have to say that I had doubt about this particular item but it actually tasted pretty good. 

This is a staple of late August. Zucchini and yellow squashes of various sizes... some tiny and some resembling baseball bats.

Delicious raw honey, great with lemon for a cup of hot tea. Lately, however, it has been too warm for hot tea so I have been drinking sun tea. To make the sun tea, I fill a half gallon water container with water and then add four teabags. That steeps outside for a day or so. It then goes into the refrigerator. When I want to have a glass of sun tea, I put into the glass:

• the juice of 1/2 lemon
• a heaping teaspoon of brown sugar
• sun tea
• ice cubes

Ahhh, summertime in a glass!

Pickles!!!

You can get treats, too. Cookies, brownies, fudge... mmmmm.Next week, the hours will be adjusted, due to the holiday. Also in the works are plans for the market to be open one Saturday a month.

Where ever you are, head over to local farmers' market and enjoy some of that fresh, locally grown produce!

The Garage Sale Adventure

Writing about summertime in a blog would not be complete without a post about the garage sale. These outdoor sales, usually done on Fridays and Saturday, are ways for people to get rid of stuff that is still good but that they no longer need or want. It fits in well with the concept of "recycle, reuse, reduce, reinvent." I set out from the house on Saturday morning, carrying a purse, my camera, and a crocheted bag for potential goodies.

At the first house that I visited, the people were having a moving sale. They had sold the house and were getting ready to move away. They definitely were looking to "reduce" the amount of stuff that they had. They wanted as much stuff to go as possible.

One of the customers had something to sell to the folks running the garage sale: a house and about 50 acres of land in the area of Franklinville, New York. Franklinville is a village in Cattauragus County, with a population of 1,740, as of the 2010 census. It is a scenic village near Olean in the southern tier of New York State. Its central core is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's located in the foothills of the Allegany Mountains and is close to a variety of ski resorts. In the winter, there is plenty of snow, making it an ideal location for skiiers.

The folks running the garage sale had already purchased a house and were not interested in buying a second one.

I visited another garage sale on the same street as the first one. Becky, who was running this garage sale, said that she was selling stuff that she didn't sell at her first garage sale, held earlier this summer. She told me about Mary Dunbar-Daluisio, the former co-chair of Relay for Life. I've interviewed Mary a few times for articles that were published in the Island Dispatch. In 2005, Mary was diagnosed with carcinoid tumors. It is a cancer that never goes away and people who have it never go into remission. Right now, Mary's condition is stable but she has suffered complications that have left her unable to work.

Because Mary, who was co-chair of Relay for Life for ten years, cannot work, a fundraiser is being held to show her love and support. It will be held on September 17th. For more information, check out the Isle de Grande website. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Becky, who also serves as a co-chair of Relay for Life, enjoys the garage sale.

The third garage sale that I visited featured a wide variety of shoes. 

Also dance costumes. The lady running the garage sale said that her daughter, now 18, took a wide variety of dance classes, including ballet, modern, hip hop, jazz, and Irish step dancing. Apparently, she enjoyed all dance forms. She has, however, decided to stick with just one dance form: Irish step dancing. She loves to do Irish step dancing. On Grand Island, there is a school that specializes in Irish dance called the McCarthy School of Irish Dance. Students perform at various events in the community, such as Relay for Life, and they dance at competitions, called "Feiseanna."

At this garage sale, there were beads, button, sewing patterns, lace, quilting books, and other stuff that came from a recently closed craft supply store in Belfast, N.Y. The lady running the garage sale was selling the merchandise on behalf of the owner of the store.

I bought beads and buttons in a variety of colors to decorate a pair of tennis shoes and a white hat. I plan on drawing a matching pattern on the hat and the shoes and then decorating them with embroidery, fabric paint, beads, and button. When I do this project, I will share a step-by-step guide in my art blog.

There were some other things at this garage sale, too.

The last garage sale that I visited was run by a kid who was selling a collection of toys of all varieties.

It was a fun day to visit the community and to explore the wonderful world of garage sales.

Have you ever run a garage sale?
Do you enjoy going to garage sales? 

River world exploration: visiting the cemetery

Saturday was a warm and sunny day. I decided to walk to the cemetery, where my dad has been buried. It has been almost four years since he passed away. Sometimes, it seems like yesterday and, sometimes, it seems as if he had been gone for years and years. I chose to take the "scenic route," along the river so that I could see life and joy out on the water.

I left the house and headed toward the river. The flowers were still blooming, despite the drought. A mile later, and I was at the river. The water looked very placid, reflecting the radiant blueness of the sky.

Saturday morning on the Niagara River.

Toy parking area.

Sunflowers growing along the side of the road.

attracting bees.

Relaxation spot for families of ducks.

There are many docks along the river. I once had a gardening customer who lived in a house across the street from the river. She had a boathouse and a dock on the other side of the street. She was not in the best of health so she had a home health aide who helped out around the house and monitored the lady's medication. She took a large number of prescriptions. Anyway, as turned out, despite having lived near the river for many years, my customer never learned how to swim. One day, the home health aide told me that there was a tipped over flower pot at the end of the dock. She said, "Do you know how to swim?" "Yes," I said. She asked me to take care of the flower pot because, like her patient, the home health aide also had never learned how to swim. Both of them were afraid that they would fall in the water. It was a hot day. I was hoping to fall in the water, but it didn't happen.

Unfortunately, the home health aide had to retire because she was in poor health. My customer had a terrible fall three years ago and passed away. She was described as a "great character." She was born in the same year as Queen Elizabeth II, but "my hats aren't as good," she told me. She was buried in the same cemetery as my dad.

See that smokestack in the water? That is all you can see of a ship called the Corona. The ship burned at the pier at Edgewater on November 18, 1898. The smokestack still juts out of the water. The pier, however, is mostly gone. There are a few pieces left in the water.

The ship was a "sidewheeler." It transported people from the mainland to a hotel, called the Edgewater Park Hotel. There was also a park there, sort of like an amusement park. It had a bowling alley. Activities at the park including something called a "razzle dazzle," a carousel, a ferris wheel, and more. People came with large groups, such as church and civic groups, and held picnics and parties at Edgewater. The amusement park was closed in the 1940s, and the hotel was closed to overnight guests. It continued to operate as a restaurant until 1974, when the building collapsed. For more detail about the Edgewater Park Hotel and the amusement part, take a look at the page that's marked below as "Edgewater."
"Edgewater"

Gun Creek, near the Niagara River. Gun Creek is one of several tributaries of the Niagara River located in Grand Island.

On my way to the cemetery, I stopped at the home of Jim and Trudy, who gave me a glass of water and showed me some of the plants in their back yard. 

Closeup of the flower.

I've arrived at the cemetery. This is the Whitehaven Cemetery, and it dates back to 1865. This is one of two planters that are part of my dad's gravesite.

Some of the people buried at the cemetery never had much of a chance to experience life.

John Nice was Grand Island's first town supervisor. He was originally from Bavaria. Grand Island had previously been considered a part of other towns. In 1822, Grand Island was part of the Town of Buffalo. By 1836, Grand Island was considered to be part of the Town of Tonawanda. Before Grand Island was incorporated as a town, it was known as a collection of separate towns, including Grand Island, Whitehaven, Buckhorn, and Beaver Island. The cemetery is one of the last reminders of the town of Whitehaven. 

One of the key features of Whitehaven was a sawmill. The sawmill processed white oak that were to be made into masts for ships. The company that owned this sawmill, which included a saw described as the largest steam-powered saw of its time, was the East Boston Company. It purchased 16,000 aces for five dollars per acre, and then it engaged in clear cutting the slow growing white oak trees. The removal of these trees was a tragic loss for Grand Island. In recent years, white oak have been planted in various town parks and along right of ways. It will be a number of years before these trees are big enough to provide shade.

Spicer Creek is another one of Grand Island's tributaries. Here is a bird sitting on a log in the water. I'm thinking that this bird might be some sort of heron?

Sunflowers along East River Road.

It was a lovely summer day. The water was full of boats of all varieties. People were outside working in their gardens. As I was walking, I saw Daryl, who was trying to dig up some crabgrass that had taken over a good chunk of his lawn. The grass had become brown, due to long-lasting drought, and the opportunistic crab grass took over. I saw other people, getting ready for barbecues and parties. Everyone looked happy.

It was a good day to walk to the cemetery. It was good to see so much life on the route. It was a good adventure.

How do you go about remembering a loved one who has passed away?