Tag Archives: shiitakes

Little Falls Cheese Festival, Saturday July 14, 2018

Learning Adventures,

This was our first attendance at this event and we were part of the new Makers on West Main grouping. It was created to “celebrate the importance of small makers of exceptional products in New York State”. This is a direct quote from the their brochure. We were happy to attend as we are all about buying from local businesses. Even more so now that we are one of those businesses.    And I am always fascinated by the talent and skill that these people have and show us with the products they sell.

Little Falls, NY is just over an hour from Sherrill so we were heading out early for our 7 am arrival time.  We had loaded the trailer Friday night and the last minute things were stuffed into the car and Transit and we were on the road, on schedule at 6 am.  Of course,  I did have to run back in at last minute for my tea.  As I spent years driving to and from Herkimer, this was a familiar drive for me.  Our arrival was little disorganized as we had to temporarily park on the street, unload everything and then move our cars. Then it was a brisk walk back to our sites and time to get set up.  We paid for a double site as we have learned the hard way that more space always comes in handy.  After our last event, when Josi and I both got sun scorched, we decided that more shade was needed.

Being me, I wanted to obtain this by the most frugal of methods.  So buying an umbrella or awning for our tent was certainly out.  We did have a shade cloth that I bought last year to use when working in our field.  Another place where we deal with lots of sun and no shade.  We tossed the whole thing over our tent frame and started brain storming.  A bit of trial and error and we came up with plan.  Ron cut in it half and I sewed two large pockets, one on each end.  Turned out Ron is not that good at measuring and he had to send me back to the sewing machine to make one side shorter.  We had to keep the length just  under five feet for each side in order to stay within the  20 foot size limit.   A trip out to get PVC pipe and assorted pieces to hold them all together and we were set with two sides, safely shaded.  We were excited to try it out on the Cheese Festival.  Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

And it worked a treat.  One side for our logs and the other for me and my products.    As a bonus, the rust color goes well with dark green tent.   By the time Josi arrived to help again; God Bless, great friends, only the last minute things needed to be done.  You will be shocked to hear that we did not forget anything this time.  I even had a tube of sunscreen ready for use.  Josi brought some too.  We were not going to risk more sunburn this time. Oh, wait.  I did forget to bring fingernail clippers.  A pair of those need to be added to our business/emergency supply bin.  Ron broke two nails during set up and I had a hang nail that bugged me every space minute I had.  It is always the little things, isn’t it?

Just as Ron was getting the samples started we had a surprise visit from Ron’s friend, Shelly.  She has been involved with THF since the beginning and has attended numerous work sessions.  It was nice to see her again and made a happy start to the day.   And then the day took off.   Not only with the number of people, but the heat too.   We were set up on the actual road which reflected heat back up into the tent.  With Ron cooking on the stove, he was taking the brunt of it.   Every so often we got a slight breeze which was a welcome relief.  One of the vendors few tents down from us had brought their own fans and a generator.  Serious thoughts of swiping them had to be tamped down.

With Ron cooking the shiitakes, Jo assembling the samples and Josi offering them to potential customers, I was on the other side of our tent offering my own samples of lip balm, lotion bars and body cream.  This time I had a batch of soap that I added lavender to and I was offering my own version of stuffed mushrooms.

I used wool felt, some old buttons and milkweed fluff to make them.  They were a relaxing project that I worked on while watching TV or talking with Ron.  I  suggested them to people telling them they are cuter and will last longer than the shiitakes Ron was hawking, but they would not taste as good.   People thought they were cute, loved the idea of the milkweed fluff and I even managed to sell a few.

The festival ended at 5 pm and we were more than ready for it.  Hot, sticky, exhausted and hungry but pleased  with the day.  Now all we had to do was break down everything, load it all back into the cars, drive home, unload what we absolutely had to and collapse inside the house.  Though first, I again had to drag Ron away from the other vendors.  He was fully burned out, but he really wanted to spend more time talking with them.  Showers, food and alcoholic beverages for all.  Ron and I had Sunday off, but Jo had to work the early shift.

Sunday morning; this should have been a day of semi-relaxation. That is really a joke, of course as we not only had to finish unloading everything, but we also had to check out THF.  Friday evening we had seen that there was serious pinning on our logs and knew more mushrooms were coming.  No way we were going to pick any Saturday night, but Ron and I headed out there at 8 in the morning.  After we finished harvesting, drove home, cleaned and bagged them we had 24 one pound bags in the frig.

Timing really is everything, isn’t it?  Maybe I need to invent a time machine or a special status chamber for our shiitakes.  That way we can pick them when they are ready and still have them fresh when needed.  Hmmm.  Something to think about.

This was our fourth event as a vendor and we learn more and get better at it every time we do one.  But I really do not understand how anyone can do this over a weekend or three days.  It is simply exhausting.  I guess if you are selling only non perishable products it is a bit easier but still there is so much work involved.  And so much heart too, that you put into your products.  The real fun part is talking with other vendors, when you have a space second and talking with all the people who stop by your booth.  Sharing your knowledge and learning something from those you talk with, that makes the day so worth while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother Earth News Fair 2017

Learning Adventures,

Our trip this year started out with a 2 am wake up call Friday morning. By 3 am we were on the road with a 7 hour drive ahead of us. It was a familiar drive but it seems to get just a bit longer each year. Didn’t help that we hit serious fog a few hours in.

We dealt with this for hours.  It would clear for a few miles and then we would be back in it.  We were just over an hour away from our destination of Seven Springs, PA when it finally cleared for good.

We arrived early this year.  Which meant we got to park in the lower lot and avoid the long hoof up the hill to the secondary lots.  We parked and organized our lunch.  I forgot to bring plates for us to use.  It is always something.  You would think after going to so many of these events, there is nothing I would not remember.

They weren’t letting anyone in even to walk around until noon so we had an hour to kill.  But that was easy enough.  Ron found a way around the staff and we wandered around looking at the vendors doing finally prep. We headed back to the main entrance just before 9 am and watched the swarm of people come in.

Once the workshops started, the afternoon went fast. We split up, each heading to our own workshops. There will be a few that we both go to, but we learned long ago that it is better to go our separate ways. Not only do we get a break from each other, but we learn more that way.  Friday was a short day, from 12:30 to 6 pm. I went to workshops on salve making, fermenting and backyard foraging. And did some visiting at vendor booths. Ron and I met up after the last workshop and headed back to our hotel. Once again we were staying at the Comfort Inn in Somerset. This year I brought dinner with us. Chicken salad, watermelon, cucumber and beer.  Made it so much easier than trying to find a place to eat. Both of us were exhausted so we had an early night.

Next morning Ron realized he forgot to bring underwear.  Thank goodness for stores that are open 24 hours.  A quick trip and he was set for the rest of our trip.   We also picked up a few more snacks.   Saturday workshops started at 10 am. Still cannot understand why such a late start to the day. So many people who come to this type of events are early risers. Maybe they are trying to give us all a break?  We arrived early enough to once again get into the lower parking lot. This year they were trying something different. Hands on classes.  Things like butter churning, making a mead or sourdough starter, fermenting mustard and a  kombucha demo. They were hugely popular. But they really need to come up with a better plan.   In order to attend the class, you had to pick up a special ticket. This meant waiting in line for over an hour.  You can imagine how annoyed some people were.  I wanted to get into the lavender sea salt body scrub class and while I waited in line, I missed one of the workshops I had down on my list. That was disappointing.  But I had a good time talking with the people in line with me.  As I was first in line, I had no trouble getting the ticket I wanted.  Have to say the class was worth the wait too.  Hoping they will continue with hands on classes next year, but figure out a better way to run them.

Dinner on Saturday was at the Rey Azteca Mexican Restaurant.  We make sure we have at least one dinner there every trip.  They have great food and we usually run into at least one other couple who is also attending The Fair.

Sunday morning was a bit sad as it was the last day.   I had a bit of a scare when I hit the soap dish with my elbow and it fell down and shattered in the tub.  We cleared it up as best we could, stopped at front desk to tell them and headed out.  We had an early start as there was a mushroom identification session at 8 am.   Again we ended being able to park in the lower lot.  And even closer to the doors this time.  Getting to the fair site early enough really does pay off.

Tradd Cotter, the mycology expert who gave a couple of workshops, had also taken a group out at 7:30 am on Saturday and they collected all the mushrooms they could find.  Now he was going to tell them what they all were.   I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been at the number of people who showed up.  There are so many people interested in mushrooms these days.

The last workshop ended at 4:30 and we headed back to the hotel for one more night there.  There was no way we were going to start on a 7 hour drive home at that time of night.   We had a meatloaf dinner at a local diner and called it a night.   We packed up most of our stuff and settled in to watch the Ken Burns show on the Vietnam War.  I didn’t make it through the show and fell asleep pretty quickly.

No need to get up early on Monday but we were still up and about by 5 am.  We had a good breakfast, packed up the Transit and set off up the road.  Less than a hour into our trip and we hit fog again. Worse than the drive down.  Ron was disappointed that so many things were closed on Monday.  We couldn’t find a single place to stop.  He would have been happy with the largest ball of string or a house with 27 cats in it.

We got home about 4 pm and it was a welcome sight.  It had been a long weekend and we were both glad to be home.  Of course Ron insisted on the three of us making a trip out to THF.  He wanted to check on his shiitakes. It had been a full four days since he was out there last.  He was suffering from withdrawal.

I always enjoy going to the Mother Earth News Fair and come home with lots of enthusiasm for finally tackling all those projects I have brewing in the back of my mind.  Wonder how long it will last this time?