Category Archives: Endless Mountains

The Fish Whisperer

The Fish Whisperer

It all started the end of last summer, when I tasted smoked trout in Saltzburg, served with a horseradish sour cream and dill.

And remembered that they stock our lake in the Endless Mountains with trout every year.

I had a mission.

Getting a fishing license 

Easy-peasy.  Just go online, buy it and print it out.  Make sure you buy the extra trout permit as well.

Getting a fishing buddy

Not as easy as getting a licence. My husband? Not interested. Most of my friends? Thought I was nuts. After all, Russ and Daughters  is just a few stops away on the F train.

Except for Paula, the Eull Gibbons of New York City, who knows more about nature than anyone I’ve ever met.  Here she is on a bike ride we took on the Croton Aqueduct Trail a few years back,  explaining how to use black walnuts as dye.

Of course Paula thought catching trout was a great idea, and actually knew how to fish! Yes, it had been over 20 years since she’d last cast a line, but who’s counting?

What Book to Read

The Science of FishingIf there is an antique fair in town the weekend you decide to become a fisherman, you must buy this book. The Science of Fishing -The Most Practical Book On Fishing Ever Published by (are you ready?) Lake Brooks.

If there is no antique fair, you can download the free kindle edition.

Getting Bait and Supplies

Fortunately, the country store down the highway sells hooks, weights, floats, night crawlers and red trout worms. Meghan, the young girl behind the counter,  shows you how to pierce the worm onto the hook, wrap it round and pierce it again, a skill you master well.

NIght crawler on a hook

Your brother-in-law left his fishing pole behind last time he stayed at your place. You’ll need a second pole, which luckily, an antique store in town has for just $10. The owner graciously oils the works for you and gives you a weighted hook from the glass cabinet for free.

Learning to Cast

Practice in the street across from your house  (sans hook, of course…) Your neighbors will have all kinds of advice, and everyone has a fishing story, so it’s a great way to pick the collective community brain on technique and timing.

When to fish

If you are Paula, who gets up at 5 am every day, or Peggy, who wants to be able to have enough time to smoke the trout for dinner that night, the answer is obvious – in the morning.

Everyone else will be asleep, so be sure to leave a note.

gone fishing

And mornings on the lake?

Eagles Mere Lake 1

The best.

Eagles Mere Lake 2

How to Fish

I had visions of me laying by a fishing pole propped up against the dock, hat turned down over my eyes Huck Finn-style, waiting for the big tug on the pole, at which point I would jump up and reel in a massive trout.

Turns out this is not actually how one fishes.

The Fish Whisperer Casts

You need to be constantly casting, reeling, tugging and tweaking the line. A few minutes in one spot, then reel in and try another. Watch the still waters for little ripples that indicate a swimmer, then cast in that direction, intermittently twitching the line and hook as you gently reel it in. Watch for the float to bob and drop, indicating that something is grabbing at the hook, then pull back sharply to snag the fish and then reel it in.

What we caught

Me? Not a damned thing in two consecutive mornings.  Seriously. Nada. Every worm, eaten off the hook.  Not counting the one still hanging from the tree near the dock. And the ones caught under a rock or tangled in the grass in the water.

But Paula, the fish whisperer?

Two sunnies

Pumpkin Seed Sunny

and two little perch.

Paula's perch

We tossed the sunnies and kept one of the perch.

How to Clean and Cook Your Fish

We followed the technique in this video entitled “How to clean a perch in 10 seconds!”  (The best part is the guy with the Minnesota accent saying “Gaw! No way!)

Our perch was way too small for smoking all by its’ lonesome, so we coated it with a teeny bit of mayo, tossed it in flour seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper and pan-fried it in butter and oil.

Pan fried floured perch

Little bites of heaven.

Pan Fried Perch with lemon

PERCH ON A CRACKER

But not trout.

There’s Always a Catch…

In this case, it turns out that the best place to snag a trout is not in a lake using a worm, but  in a cold running brook using a fly.

Which, I expect,  is why they stock our lake each year. Except that they didn’t stock the lake this year, given the recent sunfish die off  – caused by stress around the time the lake turned,  but by the time they figured that out, it was too late to stock. (The water, thankfully, is as pristine as ever.)

But as it turns out, even if they had stocked trout, warm summer mornings are not the time to catch them.

Better in the fall and in the evening. And in a boat out on the lake.

So no trout.

For now.  But I’ll be back.

Hopefully the fish whisperer will be there too.

WHen the catch is done

Hiking Ricketts Glen

One of the most beautiful spots in America is in Red Rock, Pennsylvania – the middle of nowhere, really and about  two and a half hours equidistant from New York City, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. It’s called Rickett’s Glen State Park, and it’s home to one of the most fabulous hikes I’ve ever taken, the Falls Trail.

This 7.2 mile hike through old timber forest ,

takes you alongside Kitchen Creek

as it splits and makes its 1,000 foot descent down the Allegheney Front.

Along the way, you’ll cross over wooden footbridges,

and climb and descend rock steps

that take you alongside over 20 waterfalls,

the highest of which, Ganoga Falls, is 94 feet tall.

Wear sturdy shoes and a carry a good walking stick, pack a lunch and, if it’s warm and you are brave enough to confront the chilly waters, wear a bathing suit under your hiking shorts.

Take your time – this is too pretty a hike to rush (We took about 4 and a half hours, including stops for lunch and two swims) . Please be careful, especially when walking downhill.  But don’t let the climbing dissuade you – the first, last and mid-portions are flat

and there are plenty of places to rest.

If you’re in halfway decent shape you’ll be fine, if not a bit sore the day afterwards. Well worth it, I say. We’ll be back again when the leaves change. I can’t wait to see this place in the fall.

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More on Ricketts Glen from around the web

Into the Woods

Into the woods without delay,
But careful not to lose the way.
Into the woods, who knows what may
Be lurking on the journey?
Into the woods to get the thing
That makes it worth the journeying.
Into the woods!
Then out of the woods,
And home before dark!

At the end of our street in the Endless Mountains is access to a forest trail system that leads into World’s End State Park, where it joins up with the 59 mile long Loyalsock Trail.

Although we’ve owned our cottage here for 4 years now, until this summer, I’d never ventured onto the trails that link with World’s End, because, well…I was afraid of getting lost in the woods.

I think it was leftover fear from the time when I was 8 years old and actually did get lost in the woods of a Philadelphia suburb for an hour or so one sunny summer afternoon. That adventure earned me the nickname “Crow Girl” in honor of the bird cries that my Uncle, who found me, claimed led him to me. (I hated that name, by the way…)

My Local Trails

But then a few weeks ago, a kind and wonderful neighbor offered to take us on a guided tour of our local trail system. With a knowledge of the woods gleaned from a generation of hiking and daily walks with her dog, she taught us how to read the trail markers (you read them as if they were laid down on the ground)

and pointed out natural landmarks, flora and fauna,

all the while regaling us with tales of the town. The fact that there were eight of us on that hike (plus two dogs) made the whole thing a real lark and I wasn’t afraid for a moment of getting lost.

This gave Mr TBTAM and I the courage to head out on our own a day later, retracing our previous hike’s steps before venturing just a tad farther along the Yellow Trail, barely skirting World’s End before turning back towards town along the bridle trail. Now we were pointing out the landmarks to one another – spots like Table Rock

Fat Man’s Squeeze

The Pine Woodlands (where you can take the blue trail shortcut)

and The Old Rail Bed.

Canyon Vista Trail

By the time Paula and Tony joined us the following weekend, we were ready to venture off the local trail system and into World’s End on the Canyon Vista Trail. Paula and Tony are veteran hikers, equipped with walking sticks and Paula’s great knowledge of the outdoors, so we felt bolstered by their presence. (Long time readers will remember Paul from our Aquaduct Trail Ride, where she lectured us on the secrets of the black walnut).

The Vista Trail is actually an easy hike, although we needed two separate trail maps to follow our route. From the end of our street, take the yellow access trail to the railroad bed, then take the Red Trail to the park road, turn left onto the road for a short distance till you see signs for Canyon Vista Trail /Loyalsock Trail,

which you follow to the vista.

While at the Vista, take a short hike farther up the hills to explore the Rock Garden –

but do be careful up there as the trails are unmarked.

Fortunately, all you need to do is head downhill and you’ll find yourself in the Vista parking lot. Earlier that morning, we had left a car there to save ourselves the hike back (We had other things to do that day, like roll grape leaves with Paula. I’ll show you that in another post…)

So them’s my woods, folks.

I still would love to get me a good GPS for the fun of it, and join in on the many hikes sponsored by the Eagles Mere Conservancy and the Alpine Club. I feel like a whole world has opened up to me now that I’ve taken the plunge into World’s End, and I hope to someday know these woods like the back of my hand and teach them to my grandchildren.

One Last Thing

Oh yeah – There’s one more thing I need to tell you about my woods…

There are bears.

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Into the Woods, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Brunch at Berry Fields Farm

If three times makes a family tradition, then this is now one of ours – brunch with Irene and Marvin at Berry Fields Farm over Columbus Day weekend. A meal out is just what we need, since we spent most of the previous day at the cottage cooking Mr TBTAM’s big birthday dinner.

I’ve blogged before about Berry Fields Farm – their annual Blueberry Arts Festival is one of our summer highlights in the Endless Mountains. But a meal there is even more special, because owners Barbara and Charles Gerlach serve and prepare it themselves from organic ingredients grown or raised right there on the farm. If you want to eat locally, this is about as close as you get – the dining room is just steps away from the garden, and you can watch the ducks, chickens and turkeys in the yard and listen to the barn animals up the hill while you eat.

And what a delicious meal! The butternut squash soup is smooth, thick and perfectly spiced and has a bit of bacon from the Tamworth hogs raised on the farm. Charles makes a perfect omelet, fresh bread and delicious scones. The sausage, also from the hogs, has blueberries in it, and is delicious. Only the coffee comes from afield.

Berry Fields Farm is also a great place for dinner, and for ice cream in the summer months. They’re open all year round, but you need to make a reservation so they can plan ahead for your meal. If you really want a taste of farm living, you can vacation at the farm, joining in the daily chores in the barn and the garden. In addition to the restaurant, it’s one of the ways Barbara and Charles are able to keep their farm viable.

Berry Fields Farms was named by the New York Times as one of the 44 places to go in 2009. I’d encourage you to add it to your list of places to see anytime. Tell Barbara and Charles we sent you.

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More photos from Berry Fields at Bottom of the Crisper

The Marcellus Shale – Your Shi Poo Pi!

Turns out that our summer house in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania is sitting on top of a large vein of Marcellus Shale, which in turn is housing one of the largest natural gas fields in the United States. No one cared about the Marcellus Formation until recently, when new drilling techniques first used in Texas were applied to the Marcellus and lo and behold, there was gas in them thar hills!

Most of the drilling in the Marcellus Formation will be horizontal and underground, with large quantities of water used to create fractures in the rock to release the gas. It’s a process that allows a single visible well to extract gas from a very large underground acreage, making the entire process financially feasible and quite profitable. The Marcellus could potentially yield enough natural gas to supply the entire country for 2 years, with an estimated market value of trillions of dollars.

The Gas Rush is On

Land lease negotiations with the locals in our area are in full swing as gas companies compete for rights to drill wells on their land. The first to sign contracts got fairly low rates, but land owners have since learned to negotiate in groups, and the lease price has gone up considerably in the past year. Land leases in our county are currently going for $2000 an acre, with 15% royalties.

Part of me is really happy for the locals living in the sparsely populated rural areas being targeted for drilling. These folks deserve a break. And, if they play their cards right, they will surely get one. Why, farmers formerly earning a sustenance living could become millionaires if their wells produce as expected!

The Environmental Questions

Of course, there are many concerns about the environmental impact of the drilling. Although the underground nature of the process means a relatively small visible footprint, the huge quantities of water that must be used could threaten local water supplies. The trucks needed to carry that water from areas outside the drill zone can create noise and pollution and damage roads. There are also concerns about quality of the water in the area, since most of us get out water from wells. The Gas Companies tell us that the wells are drilled well below the water supply and with casings to protect the aquifers. But who ever trusted an energy company with the environment?

Last night was one of the first meetings on the environmental impact of what will likely be decades of natural gas development in the area. Some good advice came from the meeting, the most important of which was to test your water both before and after drilling starts and not to allow drilling within 200 yards of the water source. Given that most of the drilling is underground, I don’t see how the latter can be reliably enforced.

The DEP is getting involved, and advises landowners to be proactive in monitoring drilling going on on or near their properties, and to report any potential violations to the DEP.

I wonder if any of the folks over at The Pump Handle can comment on the potential health impact of natural gas drilling…

More Information

  • Penn State Extension is doing a marvelous job of educating the public about the issues. Their Natural Gas Wiki has everything you need to know, from how the gas is mined to how to negotiate a land lease contract.
  • Geology.com is another great source of information on the Marcellus Formation mining.
  • Catskill Mountainkeeper does a nice job of summarizing the environmental issues.
  • OGAP, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, has a free downloadable 220 page booklet called Oil and Gas at Your Door, written specifically for landowners and others affected by oil and gas development.

Shi Poo Pi?

Of course, whenever I hear the name Marcellus, all I can think of is Marcellus Washburn, the Music Man’s lovable sidekick, played by the late Buddy Hackett. Hackett started his show biz career in the Catskills, another area on the Marcellus Slate Belt that is being targeted for natural gas mining. So I know that, were Hackett alive today, he’d be singing this song…

Shi-Poo-Pi!

Well, the well you dig on the very first try
Is usually a shy one
And the well you dig on the second time out
Is sure to be a dry one
But the well you drill on the third time around,
Slate on the top, gas in the ground!
That’s the well you’re glad you’ve found–that’s your
Shi-Poo-Pi!

Shi-Poo-Pi! Shi-Poo-Pi! Shi-Poo-Pi!
The gas that’s hard to get!

Shi-Poo-Pi!Shi-Poo-Pi!Shi-Poo-Pi
But you can mine her yet!

Country Fair, City Fair

Fall Festival
 Forksville, Pa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6th Avenue
New York, NY
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Endless Mountain Life: A Trip to Berry Fields Farm

The trip to Berry Fields Farm from our cottage in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania took about 45 minutes – a lovely ride through the pine forests of World’s End State Park, past the covered bridge at Forksville and the rapids and swimming holes of the Loyalsock River, along a winding mountain road lined with cornfields, scattered trailers and wooden farmhouses, and finally, up a dirt lane marked with a sign that read “No Winter Maintenance”.

It is the Annual Blueberry Festival which has brought us to Berry Fields Farm on this day. Held in the first weekend of August each year, the festival is a chance for visitors to sample blueberry laden pies, cakes and ice cream, hear a little bluegrass and of course, pick some blueberries. But before I tell you about all that, let me tell you about the farm…

Berry Fields Farm is a tough little scrapper of a farm perched atop Cahill mountain just west of New Albany, Pa. The land, originally purchased by its owner Charles Gerlach as a hunting retreat, is not what anyone would call ideal farm land. It is remote, hilly, and rocky. Yet over the years, Charles and his wife Barbara have turned this isolated little patch of hilltop heaven into a small but vibrant piece of a dream called “sustainable agriculture”.

“What’s that?”, you ask? Well, according to the National Sustainable Agricultue Information Service:

Sustainable agriculture produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. It is agriculture that follows the principles of nature to develop systems for raising crops and livestock that are, like nature, self-sustaining. Sustainable agriculture is also the agriculture of social values, one whose success is indistinguishable from vibrant rural communities, rich lives for families on the farms, and wholesome food for everyone.

By nature, sustainable agriculture is a local phenomenon. But, like Johnny Appleseed’s trees, small organic farms like Berry Fields are cropping up all over America, the family farm re-invented for a new generation.

The idea of sustainable agriculture is not quite a pipe dream, but it’s close. According to Barbara, this kind of farming makes little to no profit. This fact, more often than not, forces the young couples who start such farms to abandon them when it becomes clear that they cannot generate the income needed to raise a family.

Because the Gerlachs are retired and their children grown, the financial challenges for them are a bit less onerous than for younger families. Still, they work the land alone, with no help save their guests at their B&B, visitors from as far away as Japan who pay for the privilege of working an organic farm. This, along with the income from their little farm store and restaurant, allows Berry Fields’ owners to sustain their dream. They are building additional housing for the student interns they hope will join them next year, bringing yet another “added value” to the farm.

“Added value” – that’s the sustainable agriculture movement’s buzz-word for human labor. Human labor that can ransform a $1 pint of blueberries into a $10 blueberry pie, $2 bars of soap or a $5 jar of jelly. The difference between a failing farm and a sustainable family business.

Barbara and Charles do more than grow berries. They raise goats, chickens, pigs and cows, and they do so naturally. The cows are raised on pasture only, making their meat leaner and healthier. The eggs laid by their chickens are rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

Raising organic animals is no easy undertaking, and the Gerlachs have had to make some tough choices in the process. When their goats acquired a parasitic infection, they removed them from food-producing because the treatment involved chemical antibiotic use. Did I say that Barbara and Charles are committed?

But back to the Festival, which is the real reason we came this day…

About 15 cars lined the road, and although there were never more than 30 or so folks at the festival at any given time, Barbara was worried that her guests would be put off by the crowds. “Crowds?” proclaimed my fellow-New Yorker friend L. “Why, more people than this live on your floor!” Of course, she was right. It was really more like a little gathering than a festival. Yet somehow, this tiny event kept us occupied for a whole afternoon on this beautiful summer day.

We picked blueberries, or were they really huckleberries? They were certainly smaller than the hybrids I am used to eating, but fresh and packed with flavor. While we picked, the musicians who call themselves Oak and Ivy wandered among the berry bushes serenading us with bluegrass and folk songs.

There were clothespins hidden in the berry bushes, and when my younger daughter found one, she was rewarded with a candy bar made with blueberries and chocolate. We ran into our neighbors there among the bushes, and even got a little lost at one point in the blueberry maze.

And of course, there was the food. There were pies and cakes baked by the members of the Sullivan County Art League.

My friend L had chili topped with blueberries, which she pronounced delicious.

I myself headed to the booth run by a local goat farmer, and it was there that I found my own personal Nirvana – what else do you call a place where one can combine the words “organic goat cheese” and perogie” in one delicious mouthful?

What I like best about Berry Fields is that it is so real. This is no Martha Stewart farmette, and while its owners may speak the langauge of the gentleman (and woman) farmer, they are anything but. No pretty clapboard county house, no picturesque red barn here. It’s about the food, the animals and the land, not visual appeal.

But I ask you – With views like this, who needs Martha Stewart?

Category: Considerations

What’s Wrong with These Trees?

While driving to our cottage in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania, I noted with some dismay many of these drooping young trees along Route 80 in the Poconos. We’re talking hundreds of trees, not just the few pictured here.

“What could be happening?” I wondered. Some disease? A new blight? Dehydration? Roadside fumes?

I decided they were birches, given the white trunks. So I went to the web, where I read about birch blight, and gypsy moths, and wood rot, but found no real answer to my question.

Then I found the website for the Pa Dept of Conservation and Natural Resouces, and emailed them my question. To my delight, I received the answer within 48 hours:

“I believe what you are seeing are gray birch trees. These are small, white barked birch trees that tend to grow in openings, like along highways. The ice storms of Jan. 2005 caused major damage to these trees. They are short-lived and tend to naturally suffer this type of damage. They reseed readily in openings and the storm damage has no effect on the overall birch population.”

Relieved that our forests were not on the verge of destruction, I went back to the web to read more about the drooping gray birch. There I found this wonderful essay written and read by Robert Finch as part of his NPR series Cape Cod Notebook. Although I encourage you to head on over and listen to this lovely essay in toto, here’s a bit of what Finch tells us:

If there’s a tree version of “white trash,” I suppose it would be the gray birch – tough, stunted, scraggly, generally disparaged, yet fertile and tenacious… After ice storms they’re often the most pitiful-looking trees in the neighborhood. Their thick heads of fine twigs and branchlets catch and hold the flying ice like nets, and bend the narrow trunks over into attitudes of despair.

Perfect description, Isn’t it? “Attitudes of despair.” Here’s more from Finch:

Robert Frost found a more hopeful and sensual image for this in his famous poem, “Birches,” where he describes their bent forms after an ice storm as being “Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair/Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.”

You can read Frost’s entire poem here. Do read it. Like all of Frost’s poems about nature, it is also about life.

Don’t you just love the internet? You start out searching for tree disease information and end up learning the poetry of Robert Frost.

Category: Considerations