By Mike Bova, publisher

Did you know the average visit to a news site is 3-4 minutes? That tells me people are not reading their newspaper online. They are only reading a story or stories of interest.

There is nothing better that sitting down with a cup of coffee and flipping through the pages of a local newspaper. You can peruse the paper at your leisure. There is not a computer to fire up and it’s easy on the eyes…no glare.

Plus, you’d have to click on 70-80 pages of www.MadisonCountyCourier.com to read what is in one issue of the Madison County Courier Weekly.

The Weekly is so good, it will even be seen in Steven Soderbergh’s blockbuster movie, Haywire, which is opening Jan. 20, 2012.

Also, you should really purchase a subscription to the Weekly, which supports your local newspaper and keeps the newspaper in business.

Lastly, we just made it a little less expensive for everybody. Until Sept. 30, 2011, a 13 week subscription is only $10 (normally $13.) A 26 week subscription is only $15 (normally $20) and a 52 week subscription is only $25 (normally $35.)

If you buy a subscription to the Madison County Courier Weekly, I promise you won’t be sorry you did. Thank you for supporting your county newspaper.

(Madison County, NY – July 2011) Shopping near home not only helps keep taxes down and your family, friends and neighbors at work, it is good for the environment.

Supporting local businesses means saving gas (hovering around $4 a gallon), saving steps and reducing emission pollutants that compromise the integrity of our air quality.

If you can’t find what you need from the folks who maintain their businesses here, ask them to stock what you like, and if it’s a specialty item, get friends who use the same item to commit to buying there, too.

It’s handy for you, and you’re providing a guaranteed market for a product or service someone previously hadn’t provided.

Think – shop – live Madison County!

Find us on Facebook and share your business news at facebook.com/pages/Think-Shop-Live-Madison-County/131080236971309. For more information on profiling your business in the Madison County Courier, email MadNews@m3pmedia.com.

(Madison County, NY – July, 2011) Madison County’s Fourth Annual Open Farm Day will be held on Saturday July 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to visit many of the participating farms, talk with farmers about their unique operation, enjoy samples, tour the farm, and purchase products. It’s recommended that you bring a cooler with you on Open Farm Day for purchases of meats, cheeses, produce and dairy products.

This year, 40 farms and three farmers markets will participate in Open Farm Day.  A list of the farms, with maps, directions, and descriptions, can be found at http://madisoncountyagriculture.com/buylocalweek.

Visit three farms and receive your choice of a Buy Local reusable cloth bag or hat. Visit one farm in each of the four designated regions of the county and you’ll be entered to win the Grand Prize. This year’s Grand Prize is a VIP tour of Owera Vineyards, a night’s stay at Greyrock Farm B&B, and a VIP tour of Greyrock Farm CSA.

Open Farm Day is an annual event, but you can purchase products from these farms year-round at the local farmers’ markets in Madison County or through CNY Bounty (reopening soon).

• Local produce is picked fresh.

• Trucked in foods are often picked before they are ripe and forced to ripen during shipping.

• Fresher food is more nutritious.

• Fuel consumption is lowered when food is grown locally.

• Air quality is higher when fuel usage and packaging are reduced.

• Keeping local farms in business preserves open space and wildlife habitat.

• When you buy directly from farmers, the farm family receives more of the food dollars

spent.

• Every dollar turns over many times in the community when farmers buy supplies, equipment, and fuel.

Open Farm Day is sponsored by: Price Chopper Grocery Stores, Madison County’s Agricultural Economic Development Program, Central New York Bounty, Cornell Cooperative Extension, National Grid, Cazenovia Equipment Company, the Gifford Foundation, the Gorman foundation, CaroVail, Farm Credit East, the Central New York Community Foundation, Farm Bureau of New York, Owera Vineyards, Empire Brewing Company, the Harvest Moon Cider at Critz Farms, Serendipity Caterering, Shapna Tea and Coffee, and Off the Path Media.

For more information, please visit: http://madisoncountyagriculture.com/buylocalweek/.

The Greenhagen Sisters will portray the Fox Sisters on July 24 at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro, a light-hearted look at early spiritualism.

Program looks at 19^th Century spiritualism movement

By Dot Willsey

(Peterboro, NY – July 2011) Spiritualism was born in the spring of 1848 when Margaret and Kate Fox heard strange rappings in their Hydesville, NY bedroom. Within two years the two “Rochester Rappers” with their sister Leah were touring the country communicating with spirits. The

Free Church of Peterboro was one site for the rapping demonstrations.

“Scraps of paper in the Gerrit Smith Papers showing questions posed to a spirit medium … revealed that the family attempted to communicate with their loved ones, including Fitzhugh and Peter, after they had died.” (Kruczek-Aaron, p 121)

In later years when Margaret Fox was suffering from depression, her doctor Edward Bayard (brother-in-law of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, cousin of Gerrit Smith) recommended a change of scenery and Margaret, for approximately two years, went to live in New York City at the home of Gerrit Smith’s niece Ellen Cochrane Walter.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday July 24 the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro will host programs on 19th Century spiritualism with particular attention to the Fox Sisters and Peterboro’s connections to the spiritualism movement. The program is open to the public and free.

The featured speaker Nancy Rubin Stuart (Osterville, Mass) will present Maggie Fox, Victorian America’s Reluctant Spiritualist. Upstate New York teenager Maggie Fox (1833-1893) rose to national fame as Victorian America’s “reluctant spiritualist.” Young and beautiful, Maggie’s alleged ability to communicate with spirits in America’s first séances of 1848 astounded the press, and made Maggie and her sisters the darlings of Broadway. Maggie inspired hundreds of imitators, and fascinated the most prominent men and women of her era, among them Horace Greeley, James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Todd Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William James.

After a passionate love affair and secret marriage to distinguished Arctic explorer Dr. Elisha Kent Kane in 1856, during which Maggie promised to give up mediumship, her life took surprising twists and turns, culminating with a startling confession in 1888 at the New York Academy of Music. The lecture is accompanied by slides of Maggie Fox and her era.

Rubin explains that her purpose is neither to prove nor disprove the veracity of spirit communication, but rather to illustrate how 150 years ago the Fox sisters’ introduction of that idea swept through America and why it continues to fascinate people today. Maggie’s story is important, Rubin believes, because of passion – the passionate longing that 19th C. Americans had to once again talk with their beloved dead, and the passionate romance between Fox and Kane.

After Stuart’s presentation, local performers and sisters Darothy DeAngelo and Sue Greenhagen will provide a light-hearted look at early spiritualism with a vignette of the Fox Sisters during a rapping session enticing the spirits of some “dearly departed.”  DeAngelo portrays Maggie, and Sue portrays Kate.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Michael Keene will sell and sign his recently published book by The History Press: Folklore and Legends of Rochester: The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner & Other Tales. The book includes the story of the Fox Sisters, as well as the anti-Masonic hysteria of the early nineteenth century and the unexplained disappearance of former Mason, Captain Morgan. Keene worked for twenty-five years in the financial services industry as a financial planner. He is also the producer of an award-winning 2008 film Visions, True Stories of Spiritualism, Secret Societies & Murder, which, in part, inspired his new book.

Copies of Town of Smithfield historian Donna Burdick’s paper Spirited Women – and Men & Their Unpopular Causes will be on sale at the Peterboro Mercantile for the benefit of the Peterboro Area Historical Society.  Burdick’s document describes Spiritualism as it was introduced and “practiced” in Peterboro. Burdick refers to written accounts of medium sessions and spiritualism conferences.

For more information, call 280-8828 or visit AbolitonHoF.org.

The Human Condition

By Martha E. Conway

(Brookfield, NY – July 7 – 9, 2011) I would like to thank all the organizers of the Madison County Fair for their hard work and assistance during my three days on the grounds this year.

I don’t think the public can fully appreciate the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to pull off an event of this magnitude. Congratulations and thank you to the army of volunteers who helped pull it off – you are all amazing, and your dedication is admirable.

First of all, the facilities looked fantastic – bright, clean and inviting. Traffic seemed much heavier than the past two years I have attended, and I heard nothing but praise from the people who stopped by my “camp” at the Town of Brookfield Republican Committee booth; people were excited with the midway attractions, variety of livestock and sheer number of horses on the grounds this year.

I would like to thank the Brookfield GOP for hosting the Courier once again; special thanks to Supervisor John Salka, who scrounged around and found an extension cord and surge protector so we could plug in all forms of technology from laptop to cell phones and digital camera docks.

Thanks also to Committee Chairman Gail Abrams for allowing us to populate his space with voting machine manuals and voter registration cards, acquired from the ladies at the Madison County Board of Elections … with minimal abuse.

Annette Tanney did a spectacular job with publicity again this year, and plans are underway to expand that effort for 2012. The Courier was proud to have weekly updates about the Fair’s offerings weekly for at least three months leading up to the event.

The Courier had anywhere from one to four people (that’s pretty much all of us) on the grounds Thursday through Saturday taking photos so we could post them to MadisonCountyCourier.com in hopes of promoting the event and enticing people to take every opportunity to visit this past weekend.

The food also was unparalleled, and everything was very affordable.

Much appreciation to Supervisors Russell Cary (R – Fenner), Rocky DiVeronica (R,C,I – Lenox) and former Supervisor Walt Jaquay (R – Hamilton), none of whom appears to be afraid to be seen with me in public (occupational hazard in my line of work).

Special thanks to Supervisor Ron Bono (R – Madison) who was a good enough sport to abandon his wife and stand still for an ambush interview.

Thank you to everyone else, too, who stopped by the booth to visit – it was great meeting up with old friends and making new ones.

Martha E. Conway is Managing Editor for the Madison County Courier. She can be reached at 315.813.0124 or by emailing martha@m3pmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/marthaeconway or become a friend on Facebook at facebook.com/meconway.

(Madison County, NY – July 2011) Shopping near home not only helps keep taxes down and your family, friends and neighbors at work, it is good for the environment.

Supporting local businesses means saving gas (hovering around $4 a gallon), saving steps and reducing emission pollutants that compromise the integrity of our air quality.

If you can’t find what you need from the folks who maintain their businesses here, ask them to stock what you like, and if it’s a specialty item, get friends who use the same item to commit to buying there, too.

It’s handy for you, and you’re providing a guaranteed market for a product or service someone previously hadn’t provided.

Think – shop – live Madison County!

Find us on Facebook and share your business news at facebook.com/pages/Think-Shop-Live-Madison-County/131080236971309. For more information on profiling your business in the Madison County Courier, email MadNews@m3pmedia.com.

Volunteer Fire Service News

Submitted by John Haley

(Hamilton, NY – July 15 through 17, 2011) The Madison County Volunteer Firemen’s Association & Ladies Auxiliary are proudly hosting the 118th Central New York Volunteer Firemen’s Association Convention at the White Eagle Conference Center in Hamilton July 15 through 17.

On Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and all day Saturday, there will be various vendors. We will also have the author of the book “Teflon Shelly” by Ron Ryan, who will be on hand for a book sale and signing.

The accidental carbon monoxide deaths of her brothers and sisters in 1966 left Shelly Summers an only child who encountered sexual and physical abuse. Three of her own children would populate the rural cemetery east of the flashing yellow light in a little hamlet in Central New York having met horrific deaths, two of whom were burned alive.

Three other children that had a connection with Shelly would meet a fiery demise, and a seventh child would mysteriously drown. Forty-two years of fires would follow Shelly until police, prosecutors and fire investigators of multiple counties and agencies utilized their resources to end “Teflon Shelly’s” reign of terror.

Author Ryan was born, raised and currently resides with his wife of 31 years in the small hamlet of Navarino in southwestern Onondaga County. He became chief of the volunteer fire department at the age of 32 and is currently a fire investigator with the Onondaga County Department of Emergency Management. Ryan is also a code enforcement officer with the town of Onondaga.

He has been an accelerant detection K-9 handler, working with his K-9 partner, Bo. Ron has conducted thousands of fire investigations over his fire-service career, including several arson-homicides; however, he self-proclaims his proudest moments are witnessing the accomplishment of his sons Jeff and Jason.

Some of the things going on Saturday include business meetings, a guest speaker – Madison County’s own Tim Cowan from Canastota, who will do a 1 p.m. presentation on the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation “Courage To Be Safe – So Everybody Goes Home.”

Following Cowan will be the annual memorial service, which is held to honor the members of the volunteer fire service that have passed away during the last year.

Following the memorial service, the annual award ceremonies will be conducted including the “Civilian of the Year” award, which will be awarded to two civilians who pulled eight people from a house fire in Wampsville.

The “Firefighter of the Year” will be awarded to two firefighters who rescued and saved the lives of two boaters who almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The “Journalism Award” will be given to a newspaper reporter from Utica for reporting on a recent fatal fire.

There are also four scholarships to graduating seniors for continuing education and possible junior firefighter awards.

On Sunday morning, there will be firefighter foot races on Wings Way Road at Hamilton Airport, as well as junior firefighter pushball.

(Brookfield, NY – July 2011) The Madison County Youth Bureau is again coordinating free activities in the events tent on Saturday July 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the 172nd Madison County Fair, 1968 Fairgrounds Road in Brookfield.

Youth can participate in make and take activities as well as fun games. Other activities include tie dye, hole in one mini golf, cheek art, and homemade streamers. Balloons will be available while supplies last. All activities in the Youth Tent are free.

“It is wonderful to see so many local organizations support this event and offer free activities for children and youth,” said Joanne Eddy, Director of the Madison County Youth Bureau. “I’m sure all those who come to the Fair on Saturday will have a very enjoyable time.”

Eddy is hoping for good attendance at the Fair so that everyone can enjoy the great variety of activities.  Groups returning to the Youth Tent include Project Café who will be tie dyeing, Community Action Partnership’s Mentoring Program crafts and games, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County “4H in Action”, and Reality Check’s Power Wall Game.  The Dairy Princess and her Court will be on hand to educate on the “3-Every Day of Dairy” campaign and offer cheese and fruit kabobs to fairgoers.

The Colgate Raider will also be visiting the Youth Tent during the day.  BEST, Brookfield Events Supported by Teens, a youth group supported by the Youth Bureau, will be doing cheek art for children.  The Youth Bureau will be offering a mini golf area and free balloons.

In addition to the tent activities on Saturday, the Fair will offer a midway, live music and great shows.  Special shows on Saturday include the Two by Two Zoo, the Miss Madison County Pageant, the 4H Dog Show, and Matt Episcopo’s Comedy/Magic Show.

Shows are held at various times throughout the day so check the Fair website at madisoncountyfairny.com.

Entry to the Fair is only $2 per person; four year olds and younger are free. All activities in the tent on Youth and Family Day will be free.

For more information regarding other fun events happening at the 171st Madison County Fair visit the website.

(Madison County, NY – July 2011) Those wishing to participate in the 5k run/walk at the Madison County Fair July 9 should register by July 1 to avoid late fees. The event will kick off at 9 a.m., Saturday, July 9.

Entry fees are $15 if postmarked on or before July 1 and $20 if after July 1 or on race day. T-shirts are guaranteed to all pre-registered runners and distributed as available on race day.

The course is mainly flat with some rolling hills and is part of the 2011 Route 20 Road Challenge Run/Walk Series.

Payment may be mailed to Madison County Fair, Attention 5K Run/Walk, 1968 Fairground Road, P.O. Box 114, Brookfield, N.Y. 13314.

For more information, visit madisoncountyfairny.com, email ccowen01@frontiernet.net or call 315.899.6281. For more information on the 2011 Route 20 Road Challenge Run/Walk Series, visit nyroute20.com/RoadChallenge2011.asp.

(Madison County, NY – July 2011) Madison County’s fourth annual Buy Local Week begins Sunday, July 17, at Monanfran Farm in Canastota, owned by Maurice and Amy Kelsey and family. The Fresh Gala event, a fundraiser for Madison County Buy Local Week and local agriculture, will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. with local foods and live bluegrass music provided by the Kellish Hill Players.

Monanfran Farm showcases not only the history of Madison County dairy farming, but also the recent explosion of farmers who have chosen to bring family farms into the 21st century to ensure the continued viability of local agriculture and offer new products to CNY residents. The name of Maurice and Amy’s farm is telling: “Mon” stands for Maurice’s grandfather Monford; “an” pays tribute to his grandmother Annabelle, and “Fran” is for Maurice’s father Francis, all of whom have been running this family farm for over 100 years.

There are only 18 farms in New York state that are certified for the ethical treatment of animals, and Monanfran Farm is the only CNY farm with this certification. All the cows are pastured, weather permitting, and 95 percent of their food is grown on the farm.

“I expect anyone who works for me to follow a strict code of conduct in handling my cows,” Maurice said. “Trust between farm workers and the cows begin when a calf is first born. As a result, our cows are very happy, healthy and productive.”

The Kelseys show their registered Holsteins at the World Dairy Expo every year in Madison, Wis., and some of their cows are nominated each year as Reserve All American Holsteins.

This year, the Kelseys are also making sweet cream churned, as opposed to cultured, butter. In partnership with three Madison County farm families – Will and Megan Soden of Journeys Joy Farm in Peterboro; Bruce and Nancy Rivington of Red Gate Farm in Earlville; and Doug and Kathe Evans of Sunny Acres Farm in Georgetown – the Kelseys are producing the butter under the label Kriemhild Dairy Farms.

Following three generations of family farmers, the butter is made and packaged at Queensboro in Canastota. The Kelsey family is the oldest and longest-running supplier to Queensboro, also more than 100 years old.

Kriemhild Dairy Farms was started with 2008-09 grants from NE SARE and the USDA Value Added Producer Grant, which provided the funding for the preliminary planning phases for marketing and production.

Maurice and Amy are very excited about opening their farm for this year’s annual event.

“We’re very proud of our farm and want everyone to see what a modern dairy operation is all about,” Maurice said.

More information on this year’s fourth annual Buy Local Week, including maps and directions to farms participating in Open Farm Day Saturday, July 23, and a list of restaurants participating in Taste of the County from July 18 through 23 can be found at madisoncountyagriculture.com.

Madison County Buy Local Week may also be found on Facebook and Twitter.