Country Barns and Other Stuff

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Well, it's Ground Hog Day! and Super Bowl Sunday! Two big events on one day. We lucked out! I'm sure you've heard enough hype on both of these subjects so I won't bother to add any more drama to these categories.

I thought I'd start this issue off with a few little anecdotes. The first one was when my husband's cousins were coming to visit from Alabama. They had never been to New York State before and were so excited to be coming up north. They were looking forward to all the Skyscrapers that the State is so well known for. Well, driving north when they entered the State from Interstate 81 they were surprised to see farms with cows, barns, and trees. They couldn't believe that New York State wasn't entirely made up of the big city and all its lights. They were also surprised when they visited Lake Ontario. The day we took them to the Lake it was pretty windy and the waves were rolling in pretty high. The waves were so high that they thought it could have been an ocean.

2. There was a barn between the silos,
but collapsed a few years ago.

Another little anecdote happened when our daughter was attending the University of Buffalo. She had several friends that were from across the State and one of them was from New York City. She said that he loved the campus because of the 'forests' that surrounded it. They weren't really forests, but he had not seen that many trees before. One weekend he came up to our house to visit and my daughter took him for a ride around the countryside. He just loved it with all the trees, farmland, and animals. After awhile he was a little curious because he didn't know what those round, tall buildings were with the dome roofs on all the farms. My daughter asked him to point out what it was that he was unfamiliar with- he pointed to a silo! He had never seen a silo before!

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While thinking of some things to write about this winter, I thought it would be nice to share with you some barns and other country scenes from our Oswego County, New York. Some of these barns are very old and some are still in use. Some older ones are dilapidated and close to falling down. I've done some simple photo enhancements on some of the pictures to bring out the barns beautiful characteristics.

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Oswego County is mostly a rural area with benefits of a great agricultural community. Our County produces milk, cheese, ice cream and yogurt. The Chobani (Greek) Yogurt plant first opened in the United States in 2005 in New Berlin, New York (south of Syracuse)  by a Turkish immigrant named Hamdi Ulukaya. He opened the plant in a Kraft Foods plant that was being closed. This plant has benefited the dairy farms across the State and even into Pennsylvania. To make Greek yogurt it takes three times more milk because it's so dense. It takes about 3 million gallons of milk a day to make 1 million gallons of yogurt.


We also have horse farms, sheep, goats, beef, and poultry farms.

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Other products of our agricultural industry include crops of corn, soybeans, hay, and oats. We also produce onions, lettuce, potatoes, corn, beans, peppers, and tomatoes.

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We have a ethanol plant in the County, south of the City of Fulton. A brewing company closed leaving the plant vacant. After several years it was purchased by Northeast Biofuels. They had problems in the design of the plant and were unable to rectify them so they filed bankruptcy. Sunoco purchased the plant from Northeast Biofuels. They purchase corn from more than 50 Central New York farmers.

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In addition to the above products we also grow cranberries, pears, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and apples (if you haven't seen my blog post on the new apple varieties you can read it here Fall Arrivals and Departures). Blackberries grow wild in this area.

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Another element that helps our agricultural industry is a certain type of soil that is located in part of our County. It's called muck. Muck is a rich, black, organic soil where onions flourish. The New York Bold Onions are grown in muck. The New York Bold Onion are grown by a Consortium  of 14 farmers in Oswego County.

The "yellow cooking onion" or "pungent yellow cooking onion" grown in New York State has a high phenolic content and antioxidant and antiproliferation activity which inhibits liver and cancer cell growth. This research was done by Cornell University Associate Professor of Food and Science, Rui Hai Liu, M.D. (http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2004/12/onions-and-health-clarification)

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Some speciality products from our County include the production of maple syrup, honey, fruit juices, apple cider, and Christmas Trees (blog post on Christmas Trees).

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Related Links:
Greek Yogurt a Boon for New York State (The New York Times January 12, 2012): Greek Yogurt

How Rural Chenango County Became Greek Yogurt Capital: The Story Behind Greek Yogurt (The Syracuse Post Standard July 3, 2011): The Story Behind Chobani Yogurt

Onions? Sweet Corn? Which is the Fairest in New York State? (Syracuse Post Standard April 11, 2007): Onions? Sweet Corn?

Location of Barn Photos: 1) US Rte 11, Pulaski (opposite High School); 2) Tubbs Road, Mexico; 3) Hurlbut Rd, Mexico; 4) Oswego River Rd, Town of Schroepel; 5) North St., Mexico; 6) Kenyon Rd, Mexico; 7) Pople Ridge Rd, Mexico; 8) Pople Ridge Rd, Mexico; 9) Valley Rd, Mexico; 10) Hanson Rd, Mexico;  11) Hurlbut & Green Rd, Town of New Haven; 12) Biddlecum Rd, Town of Schroeppel; 13) Bradshaw Rd, Palermo.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to our Countryside! 

Feel free to drop me a note . . .