Beckwith Family Christmas Trees in Hannibal Wins Grand Champion Award at State Fair

Beckwith Family Christmas Trees in Hannibal has had a good showing at the New York State Fair.
 
Faye Beckwith said she and her husband Jack took six trees to display and compete at the fair. Four of the Beckwith trees won first place, a Beckwith Fraser fir won Grand Champion and a Beckwith Balsam fir won Reserve Grand Champion.
 

Winning wreath by Beckwith Family Christmas Trees

Faye Beckwith also put one of her wreath creations in the wreath competition and won Grand Champion with a toyland theme.
 
The Beckwith Family Christmas Trees business in on Mill Street in Hannibal. They bought the Hannibal land in 1980 with the plan to raise beef cattle. But when that didn’t work out, they sold the cows and decided to raise Christmas trees on the nearly 57 acres.
 
The first Christmas trees were planted in 1985.
 
Faye Beckwith is past president of the board of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York.

Onondaga County Maple Producer Wins State Fair Competition

Dutch Hill Maple in Tully, Onondaga County, again was named grand champion in the maple competition at the New York State Fair.

And they have won now for the second year in a row.

Remember those colored Christmas trees that began trending in New York last year?

Well if you'd like to see them up close and personal, check out the Christmas Tree Farmers of New York exhibit at the New York State Fair. They are located in front of the International Building.

Magenta tree from the Henderberg farm last season.

I'm told by Canastota area Christmas tree farmer Dewey Romagnoli that a number of the colored trees will be there for people to check out.

Here is my story about the colored trees from last fall:

Christmas trees are green.
 
Everyone knows that.
 
But what about magenta? Or blue. Or purple. Or turquoise. Or even red?
 
Two Christmas tree farms in Central New York — one near Canastota in Madison County and one between Verona and Rome in Oneida County — are selling colored Christmas trees this season. 

Farmers are offering trees in red, turquoise, pink, magenta, white, light blue and purple.
 
“It’s just something new I’m trying out this year,” said Jay Henderberg, owner/operator of Henderberg’s Tree Farm off Route 365 south of Rome. “The response we’re getting is overwhelming.”
 
The same is true at Romagnoli Christmas Tree Farm on Oneida Valley Road outside Canastota.
 
“We did a red, a white and a blue tree for a patriotic theme,” said Dewey Romagnoli. “We also have some purple and pink. I’m just experimenting with it to see how it goes.”
 
Henderberg opened his farm for people to come and tag colored trees for purchase. They were sold out that day.
 
The trees are real Christmas trees grown with care and love by the Christmas tree farmers.
 
Then they are colored with a food-grade colorant purchased from a company based in Wisconsin called Kirk, which makes the product in red, green, blue, white, orange, magenta, pink and light blue.
 
“I colored about 20 trees,” Romagnoli said. “But I saw an article about this guy in New Jersey who painted 150-200 trees and sold them all out.”
 
Faye Beckwith, past president of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York, said she and her husband Jack, who run Beckwith’s Christmas Tree Farm in Hannibal, Oswego County, said they also bought some colorant and used it to make a purple tree for a Hannibal school function. 

Hannibal’s colors are purple, gold and white.
 
Both Henderberg and Romagnoli found out about the colorant at a recent meeting of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York. A representative from Kirk Co. was there with the colorant and the two farmers decided to give it a whirl.
 
This is the second year the colorant has been sold for Christmas trees.
 
Here’s how it works:
 
The farmer sprays the colorant onto the trees. It has to be 40 degrees or warmer for the mixture to adhere well.
 
Once it dries, within a few hours to a day or so, it is permanent. It doesn’t wash off or come off on your hands or clothes.
 
It is not toxic, so if Spot or Puff or even your toddler decide to take a bite out of the tree, it will not hurt them.
 
It is not paint, so it contains no metals or mercury. It is environmentally safe.
 
Any species of tree can be colored.
 
The farmer has to put up a good amount of money to do the colored trees, buying not only the colorant, but also the equipment for spraying it onto the trees.
 
And because of the monetary investment, farmers are charging about $30 more for the colored trees, Henderberg said. He has colored 20 of his trees — Fraser firs, Canaan firs and white spruce.
“It’s new, so you don’t know how it’s going to be received,” Henderberg said.
 
Obviously it was well received this year, since Henderberg has sold out of his colored trees.

Governor Opens The New York State Fair and its New Exposition Center

From Gov. Cuomo's office:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo today officially marked the opening the brand-new Exposition Center at the New York State Fairgrounds with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

The 136,000-square-foot Expo Center, the largest indoor events space north of New York City between Boston and Cleveland, was unveiled during the kick-off of the 2018 Great New York State Fair. 

The new facility, and the recently completed renovation of the Fair's Orange parking lot, complete the second phase of the Governor's plan to revitalize the State Fairgrounds. The improvements complement Central NY Rising, the region's strategy to boost the local economy. 

 

"The new Exposition Center is a welcome addition to the Fairgrounds that will not only help bolster State Fair attendance, but provide an event space capable of hosting a record number of visitors year-round," Cuomo said. "By boosting tourism and attracting businesses from across the country, the uniquely situated Expo Center will deliver lasting economic benefits to keep Central New York rising for generations to come."

 

The Expo Center, with 110,000 square feet of clear-span floor space, has the capacity to hold more than 500, 10 foot-by-10 foot trade show booths. 

The massive venue, which also features 4,000 retractable seats, will attract major shows and special events, including car, boat, and RV shows, pet expos, consumer and trade shows, home and garden shows, tech expos and more—many of which were previously unable to come to upstate New York due to the lack of suitable space. 

The Expo Center increases the amount of available indoor space on the fairgrounds to more than 450,000 square feet.

 

Cuomo also announced the state Department of Transportation has completed a $27 million redesign and modernization of the Orange Lot, the Great New York State Fair's largest parking lot. Improvements to the 65-acre lot to improve access, enhance safety and significantly expand capacity, began last fall. 

More than 7,000 parking spaces are available in the freshly paved lot, up from the 4,000 to 5,000 that were available last year on a dirt surface. Access improvements will reduce delays from traffic backing up onto the Exit 7 ramps to Interstate 690, easing congestion during peak travel times.

 

The improvements mark the completion of Phase 2 of Governor Cuomo's revitalization plan. Phase 1 of the transformation plan included a full-service RV park for 313 campers and a larger, relocated Midway area that allows for more open space for Fair programming and non-Fair events. 

A new Main Gate entrance was also built, along with a new exhibit area for the New York State Police, and the Sky Ride, a 1,400-foot long chairlift ride. The Indian Village also received renovations to its Turtle Mound, the home of cultural performances during the Fair. 

 

Since the beginning of renovations, State Fair attendance has grown by more than 28 percent and non-fair event estimated attendance has grown 57 percent from 2016 to 2017. 

 

Many new non-fair events are already scheduled for the fairgrounds and its new Exposition Center.

 

After the Fair, the Expo Center will host several events in 2018 that are new to upstate including:

• The Taste NY Fall Festival, October 12-13: This event will feature vendors from across New York State, who will sell locally produced and manufactured food and beverages, highlighting local and regional cuisines and showcasing the diversity of the state. The family-friendly festival will feature pumpkin patches and pumpkin carving, amusement rides and farm petting zoos so children can see how food is raised, grown and produced. 
• The HITS Indoor Championships, Oct. 24-28: This new event is a competition for Junior and Amateur horse riders at the beginning and intermediate levels in order to continue to develop the sport at the grass roots level. 
• The FlyFast Drone Racing Competition and Showcase, Nov. 10-11: This event is a set of racing competitions for amateurs and professionals. A variety of courses will be offered for the competitors to fly through as well as courses for testing the intricate skills of pilots. The Showcase will include drone flying lessons for first time pilots and workshops and clinics for developing drone operators and racers. It will also include a marketplace for attendees to shop for the latest drone technology. The event highlights the Governor's investment in unmanned aerial vehicle technology, as the area between Syracuse and Rome has been designated one of only a handful of drone testing corridors in the nation.

New York State Fair Is Open For Business

The Great New York State Fair opened for its 2018 run at 7 a.m. Aug. 22.

For the next 13 days, people from throughout New York and elsewhere can see all that is great about New York State, from its technological innovations to the animals to agriculture to crafts and culinary specialties to entertainment to to the midway to law enforcement to, of course, FOOD.

And please, while having fun at the fair, don't forget the hard-working farmers who raise animals and crops to feed and clothe each and every one of us 365 days a year. 

Be sure to stop in an animal barn or the horticulture building or the Agriculture Museum (which is celebrating its 90th birthday) and talk to a farmer or an apple grower or a beekeeper or a maple producer or Christmas tree grower.

Have fun at the fair, but remember to celebrate agriculture.

Butter Sculpture Unveiled at 2018 New York State Fair

The front and back of the 2018 butter sculpture at the NYS Fair

This year’s butter sculpture at the New York State Fair is a step back in time.
 
For the 50th anniversary of the famous fair attraction, sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Pennsylvania have unveiled “Your Milk Comes From a Good Place,” paying tribute to the state’s hard-working dairy farmers.
 
The sculpture features a farmer transporting milk director from his dairy farm to a consumer in the grocery aisle, showing that milk makes it from the farm to the kitchen table in just 48 hours.
 

Marsha Anderson Leonard

But the farm depicted in the sculpture is called Over the Moon Dairy Farm, a tribute to the first butter sculpture unveiled at the fair in 1969. That sculpture was called “Cow Jumping Over the Moon.”
 
Another shout out to 50 years ago was former State Dairy Princess Marsha Anderson Leonard, of Chautauqua County. She was dairy princess 50 years ago and was at the fairgrounds to unveil the very first butter sculpture in 1969.
 
“I was newly crowned and then they told me the next day I had to unveil the butter sculpture,” said Leonard, a retired nurse whose brother still runs the family dairy farm in Kennedy, Chautauqua County. “And I’m thrilled to be around to be here today.”
 
The butter sculpture, in the Dairy Products Building, consists of 800 pounds of butter. After the fair is over on Labor Day, the sculpture will be taken apart by Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners and transported to Noblehurst Farms in Linwood, Livingston County, where it will be recycled in a methane digester to create electricity and liquid fertilizer for crops.
 
The American Dairy Association North East is in charge of the butter sculpture each year. The sculpture is sponsored this year by Wegman supermarkets.
 
The New York State Fair runs from Wednesday, Aug. 22 through Labor Day.