COTTAGE INDUSTRIES ARE MAKING A COMEBACK

Cottage Industries are small businesses that operate in a home, shop, or farm setting run by family members. They embody traditional trades, agricultural pursuits, or older artisan industries. Examples include maple syrup and honey production, pottery, microbreweries, distilleries, and woodworking. In recent years, the number of cottage industries has exploded in Western Pennsylvania.

This commentary will focus on two regional cottage industries: maple syrup and honey production. My sources include a family engaged in each enterprise. My brother-in law, Everett Sechler, has operated a maple “sugar shack” in Somerset County for several decades.  Philip Costello from Washingon County operates a family door and millwork business with his son, Eric. In recent years, the family expanded into a honey producing business.

Some general observations are in order after speaking with both individuals. For cottage industries to be successful there must be a hard-working family willing to risk capital in a labor-intensive business. Just as important, there must be consumers willing to pay more for a higher quality or healthier product.

Second, cottage industries are a testament to the enduring appeal of craftsmanship, tradition, and excellence in a world overrun by mass- produced products. These small-scale businesses maintain a link to agrarian or artisan history while adapting to the demands of the modern market.

Third, technology has greatly improved the ability of cottage industries to operate, advertise, and compete with large companies. Moreover, cottage industries are creating opportunities for people with specialized skills to enrich the local economy.

Maple Syrup Production. While my discussion of the resurgence of maple syrup production will center on Somerset County, fondly known as “the land of milk and maple,” syrup production is also making a comeback in Washington County. Local producers like “The Rustic Rock Maple Farm” sell their product at farmer’s markets and festivals throughout the region. Fourteen public maple syrup events in the Pittsburgh region celebrate “syrup season” in early spring.

Somerset County has always been the king of maple syrup production in Pennsylvania. The local Historical Society has published a book on the history of this industry, authored by Mark Ware. By the 1880s, County farmers were producing over one million pounds of maple sugar and 15,000 gallons of maple syrup each year. On Somerset County farms, the “sugar bush” was as important as other crops for farm income.

Ware explained that small batch maple syrup operations began to decline as inexpensive white refined sugar, along with lower quality syrup took over the market. In Somerset County the world wars, farm mechanization, and migration to urban areas led to fewer farm hands and smaller farms.

In 1983, the Sechler Sugar Shack began operation. The 600 acres of family farmland with over 4000 taps had not produced maple products for a decade. Today, the Sechler business averages 750 gallons of syrup and several other maple products annually. They provide high quality syrup for the Nemacolin Resort. Everett and his wife, Christine (Marasco) attend over twelve summer events and festivals where repeat customers are common. The business website attracts increased internet sales each year.

Modern technology has been a boon to production. It now takes seventy-five gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup. Tubing instead of tree tap buckets and reverse osmosis machines lower the labor costs needed to bring syrup to market.

Of all the places in Pennsylvania where one might find a Pennsylvania Maple Museum, Somerset is the most fitting. In June, a Museum highlighting this cottage industry opened at the Somerset Historical Center. Narrative descriptions, exhibits and live syrup making demonstrations highlight the experience.

Honey Production.  The Costello millwork and honey businesses are located on a small farm along Route 18 in Washington County. For three generations, the Costello’s have produced wood doors and millwork for courthouses, historical buildings, and upscale homes.  About 15 years ago, the family branched out into honey production.

According to the National Honey Board, the process starts as flower nectar collected by bees, which gets broken down into simple sugars stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of the bees' wings causes evaporation, creating sweet liquid honey. Honey's color and flavor vary based on the nectar collected by the bees.

Unlike honey production in the past, a modern operation requires constant monitoring because of pests and diseases. Costello puts his woodworking skills to good use by designing and manufacturing wooden hives that work well in our area.

Costello explained to me that there are three types of honey produced by his hives. First, specialized varieties require moving hives throughout the season to capture pollen at the appropriate time. Second is multi flora wildflower honey. The apiary locations that yield these varieties require a 2-year evaluation process before the hives are moved in. Third, locally grown fields of lavender produce a high quality mono-flora honey.

The Costello business now produces 12 varieties of unpasteurized and unfiltered honey that incorporate all the health benefits of local pollens and enzymes. I was surprised to learn from Eric Costello that among their best customers are Eastern European families, who along with transplants from India and the Mid-East savor a product similar in quality to the honey from their countries of origin.

Alongside syrup and honey, many types of cottage industries are flourishing in the area. This summer is the perfect time to get out and enjoy the many available options.

 

 

 

 

 

POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS UNACCEPTABLE BUT ALL TOO COMMON

“One country, one constitution, one destiny.”  Daniel Webster

In the hours after the attempted assassination of Former President Donald Trump, a local Trump supporter messaged me, “You lefties must be happy now.” I had engaged in past conversations with this individual but never discussed politics.

Sunday morning, Senator J.D. Vance, while in the mix as Trump’s running mate, tweeted, “Today is not some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to Trump’s attempted assassination.”

My first example above was an emotional response. Immediately following the assassination attempt, pro-Trump Republicans were in shock, angry, and needed to lash out.  Millions of Republicans across the country probably shared similar views toward their neighbors who supported President Biden.

The second illustration was self-serving and political. Senator Vance constructed a well thought out message to please Trump only days before his V.P. selection. (It worked) Vance was irresponsibly seeking to increase the temperature on an already volatile situation to arouse Republican support.

The Democrats’ response to the assassination attempt has been understandably muted. Many privately believe that Trump’s own encouragement of political violence during the January 6th insurrection and his rhetoric since then have helped remove the guardrails on keeping elections non-violent. However, in the immediate aftermath of a presidential candidate coming within several millimeters of losing his life, Democrat attack ads and negative campaigning were curtailed.  Democrat leaders, beginning with President Biden, reached out to the former president to give him their best wishes and to denounce violence.

No one can predict how the attempted assassination will affect the election. It is likely that the issue of President Biden’s age and removal from the Democratic ticket will fade.  Former President Trump will gain sympathy from undecided voters. The photo of Trump with blood streaming down his face and his raised fist will become the most iconic symbol of the campaign.

Going forward, the two campaigns should seek a reset and agree to focus on the important issues facing our country. Thoughtful discussion should replace radical rhetoric. Trump’s nomination speech at the Republican convention this past week, will set the tone for the remainder of the election season.

Apart from the campaign, the assassination attempt will raise a host of issues. Law enforcement will focus on the forensic evidence. Congress will want to know how it was possible for a twenty-year-old loner with a long gun to situate himself on a roof 120 yards from the former president. Internet conspiracy theories circulated by Russian disinformation sites and right wing provocateurs will run wild.

Psychologists and profilers will examine the postings, life, family, and motives of the shooter. National campaign officials will reconsider whether outdoor rallies are worth the risk. Grassroots movements of Americans fighting to protect people from gun violence will increase their visibility. Notably, the federal Brady Bill, requiring background checks, was passed after the attempt on President Reagan’s life.

If one stands back from the initial shock of this assassination attempt, it is clear that in American history political violence has never been acceptable, but also all too common. Four sitting presidents have been killed by political violence. (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, John F. Kennedy). Three presidents have been injured by attempted assassinations. (Ronald Reagan while in office, former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Donald Trump).

Other important political figures running for president have been the subject of assassination attempts. (Robert F. Kennedy was killed; George C. Wallace was injured.) Since the nation’s founding, fifteen members of Congress have been killed and fourteen suffered injuries from attacks.

The question becomes, where does American democracy go from here? Some thoughts to consider come from the venerable British newspaper, the Financial Times, always an excellent observer of American Politics.

“The responsibility of America’s political class to reassert the importance of political calm has never been more important. Violence has no place in democracy. The undermining of free speech and political tolerance, and the rampant rise of social media disinformation, has been a feature of American politics over the past decade. The partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans has only grown wider and more toxic.  Sadly, Saturday’s events are not an anomaly in the country’s long experiment with democratic governance. Assassination attempts or plots against presidents, presidential candidates, and other political leaders have been all too common. How democracies respond to moments like this are the real test of their mettle….  
In the past, assassinations or attempted assassinations have provided a wake-up call for the American political system, allowing voices of reason to reassert themselves. That is needed today more than ever. Politicians on all sides have a great responsibility to urge calm and stop the vitriol. Any public statements must be worded carefully. Republicans need to speak up, and avoid the temptation to use the event as a rallying cry…
The clear message that needs to emerge from this sorry episode is that violence is unacceptable, and that a divided country that resorts to physical force to resolve its issues is undoubtedly a weaker one.” Editorial Board 7/14/24

Leave it to the British to offer us some sage advice at a difficult time. Rather than “man the barricades,” it is time to return to a campaign that focuses on the nation’s political, social, and economic problems.

LIBRARIES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

   

“Democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

For centuries, libraries have acquired written resources, organized materials, preserved archives, and made them accessible to the public. Internet search engines and artificial intelligence (AI) have ushered in an explosion of information available with a click or a swipe. Whether a user is searching for news, obscure facts, or the latest best-selling novel, it is not necessary to leave the easy chair to find an answer. Digital access to information and the surge in AI raises the question: why do we need brick and mortar libraries?

To answer this question and to find out where “librarianship” is headed, I interviewed three local experts who work in two very different library environments. Diane Ambrose is the Executive Director and Kathy Pienkowski is Operations Manager at the Citizens Library in Washington. Samantha Martin is Instructional Technology Librarian at Washington and Jefferson College.

All three professionals were adamant that libraries are changing to meet  our information needs in the age of search engines and AI. They believe that modern librarians continue to excel at finding and managing resources for untrained users.

Washington’s public library says it all in its title, “Citizens.” It was created to serve all of us. The existing structure was built with a colonial design to reflect our local heritage.

Director Ambrose pointed out that there has been a major shift to digital usage in recent years. Many residents need the library computers and reference guides to fill out all manner of on line forms. They are applying for medical insurance or other benefits and are seeking employment. She reminded me that many residents cannot afford computers, fax machines, or access to the internet. Last year alone, 2,000 users sought assistance from the library computers for a multitude of purposes.

Ms. Pienkowski provided me with a plethora of statistics that emphasize Citizens Library’s important community role. In 2023, 8,657 eBooks and 3,800 audiobooks were requested from the facility. There are over 14,000 individuals registered at Citizens with over 129,000 physical items in circulation.

Citizens Library supports an annual summer reading program for 250 children. There is a popular robotics program and a monthly meeting for Down Syndrome parents. The WAGGIN library card permits users to access all libraries in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties. Events are scheduled every day the library is open for residents of all ages. When an individual is seeking information about Washington County’s local resources, the first stop is often Citizens Library.

Ms. Martin from W&J proudly told me she is a patron of the Citizens Library. She often sends college students “down the street” to obtain a library card for their pleasure reading requirements. Moreover, the college’s library director serves on the Citizens’ board of directors and there are numerous collaborative efforts between the two institutions. Citizens works with other Washington organizations, like the Historical Society, to help individuals research ancestry information.

Ms. Martin has a different clientele and unique challenges at her college library. She thoroughly erased the myth that college and research libraries will become obsolete. She explained that with basic research of archival materials it is often necessary to view the original documents. Moreover, many specialized articles are available only behind expensive paywalls. These materials are accessible at academic libraries.

Due to cost and server space, much of the world’s 2,000 years of written primary documents have not been digitized. This information is simply not yet in a database for generative AI to gather and disperse.

In the new information age, the W&J library remains well attended as a quiet place for research and academic work. Rooms are available for study groups and meetings. W&J is well aware that there are constantly evolving advances in electronic search that must be absorbed into the library experience. A user may frequently access the library’s vast resources and rarely step inside the building.

According to the special March/April issue of American Libraries that was provided to me, college librarians view AI as a tool to edit text ethically, narrow a topic, or to provide keywords to aid in searching databases. Many librarians have mixed feelings about AI as machine learning penetrates our society. They are excited about its potential as a new technology. However, librarians are worried about over-dependency on AI. They believe that students may not grasp concepts as deeply as they have when using more traditional forms of research.

American Libraries pointed out that in public libraries, there are other AI concerns. With the new emphasis on banning books, AI could increase the abuse of library book audits seeking to easily uncover certain words or concepts objectionable to book banners. Thankfully, book banning has not yet become a significant issue in our Washington County public libraries.

The librarians I spoke with wanted to emphasize two important thoughts. Libraries of all types and sizes are not passive structures serving simply as a depository for storing books. They are a vibrant, active participant in the community and on campus.

Second, modern librarians serve as guides to unlocking the wonders of the information age. They are poised to help us find new meaning and to facilitate intellectual development as machine learning proliferates.

As we plunge headlong into a future full of fake news and altered realities, we need libraries and dedicated librarians more than ever.

 

 

 

 

 

GOOSE POND AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Shortly after Memorial Day, we joined two other couples for a week at a rented house on the island of Chincoteague, Virginia. Our beach time was followed by several days in Old Town Alexandria, VA to take in a famous historical site and a new exhibit on democracy at the American Museum of History in Washington D.C.

This was the fourth year that six of us, including my brother and high school friend along with our spouses, gathered before the “high-season” to enjoy the many pleasures of Chincoteague and its companion wildlife refuge.

The weather, wildlife, and famous ponies were cooperative, and the oysters were still in season. We quickly stopped trying to get the television streaming services to work and were content going to the beach, painting with watercolors, reading novels, and enjoying nature. Not even the Trump guilty verdict had me eager to find comments from political talking heads.

The unique bonus at this year’s rental property was a small body of fresh water in the backyard that we affectionately called Goose Pond. We soon learned that many varieties of waterfowl came to the pond to drink. Flocks of ibis, ducks, terns, seagulls, egrets, herons, and of course, geese entertained us all day. The area surrounding the pond also supported a wide variety of songbirds native to the Eastern seaboard.

There appeared to be an avian understanding of which species would drink at what hour that operated like clockwork. We came to appreciate the complex social hierarchies of the various birds as they assembled and enjoyed the fresh water. In a comical parade early each morning and again at dusk, the resident flock of geese would march single file from the nearby bay to the pond. If only Congress were so well organized.

After dark, Goose Pond offered up an amazing second act. Many varieties of amphibians would serenade us from the pond, the surrounding marsh and from around the house. The chorus would rise to a deafening crescendo only to drop to complete silence for a minute before repeating.

At the end of our rental, my wife and I headed for Old Alexandria and the Smithsonian museums offered at the nation’s capital. Mt. Vernon was only minutes from our hotel. Because I had never viewed George Washington’s plantation overlooking the Potomac River and my wife had not been there in forty years, we decided to stop.

On a hot and sultry afternoon, we got in line with hundreds of schoolchildren to tour the mansion and surrounding grounds. Mt. Vernon is the perfect example of the paradox facing early American democracy that continues to affect us today. On one hand, the father of our country was the ideal role model for a new experiment in representative democracy. He refused a lifetime appointment as president and after two terms in office rushed back to his beloved Mt. Vernon. On the other hand, over 300 slaves who were denied the most basic of human freedoms supported his self-contained plantation, consisting of 8,000 acres divided into five farms, plus a gristmill and distillery.

The next morning, we scheduled an Uber to the entrance of the National Museum of American History to take in a new exhibition entitled “American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith.” It was clear to us that the display, through text and artifacts, was timed to coincide with the upcoming divisive national election.

In the words of the museum director, the goal was to make clear that “American democracy are the two words at the center of what it means to be an American.” Throughout the presentation, the museum curators point out the irony that a diverse people could develop shared values to build the greatest nation on earth.  The exhibition gives the history of citizen participation, debate, and compromise from the nation’s formation until today.

The exhibition is divided into five sections. First is a review of the “great leap” it took for eighteenth century colonists to declare themselves independent from Great Britain. Second is the cornerstone of our representative democracy, the history of voting in America. Third is an explanation of the unique American machinery of democracy. This portion includes methods to entice people to the polls and systems to ensure accurate vote counts. The fourth area focuses on the direct involvement of citizens in government including the right to petition, lobby, and protest. Last is the history of the American melting pot and the path to citizenship.

Throughout the exhibition, no political party or ideology is favored over another. The arc of American history has produced many significant movements. Each is represented and given its due. While the disagreements were many and sometimes violent, each chapter is depicted as another brick in the wall, important in building American democracy. The mission “is to help people understand the past in order to make sense of the present and shape a more humane future.”

The museum encourages each visitor to leave the exhibition with an understanding of how American democracy has developed. It asks each of us to consider “how our history helps to explain today’s contentious political climate, and how we can come together as a people.”

For those seeking a positive experience to counterbalance a summer full of divisive politics, this exhibition (or a trip to Goose Pond) may offer some relief. A companion book is available through the museum bookstore or on Amazon.