Pride of New York Harvest Fest 2009

Yesterday was an amazing day! It was the Pride of New York Harvest Festival!!! The Festival spent it's first year in Syracuse, NY at the NYS Fairgrounds. It's normally held in Albany, NY. I've never been before but I will most definitely go again even if I have to drive to Albany to do so. Though I hope that it stays here in Syracuse.

I had no idea what to expect. But it was amazing! The Pride of New York is a perfect title for this Festival because from the minute I walked in I was proud of where I am from. There I was surrounded by fresh produce, wine and food from various exhibitors throughout New York State. Some of my favorite wineries from the Finger Lakes were there as well. I went on my first wine tour this summer to wineries along the Seneca River. I plan on visiting more in the years to come. What a great experience it is to see what is in my own backyard. Upon admission, you receive a free wine glass that says "Uncork New York." Our admission also came with entrance to any seminar we wanted. Some of the featured seminars were "wine and chocolate", "wine and cheese", and "favorite beers and favorite foods." There were many more. We attended the wine and cheese seminar. It was a packed room! Featured was McCadam's cheese, which was recently rated "America's Best Cheese." Understandably so because it was delicious! I preferred the Adirondack sharp cheese while my mom preferred the muenster. With the cheese we were given 4 samples of wine. In case you're wondering the wine was delicious, as was the cheese! Let me say that again, the wine was delicious.

The restaurant that I work for known for their continuous training. I have attended many seminars that discuss wine, beer and food pairings. So I feel somewhat knowledgeable. There was a gentleman from McCadam Cheese named Chris who spoke during part of the seminar. He briefly discussed MaCadam Cheese and their sister company Cabot Cheese (who knew, I didn't). And then he brought up a good point, which I will get to in a moment. Many grocery stores offer deals nowadays. Buy one, get one free or the infamous 2 for $5 etc. A lot of those offers are from National Companies (I don't want to name names but you know who they are). Chris's point was this: buy local! Spend the extra 50 cents and buy your local brand of cheese, wine, orange juice, milk, green peppers etc.

When I started blogging I wanted my focus to be on Central New York products. I thought I was doing a great job. I was buying from Wegman's (my favorite local grocery store) and I was drinking local wine and beer. But I was also trying to find the best deal I could when I was purchasing some of the ingredients. Yes, it's hard to resist the buy one get one free. But I'd rather spend the extra dollar or so and buy something from New York State and help fuel our economy. As the old saying goes, one hand washes the other.

It took about 2 hours to get through the majority of exhibitor booths. Some we just didn't have time to stop by. I did make it a point to stop by some of my favorites though. I feel awful mentioning some and not mentioning all the vendors so I will just post some links at the end of this blog. I have my favorites that I am very loyal to, and thanks to the Harvest Festival I now have some new favorites.

So I'll leave you with this thought: buy local! In case you missed some of the links you'll find them on the bottom of the page. Whether you are from Central New York and you're familiar with my blog or if you stumbled upon my blog and you're from anywhere I suggest checking out some of the links below, some of the places listed ship almost everywhere.

Thanks again for reading! Cheers!

CNY Harvest Festival

Cabot or McCadam Cheese

Finger Lakes Wineries

Uncork New York

Exhibitors from the Harvest Festival**

** the list of the exhibitors has links to their websites that way I'm won't forget anyone.