May 18th, 2026

Good morning friends,

   This past week, I spent a considerable amount of time by myself in Penn Yan. It’s the time of the year when the temperatures fluctuate wildly, and the first crops start to appear. The signs on the Mennonite stores start to advertise what is ready…I did something that I try to do at least once a month… I circumnavigated Keuka Lake. I stopped at a particular store that I’ve been going to for many years. It has a beautiful view of the Lake and is high up on the east side. "Westview Farm Store" started out as a little home store and now it has ornamental plants and vegetables and groceries and the little kids who used to tend the "Store” are now adults. So I purchased some beets to make "greens" and I purchased some eggplant and a bit of cheese to make eggplant Parmesan and I spent the entire day on Friday cooking. But I had committed to seeing a performance at 5:30 on Friday at the Steuben Brewing Company. A band of Finger Lakes musicians had formed a group that started as a support for an old company in Naples called Sutton Spoons (the kind for fishing, not eating!). When the company was facing financial difficulty this group of musicians got together and provide a concert to help out. Now they have formed a band called the Sutton String Band.

  One of the reasons I wanted to see the band was because I had personally sold instruments to just about every member….they were like my kids and the father of one of the players came up to me and said do you see what you started? You must be very proud of all of this and of course I was. I have sold instruments to at least four members of the band…some, when they were teenagers. So I settled in to a full, packed house on a beautiful Friday evening to listen to the music of Brandan Masur, Scott Caplin, Oscar Fargnoli, Billy Henrie Jake Penna, and Chris Stevens….if I closed my eyes I could swear I heard the music of Ralph Stanley and other early Americana roots artists emanating from the mouths of babes.

 With a heart full of music, I left a bit early for a nice eggplant Parmesan dinner at home and prepared for a full day of work on Saturday.

With peace,

JB

PS On Monday morning I will be stalking the wild cardoons!

The view from Steuben Brewery 

View from Dr. Konstantin Frank wine tasting room.