Volunteers and sponsors are needed for the 2nd Annual Upper Delaware Litter Sweep that will take place in every Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River corridor community starting on Earth Day, April 22, and running through April 30. Participants will receive a commemorative t-shirt; supplies to use including safety equipment, bags, and pickers; and disposal information for their collected trash.
THE HANCOCK HERALD – Jan 11, 2022 | Homepage Featured, Local News
The Hancock Partners have announced new appointments for 2022. Pictured above, from left to right, are Hancock Partner members: Jeff Skelding, Chris Gross, Partners President, Mike Argiros, Chris DuBois, and newly appointed Director of Regional and Economic Development Richard Lowe.
Hancock Partners, Inc. announced that Richard H. Lowe, III will fill the position of Director of Regional and Economic Development replacing Valarie Senese who has held the position for the past two years. Senese is taking the position of Executive Director at the Rail Trail Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Lowe, a full-time Hancock resident since fall 2020, has experience working to renew American based businesses and heritage brands through private equity partnerships and immersive marketing. Most recently Lowe worked to raise over $6k with local residents to establish and build “Phase 1” of the Hancock Hounds Dog Park. Lowe says he isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty and often volunteers his time with local leaders and civic organizations such as the Delaware Valley Garden Club, Rotary Club, and Hancock Community Education Foundation.
Read the rest of this article on Hancockherald.com
Hancock Area Chamber of Commerce, Hancock Partners, and the Hancock Hounds Dog Park(HHDP) are pleased to announce the 1st Annual Hancock Art Walk sponsored by the Hancock Hounds Dog Park, which launches on May 6th 2022 during Mother’s Day Weekend Celebrations. The Google Map above shows the official walking path, and this can be downloaded or sent to others by clicking the map above. The walk takes approximately 30minutes each directions assuming time to stop and read each artist’s bio and information. Official Press Release linked here.
Special thanks to Hallmark Movie Channel for its sponsorship and support, but we need your support too!
In these challenging times, The Hancock Area Chamber of Commerce is committed to keeping our area safe. So, while we have put the Christmas parade on hold – Santa will still be delivering the gifts, normally given out at the parade. This year gifts will be delivered to the Hancock Central School.
We are pleased to announce a new project: ‘Letters to Santa’. We invite our area children to write letters and wish list to Santa. These should be mailed to PO Box 555, Hancock, NY 13783.
The Hancock Area Chamber of Commerce is having its Holiday decorating contest for businesses and homes throughout the local area! Businesses will be judged on the following: theme, tree décor, and storefront display. Homes will be judged on the following: light display, creativity, and theme. Judging will take place on Saturday evening, December 19th.
Every year, the Chamber provides trees that are displayed outside local businesses. The Businesses will decorate the tree as part of their participation in the Holiday Spirit Decorating Contest. Please contact Dawn Joyce (607-637-1404) if you would like a tree.
To help make all of this happen – we are asking for support. Both in hands on participation as well as in the form of donations. If you would like to be involved, contact Dawn Joyce at 607-637-1404 or send us an email [email protected]
Donations can be made using the DONATE button above on the Home page or mailed to the Hancock Area Chamber, PO Box 525, Hancock NY 13783. You can also drop off your donation in an envelope noted “Care of Hancock Are Chamber of Commerce – Holiday Events” at any of these locations:
– NBT Bank – 11 East Main Street, Hancock NY
– SFCU – 70 W. Front Street, Hancock NY
– Hancock Herald – 102 Main Street, Hancock NY
– Kaybirds Gifts – 125 Wheeler St., Hancock NY
We thank you for your continued support! Small town strong!
Wild apple trees spread their branches across a land that was once a farmstead filled with history of farming, fur trapping and tailoring. It is a special place where a random grove of 2,500 wild apple trees provide each year a harvest that now is captured and naturally processed by two apple farming pioneers in East Branch.
Red Kill Mountain Homestead Farms is the dream, the love, the business of partners Matthew Trattner and Ashley Rossi both transplants from northern New Jersey who together have brought the wild apple back from decades of oblivion. They have reintroduced products of a by-gone age by embracing the challenge of wild apple farming or as they call it “wild apple stewardship”, a trade they further refer to as “permaculture”, organic farming with a twist which they call farming by “utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems.”
On an old farmstead that spreads across a high ridge of Red Kill Mountain near Roxbury sits an apple grove first planted some 150 years ago, a grove that expands naturally in time. Each fall the apples are picked by hand and gathered to make products rarely available elsewhere. All made from wild, natural, left-to-nature apples with different tastes, sizes and colors. Apples in season are sold at the Red Kill Mountain Homestead Farm store and processing plant and kitchen on Burnwood Road in East Branch. In their kitchen and processing plant Trattner and Rossi make magic and produce apple molasses, apple spread, apple sauce and dried apples.
A bite on a piece of dried wild apple will bring a taste of a lemon-like tartness with complex flavors of cinnamon, mixed fruit with an apple base. It awakes your every tastebud, like tasting a very fine wine.
I have yet to taste the other products but know from the makers that their care and creativity have produced something very special, a taste not experienced by many and a taste once cherished by the earliest settlers of the Catskill Mountains.
Apple Molasses, also known as cider syrup, is the flagship product of Red Kill Mountain Homestead Farms. “We had-select and hand-harvest our wild apples and press them into sweet cider. The cider is then boiled down into a delightful apple molasses,” says Rossi. Apple molasses, Rossi points out is listed as an “endangered food” by Ark of Taste an international catalogue of “endangered” heritage foods.
Homestead Farms’ apple spread is made in small batches from hand-selected apples “with the skin on and then hand-blended with the farm’s apple molasses,” adds Rossi.
In wintertime Rossi and Trattner produce maple syrup from a sugarbush the couple cares for on their Red Kill Mountain apple farm. The syrup is aged in old bourbon barrels producing a sweet, mellow taste.
“We want to be good stewards of the land that is under our care.,” says Tattner of the couple’s approach to wild apple farming practices with its “stewardship” twist, all totally natural and driven by what nature brings. “We have as part of our mission to educate others through our products that this food source – wild apples – needs to be preserved and protected,” adds Rossi.
Red Kill Mountain Homestead Farms products come attractively packaged and come in 10 to 7-ounce jars or in the case of dried apples in a 7/10 ounce specially-sealed harvest-brown bag. Products may be purchased on the Red kill Mountain Homestead Farms website at www.redkillmountainhomesteadfarms.com. Products including fresh apples now in season can also be purchased at the farm’s “Milk House”, the official retail store located at 3432 Burntwood Road, East Branch, NY 13756. Store hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday by appointment. For more information email [email protected] or call Ashley at (845) 674-3535.
Hancock Partners, despite challenges presented by COVID, have continued their efforts for community and economic development of the greater Hancock area without losing track of their vision. In August of this year, the Partners hired Valerie Senese as the community and economic development coordinator. Valerie has experience as a grant writer, community development coordinator and chairs a finance committee as an elected official. Most notable is her passion for small town America and supporting rural communities. You can find Valerie at the Hancock Partners new office located at 158 East Front street or by calling 607. 483. 1571. For more information about the Partners visit their website at THEHANCOCKPARTNERS.ORG or their Facebook page @HancockPartners.
The 2020 COVID-19 situation has impacted quite a bit and that includes 2020’s Christmas On The Square. While the traditional Santa Parade, Tree lighting, Period Carolers, & Smores on the Square are now off the agenda, the downtown businesses and villagers will still be Competing for the to be picked by the voters as “Best” in class decorating and Holiday Spirit,
Hancock Area Chamber meetings are generally held on the FIRST TUESDAY of each month at 5:45pm at the FUDR offices on East Front Street. Currently and for the foreseeable future – we will meet via ZOOM. Please call or email to confirm time and access code.
FROM 2019 – Archive Post:
On Saturday, November 2, at 11am, the Hancock Area Chamber will hold a Grand Opening celebration at the new Campton’s Kitchen and Gallery at 167 East Front Street, Hancock. The public is invited to attend.
Owners Jim and Laura McManus have lived in Hancock since 2015 when they opened The Camptons Art and Design Studio and Gallery at 422 East Front Street. They moved here from the Caribbean, where they lived and worked for many years as owners of an island restaurant called Donovan’s Reef. Jim has family ties to the area, and they have returned to settle in Hancock where “the river and charm of the village enhances our creative endeavors.”
Laura McManus says of their decision to open the combination gallery and kitchen, “We decided to open a cafe along with the art shop and gallery because it is a natural extension of what we do. We’re happy to be in Hancock and hope to bring a warm, good feeling, creative environment and some fresh, ‘farm-to-table’ food to the people who live here year round as well as to the tourists visiting the area.”
On a typical day at the Campton’s, you’ll be warmly greeted by Jim, Laura, and Jim’s brother Bob. “The atmosphere is incredibly inviting and comfortable, the artwork is fabulous, and the food is just delicious. These guys are 100% in their element in what they’re doing here, and it shows” says Hancock Chamber President Nancy Furdock.
For more information about their menu, operating hours, and creative offerings, check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/thecamptonskitchenandgallery/
Please join us on November 2nd to congratulate Jim and Laura on their new adventure! We wish them much success!