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Are you brushing up on your baking? Can you make a pie to die for?
Prove it to the community by entering the Cambridge Valley Apple Pie Bake-off. Enter your favorite pie recipe to be judged by the public and our panel of "professional" judges. Win bragging rights to the best apple pie in town and get your name placed on the menu of the Cambridge Hotel and your recipe used by the Hotel for 3 months, as the famous Pie ala Mode. There will also be CVCC gift certificates (as good as cash in chamber businesses) awarded to the first second and third prize winners. This contest is open to all amateur bakers, budding chefs & chef wannabes,(no professional bakers or chefs please). Pick up a registration form at many local businesses or on-line.

To find out more information, please go to www.cambridgenychamber.com and click on the Apple festival page. Or contact the Chamber by phone 677-0887.

Would you rather eat pie than bake pie? You can be an official taste tester of all of the pie bake-off entries. Public tasting is open from 11-2, with the semi-final results announced at 2 pm. The winner will be chosen by the professional judges at 5 pm.

GOBBLING PIE is also an option. The Cambridge Hotel, K Ward Realty and Stewart's Ice Cream are sponsoring a pie-eating contest scheduled for 4:00 pm during the festival. Whoever finishes their pie (ala mode of course) first wins! First and second prizes awarded. You can pre-register for the pie eating contest by picking up a form at local businesses, downloading the form off the Cambridge Valley Chamber of Commerce website or register the day of the event.

The Cambridge Apple Festival and Oktoberfest is a celebration of autumn. In addition to the apple pies, there will be children's activities, prizes for pumpkin painting and apple eating, plus crafts and vendor booths. The Bennington Beledi Dance troupe will entertain the crowds with their belly dancing. There will also be local musicians playing throughout the day.
OKTOBERFEST continues in the evening. The Cambridge Hotel is sponsoring the Albany based band Sirsy along with supplying festive food and drink as the party continues until 11 pm.

Food, farms, fleece, fun and fiber take center stage at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival. Proudly sponsored by the Washington County Fair,this unique family-friendly event showcases a wide variety of wonderful fibers, yarns, spinning, weaving, and fiber-producing animals.

Held at the Washington County Fair Grounds, in Greenwich, New York, the Fiber Festival will include demonstrations, workshops, entertainment and live animals. The fiber demonstrations will focus on fleece, yarn, roving, fine fiber products, and fiber related equipment and suppliers. Fiber - it's not just for breakfast any more.

The Fiber Festival runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on Saturday, and Sunday, September 26 and 27. For more details, please visit www.washingtoncountyfair.com.

The Village of Hudson Falls knows how to throw a party. To celebrate 175 years as a village, the Annual Sandy Hill Days celebration in 2009 promises to be one of the biggest events the village has ever seen. With events in both Juckett Park and Paris Park on Friday, September 11th, and Saturday, September 12th, there is sure to be something for everyone from arts and crafts, to great food, continuous live music, rides, games, clowns, magicians, balloons, and a spectacular fireworks display at 9:30 p.m., on Saturday.

Sandy Hill Days is sponsored by General Electric and is organized by a committee of local citizens. The goal is to bring the community together to have some fun, to celebrate the past, to look forward to the future and to reconnect with those you may not have seen for a while. For more details, please visit http://www.sandyhilldays.bizland.com/.

Tickets are on sale for Salem's second annual HarvestFest, on Saturday, September 12. Come celebrate the end of the 2009 growing season with local food, music, art and activities for the entire family. Explore the all day HarvestFest Marketplace beginning at 10:00 am or join us for a "Farm to Fork" Dinner and Barn Dance which gets underway at 6:00 pm. All events take place at Salem Art Works on Cary Lane from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm. HarvestFest is sponsored by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce.

The HarvestFest Marketplace is open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and there will be many opportunities to sample the summer's bounty, with local produce and homemade goodies for sale. The natural beauty of southern Washington County has drawn a variety of creative people to the area, and HarvestFest will also showcase the talented residents who live here, with locally made arts and crafts for sale. Visitors can also walk through Salem Art Works' sculpture park and galleries

HarvestFest concludes with a "Farm to Fork" dinner made from locally grown food that begins at 6:00 pm and features the music of three local bands, BlueGrassic Park , Dirty Old Strings and Moe Harrington and the White Chapel Band. Eat and dance to great local music until 10:00 pm. Beer and wine available for purchase.

Admission to the day time activities is free. Dinner is $20 for adults; $6 for children under 12; and free for children under 5. Tickets for music only starting at 8:00 pm are $10. Tickets for the dinner are available at area businesses or can be purchased at farmers markets throughout southern Washington County. For information call Salem Art Works at (518) 854-7674 or visit www.salemnychamber.com.

Born and raised here, in Eagle Bridge, New York, Will Moses creates paintings that reflect the quiet beauty of this tiny community nestled close to the Vermont border. Will has created a vivid, delightful miniature world, peopled with villagers who have stepped out of the past to charm us with their simple, everyday pastimes.

As a fourth generation member of the renowned Moses family, painting is a natural tradition for Will, who began painting when he was four years old. Encouraged by his grandfather, a well-known folk painter in his own right, young Will was allowed to experiment freely with paints. Forrest K. Moses was totally committed to self-expression and passed this freedom of spirit along to his young grandson. Stimulated by his grandfather's confident approach, Will developed his own unique style of Americana.

Today, Will continues to carry on the family tradition. Although his style is reminiscent of that of his celebrated great-grandmother, it is more complex and sophisticated.And, the 200 year-old farmhouse, where Will Moses has his studio, is as solidly traditional as the surrounding landscape...the white house where the legendary Grandma Moses began her career.

For more details about the Mt. Nebo Gallery, please visit. www.willmoses.com.

Think of the Country Life B&B as a Saratoga Springs Bed and Breakfast in nearby Greenwich!

The beautiful 1820's farmhouse is surrounded by the hills of Washington County, gateway to the Adirondacks and a short distance from Vermont. In the morning at the Country Life B&B, guests will enjoy a full, home-cooked breakfast featuring a fruit course and either stuffed french toast with cinnamon syrup or a signature dish of baked fresh fruit (fresh from the garden) on cinnamon toast.

Stroll around the pastures or through the pine woods alongside the creek. Splash in the natural swimming hole, twin waterfalls and a rock slide. A bridge across the stream leads to 30 acres of old woodlands filled with trails and wildlife. Relax and picnic by the waterfalls.

Celebrating their 28th year in business, owners Wendy and Richard Duvall fell in love with this home years ago and have proudly turned it into an unique and special place to stay when you are in the greater Saratoga region. For details, please visit the Country Life B&B website at www.countrylifebb.com.

Washington County, New York is home to a rich, vibrant artist community. Farmhouses, barns and old factories have been converted into studios where artists paint, sculpt, weave and create works of art that are exhibited throughout the U.S. as well as internationally.
 
On July 18-19, 2009, many of these professional artists will once again open their doors for the juried biennial Open Studios of Washington County. The 2009 Open Studios tour is funded in part by the Washington County Tourism Association and offers participants a glimpse into the creative lifestyle afforded those in Washington County plus the unique opportunity to purchase great art and fine craft directly from these studios.

A selection of participating artists includes: Joan Duff-Bohrer, Jeri MacDonald, Ed Hepp, Serena Kovalosky, Adriano Manocchia, Will Moses, Hannie Varosy, Virginia McNeice, Anastasia Lee Nute, Leslie Parke, Leslie Anne Peck and Gyula Varosy. For more details and a map of the participating local art studios, visit www.openstudioswashingtoncounty.org.

Located on Route 4, in the historic Village of Fort Edward, the Anvil Inn Restaurant now caters to people interested in an outstanding meal whether they arrive by boat, car, train or on foot. The Anvil Restaurant was originally constructed as a Blacksmith Shop in the early 1840's by Alexander Burke. Even today, you can see the remnances of this bygone era in this restored building which became a restaurant in 1975.

The Anvil Inn is owned and operated by the Orsini Family now and offers private dining, banquets and private parties. An extensive lunch and dinner menu is available along with a wide variety of wines and beers. A number of specialty desserts area also local favorites and include a Cranberry and a Bread Pudding that are out of this world good.

For details or to make a reservation, please visit www.anvilinn.com.

The Hyde Collection presents "Degas & Music," an exclusive, first-time exhibition of the music-related works of French Impressionist Edgar Degas, with several performances in Washington County. Collaborating with Hubbard Hall, in Cambridge, the Season of Degas includes a series of musical performances, exhibitions, workshops, lectures and family events.

The first "Season of Degas" performance at Hubbard Hall will take place on Friday, July 17th, at 7:00 p.m. This panel discussion is entitled Hearing is Seeing: Synethesia and the Arts. This event is free and open to the public. The second program includes a concert at Hubbard Hall on Sunday, at 3:00 p.m., entiteld French Feminine. Several more performances are planned in August as well. For more details, visit www.hydecollection.org or www.hubbardhall.org.

In Greenwich, it takes about 8 minutes to make one batch of homemade ice cream at the Ice Cream Man. Each batch equals 10 gallons of delicious ice cream which is then sold from the firm's Log Cabin, on Route 29.

The Ice Cream Man uses the old fashioned batch method of production, Fresh Cream, and the best ingredients they can find. The result is that they produce the highest quality most distinctive flavors of hard and soft ice cream in the county.

The Ice Cream Man is open during the summers every day from 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Besides ice cream, visitors can purchase ice cream cakes, pies, soup and sandwiches. The Ice Cream Man became famous in 2007 when it was the host site for a "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" of the Food Network.

For more details, to order or online, or directions to the Ice Cream Man, please visit www.the-ice-cream-man.com.