On Centre: Penns Valley

Local fall festivals celebrate season

Ed Mahon

The Aaronsburg Dutch Fall Festival will take place this Saturday and Sunday.

CDT file photo

Left to right, Charlotte Musser, Linda Kimble, Marsha Bierly and Candace Braucht work on a quilt at the Aaronsburg Area Public Library during the annual Haines Township Fall Festival Saturday, Oct 4, 2008. Quilts made locally were also on display at the library during the weekend as part of the festival. CDT/Mark Johnston

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Along with the craft vendors, entertainment, sticky buns and homemade ham and bean soup, there will be the traditional pot pie supper from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday in the Aaronsburg Community Building.

There also will be a quilt display at the Aaronsburg library, 114 W. Plum St., and new this year is a 5K walk and run at 9 a.m. Saturday to benefit the Penns Valley Hope Fund. Registration begins at 8 a.m. at the Aaronsburg post office.

For more information, visit www.aaronsburgcivicclub.org/ aaronsburgfallfestival. html.

Pumpkin picking time

I stopped by the pumpkin shack in Potter Township and picked up two small orange ones and a green one. Eileen Wool pointed out the playpen where corn kernels replaced sand.

“Isn’t that funny?” said Wool, a Centre Hall resident who’s been coming to the fall celebration hosted by the Farmer’s Wife for three years.

“I like the fall colors of the mums and the grass and everything. ... It’s just friendly,” said Wool, who was picking up some jellies and cookies.

At the counter, she and Faye Wasson discussed shoofly pie. There are lots of ways to make it, Wasson said. Her family runs the farm and she bakes pies for sale at the annual event.

“I guess there’s a couple recipes. Some are drier than others,” said Wool.

“Yeah, we like ours gooey,” said Wasson.

The farm’s on Airport Road, about 6/10 of a mile east of state Route

144. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday Hayride hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and cost $3 for ages 13 and older, and $2 for ages 3 to 12. Children younger than 2 ride for free.

Readers’ picks

After last week’s column, in which I laid out the top five cover songs in all of human history, I got a few responses from readers.

Here are five songs worth checking out, according to you: Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain” performed by Wendy Bucklew; “Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” performed by Joey Ramone; Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” performed by Johnny Cash; the Beatles’ “Blackbird” performed by Sarah McLachlan; Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” performed by Alien Ant Farm.

Oh, and I have one more addition: Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” performed by Earl Pickens & Family at the Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks on Saturday. It was a fun surprise during the alt-country band’s song-by-song interpretation of U2’s “Joshua Tree.”

Ed Mahon writes about news from the Penns and Brush Valley regions. He can be reached at 231-4619 or emahon@centredaily.com.