- Tonight on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories: at Vicki's Veggies, plants grow, but so do people.

Discover how one woman's passion for growing has become a legacy.

And Paul Allen stops by the studio to talk all things baseball and the stories he shares in his book.

Bright Lights, Black Stars.

Also discover how Maple producers are getting creative with a DIY tool to chill and save their sap.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

- WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by: - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

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With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong, at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St.

Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone and welcome to WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

We start off tonight with the first installment of our four-part fresh look at farming series, tucked away in Prince Edward County.

Vicki's Veggies isn't just known for its heirloom tomatoes, it's a place where knowledge is passed down, community is cultivated, and the love of food runs deep.

Meet the people who make it thrive from longtime friends to artist turned farm hands and discover how one woman's passion for growing has become a legacy.

- I'm taking the clip off.

Yes.

- Before she ever planted a tomato, Vicki Emlaw thought she'd left farming behind, raised in Prince Edward County by a long line of dairy farmers, she never planned to follow in their footsteps, but after traveling the world, she came home.

Not to pick up where her family left off, but to build something entirely her own - Vicky's Veggies.

- I did not wanna be a farmer.

Where I grew up, we grew up on a dairy farm and it was so stinky.

Like I have a very, very sensitive nose.

So I wanted nothing to do with farming, nothing at all, because that's what I as associated farming with.

And we grew a garden and my mom forced us into helping with the garden.

And there was nothing that I hated more.

- But life had other plans.

Once Vicki started growing food with color and character, she found her calling, heirloom tomatoes.

Not the kind you find in supermarkets, but the kind you might think were painted by hand.

A good friend of mine introduced me to heirloom tomatoes.

And so, I bought eight different varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

Like after the first eight tomatoes, like I'm looking at these tomatoes in a bowl.

Some of them are little yellow cherry tomatoes.

Some of them are big orange ones, like this.

One is green with green stripes, with neon green stripes.

One of them is purple and gnarly like this.

And I will tell you that I fell in love with the looks of heirloom tomatoes before I fell in love with the taste.

- Vicki's Veggies is more than a farm.

It's a roadside stand, a local food hub and a hands-on school where knowledge is passed from one person to the next.

Like a well traveled seed.

- Heirlooms are for varieties of, it can be anything like, like furniture.

You know how you have an heirloom piece of furniture that's been passed down from generation to generation.

This was my grandmother's, this was my great-grandmother's.

So those seeds have been passed down from generation to generation, and lots of them date back to like the yellow pair dates back to 1790.

And and also the thing about heirlooms are they will reproduce themselves as themselves.

So when I save the yellow pair, the yellow pair has all of the genetic wisdom or information that the yellow pair needs to produce itself.

- Some people arrive at Vicki's to work through a job posting and others through friendship.

One of the farm's most dependable hands is a longtime friend of Vicki's that she's known since childhood.

- I am the the the joking maintenance department where it's a farm.

There's always something to fix.

There's always something to repair or just preventative maintenance.

I'm always looking to make things better or more efficient or experiment.

Does it work better?

Does it not work better?

I'd like to think I've influenced Vicki on that a little bit for, you know, wanting to try some different concepts and, and you know, like still do it natural and organic, but different ways to make it more efficient or make it better.

Vicki when it comes to, to gardening, especially to her tomatoes of course, but gardening in general, her passion for it is incredible.

You can't help but be inspired by what she does.

- I'm a working artist and I needed to supplement and I've always been interested in farming and learning how to grow food.

When I came in I didn't know anything about farming.

This was my first experience really like getting into gardening and working with plants and the land.

So yeah, it was a huge learning experience and she was just so generous with all her knowledge and she continues to be super generous with her knowledge and her time.

And it's so beautiful here.

It's like the best workplace ever.

- I used to like, not even really like eating salad, but I'll eat arugula, like out of the, out the field.

I'll eat radishes outta the ground.

I'll eat beets out of the ground.

It's really opened my palate being able to go to restaurants in town that we've delivered to, and then we see like what they've done with it.

Like, oh my god, this is crazy.

Like I can't believe I seeded this like a couple months ago.

- Each spring Vicki's seedling sale draws gardeners and tomato lovers from across the region.

She starts over 20,000 plants by hand, most destined for home gardens.

- It costs so much to farm.

And in the springtime when there is no money, I've got no produce, I've got nothing.

And the seedling sale helps me pay for help.

It helps me pay all my bills.

It helps me get ahead of the game.

I do sell to a couple of big greenhouses, Brickworks and the Davenport Garden Center in Toronto.

But everything else I have in here goes to home gardens, everything.

- And that might be what makes Vicki's veggies so special.

The plants grow here, yes, but so do the people.

- I put out to the universe what I want and what I need and what my vision is and what my dream is.

And what my dream is is I would love to have a garden to teach people how to farm.

But you know, I am, I'm doing that with all of the people who have come through my garden.

- Being at the farm has been great for connecting with people 'cause Vicki obviously she's been here her whole life and her family has been here for generations.

So she's such an integral part of this community.

And so being able to be welcomed into that community by her, this is like a part of my life now.

I will always carry it with me.

- For WPBS weekly, I'm Gail Paquette - With baseball season underway.

We welcome to the studio baseball enthusiast Paul Allen.

Paul played nine years in the Inter-County Baseball League.

Was a two-time all-star and authored the book Bright Lights, Black Stars exploring how former Negro League baseball players brought their talent and legacy to Canada's inter-county baseball league between 1948 and 1958.

For more we go to Luke Smith inside the studio.

- Thank you Michael.

And folks happy baseball season.

I know we're in the middle of it right now.

And to celebrate, we are sitting down today with Paul Allen baseball enthusiast and author, author behind Bright Lights and Black Stars.

Paul, thank you for coming by and taking the time to talk with us today.

- Well thanks for having me.

It's nice to be heard.

- I am so excited to get started talking with you.

And my experience is mostly on the American side of baseball.

Yours is more on the Canadian side, is that correct?

- Well, that's true but my background and where I lived always exposed me to the Detroit Tigers.

And you know, at my age I can tell you that expansion hadn't taken place.

So, you know, as young kids growing up, we knew all the players that played for the Yankees and you know, the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers and the White Sox.

We knew all those.

So, you know, it kind of, kind of both.

Plus my dad was born in the States in North Carolina.

- Just from this alone, I can already tell you know a lot about baseball, but I gotta know where did this love for baseball all begin?

- Oh, I would say it started in North Carolina.

My dad came from North Carolina up to Canada and we always went back, you know, from, gosh, I was a toddler.

We always went back in the summer to visit my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle.

And my uncle actually in 1945 played in the first year the inaugural year of the Carolina League.

He played for the Durham Bulls.

So he was a pitcher and of course it didn't take him much.

Didn't have to encourage him at all to wanna play catch with me.

So my dad played a little bit in high school, so you know, he, he taught me how to, you know, throw, catch, and he would pitch batting practice.

And then, you know, as I got a little bit older, Chatham Ontario, which is about 60 miles north northeast of Detroit, a club by the name of the JCs, a business club, men's Business Club started a little league and they, they modeled it after the, the little league that was started in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

They bought land by the railroad tracks.

They built a diamond.

In 1952, I was 10 years old and I was playing baseball.

- And were you playing with these catcher's mitts right here?

I see these ones you brought in.

- Oh gosh, this is probably one of my first baseball gloves.

- Oh my goodness.

Look - At that thing.

I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say that's late forties, maybe early fifties.

And I think they weren't certain what I was gonna do.

And a cousin in North Carolina contributed the catchers mitt - Wow.

- When you look at those things, you wonder how anybody caught a ball.

- Yeah, I mean like when you go to like a Dick's Sporting Goods, you don't see stuff like that anymore.

Like, it's like, it's more hyper - like you gotta see the wear on this.

We're gonna get a cutaway shot of this in a minute, but like there's wear on this, like it's showing its age.

So you said, what was your little league team's name again?

- Well, we played in a league and the names have changed now, you know, we've updated things.

But I played Squirt peewee, Banham Midget Junior Intermediate, and eventually senior inter-county base baseball.

- See, my education's more on hockey so I immediately recognize, and I know that's the goal.

- Yeah, they've, changed it to under 10, under 11, under 18.

You know, they don't use those names, but at the time, you know, historically that's what we were called.

I played for the Chicago White Sox.

Oh, and I was a pitcher, but I made all star teams.

I was fortunate, I had really great coaches.

I could tell you a lot about my coaches, former pro players.

You know, we weren't in the back woods of Canada.

We had ball players that had played in semi-pro in the inner county.

And I had three that played professional baseball in the States.

So we were, well, well taught and grounded with fundamentalism and we did well.

I played on two provincial championships, which is like your state championship.

Unclassified, so we played against the big cities and we won.

And we had a pitcher, the third best pitcher on our team was a guy you may have heard of by the name of Fergie Jenkins, the first Canadian to be elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

But he was the third pitcher.

But let's face it, I mean he surpassed all of us and was a great pitcher and still a good friend.

- This is all in your semi-pro inner county time you said, correct?

- Well this is before that.

That's what we would call minor league.

Well not even minor league, it's just young adult teenager Period time.

- Because you played, so, because you played in, you played for about nine years before starting in the inner County League, is that correct?

- Well actually I played nine years in the inner county.

- Oh, - Okay.

- I played eight years in London.

That, this is my London majors hat.

There's a nice blue one with the, you know, the old English L on it.

And, and then I played one year for the Branford Red Sox.

But that's the semi-pro league that I wrote the book about.

- And you played with a lot of notable figures.

I've got a list here, right here you played with people like Tom Burgess, Russ Evon, Ray yell, Roy McKay, you had an amazing coach in the form of Norm Aldridge.

And are there any funny stories you can tell me about your time in those leagues?

- Well, yeah, sure.

I can tell you about Tom Burgess.

Tom Burgess is a London guy, a great ball player, signed with the St.

Louis Cardinals.

Played for the Rochester Red Wings.

He's in the Hall of Fame with the Rochester Red Wings.

And he was a first baseman and an outfielder and he just grew up at the wrong time because there was another player who played the outfield and first base by the name of Stan Musial.

So he was not gonna knock Stan Musial out of the lineup.

So he, he kind of went back and forth between the Cardinals and the Rochester Red Wings.

And then he later signed with the California Angels.

When he retired from baseball, he became the manager.

'cause he's a London Ontario guy of the London baseball team.

And he was a great dresser, wore cardigans and nice, nice slacks, nice shoes, quality guy.

And he would come into the clubhouse and, you know, get into his uniform and, and run out on the field for batting practice.

And a couple guys were always left in the clubhouse.

And we had a catcher who was a terrific guy.

His name was Dave Pook and he played in the Giants organization, came back and played in, in semi-pro with London and Pooky goes over and sees these silk shorts that Burgess was wearing and had hung them up and he took 'em off, took 'em off the hook, put 'em over his baseball uniform and paraded around the clubhouse to laughter.

And I was one of them.

And he's going boys, he says, this is what it's like in the show.

He says, when you're in the big leagues, you wear these type of clothes.

- Oh my - Goodness.

And Burgess walks through the door and sees him and, and give credit to Tom Burgess.

He, he handled it and he says Pook, he said, if I had another catcher, you'd be sitting.

But Pook was a great guy.

I'll tell you another dave Pook story.

- Well, I gotta ask you another one because I would be remiss if we did not talk about your book.

- Okay.

- We got, 'cause I, I am on of the understanding that it was the, your time in the Semipro that really was where this book started.

Tell me a little bit about how that happened.

- Basically because of some baseball reunions, you know, the older you get, you get sentimental and you want to get together with the guys.

Some of them had passed away.

So let's get together with the guys that are still kicking tell long, tall stories.

We always say the older we get, the better we were.

But I had a reunion in London and fortunately my first all star baseball coach, a professor at the University of Western Ontario by the name of Jack Fairs, was at the reunion and he was a catcher for the London team.

He could have played pro but he went into university teaching instead.

And he brought back memories of him and, and we heard stories about some of the players that he played with, some of the names that you mentioned and some of the great Negro League players.

And I thought, boy, that's a story.

And then I went to Branford, same thing, played with the Branford guys.

Jimmy Wilkes was there who played in the Negro Leagues, started talking to him.

And I just thought, this is a great story.

No one had ever written a book about the inner County Baseball league and that that's how it started.

And I just thought there's too many good stories not to share.

- And something that really fascinated me when we were talking over the phone, you had mentioned that they are starting to recognize the Negro League as something comparable to the MLB.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Well, I think it's a couple years ago, major League Baseball made an announcement and they said, we have done enough research, we know how good the Negro League players were and we now recognize them as equivalent to the Major League baseball.

- Wow.

So that recognition put the Major League baseball, you know, on top of recognizing great players and the Negro League players are now recognized and people are saying, gosh, I didn't know that.

And they wanna find out more about the Negro League and those great players.

They know the names of some of them, but it's, it's a terrific recognition for great ball players.

- And honestly, some of the people you featured in this, you were even telling me off camera, Jackie Robinson was one of the people in that, in that league.

Is that correct?

- Jackie Robinson didn't play in the inner county, but he did play in Montreal.

He signed with the Montreal Royals and that was a triple A team and he played in Canada.

And he said in, in his book, people in Montreal and Canada don't know how important they were for my progress and development because they treated me as an equal.

And he also said when they won, they won the International League championship and the people ran out on the field and they mobbed everybody and they had him up on his shoulders.

And he said in his book, that's the first time a black guy was mobbed in happiness.

Wow.

So, but you know, there were ne league players that started in 1949 in the inner County Baseball league.

That's, and they were great players - And that's all covered in this book.

Now I'm getting the wrap up signal, so I gotta know where can people go to find out more about this to get even get this book?

- Well the book is on Amazon, so that's an easy way to do it.

And you know, and if they want to email me if you, if you give my email address, I can order author copies and mail them directly.

But probably the easiest way is Amazon.

There's a couple places, you know, your listening area, Kingston, you know, Gananoque would probably have to drive too far 'cause I have a most in towns where I grew up but American listeners could, you know, get it on Amazon quite easily if they got prime or get it through their kids, they don't even, even better pay for the shipping.

- Hey PBS is on prime.

So that's a big plus.

There you go.

There you go.

Well Paul, thank you so much again for coming here to talk with us.

People go check out this book.

It is certainly worth the read, especially for you baseball fans.

And Paul, thank you again for taking the time to chat with us.

Well thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

- Finally tonight, innovations in Maple Tech on the DIY level, the maple industry faces a new dilemma.

Warmer spring temperatures can lead to spoiled sap before it reaches the evaporator.

But in Lake Placid Uihlein Maple Research Forest Director Adam Wild, has developed a practical solution that will save your sap before it turns.

- Gallons of maple sap are a norm for producers with each maple season.

But what's grown harder to predict is when the annual freeze-thaw cycle, many of them rely on will take place.

- The freeze-thaw cycle is, is very important in the maple production.

When the trees freeze at night, their roots absorb water from the ground and then as it thaws during the day, the pressure forces that water up the tree and then we're able to obviously tap into it.

I notice a difference in the timing of the season where traditionally we always thought of it as being a march season as a start date.

We're seeing more and more in - February and even into January we have these kind of quick thaws and quick swings of temperature from cold to really warm.

And that makes it really challenging for maple producers.

- Those changing conditions are forcing producers like Scott to get a bit more creative with how they tap and save their sap.

- We brought in the refrigeration unit about three years ago in order to keep the sap colder before we boil.

If we keep that sap stored above 40 degrees for any period of time, we're gonna get significant microbial growth.

What's happening there is those bacteria are metabolizing the sugar that is in maple syrup and they're changing it into another form of sugar.

- I like to think of the raw maple sap coming from our trees as like milk.

And you wouldn't want to leave milk sitting in a tank outside when it's 60 degrees out within the industry.

We need to have different strategies to try to collect as much sap as we can in a potentially shorter timeframe.

- Through grant funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Adam and his team at the Eline Maple Research Forest developed a cost effective way to save sap while maintaining quality product.

- The do-it yourself sap chillers are built by modifying a window air conditioner in combination with a picnic cooler.

The window air conditioners that are, you know, used for cooling down air can also be adapted for cooling down a glycol water solution.

We use that because it can drop to a much colder temperature without freezing into a solid block of ice.

And then that glycol water solution can be pumped through a heat exchanger to cool down our maple sap.

So it - Allows you to almost pick your boiling times where if you're not chilling the concentrated sap, you really have about 24 hours to get it boiled and, and processed and turned into maple syrup.

- Early use of these DIY chillers is already proving beneficial, cutting down on labor time, reducing evaporator usage by 40%, and even lowering cleanup time after boiling.

- My hope for Maple producers implementing the DIY sap chillers is that they can build one of these sap chillers at a fairly affordable costs in that they can implement that into their operation and that it helps their operation be more efficient and improve the quality of their maple products.

- We just have to be understanding and open to the fact that things, things change and that's okay.

Just because our grandparents tapped on March 1st or March 15th doesn't mean we can't tap on December 1st.

The one thing that we're trying to do at Maplewood Suites is just be prepared on our end.

Right?

Be prepared in the woods, be have the tubing prepared.

Everything's ready to go, say theoretically by December 1st.

So if we do have a warm December, we can go tap trees and take advantage of that - For WPBS Weekly.

- I'm Luke Smith.

To learn more about how you can develop your own Maple sap chiller, just visit cornellmaple.com.

Well that does it for us this Tuesday night.

If you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

All you need to do is send us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

Until next time, take care.

- WPBS weekly.

Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

A Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing Close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country strong, at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St.

Lawrence County Arts Council.

- I am the, the the Joking Maintenance Department where it's a farm.

There's always something to fix.

There's always something to repair or, or just preventative maintenance.

I'm always looking to make things better or more efficient or experiment.

Does it work better?

Does it not work better?

I'd like to think I've influenced Vicki on that a little bit.