We're Throwing a Party for Quilters!

The American Quilters Society is holding their convention and quilt show at the Lancaster County Convention Center from March 24 - 27 and we're excited. If you are attending the show and will be in town on March 25, we'd like to invite you to be our guest at a party.

Come enjoy an evening with friends, learn what Lancaster has to offer, see a local woodworker, check out our area dinner theaters, see local Amish ladies working on a quilt, enjoy a massage, and...did we mention food? Enjoy great local food and beverages from many of our restaurant partners. There will be music too. Just take the free shuttles from the convention center.

We'll have invitations at the concierge desk, and walk-ins are welcome. So grab your friends and head to Mulberry Art Studio for the Quilters Party!

Mulberry Art Studio
21 Mulberry St.
downtown Lancaster

Thursday, March 25

6:00pm - 8:30pm

Party sponsored by Authentic Bed and Breakfasts of Lancaster County (the largest bed and breakfast association in Lancaster County with 37 member inns) and their Passport Partners

Written by Jan Garrabrandt, The Artist's Inn

2010 Tour de Tanks of the Wineries on the UnCorkYork Wine Trail

You are invited to 14 area wineries to experience the ultimate wine tasting in Pennsylvania! Located in the center of Pennsylvania’s #1 tourist region, the featured wineries can be found in York, Lancaster, Gettysburg and Harrisburg areas. Taste the new vintages before they are bottled. Meet with the winemakers and learn the process of winemaking.
This special tour will be held on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning March 6th through March 28, from the hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Purchase your ticket for $20 at the participating wineries. Your ticket is good for the whole month, and includes a wine tasting glass and a 10% discount on wine purchases. Visit 5 or more wineries, and enter to win great prizes.

Participating Wineries:
Adams County Winery, Orrtanna, PA www.adamscountywinery.com
Allegro Vineyards, Brogue, PA www.allegrowines.com
Cullari Vineyards & Winery, Hershey, PA www.cullari-vineyards.com
Four Springs Winery, Seven Valleys, PA www.fourspringswinerypa.com
Fox Ridge Vineyard & Winery, York, PA www.foxridgewinery.com
Hauser Estate Winery, Biglerville, PA www.hauserestate.com
Hummingbird Ridge Winery, York Haven, PA www.hummingbirdridgewinery.com
Moon Dancer Vineyard & Winery, Wrightsville, PA www.moondancerwinery.com
Naylor Wine Cellars, Stewartstown, PA www.naylorwine.com
Nissley Vineyards & Winery, Bainbridge, PA www.nissleywine.com
Reid’s Orchard & Winery, Orrtanna, PA www.reidsorchardwinery.com
Tamanend Winery, Lancaster, PA www.tamanendwinery.com
Waltz Vineyards Estate Winery, Manheim, PA www.waltzvineyards.com (Saturday tasting, only)
West Hanover Winery, Harrisburg, PA www.westhanoverwinery.com

More information can be found at: www.uncorkyork.com

Written by Pam Fritz, B. F. Hiestand House

Lancaster County’s Best Kept Secrets Tour 2010

April 9 thru April 24

Come, relax and stay at one of our 38 Authentic Bed and Breadkfasts in Lancaster County. Enjoy a good night’s sleep and a sumptuous breakfast then explore, shop and dine at some of Lancaster County’s best kept secrets.
This shopping, food and fun tour will take you to 35 of Lancaster County’s unique and off-the-beaten path businesses.
Your “ticket” to this 2 week event, encompassing 3 weekends, is a tour bag with a guide describing each business and a map showing its location, and coupons from every business participating,. There will be special discounts, drawings, demonstrations or a gift only for tour goers.

What businesses will be participating?

That’s the secret!

There will be home furnishings and gift stores, antique stores, quilt and fabric stores, farm markets, a winery, florals and crafts and cafes.

Go where you want, when you want. The cost for your fun tour bag is $6, $1 of which goes to a local organization serving people with special needs.

This event is very popular. Call Melissa at Carson’s in the Cornfields at 717-354-7343 and reserve your ticket.

You don’t want to miss it!

Submitted by Dolores Walter, Richmond House Bed and Breakfast

Authentic Passport to Lancaster County

Come to Lancaster County and enjoy the savings! The innkeepers of the Authentic Bed and Breakfast Association of Lancaster County invite you to participate in our Passport Program.

In 2008 we “launched” this program at the PA Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau and invited Lancaster area businesses to partner with us to offer our guests special discounts when they visit our area. It was a wonderful event and well received by the business community.

And now our guests can benefit in two ways: receive exclusive discounts at more than 70 participating Lancaster area shops, restaurants and attractions starting with your first stay and receive a $50 discount on your 5th stay at one of our 38 Authentic B&Bs. Stay at three or more of our participating B&Bs to receive the 5th stay discount.

Many of our guests have enjoyed the savings offered by our business partners and some have already redeemed their passport for their $50 lodging discount. This program will run through the end of 2013.

To our current passport holders that have acquired stamps on a passport that was to expire Dec 2010, we will honor your passport thru 2013.

Visit us at www.authenticbandb.com/passport.htm to learn more about the Passport Program and see many of our business partners. We look forward to being your hosts in beautiful Lancaster County and to make your stay memorable with our knowledge of things to see and do and sites not to be missed. Come visit us soon.

Folktales, History and a Latte

What do Captain Barnabas Hughes, Johnny Appleseed, Davey Crockett, King Arthur and The Three Little Pigs have in common? Okay, first you might ask who in the world is Captain Barnabas Hughes? Captain Barnabas Hughes was the founder of Elizabethtown, PA which he named after his wife Elizabeth, but that doesn’t really help you figure out the riddle. While that may get you thinking that the answer might have to do with a place, it is still not much of a clue. Okay, here it is….They are all delicious sandwich creations that are served at the newest coffee shop in Elizabethtown, Folklore Coffee And Company located at 1 North Market St. Owners Ryan & Dawn Bracken are dedicated to providing an atmosphere you’ll tell tales about. It is a charming place filled with local art and serving locally roasted coffee by craft roaster, Josh Steffy of Square One Coffee in Lancaster.
The creative menu offers breakfast items-bagels, homemade organic baked oatmeal, yogurt served with or without granola & fresh seasonal fruit. Their lunch menu offers organic soups, salads, wraps and sandwiches made with locally homemade organic breads and scrumptious looking desserts. The drink menu is also varied and intriguing. They serve smoothies and many other specialty drinks, including a Hansel & Gretel Chai which I can say was out of this world. Folklore Coffee And Company also features live music. http://www.folklorecoffee.com/

Hours are: 7am – 9 pm Monday through Friday and 8am – 11pm on Saturday.

Tickets are now on sale for an upcoming concert :
Sherwood with special guests Hot Chelle Rae, Black Gold, and Reece. March 13th 7pm
Tickets $10 Advance/$12 at the door
Call 717-361-1658 or e-mail folklorecoffeco@gmail.com for more information.

Submitted by Ann Royer Amanda Gish House Bed & Breakfast

Middle Creek and Thousands of Geese

Would you be interested in seeing a natural phenomenon that takes place every year in Northern Lancaster County that involves thousands upon thousands of Snow Geese? In a little over one month (starting mid-February running through mid-March) flocks of Snow Geese on their northern migration will be arriving at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area located in Kleinfeltersville, PA.

Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area is a 6,254-acre area, owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The area is set aside for the protection, propagation, management, preservation, and controlled harvest of wildlife. They have wonderful hiking trails and it’s a haven for bird watchers and photographers. You can even take a Self-Guided Driving Tour of the area. We’ve also enjoyed riding our bikes through the natural landscape. The visitor center is free and features wildlife and environment displays. It’s ideal for an individual needing reconnaissance of nature or a family who enjoys the outdoors. Did I mention that they have resident Bald Eagles? For more information their website is http://www.fieldtrip.com/pa/77331512.htm.

Snow Geese breed in the Arctic Tundra and winter in farmlands, lakes and coastal areas in the American south, southwest and east coast. These geese occur only in North America, and make an annual round trip journey of more than 5,000 miles at speeds of 50 mph or more. Snow Geese winter in immense flocks, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands. When they take flight, the flock appears as a white cloud or when they are nestled on the ground you may think it’s a snow covered hill (until the snow takes flight).
My personal recommendation would be to take the Willow Point Trail which is paved and only ½ mile from one of the parking lots at Middle Creek Management Area (note that this trail may be closed during waterfowl hunting). At the Willow Point Trail you are able to walk out so that the lake wraps around either side of where you are. The geese are noisy but just take the time to wait for them to become unsettled and listen and watch thousands of Snow Geese take off in flight from the water all at the same time just feet from where you’re standing – what a phenomenon.

Submitted by Liz Ehrhart, Furnace Hills Bed and Breakfast

Cookie Baking – A cup of goodwill, a pinch of the past, and a smidgen of cinnamon

The other day as it was snowing – our first big snowfall of the year with 12 inches, I was mindful that those kinds of days are great to spend baking cookies; however I’ve already baked mine for the season.

Memories flood my mind of days past when families gathered to spend a day together baking, talking and sharing among themselves. It’s a good way to carry on traditions from the past. Christmas cookie baking represent friends, family, comfort and tradition and recipes handed down from one generation to the next. When I bake my cookies in December, I like to make several differing kinds for variety.
My recipes have not yet been put into an organized system, except for an old tattered book entitled “Christmas Cookies”, into which I stuff all the best of the best recipes that I have made. They may be on old yellowed pieces of paper, recipes handed down from my Mom, newspaper clippings, from friends, or recipes gotten from a magazine while sitting in a doctor’s office.

I begin by sorting the recipes and making a list of the ones that I would like to bake. I look over the recipe and note what ingredients I will need to buy so that I need not stop for supplies after I have started.

Cookie baking can be works of art – from drop cookies, bar cookies, cut-outs, filled cookies, iced cookies, to pinwheels. Each holiday season, I make many of the same cookies, but like to try some new ones too. And there may also be some mistakes, forgetting to add something or some that burn because you left them in the oven too long.
This year I baked with my grandchildren helping – putting the candy kisses on the cookies, dipping the cookies in chocolate, or decorating the sand tarts. It became an assembly line baking but in 2 hours we had 42 dozen --- and lots of fun, good memories, and cookies for giving and sharing…and plenty to serve our guests who come to the Bed and Breakfast over this Holiday Season. I am including one of my favorites.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies
¼ cup butter
2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
¾ cup flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Combine butter, unsweetened chocolate and ¾ cup chocolate chips in a large saucepan. Cook over low heat till melted. Beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Gradually add flour, b. powder, and salt, beating well. Add chocolate mixture. Stir in remaining ¾ cup chocolate chips and pecans. Drop onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Submitted by Ruth Harnish, Flowers & Thyme Bed and Breakfast