Food and Drink: Syracuse Real Food Co-op

Located at 618 Kensington Road, in the Westcott neighborhood, the Syracuse Real Food Co-op has been providing local, fresh and organic foods to area residents since its inception in 1972. The store is open to the public, though a co-op membership entitles the holder to special voting privileges and periodic discounts. Organic cereals, energy bars, snacks, and milk products are available, among a range of products.

While other grocery stores such as Wegman's, P&C, and Price Chopper may offer a wider selection in a larger location, the Co-op has all the necessities in an easy bike- or walkable location. It is located two blocks from Westcott Street, near Barry Park:


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Food and Drink: Middle Ages Brewery

A Syracuse institution, Middle Ages Brewery, has been pumping out tasty microbrews for almost 15 years. Its local flavor and focus on quality is especially popular with students. Its tap room on Wilkinson Street is open Monday-Friday from 11:30-6pm and Saturday until 5pm. Its beers are named with a medieval flair: Grail Ale, Dragonslayer, Druid Fluid, Wizard's Winter Ale. Wailing Wench and Swallow Wit wheat beer are both regular selections at the ESF graduate "TG" parties.

Sample the wares responsibly, and don't feel pressured to make a purchase. If you do, however, beers can be carried home in half-gallon refillable glass "growlers".

Food and Drink: Farmer's Market

The Central New York Regional Market is a favorite Saturday-morning destination for the go-getters in the ESF community. While early morning around 10am is best, the market is open until 1pm. It is not uncommon to see a dozen or more fellow students and professors doing their weekly shopping on a typical visit.

The Market features locally grown produce, especially during the summer and fall, when the offerings change on a weekly basis, from berries and fruits to apples, squash, and potatoes in the autumn months. A large number of vendors offer necessities with a specialty flair: cream-on-the-top milk, fresh yogurt, unfiltered apple cider, homemade pastas, granola, and breads.

In the summer, fresh local peaches are a must-have. Highly recommended and year-round are the very reasonably priced Mennonite baked goods, locally produced cheeses, and various free-range and grass-fed meats, from Buffalo to Lamb.

Food and Drink: Inn Complete

Every graduate student's favorite hang-out, the Inn Complete is housed in the former ski lodge on South Campus. You can reach it by car or via the Winding Ridge bus route, free to students. The Inn features standard student fare - chicken fingers, cheese fries, wings, sandwiches and wraps - all with a 25% discount for showing your grad ID. Apart from food, there is a great selection of beers at very reasonable prices - $1.50 is the "grad special": a random bottled beer or a selected draft.

On Thursday nights they host a trivia night, and at least twice per year they host a Friday "TG" party for ESF students. Apart from its food and drink, the Inn is also home to free foosball, pool, ping pong, and Nintendo Wii for all students and visitors. (I head here regularly with other ESF friends for my foosball fix.)

Food and Drink: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que - on Willow Street, near Clinton Square in Downtown Syracuse - is a Syracuse landmark and must-see destination. In May 2009, it was voted America's Best Barbecue in a Good Morning America poll. For bikers, blues fans, and barbecue lovers, it needs no introduction.

Try the cornbread, pulled pork, or ribs. All meat is slow-cooked in their own wood-fired barbecue.

It features live blues and rock music Monday-Saturday nights and only takes walk-in reservations. Carpooling is suggested, as parking in the restaurant's general vicinity can be difficult. Campus groups that are lucky enough to have Dinosaur cater their event are usually descended upon by a pack of hungry graduate and undergraduate students.

New composting system

Thanks to Green Campus Initiative, a student group dedicated to making the ESF campus more environmentally friendly, we now have our very own on-campus composting system. Located near the greenhouses on the edge of campus next to Oakwood Cemetery, the new system will handle food waste collected from across the campus and turn it into rich organic material.

Related news:

Students in the Green Campus Initiative and ESF President, Dr. Cornelius Murphy, Jr., will give a demonstration of the new food and organic waste composting operation tomorrow (Thursday, March 11, 2010) at 1:00PM.

The project includes an innovative process called static aerated composting which produces a weed free, pathogen free compost in as little as 3 weeks.

Scheduling of candidacy exams and thesis/dissertation defenses

A message from Scott Shannon, Dean of Instruction and Graduate Studies:

MS and PhD Students & Colleagues:
As the busiest season of the year for defenses and candidacy exams approaches, I’d like to remind everyone of the standard protocol for setting times and dates and reporting these to the graduate office. First, if you have not already filed a Form 5B or 6B this semester, do not plan on scheduling your exam or defense this semester or graduating this May; we are now well beyond the deadline for assigning defense or exam chairs or scheduling exams/defenses (Feb. 12, 2010).

Assuming you have requested and been assigned an exam or defense chair, the first step is to hold a “planning meeting” to schedule the exam or defense and all the activities associated with each. DO NOT hold a planning meeting or schedule a defense or candidacy exam without the examination or defense chair PRESENT. Please do not set any dates, times, or locations prior to the planning meeting. The examination chair is “in charge” of this process, and neither students nor major professors should preemptively attempt to get ahead of things, as it often causes great difficulty in coordinating schedules with the examination chair.

In the planning meeting, you may find that not all members of the graduate committee can be present at the time of the defense or exam. While we prefer all members of the graduate committee to be present, they MAY participate via conference call or Skype if they cannot be here on campus. When the dates and times of an exam or defense have been set, these should be reported to the graduate office, preferably by e-mail or other written form.
Thank you for your help-

Scott Shannon, Dean of Instruction & Graduate Studies
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
227 Bray Hall - 1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210

Outdoors: Winter fun

For those that enjoy outdoor activities during the winter months, options abound. Highland Forest, Beaver Lake, Oneida Shores, and Onondaga Lake Park are popular for cross-country skiing. You can view trail conditions and maps here.

Sledding at Thornden Park or at one of the snow bowls on South Campus is always fun (and free).

Downhill skiing locations include Labrador Mountain (my favorite), Toggenburg, Song Mountain. Special discounts for college students include $15 lift tickets, special "college night" events, and various other promotions at all three locations. Toggenburg also offers snow tubing.

Further North, Whiteface in Lake Placid, home to the 1936 and 1980 Winter Olympics, offers the largest vertical drop east of the Rockies. Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks, and, closer to home, Greek Peak round out the skiing possibilities.

Chili Cook-Off

Graduate Student Association presents the

Annual Chili Cook-Off TG!

TOMORROW
Friday, March 5th at 6:30PM
in Nifkin Lounge

Bring your chili, vegetarian chili, and
cornbread to compete for PRIZES!

To enter: e-mail Katie at
cghaase@syr.edu (walk-in's welcome).

Please bring your own ways of keeping chili warm,
serving utensils, etc. Don't forget your ESF mugs, bowls and spoons!

Must be 21 to participate, please bring a valid photo ID.