OFF THE SHELF at the Susquehanna County Library

It's DONE, it's OVER...The annual Montrose Blueberry Festival. This event is held every year as THE major fund raiser for our Association, benefiting the Historical Society and our four library locations. SPOILER ALERT: It was one of the best years ever from the fund-raising side! We will give you the final number at the end of the podcast. Enjoy the interviews, thank you to those people that spent time with me during the two-day event. We are releasing this on both the library "Off The Shelf" podcast and since the Susquehanna County Penn State Master Gardeners where at the table next to me, it is also being release on the "Digging For Answers" Podcast.

As summer draws to a close, i will highlight in the next release the Harford Fair Podcast. After that, it will be back to our traditional podcast format of covering library programs and community events.

Please SUBSCRIBE to get all of our episodes!

Thanks for listening and be sure to spread the word about the podcast!

Howard

Are you ready for the 45'th annual Montrose PA Blueberry Festival? It will be held on Friday August 7'th and Saturday August 8'th, 9 am (Pancake Breakfast starts at 8 am both days!!) till 4 pm. It's held on the Village Green, right across from the Historical Society and on the other side, the County Courthouse. It is a FREE event! Come for the 5K Fun run, the great food, the ice cream, blueberry muffins, the Quilt Raffle, the silent auction baskets, the White Elephant Sale and SO SO SO much more! Yes, you can even buy blueberries! You can spend some time with a Penn State Master Gardner and learn how you can plant and raise your own blueberries! Kids activities too! Enter the drawing to win your OWN BOUNCE HOUSE!

All funds raised at the Festival benefit the Susquehanna County Historical Society & Free Library Association.

Howard (That's ME!) will be at the information booth each day. Stop by to say "HI" and I can record you for the event podcast, you might even win a prize!

You can contact the Montrose Library (570-278-1881) if you have any questions or check out the library web site for more information on the event!

www.montrosepablueberryfestival.org

Summer is almost over! Sit back and listen as we recap the 2025 Harford Fair.

I'll be back in October with our new format focused on Library programs, community events and other podcasts to check out!

Till then, thanks for listening!

Howard

Blueberry picking season is about over in Susquehanna County PA, and the 44'th Annual Blueberry Festival was held on Friday and Saturday, 2-3 August. This podcast covers our PRE-BBF event held at the Montrose Library Community Room, and two days of interviews at the festival. The weather was the best we have had in many years, and we are waiting for the final fund raising dollar amounts to be determined, but it might very well be the BEST YEAR EVER! We even had a special, limited to 100 bottles, of Blueberry Mead with a festival label on it. (Thank you Dan!)

The media coverage was excellent, bringing in people from hundreds of miles away for the event. As you will hear, Chris in the podcast came all the way from Arizona! We had so many people tell me that it was the first time they had attended.

Congratulations to the Noonan family, who won the Blueberry Snack raffle basket. The Amazon Show device will be awarded to a random person after we record at the Susquehanna County fair this week, including additional people into our drawing.

Thank you to everyone that supported the event! Be sure to take time to contact the library to let them know how happy you were with the event and with any suggestions for next year!

Enjoy a blueberry muffin and give us a listen!

Howard

Hey there, I'm Howard and I'm glad to invite you back to our first episode of 2025. It's been a while since we have released an episode, but we are back for what should be a monthly episode talking about:

* What new library and historical society events are going on.

* A highlight interview with a Susquehanna County business or organization.

* A review of a GREAT PODCAST that I would recommend to you!

Please subscribe, so you get our next release.

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This episode highlights AG Day 2025 in our county, with interviews of individuals that were at the event. We are sharing this recording with our partner podcast, DIGGING FOR ANSWERS, as we kick off the 2025 season.

Hey there, A sure sign that fall is coming is when the Blueberry Festival and Harford fair are over!

I was at the fair last week supporting the Library, the Master Gardeners and the Beek Keepers. I took the laptop with me and recorded in the Master Gardener hut, people that were attending the fair. Master Gardener Anson provided us with year three information on the history of the fair. I know you will enjoy what he "dug" up this year to share!

This podcast is going out on the libary "Off the Shelf" podcast and the Master Gardener's "Digging for Answers" podcast.

Next episode we will start our focus on county businesses and organizations and will highlight podcasts you might want to check out!

Till then, be well and go find a good book or podcast to enjoy!

Howard

The 2024, 43rd annual Montrose Blueberry Festival was held on 2-3 August, on the Montrose Green. Lots of blueberry items to eat, new/used books to buy, GREAT live music and so many activities. Even a blueberry pie eating contest! The annual fundraiser helps to fund 20% of the annual Association budget. MANY THANKS to our VOLUNTEERS and STAFF!

Listen here to interviews with several individuals/groups that attended.

Starting in our next episode, we will be focused on local businesses, and recommendations for GREAT podcasts, books and events to investigate. Like our Red Cross Blood drive this Friday on August 9'th. Give blood and get a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

Hope to see you at the county fair in a few weeks or when you visit the Historical Society or one of our four library locations! When you visit, tell the staff that you listen to our podcast and to tell Howard that you said "HI!".

Subscribe so that you get our future episodes!

Now, go read/listen to a good book! Howard......

Hey there, The Master Gardeners of Susquehanna just wrapped up their biggest SPRING CLINIC every! It was a sell out event with some GREAT speakers. This episode of the podcast is going out to both "DIGGING FOR ANSWERS", and the Susquehanna County Library "OFF THE SHELF" podcasts. We have interviews of people that attended the Spring Clinic and a list of upcoming community events in the Montrose area. Starting in our next episode, we will go back to an individual format for the two podcasts.

There is a lot going on in the area this spring, so here is a way to listen to those that attended Spring Clinic, and find out what's going on in the next few months!

Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe and don't be nervous about sending us comment!

Howard

Welcome back to "OFF THE SHELF"! This is our first library podcast in 2024 after taking a bit of a breather to determine what kind of format that you might have interest in! We decided that in 2024, will focus on local community events and in a recommendation of other podcasts that you might have interest in listening to.

At the library, we are noticing a growing number of patrons using electronic services like e-books, online magazines, comics, podcasts, streaming video services and audio books.

This podcast is focused on the recent Susquehanna AG Day. We had a table at the event and interviewed people on why they came to the event and a few other questions. At the end, I left in a short "hot mic" recording from when we were talking to a group of youth, and I forgot the mic was still recording!

So............ It's a shorter episode, but you can hear some great comments about AG Day. We will b doing this at some other community events and will have a drawing for some nice prizes if you record with us at the event!

SUBSCRIBE so you get future downloads automatically!

Christmas and New Years are still weeks away, but we are all ready planning for Valentines Day 2024! In a discussion with one of our library patrons, he provided us with a copy of a song he wrote and performed that fit right in here, because the song is "Love at the Library". We were talking to a couple of staff and patrons at several of our locations and thinking of several movies where the "Love at the Library" story was a focus. SO.... we decided to create a podcast to showcase the song, and YOUR STORIES about the topic.

Take a listen to this special episode, listen to Mike Power's GREAT song. We are so happy he shared it with us and gave us permission to use it.

After you listen, we hope if you have a REAL or imaginary story of "Love at the Library", that you go to our website, and enter the contest. The top ten stories will be voted on by patrons in early Feb for the BEST "Love at the Library" story.

Here is the link to submit your story: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11y14ccE0l6HJESllaq6qwIQGSoZqv7_unN064STdgpo/edit

Good luck, enjoy the event and the great music.

See you again in a few weeks!

Howard