Wednesday, April 3: My trip through upstate New York got off to an interesting start yesterday in Kingston, New York. We had one of our smaller crowds show up at the Mother House Storehouse, which is a family-run business with four stores in the Hudson Valley, of around 50 people. Afterward, the one of the managers approached me with a bag of groceries—one of those “lovely parting gifts” for having come by. Inside the paper sack were a dozen farm-fresh eggs, a gallon of raw Jersey milk, sauerkraut and pickles, and a box of dill sauerkraut flaxseed crackers, which sounds yucky, but actually was very good.
I put the all the great organic food in the tour bus refrigerator for the long drive from Kingston to Buffalo . .. something like 300 miles. When we arrived at our hotel late last night—or was it early this morning, I put all my grocery gifts in the room refrigerator. I’m definitely going to enjoy this food, but what I’ve already done some damage to are the flaxseed crackers with fermented vegetables.
Today I did a round of TV interviews in Buffalo, including one with Jim Kelly, a local TV reporter who covers health topics. If you watch NFL football, you may recognize the name “Jim Kelly,” who was a popular quarterback for the Buffalo Bills after leading the team to four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s. My interview was not with that Jim Kelly but another guy with the same name. (A sad side note: Jim Kelly, the football player, lost his son, Hunter, in 2005 to a fatal nervous system disease called Krabbe Disease when the boy was only eight years old.)
At any rate, you can tell that I remember the Bills’ Jim Kelly very well. Before the tape started rolling, I kidded Jim Kelly, the TV reporter, by saying, “The last time I saw you, you were a lot taller, had a better arm, and more hair.”
“Gee, that’s the first time I’ve heard that—today,” he joshed right back. Poor guy. He told me there are at least seven Jim Kellys in Buffalo, including a prominent Catholic priest. When I suggested that he consider going by “James Kelly,” he replied, “I was Jim Kelly before he was.”
I ended my day in Buffalo by speaking at a health food store chain called Feel Rite Fresh Market and Natural Food Shoppes. This time there was a lot better turnout with a little more than 300 in attendance.