What started as a simple gathering 25 years ago to celebrate the end of the garden season has grown into one of Kitchen Kettle Village’s most popular events. Seven Sweets and Sours Festival, held rain or shine the third weekend in September, is a tribute to one of the most intriguing aspects of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine — where the bounty of the garden is preserved as delectable condiments and relishes, to enjoy alone or as a side dish to a main course.

During the festival, the entire village is tied together in a culinary theme — from food tastings and recipe sharing to displays of three-dimensional artwork made from corn husks and other natural materials. In addition to the food and crafts, there is also plenty of family activities to choose from, ranging from live entertainment and a petting zoo to pumpkin carving and apple bobbing.

Japanese-born Teraoka emigrated to the United States in 1961 and has lived in Hawaii for many years. An accomplished artist, Teraoka first became known for satirical watercolors inspired by Edo-period Japanese woodblock prints depicting the “floating world” of courtesans, theater people, and urban fortune-seekers. In his works, he represented the friction between Japanese and American ways of life from the dissonance of cross-cultural sexual signals to the East’s and West’s invasion of each other by mass marketing. Later, moved by the AIDS epidemic, Teraoka began making comic allegories of safe sex … which brings him to the present.

“Web of Concessions,” Teraoka’s current exhibit, represents twenty of his works made between the years 1992 and 1998. No longer reliant on the format of Japanese woodblock prints, the artist now draws from new sources found in early Renaissance and Northern European Christian paintings — sources which result in creations that are epic in both scale and message — and are somewhat controversial.

As the first recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support chamber music in rural America, the four siblings began their career as the Ying Quartet in 1992 in the farm town of Jessup, Iowa, where they lived and performed for two years. In fact, the Quartet’s success in making artistic and creative expression an essential part of life of the Jessup community was widely chronicled in both national and international media, including feature articles in the New York Times and coverage on CBS Sunday Morning.

For the Market Square Concerts performance, the Ying String Quartet will be joined by harpist Courtney Bress of Pittsburgh and local favorite, bassist Paul Klinefelter for a performance of Debussy’s rarely-heard Danses Sacres and Profanes. The Ying will also perform Samuel Barber’s String Quartet, Op. 11, the Ravel Quartet, and a newly-commissioned quartet by Kevin Putz, cited as one of this country’s most promising young composers.

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
Saturdays, Sundays, and Labor Day Monday Thru 10/17
Mount Hope Estate
Always wanted to be king? Or, at the very least, a noble knight? Well, then find your sword, put on the suit of armor, and visit Mount Hope Estate during its 19th Annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. The faire, held on the Estate’s grounds, will take a step back into 1485 England — complete with minstrels, villagers, gypsies, and, of course, knights in shining armor.

The event, which is held weekends through October 17, prides itself on the immersion of “the visitor into the fantasy of another time and place by bringing to life a glorious festival day being held in an English village of some 500 years ago.” And, by all accounts, the immersion has worked — as is evidenced by The Faire’s designation as “One of The Top 100 Events in America” by the American Bus Association in 1998.

The 19th Annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire is the perfect occasion to step away from the hassles of modern life and enjoy the food, drink, crafts, and games of ancient England. You’re sure to have fun — and you’re sure to be swept away by the romance, drama, and action that is only fitting for the life of a king.