Warwick, New York (May 4, 2010) – The Pub Grand Opening takes place Friday, May 21st to Sunday, May 23rd with events scheduled throughout the weekend. The Friday Night Fish Fry features live music from 7-10 pm, followed by a Saturday Night Barn Dance with live music from Full Circle Band from 8:30-11 pm.

A full menu with fresh salads, sandwiches and burgers made with Warwick grassfed beef and hormone-and-antibiotic-free turkey will be served throughout the weekend’s events. Small batch, regional beer, cider and wine are the focus here. As interest in craft-brewing and wine making grows, Pennings offers an alternative to mass-produced, commercially available beer and wine. Butternuts Beer & Ale, Brewery Ommegang, Warwick Valley Winery, Demarest Hill Winery, and the Finger Lakes’ Salmon Run are just a few of the products featured at the Brew Pub and for sale at Pennings Farm Market. Guests will enjoy their food and drink at the bar, a functioning antique apple grader used to sort apples during the picking season. The 60-year old grader was fully operational as part of the Park Farm prior to the Pennings family purchase of the farm in 1981. The grader currently services the farm’s apple picking needs in the fall but sits quiet for the rest of the year.

After obtaining their beer and wine license, owners Steve and Jill Pennings weren’t quite sure where to locate their bar. One glance at the hulking piece of equipment spanning the back wall of their farm market, and the answer was clear – the pub was christened the ‘Apple Grader’ pub. “Instead of a sports bar, this is an Ag bar,” said Pennings. “We’ll have a tv so you don’t miss any of your games, but we’ll also put the focus on agricultural equipment, photos, and historical objects which have roots in Warwick’s history as a farming community.”

As second generation farmers and market operators for over 20 years, Pennings looks forward to providing a new space where friends and families can connect with their neighbors over a cold Cooperstown beer or a Warwick grassfed burger.

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. (Wikipedia).

Each year Pennings Orchard & Farm Market participates in a number of gleaning efforts that preserve the remaining fruit that has not been harvested so that local food pantries may benefit. After the end of the unusually large 2009 season that saw extremely large fruit. local volunteer groups gathered from the Warwick Valley High School, Hudson Valley harvest, FFA and other groups. They collected tons and tons, enough to load several tractor trailors of apples to feed the hungry.

November 2009, CityHarvest.org: Apple gleaning at Pennings Orchard. Volunteers helped us pick 26K lbs of apples for NY's hungry!

Annual Report 2008: Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Orange County: The Hudson Valley Polar Bear's Hockey Team participated in the Gleaning program's first "snow gleaning!" The kids refused to give up picking apples in Warwick, NY when the weather turned wet during the first snow storm in November. The "snow gleaning" was one of twenty large gleanings scheduled this sea- son. In total, over 250 volunteers showed up to harvest more than 40,000 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies for the hungry. The "snow gleaning" was an excellent reminder of how volunteers can be open minded and determined.