Deb and her mother, Dorothy M. Martin, have dominated the baking contests that are held in conjunction with fairs and farm shows on both the local and state levels for the last two decades. To date, they are the winningest duo on the state level. “Competing is one of my addictions,” Deb says.

Deb Martin Berkoski

A 100-pound weight loss enabled Deb to drop six dress/pant sizes. “I have so much more energy now,” she reports. Makeup by Judelyne St Riel.

Two years ago, Deb decided to conquer her other addiction: food. “It wasn’t pretty,” she says of her health. “I had exercise-induced asthma and had to use an inhaler. I was on meds for GERD [acid reflux]. My cholesterol was high. I had arthritis, and my knees were killing me. My blood pressure was starting to go up, and I knew meds would be next. But the clincher was the diabetes diagnosis. That was definitely a wake-up call. I knew I had to do something. Fortunately, I didn’t have any heart issues … yet.”

Her job as maintenance supervisor at Long’s Park made Deb all the more aware of her health issues. “The Sertoma Chicken Barbecue, Fourth of July concert and fireworks show, and the Art & Craft Festival are crunch times around here,” she explains of the increased workload that accompanies such events. “I’d come home feeling terrible; my knees would be throbbing. My husband was really concerned,” she recalls. One year, in the days leading up to the barbecue, she wore a pedometer to satisfy her curiosity. “One day, I did 30,000 steps,” she explains. “The average is 10,000.”

Deb also helps to run the family farm in Conestoga. “I’m excited to be a part of agriculture,” she says, noting that her competitive streak began with sheep. “I showed sheep through high school,” she reports. Now she is perpetually preparing for baking contests. “A lot of people ask me why I don’t open a bakery,” she remarks. She answers that question by observing that turning a hobby into a business rarely works. “Besides, I’d lose my amateur status for competitions.” She does have an unfulfilled goal. “I’d like to do a cookbook,” she shares.

Nature vs. Nurture

Deb did two things in order to educate herself about her past and future: She explored her genetic makeup and signed up to attend a surgical weight-loss seminar at the Physicians Healthy Weight Management & Bariatric Surgery Center at Lancaster General Health.

“I was adopted,” Deb says in a matter-of-fact manner. “I’m the youngest of three; we were all adopted. My parents, Dorothy M. and [the late] Melvin H. Martin, were always open about us being adopted,” she explains. “They always reassured us by saying, ‘We chose you.’” Deb and Dorothy instantly bonded. “I like to say that my birth mother carried me for nine months, while Dorothy, who I consider to be my real mother, has carried and supported me for 49 years.”

Deb and Dorothy found a special connection in the kitchen. “I started cooking with her from the time I was little,” Deb says. As was the case with many Lancaster County families, mealtime at the Martin household centered on meat and potatoes. “My mother made the best fried chicken,” Deb says, noting it was often accompanied by waffles, mashed potatoes and gravy. There were lots of fresh vegetables, too. Yet, it never occurred to Deb that old-fashioned home cooking had unhealthy connotations. “I ate whatever was put on my plate and often had seconds,” she recalls of gathering around the table with her family for three square meals a day.

Mother and daughter also forged a connection through baking. Pies and cakes became their forte. “Baking is a science, and I consider my mother to be the grand scientist,” Deb says. “She can just look at a recipe and tell you what needs to be tweaked.”

Deb, on the other hand, is the creative force. Her pies and cakes are something to behold. “Before you even taste something, you need to eat it with your eyes,” she theorizes. (She made her own wedding cake and decorated it with 3,000 flowers she made from sugar.) She also figures that a visually stimulating dessert will make a first and lasting impression on judges.

After 20 years of competing, Deb has developed a winning strategy. She says that buying the best ingredients is critical to success (no matter if you’re making a birthday cake for a family member or competing in a contest). “A judge will taste just a sliver, so it needs to make an impression,” she explains. However, in Deb’s opinion, “creativity is what sells it. It could come down to a matter of one point, and creativity could be that difference between first and second place. That’s why I’m always chasing the next big thing.”

Of course, the ultimate prize is a blue ribbon (and a cash award that sometimes accompanies it) at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, which was held for the 100th time last month. Many of the baking contests require a win at the local level in order to compete in Harrisburg. “Sometimes it’s more difficult to get out of Lancaster County than it is to win in Harrisburg,” she admits, referring to the talented bakers she must compete against on the local level in order to get to the Farm Show. And, it can be a frustrating odyssey. Last fall she chased the blue ribbon in the chocolate cake category. “It took me eight tries to qualify for the Farm Show,” she notes. “I finally won on my last try in New Holland.” She and her mother are both chasing after the angel food cake category on the state level. “We’ve both taken second place,” she says. “That one’s eluded us.”

Deb says she was always curious about her genetic makeup. “I was always the ‘big girl,’” she shares. “I wondered where my size 12 feet came from and why I am almost six-feet tall.” Fortunately, the Martins’ attorney provided them with information about Deb’s birth mother. They shared the information with Deb, and she contacted her mother so that she could obtain answers to her questions. The meeting resulted in Deb discovering her mother is diabetic and her grandmother died of complications associated with the disease. She also met her father. “He’s a big guy, so that answered those questions,” Deb says. She also formulated the answer to the age-old question of how much nature versus nurture affects a person’s path in life. “For me, I’d says it’s 5% nature and 95% nurture,” Deb states.

Now or Never

In 2014, Deb attended one of the informational seminars that is offered at the Lancaster General Health Physicians Healthy Weight Management and Bariatric Surgery Center. Fortunately, her health insurance covers bariatric surgery procedures. But, as she soon learned, it’s not as simple as signing up for elective surgery. “Prior to surgery, you must adhere to a structured lifestyle for three months,” she explains of the required diet and exercise regimen. Psychological issues are also addressed. Two weeks prior to surgery, a patient subsists on a liquid diet. “That fell over the barbecue,” Deb notes. “It killed me not to be able to eat that chicken!”

Deb and her surgeon, Dr. James Ku, who is the center’s director and has performed more than 2,000 bariatric surgeries, agreed she would be a good candidate for a procedure known as Sleeve Gastrectomy. Essentially, the stomach is stapled into a tube-like shape that’s roughly the size of a banana. The portion of the stomach that secretes ghrelin, which is the hormone responsible for triggering hunger pangs, is affected, thus allowing the patient to feel satisfied over a longer period of time.

For Deb, “It was now or never.” Following surgery, she lost 100 pounds over the course of 120 days. “Then, I stopped losing,” she reports. But, she’s happy with her new self. She lost six dress sizes and gained a new lease on life. “I have so much more energy now,” she says. The best news of all is that she is medication free. “I’m off all my meds!” she says.

And, she doesn’t feel deprived food-wise, explaining. “I can eat pretty much what I want, but in moderation, although I do miss crusty bread with melted butter on it.” She learned that what and how much you eat have both physiological and psychological ramifications. “Twenty-five percent is based on what they did to you,” she says, referring to the past. “Another 25% is what you actually put on your plate. The other 50% has to do with your head and heart.”

Grazing has become a new lifestyle. “I have to get 65 grams of protein in each day, so I always have nuts, cheese and yogurt with me. I eat a lot of chicken,” Deb explains. She also relies on supplements to provide needed vitamins and minerals. “I can’t eat enough to get what’s required,” she explains. The supplements serve to remind her that “I’ll be a patient for life.” But that’s fine with Deb. She shares that she recently attended a work-related seminar at Penn State. “For the first time in my life I noticed that I wasn’t the largest person in the room,” she says. “I looked and felt like a normal person.”

When other competitors learned of Deb’s decision to undergo bariatric surgery, they assumed she would bow out. “That’s not happening,” she says. “I just have to make the pies and cakes; I don’t have to eat them.”

For more information about the weight management and bariatric surgery options at Lancaster General Health or to enroll in an upcoming seminar, visit Lancastergeneralhealth.org or call 544-2935.  

Raspberry Pecan Grilled Chicken Dinner Salad

Raspberry Pecan Grilled
Chicken Dinner Salad

Protein is an important component of Deb’s post-surgery diet. This salad is rich in protein and so much more. Chicken, of course, is an obvious source of protein. The pecans provide a plethora of nutrients, minerals and vitamins, are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, and are an excellent source of phenolic antioxidants, which help to decrease total and LDL (bad) levels of cholesterol in the blood and increase HDL (good) levels. Red raspberries contain anthocyanins, which contribute to heart health. Heart-healthy blue cheese (due to its goat milk base) also has anti-inflammatory properties. Finally, the spring mix is low in calories, contains very little sodium and is rich in nutrients.

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake

How did red velvet cake become an American obsession? According to a recent article in the New York Times, red velvet has evolved beyond cake and now lends itself to scented candles, air fresheners, body mists, protein powders, latte and tea flavors, ice cream, whoopie pies and vodka. In

San Francisco, the restaurant/bakery American Cupcake even offers a chicken dish in which parts are dipped in red velvet batter and then rolled in red velvet crumbs before they are fried.

Red velvet is rooted in the 1870s, when cakes took on a velvety texture. As for the red hue, its development is part science, part urban legend and part entrepreneurial spirit of post-Depression America. Early on, chocolate – or devil’s food – cakes had a red cast that resulted from a chemical reaction among ingredients: namely buttermilk, vinegar and cocoa. Still others used beet juice to add a red tint to their chocolate cakes.

As for the urban legend angle, culinary-related websites are rife with people who swear their grandmothers or people their grandmothers knew (of course, all are long gone) visited New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the 1930s and were captivated by the hotel’s signature red cake. A woman reportedly asked for the recipe. The chef complied with her request. When it arrived in the mail, it was accompanied by an invoice (for anywhere from $300 to $100,000, depending upon the source). Miffed, she began sharing the recipe with everyone she knew. The entrepreneurial side of the story involves John A. Adams, who founded Texas-based Adams Extract & Spice Company in 1888. Hoping to drum up interest for its food extracts, the family-owned business devised a recipe for red velvet cake by adding two bottles of red dye to an established cake recipe, and replacing the butter with shortening and butter-flavor extract. The taste-tempting cake was photographed for marketing purposes. Complimentary recipe cards emblazoned with the Adams logo were readily made available to shoppers who frequented grocery stores in the South and Midwest. Company-sponsored baking contests followed, resulting in red velvet cake becoming a nationwide taste sensation in the 50s and 60s.

During the 70s, a controversy regarding Red Dye #2 led to the cake’s near demise. But then in the late 80s, a little movie called Steel Magnolias piqued new interest in the cake. The 1996 opening of the Magnolia Bakery in New York introduced a new generation to the magic of red velvet cake. The bakery lists “a little southern mystery” as one of its ingredients; cream cheese frosting also helped to give it a new spin. However, in this area of the country, red velvet has never waned in popularity, prompting one person to comment on gilttaste.com: “The Amish in Lancaster County have been making it for years.” Deb’s red velvet cake, which has won blue ribbons county-wide and at the state level.

From a health perspective, bedrooms may be the most important rooms in our homes. It’s where we close the door to the stressors of the day, recharge and get those all-important seven to eight hours of sleep that keep us in the best of health.

Thirty years ago, Carol and Pete Heth expanded their 19th century farmhouse by building an addition. Plans called for a master suite on the second floor. While the addition accomplished their goal, Carol recalls that the resulting bathroom “was really small. I used mirrors to make it look larger.” Still, it was a vast improvement, and the Heths were pleased with their private getaway.

Seven years ago the Heths revisited the project and bumped out the front wall in order to create space for a much larger bathroom. The bump-out also created space for a large walk-in closet. “A lack of closets is a problem in a house that dates to the 1860s,” Carol affirms. To remedy the situation, she had resorted to using antique wardrobes for storage purposes.

Updating the master suite allowed her to design a space that would be practical yet indulging. “I purposely wanted a dark bedroom,” Carol explains. “I’m really sensitive to light; even the light from a full moon will wake me up.” So, in designing the bedroom, she opted to use dark tones that deliver a sense of nature to the room. In Carol’s estimation, “The ceiling mimics the night sky, the wallpaper represents the forest, and the cork floor is like the mossy ground.” Layers of airy curtains are used to filter natural light.

The décor of the bedroom is in keeping with the period of the house. “It’s things we’ve collected over the years,” she says of the furnishings. Principles of Feng Shui also helped to turn the room into a stress-free zone. The antique bed “floats” in the middle of the room. Clutter is minimal. It’s also technology-free. The Heths’ French bulldog, Bella, has a cozy corner of the room dedicated to her sleep needs. Accessories switch in and out, depending upon the season. “I like a splash of red in the winter,” Carol says.

Walk through the glass doors, and you’re in another world. The spacious, thoroughly modern bathroom has all the amenities of a spa. Floors are warmed by radiant heat. The glass-enclosed shower offers a multiplicity of shower heads and sprays. The space is also practical as it does double duty as a laundry: cabinets beneath the his-and-her vanity hold a washer and dryer.

Art is also at home in the bath and includes a glass vessel created by Joel Myers of Marietta. The glass entry door and mirror-on-mirror details were designed by Carol. A painting, which was done by a family member and was discovered hidden away in a basement, provides the pop of red that inspired the color for the closet cabinetry – heartthrob red! Crystal chandeliers provide a touch of glamour. “The bathroom is unexpected,” Carol says of the master suite’s contrast of styles. “But that’s what makes the space fun and interesting.”

Through working with clients, Carol finds that many people dismiss the importance of their bedrooms. All too often they are furnished with a mish-mash of things that don’t fit elsewhere in the house or are hand-me downs that simply end up there as a last resort. Carol also finds that such rooms tend to be devoid of the little things – accessories, art, etc. – that make bedrooms unique. “Whether it’s a room for grown-ups or kids, it needs to convey that,” she says. “It’s the one room in the house where you can make a personal style statement.” In working with clients, Carol often uses art to uncover their style and color preferences. “I’ll put several paintings in someone’s bedroom and have them live with each one for a while,” she explains. “Then I’ll ask them to choose their favorite, and we’ll work from there on selecting colors, fabrics and so on.”

CREDITS:

Design/Build: Carol and Pete Heth/Pete Heth General Contractor

Vanity/Closet Cabinetry: Dennis Shenk/Horizon Kitchens

Tile: ProSource Wholesale Floorcoverings

Lighting: Yale Lighting Concepts & Design

Plumbing Fixtures: Kohler

Wallpaper: York Wallcoverings

Floral Design: Floral Designs of Mount Joy

Accessories: Floral Designs of Mount Joy, Stauffers of Kissel Hill, HomeGoods

Glass Sculpture (bathroom): Joel Myers

Glass Sculpture (closet): Blenko Glass (Milton, West Virginia)

Glass Fabricator (entry door): R&S Glass

Glass Fabricator (shower): Howells Glass Company

Family-owned businesses are a Lancaster County tradition. Meet Randy and Betsy Wolgemuth of Koser Jewelers.

On April 1, 1986, Randy Wolgemuth went on his first and last blind date. Sounding like the start of a bad joke, Randy met Betsy in a jewelry store on April Fool’s Day during the big hair and bad fashion days of the mid-80s.

“My first thought was he’s cute, but that leather jacket’s got to go,” Betsy laughs. “Literally, that’s the very first thought that came to my mind when I saw him.”
“… And, I remember thinking she’s cute, but she dresses like an old lady,” Randy quips, “because things were so conservative and traditional then.”

Thankfully, first impressions didn’t scare either of them away from one another. What began as a blind date blossomed into love, marriage, kids and a family-owned business that is a landmark of Lancaster County.

Randy, a born and raised Lancastrian (Mount Joy, to be exact), managed a café in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis during the 80s. Betsy, who grew up in Memphis, worked at a small jewelry chain. The couple dated for about a year when Randy started to grow tired of the restaurant business and wanted to move back home after being away for four years.

“The Kreider family had some restaurants,” Betsy says, “and while he was home for Thanksgiving, they asked him to come and manage their restaurant in Manheim. So he moved back.”

At that point, the couple decided to go their separate ways. Fortunately, as fate would have it, the two reunited and were engaged within a few months of the breakup.
“Memphis in May is a month-long celebration, and at the very end there is something called the Sunset Symphony,” Betsy exclaims. Randy just so happened to be visiting that particular weekend. After having dinner with Betsy’s family, Randy took Betsy for a carriage ride in downtown.

Randy and Betsy Wolgemuth, owners of Koser Jewelers, enjoy helping couples find that perfect engagement ring. During the month of February, the jewelry store tends to have special designs around Valentine’s Day and sells “lots” of Hearts on Fire (one of the store’s top diamond brands) rings, according to Randy.

As the carriage was approaching a fountain, the driver asked the couple, “‘Do you two want to make a wish?’ And he handed us two pennies to throw in the fountain, and then I said, ‘I wish you would marry me,’” Randy says sheepishly.

While dating long distance – a very long distance of approximately 950 miles – a friend of the couple had persuaded Randy to purchase Koser Jewelers. (The Kosers had established the business in 1952.)

“It was a small store. The store was in the front, and the Kosers lived in the back,” Betsy remembers.

“It was nice,” Randy interrupts. “We had five bedrooms upstairs, a living room and a dining room, and a kitchen downstairs, plus the store.”

Betsy chimes in, “And, there was a little buzzer on the front door. All four of our kids were born while we lived there.”

“It was a short commute to work,” Randy jokes.

The couple’s four children—Drew, Tierney, Colin and Jillian—helped a lot with the business while growing up. Both Randy and Betsy agree that owning a business made a vast imprint on the lives of their children.

Living in the back of their “old” store, Randy remembers being able to “play with the kids and then, when I would hear the door ding, I’d run out front and pretend that I was just in the back room doing something,” he says with a smile.

Koser Jewelers moved from its previous location at 64 East Main Street, Mount Joy, to its new location at 811 East Main Street in 2008, thereby gaining more than 5,000 square feet of space and ample parking (which were major reasons for the store’s relocation).

Drew, who is the couple’s oldest son at 23, recently graduated from West Point. Tierney, 21, plans on starting medical school, while Colin, 20, is a student at Millersville. And Jillian, 17, is a senior at Manheim Central who will attend Duke University on a field hockey scholarship.

“Growing up in a family business had a huge impact on our kids in a number of ways. First of all, they see how hard we work, and I think it’s caused them to be extremely hardworking kids,” Betsy says. “Also, with us living behind the store, they were never awkward with strangers because there were always salesmen, customers and employees, and they were around people all the time. … Our kids make us look good every day, and they’ve been very successful at what they’ve done.”

With any occupation, individuals tend to bring their work home from time to time, whether that means actually working from home to meet deadlines or transferring their thoughts and emotions from a tough day on the job to their spouse, children, pets, etc. Randy and Betsy both agree that with owning and operating a family business, “you do tend to take it home more.”

The couple says there are positives and negatives to owning a business and working with your spouse around the clock.
“For us one of the positives is that we have very different gifts. Randy is ultra-organized,” Betsy says. “He is great with any kind of system, and I’m really creative. So, we bring different things to the table.”

Koser Jewelers head goldsmith Beth de Vitry hand fabricates a custom necklace that was being presented as a gift.

One of the negatives, says the couple who celebrated 27 years of marriage in January, is carrying over the emotions from home to the work place or vice versa.
“It can be stressful on occasion when you disagree,” says Randy, “when you’re working together and you’re together 24/7.”

They say they try not to be disgruntled in front of employees or their children but fail at times. So, how do they control their composure and keep calm during emotional tugs-of-war? By a few easy lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Fortunately, the pair had several prime examples of husband-and-wife teams who owned and operated their own establishments and were able to look to them as key figures.
“We had a lot of examples of friends and parents who operated businesses together as husband and wife, like my parents who were farmers and worked together,” Randy says. “When I worked for the Kreiders, Mr. Kreider and his wife worked together.”

another essential staple toward a healthy working relationship the couple says is giving each other space. While Randy and Betsy both enjoy some of the same interests – such as great food, cooking, playing tennis and being involved in various organizations – they both know the importance of having their own personal time. However, it is also important to have quality alone time together.

“Obviously, there are times when you’re upset or mad, so what we try to do is give each other space,” Betsy says. “… But, twice in the last few weeks we’ve gone out to dinner just the two of us, which we don’t get to do a ton. And it’s funny because we’ll be in the car, and one of us will bring up something about business or the kids or whatever, and the other will say ‘no, we’re not going to talk about that,’ because when you own your own business you’re never finished.”

They agree the positives definitely outweigh the negatives when it comes to working together as a married couple and that the best way to deal with stress is to communicate, give space when needed, take time for each other and love one another.

“It’s fun growing something together and working together as a family,” Betsy says. “… It has been fun seeing how our different gifts complement each other.”
“Take the time to occasionally go out, just the two of you, and try not to talk about business,” Randy adds.

Betsy quotes one of Randy’s well-known phrases saying “Love is more of an action than a feeling.” To which Randy replies, “But, it’s easier said than done sometimes.”
Randy notes that Koser Jewelers is more than just a jewelry store, it’s a family business where “we work it as owners, and we’re there on the sales floor with you in the store. We genuinely care about every single person that comes through the door. … We’re in the business of love and creating lifetime memories.”

811 East Main Street, Mount Joy. 653-4941. koserjewelers.com.