(logo chiming) - Hello and welcome to "Expressions: On The Road."

I'm your host, Adara Alston.

For this episode, we are traveling throughout Otsego County to visit Origins Greenhouse Cafe in Cooperstown.

Over the next half hour, we'll find out what makes this local business unique, and enjoy a concert from Grammy-nominated artist Priya Darshini.

All next on "Expressions: On The Road."

(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Adara] Located 10 minutes from downtown Cooperstown on Beaver Meadow Road, Origins Greenhouse Cafe is a family-owned business committed to serving the wellbeing of the community.

For over 10 years they have provided a unique location for friends to gather for food, foliage and fun.

I was able to interview owners Kristen and Dana Leonard about what makes Origins special.

- So this whole project began 41 years ago when our parents had their first little hoop house in this space where we're sitting right now, and they started just a little nursery selling bedding plants and planting trees in the community, and they began Carefree Gardens.

And for the last 41 years they've been serving our local community.

So Dana and I really grew up in this space, we had a little crib in the corner, and our brother Paul too.

We were always just exposed to the beauty of nature and so when we left Cooperstown, we went and studied environmental sciences and policy and we became more and more interested in food through that lens.

- [Adara] How did you come up with the original idea for the business?

- We were living in Peru, working with a group of students who were exploring the biodiversity in the Amazon, so on a very different track.

And we ended up having a visit from our parents and hiking Machu Picchu Mountain.

And it was when we were on top of the mountain, actually, that we were all talking, what's our next step gonna be?

Very soon after that, we got this, the first small food truck, and it was a very simplified version of what it is today, but we've just been building on it together year after year.

And so, yeah, the original idea came in a faraway land and then manifested back where we grew up.

(Priya singing in foreign language) (audience applauds) - The staff at Origins are always looking to share their venue with the community and have begun hosting summer concerts on their one-of-a-kind stage.

For this episode, we have found musicians just as eclectic as the beautiful surroundings.

Vocalist Priya Darshini's debut album was nominated for a Grammy award, and her singing is truly breathtaking to behold.

She is joined on stage by an accomplished set of backing musicians, cellist Dave Eggar, Max ZT on the hammer dulcimer, and percussionist Patrick Duke Graney.

(haunting music) (Priya vocalizing) (haunting music continues) (Priya singing in foreign language) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (vibrant cello music) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (vibrant music) (cello music crescendos) (mellow music) (Priya vocalizes) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (vibrant music) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) - The name Origins came on many levels.

This is our family land, so this is our origin story.

The mission of Origins is to create a space for our community to come together, to connect with our food, with the people who grow our food and with respect to the environment.

And also to create a space to take in the beauty of the plants and really to just honor the harmony of the natural world, and also the music plays into that a lot too.

So it's creating a really a just a universal space for people to pause and honor the nourishment that sustains all of us.

(gentle upbeat music) (Priya singing in foreign language) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music continues) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (Priya continues singing in foreign language) (gentle music mellows) - [Dana] From seed we grow different varieties of herbs, vegetables, and bedding flowers.

Some of the larger plants in this greenhouse, my mother actually drives down to Florida and she handpicks them and trucks them back up.

And with some of these non-native plants, we really focus on edibles and plants that will help draw a connection to the consumer with things that they're consuming all of the time.

So we have currently an avocado tree, banana, coffee, a lot of these items that people might be consuming and never having seen one of the plants.

So it's a really fun space to just be able to focus on native plants as well as have an educational zone for some of these more exotic but very familiar through our cuisine plants as well.

- A big part of what we do is create space for educational programming, and so we also host a nonprofit organization here called Origins Community Foundation.

Through this work, our goal is to create accessible opportunities for youth and for the the local community to come together and explore cultural traditions of the world through food and music.

That involves a special concert series called the Harmony Garden Music Festival.

- We look for musicians from all over the world, from different cultures.

So we've had tango music from Argentina, we've had traditional music from Cuba, we've had music from West Africa, jazz and improvised music, and we're just looking to explore the entire world through music.

♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Shining so brightly ♪ ♪ For no one to see ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ What keeps you going ♪ ♪ Day after day ♪ ♪ Day after day ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Tell me your secret ♪ ♪ You shouldn't keep it ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ (gentle cello music) (Priya whistling) (mellow music) (mellow cello music) (mellow cello music builds) (Priya vocalizing) (mellow upbeat music) (Priya continues vocalizing) (mellow upbeat music continues) (Priya continues vocalizing) (mellow upbeat music continues) (Priya continues vocalizing) (mellow upbeat music continues) (Priya continues vocalizing) (mellow upbeat music continues) (mellow cello music crescendos) ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Shining so brightly ♪ ♪ For no one to see ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ ♪ Tell me your secret ♪ ♪ You shouldn't keep it ♪ ♪ Loneliest star ♪ (mellow upbeat music crescendos) (audience applauds) - [Adara] What do you find provides the most satisfaction for you about running a business?

- For me, it's feeling that our whole family, our parents and my sister and I, but also the whole extended Origins family really care so much about creating this positive experience and creating positive change in the world.

- [Dana] I have two little boys now and being able to have them here where we grew up, where my parents are, and our grandmother's on the hill, and just being able to share this with our family and the larger community just makes it feel really, really rewarding.

- [Priya] This next song is called "Home."

(gentle music) ♪ Once again, I find myself ♪ ♪ So much farther than I may have wanted to go ♪ ♪ Here I've found dreams that I never knew ♪ ♪ Never knew that I could have ♪ ♪ Oh, that I could be ♪ ♪ I am here, do you see me ♪ ♪ Will I always be on the periphery ♪ ♪ No matter where I go ♪ ♪ Am I alone ♪ ♪ Oh, am I alone ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ Home ♪ ♪ Home ♪ ♪ Home ♪ ♪ Home ♪ ♪ Home ♪ ♪ Home ♪ (gentle cello music) ♪ Monsoon chais heartbroken nights ♪ ♪ Color coded memories filtered with gray ♪ ♪ Familiar scent of a memory ♪ ♪ From a time I can't seem to recognize ♪ (gentle upbeat music) ♪ Maybe I'm just a traveler ♪ ♪ In search of what I already have ♪ ♪ And if I look into the mirror ♪ ♪ Then I don't need to be on the other side ♪ ♪ Oh, this soaring heart of mine ♪ ♪ Oh, this soaring heart of mine ♪ ♪ Oh, this soaring heart of mine ♪ ♪ Oh, this soaring heart of mine ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away, away from home ♪ ♪ So far away ♪ ♪ Away from home ♪ (audience applauds) - What an amazing performance from Priya Darshini and her band.

A reminder that you can visit wskg.org/expressions to see even more from this talented quartet.

Until next time, this is Adara Alston.

Thanks for watching.

(Priya singing in foreign language)