PORT BYRON -- It's been three decades or so that handmade afghans, ornamental candles and tree ornaments have arrived just in time for Christmas shopping at the Port Byron United Methodist Church's annual fall bazaar and craft sale. For the majority of those years, Mary Longyear's vegetable beef soup has been served at the accompanying luncheon.

"It's become famous for Mary Longyear's soup," said Ruth Wethey, one of the participants in the event Saturday.

Longyear passed away three years ago, but her children continue to make the soup at the annual October event. And they continue to maintain the secrecy of just exactly what is in the hearty, tasty soup.

"It's a secret. We were told point blank," said Longyear's daughter, Rose Shaffer. Shaffer said her mother was so protective of the recipe that she was reluctant even later in life to tell her daughters the full secret of it.

Shaffer and her sister, Taffy Bowen, were in the kitchen Saturday with other members of the church's women's group, Port Byron Methodist Women, serving up the soup, heaping sandwiches and fruit turnovers.

The soup ingredients of beef, tomatoes, corn, peas and carrots could be visibly identified, but the seasoning will remain secret.

For years, they would freeze beef broth and vegetables from their gardens in preparation for their mother's making of a big batch of the soup for the bazaar fund-raiser, Shaffer said.

The lunch tables were packed midday at the church on South Street in Port Byron. The deluge of rain kept few away.

The bazaar's offerings, including baked goods that were snatched up fast, were the collective result of donations of 20 members of the church and other supporters.

"By God's grace, it works all year long," said Carolyn Wethey, a main organizer of the annual bazaar.

Read the full report in Sunday's editon of The Citizen.