SYRACUSE - Fresh off her historic run for the White House, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was back on the job in upstate New York Wednesday, talking about weather-beaten apples, green power and her state's downtrodden economy.

Along the way, crowds greeted her with standing ovations and chants of “Hillary! Hillary!”

“We find her inspiring,” said Sister Joan Sauro of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Syracuse, who was carrying a 2000 Clinton for Senate campaign poster that Clinton had just signed. “What they say about her grace and grit is true. I'm heartbroken that she pulled out of the race ... but that means we in New York have her back.”

Clinton was a frequent visitor upstate before devoting herself to the presidential run, but this was just her second trip outside the New York City metro area since hitting the New York State Fair in Syracuse in August. Her only other public appearance upstate was at Gov. David Paterson's inauguration in Albany in March.

“It's wonderful. It is so wonderful. It was the only part of campaigning that was kind of challenging. I really missed New York. I missed actually physically being in the state and having a chance to see my friends and see a lot of what I care about around the state. So I'm back doing work that I love, and I feel very good about what we are going to be able to accomplish,” Clinton said.

As many as 500 people gathered in Hanover Square in downtown Syracuse to see and hear Clinton, who suspended her campaign last month after Sen. Barack Obama secured enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

“Looking around the square, it feels like a family reunion, I see so many familiar faces,” Clinton said to a standing ovation.

During her two-hour visit in Syracuse, Clinton met with Mayor Matt Driscoll, representatives of several green businesses and alternative energy firms and officials from the region's colleges and universities, who gave her a briefing and demonstrated some of the technologies being researched and developed in the area.

A Syracuse engineering firm showed off a self-sustaining, integrated fish farm and greenhouse that uses wood chips, algae oil and fish waste to produce electricity and help grow organic hydroponic vegetables along with the fish.

An Ithaca company that makes high performance skateboards using soy, bamboo and maple gave Clinton an organic cotton T-shirt touting its brand name.

At each stop, Clinton exchanged pleasantries and shared hugs and kisses with acquaintances.

As she toured the exhibits inside a glass atrium, people pressed up against the windows outside, using their cell phone cameras to snap pictures.

Emerging from the building, Clinton was greeted by a chorus of “Hillary! Hillary!”

After the meeting, Clinton was joined by Paterson and both talked about their commitment to help spur the growth of alternative energy and green jobs.

During her 15-minute speech, Clinton sounded like a presidential candidate again, outlining her plans for a national energy policy and criticizing the Bush administration for doing nothing to counter rising fuel costs.

Asked later about her place in a potential Obama administration, Clinton said she had no plans except “to be the best senator I can be. I love being the senator from New York.”

Paterson said Clinton's presidential run was great publicity for New York and helped bring attention to the state's issues.

“Our senator was running for president, you can't put a price on that,” Paterson said. “Like any other process in life, you are going to have to give a little to get something. You are going to have to take a little bit of risk in order to gain. That's what Sen. Clinton did.”

Later Wednesday she visited a fruit farm outside Newark in Ontario County and chatted with a dozen fruit growers who were badly hit by last month's hail storms. She talked about getting a federal disaster declaration for the 23 New York counties that suffered damage.

Phil Wagner, who owns a 157-acre fruit farm in nearby Wayne County, described losing more than half of his peaches and sweet cherries in 20 minutes to inch-and-a-half chunks of hail. He estimated the damage left him $100,000 in debt.

“Farmers are just looking for enough money to be in business next year,” he told Clinton.

In the Finger Lakes community of Geneva, a loud, enthusiastic crowd of at least 200 people at a fruit store renewed the “Hillary!” chants and thanked her for the presidential run.

Patricia Richer-Petrie, a 37-year-old unemployed teacher from nearby Potter in Yates County, carried a placard reading: “Dems Unite! We love Hillary. Obama '08.”

But some in the crowd weren't so quick to urge unity.

“I wouldn't vote for Obama unless Hillary's on the ticket,” said Andrea Stone, 57, a piano tuner from Sodus.

Clinton was to finish her upstate swing in Buffalo, joining Sen. Charles Schumer for the ceremonial opening of the Erie Canal Harbor, a waterfront redevelopment project, and then a tour of Buffalo's Artspace, a redevelopment project that provides affordable housing and work space for artists and their families as well as commercial space for arts organizations and arts-related businesses.