Published: November 04, 2009 12:00 am      

Area woman’s cookies attract attention

Janet Washburn’s cookies are taking a role in history.

She recently finished baking 2,000 cookies for a reception after the commissioning of the USS New York on Saturday. She will drive to Albany on Thursday to deliver the cookies at the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, where the baked goods will be passed on to another leg of their trip to New York City.

For the past two years, her gourmet cookies have been sold under the Pride of New York label at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, and the order for the USS New York event came from fair officials, she said during an interview at her home in Otego on Tuesday.

Washburn, whose business is called Janet’s Cookie Jar, attributes her opportunity to membership in Pride of New York, a program to promote and support the sale of agricultural and other projects originating and processed within New York state.

This summer at the state fair, her cookies were served to F. Curtis Jones, USS New York commander and a native of Binghamton. Washburn said she was told ``he liked them.’’

The USS New York, built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in the bow, will be commissioned at the Intrepid Museum pier in New York City on Saturday. The ship, which has a motto of ``Never Forget,’’ arrived earlier this week and will be open to the public other days before it leaves Nov. 12.

The USS New York is to be based in Norfolk, Va., according to the ship’s website.

The Washburns said they were shopping in a Sears store in Binghamton when they joined others watching 9/11 events on large-screen televisions. To have built a ship from some of the salvaged steel from the World Trade Center is special, Janet Washburn said.

``There’s a lot of pride attached to that,’’ she said. The cookie order came in about a month ago, Washburn said, and it is among her largest orders and is the most prestigious.

``It’s a privilege to be chosen to have done this,’’ she said. ``It’s an honor.’’

Washburn said she makes her Janet’s Cookie Jar treats mostly on weekends, when she isn’t working. She keeps ingredients on hand, and this year has used between four and five 50-pound bags of flour to bake cookies.

Her cookies cost $15 a dozen, and selections include lemony lemon, orange cranberry coconut, mudslide and chocolate chunk praline, oatmeal and peanut butter, among others.

Baking isn’t her regular job. She works about 50 hours a week cleaning the state police station in Oneonta and the Thornwood residence of the Hartwick College president in Oneonta, plus other occasional cleaning jobs.

About five years ago, she started her cookie business, prompted by positive reactions from consumers.

``I’ve had a lot of favorable comments,’’ she said, and two of her favorite descriptions have been ``cookies from heaven’’ and ``phenomenal.’’

Washburn is a perfectionist, said her husband, Roland ``Poncho’’ Washburn, who has opportunities to be a taste-tester and to eat goods that don’t meet the baker’s standard.

``She takes a lot of pride’’ in her cookies, he said. ``She likes to make people happy.’’

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