75F by mid-afternoon with rippled, early morning clouds evaporating in the brilliant sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm – Usage prohibited without consent
Daily Catskills: 05/20/17
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Tag Archives: Flowers
Emergency Foraging
© J.N. Urbanski
Country life means throwing on the wellies, sprinting out of the house at 8am ahead of the town mower to save a patch of wild mint and chicory before it’s razed by the town’s enormous lateral road leveler. Their incredible new machine has an industrial rake on it and the monster takes out eight-feet-tall thistles like it’s plucking daisies.
Experienced foragers often say that roadside foraging should be avoided because of brake dust and ice-melting salt, but big buckets of mint make a natural air freshener for musty rooms and workshops. Last year, the slugs got the mint, but they didn’t this year. This summer was a banner year for chicory, which is all over the roadsides everywhere. Get it into water immediately otherwise it will quickly wilt and makes good freshly cut flowers in clear vases for guest bedrooms.
Daily Catskills: 08/17/15
86F by 10.30am, dry with hazy sunshine. A humid scorcher with a few passing clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/16/15
A misty morning caused by heavy overnight rain, but 80F by 10.30am, sticky and humid. Dew rising off the flora quickly as the temperature rises. A sultry day ahead.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.02am
© J.N. Urbanski 9.12am
The Annex in Andes
© J.N. Urbanski
My persistent, resolute village envy has been exacerbated by the opening of The Annex in Andes, a boutique indoor market selling freshly cut flowers, cider, honey and herbs grown from seed, all locally produced. The building is on the corner of Main Street, that is Route 28, where it does a sharp right on its way to Delhi. Its interior looks like a rustic, aged restaurant made lovelier by the presence of herbs and flowers in the front and thirst-quenching Wayside cider in the back. Phoenicia Honey Co makes a welcome appearance.
Catskills Conversations: Louann Aleksander
© J.N. Urbanski
Louann Aleksander sells herbs, which she grows from seed, wholesale and in The Annex in Andes.
How long have you lived in the Catskills?
It’s going to be eight years on August 1st.
So what made you decide to move here?
We had friends who had moved to Andes and before that my husband would come up maybe once a year and he absolutely loved it. We wanted to get out of the rat race of Long Island. It was getting where you work to go back to work. We weren’t enjoying life at all.
Foraging: Wild Red Raspberries
Wild red raspberries are plump and juicy this year. Get them before the bears and slugs do. Look for low lying bushes with leaves that have serrated edges.
© J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 07/09/15
64F at 11am. A hazy, misty morning with thunder forecasted for later on.
© Gavin DuBois
More Wildflowers
© J.N. Urbanski 7/2/15
Some of the wild flowers I’ve seen fade so quickly that catching them in their prime requires daily survey. I don’t know what these flowers are, but they are blooming and wilting in abundance. Update: this is crown vetch which was introducted to the United States in the 1950s, primarily for soil erosion control, from the Meditteranean region. According to the USDA: “crown vetch is a useful but overused erosion control plant. Its spreading growth habit, and strong root system provide soil holding ability and ground cover. The dark green foliage and profuse flower have aesthetic value. It is a good plant for road bank stabilization in areas where rocky conditions predominate, but… in general, however, crownvetch dominates other plants and tends toward a monoculture”.
© J.N. Urbanski 7/2/15
Daily Catskills: 07/07/15
75F and cloudy by 10.30am. Thunderstorms on the horizon.
Daily Catskills: 06/18/15
60F at 9.30am, overcast with cloud, mist over the mountains and drizzling. A gloomy morning. Update: not much of an improvement, rising to 65F by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 06/16/15
70F by 9am, misty clouds moving quickly over the mountains and the wind gently shaking last night’s rain out of the trees. Humid, with gunmetal skies issuing threatening sprinkles by noon. Stormy weather forecast. Update: Rain late afternoon and into the evening.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.39am
© J.N. Urbanski 9.37am
Daily Catskills: 06/08/15
55F at 8am, raining, overcast and gloomy. Update: 77F by 4pm with low rumblings of thunder in the air. Rain late afternoon, with a tornado watch in effect for the Catskills.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.45am
Daily Catskills: 06/05/15
63F and cloudy at 9am rising to 75F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
Weekend Links
Seed Swap at local libraries from April 1st to June 1st in Delaware County, publicised by Transition Catskills.
If you didn’t have time nor space to nurture seedlings this past harsh winter, the Catskill Native Nursery will have it for you. They are hosting the Annual Seedling Sale at the Wildflower Festival this weekend.
For next weekend: get recycled furniture and doors for your new country digs at the Western Catskills Revitalization Council which “provides homeowners and builders with unique, affordable materials for home improvement projects”. The nonprofit organization is “dedicated to improving housing, community revitalization, and economic development in Delaware, Greene and Schoharie counties”. Open to the public on Fridays (10-4pm) and Saturdays (10-3pm).
Daily Catskills: 05/10/15
90F by noon, clear skies dissolving into a haze on the horizon. The hops wind slowly around the twine in the blazing sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.15pm
Daily Catskills: 05/09/15
61F at 8am with hazy sunshine and light winds, rising to 75Fby the afternoon. The Juneberry blossoms.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
Catskills Conversations: Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower
Image courtesy of Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower
Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower is a registered nurse, herbal educator and wild foods forager who conducts“weed walks” in which she teaches us how to forage for wild edibles.
How long have you lived in the Catskills?
Since 1980.
From NYC?
Manhattan and Brooklyn. I was born in Manhattan and spent part of my young life in Brooklyn. When I experienced the country when I was eleven, I knew that was where I was going when I got old enough.
Daily Catskills: 05/05/15
59F at 7.30am with misty, hazy cloud cover and the landscape still damp with overnight rain. 78F by 2pm with the same hazy cloud. The magnolia has bloomed and is falling, but the wisteria waits.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 05/04/15
72F at 8am, rising to 81F (for the first time this year) by midday with mostly cloudless skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
Daily Catskills: 04/24/15
28F at 8.30am with overnight snow lingering in the scantiest of flurries. Overcast and gloomy. RIP Crocus.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 04/19/15
52F at 9am rising to 56F by 10.30am. Clear skies, no wind and warm in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
Transplant Tales: Molly J Marquand
© Erik Johanson/@halcott718 Molly Marquand at her office at CRISP in the Catskills Center
“My muse is always nature.” Molly J Marquand, Catskills transplant and fellow native Brit, photographer, writer, naturalist, and wild flower gardener dishes the dirt to Upstate Dispatch in our new series Catskills Conversations.
How long have you lived in the Catskills? About two and a half years, I moved from New York City where my fiancé and I, Martin, lived for three years. I was born in England and moved to the Hudson Valley just before high school. I did go back to England to get my Masters Degree, in Taxonomy and Conservation of Plant Diversity (Botany) a joint programme with Kew Botanical Gardens and The University of Reading. But my undergraduate degree, which was in Ecology, I did at Bates in Maine.
What made you move here? I’d always had my eye on it, because I knew that I always needed space. We had this dream of having a farm and having wide open tracts of land. At the same time, I wanted to be close to my mother who lives in the Hudson Valley. [My fiancé and I] were both attracted to landscapes like the Rockies and Montana and places like that, but knowing that we were never going that far away because Martin’s family live in New York City.