70F by 10.30am, humid with hazy sunshine, rising to 80F by 12.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
Daily Catskills: 08/30/15
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Tag Archives: Country Living
Goats Milk, Grated Beet & Carrot Salad
© J.N. Urbanski
If you’ve grown more carrots and beetroot that you can handle, you can make a crunchy slaw with crumbly goat’s milk feta. Serves four.
3 medium-sized beetroot (with leaves)
4-5 medium-sized carrots
1.5 ounces of balsamic vinegar
3 ounces of goat’s milk feta
Grate the carrots and beetroot. Chop up the beetroot greens. Cut the feta cheese into cubes. Mix the grated vegetables, and cheese together in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar for a quick, easy, utterly delicious, juicy and crunchy salad.
Daily Catskills: 08/29/15
A dewy 55F at 8am with mist hovering in the mountains and hazy sunshine, rising to 78F by 2pm. Mostly sunny with cloudy periods.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.46pm
Daily Catskills: 08/28/15
63F at 10am rising to nearly 70F by 1pm, with gunmetal grey, rolling cloud cover dominating the skies, only occasionally breaking up to reveal sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
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: 08/26/15
59F at 8.30am with hazy sunshine, quickly rising to 72F by 10.30am with scattered clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.50am
Daily Catskills: 08/25/15
66F at 8am, foggy, humid and warm as the sun rises through the hazy cloud. Dashes of red, here and there, appear as the merest of blushing hints on the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 08/24/15
A crisp 60F at 7.30am with fog hovering in the valleys. Update: 81F, blazing sun, scattered cloud combo.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 10.45am
Daily Catskills: 08/23/15
72F at 9am, bright with some scattered clouds. 78F by lunchtime.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/22/15
A crisp, dewy 52F at 7.45am. Cloudy with fog rolling off the mountains. Update: 75F by 2pm with scattered clouds. Hot in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Foraging: Yarrow
© J.N. Urbanski
We have a whole field full of yarrow this year, which is an anti-microbial herb with a distinctive aroma that’s reminiscent of anti-bacterial oils like tea tree. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be harvesting the best of it and drying it for use as a tea.
Yarrow is revered in the world of natural medicine with reports of it having universal healing powers, arresting conditions like bleeding, pain, infection, allergies, colds, flu, toothache, and gastro-intestinal disorders like cramps, bloating, indigestion and even urinary tract infections. The herb is an astringent and the liver benefits from yarrow’s bitter components. When taken as tea, yarrow is said to increase the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.
Daily Catskills: 08/21/15
74F at 9.30am with mist evaporating into the sunshine. 82F by lunchtime with scattered clouds. Heavy overnight rains had given the landscape a good soaking, and left the rivers gushing and thick with mud.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/20/15
78F by 8am, breezy with forboding cloud cover. Lunchtime rain, fog, humidity, with gunmetal skies. A moody day on the mountain top.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
Catskills Conversations: Kristie & Steve Burnett
© J.N. Urbanski
Kristie and Steven Burnett run Burnett Farms in Bovina, New York. Kristie also makes herbal tea and salve, using herbs grown in their greenhouse.
JN: What brought you two to the Catskills?
KB: I’ve been here for 15 years and what brought me to the Catskills was my charming Bovina farmer.
SB: I have been in the Catskills for a long time, starting in Phoenicia, where I had house and barn full of motorcycles. Then I moved to Bovina where there was a little more sunshine than up Woodland Valley and have been here since 1989. I came here also to have a weekend house, like so many people with careers in the city.
JN: So you’re both from the city?
KB: I’m still in the city. I teach third grade, so I’m up here on weekends and holidays and summers, which is more than I teach actually.
JN: Have you ever thought about getting a job up here teaching?
KB: Yes. Hopefully, that’s in the making.
JN: So you’re both born and bred in New York?
KB: I’m born and raised in New York and Steve is from…
SB: Iowa, where there are more pigs than people and we’re proud of it.
Daily Catskills: 08/19/15
79F by 10am and bright despite thick haze over the mountains. A scorcher with a few sprinkles.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.20am
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily Catskills: 08/18/15
A scorching 88F by 10am, with strong sunshine blazing through the thick morning haze. Cloud cover steals the show again, however, and high humidity leads to thunder at 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.50pm
© J.N. Urbanski 11.50am
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
Daily Catskills: 08/15/15
71F at 9.30am, humid and misty, soaked by overnight rain. Bright and sunny by 11am. Update: an unexpected 90F scorcher by mid-afternoon, punctuated by a 5pm shower.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 08/14/15
80F by 10.30am, hazy sunshine and partly cloudy.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 08/13/15
60F at 9am with a gloomy start to a morning overwhelmed with gunmetal grey cloud cover with brief bright moments. Rising to 74F by 1.30pm and much sunnier.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.40am
© J.N. Urbanski 1.50pm
The Catskill 35: Panther Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski 8/12/15 1.47pm
It’s easy to miss the 3500ft elevation notice on Panther Mountain for two reasons. One reason is that it seems to be split down the middle and folded together slightly so that, on the ascent to the summit at 3720ft from Giant Ledge, it’s facing away from you. Second, it’s at the top of a particularly steep and (more) rocky part of the trail, so if you’re focusing on your footing and not looking up, you will miss it. Also easy to miss is the summit sign at 3720ft. On and on I hiked, until I was about three hours in from the Giant Ledge parking area, so I decided to turn back. I’m no slow coach, so I knew something was wrong. It had started to rain and, not only was I slipping alot, a large tree lay across the trail. I took this all as a sign and walked back to the second Panther Mountain view, in about half an hour, where I found the trio of hikers from the Adirondacks that I had passed at Giant Ledge. They were having their lunch. “I didn’t reach the summit,” I told the lead hiker “This is the summit,” he said. “Where’s the sign?” I asked. “People steal signs,” he said with a shrug.
A second source just confirmed the rumour. Someone stole the Panther Mountain summit sign. Maybe I just confirmed the rumour, but I’m too exhausted to think about it much. My round trip took me almost six hours, but on the plus side, the rain had stopped by the time I had returned to the summit from the other side and the mountains were steaming. I sighed and gasped at the views, took pictures and ate my lunch. I didn’t stop for long though, because I realized I had over two more hours of hiking ahead of me. They call it a hike, but there’s a considerable amount of climbing involved on this trail. During brief pauses in my hike, I would take pictures of my dog disappearing at the top of what looks like a very large pile of rubble.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
On the thigh-busting descent to the Giant Ledge parking area, I was certain Giant Ledge was so-named because a giant went up to the summit, broke off the top of the mountain and threw it to the base. It crumbled as it tumbled and rocks are strewn all the way down. Unless you’re as nimble as a sprite, hopping from one half-buried rock to the next, the descent is a tedious search for sure footing.
According to Catskill Mountaineer, Panther Mountain “sits on top of a 375 million year old meteorite hit. The meteorite was approximately a half-mile wide. It sits 3300ft below Panther Mountain. Most of the rock on Panther Mountain is sand stone, which is just deposited sediments. If you go down near the Esopus Creek you will see significant fractured rock, which is evidence of the meteor. You will not find this fractured rock on top of Panther Mountain. The mountain is earth that has risen over time”.
Look for large pebbles embedded in the rock.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.47pm
At least I managed to have tea and a biscuit at Giant Ledge. Time for some yoga.
© J.N. Urbanski 8/12/15 11am
Daily Catskills: 08/12/15
67F at 8.30am.Clouds taking center stage again, chugging through, obscuring the sun at regular intervals. Update: more rain, rising to about 80F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.48pm
Fleischmanns Art Fair: August 15th
Fleischmanns, in upstate New York is having an art fair on Saturday August 15th. There have been two galleries in the village for years, The Painters and Zoom, but this is the first annual art fair where you’ll find art on the street: a street art fair. Please come and support Catskills artists, especially the one in the yellow sombrero, from 11am to 3pm.
Daily Catskills: 08/11/15
65F at 9.30am, overcast and drizzling, heavy overnight rains having given the landscape a thorough soaking and left trees dripping with aqueous jewels. Mist in the mountains until noon: a dark morning.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
Daily Catskills: 08/10/15
60F at 7am, breezy, cloudy with brief periods sunshine, rising to 80F by noon. The usual clouds marching through, dampening the strength of the sun at regular intervals and darkening the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
On the Farm: Apples
© J.N. Urbanski
It has been a remarkable summer for wild apple trees that seem to be everywhere you look. Much more conspicuous this year due to being so heavily laden with fruit, they’re all full to bursting with apples that are about two inches in diameter and mostly green in colour. Here in the Catskills, bear and deer are going to be feasting on them well into winter. The fruit is very tart to taste but make a superb apple sauce with the addition of sweeteners like honey, sugar or orange juice. They make a fantastic compote with berries. A noteworthy source of vitamin C and fibre, the apples will fit in just about any pie, cake or sauce. Soak them in vodka for a tart cocktail, a replacement for Cranberry juice, or add them to cider.
Daily Catskills: 08/09/15
80F by noon. A clear and sunny morning despite clouds sailing through. Haying continues…
© J.N. Urbanski 1.20pm
Local Delicacies: Beaverkill Trout Hatchery
© J.N. Urbanski
Go swimming in Big Pond. Make a detour on the way home and get the most juicy, tender and delicate smoked trout this side of, actually anywhere. Mark Twain wrote extensively about America’s trout with reverence calling it “the masterpiece of the universe”.
According to Andrew Beahrs, who wrote Twain’s Feast, throughout Twain’s life the simple phrase “trout dinner” was synonymous with simple enjoyment, with the pleasure at once luxurious and comforting. Whether he was in Germany or stage coaching across the Nevada Flats, when Twain wrote something to the effect of “we had trout dinner”, you can be sure that whatever had happened before, he ended the day contented. Apparently, Twain loved his trout, straight out of the pristine waters of Lake Tahoe, fried with bacon.
Daily Catskills: 08/08/15
80F by noon, and fairly bright despite August’s thus far regular, multifarious cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily Catskills: 08/07/15
70F at 9am rising to 75F by noon. A breezy morning waned to a still afternoon with scudding clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily Catskills: 08/06/15
A crisp 64F at 8.30am with hazy sunshine rising to 75F with brief periods of sunshine amidst the clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
Daily Catskills: 08/05/15
65F at 8am with clear skies overhead and hazy horizon. A crisp morning with mist dissipating over the mountains.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.40am
Daily Catskills: 08/04/15
75F at 9.30am with hovering mist and muddy puddles caused by heavy overnight rain evaporating quickly into the clear blue sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
Daily Catskills: 08/03/15
85F by the afternoon, hot and humid with multifarious cloud cover. Thunder and the barest sprinkle of rain at 3.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/01/15
75F at 10.30am with cloud cover stealing the show, threatening a repeat of last night’s rain… Update: those clouds did bring showers around midday, alleviating most of the humidity.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.15am
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Catskills Sandwich: Goatie White’s
© J.N. Urbanski
Fleischmanns’ Goatie White’s pork sandwich, on a light roll, made more moist and delicious by the addition of a generous helping of fried onions stuffed between the thinly-sliced pork and a thin layer of cheese. Not too heavy or greasy, it’s excellent pre-hike sustenance. A sandwich to love.
Daily Catskills: 07/31/15
70F at 8.30am with strong sunshine piercing the morning haze as the temperature quickly rises.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Catskills Conversations: Marino De La Cruz
© J.N. Urbanski
Marino De La Cruz is the owner of Vivae Colores barbershop in Fleischmanns.
JN: How long have you lived in the Catskills?
MDLC: About ten months now. My wife’s family is from here and my parents recently moved as well.
Daily Catskills: 07/30/15
80F at 9am, overcast with brief flashes of sun, humid and hazy. A steamy morning. Update: rain showers moved through mid-afternoon briefly darkening the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.55am
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Catskills Conversations: Lisbeth Firmin
© J.N. Urbanski
Lisbeth Firmin works out of her warmly inviting art studio in Margaretville, in upstate New York. She was part of the Catskills Open Studio Art Tour last weekend in which she showed many strikingly gorgeous cityscapes in oil.
JN: How long have you lived in the Catskills?
LF: I moved from New York City in 2000, but I kept my apartment down there, so I went back and forth for a while.
What were you doing in the city?
I was a painter and I had a two-bedroomed apartment on Sullivan Street and I painted in one of the bedrooms. My career was just taking off and I needed a bigger space, so I bought a storefront in Franklin, upstate New York.
That sounds very Williamsburg. I remember, back in the day, artists used to buy storefronts and paint out of them. Those were the days.
Oh man, those days, Williamsburg. You can’t even go anywhere near the city these days. I’ve heard Newark is happening.
Catskills Conversations: Alex Wilson of Wayside Cider
© J.N. Urbanski
How long have you lived in the Catskills?
I think we’ve had our house for about six and a half to seven years, right after we got married. Basically, we needed an escape from Manhattan. We started looking around Woodstock and realized that if you went a little bit further you could get a lot more for your money.
What were you doing back in the city?
I was producing and editing film, both documentary and commercial stuff. It’s just that being stuck in an edit room all day, the high pressure, deadlines, late nights: you need an escape from that. My wife’s an attorney so she worked long hours. We got married in a beautiful place in Vermont and we wanted to recreate that beautiful place up here. I grew up in a rural area in England and I’m never happier than when I’m in the countryside. I had to work in New York City, but I didn’t really love it. I was a big fan of London and I quickly learned that I didn’t enjoy New York as much. There wasn’t so much of a social scene with work. In London, your boss would always take you out for a drink on Friday night and you would get to know the people you worked with, but in New York City everyone went home after work. There wasn’t the same camaraderie that I had enjoyed in London and not as much space. It’s slightly more intense and slightly more money-centric. People just live to make money [in NYC] and I think, well what’s the use of money if you can’t enjoy it? Up here, you don’t need very much money but you have everything. Trout fishing, hiking, riding: friends of mine down the road have horses and I go and exercise them. I absolutely adore it.
I had a pretty serious traffic accident and I couldn’t really edit for about a year and a half because my hand was completely out of action. That gave me pause for thought in terms of what I really want to do, my love for this area and the potential in this area.
Daily Catskills: 07/28/15
63F at 7.30am with the rising sun quickly burning through the thick mist hovering over the mountains. Update: the morning mist cleared quickly and the day turned out to be a 85F scorcher with high humidity.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
Daily Catskills: 07/27/15
An typically enigmatic mountain morning with thick fog nestling in the valleys like cotton wool, rising to 85F by 1.30pm with little respite from the scorching sun despite rolling cloud cover. Hot.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
Catskill Open Studios Art Tour: Day 2 Halcottsville
The second and final day of the Arkville Roxbury Margaretville Art Tour wherein more than 20 artists showed their work and/or opened their studio to the public. Today’s highlights were Oneida Hammond, fine artist, who showed at the Halcott Grange on Main Street in Halcotsville and Alix Travis who has a studio in the hamlet.
Barn Door by Oneida Hammond, Watercolor
It was worth making the trip just to peruse Oneida’s sketch pad and her Mexican travelogue.
Oneida Hammond’s Travel Sketchbooks
And, of course, there was an array of public art that’s on show year round:
Mark Pilato’s 911 Memorial in Halcotsville
Rust in Peace on Route 38 between Route 30 and Arkville, Lynn Johnson
Catskills Art Studio Tour: The Commons, Margaretville
Lisbeth Firmin
Highlights in the Margaretville area: the EBDR Plein Air Painters’ group exhibition at the Commons Gallery, Lisbeth Firmin and Robert Axelrod. Robert’s stunning landscapes are on show at the Longyear Gallery. Lisbeth has opened her studio upstairs in the Commons Building to visitors today and will continue tomorrow. Her New York City scenes are lushly gorgeous and her studio is also reminiscent of a New York City painter’s studio with its warmly inviting office nook. It’s somewhere you’ll want to park yourself for a while, with a frosty beverage, and just soak up the atmosphere.
Lisbeth Firmin’s Studio
Robert Axelrod
Daily Catskills: 07/24/15
75F at 10am, bright sunshine with cotton wool clouds on the horizon becoming more burly as the day goes on. 78F by 2.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Sunset Hikes with Catskill Mountain Wild
© J.N. Urbanski
As Jeff Vincent explained a couple of months ago in our conversation, “one day of hiking with somebody, you feel like you’ve known them for months and months” and it’s true. Jeff runs Catskill Mountain Wild, an outdoor guide business and he is also authorized to conduct marriages on top of mountains in what he calls “wild weddings”.
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.
Plein Air Painters’ Exhibition in August
Watercolor by Oneida Hammond
The next artists to show at The Commons Gallery are Oneida Hammond (watercolor) and Dale Amato (oil and acrylics) in their joint show: Two Women, Two Visions starting on August 1st 2015. The two painters couldn’t be more different yet complement each other perfectly. Hammond is precise and fine; Amato is emotive and vibrant. Well worth a visit for such a gorgeous juxtaposition. Revel in Amato’s invigorating forests; be calmed by Hammond’s captivating farm scenes and precise close-ups.
The Commons Gallery
785 Main Street
Margaretville, NY 12455
Gallery hours: 11am to 5pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Reception: Saturday August 8th 2pm to 5pm.
Daily Catskills: 07/19/15
80F at 11am, hot and humid. A very sultry morning rising to 88F in the shade and very hot in the sun by 2pm. A scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm
Daily Catskills: 07/17/15
75F at 10am, with hazy sunshine burning through gossamer clouds. A hazy day and late afternoon rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 07/10/15
68F at 10am and mostly sunny.
© Gavin DuBois
Daily Catskills: 07/09/15
64F at 11am. A hazy, misty morning with thunder forecasted for later on.
© Gavin DuBois