© J.N. Urbanski
Chicken and Tarragon Pot Pie on the menu at Bull & Garland in Hobart, New York. Deliciously light for a pot pie and buttery with an ethereal crust. You won’t ordinarily get two crusts. We took our pot pie to go, after a filling tour of the exceptional starters, and scored a free crust and some extra mashed potato. This is a pie to love.
60F by mid-afternoon, overcast, humid with rain for most of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
55F by noon, overcast, gusty and humid. 60F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Found at the Pakatan Farmers’ Market which runs through November: Holiday Farm Biscuit Co’s sausage pie. This delicious pie comes in two varieties, egg/sausage and chorizo/manchega. Light and crumbly crust with subtly flavorful filling, it’s not so heavy that you’ll feel stuffed afterwards. Served warm, it’s makes the perfect winter breakfast. Get some.
30F at 8am and snowing heavily. 32F and sleet mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.45am
© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Accomplished Catskills historian, Diane Galusha, is author of Liquid Assets: A History of New York City’s Water System, which has recently been updated and expanded to include the last ten years of advancement in the delivery of the NYC water supply. It’s published by Purple Mountain Press.
What first brought you to the Catskills?
Love. What else? [Laughs] I was living in Hamilton New York, up in Madison County working at Colgate University and I met a man who lived in the Catskills. I made a move down into the Hudson Valley to be closer. Then just decided to take the leap and move to the Catskills to be with him. I had a relationship with him for eight years.
Where are you from originally?
From Broome County, a town called Windsor. I’m a small town girl and I love these small towns and these hills. I was raised about a couple of hours from here.
41F by mid-afternoon and windy with rolling cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
48F by noon and overcast with high winds.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski
If you never truly appreciate something until it has gone, then I was really very much appreciating the Saturday Summer farmer’s market until I found out it was extending until the end of November. Owing to an Autumn that was warmer than usual, local farmers have more produce to sell. I haven’t been to the market as often as I have liked this summer and am grateful to have another three or four opportunities. On Saturday, in addition to kimchee and fresh ginger, I picked up a box of assorted root vegetables. Plus, I planted the rest of the fresh ginger as it had a couple of green shoots. There’s nothing like firing up the wood stove for the first time and watching a fresh, organic root soup simmering for the evening. Fall is almost finished and the landscape is swaddled in a thick blanket of caramel oak leaves, the last trees to turn.
52F by mid-afternoon with high winds and rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The Pakatakan Farmers Market in Halcotsville on Route 30 is extending its Saturday market through the end of November. Today there was a limited edition of what you’ll normally find there, but if you’re looking to stock up on local vegetables, Lucky Dog and Straight Out Of The Ground were present. Madalyn Warren’s famous kimchee is delicious. She also had fresh ginger, heirloom tomatoes, pumpkins, Jerusalem artichokes and other greens. Lucky Dog had all its usual green vegetables and herbs. Owing to the late Summer/warm Autumn combination (yesterday it was 70F), there will be more to sell for the next month. Under the large awning there was local chicken for sale, more vegetables, a bakery, soups, coffee, tea, local cheese and Catskill Funghi. Open 10am-2pm every Saturday from now through November. The final market will be on November 19th but a special holiday market will take place on November 26th. Today was dismally freezing with a biting wind, but it’s worth braving the cold to get such excellent produce. Support your local farmers.
70F by mid-afternoon and overcast with lunch-time rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.30pm
70F by 8.30am, rising to 80F by mid-afternoon. Strong warm breeze filling the air with multi-colored confetti.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.10pm
57F at 8.30am and humid with moody skies. Update: 70F by mid-afternoon with periods of sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
© J.N. Urbanski
Wayside Cider is opening their new cidery and tap room opening in Andes this month. The tap room is based in a barn on Redden Lane, beautifully restored, with as much attention to detail paid to it as was to the cider, which is as light as a breeze. There is a courtyard with a firepit. Future plans for the adjacent carriage house include a banquet hall and store. They anticipate a soft opening on October 22nd.
© J.N. Urbanski
34F at 8.30am rising to 64F by 2pm, with mostly clear skies and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.40am
67F by mid-afternoon with mostly sunny skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
66F by 2pm and warm with clear skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.15pm
55F by 3pm with clear skies and a cool breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm
54F by 2pm and overcast with rippling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
50F at 8.30am, nippy with thick fog steaming out of the valleys.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
© J.N. Urbanski
On Friday October 7th from 4pm to 7pm on Main Street in Margaretville, come and enjoy a harvest festival with a range of activities including pumpkin carving with the Catskill Mountain Artisans’ Guild; demonstration on how to press your own cider apples; a costume parade and contest for adults, kids and dogs.
Union Grove Distillery will be offering samples of their vodka. Stick in the Mud will have waffle dogs as well as their super fun Belgian waffles on a stick. There will be chili and cornbread for sale from local chefs. Catskill Candies and Confections will offer samples of their chocolates. The Margaretville Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Shop will be open late and running a special bag sale.
Plein Air painter Alix Travis will be creating artwork depicting the evening’s activities. Entertainment will be provided by Ben Rounds. Stores will be open late as part of this First Friday event sponsored by the Business Association of Margaretville. Admission is free.
On Saturday October 8th from 6pm to 8pm, Rachel’s Framing and Fine Art will show a selection of striking metal sculptures and watercolors by Steve Burnett. 68 Main Street, Delhi, NY 13757. The exhibition will be up from October 8th to October 29th.
© J.N. Urbanski
The Catskill Center is hosting a fundraising gala at the Catskill Interpretive Center in Mount Tremper on Saturday, October 9th from 5pm to 8pm. Find tickets here.
The Catskill Center promises an evening of delicious local cuisine, libations and musical performance by Spirit of Thunderheart, five native American drummers, Donna Coane, Debbie Fichtner, Brenda Martin, JoJo Griffin and Wynona Decker. Spirit of Thunderheart are awardees of the 2014 Native American Music Awards’ Best Traditional, 1st place and the 2015 Best Group of the Year, 2nd place. There will also be music by Skye, which is Celtic cellist Abby Newton, guitarist Lynn Hrdy, and keyboardist Selma Kaplan.
70F, humid and cloudy by 2pm with late afternoon sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
64F by mid-afternoon and gloomy. More explosions of red.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
57F and cloudy at noon with mist over the mountains. Update: 61F by early afternoon. Perfect autumnal day for apple foraging in the Catskills.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.45am
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
52F by 10am and overcast, rising to 61F by the afternoon with light rain for most of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
50F at 8.30am and cloudy, rising to 61F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski 9/28/16 1.10pm
Come late August a red leaf or two fell here and there. For the first half of September, there appeared a light dusting of red across the mountains and a lightening, as if the landscape was turning into an antique before our eyes. Mid-September was quite foggy and enigmatic. This week and some of last, individual trees are blushing individually amongst the greens, creating sparse pockets of vivid, fiery red. Overall, fall is happening later than it did last year and you can go to last year’s Daily Catskills in September to judge for yourself. While you’re there, take a look at October too.
52F at 8.30am and chilly with hazy cloud moving in. 64F mid-afternoon, clear skies and hot in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
© J.N. Urbanski
JNU: What first brought you to the Catskills?
LM: I wanted to create this magic place where people could come, play and plan ideas, celebrate stuff and figure out who they were in the world. I had been living in California, being originally from Pennsylvania, having bounced around the country a bit. I had finished my doctorate in California and was doing something called the Imaginal Institute, which was the precursor of Spillian. It consisted of programs around myth, imagination, story and narrative. We would do weekend conferences for which I was renting other peoples’ places and I didn’t make any money at all. I figured out that I needed to own the building that it was happening in. We had been out in California for about 10 years at that time and I was really getting homesick. My family is still on the East Coast in State College where I grew up. I missed them, the east coast, the water, the history and the hemlocks. It came into relief when 9/11 hit, because it became clear that things could happen where I couldn’t get home.
61F by noon and hot in the sun with clear skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski
This is your brain on nature from National Geographic.
“Rewilding” the English landscape from the BBC.
The Leave It On The Lawn Campaign for soil health from the DEC.
The UK’s first food waste supermarket.
The dark side of “agritainment” by Civil Eats. “Farmers in Sonoma County—real farmers with dirt under their fingernails and aching backs—make an average of $12.21 an hour, or just under $34,000 a year. The average household income in the U.S. for small farmers (the 82 percent of U.S. farming operations that have annual sales of $100,000 or less) is $81,000. Around 85 to 95 percent of that income number comes from off-farm day jobs”.
61F at 8.30am and humid with thick fog burning off in the sun by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
64F at 8.30am, foggy and humid. 75F by mid-afternoon and hot in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
In some ways, Autumn is a better time for Catskills living. The region relies greatly on tourism because it remains under-developed. In order to keep our waterways clean so that New Yorkers can drink the Catskills water unfiltered, industry is heavily regulated. As a consequence of this, friends and neighbors are never more busy than they are in the summer with events and visitors. The wedding industry is booming; hairdressers, chefs, caterers, make-up artists, photographers, hotels and inns are realizing good trade in this speciality event. Autumn is creeping in and although there are still events during this time, there is a general, collective sigh of relief occurring as the business winds down. Country life remains hard work year-round though. We’re not running through sun-drenched hay fields like its a shampoo commercial, but it will be nice to play catch-up with friends and colleagues in these coming months.
The Hubbell Family Cider Mill on Route 30 in Halcotsville, which has been pressing apples since 1878, opens its doors to the public on October 1st and every Saturday in October. All are invited to come and watch apples being pressed. Details will be released closer to the time. I will be interviewing Burr Hubbell and Andrew on WIOX Radio on October 3rd at 9am to discuss the history of the Catskills apple and farming in the region.
64F at 8.30am, foggy and humid. 74F by mid-afternoon with continual, heavy rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
75F by noon and cloudy after much-needed overnight rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 9/7/15 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The Catskills Pinhole Camera Project was launched three years ago and Upstate Dispatch participated last November, writing about it here. My pinhole camera was attached to a tree facing west through our forest for about a month and the above image is the processed result: a month of vivid, winter sunsets through bare trees.
The Painters Gallery’s Wanda Siedlecka started the project with her friend Przemek Zajfert and the entire community was invited to join. Everyone who asked for it received the beautifully packaged camera with instructions.
© J.N. Urbanski
Their exposures were processed for free by Zajfert, a photographer from Stuttgart, who has mastered photographic and cinematic techniques from the time of their invention and early stages of development. Last Spring, the first one hundred exposures were exhibited at The Painters Gallery in Fleischmanns and future exhibitions are planned.
Another crispy, dewy morning with clear skies, rising to 75F and cloudy by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
Stinking hot.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
84F by 1pm and humid with a mix of sun and cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.30pm
75F by 10am with hazy sunshine.
© MAU 4.30pm
A brisk, foggy morning rising to 75F by noon and humid with thick cloud.
80F by 2pm, clear skies and very hot in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Farming is a risky business. Every year, at least one crop gets a blight. This year it was the squash that gave up just after it blossomed, making me kick myself that I didn’t take those blossoms, stuff them with goat’s cheese and fry them. This year the tomatoes (that suffered their blight three years ago) are doing well like the onions, potatoes and garlic. The rhubarb, now ready to harvest once three years old, was so exceptional that we planted four or five more plants – from previous years’ saved seeds – in our meadow and in the orchard with some asparagus. They sprang forth quickly. Rhubarb likes it around here and we like it. Last year’s tomatoes were equally good. Once you grow your own tomatoes, you’ll never buy store bought variety again. Plus, it’s so easy to have an indoor tomato plant on the windowsill and fill your kitchen with that heady tomato smell.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
John Burroughs’ Woodchuck Lodge runs a “Wild Saturday” program at the lodge in Roxbury. The next event will bring visitors “Face to Face with Raptors” at 1 p.m. Saturday, September 3rd. Meet wildlife rehabilitator Annie Mardiney and some of her feathered friends at this free program, sponsored by Vly Mountain Spring Water. The program will be held under cover if it rains. Woodchuck Lodge is located at 1633 Burroughs Memorial Road, Roxbury 12474.
71F by 2pm with scattered clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Catskills evenings are magical on a clear night with a few planets in alignment and an inky sky bursting with stars. They’re even more magical when viewed from a fire tower of which there are five in the Catskills. Fire towers are equipped with cabins at their apex and these cabins were manned (can we say personned now?) to watch for fires in the Catskills that are common around May when the grass, having been covered and deadened during winter, hasn’t yet sprung to life. The foliage is also still very dry and wildfires are common.
On Friday September 2nd, witness the 3rd Annual Lighting of the Fire Towers when from 9 to 9.30pm, we are invited to find a place with a view of a fire tower (or towers) on the horizon and watch their cabin light up the night sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 8/12/15 3pm
Friday September 2nd 9 – 9.30pm: The 3rd Annual Lighting of the Fire Towers
From a high place in the Catskills, witness the 3rd Annual Lighting of the Fire Towers when from 9 – 9.30pm, we are invited to find a place with a view of a fire tower or towers on the horizon and watch their cabin light up the night sky.
Saturday September 3rd, 10am – 3pm: Tour of the Sculpture Garden at the Catskill Interpretive Center
The Maurice D. Hinchey Catskill Interpretive Center is the gateway to the Catskill Park. Located on a 60 acre site, the Catskill Interpretive Center includes sculpture installations which are chosen by jury and displayed for a year. Come and see the 2016/2017 installation and get a tour by the artists who created the sculptures (not suitable for children under 8 years of age).
© J.N. Urbanski 4/19/15 6.10pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1/31/16 2pm