© J.N. Urbanski 9/7/15 2pm
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 09/07/15
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Tag Archives: I love NY
The Catskills Pinhole Camera Project Cont’d…/
© 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.
Daily Catskills: 09/14/16
Another crispy, dewy morning with clear skies, rising to 75F and cloudy by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/13/16
52F at 8.30am with clear skies; a crisp and dewy morning for the second day in a row. 79F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
Food & Farming: Links
© J.N. Urbanski
Some old and new links on farming:
How dairy farming works: inside the milk machine by Modern Farmer.
An article in the UK’s Guardian suggesting that half of all produce is thrown away mostly because it doesn’t conform to fruit and veggie standards of beauty.
Another article on turning waste into electricity in Northern Wales from the Guardian.
Civil Eats on why farmers quit.
Our best shot at cooling the planet might be beneath our feet from The Guardian again.
News of a commercial farm within a residential development on Staten Island from Modern Farmer.
Register for the Young Farmers’ Conference at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York.
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 03/02/15
© J.N. Urbanski 3/2/15 11.40am
Daily Catskills: 09/10/16
Stinking hot.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
Hazelnut Harvest
© J.N. Urbanski
Hazelnut bushes experience quite a transformation during their growing season. By the end of winter, they bear long, cream-colored tendrils that hang like old, decrepit Christmas tree decorations from their bare branches. By the time summer comes, those tendrils are clusters of bright green, frilly seed casings (pictured bottom) that each bear one hazelnut. It’s essential to harvest them before the squirrels and chipmunks grab them.
Daily Catskills: 09/08/16
84F by 1pm and humid with a mix of sun and cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.30pm
Daily Catskills: 09/07/16
75F by 10am with hazy sunshine.
© MAU 4.30pm
Daily Catskills: 09/06/16
A brisk, foggy morning rising to 75F by noon and humid with thick cloud.
- © J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/05/16
57F at 8am with fog rising over the mountains. 81F at 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/04/16
80F by 2pm, clear skies and very hot in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Tomato Season
© 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.
Wildlife Program at Woodchuck Lodge, Roxbury
© 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.
Daily Catskills: 09/02/16
71F by 2pm with scattered clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
The 3rd Annual Light up the Night
© 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.
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 08/12/15
© J.N. Urbanski 8/12/15 3pm
Catskills Weekend: Labor Day Edition
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).
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 04/19/15
© J.N. Urbanski 4/19/15 6.10pm
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 01/31/16
© J.N. Urbanski 1/31/16 2pm
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 07/19/16
© J.N. Urbanski 7/1916 11.30am
Catskills Weekend: 27th & 28th August
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Saturday August 27th starting at 10am: Great Catskill Mountain BBQ Fest in Fleischmanns
A day-long Kansas City Barbeque Society sanctioned BBQ competition and festival for professional and amateur pitmasters. It promises to be an “exciting day of competition, fun, food, music, vendors galore and all things barbecue in Fleischmanns Park in Fleischmanns, NY”. Proceeds will benefit the Fleischmanns Community Pool Project. More details here.
Saturday August 27th 1.30pm to 4.30pm: Bees, Honey & You in Margaretville
Will “The Bee Man” will discuss the inside & outside workings of honey bee hives. Participants will gain a better understanding of the crucial relationship between human beings, nature and our environment. Learn why bees are vital beyond the production of honey. The program will end with a Q&A period and a jar of honey. Blue Deer Center, 1153 County Highway 6, Margaretville, NY 12455. More details here.
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 06/28/16
© J.N. Urbanski 6/8/16 11.40am
Mushroom Gravy With Foraged Bolete Mushrooms
© J.N. Urbanski
Bolete Mushroom Gravy
2 cups of chopped mushrooms
1 medium onion
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tablespoon of ground celery
2 tablespoons of local butter
2 tablespoons of whole milk
2 cups of boiling water
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 teaspoon of sage
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
This recipe calls for chopped mushrooms, but if you like your mushroom gravy lump-free, then you will either need to use minced mushrooms instead of chopped, whizz them in the blender or you will have to purée the gravy with a hand blender once it’s cooked.
Foraging: Boletes
© J.N. Urbanski
It’s mushroom season and while foraging I found a huge stand of bolete mushrooms growing under maple and oak trees on the edge of my forest. I’m a novice forager, so I had FOUR separate people confirm that what I had was edible. Before proceeding to eat any mushroom, you must first be certain of its identity. Seek the counsel of experts as it’s simply not worth making a mistake in this case. Even as my mushrooms are cooking, I’m still worried about eating them. A couple of neighbors have applauded my courage, so it’s safe to assume I will have what I cook all to myself. I will keep readers posted as to the state of my stomach. Over the next month or so, I will be taking some foraging classes, but in the meantime, I wanted to get started and make the most of what my garden had to offer.
Daily Catskills: 08/21/16
77F by noon and breezy with hazy sunshine. 80F by mid-afternoon and humid with rain starting mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.45pm
Daily Catskills: 08/19/16
82F by 2pm with a mixture of sun and cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 5.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/18/16
73F at 8.30am rising to 84F by mid-afternoon and humid with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
Daily Catskills: 08/17/16
70F by 10am, overcast and breezy. 76F with a mix of sun and clouds by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.40am
Mushrooms
© J.N. Urbanski
Due to the heavy rainfall, the mossy forest floor has sprung a vast city of fungus of all shapes, colors and sizes. We have purple, orange, yellow, red, brown, tall, short, tiny, thin, spindly, hand-sized and completely round like dense soap bubbles. All this has sprung up en masse within the space of about 24 hours in totally unprecedented quantities. Well – quantities not seen since the city girl went country. After just a half-hour walk with the dog, I’ll be lighting up Instagram for the rest of the afternoon. I believe the flat, white mushroom growing on the log is chicken mushroom, but would not dare eat it. Thanks to the humble acorn for it’s modeling stint.
© J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 08/16/16
68F at 8.30am with rippled cloud turning to gunmetal grey by the afternoon with lunchtime rain. 75F by 2pm and humid.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 08/15/16
75F by mid-morning, heavy mist evaporating in the rising sun after overnight rain. 80F by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 6pm
© J.N. Urbanski 6pm
Catskills Sandwich: Peekamoose Pastrami
© J.N. Urbanski
Anything at Peekamoose is delicious and well made, but the Pastrami is arguably the best pastrami in the Catskills. Thick and juicy, it arrives with a side of mustard and a handful of tangy caperberries. Exceptionally for last night, it came on this bun but you can also find grass-fed beef pastrami on the charcuterie plate with pork, cherry and pistachio terrine, chicken liver pate, pickled red onions and house made bread (which you can take home and use to make the world’s best leftover sandwich).
Daily Catskills: 08/14/16
82F by mid-afternoon and overcast with afternoon thunderstorms.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.15pm
Daily Catskills: 08/13/16
91F by mid-afternoon: very hot and humid with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.15pm
Daily Catskills: 08/12/16
82F by noon and overcast with soggy, mossy forest floor. 86F by mid-afternoon with scattered showers.
© MAU Noon
Daily Catskills: 08/11/16
70F at 8.30am and very humid. 80F and muggy by mid-afternoon. Heavy, late-afternoon rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.40am
Daily Catskills: 08/10/16
68F at 8.30am, overcast with thick mist and heavy rain. 80F and very humid by mid-afternoon with a mix of sun and clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
The Catskill 35: Twin Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
Twin Mountain is so named because it has twin peaks, and they are twin pains in the backside on the final ascent from either direction. After almost two-month hiatus, Twin was my 29th Catskills peak and this one seemed liked the most challenging yet. Hikers say Sugarloaf is the most difficult, but not so, in my humble opinion. I ascended Sugarloaf in icy conditions in February and last week’s summer ascent of Twin was much worse. From Pecoy Notch, on the last 0.7 miles to the summit of Twin, the path turns into mostly sheer rock face like this below:
Daily Catskills: 08/09/16
64F at 8.30am with clear skies, quickly rising to 82F by 11.30am. Another scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
Daily Catskills: 08/08/16
A chilly 58F at 8.30am with clear skies, rising to 80F.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.45pm
Daily Catskills: 08/07/16
80F by noon with an armada of clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/06/16
78F by noon and still humid after morning rain. Breezy with cotton wool clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/05/16
80F by mid-afternoon, with rolling clouds and the occasional breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/04/16
66F at 8.30am with clear blue skies and hot in the sun. 80F by mid-afternoon with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 08/03/16
68F at 8.30am, rising to 75F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 08/02/16
64F at 8.30am with early morning rain. 74F by 2pm and very hot in the sun with dark clouds looming.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.50am
Daily Catskills: 08/01/16
67F and overcast with continual rain. Some sun mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.40pm
Daily Catskills: 07/31/16
70F at 8.30am with overnight rain and continual rain for most of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 07/30/16
68F at 8.30am with steady rain for most of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.20pm
Daily Catskills: 07/29/16
A hair under 80F by noon, cloudy and humid.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
Daily Catskills: 07/28/16
70F at 8.30am, still and overcast with hazy cloud cover. 85F by mid-afternoon and humid.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.40pm
Catskills Weekend: July 30th & 31st
Saturday July 30th and Sunday 31st, Catskills artists will open their doors to the public, in a pre-arranged tour, so that you can take a peek behind the scenes in an artist’s studio. 20 artists are taking part in the tour, but four of us are without a studio. We’ll be showing in the Grange Hub in Halcotsville opposite the old Lake Wawaka Hose #1, a few steps downhill from the Holy Innocents’ Church. Artists are en route throughout the countryside between the villages of Arkville, Margaretville and Roxbury.
Interested visitors can plan their tour by going to the website and printing out the map. You can also visit the Facebook page here. Glossy, color pamphlets with all the details are also widely available locally. (See bottom of the post for artists’ work.)
The project is the brainchild of local Catskills artist Alix Travis, who was inspired to start the tour after having done similar tours herself in other communities. Studio tours are a glimpse behind the scenes to explore methods and process, swap notes and absorb the creative atmosphere. What’s special about art is that identical processes can result in wildly differing effects when they’re employed by different artists and that’s fun to watch for everyone. What’s a good process for one artist isn’t necessarily good for other artists, but it’s fun to push the envelope and experiment.
Saturday July 30th, The Oak Hill Preservation Society & Preserved Instincts presents the DOPE JAMS OAK HILL DAY Open Air Party from 4pm to 10pm. Buses will run from Brooklyn to the Catskills. 7892 Rt 81, Main St, Oak Hill, New York 12460: more details here.
Saturday July 30th an artists’ reception at Windham Fine Arts on 5380 Main Street
Windham, NY 12496. The show runs through September 7th.
Saturday July 30th: Manhattan in the Mountains continues with its faculty concert at 8pm. Manhattan in the Mountains on Route 23A, Hunter, NY 12442.
Friday July 29th, Saturday July 30th & Sunday July 31st: Drive-In Movie: Jaws at the Greenville Theatre, 10700 Route 32 Greenville, NY 12083.
© Lisbeth Firmin
© Lisbeth Firmin
Barn Door by Oneida Hammond
Daily Catskills: 07/27/16
84F by 2pm, hot with some skimpy clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm