Tag Archives: #upstatenewyork

Catskills Conversations: Carolann’s Cuisines

© Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

Carolann wasn’t quite intending to start a full-blown restaurant.

“I just wanted a café, because I didn’t want to be stuck in the house all the time. We were just going to do coffee and pastries, you know, and have a super chill little place and then it just turned into a restaurant somehow,” she says with a sigh.

Carolann is not an inexperienced chef though, having been cooking for friends and family since the age of 12 under the tutelage of her mother. US-born, and Canada-raised, Carolann lived in a multi-cultural community and learned to cook all sorts of regional dishes with her mother. Although she began her career as a make-up artist, she later lived in Italy for five years to study the cuisine there.

After settling in the Catskills from NYC, she decided to do a Pierogi Pop-Up in the restaurant when it was Liza Belle’s Kitchen, which closed at the start of lockdown in 2020. Pierogis are some of her favorite foods and the pop-up was so popular that she considered starting her own restaurant at that point. The seeds were sown.

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Figure Drawing Group Art Show: Sketches. February 24th 2024, 3.30-6pm Upstairs at The Commons Building in Margaretville

Save the date! Delaware County has one figure drawing group that meets at the Andes Academy of Art in the summer months (hosted by William Duke), and at ArtUP in the winter months (hosted by Gary Mayer). Upstate Dispatch studio will be hosting a group show of the best sketches of our winter life drawing group. We artists were risking life and limb, driving in all weathers, white-knuckle style after dark, fish-tailing on icy roads, to make it to our Wednesday drawing group throughout winter.

Participating artists are Sandy Finkenberg, Jenny Neal, Gary Mayer, Steve Burnett, Sophia Teixido, Alex Wilcox, William Duke, Joe Wilson, Peter Mayer and more.

The work will be offered for sale, mostly unframed, at affordable prices, to give everyone access to beautiful original pieces. Wine and snacks will be served.

Saturday 24th February 2024. 3.30-6pm. Upstate Dispatch Studio, Upstairs @ The Commons Building, 785 Main Street, Margaretville, NY.

Join us for this reception in the same building as artist Bea Ortiz, Honeybee Herbs, The Catskills Artisans’ Guild, The Longyear Gallery and Carolann’s restaurant. The studio will be open all afternoon.

We hope to see you there.

Daily Catskills: 10/05/23

Another sweltering July day in October: a high of 86F with gauzy cloud and leaves flying in the wind like confetti.

© Jenny Neal 9.30am – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/28/23

Another crisp morning under a big dome of pale blue with cloud moving in early afternoon. Humid with a high of 68F. Fall colors are muted by the cloud.

© Jenny Neal 5.30pm – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/27/23

A clear, still morning with fog in the valleys. Mostly clear sky all day, and a giant moon. A high of 62F.

© Jenny Neal 8.30am – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/24/23

Another chilly, wet day with cold rain, and foggy mist obscuring the yellowing of the foliage. A high of 58F.

© Jenny Neal 11.30am – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/22/23

A bright day with cloud like a thin veil, and one big fluffy cloud that looked lost. A high of 69F and another fiery sunset. The last day of summer.

Daily Catskills: 09/21/23

A chilly sunrise with overnight frost whitening the flora, and steaming mist rising into a crystal clear sky. A crisp day, with a high of 69F and the landscape looking like it’s slowly being sanded down. This is the penultimate day of summer.

© Jenny Neal 7.30am – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/20/23

Warm and sunny, with wispy bits of cloud like someone didn’t clean up the sky properly and a high of 70F. Overnight lows dipping into the thirties. Frost warning.

© Jenny Neal 6pm – Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 09/16/23

Warm and sunny, mostly clear with a high of 71F.

© Jenny Neal 7pm- Usage prohibited without consent

Daily Catskills: 05/21/21

A bright morning warming up to a sweltering high of 87F, well, sweltering for this time of year. Bees doing their first swarm of the season (the dark mass at top right).

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm – Usage prohibited without consent

The Upstate Dispatch You Tube Channel: Laura Silverman of The Outside Institute

It’s always a joy to interview Laura Silverman, founding naturalist of The Outside Institute. We caught up with her just before the holidays to see how she had spent her quarantine, what she was working on, and her thoughts on the pandemic and beating the blues by getting back into nature.