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Locally Grown

What Black Gold Looks Like in the Hudson Valley

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, a glacier ripped through present-day Orange County and subsequently melted, leaving an ancient glacial lake — and one of the most fertile regions in

Summer Is the Season of Hops in the Hudson Valley

As the summer season rages on and temperatures swell, farmers throughout the Hudson Valley work diligently to give their hopyards the largest possible yield. The growing season for hops begins

Glynwood Connects Hudson Valley Farms with Food Insecure Communities

When pandemic shutdowns began last spring, Maggie Cheney, co-owner of Millerton’s Rock Steady Farm & Flowers, was inundated with calls and requests for info. Farmers, whose business models had changed seemingly overnight, and food-access projects, who were suddenly facing exceptional

Year of the Dove

 We live on an old dairy farm which still has a functional barn. The lower part of this barn (once the milking parlor) has always been a favorite spot for

Farmers on Their Future

In issue 85 of The Valley Table, I wrote about a double-fisted threat to the Hudson Valley’s rich agricultural tradition: Aging farmers, whose days in the field are numbered, and

Where Have All the Farmers Gone?

Old farmers never die. They just hoe away.” So said the message in a birthday card sent me by a former employee. On the front was a cartoon-like rendition of

The American Chestnut

NOT SO LONG AGO, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) by many accounts was the most prized and plentiful tree in our eastern forests. It was said that a squirrel could

Land of the Long White Cloud

I GREW UP IN NEW ZEALAND, which 
is about as far from New York as you can get, unless you’re a penguin coming up from Antarctica. When done with college,

Keeping Things Running Down on the Farm

IN 1986, MY GIRLFRIEND and I bought an 88-acre dairy farm in Greenville, in western Orange County. We packed our few belongings into an old Dodge Dart and left the canyon

Locally Grown: Why Organic?

FIFTY YEARS AGO, organic farming was, at best, laughed off as a joke by the agricultural establishment (the land-grant colleges and federal and state departments of agriculture). At worst, it

Locally Grown: Deer Defense

IN ANY SOCIAL GATHERING WITH PEOPLE I know who don’t make a living growing vegetables, I’m invariably hit with a few gardening questions: What’s causing the dark spots on the