THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Hudson Valley agriculture
Our old Dutchess farmers may feel proud of their farms,
Producing such fine crops, having beauty that chains,
The stranger that journeys far over the state
Declaring old Dutchess stands first on the slate.
Rhinebeck farmers, of good tillage, are not afraid,
When they gather their harvest, they find they’re well paid;
Their corn, rye, and oats, such a bountiful yield,
Crops bounteous, see growing, in every field.
– Excerpted from “Rhinebeck the Beautiful,” written by J. T. Hanunkk in 1889.
It cannot possibly come as a deep, dark secret that the Hudson […]
Legends of the land & sea
As we’re only a few months into a new presidential administration, I’ve been trying to remain current with news and policy changes. While browsing my news sources in recent weeks, a few headlines about Bigfoot, who is also known as Sasquatch, have caught my eye.
He does exist
Apparently, there have been several Bigfoot sightings in various parts of the country. The creature, whether fictional or real, has never sparked much interest or curiosity for me until now. Since it can be classified somewhat as an […]
Friends, not frights: In the year of the snake, take kindly to this special animal
It’s the Year of the Snake, and we should all be paying more attention to these amazing creatures not just for what they represent, but for what they do.
Snakes, like spiders and bats, tend to subconsciously initiate the fight-or-flight instinct in us. “Get rid of it!” tends to be our reaction to seeing any of these creatures. What a shame not only for them, but also for us, as they are critical to the balance of our ecosystems.
While snakes are often represented as sneaky […]
All about Scottish Highland Cattle: Environmental education and land restoration at Elk Ravine Farm
If you’re taking a drive through the countryside and you find yourself on Route 83 in Amenia, NY, chances are you’ll come across Elk Ravine Farm. The farm – owned by Jim Archer and named for the Rocky Mountain Elk that it initially housed – sits on 90 sprawling acres that encompass multiple different habitats, including wetlands, marshes, meadows, and forests.
Today, the farm is most commonly recognized for its herd of Scottish Highland cattle and its driving horses, as well as a number of […]
Mohonk Mountain House’s Spring Tulip Festival returns at the end of April
The Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY, is hosting its annual Spring Tulip Festival from April 28 through May 9. Experience a kaleidoscope of color as Mohonk Mountain House’s garden springs to life with over 30,000 vibrant red, yellow, pink, and purple tulips.
Tulip passes are $35 per adult, $30 per child, and ages 3 and under are free. A tulip pass includes access to the 30,000 tulips in Mohonk Mountain House’s Show Garden; entry to the Art in the Garden […]
Energy efficient construction: Better for the Earth and better for your wallet
Above photo is the Orchard Modern project by CB Design / Build
Energy-efficient construction is a term that’s being used with more frequency in the construction world. With drastic changes in weather due to climate change, more builders and contractors are considering ways to make homes more resilient to extreme weather, while mitigating the effects on the environment and trying to keep the price tag low enough that it doesn’t make your wallet cringe.
What is energy-efficient construction, exactly? The term refers to designing and building […]
Nuclear Power
Nooooo! A thousand times, no. Not here!
Yes, of course, the knee-jerk response to any mention of nuclear power is to scream with the fury of seven tornadoes during an early Sunday-morning earthquake. Everyone has a position, certainly, but how about we set politics to the side and start with a clean slate here, shall we? Assuming we are now settled enough to, without provoking a barroom brawl, look into whether nuclear power deserves a seat at the table when it comes to providing electrical energy […]
Plastics: The future or a failure?
“I just want to say one word to you. Plastics.”
Remember that classic line from the 1967 movie “The Graduate”?
Had Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) followed that advice, today he might be a wealthy, retired CEO.
But he’d also have been part of what is a world-wide problem for waste and climate change. Plastic is everywhere, and it’s here to stay – literally – because it can take from five (cigarette butts) to 20 (grocery bags) to 450 (water bottles) to 500 (disposable diapers) years to […]
Come fly away with me
By Ian Strever & Daniel Moran
Daniel Moran is a student at Housatonic Valley Region High School who has been learning about drones and sharing his expertise with peers and adults throughout the Region 1 School District in Connecticut.
Imagine yourself standing among the most perfect 100-acre field of soybeans, planted autonomously by a GPS tractor, with rows like the lines on a notebook. Then, all of a sudden, you hear a faint hum coming closer and closer. It’s a drone, flying completely autonomously over the field, […]
What’s all the buzz about? The role of honey bees in our ecosystem, colony losses, and the challenges of keeping hives
Pollination is vital to our ecosystem. Bees and other pollinators work hard, ensuring food security and nutrition and maintaining biodiversity for plants, humans, and the pollinators themselves.
Just how dependent is our food system on pollinators?
Pollinators are essential to the production of many fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nearly 75 percent of all crops around the world depend on pollinating insects. “The diversity of food available is largely owed to animal pollinators,” the […]
Aesthetics and Ecology Align at Innisfree
It’s rare to find the peace one gets from walking through a garden on a perfect day. …
Lester Collins, famed landscape architect of the 20th Century responsible for Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY, probably understood the sense of tranquility and calm that can only be gained from God’s green Earth and a beautiful bloom.
Raised a Quaker in New Jersey, Collins found like minds in the husband-and-wife/artist-gardener duo of Walter and Marion Beck. The Becks commissioned Collins in 1938 while he was still a […]
Modern farming: Talking environmental changes, adapting to challenges, and connection to the land with four farms in the region
Above photo courtesy of Maitri Farm
It’s no secret that farming is becoming harder and harder. It’s never been an easy job, but between climate change, the unprecedented environmental changes that come along with it, and constant changes in funding and grant availability, farming seems to be increasingly difficult in recent years.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, in 2022, nearly 22.1 million full- and part-time jobs related to the agricultural and food sectors – 10.4 percent of total US employment. But direct on-farm employment […]
Protecting our nights: Envoys of beauty
It’s eighteen degrees out at 9:12pm on December 23, and I’m at a trailhead, fumbling with the buttons of my headlamp. Ten minutes ago, I was in Falls Village, watching the Housatonic boy’s basketball home opener against Thomaston. We lost by fifteen.
We had a respectable first half, though, much like the Steelers did two nights ago, when I opted to stay indoors and watch football instead of heading out into the longest of nights – the winter solstice – when the sky was a lucid […]
Take a Smaller View: The Long Trail
Sometime around last Christmas, it became apparent that I would have a window of time this summer to dispense with as I saw fit. Things playing out as they usually do during the holidays, I began to plan for the best use of that time that I could imagine: a hermitage far from mankind or any of our contrivances. Those contrivances being as far-reaching as they are, the location of my retreat would require some consideration. In lieu of any financial underwriting, my destination […]
Your guide to picnicking in the region
Did you know that July is National Picnic Month in the United States? We at Main Street love a good picnic and put together some of our recommendations for creating the perfect picnic below.
Best picnic locations
Before we can even enjoy our picnic, we have to find a place to set up shop. Here’s a selection of some of the best picnicking spots in the area.
Lake Taghkanic State Park in Ancram, NY, offers a variety of […]
All about organic at Deep Roots Farm in Copake
Deep Roots Farm is a family run farm in Copake, NY. Run by farmers Scott and Stormie O’Rourke and their two daughters, Scarlet and Fiona, they grow organic food with regenerative and sustainable practices at the forefront.
Scott got his first interest in farming as a teenager while working at what is now Together for Youth (formerly Berkshire Farm Center) in Canaan, NY.
“I had a really good mentor while […]
High Spirit Community Farm provides residential farm living for adults with intellectual disabilities
High Spirit Community Farm is a therapeutic residential and farm-based work program for adults with intellectual disabilities in Great Barrington, MA.
The organization was founded back in 2014 when parents of young adults with intellectual disabilities were struggling to find placement for their children after they aged out of other residential programs in the area. At High Spirit, they were looking to build a program that “provided a community approach to care,” said Justin Roccabruna, the agency director for High Spirit Community […]
Celebrating World Bee Day
World Bee Day takes place on May 20 and celebrates the importance of bees and other pollinators in our environment and ecosystems. World Bee Day was officially declared by the UN in 2018 thanks to the efforts of the Slovenian government and the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations.
The date was chosen because it is the birthday of Anton Jansa, a pioneer of modern apiculture. Jansa came from a family of beekeepers in Slovenia, where beekeeping is […]
Gatherwild Ranch Offers Luxury Stays Immersed in Nature
Laura Sink was inspired to create a place where people could stay that would invoke feelings of creativity, calm, and inspiration. After living in New York City for five years, she and her husband Paul Jacobsen, who had grown up in Brooklyn, were naturally drawn upstate to the beautiful Hudson Valley. It was in Germantown, about halfway between Hudson and Rhinebeck, that they found space ten years ago to create what would become Gatherwild Ranch.
Laura, who worked in product design and […]
Getting Grounded
As the summer season heats up, we’re all yearning to spend time in the great outdoors. Our leisure time is gleefully filled with a host of fun activities – from kayaking to swimming, camping, biking, and hiking.
By now, the trees are covered in verdant green leaves and the flowers have blossomed in a rainbow of hues. It’s a great time to take to the trails for a long walk or a more challenging hike – whichever suits your style.
Great hikes abound – from New York’s […]
Forest Bathing, Seriously? Yes!
by Melanie McGinn, RN, MBA, CHC, Founder of Health Through Time Nurse Consulting and Coaching
Had you asked me a month ago if I would ever write a blog post on forest bathing, that would have been a definitive no. I am very open to Eastern, Western, and alternative modalities to ease stress, anxiety, and improve overall wellness, but forest bathing? Here in Connecticut where I live, most of us are surrounded by forests. My initial thought was aren’t we already bathing in forests for the […]
GREAT MOUNTAIN FOREST BECOMES IUCN MEMBER
Membership Gives GMF Access to International Natural Conservation Union
On February 10, 2021, Great Mountain Forest (GMF) in Falls Village, CT, was granted membership into the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global organization dedicated to assessing the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.
Membership in IUCN connects GMF to national and worldwide efforts to conserve the natural world and hasten the transition to sustainable practices to aid that conservation.
The scientific […]
A Call for Help: Birders Watch Declining Populations
By, John Torsiello
Millerton, NY, resident Jane Rossman grew up watching birds at the feeders her family set out near their house. Thus was born, at an early age, a love and passion for the beauty wild birds bring to our lives. “Later, I became more active by going on walks and trips with other local ‘birders’, like those at the Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club of Dutchess County, and the Audubon Center in Sharon, Connecticut.” Rossman says, “I enjoy nature and being outdoors, and birding […]
Area Summer Camps Face Tough Decisions
Like so many of our national institutions that have become pastime in America, summer camps across the area are facing the looming uncertainty about whether they’ll be open come June. Even if they escape the fate of so many businesses that have been temporarily shuddered because of COVID-19 mandates, organizers and camp leaders must still learn how to adapt themselves to a new reality. As a result, many camps find themselves making contingency plans and considering alternative ways for children of all ages to enjoy […]
Historic Olana offers Free Audio Tours
Despite swaths of area residents finding themselves perpetually indoors these days, May has arrived and the collective desire to step out into the great outdoors beckons. One of the most historic destinations in the Hudson Valley is encouraging residents and travelers to recreate locally by exploring Olana – even if it’s from the comforts of home. Olana’s landscape is open for free Audio Tours that offer a self-guided experience within Olana’s 250-acres through a one-of-a-kind audio experience. Visitors can learn about the history and ongoing […]
In Search of Distance? State Parks Beckon
On the afternoon of Friday March 20, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro gave area residents and small business owners a few updates on the new mandates regarding business closures in New York State. Seemingly on the ‘non-essential’ chopping block were golf courses and salons of nearly every kind, yet there remained one valuable outdoor haven that continued to dodge quarantine-based closures. Despite their on-site facilities being temporarily closed, State Park grounds remain open to the public amid mass closings in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. […]
Gear of the Month Club – March
Welcome to our newest addition to our Great Outdoors page called Gear of the Month provided by your favorite fly-fishing guide Ben Alex of Ten Mile River. Ben will be doing a monthly column covering all things fly.
-Stay tuned, you don’t wanna miss it!
–by Ben Alex
Here is where each month I will talk about a brand or a piece of equipment I believe you all should have. It might be made by one of the several companies I […]
Trails to check out before Summer ends.
Three Trails to Explore.
Though the famous bustle of New York City and its vast urban environment has earned its namesake as ¨the greatest city on earth¨ and thus has defined the very identity of the rest of the state for many Americans, traveling up one of the most famous rivers in the country and hiking the vast network of trails the Hudson River Valley has to offer, one may discover what both artists and locals have come to know for generations. The true spirit of […]
