This Month’s Featured Articles…
Farm to fork: How local farms are using social media to build community and maintain transparency
Above photo by Makani Kirwin These days, it seems like it’s nearly impossible to run any type of business without a social media presence. Whereas years ago business would spread by word of mouth, in this day and age, if you don’t have an Instagram or Facebook page, people almost always ask “Why not?” Increasingly, more farmers and agriculturalists are turning to social media platforms to build connections with their consumers, share their experiences and stories, and even to educate people about where their food [...]
Sky High Farm: Promoting food sovereignty and addressing rural food insecurity
Above photo by Walter Hergt. Sky High Farm is not your average Upstate New York farm. A registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, since its inception, Sky High Farm has donated 100% of the vegetables and protein grown and raised on the farm to food access partners throughout New York state. Located on 40 acres off of Hall Hill Road in Ancram, New York, the land that would later become Sky High Farm was purchased by artist Dan Colen in 2011. While Colen didn’t initially have grandiose [...]
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 [...]
Welcome to the winner’s circle, Skip
Above: Lime Rock Park CEO Dicky Riegel dedicates Skip Barber Tower on Skip Barber Day, September 1. Photo: Shawn Pierce. How long can childhood dreams survive? What does it require for the fantasies of a wiry adolescent to mellow and mature, become so much a part of life that nothing can stand in the way of making them real? For Skip Barber, the eminence gris of New England motorsports, dreams were as close as the end of the neighborhood alley and as lofty [...]
Local classrooms of decades—and centuries—past: Exploring a selection of the region’s historic schools and schoolhouses
Above photo: Housatonic Valley Regional High School from the 1969 White Oak yearbook. Photo courtesy of the HVRHS Alumni Association. If you’re familiar with the local tri-state area, chances are you’ve driven past at least one of the region’s many historic schools and schoolhouses. As long-standing landmarks of the area’s educational past, these structures have witnessed a variety of changes and transformations over the years, both to their own architectural condition and to the communities that surround them and once relied on them. Exploring a [...]