Items tagged with 'columbiacounty'
Yes, Virginia of Valatie, there is a Santa Claus
In 1897, New York Sun editor Francis Pharcellus Church wrote a beautiful, now-famous editorial in answer to a letter from an 8-year-old girl named Virginia O'Hanlon.
As the story goes, O'Hanlon had asked her father, a Manhattan doctor, if Santa Claus was real. Thankfully, her dad passed the buck, suggesting little Virginia put the question to the editor of the Sun. Church took the ball and ran with it. His editorial takes the concept of Santa from the idea of getting to the idea of giving -- making it about the kindnesses we can all do for one another.
So if the whole thing took place in Manhattan, why are we writing about it? Well, we were looking for the letter this weekend and stumbled upon something that surprised us: it turns out the grown up Virgina lived in Valatie. And there's video to prove it.
A wine tasting trip to Columbia County
You've seen that I Love Lucy clip, the one where she stomps on the grapes at the winery? Back in college I got to try my hand -- OK, my feet -- at that. It's actually not as squishy as it looks. With all those stems, it's like a foot massage from someone with long fingernails.
Anyway, I love wine. And wineries. But I don't live in California anymore. These days I reside in Albany.
Still, wine, in my opinion, is best paired with good company and a tour of the surrounding farmland. So a few weeks ago I took a good friend to Columbia County to do a few winery visits and enjoy some great food and a little Columbia County history.
Shaker Mountain Canning Co.
Kristen Greer wanted to to help increase access to fresh foods in New York City.
That's how it all began.
Greer, a New York City food policy advocate and part-time Rensselaer County resident also had a background in finance. She was volunteering with the board of Just Food to help bring more fresh foods into the city, when she discovered a need: a way for farmers and food entrepreneurs to turn their bounty into products that would last well past the growing season.
The idea for Shaker Mountain Canning Co. was born.
Today this small company near the Rensselaer County/Columbia County line cans everything from tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to fruits, jams and butters and it's opened up a valuable conversation between farms and food producers.
Film Columbia 2011
The screenings are at The Crandell Theater in Chatham.
FilmColumbia -- the annual film festival in Chatham -- has become very popular.
So popular that the all-films pass for this year's festival, which starts next week, already sold out. But tickets are still available for most of the individual film screenings and events.
As in year's past, this year's lineup includes a handful of much-anticipated films.
A concrete vision of the future for skateparks in the Capital Region?
The Chatham Skatepark
A tiny modern cityscape is taking shape in the heart of Chatham's bucolic countryside. But you won't find buildings at the end of its sidewalks, and the only traffic will come by skateboard.
When it's finished in late October, Chatham Skatepark will join only a handful of outdoor skateparks in upstate New York including the skatepark at East Side Recreational Field in Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park Action Park, Blatnick in Niskayuna, Copake Skate Park, Oakdale in Hudson, and Saugerties skate park.
It will also be one of only two concrete skateparks between Montreal and New York City that offers bowl skating.
The $120,000 park is $20,000 from completion, and Chatham recreation director Shari Dixon Franks isn't confident they'll reach their goal.
"With the economy as bad as it is, how can you ask people for more money for a skatepark?"
The Pondshiners
Recently over at The Morning News, Albany resident Tobias Seamon writes about the "lost Pondshiners" -- a reclusive clan of people who once lived in Columbia County:
New York's Hudson Valley abounds in spooks, from the wailing Maid of Kaaterskill Falls, to the dreaded Horseman of Leeds, to ongoing rumors of a poltergeist in the Education Building in Albany. These, along with more familiar specters like Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman, prompted historian Maud Wilder Goodwin to write in 1919 that the Hudson River was "endowed [with] more of the supernatural...than haunts any other waterway in America." ...
But when it comes to aboriginal mysteries, the Hudson Valley has almost as many flesh-and-blood frights as it does phantoms. Strange backwoods clans have been found in hollows throughout the region, from the ornery so-called Jackson Whites in the Ramapo Mountains, to the Eagle Nesters--supposedly descended from Indians and escaped slaves--perched above Kingston, to the exceptionally blond-haired Van Guilders around Glens Falls. But maybe the most peculiar of these communities was the wild Pondshiners of the Taconic Hills in southern Columbia County.
The backstory is wild (in a few different ways). And highlights what a radically different place this area -- and the nation -- not even a century ago. (Here's the chapter about "The Frightened People" referenced from Grey Riders.)
Tobias Seamon will be at St. Rose October 27 as part of the Frequency North series. His latest book is The Emperor's Toy Chest, which "explores history, mythology, fantasy, and the magical borderlands between."
photo: Leif Zurmuhlen
Help the Crandell Theater raise money -- because Parker Posey needs to pee
The non-profit that runs the Crandell Theatre in Chatham is trying to raise money to make improvements on the building -- stuff like a new roof and windows.
Also, the theater currently only has one bathroom for women. That fact is made very clear in the video embedded above, which features Parker Posey.
Posey has a house in Columbia County (Ghent, we hear) and it's not uncommon to hear that people have seen her out and about. She was even spotted in Troy earlier this year.
By the way: Showing this weekend at the Crandell: Our Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd, Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Steve Coogan.
Signs of the times at the Columbia County Fair
The poultry barn at the Columbia County Fair
They hop-skipped through the entrance gate and high-tailed it to their favorite place at the fair, the 4-H Cloverbuds barn at the Columbia County Fair, where all life's questions boil down into one chirping, downy-fluff yellow argument:
Which came first the chicken or the egg?
But in place of the newborn chicks we expected to find huddling under heat lamps in the familiar plexiglas pen, there were only two tiny bantams strutting about in the diminutive exhibit space.
5 reasons Golden Organics may be the best ice cream in the Capital Region
Yum.
This summer we've paid a few visits to Chatham to indulge in what may be the best ice cream in the greater Capital Region: Golden Organics.
Why do we think it's so good? Here are five reasons. Plus one more.
The Taghkanic House
"It is big and modern, but it is not precious at all."
Moyra Mulholland doesn't throw stones.
Mostly, that's because she's a nice person -- but there's also this: she lives in a glass house.
Moyra and her family live in the Taghkanic House, a more than a little awesome, award-winning, 8,800 square-foot glass and steel structure built into a hillside near Hudson.
On September 4, Moyra -- a makeup artist who's worked with stars such as Nicole Kidman and Ashley Judd -- will open part of her remarkable home for a garden party to benefit The Aids Council of Northeastern New York.
Last week she invited us in for a look.
(Many photos after the jump.)
You should make the trip to Local 111
In an earlier life, it was an auto garage.
We made the short trip through Columbia County this past weekend to have dinner at Local 111.
And we're very happy that we did -- because it was very good.
Daytrotter Barnstormer tour stopping in Ghent
Update: This show has apparently been moved to Brooklyn.
If, for some odd reason, you're not planning to be at Rest Fest -- or, perhaps, you are just an ambitious consumer of live music -- here's a show coming up that could be good: Daytrotter is bringing its Barnstormer tour to Ghent on August 27.
Daytrotter has built up a remarkable collection of in-studio performances from indie bands that have stopped at the site's place in Illinois. The tour sort of takes the show on the road -- to actual barns (thus the name).
The lineup for the show at the Sunnyview Farm Barn in Ghent: White Rabbits, We Are Augustines, Blood Orange, Doug Paisley, Christopher Paul Stelling, and The Loom.
Tickets are $20 ahead / $25 at the door.
Earlier on AOA: Two national acts added to Rest Fest lineup
Yep, AOA is a media sponsor of Rest Fest.
Tierra Farm: Quality, in a nutshell
Chocolate, meet coffee beans. Coffee beans, meet chocolate.
Consider the aroma of slow-roasting cashews dusted in curry. Consider the chocolate-covered coffee beans. Or the maple-glazed pecans. Or -- woah, are those pistachios?
No contest: The prize for the Capital Region's best-smelling workplace goes to Tierra Farm, an organic nut-roasting company in Valatie.
The warm, spicy fragrance of roasted nuts is only part of what's appealing about Tierra Farm. The company is working hard to create a product, a business model and a work environment that's consistent with their values. And they look like they're having lots of fun while doing it.
And wait till you taste the chocolate-covered Cajun cashews. ...
Baco Noir Reserve from Hudson-Chatham Winery
The wine is made from a hybrid that traces its origins back to French viticulturist François Baco (thus the "Baco") (there's a monument to the guy). The grapes are a very dark color (thus the "noir").
Clearly there is something deeply flawed with the people involved with the Hudson-Chatham winery. Not only because they're making wine from grapes grown just an hour outside of Albany in the heart of apple country -- but they are making wines nobody has ever heard of.
Whatever they are afflicted with must be contagious, because I think that's a great idea.
Chatham Brewing: Back-alley operation, big-time taste
Beer me.
Pssst. Hey, buddy.
Wanna try some beer?
I'm gonna send you to a place that doesn't have a street address, and you can buy beer only on Saturdays from 11-2. And no bottles -- only growlers. But don't worry, they'll hook you up.
If you're looking for a brew pub or a fancy tasting room, you might be disappointed with Chatham Brewing. If you're looking for good beer, you won't be.
Ordinary Things
Mother and son, over 20 years.
The new show at Carrie Haddad Photographs in Hudson -- "Ordinary Things: When artists make their private life public" -- caught our eye. So we were happy to see that Sebastien had a chance to check it out. He writes of a series of photos by photographer Harry Wilks around which the show formed:
This is one of the most interesting piece of the show in my opinion, as it spans more than two decades. It started in 1987 as a simple picture of the artist's wife and young son, leaning on the bumper of their first car, and turned into a photo ritual year after year. Watch his son age, turn into a teenager, his wife mature, gracefully. This series was never intended to be shown in a gallery - it was a personal project. [Curator] Melissa [Stafford] asked Harry if she could show them and from there the whole exhibit started to grow as more artists joined the project. I was impressed by the vision and the resolve of Wilks, the strong composition over 20 years, the attention to details. I wish I had started such a project already.
Many more thoughts and photos at Sebastien's site.
"Ordinary Things" runs at Carrie Haddad Photographs until December 12.
photo: Sebastien B
For sale: Kirsten Gillibrand's house
Kirsten Gillibrand's home in Hudson is up for sale -- the list price: $1.48 million. [NYT]
Check out this snip from the listing on the real estate agent's site, titled "Gatsby & Spectacular Hudson River Views":
Mesmerizing sunsets and all day long stunning views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains welcome you to a surreal magical landscape that you might think you once stumbled upon in a childhood dream ...this once in a lifetime slice of heaven is the perfect backdrop to make memories generation after generation. Beginning with the private drive guarded by towering shade trees through which the light bounces off Ol' Man River, informal and formal gardens, patios and porches greet you with each gentle rolling slope of the velvet lawn as it rolls down over the river.
There are a handful of photos on the listing page.
The house is listed as having 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, a "gracious" kitchen, a "delightful guest cottage," and a barn/4 car garage on 13 acres.
Here's the Zillow listing for the address, which appears to have incorrect info. (The "zestimate" is listed as $717,000.)
KG's office told NYT that the senator and her husband "plan to buy a house closer to family in the Capital Region." [NYT City Room]
Hmm... so what would be a good spot for the Gillibrands? We could see Slingerlands -- big houses, a bit rural, close to Albany and only about 20 minutes from ALB.
photo: Halstead
12 hours in Columbia County
Enough for more than a day.
Columbia County is so close that... you might already be there. And if you're not, you should go -- unless you don't like food, art, shopping and beautiful scenery.
No, those things all sound pretty good? Well, here are some ideas on how to spend a day in Columbia County...
Ichabod Crane: the Capital Region connection
Ichabod Crane just sounds scarier than Jesse Merwin.
Washington Irving, perhaps the first great American writer, is still well-remembered in his Hudson Valley haunts. Irving created Rip Van Winkle, the legend of the Headless Horseman and more. His home along the river in Tarrytown, "Sunnyside," is a tourist attraction, and in 1996, North Tarrytown decided to rename itself Sleepy Hollow.
It is said that it was among the old Dutch of Tarrytown that Irving first heard the tale of the ghost of a Hessian soldier who had lost his head to a cannonball during the Revolution. But it was in the Columbia County village of Kinderhook, that Irving found his model for Ichabod Crane, the timid schoolteacher who is frightened off by the headless apparition.
FilmColumbia
The trailer for Tiny Furniture
The annual FilmColumbia festival in Chatham starts up this Wednesday and runs through Sunday. This year's slate of films looks very good.
Here's the full schedule. A bunch of films that caught our attention are after the jump.
Tortillaville in Hudson
Taco time.
We were strolling along Warren Street in Hudson this past weekend when we came upon this happy sight.
Generally speaking, we hold that taco trucks = good idea. But this stand -- all shiny and parked among the picnic tables -- gave off an especially happy vibe.
Had we already eaten dinner? Yes. Would this stop us from having a taco? No.
Poking around at Harvest Spirits
Good stuff in beautiful barrels.
My friend Stephen, a cook for the Miss Albany Diner, and I originally went to Golden Harvest Farms in Valatie to see what fruits they were selling at the farm store, but we noticed this sign peeking out: Harvest Spirits.
And that's how we met Derek Grout. He makes wonderful things. From leftovers.
Suspended Schenectady cop arrested again, Cuomo to declare in March?, man arrested for 65th time, local pilot flies supply missions to Haiti
Suspended Schenectady police officer John Lewis has been arrested. Again. It's his sixth arrest in the last two years. In this most recent case, he's accused of causing a car accident in the Ellis Hospital parking lot after he allegedly left the emergency department drunk. The SPD first tried to fire Lewis in 1998 for allegedly using a racial slur. The department's waiting for a decision on its most recent attempt to terminate him. [WNYT] [Daily Gazette $] [TU] [Fox23] [CBS6]
A "source close to [Andrew] Cuomo" tells the Daily News that Andrew Cuomo will officially announce he's running for governor in March. David Paterson's campaign manager says "it's clear Mr. Cuomo is running for governor." [NYDN] [NYDN]
David Paterson is apparently going to try again to get the state worker unions to give up their raises this year. [TU]
Colonie assemblyman -- and outspoken MMA critic -- Bob Reilly says he's willing to support a compromise bill that would legalize ultimate fighting in the state if certain restrictions were placed on the sport. [TU]
UAlbany cancelled a cage fighting match scheduled for the SEFCU Arena this past weekend after a state commission said the event appeared to violate state law. [@albstudentpress] [Daily Gazette $]
Hudson Under $100 2009
Sam Pratt has launched his "Hudson Under $100" guide for this year. As he did last year, Sam has explored Hudson many Warren Street shops for holiday gifts that cost $100 or less. He says he'll be adding items each day over the next few weeks (those are Henry Hudson masks, $5 each at MIX).
New this year: you can sort items by price and street block.
The site is great for virtual window shopping. We love gawking at all the photos of beautiful or odd objects.
photo: Sam Pratt
My birthday at Local 111
The makings of a happy birthday.
You only get one birthday a year -- so you want to celebrate someplace really special, right? If you're looking for someplace with really good food and ambiance -- and you don't mind a pretty drive toward the Catskills, then I have the perfect place for you.
This year marks the second birthday dinner I've had at Local 111 in Philmont, near Hudson, and once again I can't stop raving.
... said Jenna about The quintessential Capital Region food?