#FlightWatch: How Robins Signal Spring
The robin is the oneThat interrupts the mornWith hurried, few, express reportsWhen March is scarcely on. Emily Dickinson, “The Robin” Virtually nobody signals the arrival of spring with more brio than the robin. In fact, their call has been translated into English...
#Women’sHistoryMonth: How Madam C.J. Walker Made It (and Shared It)
She built one of the most striking homes on the Hudson River — and the nation’s first female self-made millionaire managed it all on her own, giving back generously along the way. Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in...
Get Inspired by Three of the Valley’s Revolutionary War Women
As thousands of men went off to fight in the American Revolution, many women kept the home fires burning — which was always demanding work, but even more labor-intensive in that age, and doubly so during wartime. Some wives opted to...
Three Reasons This Land Save is a Plus: Kelder’s Farm (Ulster County)
Subdivision and conversion to non-farming uses remain major threats to the Hudson Valley’s productive agricultural lands, causing their fragmentation at an alarming rate. Committed to bucking this trend — and assuring that more of the region’s highest-quality soils will always...
How to Decorate for Winter by Bringing Nature In
The holiday decorations are down, the lights aren’t twinkling, and the nights feel long and dark. But there’s a surprisingly easy, free way to give yourself a lift: by foraging a bit to bring the outdoors inside. Foraging is defined...
Continuing the Valley’s Long Maple-Tapping Traditions
Maple syrup has a rich and storied history in the Hudson Valley. Where the age-old tradition of tapping trees and the modern adaptations of the final product boil down into a true taste of Americana. Iroquois peoples are considered to...
From Freedom to “Twelve Years a Slave” to Liberation
Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of slavery that, while not graphic, may be disturbing. Few could describe the horrors of enslavement more vividly than Solomon Northup, author of Twelve Years a Slave. Published in 1853, the year Northup secured...
As Temps Warm, Can the Hudson Valley Salvage Snowy Fun?
A snowflake is a complicated thing. The shape that makes each one unique is also a sensitive record of the changing conditions that occur as an ice crystal forms in the cloud and falls to the ground. For instance, atmospheric...