History, Natural History & the Arts
Are you interested in local food, gardening, hunting, fishing or foraging?
Has COVID-19 changed how you get food for yourself or your family?
Researchers at Cornell University are conducting a study to understand how COVID-19 is changing how people in Central New York are interacting with their food sources. [Read more…] about Take A Cornell Survey on Food Sourcing During COVID-19 in Central NY
A walk in the woods during fall is likely to reveal an array of forest fungi. Ranging from delicate, tan mini-umbrellas to fleshy, white softballs to foot-long, orange-yellow shelves growing out of rotten logs, they come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Fungi are critical to the health of the forest, decomposing woody debris and helping trees obtain required nutrients. [Read more…] about Forest Fungi: Native Mushrooms and Forest Health
Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) has announced the theme for this year’s annual Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Contest is “2020.”
Participants are encouraged to get creative and interpret the theme as they wish, using gingerbread to create a scene, a place, an item, or anything else that comes to mind that represents something meaningful or interesting about this year. [Read more…] about Annual Gingerbread Contest Theme Is ‘2020’
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The book Bean Pickers, American Immigrant Portraits by Karen Foresti Hempson (Jacobs Press, Inc., 2019) focuses on eight true-life portrayals of Italian immigrants and their families, all beginning their American lives as summer bean pickers in Upstate New York.
The book features over one hundred authentic photos and documents, illustrating personal stories from the early twentieth century immigration wave, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Each character finds his/her way out of poverty through such avenues as bootlegging, playing baseball, joining the military. [Read more…] about Bean Pickers: Upstate Italian-American Immigrants
Closing out the Tuesday Talks portion of the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site’s NYS History Month programs, Amanda Massie and Valerie Balint will host “Converging on the Canal: the 19th Century Through Food.”
What people eat is closely related to where they live and their socio-economic standing. In this online program about food and travel on the Erie Canal, Massie and Balint will discuss how the canal shaped the way Americans ate in the 19th century. [Read more…] about Food and Travel On The Erie Canal Program Tuesday
A founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), Brian Caldwell, was recently appointed to a five-year term on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). [Read more…] about NY Farmer Named to USDA Organic Standards Board
What really happened at Donnelly’s Corners in the spring of 1929?
The question haunts the exciting and thought-provoking novel, The Power Line (Outskirts Press, 2020) by Christopher Shaw.
According to Shaw, the project began in the seventies when the guide and regional historian Abel St. Martin began recording the memories of older people around Saranac Lake and Lake Aurora in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about New Novel: The Power Line by Christopher Shaw
The Eleventh Annual Garlic Festival at the Warrensburgh Riverfront Farmers’ Market is set for Friday, October 9th from 3 to 6 pm. This year the event is dedicated to the memory of Richard Rugen, owner of Hope Valley Farm and inspiration for the first Garlic Festival. [Read more…] about Annual Warrensburgh Garlic Festival Friday
A hog weighing in at 1,200 pounds raised in Greenwich, in Washington County, was spared the slaughter, at least temporarily, in order to be put on display as an oddity.
“G.V.P. Lansing, a resident of the town of Greenwich, has the unique distinction of having raised and marketed the largest hog ever grown in the world,” The Post-Star reported on March 12, 1919. “The hog was sold last week to Bennett Brothers of Albany, and shipped to that place.” [Read more…] about Big Hogs In The Paper: A Collection Of Pig Tales From Historic Newspapers