The Little Falls Cheese Festival has announced Saturday, October 3 as the date for this year’s Cheese Festival. The festival takes place along Main Street from 10 am to 5 pm, featuring New York State cheese-makers, gourmet foods, craft beverages, live music, and plenty of delicious reasons to bring friends and family along. [Read more…] about Little Falls Cheese Festival Planned for October 3rd
Dairy
Women’s Role in Canned Food Consumption
New York State was the birthplace of the American canning industry and grew to become one of the nation’s most prolific food processing hubs by the late 19th century. The state’s history is marked by early technological developments, massive growth during wartime, and the rise of major corporate processors.
Initially, canned foods were not widely accepted, however. The overarching factor that drove the prevalence and public acceptance of canned food was the symbiotic relationship between the evolving canning industry and the changing role of women, in particular their need or desire to work in the public sphere. [Read more…] about Women’s Role in Canned Food Consumption
Attorneys General Sue Trump Regime Over USDA Funding Conditions
New York Attorney General Letitia James and 20 other attorneys general today filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block sweeping new funding conditions imposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that they say jeopardize billions of dollars in funding for critical state programs.
The lawsuit challenges USDA’s new “2026 Conditions,” which force states to comply with vague and arguably unlawful policy requirements or risk losing essential funding for programs that feed families, support farmers, and protect communities. Attorney General James and the coalition are asking the court to block these conditions and protect states’ access to funding already approved by Congress. [Read more…] about Attorneys General Sue Trump Regime Over USDA Funding Conditions
25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 25 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include an intact 1905 metal casting foundry complex in Hudson, an 1873 house that reflects Syracuse’s layered history of immigration, urban renewal, and grassroots historic preservation, a cohesive group of Colonial Revival apartment buildings in Kenmore built during the 1920s and 1930s suburban housing boom, and an amendment to the 1971 nomination for Revolutionary-era Senate House in Kingston to include its 1920s commemorative museum annex. [Read more…] about 25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
Stay Alert for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
Since it was first introduced into New York State in January 2022, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been documented in captive birds in multiple counties and detected in free-ranging wild birds and mammals throughout the state.
Wild bird mortalities from HPAI increase in late fall and peak over the winter months, then typically decrease in the late spring and summer months. At this point, it is widespread in wild birds and even suspected to be present in counties where it has not yet been detected. [Read more…] about Stay Alert for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
‘How We Poison Our Children’: The 1850s Swill Milk Scandal
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend drinking only pasteurized milk and eating dairy products made with pasteurized milk. Even organic milk is only safe to drink if it was pasteurized.
The safety of drinking unpasteurized milk and dairy products made from unpasteurized milk is in the news because Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. advocates drinking raw milk and is critical of federal regulations. [Read more…] about ‘How We Poison Our Children’: The 1850s Swill Milk Scandal
The Man that Caught Ben Franklin’s Lightning in a Milk Pail
In the mid-18th century, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) invented the lightning rod to catch lightning and make it harmless to buildings. Two centuries later in 1947, a northern Lake George, New York-area man did one better.
One day while working on the family farm, he “caught” lightning in a milk pail. [Read more…] about The Man that Caught Ben Franklin’s Lightning in a Milk Pail
Manhattan Breakfast: Cream Cheese, Bagels & Lox
Friends and strangers eating together offers an appealing image of togetherness. “Let us build a table where everyone is invited,” is an inspiring mantra. At the same time, food is a religious symbol that creates exclusion.
Food taboos appear in almost all societies, either self-imposed or enforced by authorities on minority groups. In medieval Europe, Christian authorities forbade Jews from baking “sacred” bread. [Read more…] about Manhattan Breakfast: Cream Cheese, Bagels & Lox
Farming Sullivan County: Some History & Statistics
Cushetunk, the first permanent European settlement in the Upper Delaware River region, part of which would later become Sullivan County, was established in the 1750s by a group of farmers from Eastern Connecticut who wanted to own their own farmland and traveled here to find it.
But those Connecticut settlers were not the first farmers in the region by a long shot. The Native American Lenape tribe, which spent the warm weather months here for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, depended upon farming, along with hunting and fishing, for survival. [Read more…] about Farming Sullivan County: Some History & Statistics
The Hitching Post & Kemp Sanctuary at Nettle Meadow Farm
About 18 years ago, Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan left corporate law careers in California to pursue their two true passions — cheese-making and animals — on a rustic farm in Upstate New York.
Upon arriving at Nettle Meadow Farm in Adirondack town of Thurman (in northern Warren County) with their four dogs and four goats, the women never imagined that their new home would so quickly evolve into a rescue facility for elderly, neglected, and differently-abled animals. [Read more…] about The Hitching Post & Kemp Sanctuary at Nettle Meadow Farm
Saratoga’s Goat Dairy: Behind the Scenes at Putnam Place
In July of 1940, Harry and Eunice VanAlst Brower and Eunice’s twelve-year-old son Carleton Chadbourne, left their home in Mount Kisco, Westchester County, New York, to reside for the summer season in Saratoga Springs. The family stayed at Putnam Place, Mrs. Brower’s ancestral home, a three-story, 25-room mansion that sat on a parcel of land that is now Saratoga Hospital’s Myrtle Street Park complex. [Read more…] about Saratoga’s Goat Dairy: Behind the Scenes at Putnam Place
The Borden Company’s Milk Condensing Plant in 1893
The following essay, “‘Crazy Uncle Gail’s’ Idea and What Came of It,” by Eliza Archard Conner, appeared in the June 10, 1893 Northern Star of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer George A. Thompson and annotated by John Warren.
About forty years ago Gail Borden, a civil engineer of New England ancestry, conceived the idea that milk could be boiled down in a vacuum till from the liquid condition it became substantially solid, and in that state, preserved by means of another Yankee invention — the sealed tin can — it could be kept for any length of time. [Read more…] about The Borden Company’s Milk Condensing Plant in 1893
Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply
A huge cheese is said to have sealed the election of Thomas Jefferson, who occupied the White House on January 1, 1802, after a bitter contest with his rival, the incumbent president and Federalist leader John Adams. It is an oft-told tale.
Upset by Puritan denunciations of Jefferson, Elder John Leland of the Baptist Church of Cheshire, Massachusetts, organized a communal effort to demonstrate support for Jeffersonian Democracy. [Read more…] about Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply
1820s Literary Rivalry: Manhattan Versus Boston
On November 2, 1820, the city of New York‘s Chamber of Commerce placed an advertisement in the Commercial Advertiser and other newspapers inviting merchant clerks to meet in Tontine Coffee House at 82 Wall Street and discuss forming of an organization that would be similar to Boston’s Mercantile Library (founded earlier that same year).
Nearly two hundred and fifty young men responded to the notice and joined the meeting which led to the creation of Manhattan’s Mercantile Library Association. [Read more…] about 1820s Literary Rivalry: Manhattan Versus Boston
The Story of Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream
Many people have heard of and enjoyed Haagen-Dazs ice cream, but the story of its beginning is equally cool. A headline in JGirls+ Magazine from 2022 says it all: “Haagen-Dazs: A Jewish Story of Immigration, Entrepreneurship, and Ice Cream.” The story began with Reuben Mattus (originally Nifka Matus), born in Grodna, Poland in 1913 who arrived in New York City in 1921 with his widowed mother and older sister. [Read more…] about The Story of Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream
Study: Climate Change Has Altered Human-Raptor Relationships
Bald Eagles and dairy farmers exist in a mutually beneficial relationship in parts of northwestern Washington State. According to a new study, this “win-win” relationship has been a more recent development, driven by the impact of climate change on eagles’ traditional winter diet of salmon carcasses, as well as by increased eagle abundance following decades of conservation efforts. The research is published in the journal Ecosphere. [Read more…] about Study: Climate Change Has Altered Human-Raptor Relationships
Forgotten Farms of Schenectady County
Schenectady County is in a state of revival. New events, businesses, initiatives and people have been coming to the city and surrounding communities to make their mark on one of the oldest settlements in New York State.
As a native to the area, I see two sides to this; it is great to see a new swing of development, making Schenectady attractive to those who don’t already call it home. However, as developers seem to be changing the cityscape ever faster, it is interesting to note where nature has taken its course. [Read more…] about Forgotten Farms of Schenectady County
Crimes Against Butter: The Oleomargarine Controversy
The butter trade was once so important to dairy farmers in Orange County, NY that the bank in Goshen, the county seat, printed its currency on yellow paper. Popularly known as “butter money,” this currency symbolized how significant the trade in butter was to dairy farmers in dairy regions across the state prior to the introduction of refrigerated railroad cars to ship raw milk, first using blocks of ice and then mechanical cooling.
The original shipment of milk from Orange County to New York City is believed to have taken place in the spring of 1842 via the New York & Erie Railroad. Prior to this raw milk could be transported only short distances by farm wagon.
Butter, however, could be transported to markets many miles from the farm or factory where it was produced. As symbolized by “butter money,” blocks of butter were once as good as gold. [Read more…] about Crimes Against Butter: The Oleomargarine Controversy
The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum: A History
The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum at what is now known as the Great New York State Fair opened officially on April 30th, 1928. Daniel Parrish Witter, a long-time New York State Assemblyman representing Tioga County was born in 1852 at Richford. Witter assumed the greater responsibility for working the family farm after his father became disabled, one of his older brothers was killed in the Civil War, and two others were seriously wounded in the same conflict. [Read more…] about The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum: A History
Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People
In 1933, during Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s first year as President, the Democrats launched a number of New Deal social welfare and economic recovery efforts to combat the Great Depression.
Among the more popular and successful of these was the creation of the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), jobs programs which were modeled on similar programs in New York State. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People