News and Views from the Empire State
America’s meatpacking plants endure some of the highest rates of workplace injury of any U.S. job sector. COVID-19 has introduced yet another occupational hazard.
These crowded facilities have become frighteningly successful vectors for COVID-19 contagion. [Read more…] about Rethinking Meat From Farm to Table
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Warren County has announced two webinar programs focused on small-scale livestock production. [Read more…] about Small-Scale Livestock Production Webinars Planned
Although we have an abundance of food available in the United States, the past few weeks and the coming months have and will demonstrate that our food system is only as strong as the weakest link.
Food can be produced by farmers in vast amounts, but if it can’t be processed and distributed then it is not accessible to consumers. [Read more…] about Reality Check: Local Food Systems
The Adirondack Council awarded 10 micro-grants totaling over $32,000 to local farmers in an effort to address what it called the greatest short-term and long-term threats to public health in the Adirondack Park: COVID-19 and climate change. [Read more…] about Adirondack Farm Micro-Grants Awarded
If we want to understand everyday life in early America we need to understand the everyday life of early American farms and farmers.
Roughly three-quarters of Americans in British North America and the early United States considered themselves to be farmers. So how did early Americans establish farms and what were the rhythms of their daily lives?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Richard Bushman, the Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, joins us to investigate farms and farm life in early America with details from his book, The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century: A Social and Cultural History. [Read more…] about Farms & Farm Families in Early America
Heritage vs. Heirloom Gardening, a talk by horticulturist Diana K. Weiner has been set for Sunday, March 10th at 2 pm, at the Time and the Valleys Museum on St. Rt. 55 in Grahamsville, Sullivan County. [Read more…] about Heritage Gardening Program at Sullivan Co Museum
The Altona Flat Rock is a rare and spectacular site I’ve referenced here in the past, and was the subject of my first book written long ago (it was updated in 2005 with new glaciology information). Besides details on the unusual topography, glacial remnants, an incredibly persistent fire, and one of the world’s largest dams when it was built in the early 1900s, there was also a human history to tell. [Read more…] about Jefferson County’s Charles Sherman: Huckleberry Charlie
The Altona Flat Rock is a rare and spectacular site I’ve referenced here in the past, and was the subject of my first book written long ago (it was updated in 2005 with new glaciology information). Besides details on the unusual topography, glacial remnants, an incredibly persistent fire, and one of the world’s largest dams when it was built in the early 1900s, there was also a human history to tell. [Read more…] about Jefferson County’s Huckleberry Charlie
The Schenectady County Historical Society and the Electric City Food Co-op are teaming up to host an evening of local food tastings and live jazz (featuring Roben Kosek Jazz & Blues) inside Mabee Farm’s historic Dutch Barn.
Mabee Farm to Fork will be held on Saturday, September 24, from 5 – 8 pm. Tickets are $25 per person and will include local food tastings prepared by chef Christopher Marney. A cash bar will be available for alcoholic drinks. [Read more…] about Mabee Farm to Fork Celebrates Agricultural Traditions
In the northeast corner of New York State, the first weekend in June features Museum Days, during which 16 facilities in Clinton County offer free admission. We were among many who appeared as special guests on both days, offering our books for sale and visiting with attendees, which meant talking a lot about “the good old days.” From that experience, I can assure everyone that a trip to the Babbie Rural & Farm Learning Museum in Peru, where we spent Saturday, is a great idea from several perspectives.
As a museum, it’s a real pleasure, and for children and adults alike, it’s fun and entertaining. But it occurred to me that it’s also a priceless gift to people in their sixties or older, and to the offspring of those folks who have heard stories about childhood chores, tools of yesteryear, and appliances that preceded modern devices. [Read more…] about The Babbie Rural and Farm Learning Museum