Hudson, NY: A River Town’s Renaissance
Walking the streets of Hudson, it might seem strange that this river town 100 miles away from the open ocean is graced with the images of so many whales. You’ll see them on hotel and street signs, shop windows, banners, even on the city seal. But Hudson owes its name—and really it’s very existence—to the...
Pharm to Table: Field Apothecary Invigorates Herbal Traditions
When I first started my radio show “Spice: The Final Frontier” I was planning to focus on interesting historical facts about herbs and spices along with some tips on how to cook with them. As I continued researching what I thought of as strictly culinary herbs and spices, I found that a long history of...
A “Taste of” the Hudson Valley
If you’re looking for a true taste of the Hudson Valley, mark your calendar for the fifth annual Hudson Valley Bounty ‘Taste of’ Dinner on August 5 from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. The Coumbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham, N.Y. sets the stage for this popular fundraising event, which this year commemorates its original founders....
A Walk on the Wild Side
Second Installment in a Two-Part Series “Wildman” Steve Brill, who had an interest in healthful gourmet cooking, was out for a bike ride when he came across a group of ethnic Greek women dressed in black among the greenery in Cunningham Park, Queens. As he likes to tell it, “I asked them what they were...
Digging Deep: Foraging through History
First Installment in a Two-Part Series “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I was raised in the country and I wanted my children to have the benefit of a clean, natural environment as well—that was one of the major reasons my husband and I decided to...
Border Crossing
While Hudson Made celebrates the artisans and craftspeople of Hudson Valley and New York City, we also realize that this passion is part of a growing interest in cottage industries and the locavore movement. Perhaps nowhere in the country is this more prevalent than in the rolling hills of the Berkshires of western Massachusetts Such...
The Sweet Goodbye of Winter
“A sap-run is the sweet good-by of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.” John Burroughs, Signs and Seasons, 1886 Two winters ago a friend was passing through New York on her way from Quebec and brought me a big can of maple syrup from the airport’s gift...
Hudson Valley Cottage Industries: An Insider’s Look
In the space of 19 years as a New Yorker, I realized how an urban economy could dictate a career. I saw too many people working to live, rather than the other way around. People were abandoning their true aspirations to grab a job that would pay their exorbitant rents. Because of the inflated cost...
