During the Revolutionary War, the British Navy cracked down on the thriving ports located on the northeast coast, virtually shutting them down by attacking and destroying whaling and shipping fleets. For their business to survive, many merchants relocated to Canada or France and some even returned to England, choosing commerce over the Constitution. A group of sea-faring Quakers from Nantucket and Providence got together and decided to look for a safer place to set up shop closer by. Enter Claverack Landing, a tiny Dutch settlement founded in 1783 on the Hudson River. At the time, Claverack was equipped with two deep bays, land suitable for a port and nearby farmland. The group, calling themselves The Proprietors, bought up huge areas of land and drew up a grid for the town they would rename Hudson in honor of the river and its first western explorer, Henry Hudson who sailed the Halve Maen upriver in 1609.

The city of Hudson was one of America’s first planned cities… they built it and they did come. Ship-builders, sail- and rope- makers, and a host of other shipping related businesses sprung up and soon populated the meticulously drawn out streets. The whaling fleets grew and by 1790 the population hit 2,500. By 1820 it had doubled again. When kerosene replaced whale oil and trains replaced ships, Hudson fell into decline. The last whaling ship sailed from Hudson in 1840, but soon enough trade by railroad brought new businesses to Hudson; tanneries, brickyards, ironworks, cotton mills and breweries flourished. The 1920s and ‘30s saw a rise in gambling and bootlegging and St. Agatha (a statue of the patron saint of virgins looks down the Hudson from its perch on Parade Hill) notwithstanding, Hudson became known for its red light district. A state police crackdown in 1950 brought that underworld economy to an end and the city of Hudson entered another period of neglect and decline.

Throughout all the commercial boom and bust of the past two centuries, Hudson, continued to line its streets with a succession of American architectural styles from the New England Federal style the Quakers brought with them, to Greek and Gothic Revivals, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Jacobean. For this reason, Hudson is known as a “dictionary of American architectural styles.” A silver lining to the decades Hudson was under-appreciated. In the first decades of the 21st century, Hudson is proving its resilience with yet another economic revival. The main business thoroughfare, Warren Street, stretches two miles from the riverside promenade to Prospect Avenue and is now lined with an eclectic selection of galleries, antique shops, bookstores, restaurants and music venues. On nearby streets, 19th century hotels have been restored, factories have been converted into performance spaces and former blacksmith shops into restaurants featuring seasonal regional cuisine.

Visiting Hudson today you could close your eyes and forget you are in the middle of a mostly rural county; the city captures the thriving urban feel of a hundred years ago. True to its origins as a busy port trading in both locally made and exotic goods, you can shop the farmers market for fresh ginger stalks and Osage oranges, curried sauerkraut and hand cut potato chips, and honey from nearby apiaries. Or you can visit a nearby shop and buy teas imported from China or luxurious fabrics printed in India. There is a wonderful blend of preserving the past, honoring old traditions in new ways, and innovation born of respect for history and Hudson’s beautiful natural surroundings.

No one understands this better than Tim Dunleavy, storeowner and the founding president of the preservation society, Historic Hudson, which has been instrumental in leading the quest to preserve many of Hudson’s architectural gems. Dunleavy notes that part of what saved Hudson was that it was relatively untouched by the economic “development” of the 1970s. Dunleavy first visited Hudson in 1990 and was surprised to find a fairly intact 19th century city with an impressive abundance of architectural styles. At the time, most of the shops along Warren Street were boarded up. “The storefronts that weren’t empty had been rented or purchased by antique dealers.” Dunleavy recognized this as a sign of nascent economic revitalization. “A similar thing happened in Connecticut in the 1970s when so many antique dealers opened businesses on Route 7.”

Dunleavy opened Rural Residence in 1999. The store is filled with a beautifully curated selection of antiques, art books, linens, toiletries and decorative items; “anything that I have an emotional response to that has a dash of historicism or sense of time,” says Dunleavy. In addition to its interesting architecture, Dunleavy thinks Hudson’s intimate size and walkability have been a big draw. “It feels like a convergence center for the creative class and like-minded people,” he says. “There are 35 new businesses that have opened this year in Hudson. The new hipster migration from Brooklyn has given the city a new youthful energy and appearance.”

Store front of the Rural Residence in Hudson, NY

On their brand new website, Rural Residence draws inspiration from the valley, acknowledging that the Hudson was a river that shaped a nation and “pollinated [it] with a never-before-seen hybrid of nature, cultivated beauty and democratic ideals.” The city of Hudson, can most certainly be seen as a jewel in that crown.

Rather than taking their business elsewhere, two hundred years ago a small group of merchants decided to stay in their young country and seek out a place to build a peaceful and thriving city. I like to think of them surveying the land and envisioning a community of builders, farmers, bakers and craftspeople all taking pride in their work and engaged in the wonderful business of life.  I like to think that if they visited Hudson today, they would be proud.

Experience Hudson:

• Musica — a community music shop.
• Fern — handcrafted furniture.
• Look — apparel and accessories.
• Discipline Park — hand picked designer clothes and vintage.
• Gris — antiques and interior design.
• Hudson City Books — used and rare bookstore.

Taste Hudson:

• Fish and Game — weekly changing menu located in a converted historic blacksmith shop.
• Grazin’ — farm-to-table diner.
• Swoon Kitchenbar — brasserie.
• Verdigris Tea — tea and chocolate bar.

Creative Hudson:

• Basilica — reclaimed 19^th century factory converted into an art, performance, production and event space.
• The Spotty Dog — independent bookstore and lounge/café.
• Helsinki Hudson — Two performance spaces, a full service restaurant, a gallery space and outdoor dining.

Bring a bit of the Hudson Valley into your home with these locally made products:

Tea Towel Set	Scullery Soap	Black Patriot Head

Photo Credit: Lisa Kelsey 

Lisa Kelsey is a Dutchess County, NY-based art director. Her radio shows “Stirring the Pot” on home cooking, and “Spice: The Final Frontier” on herbs and spices, can be heard on Pawling Public radio. pawlingpublicradio.org

An array of Field Apothecary items. (Photo credit: Sharokh Mirzai)

Throughout the world, folk traditions coexisted with the professional study of herbalism. The practice of going into the garden or woods and getting a bit of something to cure whatever ails you continues, but in this country that knowledge has largely faded from the collective memory. Dana and Michael Eudy of Field Apothecary want to bring this particular field of medicine “back to the field.”

Dana and Michael Eudy on their farm in Germantown, NY.

Whether the loss of an herbal healing tradition is a casualty of the Atomic Age or due to the sweetening and blanding of the American diet, the Eudys are actively engaged in resuscitating it here in the Hudson Valley. “There are written references, of course, but there isn’t really a widespread oral tradition. We’re hoping to bring back and hold on to that knowledge,” says Dana.

My daughter and I visited them on their three-acre “pharm” in quaint Germantown, NY, where the couple is growing about 60 varieties of herbs and using them in health-promoting as well as culinary preparations. We sat down to steaming cups of “tulsi” or holy basil tea (made in a French press), and discussed the pair’s philosophy of using plant-based medicines. Thousands of years of trial and error have led to several great herbal traditions, which are accompanied by texts, like the Hindu Ayurveda, listing hundreds of herbs and remedies. Before the advent of modern scientific method, European apothecaries dispensed herbal tinctures and elixirs to physicians and patients. We have those apothecaries toiling away with their mortars and pestles to thank for many of the medicines provided by pharmacists today. In this country, Native Americans added to the European’s store of knowledge, showing the colonists how to use plants such as echinacea and goldenseal and even discovering uses for species brought over accidentally from Europe, like mullein.

Snakes intertwined, from the engravings created of Albertus Seba’s collections in the late 17th & early 18th century. Seba was an apothecary and naturalist whose immense & renowned Wunderkammer was purchased by Peter the Great after his death in 1736. (Source: Tumblr)

But how are the Eudys managing to keep focused with such a vast store of knowledge, covering thousands of herbs and just as many years of study? Michael explains that at Field Apothecary they concentrate on naturally-occurring plants of the region—nettles, St. Johns wort, mullein, mugwort, chicory, yarrow among them—that are either indigenous or naturalized in the area, as well as plants from the Chinese or Indian pharmacopia that grow easily here. “Nothing too difficult or obscure—we want the plants to be accessible to people,” Michael says.

Michael and Dana suggest that our bodies are more attuned to ingesting healthful components in their whole natural  “package” and will therefore more readily absorb the nutrients. While we’ve been ingesting plants for millennia, the concept of taking medicine and supplements in concentrated pill form has only been with us several decades.

“Nothing too difficult or obscure—we want the plants to be accessible to people.” — Dana and Michael Eudy

We now know that many of the most beneficial phytonutrients in plants have a bitter taste, and Michael says that recent studies have also shown something that Chinese herbalists have known for centuries: it is also important to actually taste bitterness. “When you take a pill its void of any sensory experience. But when we taste bitterness on our tongue something happens physiologically—it sends a message to the brain, which sends messages throughout the body, mainly the pancreas and liver. The salivary glands are stimulated, which is the first form of digestion.” In this way the experience of taste helps pave the way for the medicine to do its work.

Rather than a wholesale rejection of the medical establishment, Michael and Dana see what they do as part of a “healthcare pyramid.” They believe that learning about preventive remedies and how to treat some basic ailments at home will ease an overburdened healthcare system. “When you start holding back just a little bit, your confidence builds really quickly. You don’t feel like this is your only choice—you don’t need to go straight to the top of that pyramid right away.”

Sage is one of the many herbs and botanicals grown at Field Apothecary.

The fact that they are part of a trend that sees itself not as combative, but in partnership with conventional medicine has advantages for doctors and their patients as well. “Our very first class that we did here, ten people came and three of them were doctors!” Dana admits to feeling a bit intimidated, but found that the doctors were there to learn from her. “They want to know more about natural remedies now because their patients—especially those with children—are asking about it.” Natural medicine is recovering from its snake-oil reputation and gaining credibility again.

Getting over the fear of quackery is only part of the task for Dana and Michael. They are also combating the somewhat fusty reputation of modern herbalism, that of an older generation. When Michael and Dana looked at what was available on the market, they were put off by packaging and presentation that was geared to an audience they didn’t identify with. “We are our target audience. We’re young. We are parents. Field Apothecary looks a little bit hipper because that’s what would have made us get into this a lot earlier.”

A fresher visual look is matched by a more open approach to using the healthful herbs in new ways, including as cocktail ingredients, which a recent customer playfully described as “sneaky medicine.” “It’s about introducing the idea of herbs to people where they might not expect it,” says Dana, “then they can go from there.” For the recent Olanafest (a prestigious celebration of food, art and farming at the 250-acre integrated estate of Hudson River School Painter Frederic Edwin Church) Dana and Michael were asked to design a cocktail using as inspiration the surrounding orchards, meadows and woodlands of the historic site.

Local mixologists and chefs are beginning to take notice as well. “We’re always experimenting with ways to get [the herbs] into food.” Their current line-up of products includes infused oils and salts—even soda kits. Plans for a food truck selling their products and serving foods showcasing fresh herbs are in the works.

The “pharm” at Field Apothecary.

Outside, the air rich with the earthy scent of herbs basking in the late summer sun, we strolled through the rows as Dana named the plants and encouraged us to touch and smell them. For me, she filled a bag with clippings of lemon balm, shiso, mint and three types of holy basil. “Our goal is just to get people to walk through the gate—to get them into the garden,” she said.  “One or two things might catch their interest, but then they’ll discover a lot of things on their own. There’s a whole discovery that takes place.” After an afternoon of sipping tea, wandering the grounds and imbibing in Field Apothecary’s heavenly aromas, we couldn’t help but feel infused with herbs ourselves. And while there isn’t an actual gate (Dana and Michael have a open policy with their animal neighbors), I detected a distinct bounce in my step on my way out of the garden.

Check out all of our Field Apothecary products on our Wellness and Kitchen channels.

Anti-Anxie-Tea Tin	Burnout Resistance	Sage Salt

Lisa Kelsey is a Dutchess County, NY-based art director. Her radio shows “Stirring the Pot” on home cooking, and “Spice: The Final Frontier” on herbs and spices, can be heard on Pawling Public radio. paulingpublicradio.org

Preston Schlebusch is the collaboration of Lisa Preston and Nils Schlebusch who started recording the world through travel photography nearly 16 years ago. Lisa is American born but raised in Mexico and Nils is Franco-German with a dash of Estonian but raised in Spain. So the two are latin at heart!   From their first adventure to Cuba to start their career to their latest trip to Vancouver for a ski story their main joy is stoking the fire of their curiosity for the culture and people they meet on their travels.  Nils loves adventure, Lisa sometimes stresses about weather but they both feel blessed to have chosen a job that gives them the opportunity to look for the beauty in the world.

Over 40 area farms, including Pine Plains, NY-based Coach Farm, are participating in this year’s Hudson Valley Bounty ‘Taste of’ Dinner. Photo courtesy of Coach Farm.

The Bounty program will be honoring the original group who started the event back in 2008: Lori Seldon, David Robinson, the late Vicki Simons, Dave Colby, Steve Hadcock, Tom Crowell, Betsy Braley, Liz Beals and Joan Kadin. In addition, Hudson Valley Bounty will honor the 13 restaurants, farms and food makers that have participated and supported the event every year since its inception and who will be in attendance again this year: Blue Plate, Local 111, Carlucci-Simons Catering, Stissing House, Micosta, The Berry Farm, Staron’s Farm, Samascott Orchards, Ronnybrook Farm, Holmquest Farm, Feather Ridge Farm, Hudson-Chatham Winery and Chatham Brewing.

At left, a girl sits in a Ronnybrook Farm truck (photo courtesy of Ronnybrook Farm, Ancramdale, NY). At right, vibrant cherries grow on the trees of Samascott Orchards (photo courtesy of Samascott Orchards, Kinderhook, NY). These two farms, among other farms and foodmakers, have taken part in and supported the event each year since it began in 2008.

This year’s tasting dinner will also feature Hudson Valley restaurants and foodmakers including Helsinki Hudson, The Crimson Sparrow, The Cascades, The Old Chatham Country Store, American Glory, Tousey Winery, Brookview Station Winery, Beer Diviner, Jane’s Ice Cream, Sofregit, Serevan, Carolina House, Georgia Ray’s Kitchen, Beth’s Farm Kitchen, Hawthorne Valley Farm Store and For the Love of Pie. New this year, several member restaurants and food makers from the Berkshires will participate in the event. These include The Red Lion Inn, John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant, Nudel, The Meat Market, Route 7 Grill, Allium, The Old Inn on the Green and H.R. Zeppelin Chocolates.

A dish prepared by Great Barrington, MA-based restaurant and Hudson Valley Bounty ‘Taste of’ Dinner participant, Allium. The dish features veal pastrami from dinner participant Black Queen Angus Farm. At right, Chef Hugh Horner of Helsinki Hudson tends to a smoker.

“This is the culinary event of the season—a ‘must’ for foodies, passionate cooks and gardeners,” says HVB Program Director Kristin Roca. “The evening will highlight the best of our community’s restaurants and chefs making use of the amazing range of fresh, local food available right in our own backyard.” Last year, more than 30 chefs and farmers participated; serving tastes to more than 250 people and enjoying the opportunity to meet other Hudson Valley chefs, farmers and guests in a festive environment.

Celebrated area chefs will be paired with expert farmers to showcase a wide range of food grown and prepared in the Hudson Valley. More than 20 restaurant chefs will prepare dishes alongside tasting tables featuring local winemakers and brewers. Participants will feature ample “tastes” of more than 30 recipes including everything from appetizers and salads to main courses and desserts.

Blueberry cheesecake from longtime dinner participant Local 111 (photo courtesy of Local 111, Philmont, NY).

“The chefs being featured at ‘A Taste of’ offer considerable support to our farmers as the tastemakers of local food and help set the tone educating our region’s consumers about sourcing local ingredients,” said Todd Erling, Executive Director of the Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corporation (HVADC). “This event gives our community a chance to sample exceptional cuisine crafted by our region’s best chefs and to experience first-hand the vital connection between farm and table.”

Seared duck breast from John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant (photo courtesy of John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant, South Egremont, MA).

Advance purchase of tickets is recommended due to limited space. Tickets are $75 for adults, $50 for HVB members and $25 for children (12 and under) and can be purchased online at hudsonvalleybounty.com or at the door. New this year is a discounted price of $50 for farmers, which can be purchased via phone. For more information, contact Kristin Roca at 518.432.5360.

The mission of Hudson Valley Bounty, a program of the HVADC, is to educate the community about the preservation of local farms through the purchase and use of local and regional sustainable foods and products throughout the entire Hudson Valley. The program also promotes and supports networking connections between local agricultural producers and culinary businesses. For information, visit Hudson Valley Bounty.

Can’t make the Hudson Valley ‘Taste of’ Dinner? Cook up your own locally-inspired dish with the help of Hudson Made.

Deluxe Kitchen Set	Flap Jack	Flame-Blackened Forked Salad Set

Matthew Wexler is the National Style and Travel Editor at EDGE Media Network. More of his musings can be found on his blog, roodeloo.com.

“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 doing but it was all Greek to me!” He went home with grape leaves, which he stuffed “and they were delicious.” When I met Brill, I thought in some ways he could be the spiritual son of Gibbons—he is quite the raconteur. Brimming with enthusiasm, he delivers his wisdom with a unique sense of humor. On the mullein plant (sometimes referred to as cowboy toilet paper), he has this to say on his website: “Women who were forbidden to use make-up for religious reasons rubbed the rough leaves of this rubefacient on their cheeks, to create a beautiful red flush. People who spend time in the woods are attracted to mullein’s large, velvety leaves when they run out of toilet paper, again creating a beautiful red flush on their cheeks.” He has been foraging and leading tours since 1982, has written several guidebooks and wild edible cookbooks, and has produced a master foraging app for mobile devices, “Wild Edibles Plus.”

At left, “Wildman” Steve Brill (image courtesy Steve Brill); at right, the spoils collected by a participant in one of Brill’s Central Park foraging tours (image credit: Fred Benenson).

On a recent tour with him on the Appalachian Trail in Pawling New York, I was surprised when two members of our group reported being accosted by an irate hiker who was not happy to see them digging up burdock plants. The familiar admonishment issued by many parks services, “take only pictures, leave only footprints,” needs to be revised. Many harvestable plants are actually invasive species. Picking endangers few.

The flora of the Appalachian Trail in New York. Image credit: Renee McGurk.

I would agree with Brill that nature is not a museum to be viewed from behind a velvet rope. Nothing gives you a greater sense of place and respect for nature than being able to gain sustenance from it. “I haven’t seen any danger to the environment from 31 years of foraging repeatedly in the same places with large groups… no decline in the dandelions, lamb’s quarters, burdock, sassafras, or chicken mushrooms anywhere we’ve been harvesting these renewable resources.” He recently led a record-breaking 81-person tour in New York’s Central Park. “The mowers will still be moving in to cut down the same ‘weeds’ we’d eaten. Of all the threats to the environment we’re facing, ecological harvesting of common weeds doesn’t even make the list.”

Many of the local foragers I interviewed and have met online (or in the woods) cite Wildman Steve Brill as the person who introduced them to collecting edible wild plants. Among them is Ava Chin. As a child, Chin remembers pulling up field garlic from her apartment courtyard in Queens. On her first walk with Brill in Central Park years later, she says, “Learning that so many of the ubiquitous weeds from my childhood were edible was a revelation.” Chin, who was going through personal difficulties at the time, found that foraging provided an antidote to her fears and sense of failure. “It provided insight into nature’s timing and cycles, and helped me to see the world as a place of beauty and abundance.” Now, in addition to being an English professor at the College of Staten Island CUNY, she writes about the wild edibles that grow in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene/Clinton Hill area as the Urban Forager for the local section of The New York Times. Field garlic was the first plant she profiled. You can find her recipes and learn about her foraging adventures in NYC and environs at foragergirl.com.

Field garlic. Image credits: Anna Kika and The Biodiversity Library.

Foraging is a matter of economic necessity in many parts of the world. Even in Europe people tend to know where and when to look for local wild foods like asparagus, but in the United States people are just starting to catch up. Wild foods have always been billed as healthy, but not until recently has it become known just how much more nutritious than cultivated foods they can be.

Jo Robinson’s new book, Eating on the Wild Side, recently excerpted in The New York Times, has created quite a buzz. The book isn’t about foraging for wild foods per se, but it is a guide to finding and using foods in the produce aisle that most resemble their wild counterparts. Robinson explains how we have unknowingly bred many of the nutritious qualities out of the vegetables and fruits we eat. Based on ten years of research and analysis, she compares and contrasts the nutritional profiles of wild plants and their cultivated cousins, like dandelion greens, which have seven times more phytonutrients than the “superfood” spinach. One could extrapolate that adding even small amounts of highly nutritious wild foods to your diet can have quite a substantial benefit.

This new information may make the latest wave of interest last longer than in the past. Steve Brill also credits the effect of information technology. Facebook groups like “Foraging for Everyone,” “Forager’s Unite!” and “Edible Wild Plants” provide forums where people can trade recipes and help each other identify plants. “People can communicate with each other, whether they’re preppers, vegans, freegans, environmentalists, science geeks, or parents with nature-hungry kids.” Ava Chin would also add to the mix foodies excited by recent culinary trends.

Beet and crab salad with purselane from New York City’s Print Restaurant.

Innovative Nordic cuisine has been inspiring the use of foraged foods in high-end restaurants. René Redzepi of Denmark’s Noma, voted best restaurant in the world for the past three years, may have started the culinary ball rolling by featuring items like deep fried moss, sea buckthorn leather, and wood sorrel granita on his menu. US restaurants that emphasize local ingredients are now increasingly adding wild foraged foods to their menus. Many even employ foragers or buy from full-time professional ones. Meghan Boledovich, a menu consultant and “urban forager” for Print Restaurant in New York City, procures chickweed, lamb’s quarters, and other wild foods from local farm distributors who now include them on their availability lists. Aside from their health benefits and the new spectrum of flavors they offer, they are the ultimate local food, and they’re also hyper-seasonal: “Some things can only be found for a week or two; they really give a sense of the place (terroir) and time to the diner,” says Meghan, who also notes that it can be challenging to translate to the customer what certain things are, but “luckily certain wild foods like ramps and purslane have become popular, so I think the baseline knowledge and curiosity is there.”

A White and Green Asparagus Pine dish served at Copenhagen’s famed restaurant Noma. Image credit: Sarah Ackerman.

If you’re interested in foraging, the free version of Wildman Steve Brill’s app, Wild Edibles, which covers the twenty most common backyard species, is a good place to start. You can pick up a guidebook, do research online, or join social network groups to find out more. But the best way to learn safely is to take a tour or class with a forager who has expertise in the plants of your area. Be patient, don’t try to learn everything at once, and never taste-test, as even a small bite of the wrong leaf can have you foraging at the emergency room, which isn’t nearly as fun as your local park or woodland.

Read Part I of our foraging series—Digging Deep: Foraging through History.

Discover the native vegetation of the Catskills with the help of these Catskill Trails Maps:

Lisa Kelsey is a Dutchess County, NY-based art director. Her radio shows “Stirring the Pot” on home cooking, and “Spice: The Final Frontier” on herbs and spices, can be heard on Pawling Public radio. pawlingpublicradio.org.

“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 relocate to the Hudson Valley from Manhattan. I spent my childhood wandering among widely spaced oaks, amid the scent of wild oat grass drying in the sun. The golden hills of northern California did not prepare me for the expanse of lush greenery that confronted me on walks in the woods near our new house in a watershed area of the Hudson Valley. Wherever I look, vegetation of all kinds seems to coil and climb and tower over everything. The vigorous growth of weeds in my garden, their ability to grow seemingly overnight, often makes me feel I am battling some kind of interplanetary spore invasion in a science fiction movie. I have jokingly said to my husband, if only we could just eat the weeds and forget about planting vegetables!

The lush, fertile hills of the Hudson Valley. Image credit: Robert Rodriguez, Jr.

All kidding aside, there are many edible (albeit uninvited) plants growing right in my backyard. I recently spotted a plant reminiscent of miner’s lettuce, whose round bright green leaves I recalled munching while hiking with a guide in the Pacific coastal forest. My young son grabbed a handful and, crushing the leaves in his tiny hands, announced that it was garlic. He was right about the scent—it was allium petiolata, or garlic mustard. It wasn’t miner’s lettuce, but it was edible. And so began my quest to pull that wild mass of green into focus by identifying the plants that grow around us, and more importantly, which ones we can eat.

A field of garlic mustard. Image credit: Flickr user Carsten aus Bonn.

Foraging for wild foods has become the latest extension of the “eat local” movement. People are scouring their backyards, nearby pastures or even urban parks for edible weeds, berries, and roots. It’s not a new activity but one of the oldest—older than civilization itself. As humans we spent the better part of 100,000 years as hunters and gatherers. Foraging is deeply embedded in our genes and it formed the primeval basis of our relationship to what grows around us. Exploiting nature’s bounty continued after the arrival of agriculture. In our area, Native Americans foraged wild foods to supplement their cultivated corn, squash, and beans. Acorns, sunflowers, plums, grapes, wild sweet potato, black walnuts and pokeweed, among many others, were gathered from the wild. Early settlers in New England foraged for berries similar to those they recognized from their homeland, but most of them probably weren’t putting cattails and acorns to good use. Sadly, with the pushing out of Native Americans, the heritage of wild food foraging was largely lost.

Various plants traditionally foraged by Native Americans in New England. Clockwise from top-left: the purple fruit of the pokeweed plant (image credit: Dennis Blythe); the flower of the wild sweet potato (image credit: Cody Hough); wild grapes (image credit: Tonreg); acorns (image credit: Focx Photography).

Wild Fruits: Thoreau’s Last Rediscovered Manuscript, a collection of essays based on Henry David Thoreau’s observations of the fruit and nut trees, berries, and other plants growing wild near his home in Concord, Massachusetts, was published posthumously in 2001. In these pre-Civil War era writings, Thoreau was already lamenting the fact that our native huckleberries and wild apples were being neglected in favor of exotic imported fruits like bananas and pineapples. He pondered the spiritual nature of gathering local wild foods. “Do not think, then, that the fruits of New England are mean and insignificant while those of some foreign land are noble and memorable. Our own, whatever they may be, are far more important to us than any others can be,” Thoreau wrote. “They educate us and fit us to live here. Better for us is the wild strawberry than the pine-apple, the wild apple than the orange, the chestnut and pignut than the cocoa-nut and almond, and not on account of their flavor merely, but the part they play in our education.”

From left to right: Henry David Thoreau and Thoreau’s Cove at Walden, Concord, MA. Image credit: Library of Congress.

Thoreau would have been happy when the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s renewed interest in wild foods. This was greatly due to Euell Gibbons, an endearing storyteller who captured the imagination of a generation. His first book on foraging, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, became an instant best seller when it was published in 1962. But Gibbons was no longhaired idealist. He was born in Texas in 1911, less than 50 years after Thoreau died. He spent most of his childhood in the parched hills of New Mexico and learned about plants from his mother. At times during the Depression when his father couldn’t find work, Gibbons provided for his family by foraging in the hills for mushrooms, piñon nuts, and yellow prickly pear. He had only a sixth-grade education but continued to teach himself by reading nature guides in libraries, asking locals how they used wild foods and seeking out the knowledge of experts.

According to veteran forager and author John Kallas, that garlic mustard my son picked is one of the most nutritious greens ever analyzed. It’s higher in fiber, beta carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc than practically any other leafy green. There are lots of ways to use it, but I like to give it a whir in the food processor and make a nice pesto—it makes a peppery sandwich spread or you can toss it with pasta and fresh tomatoes.

Garlic Mustard and Walnut Pesto

Although garlic mustard has a nice peppery bite, I like to boost the garlic flavor by adding some garlic cloves, leaves, or scapes.

3 cups garlic mustard leaves, stems and seed pods (if any) removed, washed and drained well
3 cloves of garlic (or you can use chopped tender garlic scapes or leaves), chopped
1 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil or more for the consistency you prefer
½ cup grated Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese
Salt to taste

In a food processor, pulse garlic mustard leaves, walnuts, and cheese to make a paste. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto reaches the desired consistency Add salt to taste and blend again.

Read Part II of our foraging series—A Walk on the Wild Side.

Discover the native vegetation of the Catskills with the help of these Catskill Trails Maps:

Lisa Kelsey is a Dutchess County, NY-based art director. Her radio shows “Stirring the Pot” on home cooking, and “Spice: The Final Frontier” on herbs and spices, can be heard on Pawling Public radio. pawlingpublicradio.org.

Such is the inspiration for ChefX, a gathering of five notable chefs “crossing the border.” Curious guests of two upcoming events are about to find out when pop-up ChefX dinners pay a visit to Hudson and Great Barrington in April.

The Crimson Sparrow in Hudson, NY will host the first ChefX dinner on April 7. Photo credit: Ashley Sears

Berkshire Farm & Table is producing these one-of-a-kind dinner events to bring like-minded restaurants with farm-to-table values to local food fans. In celebration of what chefs like to eat, each dinner will offer a special five-course menu. Both dinners will culminate in a Chefs’ Cocktail Hour where guests can casually mingle with chefs and learn more about their culinary philosophy and the restaurants they represent.

Five chefs from the Berkshires will cross the border in a one-night-only chef exchange and present a five-course dinner in Hudson on Sunday, April 7. Participating chefs include Bjorn Somlo (Nudel Restaurant), Brian Alberg (The Red Lion Inn), Jamie Paxton (The Meat Market), Stephen Browning (Bell & Anchor) and Matt Rubiner (Rubiner’s Cheesemongers).

From left to right: Bjorn Somlo, chef-owner of Nudel in Lenox, MA. Photo credit: Daniel Schmolze; Brian Alberg, Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Manager of The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA. Photo credit: Edward Acker.

From left to right: Jamie Paxton, chef at The Meat Market in Stockbridge. Photo credit: Silka Glanzman; Stephen Browning, chef at Mark Firth’s new Great Barrington, MA restaurant, Bell & Anchor. Photo credit: Silka Glanzman; Matt Rubiner, chef-owner of Rubiner’s Cheesemongers & Grocers, also in Great Barrington. Photo credit: Bone & Black.

Hosted at The Crimson Sparrow by chef/owners John McCarthy III and Benjamin Freemole, the event will celebrate the philosophies of these neighboring regions as well as the unique culinary viewpoints of the participating chefs. “Ben and I are extremely proud to host the first in a series of events with ChefX that will highlight and demonstrate the exciting culinary opportunities in both the Berkshires and Hudson,” said McCarthy. “It’s a very special event for diners in Hudson to experience the great options available in the Berkshires without having to go very far and hopefully spur some travel between our two regions in the future.”

From left to right : John McCarthy III and Benjamin Freemole, chef-owners of The Crimson Sparrow. Photo credit: Ashley Sears

Dining room, The Crimson Sparrow. Photo credit: Ashley Sears

On Monday, April 29, Allium Restaurant + Bar in Great Barrington will host their version of the event, importing five chefs from the Hudson Valley that in addition to Freemole and McCarthy include Hugh Horner (Helsinki Hudson), Jon Spoto and Chip Chiappinelli (Grazin’ Diner), Jeff Gimmel (Swoon Kitchenbar) and Josephine Proul of Local 111.

“These events are all about generating exciting and fun events for guests and the host restaurant. We’re excited to participate in Chef X and look forward to the collaborations,” said Bjorn Somlo of Nudel and a principal catalyst for this idea. “As business owners, we need to create more reasons for people to dine out in the off-season, to inspire chefs to reach out to new audiences and to celebrate what we have to offer. These two Chef X events are just the beginning.”

In addition to ChefX, Berkshire Farm & Table has been instrumental in continuing to cultivate support for the local food movement. Other events include Outstanding in the Field, an outdoor dining feast held at Indian Line Farm (the first community supported agriculture program in the country) and an annual dinner at the James Beard Foundation in New York City.

“The demand for food events is high and these first Chef X dinner events have been cultivated to bring several communities together and allow guests to sample the cuisine of a collective of restaurants in one evening,” said Angela Cardinali, founder of Berkshire Farm & Table. “The goal of these events is to create more dining opportunities and to showcase the culinary talents of a collection of noteworthy chefs in the Berkshire-Hudson region. We envision many more of these events in different shapes and sizes, all in the spirit of collaboration and enjoyment.”

Click Here for more information on ChefX.

Feeling inspired to get in the kitchen yourself? Check out our exclusive collections from Hudson Made, featuring one-of-a-kind items paired with some of our most popular kitchen products:

The Seasoned Slice	The Early Riser	The Guileless Gastronome

Matthew Wexler is the National Style and Travel Editor at EDGE Media Network. More of his musings can be found on his blog, roodeloo.com.

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 shop. Without a stack of pancakes in sight, I punctured the top of the can and drizzled it on a bit of yogurt and was overcome by its rich amber color, sweet depth of flavor and silky consistency. It was the first time I ever had real maple syrup.

Growing up in the rural foothills of North Carolina, far removed from the northeast (farther still from the cultural influences of the maple sugaring industry), I had been perfectly content in my ignorance to dress my pancakes with caramel-colored high fructose corn syrup poured from the flip-top kerchiefs of plastic plantation-era mammies.

So began my affaire de coeur with real maple syrup. Since the yearly sap harvest is drawing to a close, now seems like the perfect time to enjoy the fruits of all that labor while celebrating the history and versatility of this uniquely North American provision.

The Sugaring Process

The sugaring process (rendering sap into syrup) is labor-intensive to say the least. It all happens during a four- to six-week window during the sunny days of late winter known as Maple Sugaring Season. It is during this time that the season’s supply of maple syrup is harvested from the red, black and sugar maple trees of the greater Hudson Valley, New England and eastern Canada.

When daytime temperatures rise above 40 degrees but still fall to below freezing at night it creates a pressure fluctuation that forces sap up from the maple trees’ roots. Because such specific conditions are necessary to create that pressure, each sugaring season is unique in length and yield. There are only twenty or so prime sapping days between mid-February through early April. When the sap does flow freely, rousing the trees from winter dormancy and preparing them for spring’s reawakening, the trees are tapped and the collected sap is then boiled down into syrup.

Native Americans figured out this process long before the arrival of Europeans in the new world. An Iroquois legend tells about the clever wife of Chief Woksis and the accidental discovery of maple syrup.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress

The story goes that Woksis left one morning on a hunting expedition, removing a tomahawk blade from the trunk of a tree where he’d flung it the day before. As the day progressed and the temperature rose, sap poured from the gash in the tree and into a vessel that happened to be sitting nearby. Later, the wife of the chief discovered the watery substance and decided to try boiling the evening’s meal in it in lieu of trekking further for water. Later that evening when Woksis returned from the hunt, he was enamored by the aroma of the rendering syrup from far away, and so began the tradition of maple sugaring.

Whether that happy accident actually took place we’ll never know. But we do know that French explorer Jacques Cartier observed Native Americans tapping maple trees in 1540 and there are written observations of the Native Americans’ sugaring process dating back to 1557. The earliest of these observations discuss how sap was held in a hollowed-out log of basswood and heated stones were used to evaporate the water.

The mechanics of the process have evolved immensely since those days but the basic tenets of production still hold true. Well into the 20th century sugar producers would punch a v-shaped gash into a maple tree, insert a wooden or metal spout and then hang a bucket to catch the sap.

Today this method has given way to more efficient and complex systems of plastic taps and tubing that carry sap from many trees to one central holding tank by relying on gravity.

Photo Credit: Cedervale Maple

After the sap is collected, its excess water must be boiled away. A gallon of syrup requires approximately 40 gallons of sap. Many syrup producers first use reverse-osmosis devices to remove the sap water without heat. This energy-efficient method enables approximately 75 percent of the water to be removed before any heat is introduced. Once the concentrate reaches about 66 percent sugar (as opposed to sap’s 2 percent), it is ready for filtering and bottling. (It can also be further processed into maple cream and maple candy — a favorite treat at your local farmer’s market.)

A Drizzle a Day…

Maple syrup is the definitive topping for flapjacks, french toast and waffles but it has a host of other uses in dishes both sweet and savory. One of my favorites is easy and delicious. I cut a butternut squash in half, hollow out the center where the seeds are, stick in some cloves and then pour maple syrup directly into the cavity. Roast it until the flesh is tender, take out the cloves and mash up the syrup-infused squash into a hearty and delectable side dish.

You can also substitute maple syrup for white sugar in many recipes. Because it has nutritionally significant amounts of manganese, zinc, calcium and potassium, maple syrup can make your next homemade dessert a little more healthy and guilt-free. Substitute ¾-cup of syrup for 1-cup sugar and reduce the liquid content of the recipe by three tablespoons for each cup used.

Hudson Made offers real maple syrup from Sugar Hill Farm in Pine Plains, NY. In addition to its annual maple production, the farm also produces responsibly raised Berkshire pork and Black Angus beef. Consider glazing your steak with maple syrup combined with a pinch of cayenne pepper for a sweet and spicy flavor combination. I’ve been known to drizzle it on popcorn. Or put a dash in my favorite cocktail. And on a rare occasion, I have been known to just take a swig, right from the bottle. Why not?

Click here to learn more about Sugar Hill Farm’s maple syrup.

Looking for the ultimate culinary gift set? Consider “The Flap Jack.”

Sloan Rollins is a freelance writer who contributes regularly to Hudson Made’s ecommerce site. His work has been seen in Time Out New York, and he is a music and theater critic for edgeonthenet.com. sloanrollins.com

Weary of the urban work-for-life equation, I relocated to the Mid-Hudson Valley in the summer of 2001. True, the economy up here had been anemic for some time, as industries like IBM downsized and other businesses like farming continued to fade.

A view of the Mid-Hudson Valley captured by Michael Gross

But the lower cost of living in this region actually liberates people from unwanted jobs. Most people I came to know enjoy hyphenate occupations: artist-masseur, caterer-craftsman and so on. While lucrative jobs here are in short supply, living costs are much lower than in New York City and people are able to cobble together careers for themselves that more readily draw from their talents. In this region, cottage industries are often the norm.

Friends and neighbors may be working irregular hours, but they are doing what they love. In this realm, I also found liberation; I launched Jayboy Greetings, a greeting card business from my collage art designs, and for three years I sold them in stores locally, as well as Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco. I even had several designs picked up by a company that sold them nationwide.

Challenging economic conditions require ingenuity. Mid-Hudson Valley residents have responded with a resurgence of independent businesses. Handcrafted wares or artisanal foodstuffs are displayed at farmer’s markets, gift stores, seasonal fairs and online. Local business development groups as well as Cornell Cooperative Extension hold seminars to teach cottage industry folks how to carve a niche for themselves through marketing of their unique products.

Here is a survey of three Hudson Valley-based cottage industries that embody the Hudson Made aesthetic, both in their top-notch products as well as their passionate, responsible and sustainable business practices.

(From left to right) Jenifer Green (Director of Sales and Partner), Don Green (Designer and Partner), and Susan Riesen (Director of Production) of Greentree Home Candle. (Photo credit: Greentree Home Candle)

Greentree Home Candle in Delhi, NY in the upper Catskills originated as a home furniture business, created by a husband and wife team originally based in Philadelphia. They realized that college art degrees (he in sculpture and she in painting) didn’t guarantee a livelihood. Once the furniture took off, they branched out into smaller accessories, notably candleholders and then candles. Greentree Home Candle inventory has evolved from one style of taper to more than 25 in 18 different colors. All candles are crafted from 100% beeswax.

The pair relocated to the Hudson Valley, said co-owner Jennifer Green, recognizing it as a supportive place for small business for myriad reasons: affordable real estate, beautiful views and the concentration of  “like-minded artists and crafts people in the area.” Ironically, the high price points of the artisan candles price them out of this region’s economy.

Their work is labor-intensive, Green said. Each candle is hand-poured and hand-finished. “We’re not a factory; this is a studio.” Literature with each product emphasizes the East Coast-sourced beeswax candles, which have longer burn times, as well as the use of recycled packaging materials. (Green explains to retailers that commercial candles use petroleum-based paraffin — a suspected carcinogen — and hyper-allergenic chemical scents.)

Greentree, now a five-person business, wants to remain small. Furthermore, they are pledged to support other small businesses.

“We’re never going to sell to a Big Box store.”

A look inside the workshop of veteran woodworker Joshua Vogel, founder of Black Creek Mercantile. (Photo credit: Steffen Thalemann)

Based in Kingston, NY, Black Creek Mercantile is the personal enterprise of veteran woodworker Joshua Vogel, 42, who relocated from Brooklyn four years ago to launch a business that makes sculptural woodwork and focuses on small pieces. They also produce cutting board oil that extends the life of their handcrafted cutting boards, a sideline that brings in a steady income.

Joshua Vogel, founder of Black Creek Mercantile. (Photo credit: Steffen Thalemann)

The decision to move to the Valley to launch this business was a simple matter of supply.

“The biggest thing as a woodworker at heart is the abundance of wood upstate,” Vogel said. “Every time there is a storm there’s a tree that falls over. I said to myself: I’m in the right spot.” Vogel also cites a furniture making tradition here in the Valley that goes back centuries.

As a cottage industry, Vogel doesn’t have to create elaborate ad campaigns to promote product, most of which he sells online; he lets the work speak for itself.

“We don’t consciously fabricate a story to put out there. We just try to do what we’re doing and try to let that show through. With cottage industry, transparency is a given. We make everything that we do. There’s not any hidden middleman. The honesty and openness work really well for general marketing.”

Like Green Tree, Black Creek finds its price points are a barrier in its own region. “Not all of my neighbors can afford the work that we do.”

Pure Honey from Lucky Star Industries features prominently in Hudson Made gift sets.

Lucky Star Industries Honey of Ardsley, NY, is a side project of veteran TV commercial producer Ed Fountain who has spent three decades creating special effects for clients like Dunkin Donuts, Denny’s and KFC.

Lucky Star was launched 20 years ago, stemming from an apiarist hobby that Fountain learned at the knee of his father in Westchester as a child. (The name was originally used for his sound effects business.)

Fountain maintains six hives that annually produce between 200 and 500 pounds of honey. Originally, he would bring the honey to TV shoots and sell to his industry colleagues. But his supply was growing and he needed to move it more effectively. The notion of standing at a table of a farmer’s market weekly did not entice Fountain, so he had looked for other venues, even designing his own labels.

“People love local honey,” Fountain said. “It has more complex flavoring than the commercial honey. Local honey contains local pollen so it helps with local allergies.”

Until now, Fountain has been content to keep Lucky Star Industries Honey as a sideline business. Output from six hives accounts for 15 percent of his income. However, within four years, he plans to retire from the TV business and the honey business will provide his sole income, which would be a sweet and welcomed change of pace.

Jay Blotcher, a longtime writer for magazines, relocated from New York City to the Hudson Valley in 2001. He is currently at work on Holding On, a new musical about Harlem life in the 1960s with composer Neil Klein. www.holdingonthemusical.com