Berkshire Museum’s Festival of Trees Goes Green
A recycled tree by the Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter
It seems as if every school and not-for-profit group in the Berkshires is participating in the 24th annual Festival of Trees, which has an “eco-savvy and eco-fabulous” theme this year. There will be more than 200 trees on display made from sustainable, earth-friendly materials such as post-consumer paper and plastic, recycled steel, and bamboo. The tree in the photograph (left) was made by Pittsfield’s Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter. It is made of alternating layers of empty dog and cat food cans and lit with green lights. The tree topper is a large dog bone-shaped tin. The skirt is made of recycled bird seed bags, dog and cat food bags, and other pet product bags, which were stitched together with purple yarn. The names of some of the other trees on display such as “Pink is the New Green,“ “Brown Bag Christmas,“ and “Recycling Santa” suggest a great deal of whimsy in the interpretation of a serious theme.
Besides the trees, the museum is mounting a Going Green exhibition with artworks such as Virginia Fleck’s colorful, wall-sized mandalas made from discarded plastic bags; stylized purses and tote bags made from candy wrappers, plastic grocery bags and drink pouches by Cara Taylor; a sculpture by Gordon Chandler in the shape of a deer made from recycled metal. An interactive component of Going Green permits visitors to hop on Pedal-A-Watt bicycles to power the lights on several of the trees.
The Festival of Trees kicks off with the museum’s Party of the Season on Friday, November 14, from 5:30 to 8 PM. Tickets are $45 for museum members; $55 for the general public and $60 at the door. RSVP: 413. 443.7171, ext. 10.
Festival of Trees at the Berkshire Museum (through January 4, 2009)
39 South Street, Pittsfield; 413.443.7171
Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM; Sunday noon - 5 PM
(Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days; closing early at 2 PM on Dec.24 and Dec. 31.)
Admission: $10 adults; $5 children (3 - 18); members $5/$3
Children under 3 are free.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/12/08 at 03:35 PM • Permalink
Stealing Beauty: the Olana Viewshed Tour
It’s like having a license to trespass on some of the most felicitously sited private properties on earth. On Saturday, November 1, friends and supporters of Olana, the Frederic Church historic site in Greenport, NY, will be permitted, thanks to the generous owners of twelve Olana-adjacent properties, onto private land that has the sorts of vistas that inspired Church, his mentor Thomas Cole, and the other painters of the Hudson River School. Participants will visit farms and estates, they’ll walk across meadows, climb hills, stroll along the edges of ponds and streams, and amble through orchards. And from nearly every vantage point, there will be spectacular views of the Hudson River and the Catskills in one direction, and, in another, glimpses of Olana, Church’s haute bohemian, Persian-inspired house and property.
Perhaps the most striking view of all, however, is from Olana’s own bell tower, which also will be open for current members to tour in the morning. Then, later in the day, there will be a sunset wine and hors d’oeuvres benefit reception in a restored barn on private property (below) within the Olana viewshed.
The point of all this snooping around, besides feeding our insatiable curiosity about how the lucky live? To raise money for the restoration of Olana’s artist-designed landscape, work that has really just begun. Not surprisingly, Church never thought of Olana as just the house. To the artist, the house and its 250-acre setting were one indivisible entity. Once designed, the house was quickly built; Church worked on the land from 1860 until his death in 1900.
But the tour has another purpose—to drum up sympathy for the very concept of “viewshed preservation,“ a modern notion spawned in California’s Napa Valley and later applied to the region surrounding Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson historic site in Virginia. Scenic Hudson, the crusading organization that spearheaded the Olana viewshed preservation movement, has, with assistance from the Columbia County Conservancy, thus far placed 1,248 acres under protection. The effort to protect Olana’s viewshed, as experts dub the natural environment surrounding a particular vantage point, is the most ambitious such project to date in the Northeast.
In the 19th century, when Church designed Olana and its surrounding landscape, he employed the Chinese concept of a “borrowed view,“ carefully manipulating plantings and vantage points to reveal and frame exceptional vistas of land, mountains, and, of course, the Hudson river. Thanks in part to this savvy manipulation of the assets at hand, Church’s 250-acre working farm has come to be regarded as a masterpiece, every bit as important as any of his paintings. Moreover, the paintings, and those of other Hudson River School artists, while long revered for their contribution to art history, are now also credited with inspiring the American Environmental Protection Movement. The idea that a majestic landscape is an irreplaceable national treasure, a vital resource for residents and visitors, was triggered and furthered by the wide public exposure of the Hudson River School paintings, each of which was eagerly anticipated, and most of which went on tour immediately upon completion to be granted rock-star-like receptions in cities across the U.S.
Olana Viewshed Tour
5720 Route 9G, Greenport; 518.828.1872 ext. 103
Saturday, November 1, 10 - 4
Tickets, maps and box lunches may be picked up on the day of the tour at the Wagon House Education Center at Olana
Viewshed tour only, $50 non-members; $40, members
Benefit party only, $100 non-members; $75 members
Tour and benefit, $150 non-members/ $100 members
Free bell tower tour for members only
Boxed lunches: $15
Memberships: $40 - $100
To receive members’ discounts, advance reservations are required, as they are for the bell tower tour and for all who wish to buy box lunches and/or attend the benefit.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/27/08 at 08:44 AM • Permalink
Old Houses, New Life: The Ancram Historic House Tour
Ancram is one of those off-the-beaten track towns that feels more remote than it actually is. For the most part, the residents like it that way, but they are also fiercely proud of their community’s history which dates back to pre-Revolutionary days when it was home to the Ancram iron forge. To ensure that the town’s historic character is not lost by development or neglect, a group of locals founded the Ancram Preservation Group eight years ago because they believe “that a significant part of the community’s identity is embodied in its historical structures which serve as a living testament to the shared heritage of this community, and whose sense of ‘place’ is dependent upon maintaining the physical fabric of its past.“
To support their work, the group is sponsoring the Ancram Historic House Tour this Saturday and encouraging outsiders to discover the town’s many charms. The five residences include a hilltop Georgian built by a Revolutionary War Captain that has virtually all of its original details, including 12-over-12 windows and wide-board floors; an 1851 Greek Revival farmhouse owned by two artists who have given it their own distinctive spin; a late 19th century farmhouse that has been updated with a new kitchen featuring an AGA hearth; a 1790 house that has a painting and sculpture studio added by the current owner, an artist; an 1850 Greek Revival that was Victorianized in the late 1800s, which has a matching guest house built by the current owners.
The tour is meant to be a social occasion, too, and there’s a wine-and-cheese reception afterwards at Simon’s General Store from 4 - 5:30.
Ancram Preservation Tour
October 25, 2008; noon - 4 PM
Tour and reception, Non-members: $45
Tour and reception, Members: $40
Tour only, Non-members: $35
Tour only, Members: $30
To reserve tickets: 518.398.6435
Tickets available at the Ancram Town Hall after 11 AM on October 25; the town hall is at 1416 County Route 7, one-quarter mile north of the blinking light at the intersection with Route 82.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 10/22/08 at 09:05 AM • Permalink
Well, Boo to You, Too!
Let’s hear it for Halloween falling on a Friday!! This year the calendar gets it right for trick-or-treaters. But the era of the one-night-only Halloween is clearly behind us. The season kicks off on Saturday, October 25 and continues through Saturday, November 1, with Halloween-related events in our region for chill-seekers of every age and persuasion.
Friday, October 24
Frankenstein’s Fortress
This coming weekend and next are the last opportunities this season to visit Frankenstein’s Fortress, a unique and fiendishly clever October-only Stanford NY theme park, now in its 10th season. The creation of Washington, CT-native Pete Wing, Frankenstein’s Fortress is a spooky ghost town with a haunted mansion, a crypt, a rickety bridge, and an asylum (would that every town still had one), all brilliantly fashioned by Wing from castoffs he personally gleaned from the town dump. Actors wearing scarey costumes and lots of bizarre make-up will thrill some kids and scare the bejeezes out of others. There are no refunds, so try to anticipate how much your tyke can take.
Frankenstein’s Fortress
86 Creamery Road, Stanfordville; 845.868.7782
Friday & Saturday, October 24 & 25; 6:30 - 9:30
Sunday, October 26, 6:30 - 8:30
Friday, October 31 & Saturday, November 1; 6:30 - 9:30
Admission: $14; $5/children under 10
Closes if it rains; if questionable, call first.
Legends by Candlelight Spook Tours
Sunny, breezy Clermont, the ancestral Livingston mansion so many of us know and love by day is transformed into a shadowy historic haunt on these October nights, when the skeletons come out of the closet. Staff members dress up as the ghosts of Livingstons past, each from a different generation. Visitors tour the house by candlelight and get a solid history lesson cloaked in rustling satin. There are even a couple of historically accurate death scenes, including one in which a Livingston hostess of yore raises a glass to toast her guests and abruptly cools. Talk about awkward.
Clermont State Historic Site
1 Clermont Avenue, Germantown; 518.537.4240
October 24 & 25; 6 - 7:30
Admission: $10/adults; $5/children.
Reservations required.
Saturday, October 25
Spooky Tour of Mass MoCA
The littlest members of Mass MoCA are invited to gather this Saturday at noon, in full regalia, if they like, for a Halloween-themed tour of the galleries and an opportunity to make some Halloween crafts. Afterward, there will be cider and donuts. The only glitch: it’s for members only, so why not take this opportunity to join.
Mass MoCA
1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams
Reservations recommended; 413.664.4481 x8112 or e-mail
Hallowine Celebration
The DeVito Family of the Hudson-Chatham Winery have a special regard for Halloween. Saturday grown-ups can enjoy a glass of “witch’s brew,” and anyone, regardless of age, who shows up in costume qualifies for a special treat.
Hudson-Chatham Winery, 1900 Route 66, Ghent; 518.392.2598
Saturday, October 25, 11 – 5
Monday, October 27
Para-normalcy
See what we mean about the DeVitos? To get us into the “spirit” of the season, they’ve invited Stephen Wagner, a.k.a. the “Ghost Man” of New York, to give a talk at the winery about the world of ghosts, anomalies, strange creatures, ESP, EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena!?) and other unexplained weirdness. Wagner, a writer, editor, and tireless delver into matters paranormal, is a member of the Central New York Ghost Hunters.
Hudson-Chatham Winery, 1900 Route 66, Ghent; 518.392.2598
Monday, October 27, 6 - 8
Admission/$20, includes two glasses of wine, cheese and crackers, and the lecture
Reservations required
Friday, October 31
Darrell Pucciarellos’ Ballet Metropolis Production of Dracula
The Gothic allure of a Transylvanian castle starts in the lobby of the Colonial Theatre, where Berkshire County native Carl Sprague, a renowned stage and film set-designer (Martin Scorcese’s The Age of Innocence, Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tanenbaums), sets a fearful-yet-fascinating scene that continues right through to the stage. Dracula, a ballet in two acts created by director-choreographer Darrell Pucciarello, with a haunting score by David Edwards, promises to be a fascinating family Halloween experience.
The Colonial Theatre
111 South Street; 413.997.4444
Regular performances Friday, October 31 at 8; Saturday, November 1 at 2
Tickets $15 - $25
Gala benefit performance November 1 at 8
Tickets: $50 & $125
Ticket purchase by phone, on-line or in person at the theater office, open Monday - Friday 10 - 5; Saturday 10 - 2
P.M. Party
Are you a Good Witch, like Glenda? Or a Bad Bitch, like that Wicked One from the North? On Halloween at their stylish tapas and wine bar, P.M.‘s co-owners Mario Pollan and Kevin Moran will host their first annual Witch/Bitch Party. Costumes (expect a lot of Tina Fey impersonators) are encouraged and, from 5 to 9, for a cover charge, there will be snacks, beer, and select wines. After 9, it’s business as usual.
P.M. Wine Bar
119 Warren Street, Hudson; 518.828.2833
Friday, October 31, 5 – 9
Cover charge $25
An Enchanted Evening
Cafe Latino at Mass MoCA is hosting a dance party with DJ Joel Fever. The Enchanted Evening theme (think: eerie forest) will be carried out by the costumed staff, a full-size taxidermy bear, and a special drink called Bear’s Brew.
Cafe Latino
1111 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams; 413.662.2004
Friday, October 31; doors open at 9 PM
Cover charge $4
21 and over only
Saturday, November 1
Chatham’s 2nd Annual (Day After) Halloween Celebration
The only drawback to Halloween falling on a Friday is that, apart from the assiduous pursuit of high blood sugar and tooth decay, the rest of the weekend can be kind of a let-down. So the spooky-yet-charming town of Chatham has come to the rescue with its second annual all-day celebration, which this year falls on Saturday, November 1. For little ones, there will be games, crafts, entertainment, balloons, and lots more fodder for those goody bags. For grown-ups, there’s a wine-tasting at Chatham Liquors and, of course, lots of places to browse and eat. Best part, all of the activities below are free.
10
Scavenger Hunt for Kids - Pick up your checklist at Warm Ewe and Cow Jones Industrials. Top ten scores win a prize!
10 - 5
Warm Ewe -Guess the number of candy corns. Prize awarded for the best guess.
12 - 3
American Pie -Face Painting
12 -4
Chatham Makes Sense - Supernatural Animal Flags. Kids choose and color a decorative flag featuring their favorite supernatural hero: Garuda, Dragon, Tiger or Snow Lion.
12 - 4
Cow Jones Industrials - Kids, slide your hand inside our big box filled with assorted materials. The first treasure you find you keep!
12 - 4
Clocktower Toys - Body Tattoos
12 - 6
Chatham Wine & Liquor - Wine and cheese tasting (just for adults)
2 - 4
R.H. Van Alstyne Fine Jewelry - Fortune teller (Please bring a donation for the food pantry)
4 - 6
Chocolate Moose - Holiday crafts
Psst: Here’s who’s giving out free treats: Banner Clothing, Main Street Grainery, groovi, Chatham Book Store, Warm Ewe, Native Clay, Chatham Kids/Welcome Home, and Hudson-Chatham Winery will be giving out free balloons in front of Clocktower Toys.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/21/08 at 01:28 PM • Permalink
The New York State Sheep & Wool Festival
A few years ago, a friend of mine bought a 200-year-old manor house near the Hudson River with an impenetrable, overgrown meadow, and he decided that keeping goats might be the most efficient, ecological and economical way to clear and maintain the land. He knew nothing about goats so he persuaded me to accompany him to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which was as entertaining as it was educational. We toured the livestock area and met dozens of people who raise goats, and they were all full of tips about fencing, shearing and milking. So were the sheep owners and breeders who were justifiably proud of their beautiful animals that often had exotic pedigrees. “Are you looking for a fiber animal?“ the exhibitors would say, making me aware of the distinction between animals raised only for their wool and those raised for food.
If you’ve been mulling the idea of getting some sheep to maintain your lawn and up your rural cred, the Sheep and Wool Festival is a must. You can find lots off folks who’ll advise you on what type of fences and outbuildings you’ll need and how to keep the animals’ water troughs from freezing during the winter. At the festival, my friend learned the he’d also have to get two gigantic Great Pyrenees to guard the Shetland sheep he was coveting. Apparently, coyotes like to dine on lamb.
Even if you have no interest in keeping livestock, the festival makes for a wonderful outing; it’s part petting zoo and part holiday bazaar. If you knit, you can find skeins of every imaginable type of wool from suppliers like Red Hook’s Hudson Valley Sheep and Wool, and you can attend workshops in spinning and felt-making. And if you’re planning ahead for the holidays, you can buy handmade gifts like fingerless mittens from Tivoli’s Year of the Goat. And If you’re bringing children, the organizers suggest that the sheep dog trials, leaping lama contest, and the canine Frisbee Demonstration will equally amuse the kids and adults.
New York State Sheep and Wool Festival
Dutchess County Fairgrounds
Rhinebeck, NY; 845,756.2323
October 18, 9AM - 6PM
October 19, 10AM - 5PM
Admission: $10 (Two-day pass: $15)
Children under 12: Free
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 10/13/08 at 03:52 PM • Permalink
Historic Hudson Offers a Tour of. . .Claverack?
Before the town we now know as Hudson, New York was formed, the area by the river was called Claverack Landing, and it was a whaling port teeming with sailors and sin. Fortunately, all this lurid conduct took place at a seemly remove from the respectable town of Claverack proper, an early Dutch settlement that by the 18th century was already well-established and prosperous.
This 200-hundred-year-old connection between the two, long-separated municipalities is Historic Hudson’s justification for holding its 3rd annual Old House Tour this Saturday, October 18, in Claverack. Any organization with a stake in history can be forgiven for using any excuse to offer up the old houses of Claverack, which are among the most distinguished in our region. Happily, many of the best, including the Dr. William Bay house (circa 1780, pictured above) on the main street (Route 23B), will be on the tour.
Many house tours promise historic significance; this one delivers. Of the eight structures on tour, six were built in the 18th century, and of the later ones, Brookbound (right), a second Empire manor, is the “newest,“ having been completed in 1878. Others include the Cornelius Miller House, a Dutch-style brick house built in 1767; the Stephen Hogeboom house, a Georgian house built in 1784 and refitted in 1854 in the Greek Revival style; and Miller’s Crossing, an Adam-style Federal house constructed in 1818. Docents at each property will provide color and context.
For diehards whose appetite for historic structures is still not sated even after eight properties (or who simply wish to show additional support for Historic Hudson’s many worthy projects, including preservation of the Plumb-Bronson house on the grounds of the Hudson Correctional Facility), the day ends with a benefit reception at Talavera, a Clavarack country property known to many apple-picking enthusiasts as the house at Philip Orchards. As recently noted in Rural Intelligence, this house has been passed down, barely changed since its completion in 1816, through generations of the family that built it. Portraits of forebears adorn faded but stain-free walls last papered, for all appearances, in the 1940s. It is a rare privilege to be permitted inside.
Historic Hudson Old House Tour & Benefit
Saturday, October 18, 10 - 5; benefit 6 - 8; 518.828.1785
Tickets and maps: Reformed Dutch Church, Route 9H (north of Rte. 23), Claverack.
Admission: tour, $35; benefit, $60.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/13/08 at 09:32 AM • Permalink
Cornwall House Tour Spans Four Centuries
There’s a difference between impressive houses and important ones, and the 9th annual Cornwall House Tour has both, None of the five residences on this year’s tour are ordinary: They include a 1950s Fieldstone cottage connected to a corn crib and barn, which the owners describe as a “mutt of a house”; two homes with cores that date to the 1700s but have been added onto in all directions over the years; and an eight-year-house with a restrained Arts & Crafts interior that references the farmhouses of both old New England and Martha’s Vineyard.
The most “important” house is the one designed in 1974 by architect Peter Bohlin for his parents. (Many of the great architects of his generation designed houses for their parents at the beginning of their careers as documented in A House For My Mother by Beth Dunlop.) Featured in The New York Times Magazine in 1976—“At Once A Rugged Cabin and A Glass Box” read the headline—the house was hailed for its relationship to its woodsy site and for incorporating “simple, often industrial materials in carefully thought-out, often subtle juxtaposition with one another.“ Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote that Bohlin’s “work has a modesty and a concern with the idea of comfort—with the ‘making of a pleasant place,‘ as he puts it—that sets it apart.“ Bohlin has continued to set himself apart, and his firm, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, was part of the team that designed Bill Gates famous house in Medina, Washington, which has a similar relationship to nature as the seminal Cornwall house.
Just as important is the work of the Cornwall Housing Corporation, which benefits from the House Tour. Founded in 1988, the Cornwall Housing Corporation provides affordable rental housing and leased parcels of land for building first homes as well as emergency rental assistance.
Cornwall House Tour
Tickets $35
Available at the Cornwall Package Store in Cornwall Bridge (860.672.6645) or The Wish House in West Cornwall (860.672.2969)
Information:
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 10/07/08 at 12:35 PM • Permalink
Harvest Festivals Across the Region
Dowtown Salisbury last fall; photo by Pamela Wyeth
Is Columbus Day Weekend our Mardi Gras, the final fling before the serious business of preparing for winter? This peak-leaf weekend offers many ways to spend all-day outdoors, surrounded by golden foliage. Whether you are searching for homespun hospitality or something grander, here are some of your options in three states:
Hawthorne Valley Farm Fall Festival
A Harvest Parade, children’s games, crafts, farmers’ market, live-wolf and birds-of-prey presentations, puppet shows, hay rides.
327 Route 21C, Harlemville; 518.672.7092
Saturday, October 11
10:30 AM - 4 PM
53rd Annual Salisbury Fall Festival
In the twin villages of Salisbury and Lakeville, every church (Orthodox, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Methodist) participates in this harvest festival, along with local merchants and the Scoville Library. There are pancake breakfasts, rummage sales, book sales, a chili cook-off, a scarecrow contest, live music, and hay rides for the kids. On Saturday evening, there’s also Lakeville Gallery Night with openings at Argazzi Art, Morgan Lehman and The White Gallery,
Route 44, Salisbury, CT: 860.435.0051
October 10 - 12
The Berkshire Coaching Weekend
In case you never realized that Lenox and Stockbridge have been grand resort towns for more than a century, the two communities’ Chambers of Commerce have gotten together to produce a weekend that celebrates that history. Horse-drawn carriages will pass through Stockbridge and Lenox this weekend, and they can be viewed up close at noon on Saturday, October 11, at Shakespeare & Company, on Sunday, October 12, at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and on Monday, October 13, at The Mount.
October 11 - 13
Looking Glass Garden’s Octoberfest
A benefit for the Sandisfield Fire & Ambulance Department, this one-day festival, on Sunday, promises pumpkin carving, hay rides, live music, and face painting.
October 12
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/06/08 at 10:17 AM • Permalink
The Granddaddy of All Harvest Festivals
Breathes there a man, woman, or child with soul so dead that he/she hasn’t always secretly wanted to take a ride in a cherry picker? Now’s your chance.
Ever since 1935, mid-Great Depression, the Berkshire Botanical Garden has rallied its neighbors and supporters each October to celebrate the season at the Berkshire Harvest Festival. This plucky little Oktoberfest, one of the nation’s oldest, has endured through good times and bad because, ultimately, no matter what else is going on, a man’s gotta have his ration of fried dough, a woman’s gotta rummage for bargains, and little kids have gotta have all manner of fun. Last year, over 15,000 people turned out.
This year, as always, besides cherry-picker rides, there will be traditional crafts demonstrations and live music, including the Berkshire Ramblers led by WAMC’s host Alan Chartock and a Sunday morning Gospel by Higher Help. There will be BBQ chicken and smoked ribs, and if that’s a little too 1935 for your taste, there will also be panini and samosa. Berkshire Grown will be on hand to make sure you eat your vegetables, and the Housatonic Valley Art League will have all sorts of uplifting things for you to look at and buy. If you are feeling lucky, place a silent auction bid for an evening at the opera, back stage passes to numerous concerts, a teak garden lounger, or a vacation in Mexico, to name but a few of the offerings.
So, this weekend, place a clamp on the old misery drip (CNCB, CNN, Fox News, etc.) and head over to Stockbridge, where, for a few hours, at least, you and yours can forget your troubles and indulge in a little innocent, inexpensive fun.
74th Annual Berkshire Harvest Festival
Berkshire Botanical Garden
Rtes 183 & 102, Stockbridge, 413.298.3926
Saturday & Sunday, October 4 & 5, 10 – 5
Silent auction bidding: Saturday only, 10 - 3
Admission: $10.00 per vehicle (no pets) .
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/01/08 at 03:02 PM • Permalink
A Fall Foliage Drive: Millerton to Hudson, NY (or Vice Versa)
Not all scenic drives are created equal, and this bucolic 30-mile jaunt delivers enough smiles per gallon to justify the gasoline you'll use. The route, which connects Millerton and Hudson, NY, is not only an insider's short cut between the two towns, but also a reminder that local agriculture is the key to preserving the rural landscape. Though we started our drive in Millerton the other day and ended at Olana, you can just as easily do this trip in reverse, concluding at the Harney Tea Salon. 
The route is a rural cliché in the best sense, and along the way you can buy pumpkins and gourds, pick apples, shop for penny candy as well as the last tomatoes and the peaches of the season. You can even pick fall raspberries which, for some reason, are so much tastier then the ones you get in early summer. Most of all, you can revel in the vistas and fall foliage and marvel that we reside in such an unspoiled land.
Begin at the interesction of Route 44 and Route 22 in Millerton, and head north on 22, and make your first left onto Route 60 (aka Winchell Mountain Road.) When you reach the peak of the hill, there will be a cemetery on your left; make a right on Pulver Road, passing farmland and a panormanic view of the Catskill Mountains. Make a left at the fork onto County Route Route 60, which brings you into Ancramdale. If you need coffee and a muffin, stop at the Farmers’s Wife. Continue straight ahead on 82, which becomes Route 23 when you cross Route 9, continuing on until you reach Route 9G. Turn left onto 9G just before the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.
Millerhurst Gardens.
This farm offers more than just the perfect photo op for family pictures. The pumpkins and gourds here are in pristine condition and they are exceedingly well-priced with extra large pumpkins you can barely lift at just $10 each.
3201 Rte 82, Ancram; 518.329.2280
Thompson Finch Farm
The farm’s sign on Route 82 is down, but Thompson-Finch is not hard to find; it’s the second right, Wiltsie Bridge Road, after you pass through Ancram. As of Wednesday, October 1, you could still pick organic raspberries on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but call first to double check availability.
750 Wiltsie Bridge Road, Ancram; 518.329.7578
Bottle Tree
If you take a quick detour onto Route 7 at the blinking light in Ancram, you will pass the Ancram Opera House soon come to the Bottle Tree restaurant, a former grocery, which has a cult following. The redoubtable Joan Osofsky of Hammertown Barn calls it the best brunch ever. Reserve ahead.
1415 County Route 7, Ancram
518.329.0444
The West Taghinac Diner
Whether it’s early or late in the day, this vintage 1953 diner is always spotless and welcoming with comfort food like tuna melts and french fries. It’s not hyperbole to say this is as all-American as it gets (which includes the Mexican fiestas every Saturday!)
Route 82 and the Taconic Parkway, Ancram
518.851.7117
Taconic Orchards 
If you’re impulse is to bypass any place that looks like it was designed to appeal to tourists, you’ll drive right by the yellow barn that resembles a set director’s conception of a country store that you’d come upon on a Sunday drive in Columbia County. It’s exactly what you suspect, and Taconic Orchards has the aw-shucks feel of an old-time general store with jars of penny candy and boxes of late season tomatoes.
591 Route 82 Hudson; 518.851.7477
Fix Brothers Fruit Farm
Just past the entrance to Olana, you will see a sign for “Fix Bros Pick Your Own Apples.“ Follow the arrows and you’ll pass acres and acres of orchards. This fourth generation family farm has a wide variety of apples—including Macintosh, Cortland, Honey Crisp, Empire, Macoun & Jonagold. When you pick your own, all varieties are 80 cents a pound. 215 White Birch Road, Hudson; 518.828-7560
Olana
If you want to tour the inside of the fantastical 19th century Persian-style house, you have to call in advance and make a reservation. The owner and creator of Olana, the revered artist Frederick Church, created a landscape that makes the most of its hilltop setting and the view down the Hudson looks like one of his famous paintings. It’s a magnficent vista any time of day, but never more so than just before sunset. Route 9G, Hudson; 518.828.0135
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