News

Community

Dan’s Diary: Yes, the New Yorker

What are the chances that you would come across three residents of our region within a six-page stretch of a single issue of The New Yorker? In the January 26 issue, there is commodities trader Jim Sinclair of Sharon, CT, quoted in Ben McGrath's story on doomsayers, "

By Editor

Food

Local 111 Among Top 25 Farm-to-Table Restaurants in U.S.

There it is in the pages of the February 2009 issue  (and on the website, naturally) of Best Life, a men's magazine from Rodale Press, our own Local 111 in Philmont, cited by a blue-ribbon jury as one of the top 25 farm-to-table restaurants in the United States.

By Editor

Food

Cooking With Chef Jeff

Fresh from a working vacation in Nice, caterer Jeff Loshinsky [that's him, in the white jacket, in the market there] is bursting with new techniques and recipes he wants to share.  "Nice has one of the best markets, Cours Saleya, in the world," he says. "

By Editor

Community

Is There A Humane Way to Kill Mice?

I wasn't feeling particularly pleased with myself the other day when I found dead mice in both my garage and in the cupboard over my refrigerator.  I was feeling guilty. I have heard people talk about humanely getting rid of mice, but I wondered if that is just

By Editor

Community

Powerless: Ten Lessons Brought Home by the Ice Storm

For many of us, the morning of Friday, December 11, dawned dark indeed.  After a night of freezing rain, every twig and branch on every tree was heavy with ice, which was both eerily beautiful and spectacularly destructive.  Top-heavy trees fell on power lines, leaving thousands of households in our

By Editor

Food

Best 2009 Calendar: The Hunky Farmers of Columbia County

A posh New York City caterer, Great Performances, is selling a calendar the profits from which benefit two worthy causes neither of which is headquartered in our region.  And we care about this because…? Well, for starters, the photographs that illustrate Down to Earth 2009 are of the farms and

By Editor

Community

Community: How To Think About How To Give

The mailbox is full not only with greeting cards but solicitation letters from worthy charities of every imaginable sort. Giving to the local volunteer fire department and library is a no-brainer, but how do you effectively make donations that are meaningful to you and your neighbors as well as helping

By Editor

Community

The Inauguration: The Next Best Thing to Being There

On January 20, 2009,  three million people—no wait, make that five million people, or is it ten million?  Anyway, as many people as can possibly squeeze in are expected to turn up in Washington, D.C. to bear witness as President-Elect Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the

By Editor

Community

Community: The Many Ways of Giving to Food Banks & Pantries

Hunger is the last thing anyone reading this is likely to suffer this week, as we overeat our way through Thanksgiving, the kick-off of the caloric bonanza that lies in the month ahead.  Or, if we do "suffer," it's from good hunger, the kind that'

By Editor

Food

The Farmer's in the Kitchen and the Chef's in the Dell

For the sort of people (you know who you are) who secretly long to burst the barricades and invade the kitchens at restaurants, Columbia County Bounty is offering the next best thing: a tour of chefs' kitchens, complete with demonstrations.  On Wednesday, November 12 at noon, their Farm-to-Chef Tour

By Editor

Community

Early Voting, An Option?

For registered voters who at the last minute find it impossible to vote locally on Election Day, options vary state-to-state.  Alas, Connecticut voters with a last-minute change of plans are out of luck unless they had the foresight to apply for an absentee ballot. In Massachusetts "absentee in person&

By Editor

Food

Flatiron Steak House Opens in Red Hook

Flatiron Steak House in Red Hook

By Lisa Green