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Summer is not too far off!

January 30th, 2009
Filed under: Books, Farms, Hudson River Valley Farms, Newsletters 

Fresh shorn Alpaca

Ain't he cute?

A face any mother can love!  I had the great good fortune this past season to photograph 44 farms in the Hudson Valley, stretching from the Stone Barns Center in Westchester on up to the Goold Orchards south of Albany, over to Hull-O Farm in the northern Catskills and back down the west side of the river to the historic Dr. Davies Farm south of the Tappan Zee Bridge in Congers. This pretty fellow is not ET’s hairy cousin, rather he is an alpaca, a denizen of Spruce Ridge Farm in Old Chatham, NY. He had recently been shorn, so his coat looks short and patterned from the clippers used to trim his soft locks. Here’s a friend of his.

Alpaca
Alpacas are very inquisitive and friendly

I got to see and photograph all kinds of animals and produce, from funny little round yellow zucchinis at Wigsten Farm to the gorgeous greens that Hawthorne Valley Farm sells at the NYC Greenmarket and the Catskill Mountain Foundation farm grows well into December in their greenhouses high in the Catskills. Here’s a collage of some of the produce images.

Yes, that is a swarm of honey bees in the center of the top row! Otherwise these are from left to right, top to bottom: red tomatoes, bees, salad greens, zucchini, impatiens (pre-bloom), radishes, blueberries, coffee and yellow tomatoes.
I was also able to make images of the incredible and hard working people who bring this wonderful food to our tables and into our lives. Every farmer I met welcomed me onto their land and graciously allowed me to capture these images. Some have been there for generations, others are pioneering. Cheryl Rogowski, shown here, is the second generation of her family to farm the incredible super-rich black dirt of Orange County, where she volunteers for more local organizations than some of us have fingers and toes.  Cheryl is a Macarthur “Genius Award” winner which makes her a bit atypical of the farmers I met, but she is certainly not unusual in her commitment to her land and to providing her customers with high quality produce.
The book, called Hudson River Valley Farms will be published later this year (Globe Pequot has the honors for this one), most likely late in the summer, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s sail up the river.