Lifestyle

From parades to art exhibits and maskerade roller disco for youth, here's a handful of events to celebrate Pride Month throughout the Hudson Valley.

In the summer of 2019, Liz Glover Wilson had just opened the second location of her burgeoning Gardiner yoga studio and wellness campus, Stone Wave Yoga, in Poughkeepsie. Like so many other small business owners in the Hudson Valley, she had no way of knowing that only months later her entire business would fundamentally change. With the pandemic’s economic and personal challenges constantly at her door, however, yoga remained the one thing that Glover Wilson knew she could count on. “A lot of the students who stayed with us this last year are hungry to learn more about the yoga tool kit because they’re seeing that it really does work,” she says.

The Winnakee Land Trust opened Vlei Marsh to the public on June 1, a 165-acre nature preserve that is Rhinebeck’s second largest wetland area. Multi-looped, newly upgraded trails at Vlei Marsh take visitors through both wetland and forest, home to scores of mammals, amphibians, and birds. A 30-year-old accredited land trust and nonprofit, the WLT focuses on protecting and stewarding forests, farmland, natural habitats, and water resources from development, for both ecological health and community enjoyment. They have expanded into acquiring and maintaining land in the Hudson Valley in the past few years.

Just about an hour from Manhattan or Kingston is picturesque Putnam County, a slice of the Hudson Valley with a personality all its own. Whether you’re looking for a day trip out of New York City or you’re a local out to enjoy the surrounding area, this jewel of a county boasts plenty of the region’s rustic appeal—from outdoor fun to dining, nightlife, shopping, and more—that are sure to keep you coming back to stay a while. Want to explore it for yourself? Here are six activities that will give you a taste of what Putnam County has to offer this summer.

Ritualist, a "modern witch shop" per owner Dana Cooper, is newly open in New Paltz. They carry tools for healing and magic making, which can be divinations and spells or simply connecting with one's inner power––you get to choose. Inside you can find apothecary goods, herbal tinctures, altar candles, journals, tarot decks, and houseplants. Ritualist stocks products almost exclusively by small and independent brands and makers, and is committed to making every customer feel welcome, in part by offering products made by creators in the POC and LGBTQ+ communities. Sustainability is also top of mind for Ritualist, as is equity: they donate 10% of monthly revenue to an organization that uplifts marginalized communities.

The pandemic changed everything: businesses closed, schools shut down, unemployment surged, hundreds of thousands of Americans died. Almost everything we did happened at home for some if not most of a full calendar year, from working to recreating and shopping. At first, it seemed like Big Box stores and corporate titans would be the last businesses left standing when the dust settled. But it soon became clear that amid the widespread devastation, isolation, and destruction of the pandemic, people were craving more humanity and care than those behemoths could deliver. Amid economic challenges and social movements that focused attention on overlooked artisans and creators, it seemed people also wanted to support individual creatives, for a variety of reasons. Creatives responded, in a word, creatively. We reached out to a variety of makers and markets to hear how they pivoted and fared. Please read on for the insights and experiences. Solitary Creatives The past year clarified a lot for both creators and customers who seek out their wares. From soap and candle makers to jewelers and sculptors, makers found that across the board, the public wanted to buy what they were selling. “I was very surprised at how much people were suddenly spending on my work,” says Alexis Tellefsen, the artist behind the popular small-batch ceramics tableware brand Tellefsen Atelier in Middletown. “We were open for a year prior to the pandemic, and I spent a lot of my time at that point creating work, but also teaching workshops and selling at markets. I sold the vast majority of my work at markets and festivals.” Once the pandemic hit, Tellefsen pivoted completely online, and had enough wholesale clients to keep her afloat until she got into the e-commerce groove. “I have been so lucky,” she says. “My sales have actually grown, and I plan to continue working in the way that I have been. I devote all of my energy to creating for a few months, then I put all of my work for sale, it sells out in a month or two, then I got back to creating. The community of makers I’ve found online has also been incredible, and we all take care of each other, promote each other’s work and check in on each other to make sure we’re not burning out.” Sara Golden, the designer behind Sara Golden Jewelry in the Catskills, also notes that the surge of interest in her work has been surprising and extraordinarily gratifying. “Before the pandemic, most of my sales were made doing markets, especially during the summer,” Golden says. “I’d spend most of my time traveling around the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn, but I did have wholesale relationships as well. When everything shut down, I knew I had to shift everything online, but I was definitely nervous about the impact it would have, knowing that people were going to be struggling financially, and probably not looking to buy jewelry.” But after she migrated her sales channels online, the long, slow decline she was expecting never came to fruition, although she acknowledges her business was impacted somewhat, especially at first. “I found that people were actually buying my more expensive pieces,” she says. While stimulus checks likely played a role for some, offering the still-employed a new influx of expendable income, cash to burn was not the only thing driving sales. “It seems that people really want to make a connection with the person behind a brand,” Golden says. “They want to invest in quality jewelry that will withstand the test of time.” Golden turned down summer markets, planning to return to in-person markets in September, when she projects that even children will be vaccinated. Other makers, like Alysia Mazzella, a Newburgh candlemaker, are equal parts hesitant and excited to return to in-person events. “There are a couple of markets I love to participate in and am excited to return to, but I don’t see myself participating in as many as I have in the past,” she says, explaining that she has used this time to ramp up her online sales presence. “My beeswax candles are first and foremost rooted in function: to hold time and give clean, long-burning nightlight. New customers saw quarantine as a wake-up call to that thing they’ve always said they would do. Especially in relation to slowing down and being more disciplined about free time.” New Purpose In response to the reset, some makers have used the pandemic as an opportunity to not just explore new sales channels, but transform their businesses. “When COVID hit, we shut down our office, because we didn’t want to endanger our employees,” says Bill Hovard, managing director and founder of Hudson Made. “But as a soap company, I felt like we had to do something. I had this enormous inventory, so I decided to create a promotion where for every bar I sold, I’d donate one to a charitable organization or medical group.” To fund the initiative, Hudson Made essentially stopped advertising. The response has been so positive—incredibly, sales are up about 25 percent, year-over-year—Hovard plans to continue the promotion even when things return to “normal.” He also decided to buy a historic building at 354 Main Street in the Village of Otego, and move the production and retail operation from Andes. “It’s a gorgeous space, and while I don’t think it will change in-person sales numbers, because of its size, we’ll be able to essentially use it as a retail store and an open studio,” Hovard explains. “We see it as a way to celebrate not just Hudson Made but the creative community in general.” Group Festivals and Markets While individual makers relied on a patchwork of in-person events for the vast majority of their sales, the events themselves depended on them completely. “Before the pandemic, our business had just come off a record year,” says Brad Ford, founder of Field + Supply. The craft fair hosts two annual markets at the Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, pulling together between 180 and 200 individual vendors producing everything from furniture and home accessories to apothecary, pantry items and fashion. “Honestly, we hoped we could still do our big Memorial Day market, but by April, we realized we had to pivot to virtual.” Ford, who sees Field + Supply as a business that helps a lot of small businesses run, decided to if not replicate the in-person experience online, at least deliver a true, immersive experience. “We launched the site in July, and in addition to our usual curated shopping experience, we included a playlist, recipes from chefs and producers we work with, a field guide to safe in-person shopping, and places to stay in the Hudson Valley during COVID.” But without the income from vendor participation fees and sponsorships, Field & Supply has been hit hard. “Thankfully, we are emerging from this, and we’ve launched a Field + Supply pop-up at ABC Carpet & Home, which has done very well,” Ford says. “Until the Fall, when we anticipate that we will be completely back, we’ll be doing other pop-ups across the state. The one we’re really looking forward to will happen on Sundays this summer in Kingston.” He’s referring to F+S Mini MRKTs, a scaled-down version of their biannual fair that will feature a selection of Field+Supply makers, artisans, and designers at the corner of Crown & John Street on select Sundays this summer. The F+S Mini Markets will be open from 10am-4pm on May 30, June 20, July 4,  August 1,  August 15, and September 5. A Fixed Existence The nomadic Phoenicia Flea, a Hudson Valley mainstay that blossomed into a national market movement spearheaded by James Anthony, was also initially devastated—but then transformed—by the changes the pandemic brought. “The entire season was canceled, which didn’t just affect the Phoenicia Flea, but the markets that we created out west in recent years, with the Mojave Flea, the Fog City Flea, the Southern Flea,” he says. “And while I saw a lot of people pivoting to the digital space and succeeding there, I wasn’t personally interested.” Then, Anthony got a call from a property in Palm Springs, with 14 little shops in one building. There was a huge parking lot, and enough room inside to recreate the concept of the Flea, while maintaining social distancing. “The Shops was extraordinarily successful, and we were able to bring in individual makers we worked with, including Highlands Foundry and the Village Common in the Hudson Valley, and people really responded,” he says. “I feel like the pandemic has reminded people to focus on meaningful things, and that includes art and crafts, handmade objects. We all now realize how fragile everything is.” He is ready to re-introduce the Phoenicia Flea to the Hudson Valley, starting on July 3, for a weekend at the Catskill Brewery. Other events will follow around the Valley, and in the meantime, he’s looking for a permanent, sprawling brick and mortar in the Valley, so that the Flea experience can be year-round here, as it is in Palm Springs. Online Marketplaces Digital spaces devoted to local makers have flourished, in what creators see as a boon for all. Silda Wall Spitzer, founder of the curated online marketplace New York Makers and Silda’s Jam Team, says she saw the community of creators kick into high gear in response to the pandemic, creating masks for hospital workers and everyone else amid a shortage, holding virtual workshops, and strengthening their social media and e-commerce skills. The public responded, she says. (Full disclosure: I write for New York Makers’ publishing arm). “The importance of small, local makers and sustainable community seemed to resonate with customers in a new, more powerful way,” Spitzer explains. “Many of our makers had their best holiday seasons to-date, even without the opportunity to participate in markets—an amazing outcome of such a challenging year!” Tom Jacoby, a publisher of Edible Manhattan, Edible Brooklyn, and Edible Hudson Valley, was born in Columbia County, and has seen the Hudson Valley go through multiple booms and busts. But one thing that remains steady is the residents’ love of local. “I knew through our magazines how connected people feel to local producers, and my team and I realized that there was an opportunity to link them, not just through information, but commerce,” he says, describing the founding ethos of Doorstep Market, which launched mid-pandemic. Jacoby and his team have gathered 1,500 hand-picked makers in five markets (the Hudson Valley, New England, South X Southeast, CA Southland, the Bay Area), making their products, stories, and visions accessible to anyone. The products run the gamut from health and wellness to food, fashion, and home, and all transactions are made through the site (except for CBD and alcohol, where they are directed to the producer) and fulfilled by the producer. “We wanted to give people a way to create personal relationships with makers, and help makers find a wider audience,” Jacoby says. “In many ways, what we’re doing is providing people with the small-scale retail shops that were displaced by Big Box stores. It just happens to be online.” Artists are, by nature and definition, adaptable, solutions-oriented and creative. But all of the creativity in the world can’t create customers. If hearing about these makers, and their incredible flexibility, determination, and in some cases, growth, amid the pandemic, then consider supporting them. They still need your help. According to a recent Global State of Small Business Report from Facebook, which surveyed more than 35,000 small businesses impacted by COVID-19 across 27 countries, New York State had an especially high rate of small business closures due to the pandemic. In the Empire State, about 31 percent of small businesses shut their doors, compared with 22 percent across the US. Let’s change that picture, one bar of soap at a time. Microloans Give Makers a Big Lift Since 2013, the Hudson River Exchange built its business model on the importance of celebrating and supporting the work of small producers. Amid the pandemic, co-founder Stella Yoon decided to shift the Exchange’s mode of selling, while maintaining, even doubling down, on the Exchange’s ethos. Yoon moved the Exchange from a fixed physical space to a more nomadic and digital existence, managing to launch online in time for Thanksgiving and the surge of holiday season activity. “We launched the online shop with 30 makers, but over the years I have worked with hundreds,” she says. “We have experimented with all kinds of formats, letting one maker take over our space to see what it would feel like to open their own shop, then working with them one-on-one if and when they did go ahead and launch.” Yoon saw how some makers thrived during the pandemic, while others had to shut down their businesses to homeschool their children or deal with a health crisis. As she worked on reshaping how she could support and sell makers’ wares, she also decided to take a further step and set up a microloan program for makers who might be having trouble pivoting their sales channels, or growing their business during the pandemic. “Five percent of all online sales are contributed to the fund, and a donor, The Spark of Hudson, seeded the program with $2,500,” Yoon explains. “I think a lot of us found ourselves evaluating our roles in the community, and looking at equity and opportunity, and wanting to do more with everything we have. I really wanted to do more, and this program allows me to support makers who I see as having a lot of promise and talent, and just need a leg up.” As of now, she has funded two projects, and hopes to fund a lot more. “We will launch a membership opportunity, and I expect there to be more applications for microloans, and a formal vetting process. I feel lucky to be in the position to help, and excited to see them flourish as they invest in their dreams.” The microloans are just that—small boosts—that require payback eventually, without interest. But those interest-free boosts may mean the difference between a maker soaring, or closing up shop. ...

After working for years under titans of textile and design like Holly Hunt and Stephanie Odegard, Sarah Carlson struck out on her own with The Crows Nest. The new Red Hook storefront brings together both local and global makers. Handmade baskets from Ghana; rugs from Afghanistan, India, and Nepal; and pottery from Morocco can be found alongside photography and collages by an artist who lives down the road in Rhinebeck.

In 1982, Oswego chef Gary Austin set out to craft a simple soap that he and his wife Karen could use for their first child, Aaron, who was allergic to grocery store soap. Drawing on his culinary background, he came up with a simple, natural olive oil-based version that would become the recipe for the gentle soap bars that have made the Austins’ handmade soap company, SallyeAnder, a cult favorite for almost 40 years. Today, the second generation, family-owned and operated company calls Beacon its home, where Gary and Karen’s daughter, and SallyeAnder’s president, Sallie Austin Gonzales moved the small team and its factory in 2015.

Everything is blooming. Celebrate the rejuvenation of spring and the plenitude of summer with a visit to these seven masterful gardens in the Hudson Valley. Ranging from Asian-inspired to traditional English gardens and sanctuaries for native species, these gardens vary wildly but all offer an inspiring setting for a peaceful stroll or a romantic jaunt.

“With the pandemic, people have taken stock of their lives,” says Anna White, founder of the Chatham-based brand Rest & Heal. “People are thinking more deeply about what they want their lives to be about.” For her that meant moving upstate full-time with her family to their Chatham home and starting a business based around supporting women through life’s big challenges. “For over two decades, I battled chronic fatigue along with a host of other issues,” White says. “In my case, Western medicine offered little relief—healing required a great deal of research, experimentation with different healing modalities, and self-examination.” She originally conceived of Rest & Heal as a sleepwear line, but ultimately realized she wanted to showcase the books that had supported her in her darkest hours. “These are books around our shared humanity,” she says. “Trying to understand why we face the struggles that we do, looking at our lives in a more holistic and spiritual perspective, like ‘Why was I given this set of challenges,’ and ‘What should I take away from this?” Some of her favorites include Elizabeth Lesser’s book Broken Open, and Brene Brown’s Vulnerability and Shame. After finding a storefront on Hudson Avenue in Chatham, White’s idea crystallized: curated care packages featuring these books, designed to help women through life’s heartbreaks, hurdles, and rites of passage. Through her brick-and-mortar and online shop, she currently offers five options: heartbreak, grief, new motherhood, and illness, plus a limited edition Mother’s Day package, all in the $100 to $200 range. Each care package comes with a book, a garment, and other treats. “There are a lot of mysterious diseases and ailments out there that the medical community has had a hard time helping people with. There is no cure, no protocols,” says White, who experienced this first-hand with her own chronic fatigue diagnosis. “A lot of people feel dismissed and diminished. Their pain is not recognized. Nobody knows how to help them. And beyond that, people are facing all kinds of struggles, depression, anxiety. There is a lot that is not working in the system. Thankfully, mental health has become more of a focus, less of a stigma.” White conceived of Rest & Heal as a way for women to support each other in trying times, a more lasting and, hopefully, transformative gesture than sending flowers. “The feedback so far has been really positive,” she says. “I think people are really touched to receive them. We do a hand-written note with every package, and it’s lovely to see what people say to each other. It is moving—sometimes to tears. There is just so much love out there.” The products included in the packages—robes, sleepwear, tea, bath salts, body scrubs, alpaca blankets—are sourced from sustainable and women-owned businesses. In addition to the themed care packages, you can also design your own—either for yourself or to gift. “The idea is to keep it relatively simple,” White says. “I’m not going to add tons and tons of products to the point where it gets confusing for people.” White has also begun hosting some events in-store, which she hopes to do more of post-pandemic. Recent topics include overwhelm and meditation. “I think women coming together and educating ourselves is also very healing—being part of a community discussion and learning from each other,” she says. “I think there is a universal way of stepping back and looking at these challenges,” White says. “Not seeing them as random things that just happened to you, but maybe finding some bigger meaning. There is the ability to really learn something, and really change something if it needs to be changed.” White will be opening the brick-and-mortar to the public on weekends in the run-up to Mother’s Day on April 25, May 1-2, and May 8 from 11am-4pm. The limited-edition Mother’s Day care package ($120) includes Kae Kimono robe, a clothbound journal, and a bath bomb. You can also browse the Rest & Heal care packages online at any time. ...

As you reach the end of Beacon’s nearly mile-long Main Street, heading toward the Fishkill Creek, you’ll find Raven Rose perched inconspicuously on the corner. A dog is probably sleeping in one sunny shop window, while the other teems with greenery. Inside, the florist-meets-gift shop is charming and airy, with a layout and aesthetic that continually shifts with the seasons. The boutique, owned by Courtney Sedor, specializes in modern home decor, floral design, and plants along with a good gift selection of jewelry, soap, candles, and books. After backpacking through 20 countries for 20 months, Sedor came to Beacon in hopes of settling down and purchasing the pet shop Beacon Barkery. But when plans fell through, she found the existing flower shop in her current location for sale. “I had no retail background,” says Sedor, who opened Raven Rose in 2016. “Life just takes you to different places and with the timing, it just kind of fell together.” Sedor provides full-service custom floral arrangements for weddings with a starting budget of $4,000, as well as micro-wedding services for events with less than 50 people. She designs with an eye for texture and less common flowers to cultivate an organic, natural, and individual look for each couple. (You can see some of the shop’s work in their online gallery.) But Raven Rose goes beyond the scope of the flower shop that came before it with the curated selection of gifts and home goods. Of the store’s concept, Sedor says it was a “journey of trying to get this existing business to fit more of my personality and what the community in Beacon would be attracted to.” Sedor’s primary goal is to provide people with items they can love at affordable prices. “It’s really important to me that the things in the store feel attainable and not like you’re breaking the bank,” she says. With her selection of stones and minerals, she aims to give people who might not necessarily seek out a crystal shop room to explore metaphysical interests. “Because the shop has all these other things, it’s a way for customers to explore those different elements and feel comfortable doing so,” she says. Open daily, the shop fills a niche in Beacon that locals were happy to support during the pandemic. “I really did see an uptick in people coming to shop during the week,” Sedor says. “And then of course all the people from the city coming up just for an escape.” Some of the shop's floral products include the Designers Choice, which consists of a collection of seasonal flowers in a paper wrap that are perfect for every occasion or no occasion at all for $40-$80. In the Home and Pantry section, Raven Rose stocks candles and diffusers like the Sparkling Grapefruit color block candle for $23 and the Fig and Olive Flora diffuser for $39. In the home decor section, they have an array of interesting and fun vases like the Milky Yellow Modern Glass Vase for $17, Sienna Curvy Stoneware Vase for $30, and the Test Tube Vase––a lab-chic metal and glass construction with five different movable heights for a creative display of flowers for $38. They also have products like patterned dish towels, tea strainers, a marble and mango wood cutting board, a beechwood brush with a leather tie, and cookbooks like Adeline Waugh’s Vibrant and Pure, which includes 80 healthy and exciting recipes taken from her viral Instagram account. And for those with a green thumb, the lush selection of houseplants, ranging from Boston ferns to spider plants and six-foot fiddle leaf figs, is sure to delight. Raven Rose is open Monday-Saturday, 11am-6pm, and Sunday, 11am-5pm. ...

After a decade in the New York City music industry, Brenna Chase realized she was ready to turn the tables and claim the creative role for herself. Instead of music, however, Chase chose to pursue the historic arts of stained glass and gold leaf, and started her own workshop, Willow Deep Studio in Rosendale in 2018.

Leaving behind a corporate career in visual merchandising to become small-town shopkeeper, DamnAged Vintage founder Judiann Romanello brings a well-trained for design to her vintage clothing shop in Cold Spring. Seamless transitions of color, texture, and pattern are easy on the eye, inviting you to spend hours browsing the racks.

After nine years, 804 projects, and 275 tons of debris removed from the Hudson River and its tributaries, the annual Riverkeeper Sweep has become one of the region’s most enduring environmental traditions. With over 120 project sites and 17 new projects that will offer anyone who wants to volunteer the chance to get involved, this year's 10th anniversary event on May 1 is shaping up in peak form.

With locations in Saugerties, Marlboro, and Highland, Sawyer Savings Bank has helped support hundreds of small businesses.

These seven female entrepreneurs from around the Hudson Valley overcame adversity, gender norms, and sexism to contribute to the nearly 114% jump in women-owned businesses in the US.

A showcase of some of the region's women in business.

Through their work designing Passive House buildings and empowering an ever-widening audience from elementary school students to building professionals with the knowledge of Passive House, In Cho and Tim Shields, founders of Kingston and Brooklyn-based architecture firm ChoShields Studio are advocating for a climate positive and socially equitable future. “Passive House is something that we would love to become public knowledge so it’s not just within our specific field,” says In. “It really has to be expanded to everyone. Our goal is to spread this knowledge so that everyone knows exactly what Passive House means the same way you do something as easy as recycling.”

After surgery took Jennifer Robbins away from her New York City career as a sought-after fashion photographer for magazines like Vanity Fair and Vogue, she moved to Woodstock and opened The Babe Cave Vintage in Hudson, a curated selection of clothing and accessories from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s at more affordable prices.

With the completion of the 750-mile Empire State Trail in December, New York can now claim the longest state multiuse trail in the US. The EST connects 20 regional trails to create a continuous route from New York City to Canada and from Albany to Buffalo and is expected to draw 8.6 million residents and tourists annually.

If you dream in green and your quest to cover every square inch of shelving in your house in plants is never complete, than this list of independent boutique plant shops in the Hudson Valley will be your best guide.

Despite the pandemic, over 1 million weddings were held in the US in 2020. The weddings themselves were necessarily more intimate than usual.

Now more than ever, we need to celebrate the diversity of our locally owned business community. Chronogram Media is supporting BIPOC-and-women owned organizations by donating services and advertising. Each month, we’ll be highlighting some of our partners in our pages and we invite you to join us in supporting them.

It's easier than it's ever been to find a coconut fiber toilet brush or an organic cotton dish towel—online, that is. While the sustainable home goods movement is off and running, there is still a dearth of brick and mortars stocking these kinds of products. But in Catskill, reformed fashion industry veteran Katie Hartsough is sourcing functional, beautiful tools and products for the home, with strict standards for social and environmental sustainability. International Fair Trade products share the shelf with ceramics and cutting boards from local artisans in a bright, soothing environment that uses sharp aesthetics to lure in even those least committed to the cause.

We talk to couples who tied the knot mid-pandemic—those who decided not to wait, swapping intricate feasts and elaborate parties for slimmed-down nuptials.

As 2020 recedes in the rearview, we ask a diverse group of environmental advocates what they envision in their areas over the next decade and how we get there.

As people flood into the Hudson Valley, Jennifer May and family are leaving.

Now more than ever, we need to celebrate the diversity of our locally owned business community. Chronogram Media is supporting BIPOC-and-women owned organizations by donating services and advertising. Each month, we’ll be highlighting some of our partners in our pages and we invite you to join us in supporting them.

Tales of loss (and gain) from this pandemic year. Goodbye 2020. We hope not to see the likes of you again.