So, it’s not just the area’s artistic produce that draws tourists and encourages transplants, clearly. It’s the quality of village or country living. There’s also the, well, the produce produce.
Tom Crowell, the communications and outreach manager of the Columbia Land Conservancy, an organization whose mission is “protecting the countryside, the open spaces, the ‘rural’ character” of Columbia County, points to county’s wealth of “agricultural tourism” opportunities, “Hudson’s got the restaurants and a lot of the cultural stuff, but people also want the bed & breakfasts, the you-pick [orchards], and the farm stands. Towns are really starting to incorporate this stuff into their strategic plans, and we’re here as a resource to help them be responsive to their communities.”
For 22 years, the land conservancy—one of the largest staffed conservancies in the state, if not the country, according to Crowell—has worked to preserve access to the natural areas of Columbia County while honoring the traditional settlement patterns that differentiate it from the “crowded cities and suburbs that surround it.”
The organization holds conservation easements on more than 20,000 acres of privately held land, manages 2,000 acres of public conservation areas, and offers environmental education to more than 3,500 children and adults each year. This educational component is indispensable, says Crowell: “It’s really important that people, especially those new to the area, understand what it means to live in a farming community: There will be tractors in the road, and manure spreaders in the fields. You can’t have the field without it.”
The fields nor the harvest. And as many residents and visitors already know, the yield of Columbia County agriculture is significant—and tasty. And as with the cultural producers, this means business for the county.
Columbia County Bounty is an organization formed to promote and support networking connections between local agricultural producers and culinary businesses. As stated in their directory—an excellent resource and guide to the many restaurants, caterers, farm stands, and specialty products of the region—their mission is “to educate our community about the preservation of our local farms through the purchase and use of local and regional sustainable foods and products not only from Columbia County but from the entire Hudson Valley.”
This educational effort is evident at the grass-roots (and grass-fed) level and also at the highest levels of New York State government.
Noah Sheets is the head chef at the executive mansion in Albany, and part of his responsibilities have been in locally sourcing the food used at the mansion. On the one hand, this is in service of “greening” the process (the mansion is the first governor’s residence to receive a Gold LEED certification); on the other, it’s had direct culinary benefits as well. Sheets refers to Columbia County as an agricultural “powerhouse,” citing his own reliance on its organic farms and providers, such as Beth’s Farm Kitchen in Stuyvesant, Little Seed Gardens in Chatham, and Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent.
The long hours of summer daytime mean that it’s still light when you hit the road after the gallery opening. Even so, the farming is probably done for the day. The hands may have headed into Hudson themselves for the night, to catch a band at Jason’s Upstairs Bar or to grab dinner at Red Dot, Mexican Radio, or Swoon, or regional brews at Spotty Dog Books and Ale.
Traffic’s not likely to be bad.
Maybe you’ll put your own hazards on just the same.
Look to the right. Look to the left.
RESOURCES
City of Hudson www.cityofhudson.org
Columbia County www.columbiacountyny.com
Columbia County Bounty www.columbiacountybounty.com
Columbia County Chamber of Commerce www.columbiachamber-ny.com
Columbia County Lodging Association www.staycolumbia.com
Columbia County Tourism www.bestcountryroads.com
Columbia Land Conservancy www.clctrust.org
Perform Columbia www.performcolumbia.com
