Isaac Marsiglio, Elena Meckel, and Lucia Marsiglio eating pizza at Stony Creek Farm in Walton on Saturday night. Photo by Christopher Auger-Dominguez.
Franklin second-homeowners Christopher Auger-Dominguez and his wife, Daisy Auger-Dominguez, attended a pizza party thrown by a group of friends at Stony Creek Farm in Walton on Saturday (as did this Watershed Post editor). Auger-Dominguez, who is a professional photographer, shared a few of his photos of the evening with us. He and Daisy, who are relative newcomers to the Catskills, also described their evening on the farm in the essay that appears below. -- Julia Reischel
We pulled up to our new friends' farm unprepared for the weather.
It had just begun to rain and was getting cold. We were out in the country: No subway or store to duck into. City mouse, meet country mouse. Spring was slowly taking over in the Catskill region and we were celebrating its arrival with a pizza party with our new friends at Stony Creek Farm in Walton, NY.
We three flatlanders (the two of us and our 2-year-old daughter) huddled under our blue-and-white umbrella, standing out amongst the greens and browns of the countryside. We began mingling among our new friends and neighbors, everyone greeting us warmly and with a friendly smile.
Each had a unique story: a tattoo artist, a children's singer-songwriter, a journalist, farmers. Another family had a story like ours: living dual lives in the city and weekending upstate at their second home for years. Recently, they had decided to make this beautiful area a permanent home. While each of our stories may have differed, we all shared a common love for the rural landscape, for country living and for our children.
As we told one another's stories, the rain came and went as it had throughout the day. The children explored the farm, visited the sheep in the upper field, watched the cow get milked and then finally, made pizza.
They began flattening the dough and loading it with cheese and sauce. Our daughter sneaked a bite of it before it was cooked in the stone oven. And then, after a short time near the flames, out came warm, cheesy pizza.
As the sun set, lighting up the dissipating storm clouds with pinks and magentas, one mom pulled out her guitar and sang a few children's songs. We all joined in, tapping feet and clapping. It felt just like summer camp -- being outside with family and friends.
The kids full of pizza, the adults finishing off more "gourmet" slices, it was time to go home. Some went back to their farms to feed the farm animals, others to tuck their kids in for the night, and we weekenders headed back to our doublewide for the evening. It was a good taste of a summer to come, of more magical evenings upstate with the family.
1:20pm update: I mispelled Elena Meckel's name in an earlier version of this post. It has been corrected.
