| Watershed Post

Catskills sugarhouses open for Maple Weekend

Above: Maple syrup on pancakes at Buck Hill Farm in Jefferson. Photo by Heather Phelps-Lipton.

Shake off the late-winter blahs and come celebrate Maple Weekend--actually two weekends of open houses--in the sugar shacks of the Catskills. The first of the two weekends of maple events begins tomorrow, Saturday, March 19 and runs through Sunday, March 20. The second weekend is on April 2 and 3.

Last year’s maple syrup crop was outstanding, with 601,000 gallons of the sweet sticky stuff flowing from New York producers, according to the New York Times.

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New Mount Tremper farmstand to open on Route 28 this spring

Above: Kham and Jamie Nguyen putting siding on their new Mount Tremper farmstand, which is scheduled to open in April. Photo by J.N. Urbanski.

A new roadside farmstand is slated to open in the Ulster County town of Shandaken this spring, next door to where the controversial Hanover Farms farmstand operated for nine years before being closed by court order in 2013.

Tremper Hill Farms will be located at the junction of Route 212 and Route 28 in Mount Tremper, on the property of Kham and Jamie Nguyen. The Nguyens have built a new structure on their roadside property to house the farmstand, just downhill from their house.

An exact opening date has not been set, but the Nguyens are hoping to begin selling produce by the end of April. They are inviting local farmers, producers and small-scale growers to contact them via email at [email protected].

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Tremper Hills Farmstand

Lightning strikes couple camping in Catskills forest

Above: Two hemlock trees scarred by the lightning that hit a husband and wife in Tannersville on Wednesday, March 16. Photo by Forest Ranger Rob Dawson.

A man and woman from Princeton, New Jersey were struck by lightning while camping in the Greene County Catskills on the night of Wednesday, March 16, according to the New York State Department of Conservation.

The married couple, a man and a woman in their twenties who are otherwise not being identified, were camping in the Catskills with their dog on Wednesday night.

They had set up their campsite in a hemlock grove about three-quarters of a mile from the North-South Lake Campground in the town of Hunter, New York State Forest Ranger Rob Dawson said.

Around 6 p.m., as they were cooking dinner, a thunderstorm swept over the area, Dawson said.

Lightning struck two hemlock trees located about five feet away from where they had pitched their tent, Dawson said.

“It basically had its bark blown off,” he said of one of the trees.

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New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Lightning

outdoor

St. Patrick’s Day in the Catskills

Above: The full Irish treatment awaits at Gavin's Irish Country Inn this weekend in East Durham. Image via the Gavin's Irish Country Inn Facebook page.

The Irish love affair with the rocky, rolling green of the Catskills spans generations. In the Greene County hamlet of East Durham, especially, immigrants with roots in Ireland have made the region a second home.

So it’s only natural that our communities celebrate the season of St. Patrick in fine style. Here’s our five-county guide to celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day (Thursday, March 17) that are happening this weekend.

Want an introduction to the long history of the Irish in the Catskills? A new documentary that premiered last week, "The Irish Catskills: Dancing at the Crossroads," tells the story of the inns, hotels and bungalows that have catered to Irish Americans throughout history--you can buy the DVD or watch it at Narrowbackfilms.com.

DELAWARE COUNTY

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Constitution delays pipeline opening date

Above: The cover of a federal impact statement for the proposed Constitution Pipeline.

Opponents of a proposed natural gas pipeline are cheering the news that its opening will be delayed at least into next year.

Constitution Pipeline Company LLC announced on Thursday, March 10 that it is updating its “in-service date projection” from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the second half of 2017 in response to a March 31 deadline for felling trees.

While clearing of trees has nearly been completed in neighboring Pennsylvania, Constitution has been unable to begin such operations in New York because the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has not issued a permit required under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act. New York's lack of action has also delayed a second permit, which must be issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Department of Environmental Conservation

Constitution Pipeline

stop the pipeline

NED pipeline

Fire at Hubbell homestead destroys pole barn; injures two

Above: Firefighters battled a blaze that destroyed a pole barn at the Hubbell Family Farm on Wednesday, March 9. Photo by Rebecca Andre, Mountain Girl Photography and Design.  

An afternoon fire destroyed a pole barn and injured two firefighters at the Hubbell Family Farm on Route 30 outside the Delaware County village of Margaretville on Wednesday, March 9, 2016.

Although officials at the scene were unwilling to state the cause of the blaze, John Hubbell said that it likely began when round hay bales sitting outside the pole barn caught fire.

On Wednesday night, Margaretville Fire Chief Gene Rosa confirmed that the cause of the fire was accidental.

Above: An excavator housed in the pole barn was destroyed by the fire. Photo by Rebecca Andre.

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Maple sugar season comes early to the Catskills

Above: Sap buckets in the sun. Photo by Rebecca Andre of Mountain Girl Photography and Design.

“A sap-run is the sweet good-bye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.” - John Burroughs, “Signs and Seasons," 1886

Commercial sugarhouses, mom and pop sugar shacks, homesteaders and hobbyists alike are busy catching up to the flowing maple syrup during this year’s early—and prolific—sugar season.

Most years, maple tapping does not begin in the Catskills until late February, with the highest syrup production happening towards the end of March or early April, according to Andrew Campbell, who managed the Hubbell Family Farm in the Delaware County village of Margaretville.

But this year, an unseasonably warm week early in February gave a head start to local maple production.

“We tapped the first week in February,” said Toby Hubbell.

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How to make your own backyard maple syrup

Above: Maple tapping by Karen Wallace, an entry in the 2016 Catskills Food Guide Photo Contest.

Want to make your own maple syrup? Here’s a step-by-step guide to small-scale backyard maple production:

Before you get started, here are some tips from the experts:

Start small.
Use galvanized pails or plastic buckets to collect sap. (The Hubbell Family Farm in Margaretville has three-gallon galvanized pails, covers and spiles available.)
Sterilize all buckets, pans and tools. (Boiling water is best—avoid using any soap or chemicals.)
Be sure that the sap is clear. Cloudy sap will make for spoiled syrup. 
Set up outside. “It’s a sticky endeavor,” said Jake Fairbairn, the co-owner of Tree Juice Maple Syrup, based in Arkville.
Use flat (stainless steel or aluminum) pans over a heat source to boil off the majority of moisture. You can use a wood fire, a gas grill, a camping grill, or any other heat source to start the process outside.
Finish the boiling process indoors in a tall stainless steel pot.
Invest in a heavy duty candy thermometer. 219 degrees Fahrenheit is the magic temperature where maple sap becomes maple syrup.

1. Tap maple trees at least 31 inches in circumference.

2. Insert spile.

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Trail to Devil’s Kitchen now legal, thanks to climber’s land donation

Above: A view looking up through Upper Devil's Kitchen. The newly-legal trail towards Platte Clove Road is on the right. Photos by Marty Molitoris/Alpine Endeavors.

An unmarked trail that is the safest way into the Devil’s Kitchen has become public property, thanks to the efforts of a pair of ice climbers, one of whom has donated a two-acre piece of land in Platte Clove to New York state.

The Devil’s Kitchen in Greene County is one of the Catskills’ most picturesque—and dangerous—attractions. The cliff-lined gorge in the steep, rocky section of the Platte Clove valley in the town of Hunter, is a hugely popular spot for hikers and ice climbers, and is also scene of many accidents and even deaths. (One climber fell 80 feet and miraculously survived last summer.)

Until recently, portions of the Devil’s Kitchen were only accessible through private property or treacherous unmarked trails on public land. Access was not only dangerous, it was also sometimes illegal.

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Bovina creamery sale sets the stage for dairy revival

Above: The Bovina creamery building. Photo by Stephen O'Grady.

When the Bovina Center Co-op Dairy, better known as the Bovina creamery, was shuttered in 1973, it was a sure sign that the Delaware County town’s best dairying days were over.

After seven decades during which local farmers transported their milk to the building on Creamery Road in Bovina Center—first by horse-drawn wagon, and then by truck—the clanging of cans that one local has described as “the background noise of town” was silenced.

But now, in a development that has been rumored for months, the building has been sold to new owners who plan to reopen it as a creamery in a bid to bolster the burgeoning small-scale dairying enterprises in the Delaware County Catskills.

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Bovina Center Co-op Dairy

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