Local CSAs:                       Taste the "terroir"...

These vegetables incorporate the very soil they are grown in and they are local.

Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) -- the name for your local organic farmer's place of business where he or she grows a lot of amazing seasonal local produce and you pick it up once a week, usually in a box. Standing out in the sunshine, you survey the fields growing around you. You get whatever is in season and your farmer chooses to grow. Lettuces, spinach and peas in early spring. Strawberries a little later. Sometimes flowers, sometimes stonefruit, depending on what your chosen CSA chooses to grow. Eggplant, bok choy, unusual varieties of beans that you don't usually see at the store. Kale, squash and don't forget tomatoes when they come in season. Eggplant, hot peppers, melons.

Ulster County has more farmers this year than it did last and the numbers are growing. Many of these organic farmers also sell in farmer's markets in the metro NYC area. For local organic lifestyle, CSAs can't be beat. Kids love to go pick out their vegetables and they can literally see that their food comes from the earth.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list but should get you started: Second Wind CSA in Gardiner on Marabac Road, Taliaferro Farms on Plains Road in New Paltz, Phillie's Bridge Farm Project on Phillie's Bridge Road in Gardiner, Evolutionary Organics on Springtown Road in New Paltz and Huguenot Farm on Huguenot Street in New Paltz. For nutrition and just-plain deliciousness, what could be better than produce that is literally hours out of the ground? Don't put off joining a CSA -- membership can fill up fast this time of year.

Winter Sun Farms

How great is an indoor winter Farmer's Market? Every second Saturday at the New Paltz Community Center behind the Town Hall on North Chestnut Street. Jim Hyland heads up Winter Sun -- a frozen food CSA, where he takes surplus food in the summer and packages and freezes for winter CSA member distribution. Definitely one of the cool things about Ulster County.
I got an amazing baguette and fresh sauerkraut from Wild Hive, lovely goat cheese from Acorn Hill in Walker Valley, a winter soup essential that is hard to find, celeriac, from Second Wind CSA, apple butter from the Phillie's Bridge Farm Project, maple syrup from Olivera Schoolhouse, and fresh salad greens and kale from Evolutionary Organics. Yum!!! A great place to get local organic meat too! Next one 10-2 on February 9.

Bonticou Rising

I have sometimes come up Mohonk Road at night and seen the white rock of Bonticou Crag rising up through the field like a giant glowing moon. Bonticou is a raw piece of Shawangunk Conglomerate schist that is one of the most accessible and exciting rock scrambles in our area. The climb up usually has its hairy moments, as you hoist yourself up through the narrower passages, but the 360 degree view at the top that stretches from the Catskills to the Wallkill Valley is an exhilarating reward.

Bonticou Crag is reached via the Lower 27 Knolls Mohonk Preserve entrance. For those who don't feel up to an intermediate level rock scramble, there is a longer, more gradual climb along the spine to the top. All times of year are spectacular but mountain laurel season in early June is a peak experience.