Rural businesses: Cluster and prosper

Julia Reischel in the Watershed Post: National rural-issues website The Daily Yonder ran an article yesterday exhorting rural businesses to form “clusters” if they want to thrive. The thrust of the story is counter-intuitive — the author, Stuart Rosenfeld, argues that rather than competing for customers, similar small businesses operating near each other seem to [...]

Catskill Farmer’s Market

Film looking for horse farm location

Th Hudson Valley Film Commission says a feature film looking to shoot this summer in the Hudson Valley region seeks a horse farm, “with a masculine/rustic looking home, a barn, stables/paddocks and smaller caretaker’s home. The house itself should have a rustic feel. It would also help if there was some type of water on [...]

Changes in dairy safety net expected

Marc Heller in the Watertown Daily Times reports: In the next few years, dairy farmers are likely to see big changes in the safety net that protects them from crashing milk prices — including a first-ever comprehensive system to limit milk production, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said. Rep. Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., [...]

Catskill farmer’s market will close a portion of Main Street on Saturday mornings this summer

Instead of completely closing down Main St., or putting stalls in parking spaces, the Village of Catskill will close one block of Main St. between Thompson Street and the entrance to the municipal parking lot at Willard Alley from 7:30 a.m. to at least 2 p.m., for the Catskill Regional Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market Saturdays [...]

Hudson Farmer’s Market opens today

WGXC’s Kaya Weidman will have a table about community radio at the first day of this year’s Hudson Farmers Market, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today in the parking lot at the corner of Columbia and 6th Sts. Master Gardener Donna Peterson will be available on the market’s opening day to help customers choose [...]

Tomato blight again?

Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University Agriculture Department, shares these tips for anyone who would like to grow tomatoes in the wake of last year’s blight (h/t Rural Intelligence): The good news for gardeners is that they are starting with a relatively clean slate this year. Phytophthora infestans, the fungus-like pathogen that causes [...]

Was it cruel? Paper asks local vet

Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper attempts to see the point of view of Hillsdale farmers Jim Clapp, 76, his wife Ida, 74, and their son Charles, 49, who were each charged last week with 33 misdemeanor counts of failure to provide proper sustenance to some of their dairy animals by Columbia-Greene Humane Society investigators [...]

Murphy hosts agriculture conference in Dutchess County

Congressman Scott Murphy will host a “Buy Local Agricultural Conference” on Friday, April 30 at Tymor Park, 249 Duncan Road, in Lagrangeville, in Town of Union Vale. Murphy will speak with, “farmers, consumers, and community leaders to discuss different approaches and strategies to help local farms and agriculture businesses succeed in the new and increasingly [...]

State Senate Agricultural Committee votes down farmworker bill

On Tuesday the State Senate’s Agriculture Committee voted down the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act. Among features of the bill, farmers would have had to pay over time to laborers who work more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours in a day and farm workers would gain the right to form a union [...]

Food movement passing upstate NY by?

From The Watershed Post: The image above is a detail from a map from the USDA, showing growth and decline in farming between 2002 and 2007. Each red dot represents 20 farms lost during those five years; each blue dot is for 20 new farms. Read the entire article in The Watershed Post.

Stream management program funds awarded

Michael Ryan in the Windham Journal writes: Thousands of dollars were handed out when the Schoharie Watershed Advisory Council awarded its second round of Stream Management Program funds, last week, during a meeting at the Windham Country Club. SWAC members awarded $77,627 to seven entities in Greene and Delaware counties for projects aimed at preserving [...]

Andy Turner speaks at Cairo Eco Faire

Click here to listen to or download mp3 of Andy Turner speaking at Eco Faire.Andy Turner, the Executive Director for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County, speaking Sun. Sept. 13 at the Cairo Eco Faire in Cairo Town Park, streamed live on WGXC Online Radio. Turner is also on WGXC’s Radio Council, the board overseeing [...]

Today’s local headlines

New Department of Social Services proposal?From The Register-Star “There will be a press conference at 4:30 p.m. today in the Supervisors’ Chambers at the county office building on 401 State St., Hudson, on the future placement of the county Department of Social Services. Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, the Board of Supervisors, the Hudson [...]

Today’s local headlines

Local housing groups get $650,000 in grantsFrom The Daily Mail The Hunter Foundation, in Tannersville, and the Catskill Mountain Housing Development Corporation, in Catskill, were notified Thursday that they are each a recipient of grants — $300,000 and $350,000, respectively — from NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), the administrator agency for federal [...]