poughkeepsie farm project & vassar ecological preserve

it's the weekend! i'm back in the city, and hhh is selling records at the bk flea today. i have to do some work first, but then i'm planning to meet up with him (and to get some tasty snacks at smorgasborg). i think it'll be a good weekend.

last weekend was pretty good too. we did some exploring and one of the places we checked out was just down the street from our campus apartment. vassar has a farm and ecological preserve! as you can see from the exclamation mark, i'm very excited about this. there are several trails on varying terrains, community plots with all kinds of vegetables and flowers, and a farm staffed by the the poughkeepsie farm project. the place was pretty deserted last sunday, but it made for some nice wandering around. 

vassar also conducts scientific research on the farm and preserve. we came across the collins field station about halfway through our loop, and it looks like that is where the field research activities are based. hhh thought it was someone's house. 

in total, it's 527 acres of earthy goodness. 

we started at the farm, and came back to it at the end. some of the sections were divided into smaller plots (for individuals to farm?). there was also a meditation garden (though locked), and a larger plot currently offering csa members raspberries via the honor system. we were tempted. 

these are the buildings back at the entrance. looks like the office of the poughkeepsie farm project.

what are your plans this weekend? 

away in poughkeepsie

it got to be too much for hhh to commute back and forth to work (it's about 85 miles each way), so we decided to get a place on campus. we now have a cozy little one-bedroom where we can all stay. willa is super happy about that, since her love of vassar grass knows no bounds. this love is communicated through howling and incessant barking anytime we are within poughkeepsie city limits ("why can't we be outside ALL THE TIME?" she wants to know), which has probably (definitely) made us the bane of our neighbor's existence. 

a view towards the back of the room. the sofa came from our home office and faces a really lovely but non-working fireplace.

we moved up a few weeks ago, and the place is coming together. i'm of the belief that one should unpack ASAP, i.e., on the day you move. (boxes are the worst.)  we were able to bring a lot of the furniture from carroll street, and got a couple things from a friend's moving sale. that plus a trip to the poughkeepsie target (leaps beyond than the one at atlantic terminal...it's like they aren't even the same store) has us pretty much set up. the only thing left to do is to hang the photos! 

i am incredibly excited about this conran console, which came from a clearance sale at jcpenny's. 

i was actually going for a minimalist look, but have had to resign myself to being just an aspiring minimalist (as long as i live with hhh anyway. he loves his clutter.).

a little black pig, some books, a projector (aka tv!), a philodendron. 

this is phil the philodendron. we got him at the greenhouse at adam's fairacre farms.

these cast iron windows are beautiful but don't really keep out the bugs. it's still a lovely view of trees and the lake.

art, which has yet to go up. and the fireplace! grafitti by jon naar, "despair" by yuji yamada.

willa is sulking because i am taking photos of the apartment instead of romping through the great outdoors with her.

that's it for now. i'll be back eventually with the bedroom and kitchen. xoxo

sprout creek farm

last week, we moved some furniture up to the campus apartment. on the way out of town, we stopped at sprout creek farm. apparently, hhh drives past it all the time and has seen its cheeses in brooklyn markets, but we've never actually visited. 

there is a main complex that houses the market as well as a cow barn, it seems, and a couple other barns. 

sprout creek farm is a working farm and educational center. prior to this, the only farm i'd visited in the hudson valley was stone barns, which is probably way too fancy an establishment to call a farm anyhow. also, i think it's in westchester county, which maybe isn't technically in the hudson valley? anyway. on our visit, there was a group of campers looking like they were learning useful lessons about the earth. there were also other people on tractors, tending to cows, doing generally farmer-eque things. 

i just noticed that those benches are made out of pallets. 

apparently you can stay at a cottage they have on the grounds! they will pair it with meals as well, and if you have kids they can go to camp. i was trying to figure out if they have adult farm classes, but it didn't look like it. (too bad. learning to farm sounds like an excellent way to procrastinate on my dissertation.) 

the porch in front of the market, where i waited with willa while hhh bought some cheese.

the craft barn and a silo.

these goats were awesome! they just kept staring at us as we approached. it sort of looked like they were about to put on some kind of performance. or maybe they expected us to? 

it was a nice little detour on the way back to brooklyn. you should stop by if you have a chance!