Among the many things that Northwest Corner towns do well are fall farm activities bathed in vibrant foliage, bright blue skies, invigorating air and the always uplifting laughter of children delighting in all that seems new.
Just around the next bend in the road or beyond the next hill, trees compete for attention, blaring their sunlit colors at passers-by, vying to be called “the fairest of them all.”
Area farms embrace the fun, welcoming visitors and offering a variety of planned agricultural experiences. Ellsworth Hill Orchard and Berry Farm in Sharon, Conn., is one of them. Ellsworth has specialized in organic, earth-embracing fall activities for many seasons, making it a repeat destination for generations of families.
This fall season will be no different. During an early September visit with owner/operator Mike Bozzi, he noted that a pause to chat was possible only because it happened to be a rainy day. Such rare days provide a bit of respite from the hard work of agriculture.
“I’m definitely excited about the upcoming fall season of activities at Ellsworth Farm,” Bozzi said. “It’s like being in heaven every day here.” He has owned the farm since 1999.
“It’s been an enjoyable 22 years,” he said. “I don’t have time to breathe when it’s happening,” he said of the fall schedule of activities. There is never even time to count the numbers of visitors; they just keep on coming.
PUMPKINS, APPLES, BERRIES AND AN AMAZING MAZE
What can those visitors, young and old, expect to see this year at Ellsworth Farm?
A favorite attraction for everyone is the corn maze, which takes on a different theme each year. The 2021 design? It’s baseball themed: The New York Yankees.
Asked for the secret of the maze should grown-ups find themselves hopelessly lost and seeking the way out, Bozzi said that the key is to stand still and look for the top of the building that is visible to taller people from throughout the maze, then just head for the building. The kids don’t need to know how you did it.
Apple-picking is traditional, bringing the fun of doing it yourself. Visitors will find 13 varieties to choose from, good for everything from pies to eating fresh off the tree. There are also pear trees bearing sun-ripened fruit, including Asian pears and New Century varieties. And there are Olympic Giant pears. Each pear can weigh as much as a pound.
And a fall favorite, the pumpkin patch, is ready for you to select your own right on the spot where it grew. Pumpkins can be found in all sizes, small and large, just how they grow. Bozzi noted that he doesn’t fertilize them to achieve the size. They are all-natural.
Fresh berries may be there when you visit, particularly a fall run of raspberries. “We might have them and other berries, too,” Bozzi said, depending on the timing. Hayrides, too, may be a feature of your visit, again depending upon conditions at the time.
Cider making is on-going, using a commercial press that dates back to the 1980s. The operation can be viewed through an observation window. Freshly pressed cider is a popular and welcome treat.
Farm festivities also include an antique Lionel toy train display that the children enjoy seeing in operation. It runs between 6 and 6:30 p.m. on weekends. Other runs can be arranged by appointment.
BEST TO CHECK WEBSITE BEFORE PLANNING TRIP
All true farming is dependent upon Mother Nature for all things, Bozzi noted. The timing of ripeness, readiness for picking, ground conditions within the corn maze are all affected by the weather. “You can’t predict it.”
Thankfully, though, constant updates on the Ellsworth Farm website are very helpful in planning that trip to the farm and finding out what is in season at any given time. For information, visit www.ellsworthfarm.com, or call (860) 364-0025l
Ellsworth Hill Orchard, located at 461 Cornwall Bridge Road (Rte. 4), is open six days a week, including holidays, but is closed on Tuesdays. The farm will remain open through the fall until the day before Thanksgiving Day. It will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.
Nathan Miller
Kanchisar Jaradhanaiphat, left, and John Schildbach hope to open Muanjai Tea on Main Street in Millerton by June 6.
MILLERTON — The former home of Candy-O’s on Main Street will soon get new life, with a Bangkok-inspired tea shop expected to open in June.
Millerton residents John Schildbach and Kanchisar Jiradhanaiphat hope to open Muanjai Tea on June 6. The couple — who are set to be married in May — are currently securing permits to renovate the former candy store, with plans to transform the space into a Thai-inspired tea shop modeled after urban cafés, featuring an elevated atmosphere and menu.
“This isn’t going to be a bubble tea shop,” Schildbach said, describing a menu that seeks to bring authentic Thai tea culture to Millerton.
Highlights will include nom yen — a pink milk tea made with sweetened condensed milk and flavored syrup — as well as coffee cham yen, a blend of coffee and tea. The menu will also feature Thai tea ice cream floats, lattes and matcha drinks.
But the pair don’t want to limit the menu to just desserts and sweets. Schildbach said they are aiming for a sophisticated — yet affordable — menu that offers an authentic, approachable take on Thai tea shops.
That desire for authenticity will be built into the space itself, Schildbach said. Plans for the tea shop include adding a wall to create a service window typical of Bangkok tea shops, accented with tile and wood details.
The goal is to fit in with Millerton’s current lineup of Main Street businesses, while providing a unique experience for locals and visitors alike.
“It’s going to be like you’re in a tea shop in Thailand,” Schildbach said.
The pair are currently waiting approval from the Dutchess County Department of Health for the tea shop’s septic system — a process that Schildbach said is causing the biggest delays and may require adjustments to planned interior seating.
Businesses in Millerton rely on private septic systems that limit allowable capacity. That friction between local business interests and Health Department regulations spurred village and Town of North East officials to collaborate on a municipal wastewater system that’s planned to begin construction in 2027 with a target completion date in 2028.
In the meantime, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat must seek approval from county officials before officially opening. Schildbach said he hopes inspectors will consider the incoming wastewater system and grant some leeway for the tea shop.
Once it’s open, the pair plans to offer drinks at a comparable price to surrounding businesses. To keep operating costs low, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat plan to staff the shop themselves at first. They plan to open the shop from Thursdays through Mondays, but have yet to set specific hours.
Schildbach said he plans to expand gradually, adding staff and menu items in step with growing demand.
Eventually, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat hope to broaden the menu to include Thai-American fusion and more complete meals, but the shop will initially focus on beverages and small bites.
“I think that would be really cool to bring some more of that,” Schildbach said, drawing attention to Thai cuisine’s rising popularity in the United States. “People seem to be excited about it.”
Graham Corrigan
New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey buys two books from Oblong Books in Millerton on Thursday, April 23, after inducting the business into the state Historic Business Preservation Registry.
MILLERTON — Fifty-one years after Dick Hermans and Holly Nelson opened Oblong Books, the Millerton bookstore has been recognized as part of New York State history.
Following a nomination from state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, Oblong Books was added to the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry. Hermans and his daughter and co-owner, Suzanna Hermans, celebrated the designation Thursday alongside Hinchey, North East Town Supervisor Christopher Kennan and Kathy Moser, acting commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Hermans and Nelson opened Oblong Books in 1975 after graduating from college, finding a home for their bookstore at 32 Main St. Multiple relocations and more than 200 employees later, the business remains a fixture in Millerton.
“We’ve been through thick and thin,” said Dick Hermans. “I think we’ve been successful because we stay involved in the community.”
Employees of Oblong Books and local Town of North East and Village of Millerton officials gathered with State Senator Michell Hinchey on Thursday, April 23, to honor the bookstore’s placement on the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry.Photo Provided
The designation honors New York businesses that have operated for at least 50 years. Oblong is the first business from Millerton to receive the honor. “Oblong has stood the test of time, even in the age of e-commerce,” Hinchey said. “It has remained authentically true to its mission of human connection.”
In 2001, Hermans opened a second store in Rhinebeck. Hermans’ daughter Suzanna started working at Oblong shortly thereafter, helping the store navigate the newly-imperiled physical market.
“We thought that was going to be the death knell of books,” she said, “but it turns out a physical book is actually a perfect object. You can share it with a friend, or you can keep it for 50 years.”
The bookstore is known not only for its literary inventory, but also for author events, music selections and children’s toys.
The owners’ commitment to community also extends to the nonprofit world: since 2023, Oblong has partnered with the Beacon Prison Books project to provide free books to incarcerated individuals in the region.
E-books are now available on Oblong’s website, too. But the space has largely remained the same, with its weathered wooden floorboards and cozy nooks. There’s a section for music and records upstairs, and Oblong Jr. downstairs for younger readers and toy connoisseurs.
Next time visitors stop by, they will see something new: a window decal bearing the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry logo.
Nathan Miller
A group of gardeners and community members hear Maryanne Snow-Pitts explain proper care for newly-planted tree saplings near the Harlem Valley Rail Trail in Wassaic after Snow-Pitts planted two serviceberry trees in celebration of Arbor Day on Friday, April 24.
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Leila Hawken
AMENIA — The proposed workforce housing subdivision on Route 22 is awaiting feedback from the Amenia Fire Company after developers added more water tanks to plans for the property.
Planning Board members discussed other outstanding questions involving the Cascade Creek workforce housing subdivision at their regular meeting on Wednesday, April 22, continuing a conservation subdivision process that began nearly a year ago.
Board engineer John Andrews said that once the conservation analysis step is approved by the board, the next step will be the preliminary subdivision approval process that will likely need a public hearing. When that preliminary approval is granted by the board, then the developer, Hudson River Housing, will be able to begin the application process for final subdivision approval, which can involve another public hearing.
The next step in the present process, outlined by board attorney Cassandra Britton, is for the developer to submit to fire department officials the completed, agreed-upon package defining fire suppression plans, including water holding tanks, and a traffic study to measure estimated numbers of daily trips to be generated by the development.
The developer is working through the state Department of Transportation to develop more traffic studies. The planning board indicated that such studies must be completed before May 15, while schools are in session. Previous traffic density studies were done in June.
Summarizing the overall project, Peter Sanders of Rennia Engineering, representing the developer, said that Cascade Creek would consist of 28 lots on 24 acres, including two conservation parcels, arranged along a single 24-foot-wide road. Current drawings show two road cuts off of Route 22 to service a one-way subdivision road, although discussion continues on whether a single two-way entrance would be better.
Sanders recalled that the planning board had visited the site on Wednesday, March 11, and had developed additional comments based on that visit, resulting in plan adjustments.
After consultation with fire officials, a tentative plan calls for the installation of two 30,000-gallon water storage tanks on site, though final approval from the fire company is still required.
Also, one of the lots that would have abutted Route 22 was moved to the interior of the subdivision, with more vegetation to be planted throughout to provide screening.
Responding to board concerns about wanting to promote diversity in home design, Sanders said that various flexible components will add variety, including garages, porches, decks and a variety of exterior paint colors. He added that the variables will become clearer during the design approval phase when the site plan drawings are presented.
Important to the planning board and to member Ken Topolsky in particular is an ongoing debate with the developer over whether local residents could benefit from a preferential system for selection to be able to purchase the homes in the development.
“I will continue to push on this,” Topolsky said. “What we need to do is serve residents of Amenia.” His research has shown that preferential systems are in place in some communities, leading him to reason that they are allowed.
Representatives of Hudson River Housing have maintained that such systems are not allowed.
Discussion is expected to continue at the next planning board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 13.
Natalia Zukerman
Tremaine Gallery exhibit ‘Vulnerable Earth’ explores climate change in the High Arctic.
“Vulnerable Earth,” on view through June 14 at the Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss, brings together artists who have traveled to one of the most remote regions on Earth and returned with work shaped by first-hand experience of a fragile, rapidly shifting planet, inviting viewers to sit with the tension between awe and loss, beauty and vulnerability.
Curated by Greg Lock, director of the Photography, Film and Related Media program at The Hotchkiss School, the exhibition centers on participants in The Arctic Circle, an expeditionary residency that sends artists and scientists into the High Arctic aboard a research vessel twice a year. The result is a show documenting their lived experience and what it means to stand in a place where climate change is not theoretical but visible, immediate and accelerating.
That shared experience — weeks spent together navigating the waters around the Svalbard Archipelago —forms the connective tissue of the exhibition. Artists work across video, photography, performance and digital media, but what binds them is proximity: to the landscape, to one another and to the evidence of environmental change.
“The residency is fantastic,” Lock said. “You fly into the most northerly airport on the planet, get on a ship with a bunch of artists and then sail around the archipelago and find a bay or a glacier, get into little rubber boats and go to shore. There are three guides with rifles … and they form a triangle around us to protect us from polar bears, and then you’re just there.”
That immediacy — of risk, of beauty, of isolation — is evident in the work on view. “Everyone is concerned with the environmental shifts that are occurring, and you’re witnessing it out there,” Lock said. “We were cleaning the beach one day and there’s so much trash on this beach in the middle of nowhere … because there’s plastic in the sea. We are witnessing these things firsthand.”
Lock’s own contributions underscore how quickly the landscape is changing. In one piece, two photographs are mounted on a glacier-shaped metal stand. “I went to photograph the glacier, and we were sailing around and because of the map, we knew we were at the glacier, but we couldn’t see it,” he said. Dense fog, created by warming air meeting cold ground, obscured what should have been unmistakable. Only later, in post-production, did the glacier emerge. “In Photoshop, I could extract the glacier, but to the naked eye, it was no longer visible.”
Other changes are even more stark. Lock recalled the reaction of the ship’s captain comparing current conditions to his charts. “His ‘up to date’ map showed that the glacier was 8 kilometers between one side and the other, but we parked at one side, sailed and moored on the other side and it was 1.4 kilometers,” Lock said. “So, it’s just like bam. It’s happening so fast.”
There is a sense of urgency in these images, but the collection also is a testament to process and to the community that forms in such extreme conditions. “There’s quite a nice network of artists who are pretty tight,” Lock said. “We were on a ship together in tight quarters for three weeks, so we got to know each other really well. And I found connections across the work with my own practice.”
Mindful of the environmental stakes embedded in the work itself, Lock made decisions aimed at reducing impact when curating the exhibition. “A lot of this work I printed with their permission to cut down on my carbon footprint,” he said.
And yet, for all its focus on fragility and loss, the Arctic exerts a pull. “It was funny, I’ve been twice,” Lock said. “When I left the last time, I was like, oh, I don’t know if I need to go back. And then I got back, and all I wanted to do was go back.”
The Tremaine Gallery is located on the Hotchkiss campus at 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m.
Leila Hawken
MILLBROOK — Planning Board members voted to close a public hearing for renovations to the historic Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue on Monday, April 20.
Planned renovations to the historic Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue would create a multi-use community arts center.
The public hearing phase for the project’s site plan approval began at the March 16 meeting held at the Millbrook firehouse and was continued to allow more time for residents to consider the plans and provide comment. The April 20 meeting was again held at the firehouse to accommodate expected attendance.
Architect Michael Sloan, principal at Sloan Architects of Millbrook, reviewed an adjustment to the site’s parking lot plan. The center aisle within the 56-space lot has been widened to 25 feet. The Franklin Avenue entrance will be one-way because the present curb cut is too narrow for two-way traffic. The driveway will exit onto Maple Street.
Sloan added that the intended uses of the building meet all provisions of current zoning law.
Planning Board Chairman Frank Redl asked the architect to provide details on usage and the potential impact of those uses.
One resident spoke to express concern on behalf of neighbors who may be impacted by parking, and also asked that corrections be made to the minutes of the previous meeting to address some inaccuracies. Another resident spoke in favor of the proposal for its potential to attract people to the village center.
“The building will not accommodate large events,” Sloan said, but the lawn area could be used for additional parking if multiple events are scheduled simultaneously.
The existing bandshell will be demolished, Sloan noted, and the playground will be moved closer to the church building for the convenience and safety of the children who use it.
The board closed the public hearing at the recommendation of consulting engineer Richard Rennia, clearing the way for the board to review the comments and the site plan at a future meeting.
Originally built as a K-12 school, the landmark building would be transformed into a space for the community to gather and create. The overall site plan envisions a rear addition to expand the stage, the improved parking lot, new exterior lighting, a front garden and the removal of the portico on the building’s east side.
Board members also closed a public hearing for plans to demolish and replace a residential building at 4 Merritt Ave.
The plans represent the second phase of construction at the Reardon Briggs property located at 3265 Franklin Ave.
The board closed the hearing following public comment from long-time residents who live close to the residence to be built. Board members are expected to review the site plan at their next meeting on Monday, May 18.
Representing the developer, engineers from Day Stokosa of Wappingers Falls summarized plans for the phased improvements that would demolish an existing single-family home and replace it with a newly-constructed two-family residence on the 0.66-acre lot.
The existing residence has a footprint of 630 square feet. The new residence, containing two two-bedroom units, would occupy a footprint of 1,347 square feet. The engineers indicated that the plans are consistent in appearance and concept with the business-zoned area.
During the public hearing, owners of the single-family century-old Merritt Avenue home adjacent to the proposed duplex expressed their opposition. The plan for the new residence, they said, would diminish their present quality of life, including access to light, sun, airflow and privacy, the latter due to the placement of windows.
“We love the area,” the owners said, asking that the design be modified.
“They are meeting all of the code requirements,” Redl said of the developers, but he continued by asking the developers whether they might mitigate the effects. One resident suggested that to achieve privacy, the new building might be swiveled to move its windows away from those of the neighbor.
The engineers reported that they have already reduced the plan by 500 square feet and lowered the height of the new building.
Although the public hearing was closed, residents are invited to submit written comments in advance of the May 18 meeting when the board will review the site plan.
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