Day Trips To Find Antique Fruit

If you’re aching for adventure after a long quarantine, take a day trip to Red Hook, N.Y., and get antique apples at the Montgomery Place Orchards farm stand.
Photo by Cynthia Hochswender
There are excellent orchards nearby where you can pick fruit for yourself or buy it pre-picked. Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington, Mass., has five varieties of apple on offer now and will make other varieties available (including some heirlooms) as they hit their peak. Find out what they’ve got at www.windyhillfarminc.com.
Ellsworth Hill Orchard in Sharon, Conn., has 10 varieties of apples, and ancillaries such as cider and doughnuts, www.ellsworthfarm.com.
But this autumn, when so many other travel opportunities are curtailed, I’m thinking about making a day trip to someplace, maybe an hour away, to pick apples (with masks on).
About one hour from my home in Lakeville, Conn., is the excellent Love Apple Farm in Ghent, N.Y., a town famous for its cherries in spring and apples in autumn. Love Apple Farm supplies outstanding fruit throughout the year to many of our area farm stands. At the moment they have four types of apples but in all they have 19 varieties that will ripen in the coming weeks, www.loveapplefarm.com.
When you hear the names of some of their varieties you might think, “Gee, how ordinary.” But once you’ve tasted a golden delicious or a red delicious from a local orchard you’ll understand why everyone went crazy for these apples in their early days (so much so that they were overbred and perhaps ruined).
When I want to go hunting for apples I go to Red Hook, N.Y., which is 40 minutes away and also has good restaurants and cute shops.
If you want to pick your own in Red Hook, you can try Greig Farm (www.greigfarm.com), which has 11 types of apples that will ripen between now and October.
Up the road a short ways is Hardeman Orchards (www.hardemanorchards.com), which has pick-your-own as well as pre-picked fruit plus doughnuts and hay rides. The website doesn’t have a full list of the available apples, and in fact doesn’t look like it’s been updated but I drove by it yesterday and it’s definitely open.
And yes, you read correctly that I drove by it, because my favorite apple source is just a few minutes up the road: Montgomery Place Orchards farm stand is at the T intersection of Routes 9G and 199 in Red Hook.
This is an exquisite little stand with a fascinating history. Montgomery Place is one of the historic Hudson River estates, and was, unusually, run by a woman, Janet Livingston Montgomery. A full history of the property, including the extensive and exquisite orchards, can be found on the Bard College website at www.bard.edu/montgomeryplace; the college recently purchased the property as well as the farm stand, which is more or less walking-distance away from the campus.
History is obviously an important part of Montgomery Place, so it’s appropriate that this is a farm that has an unusually high percentage of heirloom varieties. Heirloom or antique apples (like their cousins, the antique or heirloom tomatoes) are quirky breeds — often with funny names that are charming and romantic.
These are not like the grocery store apples that so often disappoint us. They are tender and delicious and sweet; they never made it into the Apple Big Leagues because they don’t travel well and often don’t have a long shelf life.
Many were originally found in distant places; someone loved them enough to carry a twig from their favorite tree to the New World and graft it so they could eat a favorite apple in their new but distant homeland.
Some of the antique apples at Montgomery Place have names like Pitmaston Pineapple (from Pitmaston in England); Cox Orange Pippin (created by Richard Cox in England in the 1800s using Ribston Pippin seeds) or its cousin, the Newtown Pippen, which was a favorite of Benjamin Franklin and is considered the oldest commercially grown native variety in America.
Some apple names hint at subtle deliciousness: Hidden Rose, Pink Pearl, Ashmead’s Kernel.
And of course Montgomery Place grows the Hudson River Valley’s own famous variety: the Esopus Spitzenberg, first developed in the town of Esopus in Ulster County, N.Y. This apple is a special treat, according to the Montgomery Place website, which warns that, “One problem is that it is a shy bearer and bears fruit only every other year.”
The sign at the farm stand promises that, yes, 2020 is an Esopus Spitzenberg year, and bushels should be available by Oct. 10. The full list of newer and older apples is listed on the sign at the farm stand, and you can call the stand to ask what’s in (845-758-6338). The season is just now beginning; there is still plenty of time to experience the full glory of the orchard.
And on your way back to the Tri-state area, if you no longer have flowers in your own garden to clip and bring inside, stop by the big white Battenfeld anemone farm (you’ll see the sign, you can’t miss it) and stop in to buy a bundle, wrapped with rubber bands and reasonably priced and sold on the honor system.
Stacks of old New York Times pages are on a nearby table so you can wrap your flowers; it’s a good idea to have a container with some water in your car to help the blossoms survive your drive home.
AMENIA — The first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School went smoothly, with teachers enthusiastically greeting the eager young students disembarking from buses. Excitement was measurable, with only a few tears from parents, but school began anyway.
Ready for her first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School, Liliana Cawley, 7, would soon join her second grade class, but first she posed for a photo to mark the occasion.Photo by Leila Hawken
The main entrance to Kent Hollow Mine at 341 South Amenia Road in Amenia.
AMENIA — Amenia residents and a Wassaic business have filed suit against the Town Board and Kent Hollow Inc., alleging a settlement between the town and the mine amounts to illegal contract zoning that allows the circumvention of environmental review.
Petitioners Laurence Levin, Theodore Schiffman and Clark Hill LLC filed the suit on Aug. 22. Town officials were served with documents for the case last week and took first steps in organizing a response to the suit at the Town Board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4.
The lawsuit is the latest in a multi-year long legal battle surrounding the mine on South Amenia Road. After Kent Hollow Inc. — a subsidiary of Bethel, Connecticut, based homebuilder Steiner Inc. — applied for a state mining permit in 2017, the Amenia code enforcement officer issued the business a notice of violation.
At the time, Kent Hollow Inc. did not possess a special permit to conduct mining operations as required by Amenia zoning code, and the property did not reside in the Special Mining Overlay district established as part of rezoning efforts coinciding with the 2007 adoption of the town’s comprehensive plan.
Kent Hollow Inc. appealed the violation, claiming the use of the property as a mine predates amendments to town and state regulations. The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the appeal citing insufficient evidence in 2019. That spurred Kent Hollow to file two lawsuits — one in the New York State Supreme Court and a federal civil rights lawsuit — challenging the town’s order.
In July 2025, those lawsuits were brought to a close when the Town Board voted at a special meeting to accept a settlement agreement allowing Kent Hollow to continue mining operations under limited hours and quantities.
The most recent suit alleges the 2025 settlement amounts to contract zoning that allows Kent Hollow Inc. to skirt environmental review and the scrutiny of the permitting and rezoning process. Court documents allege Kent Hollow did not adequately prove a continuous, legal nonconforming use.
Supporting the argument, petitioners have submitted the court documents and decision from the 2019 New York Supreme Court case against the town Zoning Board of Appeals, and the documents from the preceding ZBA appeals process including receipts and tax returns from Kent Hollow Inc. purporting to establish the nonconforming use.
Kent Hollow Inc. formed as a subsidiary of housing developer Steiner Inc. and purchased the property in 1971, according to state and county real estate records.
Millerton News reporting from 1971 Amenia planning board meetings detail Kent Hollow’s pursuit of a four-section, 40-unit apartment complex on the property.
The News reported Kent Hollow was granted tentative approval on July 6, 1971, to build eight units on the site with the expectation that more would be built later.
The additional units never came to fruition and Kent Hollow apparently abandoned the housing project, opting to use the property as a gravel mine.
Attorneys for the Town of Amenia or Kent Hollow Inc. have not filed responses to the lawsuit as of press time.
AMENIA — While the courage and perseverance of Revolutionary era patriots is well understood and celebrated, the stories of the fate of British loyalists in New York are not as clear.
Seen as the initial event in observance of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Amenia Historical Society will present a talk titled, “The Plight of a Loyalist in Revolutionary New York,” examining the journal of Cadwallader Colden, Jr., spanning the period of 1777-1779. The speaker will be noted author, genealogist and historian Jay Campbell.
The talk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. at the Smithfield Presbyterian Church in Amenia. The handicapped-accessible church is located at 656 Smithfield Valley Road. Refreshments will be served.
Colden was the son of a New York Lieutenant Governor. He was a surveyor, farmer and mercantilist, serving as a judge in Ulster County. His fortunes changed dramatically with the dawn of the Revolutionary War when he remained loyal to the British Crown. His arrest came in 1776, just before the start of his journal.
Campbell is a historian specializing in Hudson Valley history, and the regional stories of Revolutionary era families.
Erin Rollins of Millbrook in the Fashion Feed booth, open year round, at the Millbrook Antiques Mall. All proceeds from Fashion Feeds go to the Food of Life Pantry. As an interior designer by trade, Rollins designed this booth to evoke a high-end department store to align with the designer brands she carries.
MILLERTON — The Townscape 50/50 raffle drawing has collected a pot of more than $7,000.
That raffle drawing will take place this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Veteran’s Park. The moment is not just about picking a winner, but also about reflecting on how far Townscape has come since its humble beginnings in 1998, when founder Catherine Fenn — alongside Renee Vollen and Jan Gilmor — first set out to beautify her beloved village.
Fenn’s connection to Millerton runs deep. “I moved here from the Bronx when I was eight years old and fell in love with the place, even as a child,” she recalled, remembering camping trips at Rudd Pond and enjoying the quiet pace of life.
At 15, her family relocated to southern Connecticut. “My dad didn’t think there was much here for us, so we moved. I left kicking and screaming, literally, and I said, ‘Someday I’m coming back.’”
Years later, after marrying, divorcing, and raising children, Fenn kept that promise. She returned to Millerton and married a childhood friend who was very involved in the fire department. After his passing, Fenn threw herself into her own way of giving back.
“I care about this village deeply. Townscape is my way of helping Millerton be the best it can be,” she said.
What began as an informal effort to gather volunteers and plant flowers eventually blossomed into something larger. “We started with flowers up and down Main Street — barrels of them everywhere. Then it grew into benches, tables, trees and even events. It was such a fun world, a really wonderful organization with so many people involved.”
Fenn’s service to the community extends beyond beautification. She spent roughly two decades on the Planning Board, served as Town Supervisor and worked with the county housing authority. Still, her passion for flowers, trees and landscapes has left the most visible mark on Millerton — shaping not only how the village looks, but how it feels.
In 2006, Townscape became a nonprofit organization. But beautification, Fenn admits, isn’t always the easiest cause to fund. “We’re just putting flowers out — and I shouldn’t say ‘just,’ because to me it’s really important. The trees, the benches, all of it matters. But it’s not high on most people’s list when they think about charitable donations. Still, people have been wonderfully generous over the years.”
This Saturday’s raffle drawing is one way neighbors can show their support. The winner does not have to be present to claim the prize, but those who stop by can enjoy cookies, lemonade and artwork by local creators on display in the park.