![It was ‘so good to see you’: Rosey’s to close Aug. 14](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/roseys-at-2987-church-st-in-pine-plains-will-close-its-doors-on-monday-aug-14.jpg?id=48190266&width=980&quality=90)
Rosey’s, at 2987 Church St. in Pine Plains, will close its doors on Monday, Aug. 14.
Photo by Matt Petricone
PINE PLAINS — Come Monday, Aug. 14, the residents of Pine Plains will have one fewer place to land for coffee, breakfast and lunch. Announced over Instagram on June 21, the closure of Rosey’s will end a run of just under three years.
Jamie Gerber, Rosey’s owner and manager, came to the decision to close shop for a variety of reasons, but chief among them was the impending departure of Rosey’s chef, Brit Ko. Ko is off to Rutgers to get a master’s degree in poetry, and to Gerber, the departure of a chef who is “such a creative and thoughtful cook” and who meshed so perfectly with Rosey’s fit and feel presented an opportunity for reevaluation. “There’s a part of me that thinks that I don’t want to work with anyone else,” said Gerber.
“It has been such a great adventure, and I’m very pleased to know so many more people in town, and feel involved in Pine Plains. But to be honest, I don’t totally enjoy running a business. If you want to make it as a business owner, you have to want to make money, and I’m not motivated by that.”
What Gerber has been motivated by is the community they’ve found in town and at Rosey’s. Gerber first moved to Pine Plains from New York City to work at Chaseholm Farm. They had little to no experience farming, but Sarah Chase, co-owner of Chaseholm with her brother Rory, was an old college friend and took a chance on Gerber.
“Chase took a big risk in taking me on, and it was truly a lifesaving gesture. … [She was] so incredibly generous, in terms of bringing me into her community,” Gerber said.
While at Chaseholm, Gerber began to operate a food cart that offered coffee and pastries. Customers were mostly neighbors and friends visiting Chaseholm’s farm store, and Gerber described that first venture as a way, in part, to “trick friends into visiting us at the farm.”
From that food cart, Gerber eventually built toward a business, and in October 2021, they signed a lease on the space at 2987 Church St., marking the beginning of Rosey’s. That decision to open a cafe/restaurant arose from Gerber’s love of sharing food with people, but also a desire to “create a space where my friends and neighbors could share food that was also grown by our friends and neighbors.” Indeed, a hallmark of Rosey’s menu has been a wide variety of food produced at Chaseholm, from farm-fresh eggs to tender pork—and Gerber gave full credit for the delicious dishes that arose therefrom to Ko and the kitchen staff.
But another element of Gerber’s decision to start Rosey’s had to do with Rosey’s namesake and its motto. The store is named for Sarah Chase’s mother, Rosey, with whom Gerber has developed a strong connection.
“Rosey and her twin sister, Tully, are always saying, ‘So good to see you.’ I love that spirit [of] I’m so glad to see you, I’m so glad to connect, I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve always felt very seen and loved by Rosey, and I wanted to cultivate a space that had that feeling to it.”
And while Gerber was able to build that atmosphere at Rosey’s, over time, the demands of running a business began to take a toll: “You’re always working, there aren’t really any days off. At the beginning, there literally were no days where I wasn’t there. It’s really hard to step away, have a boundary, not answer a phone call, do orders, answer an email.”
For that reason, plus continual staffing difficulties—an issue plaguing many businesses in the region—Gerber came to the decision to wrap up the Rosey’s chapter of their life. And by way of reflection on that chapter, Gerber had nothing but positive things to say.
“I feel unbelievably grateful for the friends and community that I’ve got here. People have been so kind and generous to us. Whether that was my friends who were sanding the floors for weeks on end, or our neighbors bringing us pastries every week. I have just been struck by people’s openness and generosity.”
In terms of what’s on the horizon for Gerber, they’re heading back to Chaseholm Farm to work with Sarah. And while what they’re looking forward to most at the moment is a bit of rest and distance from managing a business, they hope to continue to do catering, pop-up food events, and maybe even bring the food cart back to life. The biggest project for Gerber after Aug. 14, however, will be making peace with an ending, even if the journey itself was successful.
“We really want things that we love to last forever. But they don’t, and it’s okay that things end. It’s okay that things change. I’m really excited for the next folks that go into that space and get to try something out. And I’m really excited for Brit’s next adventure. But it’s bittersweet for sure.”
From left, chef Brit Ko and owner Jamie Gerber of Rosey’s in Pine Plains, which will close on Aug. 14. Photo by Matt Petricone
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.