Tangled early June 2025
A rock shelf formation on the private stream. This kind of terrain creates excellent cover for trout.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Andrew Stone netted a trout on the Blackberry in May, thanks in part to some stellar advice from yours truly.Patrick L. Sullivan
The first brown trout from the private fishing club stream looks much bigger than it was because I deliberately brought my smallest net.Patrick L. Sullivan
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Matt Wabrek creates sculpture from found scrap metal and wood.
L. Tomaino
Besides the satisfaction he gets in making his pieces, Wabrek said, “I really like to see people happy and enjoying themselves. It brings people happiness to see something they like and might want to buy.”
Wabrek did structural ironwork for 25 years, working up and down the East Coast from Arlington, Virginia, to South Station in Boston.He recalls putting up a truss over the train track in Boston.
But in the back of his mind, he always had the thought of using his welding skills for other purposes.
A few years ago, when a cherry tree fell in his yard, he didn’t want the wood to go to waste. Using both his woodworking and welding skills, he milled the wood and then made metal legs for a table.From what was left, he made several charcuterie boards.
From that beginning, he went on to make sculptures, welding together creations to inhabit both garden and home. He uses old shovels, hoes, picks, hammers, wrenches, horseshoes, rakes and pieces of metal he finds at tag sales, junk shops, estate sales and the local landfill to craft his whimsical creatures.
Matt Wabrek’s metal fishProvided
He gets ideas from looking at each old piece of metal.
“Teeth from a sickle bar? I see a bird’s beak,” he said, pointing to the piece.Lifting a hinge from a neat pile in his studio, he said, “These will be dragonflies.”
He still makes tables with welded metal legs that are sculptural in themselves.His studio holds saws, shovels, and propane tanks with silhouettes of trees and other shapes cut into them — plasma cut from his own designs.
In addition, Wabrek makes chairs from old skis, recalling his days as a ski instructor.
“I like to make things, whether it’s a garden fence or whatever.I must have a creative bone somewhere,” he mused.
He recently began a new interest: making spheres. A completed one, made of old wrenches, has a temporary place in his yard, along with fish of varying shapes and sizes, jelly fish, crabs, dogs, snails, and many kinds of birds — including a woodpecker that perches on the side of a building, and long-legged cranes.
Wabrek is happy to make any of his creations on commission. He is currently working on a support for an old tree that he will craft from metal.
Birch Lane Rustics will be at arts and crafts shows and pop-up sales in the area in the coming months. To find out where or ask about sales or commissions email mcwlu15@gmail.com or call/text 860-248-9004.
Amenia native Holly Hammond shows off a few heirloom tomatoes in her new farm store, The General’s Gathering, in Mabbetsville.
Photo by Aly Morrissey
But this is not your average farm market with upscale prices and curated ambiance. While the shop is charming, its mission is designed with farmers and producers at the center. The General’s Gathering was created as a farmer-first marketplace — an approach that supports the people who grow and make the products.
The store is the brainchild of Holly Hammond, an Amenia native and multi-generational farmer who grew up on Bangall Amenia Road. Spending her formative years learning the ins and outs of farming, Hammond credits her father — the late David Hammond, a dairy farmer and veterinarian — with inspiring her to “preserve the rich agricultural heritage of Dutchess County.”
Hammond said her goal is to keep the rural spirit alive. After years on the farmers’ market circuit from Dutchess County to New York City, she wanted to capture the best parts of those markets while eliminating their biggest challenge — the seasonal shutdowns. The General’s Gathering will offer a year-round marketplace for local goods, providing vendors and farmers a longer “shelf life” to sell their products.
“From my years of selling milk and trying to make value out of products, to attending farmer’s markets and sometimes enduring the pouring rain or the freezing cold, I wanted to make a farmer’s market — or a farm store — that is available to people in every season,” Hammond said.
While the storefront itself is new, its namesake farm has roots dating back to the Revolutionary War. As the story goes, Holly’s father David grew up on the historic General Cochran’s Farm in St. Johnsville, New York. The land once belonged to General John Cochran, a General of the Continental Army under George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Holly said there was a commemorative plaque on the wall that actually logged where George Washington slept in that home during the war.
After studying agriculture at Cornell and later earning his veterinary degree there, David Hammond moved to Amenia, where he bought his own farm and carried on the name from his childhood farm. He built a life as both a dairy farmer and veterinarian, cultivating the world in which his daughter Holly grew up. Today, some of Holly’s customers still remember him fondly.
“Your father used to work on my cows,” one customer said after buying peaches and farm-fresh eggs.
Claudio Gonzalez of Gonzalez Farm in Orange County brought fresh fruits and veggies to sell under a pop-up canopy in the General’s Gathering parking lot.Photo By Aly Morrissey
Customers can expect to find farmers and vendors outside the store each week, many of whom Holly has partnered with for nearly a decade. Last weekend, Claudio Gonzalez of Gonzalez Farm in Orange County brought a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to his stand.
Gonzalez’s 20-acre farm specializes in tomatoes, corn, hot peppers, beans and much more. He credits his produce’s flavor to natural practices — no fertilizer, just careful crop rotation and an evolving mix of plants.
Adding to the mix, Culinary Institute of America-trained chef and baker Sterling Smith of Sterling Bake Shop offered sweet and savory treats, from rustic pizzas and sourdough bread to cookies and Dutch brownies. While he draws from his professional training, Sterling said he’s always looking for the next innovative creation and enjoys improvising. His homemade soups are also available inside the market, complementing the store’s pantry staples and offering something for everyone.
With its farmer-first focus, The General’s Gathering blends history, community and good food, ensuring the rural spirit of Dutchess County continues to thrive twelve months a year.
