When it came to food, my upbringing, compared to my friends in 1970s suburban Connecticut, was a little different. Sure, I ate Wonder Bread (when I wasn’t balling it up and throwing it at my kid sister, anyway), Twinkies and lots of other things that Michael Pollan has dubbed “edible foodlike substances.”

But my family and I also ate real food, grown on my grandparents’ farm. While many of my friends were eating green beans out of a can (yuck!), I was chowing down on green beans fresh from the farm (we called them “grandpa beans,” because, well, we got them from grandpa). I knew exactly where my fruits and vegetables came from.

At that time, the organic, buy local, movement was still in its infancy. Thirty-plus years later, it seems that “organic” has become the food buzzword of the moment: believe it or not, Wal-Mart (yes, Wal-Mart) has become the largest purveyor of organic produce in the United States. And they’ve even gotten into selling “local” produce, although their definition of “local” goes a little bit into some grey areas. When it comes to making food choices, you really have to ask yourself: does the fact that your apple was grown in the same state where you’re buying it—even if it was over 200 miles away—qualify that apple as “local?” (To Wal-Mart, it does.)

For me, it does not. Don’t get me wrong—I love convenience and I love affordability. For me, though, I find convenience and affordability at my local farmers’ market. And I get the added bonus of meeting the folks who grow my food.

At my farmers’ market, I can find in one place all the fruits and veggies—not to mention eggs, cheese, honey, maple syrup and other good stuff—I need to keep me well-fed for the coming week. Yes, it does cost me a bit more than the regular supermarket, but in the long run those costs are offset by the many benefits: fresher food that’s better for me; the lower environmental costs of transporting that food the short distance from farm to market, and more money going to the farmer who grew that food.

This month is the perfect time to spend some money with your local farmer: September has been officially deemed Catskills Buy Local month. Sponsored through a collaborative effort of Farm Catskills, Pure Catskills and the Watershed Agricultural Council, the Buy Local Challenge asks consumers to pledge to purchase $10 worth of local produce a week for the month of September. It’s a great opportunity to get out there and learn about the great wealth of local food producers in the Catskill Region and Hudson Valley. Aside from being good for you, it’s good for the local economy. To learn more about the Challenge, read Tara Collins’ article, “The Dirt Path: Get Fresh with Your Local Farmer!”

This month, we’ve profiled one of those local food producers: Traphagen’s Honey & Gourmet Shop on Route 23A in Hunter. Anyone who has driven Route 23A eastbound into Hunter will recognize the familiar sign and flag that marks the spot where this gourmet market has stood since 1948.

And in “Book Talk,” Esther Blodgett reviews a terrific new book about the rich farming heritage of the Catskill Region and Hudson Valley: Hudson River Valley Farms, by Joanne Michaels.

We’ve also re-named the “Dining Guide” the “Food and Farm Guide.” We realized that many opportunities to explore the rich food heritage of the Catskills lay outside the restaurant experience, so we’ll now be including listings for farms, markets and other food purveyors right alongside restaurants, so if you choose to eat in, you know where to go.

Eat local! See you in the Mountains.

Yours sincerely,


Sarah Taft
Managing Editor
tafts@catskillmtn.org