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A Master Gardener Offers His Diagnosis
Commentary for WAMC Northeast Public Radio LISTEN Master Gardener Gerry Weber at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties Photo credit: Ralph Gardner Jr. When my brothers...
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Halloween Came To The Candy Aisle Too Soon
Commentary for WAMC Northeast Public Radio LISTEN On a visit to WAMC’s studio in Albany last week a friendly staffer offered me a marshmallow peep. I hesitated and finally had to reject her...
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The Tesla of Chickens
Anna Hodson at Kinderhook Farm photo: Ralph Gardner Jr. Does a pampered, pasture-raised, animal welfare approved, and all around well loved chicken taste better and is it healthier for you than your...
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Visiting Consider Bardwell
Angela Miller at Consider Bardwell Farm I don’t know if it’s a sign of the growing sophistication and success of their operation, Obama era rules and regulations, or a combination of the two; but on...
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A Bittersweet Season
Commentary for WAMC Northeast Public Radio LISTEN Ransom Hall, Kenyon College I shouldn’t be talking to you right now. I should be at parents weekend. That’s where you could have found me on this...
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Tea For Town
Carrie Chen conducting a Chinese tea ceremony at Casana Tea House in Hillsdale,NY RALPH GARDNER, JR LISTEN HERE Hillsdale, New York probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind as the setting...
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Gone Beagling
Master Beagler Jack Kingsley and several canine members of the Old Chatham Hunt Club CREDIT RALPH GARDNER JR. LISTEN HERE Last Sunday – the one with the high winds and torrential rains – might not...
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Family Splitting
LISTEN HERE Ralph Gardner Jr. (left) and Malcolm St. Clair cutting wood down to size You might ask yourself, as I did, where’s the silver lining to having a two-hundred year old oak tree come crashing...
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A Visit from Dr. Soot’n Cinder
LISTEN HERE Doctors Soot N’Cinder. Bob Balfoort (left) and Kurt Straub RALPH GARDNER, JR. Consider kindling – you know the stuff you start fires with – and its ability to sow marital discord? What...
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My Grandparents, the Forgers
LISTEN HERE An antique lamp created by Myra and Ben Gardner CREDIT RALPH GARDNER JR. Last week I opened a drawer in the antique high boy in our front hall and found photographs I’d never seen before....
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The Case for Crowds
With holiday shopping season fast upon us, I’d like everybody to shop local –for entirely selfish reasons. No, I’m not a main street merchant. I don’t have some charming storefront that sells bric-a-...
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A Winter Memory
LISTEN HERE Jan and Ed Tishman in Warren, Vt. 1971 With snow in the forecast, at least somewhere, and ski resorts already making snow (they’re making snow already, right?) I think back fondly to the...
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Oh, Snow
LISTEN HERE Consider Bardwell Farm RALPH GARDNER JR. I did something last week anathema to my nature. I tried to avoid the snow. It was traveling from south to north and I was heading from the Hudson...
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The Beauty of Baths
LISTEN HERE With temperatures dipping into the single digits — and the minus single digits — and the New Year fast approaching, the moment may be right to sing the praises of an institution that...
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My Repetitive New Year’s Resolution
LISTEN HERE Midnight at the turn of the New Year found me where it always does. Outdoors. No, I wasn’t winter camping. In fact, I was barely ten feet from our back door. Still standing on the patio....
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Dreaming of Sun
(LISTEN HERE) Jesse Cutaia of Hudson Solar CREDIT RALPH GARDNER, JR This might not be the ideal season to discuss solar panels. In particular installing solar panels. Certainly not in the listening...
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Her Gift
(LISTEN HERE) Elizabeth Field On New Year’s Eve I was looking forward to presenting Bruce Shenker, a friend since college, with a special gift. I hadn’t purchased it. I was regifting it. I’d come...
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Warhol Comes to the Hudson Valley
(LISTEN HERE) Andy Warhol, Self Portrait in Fright Wig, 1985, Polaroid Polacolor print, CREDIT COLLECTION OF JAMES CURTIS / ©THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. A great, encyclopedic...
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Skating on Thin Ice
(LISTEN HERE) I had a small epiphany while ice skating last week at Ooms Pond, a conservation area in Chatham, New York. My epiphany was that I should switch to yoga. This realization occurred during...
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Our Good Neighbors
(LISTEN HERE) If you’re lucky enough to live in the country there are probably a bunch of factors that contribute to your sense of well-being. These include, in no particular order – open skies,...
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