This is about. the Howe family. In 1939, Carolyn Howe got married. One of her wedding presents was a 16mm movie camera. She did exactly what a young mother should: took baby pictures! She took pictures of life around her in Falls Village, Connecticut.As she became more interested she started experimenting with color and…
Category: Agriculture
We used to have many more farms in Pine Plains. But we still have the culture of agriculture — see our Ag Fair, visit some farms.
Making History
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“ If an event happens in the past and is not, in some way, recorded or preserved, has it happened? Is it history? History has to be made. This is the story of how some people…
Spinning Squash at the Ag Fair
It’s a yearly tradition that I’ve been going to for years: the 2015 Ag Fair hosted by the Future Farmers of America at the high school in Pine Plains. This year I was hoping to find something a little different to film. But the parade started out as it does every year, with the school band, tractors, politicians, tractors, kids…
Burger Night at the Farm
Chaseholm Farm Creamery held its last “Burger Night” event of the 2015 season. Oh, how I wish there were more! It a great combination of “scrumptious” burgers, the cows, the people and the music by Jim “Cowboy” Wright and his bluegrass band, The Hayrollers, just up the road in Ancramdale by way of Virginia. Well, see for yourself!…
The Man Who Made Pine Plains Tick
Once a week for many years Greg McEldowney would come and wind the Town Clock and keep it running. He passed on November 11, 2017. He was a keeper of Pine Plains history. Now he is part of it. This video portrait of Greg was made in 2015. He deserves to be honored. Pine Plains,…
Let’s Remember Sal….
Sal passed away in May, 2013, at the age of 77. Although I would run into Sal at one of his jobs in town, either at at Deuel’s hardware or at the vet clinic, I used to look forward to seeking out Sal each year up on the Hill at the Dutchess County Fair where…
Burgers with the Herd
Burgers with the cows at Chaseholm Farm. The first in what I hope will be an on-going event. We had a great time, hung out with our favorite herd of cows, some old friends, and met new ones. If this farm looks at all familiar, perhaps you have seen it here on Pine Plains Views! You…
You Know It’s Spring When…
It’s time to shear the sheep! There are all sorts of signs of Spring, but I’ve picked this one to show on Pine Plains Views: the annual sheep shearing on Black Sheep Hill farm. These American Black Welsh Mountain Sheep are special for many reasons not the least of which is that they decorate Route…
A Farrier? What’s That?
Here in northeast Dutchess County, it was dairy farms and we were the Milk Bottle of New York City. But the dairy farms closed and different animals were brought to graze our pastures — horses. Now we’re Horse Central. And along with the new animals came new people and traditions. And new trades. One of…
A Halloween Story: Those Pumpkins on Patchin Mills Bridge
Every year, come Halloween, Jack O’ Lanterns, dozens of them, show up and glow on the bridge at Patchin Mills. This is the story behind them. If you have a good connection, enjoy the show full screen in HD! The music is the Symphonie Fantastique, the fifth movement with the Dies Irae theme, conducted by…
Sheep and Alpacas and Llamas and Goats and Wool and Food Festival
Seems like they had everything! Particularly, a large crowd on a sunny October day at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
Picking Pumpkins on a Fall Day
A fun way to get some fresh air, some good food, and get to know a local farmer — visit a local farm! Here, at Rocky Reef Farm, the public is welcome to enjoy the bounty of the Hudson Valley. There are many local farms in our area to visit and Pine Plains Views will…
A Touch of Country: The Fall Fair
Every year the Stissing Mountain High School chapter of the Future Farmers of America runs an ag fair. I’ve filmed different parts of it before, but this year I’ve pretty much stuck to the tractor pulls and the barn where kids show cows. Related stories are at a previous Fall Festival Fair coverage and a…
Last Night at the Wild Hive
After a four-year run, the Wild Hive Farm, Store & Café Bakery closed. A few miles away, in Clinton Corners, not Pine Plains, but it could have been and I wish it had been. I made this film on its last night to preserve how its customers celebrated its contribution to the community. I could…
The Family Farm
This is about a dairy farmer, Barry Chase, who is about to sell his herd of milking cows. I visited with him and his wife, Rosey, a few days before their herd leaves.
Food For Thought
Field work — literally — when Vassar College students milked cows, fed turkeys, picked fruit, mucked stalls and wrote ethnographies as part of an anthropology course.
Farming the Future
The 4- H Club dairy cow competition was a proud event for Pine Plains at the Dutchess County Fair. Gina Brooks and her brother, Patrick, showed two of her cows, a Brown Swiss and a Holstein, which she has been keeping in Barry Chase’s barn.
The Culture of Agriculture
The farmers may be leaving their farms and the farmland, even if preserved, may be left only as viewscape. But a culture and tradition of agriculture remains. Each year the Agriculture Fair, put on by the Future Farmers of America in Pine Plains, grows as an area attraction.
This Old Mill
I often drove by an old building on the outskirts of Pine Plains and wondered about what it used to be. As it was beside a small pond, I assumed it was an abandoned water mill. But when I saw some activity going on around it (actually underneath it) my curiosity got me to pull…