Mat finally takes up gardening but in the safety and security of an adopted small garden plot at Four Corners Community Farm. It's a learning experience for sure, so join him via his audio journal as he tries to grow vegetables vs. flowers.

Links:

Four Corners Community Farm

Old Dutch Village Gardening Club

Garden Pals

National Garden Association

Thanks for listening to Cidiot®, the Hudson Valley's most awarded podcast. Would love to hear from you about what you would love to hear about so write in at Cidiot.com and review the show while you're there. Come visit.

This episode is all about cheese. Who doesn't love it?

To answer them all, Cidiot interviews Lauren Cunningham-Housman, owner of The Corner Counter, a new cheese and provisions shop in Red Hook, NY.

Lauren worked for years with iconic cheese purveyor Murray's Cheese in New York City, and combining her business school education and her experience in (and love of) cheese, built a plan to open her own shop. I ask her how she chose the Hudson Valley, about her journey from intern to opening her own business. I also ask about geography. Is the Hudson Valley special for cheese? And how should one buy cheese? What should I bring to a dinner party? Can we eat the rind? What’s her desert island cheese? This episode is a cidiot primer on cheese, including “affenage” — day care for cheese and facts about cheese you might not know such as there are just four ingredients in cheese, and ideas I never thought about like the seasonality of cheeses.

Tune in to learn, taste with your ears and have a laugh. Plus, for a limited time as part of the grand opening, Lauren is offering Cidiot listeners 10% off cheese and charcuterie when you use the secret code GOATS at checkout.

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

Thanks for listening. Please rate and review Cidiot in the Apple or Spotify podcast stores or simply leave us a review directly through Cidiot.com. Cidiot® is a production and registered trademark of ©2019-2023 Mat Zucker Communications. Come visit.

Sometimes the show takes you to new places, and sometimes the way to get there is the destination. U.S. Route 9 is historic—for much of the portion in New York State, it's The Albany Post Road. Join Cidiot® for a very personal driving tour from Poughkeepsie to Kinderhook with sites, stops and history along the way. Be sure to see the surviving markers, a system developed by Ben Franklin, including the iconic 100-mile marker in Rhinebeck.

Below are some of the places mentioned w/links for more info.

Poughkeepsie to Hyde Park:

Staatsburgh to Rhinebeck:

Red Hook:

Clermont to Claverack:

Claverack to Hudson:

Stuyvesant to Valatie:

Thanks for listening to Cidiot. Send in comments via the contact form on Cidiot.com, and if you’d like to sponsor an episode or be a content partner this season, please get in touch as well. Meanwhile, great news. Cidiot is up again for a 2023 Chronogrammie readers choice award for Regional Podcast in the Arts & Entertainment category. Vote now (and often) through May 15, 2023.

Sources for this episode: Croton History.org, Historic Red Hook, Poughkeepsie Journal, Rhinebeck NY Past & Future, Wikipedia. Photo: Brian Fuhr.

Welcome to Season 6 of Cidiot®!

I'm excited to talk about 700,000 acre-big Catskill Park, "America's First Wilderness," with Ryan Penny, owner of Camp Catskill in Tannersville, NY. 

In two parts, we'll cover what drew Ryan to the Catskills, about starting his store in Tannersville, spotting a cidiot, and about Catskill Park, including his four favorite spots "inside the blue line." We also get into Kaaterskill Falls and the controversy of its claim as the tallest waterfall in New York state. We also talk about micro spikes, crampons and how I shouldn’t wear my Stan Smiths into waterfalls. In part two, we cover culture, including the story and connection of Rip Van Winkle. You'll want to wake up for this.

Be sure to check out these links:

Cidiot® is a registered trademark, hosted and produced by Mat Zucker. Visit Cidiot.com for more info including sponsorship and partnership opportunities. Original music created by Space Studios.

Cidiot closes out Season 5—the show's biggest yet—with reflections on what worked and what's ahead.

Thank you for making Cidiot one of the Hudson Valley's biggest and most loved shows. Stay warm catching up on past episodes and watching the Cidiot anthem video, available here, via Cidiot.com, and on YouTube.

Thank you for our sponsors and partners this season, including El Sueco and the Don, Greig Farm, Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center, Hudson Community Incubator, Taconic Toastmasters Club, Sunflower Market in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, and Scot Hastie of Pardee's Agency (A World Company).  

Thank you to all the guests this season, including Ben Senterfit and Paul Rivers Bailey, Andrew Addotta, Allison Chawla, Jeremy Franson and Sandra Franson, Emily Sachar, Osun Zotique, Robinson Greig, Elizabeth Sobol, Mary Howard and four other Taconic Toastmasters, Diane Parisella, Kathy Stevens, Brett Barry, Suzanna Hermans, Amy Zimmerman, Amanda Stromoski, Kendra Sinclair and Jared Vengrin, Alissa Hessler, Anne Sanger and Amy Krane.

Cidiot 's new season begins March 2023. Would love hear your ideas and comments and please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com or on Apple Podcasts. Stay in touch via Cidiot.com, join the newsletter and follow on Instagram. And come visit.

I love color. I’m fascinated by color. I have questions. Amy Krane is an architectural color consultant as well as a real estate broker. And get this: she has her own podcast on color called Let’s Talk (Paint) Color with colleague Amy Woolf.

On this episode in three fun, chatty parts, Amy and I talk about her journey upstate (she’s not a newbie) and then becoming a color consultant and then into my thousand questions about color especially for rural homes, historical homes - starting with why are barns red - or as you’ll hear Falun Red - and what about painting your outbuildings the same color as your house? And then she surprises with what color was researched to paint your front door for $6,000 more in resale value. You’ll also hear about her philosophy called “Fit In, Stand Out.”

Thanks for listening to Cidiot®. Until December 22nd, you can help change history by voting for Cidiot for Listener's Choice in the prestigious Signal Awards in the Lifestyle category. Currently one of six finalists and gunning for gold.

Amy’s Links:

Other Links Mention in the Episode:

Thanks so much to Scot Hastie at Pardee's Agency and to Sunflower Market, with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, for supporting Cidiot this season.

How to contact Scot:

Ash trees are dying fast. Not just at our house, but across the Hudson Valley. This has made me learn a lot about taking care of trees (e.g., the PINE method for tree care: prune, inspect, nourish and extend), meet a shirtless tree caregiver, and find an expert to ask all my questions about insurance.

Scot Hastie of Pardee’s Agency in Kingston, NY, thankfully came to rescue us cidiots, tackling a thorough Q&A across homeowners, auto and commercial insurance. We talk about what insurance covers (and doesn't) when it comes to trees falling, septic systems breaking, hitting animals, running a business out of your home, and more. 

You’ll find the full Q&A on the Cidiot blog: https://www.cidiot.com/blog/insurance-qa-for-cidiots/

Here’s how to contact Scot Hastie directly; tell ‘em Cidiot sent ya:

Thanks to Scot Hastie at Pardee's Agency in Kingston and to Sunflower Market, with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, for supporting Cidiot this season.

Meet a couple who makes a leap, not just in moving upstate, but by restoring a motel. Cidiot talks to Kendra Sinclair and Jared Vengrin who have just opened the Reclaimed Motel in Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York.  Jared grew up here, met Kendra in college and now they’ve together been lovingly updating this motel along the Albany Post Road with a view of the Catskills. With fantasies of being Moira from Schitt’s Creek and furnishing it with vintage items within a 20-mile radius, they’ve designed it with a nod to 1960s motor lodge experience, including fun, comfortable and groovy. Hear about their experience, why they made the choice, motel history featuring Robert Redford, and some advice about visiting the Hudson Valley in the winter months including maple tapping! 

Thanks Kendra and Jared for the special offer. 

Links mentioned: 

Thank you Sunflower Market, with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, for supporting Cidiot. Long.Live.Local.

It seemed like a giant beehive was in our willow. Or was it? What should a cidiot do anyway? This episode is about the little critters that fill our lives—and our properties—in the Hudson Valley. Bees, wasps, bats, snakes, spiders, chipmunks, frogs, beavers—and more. Tune in for an education and a giggle.

Links:

Sponsors:

Photo: Brett Barry of Kaatscast podcast

Let's talk more broadly about this movement to the country and the experience for each of us. I speak to artist and photographer Alissa Hessler, founder of Urban Exodus, a project and podcast. She is also author of Ditch The City and Go Country: How to Master the Art of Rural Life From a Former City Dweller, which is how I first found out about her. You can already tell she's a role model for me.

From her studio in Maine, Alissa talks about her move to the country, what she's learned, the impact on her life, the stories she's chronicled in others, advice for you, and of course about the Hudson Valley. We also start to get our heads around winter coming and what she does to get through and thrive in it. Spoiler: canning and a dance party!

Links to what's mention in the episode:

Related episodes:

Thanks to our sponsor Sunflower Market with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck. Sunflower is devoted to deepening symbiotic relationships through clean and sustainably sourced food. Visit their site and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.