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Hello from Emily!

Hello!

My name is Emily Denn and I am a senior Environmental Studies major/Chinese minor. I am from Newtonville, Massachusetts. In my free time I enjoy running, cooking, and reading (not usually at the same time).

I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you – and everyone else on the internet! Below is a selfie that perfectly displays my enthusiasm towards this class.

Grace and Colin seem fairly excited as well.

Now, a few things about the lovely town of Amenia, NY.

Below is the farmer’s market ENST 291 visited in Amenia. Although it was small it had some great variety! Vegetables, eggs, dairy, and other products like pickled garlic were found underneath the tents.

In the background of the photo above is an extremely photogenic church. Here is a close-up of it:

The minuscule town center of Amenia is sleepy but well-manicured. I am a fan of the Black-Eyed Susan, so I very much enjoyed the planters in the main intersection of town:

Overall, our class expedition to Amenia was a good introduction to the Amenity Economy of the Hudson Valley.

An Introduction

In my high school, our teachers would talk about our “Sandton bubble” and then I applied to Vassar College, and I started hearing about the “Vassar bubble”. With a beautiful campus, almost anything you could ever need within a mile radius and a lack of public transport, it’s pretty easy to stay in the vicinity of Vassar College for all four years of your education here – but I didn’t want to. When I found Field Experiences in the Hudson Valley, it was the perfect way to get out of the “bubble” before I ever got too comfortable in it.

My name is Caitlin Munchick, and yes, I do have an accent – it’s from South Africa. I’m from Johannesburg, which has around four to ten million people, depending on how you define it. So, coming to Poughkeepsie, with a fraction (of a fraction) of the people living here, has definitely been a change for me. Then, we went to Armenia, which was a fraction of the size of Poughkeepsie, and surprisingly I kind of liked it.

With one traffic light directing “traffic”, empty plots of land, scenic stops along the way and quaint, wooden houses completed by the American flag, raised up high – it was completely different to what I’m used to. It was charming, especially after finding a drive-in theatre and a store named “Antiques, A Loose Interpretation” that was “Open (more or less)(less than more)”. I could see why tired New Yorkers would retreat to towns like Armenia.

Although the farmer’s market was probably half the size we would have expected (at least), it compensated with a friendly vendors and great produce. With a professor who loves the word “selfie”, a class outing every Friday, and a good group of students, I’d say I’m feeling pretty good about this class so far.

A Humungus Fungus is Amungus

My name is Colin Cederna and I am a Sophomore at Vassar College. I am from Saline, Michigan, a small farming town south of Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan). I am an environmental studies major with a political science correlate. I am interested in environmental lobbying, forest ecology, and energy. I strive to reshape the current self-destructing behaviors and decisions of our constantly growing society. A lofty task, but I am willing to take it on full throttle.

Cruising through a lush valley in the some-what rural New York county of Dutchess, our Vassar van screeched to a halt. A voice in the back questions, “Is this it?” saying exactly what everyone else was thinking, but were too afraid to ask. The farmer’s market of Amenia, New York was extremely small, so small that our class size of 10 almost outnumbered all of the vendors at the market. Despite it’s shocking size, the quality of the vendors was topnotch. I met a women who grew an assortment of mushrooms in a patch of woodland behind her home. In the past, I had heard of mushrooms being grown in climate controlled cases as well as on cow dung (how they grow naturally), but I had never heard of farming mushrooms on logs in the forest.

I then continued on my journey to the end of the block where a flash of blue caught my eye. Looking to my left a vibrant blue house stood proudly at the edge of the street. Remnants of a time when builders built unique homes, distinct from one another. It was a glimpse into the past, when things weren’t so complicated and a family could be happy living out their life in a beautiful blue home. A time when they would be content with not going to Vail or San Diego for Christmas, but rather sticking out the long winter of the Hudson Valley. The home was visually stunning and helped contribute to the overall great vibe of the town.

Turning back towards the vendors I spotted one of my favorite things, baked goods. Instinctually I plodded towards the fresh aroma of muffins and scones. The perfection of the desserts held my gaze until finally the baker questioned, “Do you need any help?”. Snapping out of my day dream I quickly apologized because truthfully, I didn’t even have a dollar. Sadly, I left the beautiful food for another hungry wanderer and went on my merry way.

Storm King Art Center

On a fantastic late summer day, I took my family to the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville (Orange County). The museum is a sprawling, 500-acre estate showcasing massive outdoor works of sculpture and environmental art. Storm King Art Center is nestled in a foothill of the western face of Storm King Mountain. A lot of people were visiting on this day, but aside from the museum building, the parking lots, and the cafe, you can have a real solitary experience wandering the grounds. On the other side of this outdoor is the New York Thruway; the distant sound of cars whizzing by is the only thing that interrupts a total immersion into art and land.

First opened in 1960, the museum is perhaps one of the primary ways that the high art worlds of New York City and the world have come to know the Hudson Valley’s landscape. Some of the very top names in art have huge works on display here: Roy Liechtenstein, Richard Serra, Maya Lin, and so on. One indication that the museum’s patrons come largely from the New York City area is the fact that a Storm King Art Center membership includes a discount on renting a Zip Car; NYC residents often don’t own cars, and this place is really only accessible via auto or bus.

The highlight of our visit was Maya Lin’s work, Storm King Wavefield. Whereas most of the works are metal sculptures that visitors are asked not to touch, this “piece” is made of the earth itself. Visitors can walk (or run, as my kids did) up and down, lie down, hide behid, and otherwise traverse the slopes that Lin designed.