Can we believe it’s soon actually going to be 2022?? That we have but one Greenmarket remaining to shop in 2021?? That our next market at 82nd won’t be until January 8th in the brand new year??
Long, deep breath.
Refocusing on the present:
Saturday, December 18th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm
At their tables will be our friends American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!
Maestra Manageria Margaret adds:
“Dear Greenmarketeers:
Been great to have Cherry Lane with us till mid-December, but this Saturday will be Lou and crew’s last till next summer!! So let’s send them off with lots of good wishes till next June!!
And not to worry!! As in years past, our friends at Nolasco Farm will be back and covering those back tables with their great produce on January 8th!!
So, how best to plan for 2 whole weekends without a market??
My strategy’s to cook up a storm for the holidays so that I’ll have a fridge full of delicious leftovers to serve up!!
Oh and one last thing… Do stop by the GrowNYC tent today and sign up for (1) the Winter Warrior Program… And (2) a special reminder that the 82nd Street Greenmarket is open all year round!!
Joy of the season to all,
Margaret“
Then there’s this POSTPONEMENT ALERT:
Monday, December 20th: Holiday Cheer with AM Seawright The Seawright Community Office, 1485 York Avenue, 2-4pm
Of course, we’ll let you know when the get-together’s rescheduled.
In the meantime, we all could consider:
And, for sure, this is a must:
Sunday, December 26th to Sunday, January 9th: MULCHFEST AT CARL SCHURZ PARK!!
86th Street and East End Avenue
Drop off your tree anytime… Or if you’d like to leave with your very own free bag of mulch, bring that tree to Schurz over Chipping Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, January 8th and 9th, 10am-2pm!!(More than 29,000 trees were chipped in 2020… How about we leave that number in 2021 dust??!!)
In the meantime, let’s all revel in this mighty fine end-of-year news:
And guess what??!! We’ll be aptly celebrating with a dinner designed around a Walnut Ridge chicken pot pie!! (Yumm!!)
So let’s talk Market:
Saturday, December 11th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm
With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Walnut Ridge, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!
Most happy to say the one and only Master Knife Sharpener will be in place at her table as well!!
Mega Ultra Manager Margaret adds:
“Dear Greenmarketeers:
Despite cold temps, there’s still plenty of produce available in the 82nd Street!!
PLUS, it’s surely looking like Lou and the Cherry Lane gang will be with us right up to the holidays!!
Speaking of holidays… How about adding some color to your table with purple, orange or green cauliflower?? Especially given that every color – including white – tastes delicious!!
And speaking of cold temps, time to start thinking about turning on the oven and roasting a chicken (Walnut Ridge)…?? Or some beef or pork (Haywoods Fresh)…?? Or try a whole duck (Hudson Valley Duck)…??
Oh and please keep in mind that we’ll be closed for 2 consecutive Saturdays – Christmas and New Year’s Days!!
BUT…
82nd’ll be back the second Saturday of the brand new year: Saturday, January 8, 2022… And every Saturday thereafter!!
In the meantime, keep an eye out for this season’s Winter Warrior promotion which will be starting very soon…
And, of course, please don’t be parking on the western half of 82nd Street if you don’t absolutely have to!! (Our farmers will be so thankful!!)
Happy shopping,
Margaret“
Then there’re these other live weekend/following week happenings:
Saturday, December 11th: Euclid & Atlantic Avenue Clean-Ups Meet at the corner of Euclid & Atlantic Avenues, Brooklyn, 10am-1pm
And we quote, “There’s a lot to accomplish, so the cleanup will run from 10am to 1:00pm in (2) 90-minute shifts. Please make sure to register for time slot you would like to join, as we will ask all volunteers to arrive at the time on their ticket.” Organized by the great NYC H2O!! All equipment supplied. And, of course, all volunteers will be masked!! For more and to sign up…
Sunday, December 12th: Ridgewood Reservoir Volunteer Landscaping Meet at the parking lot on Vermont Place, Queens, 10am-12pm
Time to give some attention to a reservoir built in 1859 to supply Brooklyn water and now a classic case study of ecological succession!! Ridgewood’s now a lush and dense forest surrounding freshwater pond/basins that are home to water fowl and a critical fresh water source for migrating birds on the Atlantic Flyway!! We want to stay that way… Free of invasives!! Another great NYC H2O event!! Gloves, garbage bags and pickers provided and masks required, of course. For further info and to rsvp…
Sunday, December 12th:Free Plant Exchange Part 3 By the boar in Sutton Place Park, entrance at Sutton Place and 57th Street, 11am-12:30pm
The last 2021 chance to share extra potted plants, clippings and plant supplies… And, of course, go home with UESide neighbors’ extra green stuff!! 100% free. Organized by the great Non-Elitist, Non-Entitled, Free Plant Exchange Group!! .See you there…
Monday, December 20th: Holiday Cheer with AM Seawright!! The Seawright Community Office, 1485 York Avenue, 2-4pm
Grab your mask and proof of vaccination and join the AM and staff for some holiday celebration!! To RSVP or 212-288-4607…
On the virtual event score:
Thursdays in December, 2-4pm: AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom
Meet a lovely bunch of neighbors who share your local interests and – of course – your knitting thing… Join the gathering with password code “knit”!!
Monday, December 13th, 10am: Lead Pipes – What You Should Know Forum via Zoom
If only lead in drinking water crisis was not unique to Flint, Michigan or Newark, New Jersey. In New York, there are at least 360,000 lead pipes that may pose contamination risks to our communities’ drinking water. Organized by Environmental Advocates NY. Free. For more and to register…
Monday, December 13th, 12pm: The Power of Access Webinar
Join the Natural Areas Conservancy and local NYC leaders to learn more about their efforts to connect diverse communities to local city nature. Moderated by Josh Otero, the NAC’s Trails Community Engagement Coordinator. Free. For further info and to sign up…
Just over the horizon:
Wednesday, January 12th, 2022, 5:30-7:30pm: Rat Academy training for Community Gardeners
Wish it wasn’t so, of course, but the problem’s a NYC and UES reality (check the map) (or you’ve spotted a problem and haven’t yet made a formal complaint…) Knowledge is power, folks!! And the ladies of Rat Academy are great with info and support!! Presented in partnership with the NY Botanical Garden. Free. To sign up…
12/9 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak found a school of young-of-year striped bass with our seine today. They averaged 115 mm. Across five hauls of our net, we also caught Atlantic silverside, white perch, blue crabs (90 mm), and four moon jellyfish. – Jason Muller, Rachel Lynch, Kiki Quiros, Bella Biane, Ishika Joshi, Rebecca Willson
Those Young Striped Bass
12/10 – Hastings-on-Hudson to Manhattan: On a perfect sunny day for seining the lower Hudson River, we began at Hastings-on-Hudson’s ’s MacEachron Park. Four hauls of our seine through very thick mud yielded many laughs as well as 23 young-of-year striped bass, two mummichogs, and four dime-sized blue crabs.
Seining on the Hudson at Inwood Park
Our next stop heading downriver was the Harlem River tidal basin at Inwood Park at the northern tip of Manhattan, beneath the profile of the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge. A half dozen hauls along a thin strip of Phragmites vegetation gave us four Atlantic silverside, a dozen smaller blue crabs, one white perch, two young-of-year striped bass, and many hundreds of mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) squirming in the mud and submerged autumn leaves. Here, the salinity was 8.0 ppt.
Most interesting was the correlation of habitat type and fish abundance. Hastings, with a more typical “beach” of sand and mud, had many more striped bass than mummichogs; the vegetated fringe of the Inwood Basin dramatically flipped that ratio. – Chris Bowser, McKenna Koons, Derek McGee, Ranger Blaisley
With the (weird) Fish of the Week being:
12/10 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 146 is the cutlip minnow (Exoglossum maxillingua) number 44 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes.
A Cutlip Minnow
The cutlip minnow is one of 32 carps and minnows (Cyprinidae) in the watershed, representing nearly fourteen percent of the 236 species. They are small, rarely more the 120 mm long. The cutlip minnow is native to the Northeast United States and is found in small clear-water streams ranging from the Saint Lawrence River watershed south to the Carolinas.
C. Lavett Smith describes them as “drab, with subdued colors, heavy-bodied, nearly terete in cross-section, an all-together ‘somber fish.’” Perhaps their most notable behavior is their predilection for plucking out the eyes of other fishes. The center lobe of the cutlip minnow’s lower jaw is sharply hardened. They use it, not unlike a scalpel, to core out fish eyes. When you come across a one-eyed white sucker, yellow perch, or goldfish, you can be quite certain that there are cutlip minnows in the area. This is a life history that could have been devised by Stephen King. -Tom Lake
[The eye-plucking behavior is largely aggression and seems to only appear during high densities of cutlip minnow. Predators often aim for the head to disable a prey fish and the eye is a good indicator of where the head is. Fish have developed tail spots in correlation with eye stripes to deflect predators toward the tail. The eye stripe camouflages the real eye, and the tail spot is often highly contrasted to make it a more appealing target. A predator going for the tail is less likely to succeed. I once took a class out collecting in Stony Creek. The creek had mostly dried up, but we found a pool where fish were trapped in high densities including cutlip minnows. Sure enough, several bluegills were missing an eye. – Bob Schmidt]
Closing out with the week’s very exotic Great Bird:
Happy The Holiday Season Is Now and Truly Upon Us, UESiders!!
More pressure than usual this year, too… Given that – you recall – Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Greenmarket Saturdays… Meaning there’re just 3 Market Saturdays till…
But the good news is all our great farmers/fishermen/bakers – including Cherry Lane – will be with is at 82nd Street till December 18th!!
So be thinking what you want on that holiday table…
Speaking of Greenmarkets:
Saturday, December 4th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm
At their tables will be our friends American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!
PLUS…
Our one and only Master Knife Sharpener will be present and honing like crazy, too!!
Then now and soon happening around our hood:
Saturday, December 4th: GPG Free Plant Exchange Part 2 By the boar in Sutton Place Park, entrance at Sutton Place and 57th Street, 11am-12:30pm.
Can’t get enough of a good thing… Like GreenParkGardeners plant exchanges!! Share those extra potted plants, clippings and plant supplies of yours… And/or go home with UESide neighbors’ great green stuff!! 100% free. See you there…
Saturday, December 4th: The Great December 86th Street Clean-Up Meet front of Shake Shack, 154 East 86th Street, 12pm
Yes, the great the great 86th Street Block Association and the Street Clean Team are at it again!! And does keeping our 86th Street tidy ever need its/your/our help!! All equipment supplied… Just RSVP…
Saturday, December 11th: Spring Bulb Planting With TreesNY 119th Street and Third Avenue (by the Silberman School of Social Work), 10am-12pm
You’ll be giving another gift to NYC when you join the great folks at TreesNY in planting spring flower bulbs in East Harlem tree beds!! Bulbs and tools supplied. Just bring yourself and your mask!! For more and to sign up….
Plenty in the virtual realm:
Wednesday, December 8th, 7pm: Seeing vs. Believing – The Public Perception of Climate via Zoom
Organized by the NYC Sierra Club with guests Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Dr. Jennifer Marion of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and Dr. Genevieve Guenther of End Climate Silence. Free. To register…
Geared toward high school students who care about creating a safer school environment for themselves and their peers, but parents and caregivers are also invited to join. Organized by SS Liz Krueger. For details and to sign up…
Thursday, December 10th, 7:30pm: “Understory”: The Tongass National Forest via Zoom
Alaskan native Elsa Sebastian’s filmic argument as to why Tongass, the largest remaining temperate rainforest on the planet, should remain pristine and roadless. Organized by Environment America. Free. For viewing options and to register...
Wednesday, January 12th (2022!), 5:30-7:30pm: Rat Academy Training for Community Gardeners
Wish it wasn’t so, of course, but the problem’s a NYC and UES reality (check the map!!) (or you’ve spotted a problem and haven’t yet made a formal complaint…) Knowledge is power, folks!! And the ladies of Rat Academy are great with info and support!! Presented in partnership with the NY Botanical Garden. Free. To sign up…
Then a NYC-centric activism duo:
Should you support continuing existence of and access to NYC Recreation Programs, you can:
The latest and greatest from the Hudson River Almanac:
11/26 – Wappingers Falls – In an extraordinary find, we came upon a pink-footed goose on Wappingers Lake within a flock of no fewer than 50 Canada geese. Our quick reporting allowed many others to see this special visitor. For many, it was a “life bird.” – Anne Swaim (Saw Mill River Audubon), Debbie Van Zyl (R.T. Waterman Bird Club) That Pink-Footed Goose
[The pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) breeds in Eastern Greenland, from where North American sightings are presumed to originate, as well as Iceland and Svalbard . They winter in northwest Europe and are a rare visitor to the northeast. However, in recent years, pink-footed goose sightings have been increasing in northeastern North America with reports from Quebec, Newfoundland, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. Since 2007, one has been seen almost every year in New York State usually on Long Island. Their presence mirrors a similar increase of other Eurasian goose species in our area such as barnacle goose and greater white-fronted goose. – Stan DeOrsey, Deborah Tracy Kral (R.T. Waterman Bird Club)]
[A “life bird” or a “life list” is a common activity for many naturalists. Typically, these are compilations of related species, like postcards from one’s travels through life. Some people keep bird lists; for others, it is fish, flowers, butterflies, mushrooms, seashells … Anyone can keep a list of almost anything that ultimately gives them a context and appreciation for the natural world. Tom Lake]
11/12 – Hudson River Estuary/New York Bight: With freezing weather and the cold-water season upon us (water temperatures falling below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (F)), please keep an eye out for stranded sea turtles. Those that have not yet migrated south can become victims of paralyzing “cold stunning,” which is similar to hypothermia. It gives them the appearance of death, but they are actually in dire need of recovery and resuscitation. Do not put them back in the water. A Sea Turtle Needing Help From November through March, we respond to dozens of sea turtles that are found cold-stunned onshore and in our waters at the mercy of the tides and currents. If you come upon a sea turtle, whether you think it’s alive or dead, immediately call the New York State Stranding Hotline at (631) 369-9829. If you have photos or videos, please send them to sightings@amseas.org. Learn more information at: https://go.usa.gov/xeWTs – Kim Durham, Co-New York State Sea Turtle Coordinator for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society
11/16 – Beacon: An early-morning visit to the Beacon waterfront immediately delivered two excellent gull species: Iceland gull and lesser black-backed gull. We then moved a short distance to Long Dock to look for migrant birds heading down the valley. It was not long before Debbie Van Zyl spotted a large sea bird flying down the river. We recognized the bird as a booby-gannet (Sulide family). It was moving quickly and at a distance, so certain identification was not possible. We took photos and later reviewed them to discover that it was an immature northern gannet (Morus bassanus). Debbie posted the sighting in one of the local rare-bird group chats, which encouraged two Manhattan birders to head to the river, fifty miles south, at the George Washington Bridge. – Kyle Bardwell. Debbie van Zyl
[Northern gannets are rare in Duchess County. We had one in 1968 and another in 1986, both in October. The latter sighting was from Long Dock in Beacon. – Barbara Butler]
11/16 – Manhattan: We were able to find the Kyle Bardwell-Debbie van Zyl northern gannet at 9:38 AM as it flew past the George Washington Bridge, two hours after it was first seen at Beacon. That Gannet In Flight
It all began as we spotted a bald eagle and another bird in flight across the river above the Palisades. The accompanying bird was very large and lanky, somewhat recalling a loon, especially in wing shape, but with a longer tail, no feet projecting, and a different bill shape. It was clearly a Sulid and instantly recognized as an immature northern gannet. The bird’s flight was steady with fairly deep but deliberate and powerful wing beats. – Adrian Burke and Dmitriy Aronov
[The northern gannet is a goose-sized albatross-like seabird nearly always seen over the ocean, rarely venturing inland except to breed. They are birds of the cold North Atlantic, with breeding colonies in the far northeastern Canadian Maritimes. They dive like pelicans or osprey when feeding; author David Sibley describes their entry as “piercing the water,” with a minimum splash, like an Olympic swimmer executing the perfect dive. – Tom Lake]11/23 – Town of Poughkeepsie: Recently, Scott Davis was hiking along the tidewater Wappinger Creek when he noticed a small, round metal button in the talus of an eroding bank. We cleaned it up and did some preliminary research on the button before seeking a professional opinion. Dr. Michael Lucas, a historical archaeologist at the New York State Museum, in confirming our thoughts said, “This was a Revolutionary War [rife in our area] Army shank button (1775-1783). There were several varieties that were produced, some in pewter, and I would imagine this would have been an ordinary soldier rather than an officer.” – Tom Lake
That Button
11/23 – Bronx-Queens, New York City: An angler reported spotting and photographing a North Atlantic Right Whale in the East River today near the Throgs Neck Bridge, where the East River meets Long Island Sound. – Tom Lake That North Atlantic Right Whale
[The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is a baleen whale. Because of their docile nature, their slow surface-skimming feeding behaviors, their tendencies to stay close to the coast, and their high blubber content (which makes them float when they are killed, and which produces high yields of whale oil), right whales were once a preferred target for whalers. At present, they are among the most endangered whales in the world and are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (1973), Marine Mammal Protection Act, and Canada’s Species at Risk Act. There are fewer than 366 individuals in existence, the lowest number in twenty years (there were an estimated 481 whales in 2011).
In the western North Atlantic Ocean, they migrate between feeding grounds in the Labrador Sea and their winter calving areas off Georgia and Florida, an ocean area with heavy shipping traffic. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear, which together account for nearly half of all North Atlantic right whale mortality since 1970, are their two greatest threats to recovery.
Then there’s the Fish of the Week:
11/25 – Fish-of-the-Week for Weeks 147-148 is the oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau), number 113 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes. An Oyster Toadfish (Yikes!)
Oyster toadfish, known colloquially as “oyster cracker,” can get to 17 inches long, range from Cape Cod to Florida, and are common along the Atlantic Coast and in New York Harbor. They are quite a handsome fish and are so admired by anglers that they have been lovingly dubbed the “mother-in-law” fish.
They set up shop on the bottom of the river and, with strong jaws and sharp teeth, they crush and feed on shellfish such as crabs, oysters, and other bivalves. While they are most often found in salt or brackish water, they can tolerate low salinity and even freshwater for a short time. Archaeological evidence (toadfish bones) found in hearths and middens on Dogan Point (river mile 40) suggests that indigenous peoples enjoyed eating oyster toadfish as well. – Tom Lake
Eco Fact of the Week: Coal remains by far the largest single source of power generation, with more than 8,900 terawatt-hours a year generated in 2020, about 45% more than gas and double what hydropower generates. None of those major sources, however, have a significant growth rate over the decade. Coal grows only 1.6% a year; gas, 2.5%, and hydro, 2.9%.
Two technologies, however, do have much more robust growth rates: wind and solar. Wind’s compound growth rate for the past decade, 16.6%, is sufficient for annual global wind generation to double in less than five years. Then there is solar. Its compound growth rate is just shy of 39%, which means that annual solar power generation doubles in less than two years.
Eco Tip of the Week: To recycle over-the-hill/unwanted Christmas tree lights just mail to: Christmas Light Source, Recycling Program, 4313 Elmwood Drive, Benbrook, Texas 76116.
This Week at The Markets 