Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley

Episode 62: Raising Chickens

Interest in raising chickens has grown in recent years. This interest can be grounded in harvesting their eggs or their meat or simply for home-grown entertainment. If you're wanting to learn more about starting to raise your own backyard chickens, this is an episode that you don't want to miss!

With over 20 years of experience in owning, operating, and consulting for small farms, livestock, and poultry, Nicole Childrose, ,Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at Columbia-Greene Community College. She is deeply inspired by home, family, friends, tenderness, and love for animals, excitement about nature, and passion for everything with a history that has a story to be told. She shares her passion for raising chickens and offers valuable advice on how to care for them, from establishing a routine to proper feeding and watering to keeping the coop clean and secure and good neighbor relations. Nikki also emphasizes the importance of research so that you're informed and well-prepared before starting your flock.

Nikki's passion for chickens is sure to inspire and motivate you to start your own backyard flock, so if you're ready to take the plunge and start raising chickens at home, tune in to this episode of Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley and get started today!

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Nikki Childrose

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Teresa Golden and Annie Scibienski

Resources

Episode 61: Food, Forest, and a Little Language

One more time, we’re providing a potpourri of interesting topics in an episode. If you're interested in cooking with fresh, locally sourced produce and are looking for creative ways to use winter vegetables, you'll love Patch to Plate, hosted by Annie Scibienski. In this episode, Annie shares an easy recipe for sweet potato and black bean salsa that can be used in everything from salads to pasta dishes.

And for those who want to expand their knowledge of gardening and botany, It's All Greek to Me is a must-listen. While plants are rooted in soil, their names are more often as not rooted in Latin. Host Jean Thomas takes a deep dive into the world of Latin plant names and the fascinating stories behind them. You'll learn how plants like the poinsettia and magnolia got their names and the individuals they were named after, including botanists and doctors.

Lastly, if you care about preserving the environment, don't miss Pests and Pathogens. Hosts Jackie Hayden and Dede Terns-Thorpe discuss the emerald ash borer, an invasive species that has caused significant damage to the ash tree population in North America. Jackie and Dede cover everything from the beetle's life cycle to the measures being taken to prevent further spread.

With topics ranging from creative recipes for winter vegetables to the fascinating stories behind plant names, and the impact of invasive species on our ecosystem, this episode of Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley has something for everyone.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guests: Annie Scibienski, Dede Terns-Thorpe, Jackie Hayden

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Teresa Golden and Annie Scibienski

Episode 60: American Eels

Did you know that there are 800 species of eels? They are an important element of the natural food web as well as a source of food and bait. Eels are born in the ocean but live most of their lives in fresh water, before returning to the ocean to spawn. The American eels are born in the seas around Bermuda, before they start a year-long migration to the Hudson River. They can be found along the Atlantic coast including the Chesapeake Bay up to the Saint Lawrence River region.

Join Kelsey Jean West from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess County in a fascinating discussion about eels, including a research project that counts the eels that migrate up to the Hudson River. There is still a lot of mystery around the eel, so the citizen science research project that has been going on for over 13 years helps the Department of Environmental Conservation make regulatory decisions to help protect this endangered species.

The Hannacroix Creek is one of twelve locations along the Hudson River where local volunteers count the glass eels (the one year old American eels in the third of six stages of maturity) as they reach their freshwater homes where they stay through adulthood. They eventually grow to be up to 4 feet long and as heavy as 17 pounds and can live anywhere between 10 to twenty years in fresh water. Then they eventually return to their birthplace in the Atlantic Ocean where they spawn at the end of their lives, and the cycle starts again.

Learn more about eels including how you can engage with this citizen science project on the podcast, Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Kelsey Jean West

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett and Teresa Golden

Episode 59: All About Ticks

Joellen Lapman from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program joins Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley for a fascinating (and scary) discussion, All About Ticks. Learn about the latest news and research on ticks and tick-borne diseases

Ticks are related to spiders but can be much more dangerous to humans. How many diseases are connected with ticks? Unfortunately, it’s much more than Lyme’s Disease.

Climate change and our warmer winters are enabling different kinds of ticks (other than the black-legged deer tick) to move into the Hudson Valley. (The only place you can avoid ticks is in Antarctica!) Do you know the relationship between mast years for nut trees (e.g., oaks, hickory, etc.) and ticks? Do pesticides help? Is addition to deer, controlling the mice and chipmunk population is also important.

Personal prevention is key, but having flu-like symptoms in the springtime may be a signal to check for a tick-borne disease. Anytime you are off pavement, you are in tick territory. Permethrin on clothing helps. But did you know that putting clothing in the dryer (not the washer) will kill ticks? Checking pets for ticks is just as important as checking yourself. There is lots of information that can be found on-line (not all of it ‘sound’) about the removal of ticks, but the key is to avoid ‘upsetting’ the tick.

Joellen provides a wealth of valuable information. Get caught up on the latest science related to ticks!

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Joellen Lapman

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Productions Support: Linda Aydlett and Teresa Golden

Resources

Episode 58: Shade, Winter Squashes and March Myths

This episode is a mosaic of multiple gardening topics.

It starts Tim Kennelty (The Cover Up) discussing the merits of the family of sedge plants as a great pollinator-friendly ground cover, which can also be used as a living green mulch or a ‘lawn’ substitute. Jean Thomas then espouses the wonders of hops. This aromatic and robust vine can grow to 15-20 feet tall and has white cone-like flowers. Its hexagonal stem, which grows clockwise is a distinguishing feature.

Jackie Hayden and Dede Terns-Thorpe return with another segment of Pests and Pathogens. Do you know how to tell if the insects flying around your house are fruit flies or fungus gnats? While they are distant cousins, they are actually very different. Learn how to tell them apart, and how to manage them if you spot them visiting your houseplants this time of year.

Finally, we have a new recurring segment called Made in the Shade. Master Gardener Barbara Bravo joins us from Ulster County to talk about shade gardening. This first one starts by helping us understand some of the rewards of shade gardening as well as how light, partial and deep shade is defined to help you with the selection of appropriate plants for your garden.

Listen and enjoy the imagery that will come to mind with this episode.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guests: Dede Terns-Thorpe and Jackie Hayden, Barbara Bravo

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Teresa Golden and Annie Scibienski

Resources

Episode 57: Monarch Butterflies

Everyone knows that the monarchs love milkweed plants as a critical food source for their caterpillars. Monarchs tend to show up in the northeast just as the milkweed plants start to bloom. But herbicides and development are impacting the population of these colorful pollinators. We also know that the adult butterflies migrate south for the winter months. But do you know where they go?

Master Gardener volunteer, Devon Russ, and Jenni Cawein join the podcast, Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley with a fascinating discussion about Monarchs. They took a very interesting World Wildlife Fund tour to the Sierra Madre mountains in central Mexico. There they watched the monarchs in their winter habitat located above 10,000 feet in elevation.

Have you ever seen hundreds of thousands of monarchs in one place? Did you know that you can actually hear their wings flap as you watch monarch butterflies hanging from the branches of special trees that create a micro-climate that is critical for their survival?

It takes four generations of monarchs to migrate from the northeast to Mexico and back. The single generation that lives in Mexico in the winter do not reproduce, but rather preserve their energy to make the return trip to the US (usually Texas).

Learn all about these fascinating butterflies in this podcast episode.

Hosts: Jean Thomas and Tim Kennelty

Guests: Devon Russ and Jenni Cawein

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett and Teresa Golden

Episode 56: Houseplants

On this week's podcast episode of Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley, learn from Rochelle Ashley from Story’s Nursery in Freehold, NY … a gardener’s destination. She discusses some favorite houseplants including suggestions about how to grow them. She focuses on plants that are relatively easy to grow as well as some that are quite dramatic or a bit fussier to handle. Whether it be “Lucky Bamboo”, Air Plants, Pathos, Ferns, Rubber plants, snake plants, spider plants, cactus, jade plants, peace lilies, or African violets, there is a houseplant for you.

Rochelle discusses the wide range of varieties that are available today, as well as how to identify, avoid or address any potential plant diseases. There are plenty of options for rooms with sunny windows as well as rooms that have more indirect sunlight. There are also plants to be careful with if you have pets in your home. She provides tips on the best way to size a pot for a plant and ways to successfully re-plant a houseplant that has outgrown its current home. Watering and fertilizing hints might help you gain a green thumb when dealing with houseplants.

Listen and learn how to successfully grow beautiful plants in your home year-round.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Rochelle Ashleigh

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett and Teresa Golden

Episode 55: Plants, Pests and Plates

Tim Kennelty returns with another Good Plant/Bad Plant segment. This time he talks about Ironweed, a great native, pollinator plant known for its purple flowers and impressive height that will add ‘presence’ to any garden. Then, he explains why the invasive Japanese Barberry is not such a good choice for your garden as it creates a great habitat for the white-footed mouse which is known to be a carrier for tick-borne diseases.

Then Jackie Hayden and Dede Terns-Thorpe are back with another segment of Pests and Pathogens. Thís time they discuss a category of blisters, galls, and spots on leaves and trees that are caused by a rust fungus. Learn all about them here!

Finally, we have a new recurring segment called Patch to Plate. Annie Scibienski, a new Master Gardener volunteer, highlights ingredients from the home garden and how they can be used in the home kitchen. In this segment, she features root vegetables and uses them to create Maple-Glazed Carrots and a Hidden Beet pound cake. Yum!

Hosts: Tim Kennelty, and Jean Thomas

Guests: Tim Kennelty, Dede Terns-Thorpe, Jackie Hayden and Annie Scibienski

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Teresa Golden and Annie Scibiencki

Resources

Episode 54: Living with Deer

New York State residents tend to have a love/hate relationship with deer. Many people enjoy watching deer in nature, and others look forward to deer hunting season. But when a driver has a collision with a deer, a gardener finds that a garden has been harvested by one, or a patient is diagnosed with a tick-borne disease, the admiration of this wildlife quickly shifts to frustration.

Teresa Golden, a Master Gardener volunteer, joins the podcast, Nature Calls: Conversation from the Hudson Valley, to help us understand the habits of deer to make it easier co-exist with them. Learning about what deer like (e.g., deer ‘candy’) and what they prefer to avoid makes the selection of landscape plants easier to keep them away from your garden. She also talks about the plusses and minuses of repellants and fencing to make it possible to have a more peaceful coexistence with deer.

Learning about deer will help you continue to enjoy them in the wild while keeping your landscape safe from their presence.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Teresa Golden

Photo by: Teresa Golden

Production Support: Linda Aydlett and Teresa Golden

Resources

Episode 53: Community Supported Agriculture

Keri-Sue Lewis from Common Hands Farm, located in Philmont, NY, joins the podcast to talk about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Their mission is to provide healthy, affordable food access by way of bringing small farming into the future. Using Certified Naturally Grown methods, they provide their CSA members with weekly boxes (between June and November) of their bountiful harvests of 100+ varieties of vegetable, herbs and micro-greens grown on their 25-acre farm. Having grown up in the Hudson Valley, Keri is passionate about changing the food systems in this area, providing seasonal crops, and bringing access to healthy food to the community while helping others connect with nature. The farm also offers delicious value-added products with their crops, inspired by preserving the bounty of the season. These can be found at local farmer’s markets as well as at local stores and wholesale buyers.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Keri-Sue Lewis

Photo by: Tim Kennelty

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Teresa Golden and Annie Scibienski