On September 6th, a senior group traveled to the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge. In the photo, co-founder Scott Serrano describes the fruit on his Dwarf Tamarillo plant. "Like an apricot," he said. He then gave Joanna a seedling which she is growing in her office at the Community Center. The leaves smell rather horrible, but we can see if it will fruit when planted outside the Center next summer! 

This tree is Heptacodium micronoides, also known as the Seven Sons Flower Tree. It's a late summer blooming tree and no trees are found in the "wild" anymore in its native origin of China, says co-founder Allyson Levy.

Joanna will plan another trip to Hortus next spring.

As recounted by Sharon Roth:

We took a bus with 14 senior citizens from New Paltz. Our Director drove the small bus. Not a school bus… we had lunch in the Apple Pie Bakery Café. The food was all made by students and it was excellent. I wanted the Spanakopita, but they were out. I asked for the apple ginger tart. All gone. I settled for the last cheesecake. With a small bottle of San Pellegrino. Yum. 

I asked a junior named Chelsea from New Jersey if she wants to become a sous chef after graduation. She said that that is not the first step. The first step is prep chef then executive chef. Then sous chef. Then main chef. She actually wants to become a chocolatier. 

It was a great day!

Peter Blum took participants on a sound journey using his vast range of instruments from around the world. The arrangement of instruments set up next to him was a spectacle in itself. One hand-made percussion panel was given to him by his friend, the late Jack DeJohnette, world renowned jazz drummer, also of Woodstock. At one memorable moment, his singing voice melded into an accompanying instrumental sound for an other worldly effect.

________

Join us for an evening soundscape with Peter Blum. He will play a variety of gongs, Himalayan singing bowls, Sabian resonating bells, handpan, tamboura, ngoni, frame drum, and vocals.

Saturday, November 8 from 7:00 to 8:00pm (Community Center)

Thank you Matoaka and Julia for an extraordinary performance of a beautiful and unique artistic partnership. Thank you Girlscouts Elli and Sophia for helping to welcome ours guests. 

"Adventure into Time, sing to the Waters, and help the Sky.

Come into this Life with music. Be Stardust. Be grateful. And...listen."

- Matoaka Little Eagle of New Paltz

Read more about Matoaka and Julie here.

Saturday, May 16th from 6:30 to 8:00PM (Community Center)

Installation Day was a wonderful community event! Some pictures! here, here, and here.

We had a lovely evening at the Summer Solstice Potluck and Talk. In attendance were representatives from the New Paltz Garden Club, Wild Ones, Gardens for Nutrition, and Little Logan's Veganic and Biocyclic Farm. Former supervisor Amanda Gotto, who helped launch this PCA grant project, and landscape designers Ashley Gammel and Marvin Warren were also present. 

In her talk, Gammel explained how the plants grown for this garden are endemic to our specific region. Some of them host endangered pollinators that need one specific plant to survive. This garden will not make a big impact to pollinators on its own, but will serve as a visual demonstration of the plants, so people will be inspired to plant them in their own gardens.

This garden, as well as other new PCA gardens in Ulster County, are paid for by a Monsanto settlement with New York State. 

• Summer Solstice Potluck and Talk at the Field of Dreams / Sunday, June 21st, 5-7pm

Celebrate the summer solstice and Father’s Day with an outdoor community potluck, and enjoy some education on the side! After enjoying great community food, and conversation, you can learn about the pollinator garden coming to this site from Ashley Gamell of PollinateHV, a project of Partners for Climate Action (PCA). The New Paltz garden is one of seven other public demonstration gardens coming to the Hudson Valley this season. Gamell will share plant highlights, pollinator insights, and design strategies from PollinateHV's work at the intersection of pollinator conservation and ecological landscape design. This free event is a collaboration between PollinateHV of Partners for Climate Action, the New Paltz Recreation Department, Wild Ones Mid-Hudson Valley and New Paltz Garden Club.

RSVP to Joanna at recreation@townofnewpaltzny.gov. Or register below.

• Community Volunteer Planting at the Field of Dreams / Thursday, June 25th,  5-7pm

Volunteer to help plant the new pollinator garden at New Paltz's Field of Dreams Park. Please bring a trowel or soil knife and garden gloves to planting day.

RSVP to Joanna at recreation@townofnewpaltzny.gov. Or register below.

Update: The Bridge Builders Camp teens came on Friday and transformed our little pollinator garden in front of our Community Center. Come visit and walk the lovely pathways!

Come join us for some community gardening hours with your neighbors!

At the Field of Dreams - Saturday, July 25, 10-11am - we will work on weeding the new little pollinator garden near the concession stand. It should be easy with all the rain we've had! We can work out which are the weeds and which are the natives together. Lots of purslane.

At the Community Center - Friday, July 31st, 9-12pm - we are so lucky to have teens from the Hudson Valley Bridge Builders joining us to help  weed, cut back, and mulch pathways. Our Pollinator Paradise is going to be transformed before our eyes!

Saturday, July 25 from 10-11am. (Field of Dreams, new pollinator garden near the concession stand)

Friday, July 31 from 9:00 to 12:00pm (Community Center Pollinator Paradise Garden)

UCRRA Recycling Outreach Team Angelina Brandt (pictured left) and Eva Barnett (pictured right) held a fascinating and inspiring workshop on how to compost in your own home. They brought vermiculture and bokashi buckets to show and explained how easy the process can be if you know the basics. Even seasoned composters learned some tips.

Here Angelina is showing a bucket of active Red Wiggler worms.

Here is a video of Eva is demonstrating one way to finish a "bokashi cake."

Click here for UCRRA's booklet on bokashi composting.

Click here for UCRRA's booklet on vermicomposting.

Stay tuned for another indoor composting workshop this fall!

Join Ernest Masaaba, educator and child advocate, who is visiting from Uganda. He will discuss the organization AOET Uganda. https://aoet.org/uganda-locations.php. Through this organization you can sponsor a child from kindergarten through university and provide nutrition and medical support to the child as well as to their caretakers.

See flyer here.

Join San Diego 2025 Western Ultimate Champion Deanna Abrams (and Director of Wayfinder) for a two day clinic for kids and kid's adults of all ages at Duzine Elementary gym.

See flyer here. Sign up here.

Sponsored by https://ultimateforall.com

January 6th and 13th from 5:30 to 7:00pm. (Duzine Elementary)

Free wellness activities every Wednesday at Hasbrouck Park this summer!

Yoga, breathwork, and Dance Xross Fitness, brought to you by the Town of New Paltz Office of Community Wellness.

See flyer here or go to npthrivingtogether.org.

Wednesdays, from 10:00 to 11:00AM, July 9th through August 6th. (Hasbrouck Park. If raining, Redeemer Church.)