Editor's Letter: Sweet & Sour

Our Editor Kathryn Walsh talks about September’s issue highlights, and more

To me, September is the most bittersweet month of the year. As a child and teen, I dreaded it for the first two months of summer vacation. But then, come late August, something changed—and it was all tied to my TV viewing. I was an ABC soap-opera junkie and, in a pre-DVR era, I had to suffer through commercials. Toward the end of summer, however, the network started promoting their fall season. I got excited not only about the lineup, but about the release of my favorite magazine issue of the year: TV Guide’s Fall Preview. We had a subscription and I eagerly awaited the sound of our mailbox creaking open and the subsequent thud of this spectacular issue. 

While reading through this issue of Hudson Valley magazine, I got the same kind of excitement. I’ll certainly miss summer (especially not having to get up an hour early to get my kids off to school), but there is a lot to look forward to. In our own Fall Preview, actually a Fall Arts Preview, we highlight 38 different events, exhibits, shows, etc., in music, art, film, festivals, and family fun. From a performance by the largest touring magic show in the world to a film starring a Game of Thrones hero, there is enough to pack your calendar from September through early December.

But don’t forget to leave some time for apple-picking. A visit to a local apple orchard (or what we called “the cider mill”) was another highlight of the fall season when I was growing up. We didn’t do much apple-picking, but certainly consumed a lot of cider and apple-cider doughnuts. The apple industry in the Hudson Valley is bigger than ever, producing nearly a quarter of New York State’s 32 million bushels annually. There’s so much more to our farms than apple-picking, doughnuts, and cider, though. There’s also live music, cafes serving delicious meals, and tons of fun activities. Our 2016 Apple Guide (page 52) includes not only a breakdown of what you can find at 16 of our farms, but an apple variety chart, giving you the what, where, and when; a map; and recipes. There’s also an article on another booming industry: cider.

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Another bittersweet part of September is the changing of the seasons. Perhaps I’m prejudiced, but I don’t think there’s a better place to witness fall foliage than our own backyard. In our Fall Getaways feature, we highlight two local resorts where you can leaf-peep, as well as 10 other East Coast locations. Our coverage includes hotels from Quebec to Georgia, so you can follow the foliage from late September to early November.

I hope this issue gives you as much pleasure as TV Guide once brought to me, and that the sound of it thudding in your mailbox is just the first of many exciting moments this fall.


P.S. We are now opening our essays section, “The Final Word,” to not only published writers, but to those who’ve always wanted to be published. 

 

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