Posted by Chuck Grimmett. Learn more on his About page.
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Perfect Ending to Summer
I was up and out before dawn on Labor Day. The temperature on my dash read 57F. Now that water temps are back in the fishable range around here and we’ve had enough rain to keep the streams flowing, I was eager to get out. As I pulled up to a spot I know well,…
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Tomatillo Poblano White Beans
Second use for the pot of alubia blanca beans I made Sunday night. We have a lot of tomatillos ripening now, so I was eager to use some. I went searching and landed on this recipe: I don’t have good photos of my own to share of this one, but is was dead simple to…
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Three late summer product recommendations
Mosquitos seem worse this year. Everyone in our house is getting bitten like crazy, and the wet spring and summer mean that the swampy areas around us haven’t dried out at all, extending their use as mosquito breeding grounds. Two things are helping us get through it: OFF! Fragrance Free Clean Feel It works, has…
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White Bean and Tomato Panzanella
Trying out a different approach to working beans into our meals during the week: Sunday afternoon I cooked a pound of alubia blanca beans on the stove and stuck them in the fridge so I can quickly use them in side dishes throughout the week. First up: White bean and tomato panzanella from The Bean…
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Midday Pocket Picking
I had a couple hours of unexpected free time early this afternoon and made it over to my favorite local wild trout stream. Even in the hottest part of the summer this small, shaded tailwater runs cold. While the other tailwaters here have warm water spilling over the dam after thunderstorms, this one never seems…
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Ghost Pipes being pollinated
Ghost Pipes popped up after the recent rains. This is my first time seeing one being pollinated! Since they are white and pop up after rain, I assumed they were a fungus, but apparently they are a plant! It is striking in appearance because it is completely white in appearance, although individuals can have pink…
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Brookies in Putnam County
Today I fished the small headwaters of a stream I drive by daily that eventually empties into the Hudson River. When I say small, I mean small. The average depth of the section I fished on state land is probably 6in, with an average width of 5ft. I saw lots of eastern blacknose dace in…
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Sampling Bin BWO Hatch
Today during our Trout in the Classroom macroinvertebrate sampling we had something very cool happen: Dozens of tiny BWOs (blue-winged olives) emerged right in our sample bins! Afterward we could see the shucks in the bin. It was great to be able to show the students this happening in realtime. Also, here is a nice…
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Brook Trout Conservation on Earth Day
Charlie’s school had an Earth Day event today and I set up a table on conserving brook trout, New York’s state fish, and the only trout native to the eastern US. I put together some stuff for all age groups: The stickers were a big hit. I ordered them from AssetArtist on Etsy. The younger…
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Spring Ramp Pasta
Yesterday I foraged some nice ramps out in the woods. I decided I’d make a spring pasta with them: I drove over to Tuscana Pasta, a local pasta maker here in Peekskill, and picked up some fresh cavatelli. I didn’t follow a recipe and I won’t try to write one here. I added: In each…
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Wild Westchester Brook Trout
Today I caught a beautiful wild brook trout today in Westchester County, just five miles from my house. I’d heard whispers that this small stream contained brook trout, and I was delighted to catch one on my first outing there. I’ve caught brook trout in Cross River, but since so much stocking goes in there,…
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Frijoles Charros y Frijoles Puercos
For this week’s bean adventure, I made Charro Beans, or Frijoles Charros. I looked at multiple recipes and cobbled together my own, which I’ll attempt to put down in words here: Notes: Since I made a full pound of beans, I had plenty of leftovers. What do you do with leftover charro beans? According to…
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Cecil E. Heacox’s The Catskill Flytyers article
Following my post containing the scans of Cecil Heacox’s 1969 Charmed Circle of the Catskills articles, Ed Ostapczuk emailed that Heacox did a follow up in the May 1972 edition of Outdoor Life on Catskill Flytyers. Naturally, I had to track that one down, too. It turned out to not be online either, so I…
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Walking the lower Pocantico River
I walked and fished the section of the Pocantico River running through Rockefeller Preserve to document disturbances with TU’s RIVERS app as part of the Big Apple Brook Trout program. Some main takeaways: The largemouth bass I was surprised to catch when I was casting to rising trout:
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Spotted Salamander
After three weeks of walking through the woods at night looking at vernal pools with a flashlight, I finally found a spotted salamander! They are slow on land, but pretty quick to swim away and hide in water. I had to be patient and wait about 30 minutes for this one to come back out…
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Woodland Spring Flowers
Charlie and I have been keeping an eye on the patches of Trout Lilies in our local woods, and today they were in full bloom. Much to my dismay, I learned after lugging my SLR out that I had forgotten the memory card in my card reader on my desk. So iPhone photos will have…
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First row of the season
Jon and I got out today on the Croton River for the first row of the season. Charlie and I spent some time earlier this week scrubbing out the guideboat and getting it cleaned up. Despite being wrapped in a tarp in my boat racks behind the workshop, some raccoons found their way in and…
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Wax-dipped Daffodils
We saw this post on Instagram about dipping daffodils in beeswax to preserve them and decided to try it out. Here they are: Amanda strung them and hung them above the mantle. Here’s one (with a bonus mini one) in a dry vase on my bookshelf, still looking great after 6 days.