the view from this year
Welcome to another issue of The Jiffy, a newsletter about upstate New York that really takes you places.
This week, I learned that Hudson Valley Magazine opened their annual “Best Of Hudson Valley” nomination ballot, and they have a podcast category. SO, if you’ve ever listened to an episode of The Jiffy Podcast and liked it, you can nominate it here:
You can find the “Local Podcast” category under Arts & Leisure. I have no idea how this works!
OK, on to this issue:
While hanging out at MX Morningstar farm in Hudson, Maria Zordan, co-owner of the farm who is also Italian and American, introduced me to the Italian concept of “Top!”
In Italian, “Top!” means the best of the best: excellent, unbeatable, peak quality. So we started thinking that it could be fun to close out the year by pitting the most popular vegetables of the season against each other to see: Which will be the top of the top, the toppissimo vegetable of 2025??
Here’s how the bracket’s looking as of Monday, Dec. 29:
You can vote each day until Dec. 31 over at MX Morningstar’s Instagram Stories.
Looking back to look forward
It was an adventurous year here at The Jiffy.
We kicked off the Cozy Map Of Comfy Places with Maria M. Silva of the Times Union; we met The Travel Log, the official travel blogger for The James Cave Instagram Feed; we kicked off CSA: A Content Series on Agriculture with MX Morningstar, and so much more.
Here’s a recap of the best and the brightest:
Cozy Season Begins: January + February
We talked cozy reads at Rodgers Book Barn with Maureen Rodgers
We blessed the trees during Wassail at Little Apple Cidery
We learned how to make Roe Jan Brewing Co.’s Cozy Flannel beer
I unveiled the official Cozy Map Of Comfy Places, with ~100 certifiably cozy places across the Hudson Valley
The Hungry Eye looked at Kitty’s brunch
The Travel Log rolled into Wassaic
Mud Season Sticks Around: March – May
The first day of spring causes me to ask a question: What is mud?
I produced this story about the singular Jan Van Hoesen-Charles Marriott house
We inoculated the Official James Cave Instagram Feed Shiitake Mushroom Log with the Catskill Forest Association, which reminds me that we should check in on this
We kicked off CSA: A Content Series on Agriculture to look at a year in the life of a Hudson Valley farm, starring MX Morningstar
I visited Cary Institute to get to the bottom of the mysteries of mud with ecologist Dr. Jane Lucas
The Jiffy’s fashion photographer, James C’Avedon, debuted this stunning portfolio of mud portraits: “The Grit And Grain Of Mud And Film”
We launched J: Magazine: The James Cave Instagram Feed Style Magazine, a luxury publication for premium members of The Jiffy
The Travel Log nearly died
We Survived Into Picnic Season: June – August
I took my first Crop Walk with the team at MX Morningstar
The Hungry Eye looked at the Great Chatham Bake-Off with Ruth Reichl
Novelist Tom Grattan told us what to read for the summer
To protect our eyes from the sun, I designed The Jiffy Hat, as modeled by eighth U.S. President Martin Van Buren
I answered a listener question and threw the World’s Most Ultimate Hudson Valley Picnic Of All Time, thanks to advice from Matthew White, Betsy Jacks, Colu Henry, Rachel Merriam, and Tom Grattan
I was accepted into Project C’s ONA Creator Cohort, making me feel like I really should start taking this seriously now
We Turn The Camera Toward Leaf Watch Season: September + October
The Leaf Watch Leaf contenders put up a tight race
Key Leaf Alert: The Leaf Watch Cam returns into The Woods of The James Cave Instagram Feed to watch this year’s Leaf Watch Leaf: the Northern Red Oak
I found a lot of interesting and potentially haunted items at the inaugural Taconic Antiques Fair
The gourds showed up for their annual Scoring Of The Gourds, always an important time of the year
I was accepted into the News Creator Corps Trusted Creators Fellowship
We listen along as the Kingston Guards faced the Ulster Nine in their season-ender, double-header vintage base ball match
Big news for Hudson ReStore fans as I scooped all national news outlets by getting a sneak-peek tour of their new location before they opened
I had the incredible honor of judging the Chatham OctoberFeast Halloween Dog Costume Contest this year
The Cozy Season Returns: November + December
We kicked off this season’s Cozy Series at the historic Four Corners of Kingston, potentially the longest surviving intersection (and coziest cluster of corners) in the country!
We learned about “wet” Cozy Books from Drew and Nora at Rough Draft in Kingston
We learned about scary Cozy Videos from Rob and Guido at Sleepover Trading in Catskill
Trusting News and I collaborated on my mission statement and FAQ page, and I am really proud of it!!!
The Butt Apple Calendar from Left Bank came and went in a flash
I spent some time in the cozy corner of novelist Olivia Muenter’s writing cottage
I learned how to bake a pumpkin crumble with Meredith Bricks
And this is only scratching the surface!
Thanks for being here this year on these fun adventures.
I have a lot planned for 2026, so I hope you’ll follow along.
I’m sponsoring my own newsletter this week, because the truth is, it’s expensive to produce the documentary podcasts, videos, photography, this newsletter – I pay platform fees, podcast and visual editing tools, gasoline (tons of gallons of gasoline to drive across this area) every month.
And I absolutely love doing it. But it also needs to be financially viable. So if you’ve found this work to be informative, or if it’s helped you see the Hudson Valley in new ways, please consider joining a paid subscription.
Your gift supports my mission of sharing stories about rural America through the lens of upstate New York.
And if you’re already a paying subscriber but would like to support in other ways, I’ve set up a donation page.
AND if you run a business and would like to sponsor this newsletter or some of my other channels, please respond to this email.
I’m truly thankful that you’re here and read, watch, and share the stories of the Hudson Valley.
I’m working on something with NYUp.com about the many (and often contentious) definitions of what constitutes as “upstate New York.” Let me know: What do you think is “upstate,” and why? What’s your rationale for this, and why/why isn’t this a serious question??
Your thoughts could be used in this project!
Reply to this email and let me know, or shoot me a DM on Instagram: @jamescave
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