Henry Hudson Quadricentennial (400!) Birthday in NY - Saugerties Bed and Breakfast Awaits

First there were Maryland's 375th Birthday Celebration activities to visit this year (poking our head out of land-locked Loudoun); now there's the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's famous voyages up in NY, and the resulting NY birthday events in great tourist destinations such as Saugerties, NY, in Ulster County. Here's a sample of the local fare (that we've enjoyed in the past) - only a few (well, maybe a little longer than driving to OBX) hours up 95 on past NYC...

Saugerties NY Farmer's Market - Henry Hudson Quadricentennial History Day, August 1, 2009 11AM - Period Cooking/Recipes, Dress and Historical Food and Farming Demonstrations By Cafe Tamayo Saugerties Bed and Breakfast Inn.

As part of the 2009 Henry Hudson Quadricentennial celebration in Saugerties, NY and throughout the Hudson River Valley, the Village of Saugerties Farmers Market plans to serve tastes of heirloom and heritage local food made into dishes that Henry Hudson would have found very familiar. On Saturday, August 1st, market chef and founder James Tamayo, proprietor of the well-known local Saugerties bed and breakfast "Cafe Tamayo and Inn", will be preparing Venison Stew using venison from the Highland Farm with local produce from the Saugerties Farmers Market. James will also be creating a locally-sourced fruit cobbler, and Maya Graeves will provide the local corn bread and fixings. You may also catch members of the Saugerties Historical Society in period costume assisting the Saugerties Farmers Market chefs, along with many opportunities to get recipes, participate in tastings, watch demonstrations of historical cooking implements and learn from expert discussions about the local food and its history. Local farmers will also be available to talk about growing and raising foods in our times, that Henry Hudson and his crew would have used 400 years ago. The public is invited to this taste of history and to join in the celebration of the Hudson Valley bounty, unlocked by the Hudson and Champlain’s voyages.

In July 1609, Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and navigator, mapped much of northeastern North America and started a settlement in Quebec. Champlain also discovered the lake named for him, Lake Champlain, on the border of northern New York state and Vermont. A month later, Englishman Henry Hudson sailed the Dutch Halve Maen (Half Moon) into New York Bay and traveled up the river meeting with the Mohican Indians at a spot south of Albany near Castleton, historians believe.

In addition to celebrations of New York's 400th birthday throughout Ulster County, Saugerties and the surrounding region, the celebration of Hudson's legendary voyage will include two three-day festivals in both Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and in New York City – along with a transatlantic sailing race between the cities. The year-long observance of the journeys of some of the state's first explorers has been years in the making already, and is well underway. Historic displays, re-enactments, boat races, music, drama, television documentaries and big city and small town observances from the Netherlands to Quebec via the Hudson River are already taking place.

Jimmy Tamayo is a founding member of the Saugerties Farmer's Market, and with his wife Rickie runs the very well-known Hudson River Valley and Saugerties Bed and Breakfast Inn/Restaurant at Cafe Tamayo. Cafe Tamayo serves fresh food and products year-round from the Farmers Market and local Ulster County farming producers to the public, tourists or private parties. The Cafe Tamayo Inn and Saugerties Bed and Breakfast is available year-round, and is especially convenient for attending local Saugerties festivals, HITS, Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial events and more.