The Town of Pine Plains

Who would have guessed that the tiny and disarmingly unpretentious, one-stop-light Town of Pine Plains, NY, has what it takes to attract and sustain the widely diverse community of people who call it home? What made one writer describe this corner of the Berkshires as, “a slice of utopia?” Does it all come down to one word, “…location, location, and location?”

Pine Plains has fewer than 3,000 year-round residents in its several hamlets. It is equidistant from Great Barrington, MA, and Rhinebeck, NY. Dairy farmers, horse breeders and an impressive array of creative people lead quietly productive lives here. The town center remains largely untouched by development and gentrification; and is most aptly described by what the community does, rather than what it looks like.

The citizens of Pine Plains have smartly capitalized on a key opportunity that comes with rural life — family farms. By supporting small farmers they have established Pine Plains as a reliable and sustainable source of food for the region. The area has been steadily transformed into a network of farms and businesses now working in concert to supply one another with the basic ingredients needed to live rich and creative lives.

Food and science writer Michael Pollan, no stranger to the Berkshires, put it best in The Omnivores' Dilemma. “Eating is an agricultural act,' as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too. Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact, how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world - and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction”.

Could this be why young, hard-working couples, move to Pine Plains, put down roots and establish or revive farms and businesses? The Amazing Real Live Food Co. on Chase Road is an interesting example. This producer of small batch, artisanal cheeses and probiotic products, includes a mission statement on its website explaining, “Through local resource management and cooperative networks our mission is to provide you with a product you can feel great about.”
amazingreallive.com

Feeling great in Pine Plains can also be found in the simple satisfaction of a bracing walk through its countryside. Stissing Mountain and Thompson Pond Nature Preserve have delightful trails for snowshoeing or cross-country skiing in winter, and hiking and picnics in summer. A Sunday swim at the town beach at lovely Stissing Lake is best when followed by Music at the Lake, a free summer concert series held on Sundays at 4PM.
www.nynjtc.org/park/stissing
www.nynjtc.org/park/thompson-pond-preserve

Another strong component of a life well lived is style. Interior design, garden design, locally produced food and drink, artfully presented and offered in generous abundance are all hallmarks of Joan Osofsky, creator and life force behind the legendary Hammertown Barn. Her mantra, “Love Where You Live” is also the title of her new book in which she deftly brings together the elements needed to make a house, a home. www.hammertown.com

Certainly location and topography have much to do with it, but to live well in Pine Plains is to contribute whatever talent you have to that community. The rewards are profoundly satisfying and the results are often surprising.