Joan L Capria

Sat and Sun, July 26 and 27, 2008

Meet the farmers who put the local in locally grown

Join the Rondout Valley Grower's Association on July 26 and 27 for a weekend-long self-guiding tour of local farms. Enjoy spectacular scenery, sample farm-grown products, while learning about the rich agricultural heritage of this special region.

Farms will provide workshops or demonstrations three times daily; tour guests receive a workshop schedule, informational brochure about each farm and coupons for local restaurants and bed & breakfasts.

Featuring classes or demonstrations all weekend long at:

§ Gill Corn Farms Experience a real corn harvest from a hay wagon pulled alongside a modern day corn harvester.

§ Five Springs Farm Learn about bees and the art of beekeeping.

§ Davenport Farms Learn what goes into raising vegetables from farm to fork at this full-scale vegetable operation.

§ Westwind Organic Orchard Discover the trials and tribulations of growing organic apples in the Rondout Valley.

§ Rusty Plough Farm Learn about their unique CSA/buying club model, and how to grow healthy plants via healthy soils and management of the surrounding habitat.

§ Duchess Farm Learn about making rich compost from horse manure mixed with topsoil for garden at this state of the art equestrian facility.

§ Country Flowers A greenhouse tour and demonstration of bedding plant propagation.

§ Catskill Native Nursery Become an ecological gardener and turn your property into a beautiful, bio-diverse haven for birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and small mammals.

§ Hasbrouck Farms A large selection of antique farming equipment and hand tools along with the RVGA's walk-through historical farming exhibit.

Stay with us the whole weekend and receive discounts at Baker's Bed & Breakfast, The Lock Tender's House, The Sheeley House Bed & Breakfast, Sparrow Hawk Bed & Breakfast, and 1712 House.

Aroma Thyme Bistro, DePuy Canal House, Friends and Family ll Hillside Restaurant, High Falls Café, Northern Spy Cafe, and Oscar Restaurant use Rondout Valley products on their menu and offer discounts to all Farm Tour participants.

About the Rondout Valley Grower's Association:

The Rondout Valley is a fertile floodplain stretching from Kingston to Ellenville that was in active agriculture since before the first European settlers arrived. As issues with food safety and costs of transporting food escalate, locally grown food becomes increasingly important. RVGA's richly diverse membership works to keep our community viable and profitable, protect open space, and encourage community awareness and education through programs and activities that reinforce the connections between people and agriculture, which nurture, inspire, and engage.

To purchase tickets or learn more, go wwww.rondoutvalleygrowers.org

The Farm Tour was made possible by grants from The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Watershed Agricultural Council and NYC DEP. All monies raised from this event go directly to support the Rondout Valley Growers Association.

Link to purchase tickets: http://www.rondoutvalleygrowers.org/rondout_valley_growers_events.cfm

I have broken this down into bands so you can get a real picture of the market

The actives & Pending are as of March 21,2008 The Closed, Expireds, Days on Market, List Price & Sale Price are Stats for Jan 1, 2007 to Dec 31, 2007

This is a real snapshot of our Luxury Market. In Ulster County the top 10% of sales are $500,000 and up. Some of the interpetations of this are that houses in the top percentages take at least 6 months to sell & the higher end averages 8 months or more Quite a few have taken a couple of years to sell. The market prices have more of difference form list to sale as you get into the higher end houses. If you have a luxury home to sell you can use this info to see at what price you have a greater chance of selling and how many "real buyers" there are.

Please visit my website for information about Ulster County and to view all the listings www.JOANCAPRIA.COM

I thought it would be interesting to do stats for my small town of Woodstock, NY and it was. After looking at some of the other stats of the larger community Woodstock is really charming and sweet with only 6 sales which is why I also service most of Ulster County, NY. When doing these numbers I remebered why! I pulled these from the Ulster County MLS

FEBRUARY 2008 COMPARED TO FEBRUARY 2007

FEBRUARY 2008 FEBRUARY 2007
CLOSED SALES 6 6
MEDIAN PRICE $337,250 $312,500
DAYS ON MARKET AVERAGE 102 268

WOODSTOCK HAD A LITTLE MORE THAN 7% INCREASE!!

ULSTER COUNTY STATS FOR FEBRUARY TO FOLLOW

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT WWW.JOANCAPRIA.COM

Woodstock, Colony of the Arts last night did not disappoint. We had Jeffrey Gaines at the Colony Cafe, Ars so long at the Kleinart and the Gashouse Gorillas at the Bearsville Theatre. I chose to go to the Bearsville Theatre. WOW! What a great band they had audience bobbing, tapping and out & out dancing. They played "Jump Blues" style of music which is definitely something they make their own. Crusher Carmean played a very cool self made aluminum stand up bass, Tim on sax, Hiro Suzuki on Guild guitar, Dan Hickey on drums and Rick Fink singing, shouting, jumping and getting out in the audience. I will keep my eye out to see when they will be playing again and keep all you locals posted. Not a loca? Look for them in your area. They are going to be BIG they were so much fun they can't help but be!

Aside from Manhattan, Ulster County is the ONLY part of New York State which experienced appreciation in home prices in 2007. The luxury home market is largely responsible for this reciprocal relationship. I recently became a member of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, in order to concentrate on this hugely successful niche market. Westwood Metes & Bounds Ltd. is the only realty company in Ulster County to offer the advantages of ILHM membership. Less than 1% of agents country wide can boast such an affiliation.

"EXTRAORDINARY PROPERTIES REPRESENTED BY EXTRAORDINARY REALTORS."

Do you want to know more or have your own luxurious home to sell or want to buy please visit my website at WWW.JOANCAPRIA.COM OR Contact me at 845-679-0006 ext 112