Editor's pick: Kitchen table talk — and yummies — for the whole community

Sullivan farmers’ markets to welcome Trailer Talk Picnics

WHEN: Friday, August 28 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 6 from 11:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Liberty Farmers’ Market at the parking lot on Darbee Lane in Liberty, NY (on Friday) and Callicoon Creek Park in Callicoon, NY (on Sunday)

COST: Free

CONTACT: manager@sullivancountyfarmersmarkets.org or trailertalk.net

LIBERTY AND CALLICOON, NY — This weekend noted local artist and radio personality Sabrina Artel will open the doors of her 1965 Beeline travel trailer to vendors and visitors at the farmers’ markets in Liberty and Callicoon, NY for a couple of Trailer Talk Picnics.

“The Trailer Talk Picnic will explore, celebrate and gather information by featuring local foods both cultivated and wild from the Catskills,” Artel said. “I will bring the camper to the Liberty and Callicoon Farmers’ Markets in Sullivan County and gather audio snapshots of this ‘First American Wilderness,’ which has a long history of farming, as we share recipes and eat homemade dishes prepared by me and visitors to the camper. Scheduled guests include farmers, bakers and environmental advocates, and everyone is welcome to talk, to sit on lawn chairs, eat, share recipes and listen during these Trailer Talk Picnics.”

Artel plans to elicit stories about favorite foods and discuss, among other things, the growing season and the environmental conditions required for edibles to grow. “Without clean water we would not be able to sustain ourselves with locally grown healthy foods, so I will also speak to producers about farming water needs and learn more about our watershed,” Artel said.

This event is sponsored in part through the Pure Catskills Buy Local Campaign, an economic initiative of the Watershed Agricultural Council.

Artel bought and restored her 1965 Beeline travel trailer about six years ago and started parking it wherever people congregate. Eventually she put in a recording system and mounted speakers on it so everyone outside could hear what their neighbors had to say. “My work, which I now call Trailer Talk, is a live performance, a community event and public conversation that happens at the trailer’s mobile kitchen table,” Artel said.

Trailer Talk airs weekly on WJFF Radio Catskill, the nation’s only hydro-powered radio station. Artel’s reports can also be heard on Northeast Public Radio WAMC’s nationally syndicated radio program, “51 Percent, The Women’s Perspective.”