A Summer Day at Peekskill Farm: Gardening Tips, Weather Reflections, and Upcoming Pride Celebrations

St. Joseph's House in Peekskill, NY, was formerly part of the historic St. Mary's Church and convent located on Fort Hill.

Yesterday unfolded like a page from a countryside diary—minus the polite penmanship—as I wandered through Peekskill Farm and met a young woman who seemed to have bloomed straight out of the rows she tended. Her name, if memory serves me right (and it sometimes doesn’t after two cups of sun), was Nubi. She had a radiant smile and a frame as slender as a reed, moving with the grace of someone who knows plants better than people. Honestly, she looked like she could photosynthesize.

She picked mustard greens for me and a handful of snap peas that snapped with the kind of attitude only freshly liberated legumes possess. They were so crisp and sweet, I ate them raw like a rebellious rabbit. While harvesting, Nubi offered a tip—one of those deceptively simple gems: pick the bottom leaves first. It clears space and encourages the baby leaves to flourish, kind of like good parenting or workplace management, if corporate life had more chlorophyll.

As the sun clawed its way higher, the heat became an unrelenting companion, draping itself over Peekskill like a hot yoga mat nobody asked for. We're not used to three straight days of this kind of simmering, especially not while volunteering ourselves as solar panels out in the fields. This heat wave had commitment issues too—it lingered deep into the night like an awkward houseguest, still making itself known at 4 a.m.

But! A breeze of mercy is inbound. Cooler temperatures are on the way, and the partly sunny skies should arrive just in time to cast a golden glow on this weekend’s Pride celebrations. In Peekskill, we’ll gather Saturday at Pugsley Park—a proper, shade-friendly patch of joy—for a family-forward celebration that reminds us the best kind of heat is the one we bring with love.

Yesterday held contrasts: brutal temperatures softened by kindness and snap peas, and a meeting of nature’s rhythm with something even messier—human connection. As the air cools and the weekend nears, I carry Nubi’s wisdom and those rebellious legumes with me, along with a growing excitement for a celebration that honors every color in the garden.

If Peekskill were a British soap opera, its theme would closely resemble that of Emmerdale Farms.

Beautiful mustard greens and sweet, crispy snap peas, perfect for salads or enjoying fresh off the vines from Peekskill Regeneration Farm.