**The Hudson River is an estuary river- meaning that it ebbs and flows along with ocean tides and holds a mix of fresh and salt waters. 

I am always dazzled by the first strawberries of the season; enchanted daily by the view of the sharp face of the Gunks mountains presiding over the local apple orchard. In midwinter, I dream of riverside picnics and dips into the Hudson River. This is my home, deeply and intimately. I know it in my loving and creative community; I know it in the stories of my farmers neighbors; I know it in the garter snake who lives under my back stoop; I know it in the local history of the brick and ice industries and in the quiet gravestones of Dutch settlers. 

My husband and I moved from Brooklyn with our 3 daughters in 2017 in order to offer them a different sense of childhood: slow, simple and with lots of room to roam. As we rooted into our gray house by the creek, I fell in love with this way of being. This is what I want to offer to you through Estuary Baskets: the stories and glimpses of our small towns, country sides and forests. The hands and voices of people who work hard to make their lives through the beautiful food and art of this region. To give you a context for the gifts that you give or the celebrations that you make within your own homes. 

-Kate Klein, EB