The Jiffy: A Podcast About Upstate New York
A documentary audio zine about upstate New York, exploring cozy histories, odd mysteries, and personal dispatches from the land of bucolic barns and Kinderhook blobs. Each episode is an upstate odyssey. From high-stakes bake-offs and haunted antiques to roadside cows and quaking trees, host James Cave brings you stories from New York’s non-Manhattan regions – told with curiosity, humor, and the occasional text message from a stranger.
Episodes
It’s a brisk October afternoon in Kingston, New York, for the final game of the Vintage Base Ball 2025 season between the Kingston Guards and the Ulster Nine.
We're at Herzog Field, beside the Catskill Mountain Railroad Station and the Hannaford parking lot, to watch two teams play baseball by 1864 rules.
From “ballists” and “muffins” to hand-caught fly balls and gentlemanly arbitration, this episode dives into th...
It’s peak leaf peeping season, and I'm bringing this episode to you from The Leaf Watch Desk deep in the Woods of the James Cave Instagram Feed. This year’s official Leaf Watch Leaf, as voted by listeners, is the Northern Red Oak, and it’s putting on quite a show.
In this episode, I hike the Windham Path in the Great Northern Catskills with Francis X. Driscoll, a 12-year veteran “leaf spotter” for I LOVE NY’s Fall...
What does it mean to belong to a place? Standing in the famous gazebo at the intersection of multiple boundaries – the village of Chatham, the town of Chatham, and perhaps even the town of Ghent – this question feels especially important.
This rural upstate New York community actually comprises numerous Chathams: Old Chatham, North Chatham, East Chatham, Chatham Center, and the village itself. And, of course, Malden Br...
While on a holiday break at the Columbia County Fair, I'm sharing this special episode featuring local news stories from the Chatham Courier newspapers of the 1800s, available through the Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers Archive.
I'll be back to normal programming in the next episode. Watch out for the horse thieves!
"The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast" is ...
I finally received my first Listener Question!!! (You can use the link in the show notes above to send in yours.)
So when listener Murphy asked how to create "the ultimate Hudson Valley picnic before it's too late," I embarked on a journey through picnicking's rich history and romantic execution. I learn some French, I learn some Basque, it's a worldly experience through time, seasons, and picn...
It’s a Jiffy Audio Postcard today from Rothermel Park in Kinderhook, where the Pinkster Festival – a powerful Black cultural celebration with Dutch colonial roots – was revived for the first time in more than 200 years.
Pinkster began as a Dutch Christian holiday but evolved into a vital gathering for enslaved and free Black New Yorkers in the 18th and 19th centuries. This episode follows the festival’s modern-day retu...
I locked James out of the studio for this one.
Because Ruth Reichl – my hero, my origin story, my reason for existing – came to Chatham, New York, to judge the Great Chatham Bake-Off. And I, The Hungry Eye, the anonymous food critic for the podcast, had to be there. In the gazebo. In the humidity. Bearing witness.
In this episode, I take you to the center of it all in the village square as 30+ bakers compete for the cov...
In this episode, I’m continuing our tour through The Jiffy-Mart – my online bodega and members’ lounge – and this time, we’re stepping through the forest refrigerator straight into the Catskill Mountains. I’m bringing back my series "Tree Minute" to finally learn what I’m looking at out there in the woods. To help, I’ve teamed up with Giovanna D’Angelo, an education forester with the Catskill Forest Associat...
In this episode, we tour the Jiffy-Mart, the official digital bodega of the James Cave Instagram Feed.
Then we dive into a thoughtful exploration of land acknowledgments with Indigenous expert Heather Bruegl, who shares insights on creating meaningful statements that honor ancestral lands and their original stewards:
- Native-land.ca serves as a starting point for researching whose land you're on
- Tribal territorie...
It's Mud Season here, not just at The James Cave Instagram Feed, but across all of the northeast.
And for this relaxing Sleep Hike, I thought it would be peaceful to take a restful walk through Mud Creek, in Hudson, New York. Mud Creek is a part of the Mud Creek Environmental Learning Center, located on the property of Columbia County Soil & Water Conservation District office.
They host a variety of h...
It’s spring in upstate New York, also known as Mud Season. In this episode, I go searching for the answers to its riddles: why Mud Season exists, what’s really happening down there in the ground, and why the ground breathes more heavily when it's stressed out – just like me.
To guide me through it all, I visit Dr. Jane Lucas, a soil ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. We talk about microbial...
This week brought the first official day of spring – but as a confusing and misplaced winter storm batters my windows, I’m bringing you one last cozy episode before we fold up the Cozy Map for good.
In this episode, I visit one of my favorite places on earth: Rodgers Book Barn in Hillsdale, NY. I chat with legendary owner Maureen Rodgers, who’s been stocking her shelves with used books since the 1960s, about how she fi...
On today's episode, I’m making a house call to one of the oldest – and most mysterious – homes in the Hudson Valley. The Van Housen-Marriott House on Route 66 has stood for centuries, witnessing the full weight of American history. It was a site of Dutch colonial settlement, a place of enslavement, and, possibly, a stop on the Underground Railroad. But now, this house is falling apart, and efforts to save it are ...
In this episode of "The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast," I’m beginning a new journey: an odyssey to find the coziest spots in upstate New York.
But before I can begin, I receive guidance from Maria M. Silva, a reporter for the Times Union and someone who knows all about cozy restaurants. Her cozy map of Hudson Valley restaurants for the Times Union proved to be a crucial resource in my initial research.
...
In the first episode of 2025, we start with an end: The end of "This Old Vibe."
Join me as we hear from some of the enlightening experts along the way and reveal the results of my Vibe Enhancement Project: the Desolate Corner.
Be sure to pick up a copy of "Sean Scherer's Vignettes" here:
https://bookshop.org/a/95638/9780865654419
Subscribe to The Jiffy newsletter:
https://thejiffy.beehiiv.com/subsc...
In this special episode of The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast, we check in with our entertainment reporter, Jimmy Jam, who brings you intimate access to the stars of the Hudson Valley as they walk the Denim Carpet on their way out of the back door of the service kitchen of the Holiday Inn in Coxsackie to their cars.
Jimmy talks with Taco the Best Farm Dog of the Year, with Maria of MX Morningstar Farm; Bella, the ...
In this episode, we revisit a conversation I had with Candice Hopkins for my series, "This Old Vibe" – it's an EXTENDED CUT, and we talk about so many things:
What is a land acknowledgment statement? Are they helpful? Why should we write one, and what should people think about when writing one that truly, literally supports the tribes they're hoping to "acknowledge," and more.
Ca...
What is The Jiffy? This trailer holds all the answers.
To learn more, visit: jamescave.xyz
"The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast" is an audio documentary zine – the official podcast of The Jiffy – exploring the odd histories, cozy mysteries, and surprising characters of upstate New York. Each episode is a small adventure, told with curiosity, humor, and the occasional text message from a str...
Things got really stressful last week, so we're taking a Sleep Hike.
And this time, we're Sleep Hiking through Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, New York. It's a beautiful place, very relaxing.
What is a Sleep Hike? It's when I do the hiking while you do the sleeping.
So sit back, relax, kick off your shoes, and let's take a hike.
To subscribe to The Jiffy, click HERE.
In this episode, we visit The Kitchen Shrink to get to know Tamar Adler, author of "The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z," and learn about the Secret Room and how to cook a giant duck egg. Guest-hosted by The Hungry Eye.
Subscribe to Tamar's newsletter: tamaradler.substack.com
Follower Tamar on Instagram: @tamar.e.adler
Upgrade to the J'Fay Supreme membership for just $5 a month: htt...
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