To learn how to sustainably harvest wild leeks, also known as ramps, see “To Take a Leek” at www.adirondacklife.com. Use a reliable guidebook to identify any foraged food before consuming.
More Articles From
Annie Stoltie
Celebrating Tupper Lake’s Wild Center
Today, Tupper Lake’s natural history museum, which turns 20 this year, is a flourishing center of learning, intellectual thought and plain old fun. It is the encyclopedia of the Adirondacks, a guide as essential to understanding the Adirondack backcountry as a map.
The Station
The main intersection in Onchiota has always been memorably quirky, an unexpected wilderness outpost at this one-time railroad stop. The corner is anchored by an old general store and adjacent seven-gabled gas station, which were opened by Hayden Tormey in the 1920s. But it was Tormey’s son “Bing” that gave the bend in the road its offbeat personality. He littered the area with cheeky signs, including the classic “Leaving 67 of the friendliest people in the Adirondacks (plus a couple of soreheads)” and “Don’t ask for directions, we’re still trying to get out of here.”
Sweet Pursuit: Maple in the Adirondacks
In the Adirondacks, maple is embedded in our flavor landscape. Today—from backyard taps and stove-top boiling to networks of tubing and high-tech evaporators—the process of transforming sap into syrup endures, as does our love of that sweet liquid gold.
Addition and Subtraction: Are Mergers the Answer for Adirondack Schools?
On a Friday morning in March, Devon Harris—one of the original members of the Jamaican national bobsled team—addressed a group of about 100 K–12 students in Minerva Central School’s gymnasium. A motivational speaker, Harris told the story of his improbable journey from the streets of Kingston (“I was just a kid from the hood,” he said) to the national stage. And of course the team’s immortalization in Cool Runnings, a 1993 film starring John Candy.
Frankie’s Chicken Riggies
Chicken riggies—mouthfuls of chicken, sweet and hot peppers, onions and rigatoni smothered in a white-wine marinara—is an upstate favorite born in Utica’s deep-rooted Italian community. Start your own love affair with the dish at Frankie’s Taste of Italy, in Old Forge, where owners Frankie and Tina Zammiello—now joined by their son, Julian—serve up meals inspired by their family’s Sunday feasts.
2026 Photography Contest Winners
We’re not saying that the Adirondacks’ muscular mountaintops and water-ribboned valleys are attention hogs, but they have monopolized generations of lenses.
Storms of the Centuries
Ever since Adirondackers began keeping track, they’ve recorded hamlet-swallowing blizzards that socked folks behind snowdrift-jammed doors, downpours that ravaged river valleys, and hurricanes with jet-speed winds that uprooted chunks of forest.
A Massawepie Paddle-Bike Combo
The Massawepie Mire, located near the tiny hamlet of Gale, which lies just east of the tiny hamlet of Childwold, deserves a place on every Adirondack bucket list. The wetland complex includes a 740-acre peatland, the largest in New York State—a remarkable habitat easily accessible by an old railbed. The bog harbors several avian species sought after by birders, including the endangered spruce grouse.
Flying High with Tate Frantz
Frantz is a boyish-looking 20-year-old who grew up here in Lake Placid. Over the last year, he has emerged as the most successful American male ski-jumper ever to compete on the World Cup circuit.
On Sale Now
June 2026
Southern Adirondack waterfall hikes, a funky renaissance in Onchiota, bootlegging adventures, a mysterious island and more.
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