A Hudson Valley Almanac day-trip guide
Where Greene County meets the Hudson, a string of old river villages — New Baltimore, Coxsackie, and Athens — sits on the water with the Catskills at their backs. These are working riverfronts that have quietly come back to life: restored 19th-century main streets, a sunset over the river, multi-generation farms just inland, and a couple of farm breweries in old fruit-packing barns. It's a river-towns-and-orchard day more than a tight farm loop, and it makes a lovely, low-key Saturday. Here's a run down the river and a little ways inland.
Start in Coxsackie, whose restored Reed Street district runs right down to Riverside Park and the Hudson. The Coxsackie General Store is a good first stop for coffee and provisions in the historic waterfront, and just up the way, Coxsackie Bee Goods — based at the half-century-old Twin Spruce Apiary — sells pure Catskill honey, beeswax candles, and herbal goods. If you're here on a Wednesday evening rather than a Saturday, the Coxsackie Farmers' Market sets up under the pavilion at Riverside Park with panoramic river views, live music, and food trucks. Save room: Coxsackie Creamery scoops small-batch ice cream right on the waterfront.
From here, the short drive north to New Baltimore is worth it for its own sake — a quiet, historic riverside hamlet strung along the Hudson, the kind of place that rewards an unhurried look even without a single stop on the list.
Head south along the river to Athens, another restored waterfront village, with the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse standing offshore and a riverfront park made for a stroll. In the village, Vernon Street Farm runs a Saturday-morning stand with all-natural produce and a specialty in Asian vegetables, and Night School — in the former Crossroads brewpub space on the waterfront — pours local beer and wine alongside pizza by the slice, an easy lunch.
The farms around Athens run deep. Rexcroft Farm is a seventh-generation operation on the Leeds-Athens Road growing more than 250 varieties of vegetables, fruits, and meats, and Sunny Acres Farm is a six-generation NYS Century Farm dating to 1897, selling pastured eggs and goat. For a one-stop destination, Black Horse Farms on Route 9W is a year-round market with 42 greenhouses, a full garden center, a country store of local honey and maple, and the Mormor's Kitchen bakery turning out pies and breads from scratch.
Turn inland toward Climax and Earlton, where the river plain gives way to orchard country. Boehm Farm has grown apples since 1903 — U-pick apples, peaches, and cherries, homemade cider donuts, and horse-drawn wagon rides in the fall — and Schnare's Sunset Orchard does U-pick from July into December. For a pint, Brewery LaHoff brews in a picturesque 1900 fruit-packing barn, and Gray Willow in Earlton is a from-scratch brewpub built by two veteran restaurant families, with ten house beers and seriously good comfort food (the rabbit stew and disco fries have a following). Nearby, HBT Family Farm sells heritage-breed pork and beef, and Nana's Sourdough Treats keeps a weekend farmstand in Climax.
A scheduling heads-up: Coxsackie's market is a Wednesday evening, not a Saturday, so plan the village stops around the waterfront itself if you're here on a weekend. New Baltimore is a scenic detour without listed stops — go for the river views, not the shopping. The orchards and U-pick (Boehm, Schnare's) peak in late summer and fall, and the inland Climax/Earlton stops sit between this loop and the Almanac's Oak Hill guide, so the two pieces stitch together nicely if you want a bigger day. With two breweries on the route, bring a designated driver.
The full Greene County lineup is on the Almanac: farms & food and markets.
Three river villages, a seventh-generation farm, ice cream over the Hudson at sunset — one very good Saturday.