In 1985, just before the poet Esther Cohen, her husband, and two friends bought a house in Greene county, their realtor warned them not to: it was too “wild” and different from what they knew. To Cohen, that sounded ideal; she has lived in the same rent-stabilized Upper West Side apartment since 1973 and loves the city but longed for an escape from her bubble of leftist and liberal Jewish urbanites. Greene county is 120 miles north of New York City. The birthplace of the Hudson River School of Art, it has waterfalls and majestic views of the river and the Catskill Mountains – the perfect place for a writer to find quiet in the summertime and on other occasions throughout the year. She made local friends quickly. “I went to the farmer’s wife at the farm stand nearby and said, ‘I want to have a potluck. Will you come and host it with me?’” Cohen said in an interview in her Upper West Side apartment. She’s been hosting big summer potlucks ever since for a “big mix” of neighbors: “Everyone comes who is around.…