By Marley Bonacquist-Currin
Delightfully delicious days at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market are getting better, with the addition of several new vendors in the Saturday market’s food court.
Among the new offerings are crepes hot off the griddle, made by Jon Dickinson of Dickinson’s Delights. Dickinson prepares the crepes with as many fresh vegetables and cheeses that he can purchase from the market’s produce and dairy vendors himself. In fact, if you were to get to the market early, you might find him strolling through the High Rock Park pavilion and lawn, acting like a customer, eyeballing what is available.
On a recent morning, Dickinson poured a homemade crepe batter onto a flat circular griddle. The thin batter cooks within a couple of minutes and once browned around the edges, it becomes ready for fillings.
As the batter started to smoke into a crepe, Dickinson enumerated the filling ingredients: feta cheese from Argyle, tomatoes from Shushan Hydro, and spinach from Pleasant Valley farms.
Dickinson’s focus on locally grown foods turns crepe making into part of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s heart and soul.
Dickinson’s Delights started as a part-time gig for Dickinson’s wife Tamberlyn. As he describes it, “Both of us were into cooking before we met at Lillian’s in Saratoga, where I was a chef, and Tam was a waitress. We always knew we wanted to be our own bosses.”
The couple started a bakery in 2004, “selling a handful a handful of baked goods off a card table at a farmer’s market once a week.” Dickinson notes that the first market produced enough income for he and his wife to buy themselves Chinese food for dinner. Over time that business grew into a small café, which he opened in 2012 at the Shirt Factory in Glens Falls. It features sandwiches, baked goods, and coffee.
Dickinson jokes that he learned how to make crepes, a French style wafer-thin pancake filled with sweet or savory ingredients, at “YouTube University in Paris.” He began selling the crepes fresh at the Glens Falls Farmers’ Market, where he quickly became known as “the crepe guy.” These days, our market in Saratoga is happy to have him as our crepe guy.
The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at High Rock Park. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Crazy Delicious Dinner Crepes
Yields 8-15 crepes
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market
Ingredients for the crepes:
1 large egg*
⅓ cup whole milk*
¼ cup water
½ cup whole wheat flour
⅛ tsp. Salt
⅛ tsp. Pepper
⅛ tsp. Cayenne
¼ tsp. Garlic powder
¼ tsp. Onion powder
Cooking spray
Ingredients for the filling:
1 bag spinach*
1 clove garlic-minced
Olive oil for sauteeing*
Cheddar Cheese-to taste*
Ham – 2 slices per crepe*
Directions
1. Whisk all crepe ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
2. Pour ¼ cup batter onto a small non-stick cooking pan coated with cooking spray. Spread thinly (like a thin pancake) and cook through. Flip the crepe over to brown the other side.
3. Saute spinach and garlic in a pan coated with olive oil until cooked and melt cheese onto the spinach.
4. Divide spinach evenly between crepes, top each with 2 slices of ham.
5. Roll the crepes (like a burrito). Enjoy!
