Saratoga Farmers' Market

chicken

Whatever Soup

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Photo by Pattie Garrett

Recipe by Samin Nosrat, NYT and shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table
Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● 4 Tablespoons of olive oil
● 2 medium onions*, sliced
● 3 garlic cloves*, sliced
● 6 to 8 cups diced vegetables*
● 1½ pounds raw boneless chicken
● 6 to 8 cups chicken stock
● Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Set a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat and add 4 tablespoons oil. When the oil shimmers, add onions and garlic.

2. Reduce the heat to a medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Place the chicken and vegetables in the pot. Add enough chicken stock to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

4. Cook until the flavors have come together and the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes more. Remove raw chicken from soup when cooked, allow to cool enough to handle. Shred and return it to the soup.

5. Add more hot liquid if needed.

6. Serve hot.

Note: Suggested vegetables in season now include Asian greens, beets, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mushrooms, potatoes, radishes, rutabaga, spinach, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, winter squash

Beer Grilled Chicken

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Recipe by Bob Blumer, shared by Slate River Farms
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 hr 15 min
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● 1 (4-5 pound) whole chicken*
● 2 tablespoons olive oil*
● 2 tablespoons salt
● 1 teaspoon black pepper
● 3 tablespoons of your favorite dry spice rub*
● 1 can beer

Directions

  1. Remove neck and giblets from chicken and discard. Rinse chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels. Rub chicken lightly with oil then rub inside and out with salt, pepper and dry rub. Set aside.
  2. Open beer can and take several gulps (make them big gulps so that the can is half full). Place beer can on a solid surface. Grabbing a chicken leg in each hand, plunk the bird cavity over the beer can. Transfer the bird-on-a-can to your grill and place in the center of the grate, balancing the bird on its 2 legs and the can like a tripod.
  3. Cook the chicken over medium-high, indirect heat (i.e. no coals or burners on directly under the bird), with the grill cover on, for approximately 1 1/4 hours or until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F in the breast area and 180 degrees F in the thigh, or until the thigh juice runs clear when stabbed with a sharp knife. Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Beer Grilled Chicken, photo courtesy of Slate River Farms

(One Pan) Chicken Breast and Carrots

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Adapted from the recipe in Cook’s Illustrated, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table
Serves 4
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients
*Ingredients available at the farmers’ market
● 4 (10 to 12 ounce) bone-in split chicken breasts*, trimmed
● 2 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
● Olive oil*
● 1 shallot*, thinly sliced
● ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
● 1 ½ pounds carrots*, peeled and sliced on bias, ¼ inch thick
● ½ cup water
● 2 teaspoons lemon juice
● 3 teaspoons fresh mint*, minced

Photo by Pattie Garrett

Sweets, Meats, and Other Easter Treats at Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Emily Meagher

Easter evokes images of eggs hunts and other community events. We invite you to make next Saturday at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market a part of these events. On Saturday, April 20, arrive early and fill your shopping bags and baskets with our fresh, locally grown, raised and produced foods.

Kokinda Farm Eggs, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Near the market entrance, look for the eggs. Not the edible ones – those come next – but rather the reusable gift containers, available while supplies last. Inside each will be a coupon offering a discount from one of the market vendors.

 

Now, for real eggs. Elihu, Kokinda, and Squashville farms are offering them in abundance. Check out their hues and try them for their fresh, farm-raised flavor. Keep an eye out, too, for rich duck and giant goose eggs.

Saratoga Chocolate Co. Easter Basket, photo courtesy of Saratoga Chocolate Co.

This weekend, the market also will be featuring chocolate eggs. Further in the market are such treats filled with maple cream and maple marshmallow at Slate Valley Farms. Other sweet treats include homemade marshmallows from The Chocolate Spoon, chocolates formed into nest and bunny shapes from the Saratoga Chocolate Co., hot cross buns from Mrs. London’s, and cheesecakes in a range of sizes and flavors from Grandma Apple’s Cheesecakes.

That’s dessert. Now, let’s look for vegetables and main course meats.

Many vendors are offering Easter specials on their farm-raised meats: At Lewis Waite Farm, fresh and smoked ham roasts and steaks are five percent off. Longlesson Farm is offering 10 pounds of ground beef for $60 (instead of $80), and Mariaville Mushroom Men is taking 20 percent off its pork. If poultry is your preference, try Ramble Creek Farm’s turkey or Squashville’s chicken.

And there are the early spring vegetables to consider: Pea shoots from Saratoga Urban and Pleasant Valley farms, along with Pleasant Valley’s super-sweet spring parsnips. Storage vegetables remain abundant at Gomez Veggie Ville and Pleasant Valley, and mushrooms at Mariaville and Ramble Creek.

Looking for libations? Try Saratoga Apple’s farm-brewed hard and sweet ciders, spirits from Yankee Distillery, cyser from Ballston Lake Apiaries, Battenkill Valley Creamery milk and Something’s Brewing’s home-roasted coffees.

And, there’s more: apples, pickles, cheeses, and cured meats.

 

Growing Love on the Farm

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Ann and Josh Carnes met in September 2015 at a fire department pig roast near Josh’s farm in Laporte, Colorado. Ann was growing edible flowers and herbs in nearby Wellington. Josh had just retired from the fire department and had a handyman business and a garden on a three-acre homestead. They fell in love and began farming together the next spring. 

In November 2017, they uprooted their lives and moved to New York to start Ramble Creek Farm. They joined the Saratoga Farmers’ Market in 2018, selling mushrooms, pork and poultry. Late last summer, amid preparations for their first autumn on the new farm, they married.

Their story highlights an important but not always talked about aspect of farm life – its reliance on interdependence. Nine out of 10 farmers farm as families, often as couples. While hard work and low profitability can strain such relationships, these factors also can make the romances more resilient. Nationwide, farm couples divorce less than others. Shared commitments to making farms grow often also help such relationships grow.

For Ann and Josh, that has meant a division of roles alongside frequent consultation. Josh does most of the animal care and the “building and fixing of things.” Ann’s creative talents put her in charge of marketing and branding. She represents Ramble Creek at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Josh once a week rises at 2:30 a.m. to drive to New York City for the Union Square Greenmarket.

Both love the work and try to not let it take over their lives completely.

Josh and Ann Carnes on their wedding day

Their wedding illustrated that. 

It took place on their farm on the last sunny weekend before the turn toward cooler weather. They said their vows in what they now call “the wedding pasture,” before friends and family from all over the country. A friend officiated, and as Josh put it, “we all drank, ate, and danced our butts off.”

“Neither of us are sure why we decided to stack a wedding on top of starting our new farm and everything that comes along with that,” says Ann, “but we wanted to make it official.”

“And here we are,” adds Josh, “doing our best for our land, our animals, and ourselves.”

Winter Time Is Stew Time

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By Mary Pratt

In the cold of winter, it’s time for the comfort of warm savory stews. The Saratoga Farmer’s Market has the needed ingredients and ideas from different cultures to spice your stews up. 

Arnold Grant, of M & A Farm, is celebrating his 20th year at the market. Although most known for his family’s delicious breakfast sandwiches, he also raises and sells pork. Stewing pork is versatile; it can be used for Indian curry or French stew. Longlesson, Lewis Waite, Moxie Ridge, and Mariaville also raise pork. Pork butt (a shoulder cut) makes an excellent stew, as does fresh pork leg.

Christophe Robert, of Longlesson Farm, grows weaned piglets on pasture from spring until the snow falls. He also raises grass-fed beef until they are three to four years old to insure flavorful and marbled meat. Since Christophe is from France, he recommends making boeuf bourguignon, a stew with red wine and vegetables including onions and mushrooms, or a Flemish stew, boeuf carbonnade, with dark beer. He offers cubed beef for stew, but suggests that chuck will make stew that is more moist and flavorful.

Lewis-Waite Farm also raises grass-fed beef. Janet Lampman, who works for owners Nancy and Alan Brown, said it’s important to stew or oven-braise grass fed beef very slowly. She likes shanks or round roast. 

Ann Carnes, of Ramble Creek Farm, offers a variety of chicken. She finds the best cuts for cooking a chicken stew are thighs or drumsticks. Squashville Farm’s Himanee and Jim Gupta-Carlson offer fresh heritage-breed roasting chickens, from which they use leftover meat for soups and stews. In the last ten minutes of cooking, the chicken is added to warm through. Most recently Himanee made a Peruvian stew called Cazuela (casserole). 

Bob and Mary Pratt, of Elihu Farm, have raised lambs for over 30 years. After weaning, lambs graze for three seasons, and eat hay or baleage in winter. The best stew cuts are shoulder, shanks and neck. They enjoy making Moroccan tagine, Indian curry, and osso bucco. 

Come talk with the farmers at the market to get recipe details and other ideas.