Shop Local, Eat Fresh at the Saratoga Farmers' Market | Food, Crafts, Music in Saratoga Springs

Shop Local, Eat Fresh

Composting

Every day is Earth Day at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Emily Meagher

Sustainable mushroom boxes at 518 Farms, photo by Pattie Garrett

Happy Earth Week! Some places celebrate Earth Day, others make it a weeklong event, and still others organize month-long festivities. At the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, we like to think that every day is Earth Day.

Farmers’ market operations are inherently more sustainable than factory and grocery store operations. Most obviously, vendors produce food locally, cutting down on transportation impacts. The Farmers Market Coalition cites that, on average, food travels over 1,000 miles from the point of production to the retail store. In contrast, practically all vendors at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market live just a county away from the market.

Many grow and produce their food with extra care for the environment, for instance by growing organically or choosing sustainable packaging. Think compostable mushroom boxes, egg carton returns, or glass deposits on items like maple syrup, yogurt, or kombucha. “It’s obvious to consider the earth when you’re a farmer; your hands are literally in the dirt. But other food producers are equally responsible for operating sustainably,” said Shane Avery, owner of Junbucha.

Reusable bags and package free produce at Owl Wood Farm, photo by Pattie Garrett

That green focus is evident in customers’ minds, too. Customers are prepared to shop with reusable totes and netted produce bags. They religiously return their empty containers. They often choose the more sustainable options even if it costs a little more. Julia, one market customer, stopped by to return her glass maple syrup jar, calling choosing glass over plastic “the intuitive choice.” She chooses jars as they are reusable, returnable, recyclable, and she uses them to store granola at home before returning them.

Composting at the Saratoga Farmers Market, photo by Madison Jackson

And then, there are the green choices that extend further than the farmers’ market. The Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s partnership with the Franklin Community Center is a prime example: customers drop off compost at the farmers’ market to be used in the Center’s community garden, while vendors donate unsold food to the food pantry.

All these green efforts point out a quiet strength of farmers’ markets: their belief in the efficacy of traditional ways, where less is more, quality trumps quantity, and there is a deep-rooted connection to the earth.

This week’s recipe: Local Bacon and Cheese Quiche

Market Creates Community at High Rock Park

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Shortly before 9 a.m. tomorrow, Saratoga Mayor Joanne Yepsen will cut a ribbon at High Rock Park to officially open the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s summer season. With her will be farmers and other vendors, volunteers and staff, artists and musicians, community service providers, dignitaries and other guests.

The brief ceremony captures a sense of how the market twice a week from May through October creates a sense of community that is vibrant, festive, and supportive.

“Community is our sustenance,” says market director Julia Howard. “It brings us all together.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market started in 1978 with starter plants and produce. Over the years, meats and dairy products, prepared foods, wool and fiber, household cleaners, gift items, and crafts were added the offerings.

For farmers and other vendors, the market is a vital source of income. But the market also is much more.

Running the River by Eric Jenks
Running the River
Photo by Eric Jenks

“Having music at every market helps local performers gain exposure,” Howard says. “Plus, we work with such organizations as Saratoga Bridges to offer employment for some of our janitorial tasks to individuals who need it. And our weekly children’s activities are often the result of our relationships with local businesses, libraries, and youth groups. We couldn’t be who we are without those networks of support.”

Tomorrow’s market will highlight these networks. CAPTAIN Youth & Family Services will offer a free planting of flower seeds to children of all ages. Musician Thomas Brady and the band Running the River will perform. Mamatoga will co-host a meetup from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for mothers and children. And new vendors – among them Zoe Burghard Ceramics, Freddy’s Rockin’ Hummus, The Smoothie Shoppe, Dickinson’s Delights, and Slate Valley and Nettle Meadow farms – will join the market’s regulars.

Setting up market at Rock Park by Eric Jenks
Setting up market at Rock Park
Photo by Eric Jenks

Behind the scenes, the Friends of the Market volunteers will operate its compost collection and recycling programs, assist shoppers with its veggie valet service, gather donations for the Franklin Community Center food pantry, and be on hand to relieve vendors. Also behind the scenes vendors will arrive early and stay late to put out market signs, traffic cones, and help clean up High Rock Park before and after the market.

“That cooperative spirit makes us so much more than a shopping place,” Howard says. “We’re in it together.”

Visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Markets at High Rock Park from 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays.

Chopped Spring Salad

Adapted from recipe by Jenny Rosenstrach and Andy Ward featured in Bon Appetit
4 Servings

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• ½ cup plain yogurt*
• 2 tablespoons olive oil*
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated*
• ¼ teaspoon Vital Eats Sriracha Ketchup*
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives, plus more for serving*
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint, plus more for serving*
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• ½ Asian cucumber, chopped (about 1 cup)*
• 2 asparagus spears, chopped*
• 2 scallions, chopped*
• 3 radishes, trimmed, chopped*
• 1 cup pea shoots*
• ¾ cup cherry tomatoes, quartered*

Preparation

1. Whisk yogurt, oil, lemon juice, garlic, Sriracha, 2 Tbsp. chives, and 2 Tbsp. mint in a small bowl to combine; season with salt and pepper and let dressing sit at least 1 hour to allow flavors to meld.

2. Just before serving, toss cucumber, asparagus, scallions, radishes, pea shoots, and tomatoes in a large bowl to combine; season with salt and pepper. Divide evenly among plates and drizzle with dressing. Top with chives and mint.

Do Ahead: Dressing can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.

Green Goes Beyond Great Vegetables

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By Julia Howard, Market Director

It’s not easy being green. But as one of our shoppers put it, it’s better for all of us.

Camm Epstein arrived at the market to shop on a recent Saturday with a backpack. He filled his pack, and prepared for a one-mile walk home. “It’s good for me and the planet,” he said.

As we join the nation in celebrating Earth Day, we recognize that while we are a source of healthy, locally grown food, being green should be more than that.

Our customers noted in a survey last year that while they loved the range of local foods that we offer, they wished we could reduce our waste and be more earth-friendly.

We took that advice to heart and have launched two initiatives:

The first is a compost station.
We invite shoppers to bring fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, and other easily compostable items from their homes to our compost bin. We also encourage you to deposit any leftovers from foods that you might consume at the market that you don’t plan to take home to eat later. This compost is going to a farm owned by two market volunteers and turned into their compost pile. Nearly 1,000 pounds of new soil that has resulted from these efforts is being put into the Franklin Community Center’s food pantry garden, said volunteer Jim Gupta-Carlson. From leftovers and waste come vegetables for our community.
Our second initiative is about recycling.
If you’re one of our weekly shoppers, you might be buying cups of coffee, snacking on yogurt cups or cookies, or buying a hot meal to enjoy while listening to our musicians. Consider disposing of these items’ packaging not in the trash but in bins labeled with recycling signs. The same goes for napkins and other paper items.

Photo by Pattie Garrett

We hope our market becomes a green collaboration between farmers, shoppers, and the community. As Gupta-Carlson notes, by using baskets and reusable bags and by adapting such healthy habits as walking to the market when feasible, we all can contribute to “the environmental benefit of supporting local food systems and healthy farming practices.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market will be at its winter location – the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park – for two more Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1p.m., before moving outdoors May 3 to High Rock Park.

 

Photo by Pattie Garrett

Sauteed Asian Greens

Recipe by Pleasant Valley Farm
Serves: 2 to 4

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic minced*
• 1 bunch Asian greens*
• 4 oz mushrooms*

Instructions
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and saute. Do not let it burn. Add mushroom and greens. Toss greens until wilted.

 

Giving Thanks to the Pumpkin

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

The bold orange hue of pumpkins makes fall festive in Saratoga. But as the vivid glow of fall gives way to the wetness of winter, a question arises: What to do with the bounty of pumpkins, gourds, and other winter squashes?

sheldon-farm-by-pattie-garrett
Sheldon Farm Photo by Pattie Garrett

The best answer, of course, is to eat them, especially at Thanksgiving. In doing so, you’re continuing a history of feasting that might stretch back thousands of years.

Nate Barksdale, writes in “The History of Pumpkin Pie” that pumpkins likely were a part of the first Thanksgiving feast. The orange gourds were first grown in the Americas around 5500 B.C.E. When European explorers traversed the New World, pumpkins were among the foods brought back to Europe. By the time the Pilgrims left England, pumpkins were well known throughout the Atlantic.

Pumpkin is an acquired taste — both then and now. Europeans made it palatable through pies. These pies involved steaming or roasting a pumpkin to cook and soften the flesh, scooping it out, and combining it with eggs, cream, and spices. This concoction was then poured into a pie crust and baked.

Such pies have deep roots in New England Thanksgivings, with one town, Colchester, in Connecticut postponing its celebration of the holiday in 1705 because of a lack of availability of molasses to make pumpkin pie.

These days, pumpkin pie often is made with canned pumpkin, as a result of the Libby’s company introduction of the product in 1929.

While the introduction of canned pumpkin has given pie making a boost in the convenience realm, we at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market stick to the idea of appreciating pumpkins fresh. Like other winter squashes, pumpkin can be roasted, slow cooked or stewed. While perfect in pie, it also can be a side dish stuffed in the style of the accompanying recipe. Give it a try.

As for all of those spent jack o’ lanterns that might be lingering in garages or on doorsteps, pumpkins and other winter squashes compost beautifully to create new soil. The Friends of the Market would be delighted to accept lingering remains of jack o’ lanterns and any other squashes in its compost bucket at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market each Saturday.

For more on pumpkins, visit www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-history-of-pumpkin-pie.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building at the Saratoga Spa State Park.

 

home-for-the-holidays-stuffed-pumpkins

Stuffed Pumpkins

While pie is the go-to preparation for pumpkins, we invite you to consider this recipe, adapted from Kim Serverson of the New York Times. This recipe features market pumpkins and vegetables, Murray Hollow bread, and Longview Farm’s High Rock Cheese in place of the Gruyere below. Other small winter squashes such as acorn or sweet dumpling also can be used in place of the pumpkin.

 

Ingredients

• 2 small pumpkins (or 6 mini pumpkins) orange or white
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 scallions (about 1/3 cup) chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
• 4 cups Swiss chard (or baby kale) stemmed and roughly chopped (about 4 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup homemade bread crumbs, lightly toasted
• 2/3 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (used Homestead Artisan’s High Rock Cheese)
• ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the pumpkins and remove the tops as if for a Jack-o’-lantern.

2. Scoop out the seeds and stringy insides with a spoon, leaving the flesh intact. Rinse out the cavity.

3. Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat, then add the scallions and cook for a few minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or so until fragrant. Add the swiss chard and cook until it just wilts, about 3 or 4 minutes.

4. Remove from heat, stir in the lemon juice and transfer to a bowl. Add the bread crumbs, cheese, pine nuts, and nutmeg. Mix well, and then stir in cream.

5. Divide the filling into the pumpkins and replace the tops. Rub a baking dish with olive oil and arrange the filled pumpkins in the dish.

6. Bake for 1 hour, watching to make sure the tops don’t brown too much. Test the pumpkin by piercing with a fork. If the skin doesn’t pierce easily, remove the tops and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. Replace the tops and serve hot.

 

 

 

Saratoga Farmers Offer ‘Taste of the Market’

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By Julia Howard, Market Director

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market opens its indoor market season at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park.

Northern Cross Vineyards at Saratoga Farmers' Market
Northern Cross Vineyards

Established in 1978, the market offers products from farmers and artisans who are mostly in Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Washington counties. While some exceptions are made for products and vendors outside this area, the market maintains its reputation as being among the best places to buy local products directly from those who produce them.

Opening Day will feature a Taste of the Market. In this, market goers will receive a rare opportunity to sample the fruits, cheeses, vegetables, meats, sweets, and other prepared foods that many of the vendors offer. The Taste of the Market will feature not only food samples but also recipes and cooking advice. Look for menus by the market’s main entrance, particularly from 9-10 a.m.

Customers also will have a chance to begin stocking up on staples for holiday feasts. A special Holiday Market through the end of December will showcase vendors who create crafts, artisanal works, and prepared foods, offering customers a chance to find “gifts and unusual foods not typically available at the market,” said Saratoga Farmers’ Market Association president Phyllis Underwood.

New to the market this winter also will be a recycling and composting effort organized by the Friends of the Market. Bins will be placed near trash receptacles for recyclable items used at the market, and a bucket will be available to shoppers who wish to bring kitchen scraps, coffee grinds, eggshells and other such waste to the market for composting. Volunteers will take the compost to local farms.

Pleasant Valley Farm at Saratoga Farmers' Market
Pleasant Valley Farm

Despite these new events, most of the vendors who participated in last year’s indoor market will be returning this year, and will be in places comparable to those of the past. And in keeping with the traditional transition of seasons, many vendors will maintain locations just outside the Lincoln Baths building for as long as the weather permits.

“We’re excited for this season,” Underwood said. “We will have all our regular vendors and product available plus many new events. Be sure to stop by and check us out.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market begins its indoor season Saturday November 5th and will be at the Lincoln Baths in the Saratoga Spa State Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

 

Winter Market Vendors

Argyle Cheese
Ballston Lake Apiaries
Battenkill Valley Creamery
Blind Buck Farm
The Chocolate Spoon
Clarity Juice
Clark Dahlia Gardens & Greenhouses
Denison Farm
Elihu Farm
Euro Delicacies
Feathered Antler
The Food Florist
Fresh Take Farm
Gomez Veggie Ville
Homestead Artisans
Kokinda Farm
Lewis Waite Farm
Longlesson Angus
M&A Farm
Malta Ridge Orchard & Gardens
Mariaville Mushroom Men
Mrs. London’s
Murray Hollow Bakehouse
Northern Cross Vineyard
Owl Wood Farm
Pleasant Valley Farm
Puckers Gourmet
Pura Vida Fisheries
Saratoga Apple
Saratoga Crackers
Scotch Ridge Farm
Something’s Brewing
Springbrook Hollow Distillery
Saratoga Peanut Butter
Sheldon Farm
Shushan Valley Hydro Farm & Underwood’s Greenhouses
Slate Valley Farm

Holiday Vendors

22 Shades of Gray
Bliss Angels
Bon Bon Brazil NY
Creations & Spells
Freddy’s Rockin’ Hummus
Pocket Gardens
Saratoga Suds n Stuff
Sweet & Sassy Confections
Wash Green & Clean

 

Pumpkin Soup Served in a Pumpkin

Adapted from André Soltner’s recipe in the New York Times
Makes 6-8 servings (about 2 quarts)

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• 2 pumpkins, 8 to 10 inches in diameter*
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced*
• ⅔ cup dry white wine*
• 2 small white turnips, peeled and sliced*
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced*
• 1 large potato, peeled and sliced*
• 5-6 cups chicken stock (or water), or as needed
• ½ cup heavy cream*
• Salt and ground white pepper

Instructions

1. Cut off top of one pumpkin at least 5 inches across, so that it can serve as a lid. Scoop out and discard all seeds and stringy material. Using a large sturdy spoon, scrape out pumpkin meat, taking care not to break through the shell. Set aside the pumpkin and its lid in a warm place. Scrape pumpkin meat out of second pumpkin to make 6 cups total. Discard the pumpkin shell, seeds and stringy material.

2. In a large soup pot over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add wine and simmer for 1 minute. Add turnips, carrot, potato, pumpkin meat and enough chicken stock or water to barely cover.

3. Cover and bring to a boil.

4. Gently simmer soup for 1 hour, stirring once or twice. The soup will be thick; if it seems in danger of burning, reduce heat and stir in a small amount of broth or water.

5. Add cream, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Using an immersion blender, purée the hot soup in the pot until very smooth. Alternatively, remove soup from heat and allow to cool until no longer steaming, then purée in a food processor or blender. Return soup to a clean pot and reheat gently.

6. Pour hot soup into pumpkin. Serve from pumpkin. Optional: thyme leaves as a garnish.

The Sweet Sensation of Bitter Melon

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

I can’t let the summer pass without at least one thought about my favorite gourd, the bitter melon. It is a light green, somewhat bumpy cylindrical squash sold at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market primarily by The Otrembiak’s. It is native to China but popular throughout southeast and South Asia. I grew up remembering my mother (who emigrated with my father from India in 1961) stuffing it with spices and onion and ginger, and roasting it whole.

The bitter melon, as the web site Bonnie’s Plants quite astutely notes, is pretty bitter in flavor. It is an acquired taste, one that I only acquired in my forties. However, many people who hail from the countries to which it is native swear by it for a range of purported health benefits including treatment of malaria, control of diabetes, and management of such things as blood pressure and cholesterol.

I have generally prepared bitter melon in a simplified style from that of my mother. Rather than stuffing and roasting, I slice the gourd into thin rounds and fry these rounds until they’re lightly crisped on the sides. I then remove them from oil, and add some onion or garlic, some fresh green pepper, turmeric, and a little fresh tomato. I saute this mixture together for a few minutes, and then return the previously fried rounds to the pan. Even though my parents are vegetarian, I find that this preparation is a delicious side dish to meat, particularly steaks and hamburgers.

For years, I struggled to grow the bitter melon myself. Two years ago, my husband and I produced our first successful crop. This year, we were fortunate to be able to sell some of the fruits of our bitter melon harvest at a small local farmers’ market, and in the process, I discovered from customers a variety of different ways to prepare the gourd.

Many from the Philippines, for instance, prepare the bittermelon with eggs. John Otrembiak recommends this preparation himself, using the duck eggs that he and his younger brother Steve sell at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Others have used the gourd in soups or stuffed it with meat. Just recently, I also learned from a customer of the Otrembiak’s of someone who likes to prepare it with brown sugar. All of these preparations suggest that the bitter melon – once a bit of an oddity in upstate New York – is finding a wider audience.

Give it a try while supplies last. It is, like many other summer crops, a short-season item that reaches its peak in late summer and dies off with the first frost.

Additional note from The Friends of the Market:

Please consider saving your kitchen scraps for compost. If you do not have a way of composting scraps for your own backyard garden, do not despair! We are accepting non-meat kitchen scraps, coffee grinds, and other simple compostable items at our tent at the Saturday market through the end of October. The compost is being taken to a local small farm to help create topsoil. We also are working with the market staff to make our favorite farmers market more green by encouraging recycling. Recycle bins have been set up near the Something’s Brewing coffee stand and by Clarity Juice in the food pavilion. Please deposit clean and empty glass, aluminum and plastic containers as well as newspapers and unsoiled paper products.