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Pine Needle Vegetarian Broth

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Recipe shared by Nine Pine Soup & Design

Photo provided by Nine Pine Soup & Design

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● ½ gallon water
● 2 cups fresh green pine needles*
● 1-2 tbsp Celtic sea salt

Optional Ingredients:
● 1 tbsp red onion*, chopped
● 2 tbsp jalapeno pepper*, chopped
● 1 small carrot*, sliced
● ½ cup Chinese cabbage*, chopped
● ¼ cup chopped potato*, chopped
● ¼ cup fresh corn*
● Or any mild-tasting in-season vegetables (zucchini, squash, green beans, kohlrabi, mushrooms)

Instructions
Boil the water. Pour boiling water into a pot with the pine needles and cover with a lid. Let it steep for ½ an hour. Remove the pine needles and add salt to taste. Add desired vegetables and cook until tender. Serve as an appetizer or morning elixir.

Cornbread

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Recipe by Donna Bryson

Cornbread compliments roasted chicken and duck, braised greens, balsamic-glazed beets, and many other savory dishes. Or simply slather a slice with local honey or jam and enjoy as a treat.

Ingredients
*Ingredients available at the farmers’ market
● About 2 tablespoons fat (butter, oil, bacon drippings…)
● 1 cup flour
● 1 cup cornmeal*
● 1 teaspoon salt
● 2 teaspoons baking powder
● ½ teaspoon baking soda
● 2 eggs*, beaten
● 1 cup buttermilk* (if you choose to use regular milk*, omit baking soda and add another teaspoon of baking powder).

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. While the oven is heating, place fat in cast iron skillet or other baking dish and put skillet/baking dish in the oven.
3. In a bowl, mix dry ingredients with a fork, tossing them to get some air into them.
4. Add wet ingredients quickly and blend until batter is just a bit thicker than pancake batter. Add more milk, if needed.
5. Take the pan out of the oven, swirl sizzling fat quickly to coat the pan, and pour excess into the batter.
6. Mix well, then pour the batter into the hot pan.
7. Put the pan in the oven and bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick (or fork) poked into the center comes out clean (about 30-40 minutes).

Fall Favorites at the Farmers’ Market

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By Madison Jackson and Emily Meagher

Before the farmers’ market moves back indoors, we spend one last month with our tents up and our coats on to share fresh, local products with our community. Summer produce makes way for the fall harvest; a time for comforting food and drinks and festive seasonal products. Here are ten fall favorites you can find at our markets in October.

1. Apple cider and cider donuts
Saratoga Apple and Slyboro Cider House both operate their own orchards. Try their fresh apples, pressed apple cider, hard cider, and cider donuts. A real Upstate NY treat!

Saratoga Peanut Butter Company, photo by Madison Jackson

2. Pumpkin Pandemonium Peanut Butter
The name says it all. This Saratoga Peanut Butter Company creation is chock-full of rich pumpkin and peanut flavors. A guilt-free treat at only 2 grams of sugar per serving, it’s great on sandwiches, apples, ice cream, and more.

3. Hand-painted hats
Artist Gretchen Tisch, owner of Feathered Antler, gives hats a fall makeover. Pick up a leaf-accented fedora or hand-knit beanie at the market.

4. Hot chocolate cheesecake
Grandma Apple’s Cheesecakes’ flavors vary with the season. Our current favorite is hot chocolate cheesecake. It’s perfect for when you have company, but perfectly acceptable to eat all by yourself! Also available are apple and pumpkin cheesecakes and cheesecake filled apples dipped in chocolate.

5. Apple cider fromage frais
Nettle Meadow does cheesemaking with a creative touch, and it shows with their seasonal favorites. Back at the market are the soft apple cider fromage frais, pumpkin spice and maple chevre, and the brie-like Early Snow.

6. Local wool
Elihu Farm’s sheep produce award-winning wool, sold as washed and unwashed fleeces at the market. Pick up a fleece to do some cozy fall crafting!

Saratoga Suds ‘n’ Stuff, photo by Emily Meagher

7. Spooky soaps
At Saratoga Suds ‘n’ Stuff, no shape of soap is too crazy. Their fall mineral soap collection includes ghosts, pumpkins, black cats, acorns, leaves, and owls.

8. Ornamental corn
Fresh summer corn is making way for ornamental fall corn. Pick up some calico or broom corn from local farms for fresh seasonal home decor.

9. Hand-ground cinnamon
Saratoga Spicery’s fresh-ground spices and spice mixes include hand-ground cinnamon. Give your baked goods an extra fresh flavor!

10. Pumpkins!
Farmers’ markets in October wouldn’t be complete without fresh gourds and winter squash. Local farms have a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes in stock – you can even find some hand-painted mini pumpkins.

Photo by Madison Jackson

This week: not a recipe, but a craft… how to make felt balls with wool roving!

Week 6: Corn

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Sweet summer corn at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, photo by Pattie Garrett

 

 

Extra resources:

How to make corn husk dolls and their history (video)

The Native American legend of the Three Sisters (video)

More facts and info about corn for kids (article)

7 Scrumptious kid-friendly corn recipes (listicle)

Corn for Kids (cartoon video – for the youngest kids)

The history of the world according to corn (history video – for older kids)

Kids of the Corn Farm (video about working on a corn farm – for the oldest kids)

Three Sisters Chili

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Recipe courtesy of Squashville Farm
Serves: 4

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● 1 onion*, peeled and diced
● 1 tablespoon olive oil*
● 1 lb ground venison or beef*
● 3 cloves garlic*, minced
● 2 tsp chili powder
● 1 tsp cumin
● ½ tsp dried oregano
● 1 ear corn*
● 1 carnival squash*, seeded and cut into one-inch pieces
● 1 green pepper*, seeded and diced
● 3-4 fresh tomatoes*, cut into chunks
● 3 cups vegetable broth
● 8 oz dried red beans
● salt and pepper to taste
● Optional garnishes: fresh chopped cilantro*, toast pumpkin seeds, cheddar cheese*, plain yogurt*

Preparation

  1. Wash and soak dry beans for 30 minutes. Rinse and place in 1 cup of water until ready to use.
  2. Remove kernels from corn cob.
  3. Heat oil in a pot, and add onions and a pinch of salt. Saute until onions are translucent.
  4. Add ground meat and brown.
  5. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper.
  6. Add squash, corn, and green pepper. Stir in broth, beans with water, and tomatoes. Simmer until squash is soft and ingredients have combined to create a thick, chunky soup.

    Note: This chili tastes better if it is refrigerated overnight and reheated the next day.

A versatile trio for fall meals

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

The three sisters method of interplanting corn, beans, and squash is an Iroquois practice that helped sustain the soil that farmers in our region use today.

It was rooted in long-term sustenance: By planting beans as companions to corn, the nitrogen that corn plants deplete is restored and bean vines receive a climbing pole in the corn stalks. Meanwhile, low-to-the-ground squash leaves create shade which prevents the soil from drying out. At seasons end is a harvest of three foods that one can eat immediately or store for winter use.

Squashville Farm, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

In market farming, three sisters gardens are hard to find. Most farmers plant in rows, separating crops from one another. Yet, many of those rows produce corn, squash, and/or beans – all of which are abundant now at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Each makes a delicious dish by itself. The three also can be combined to create soups, salads, stir fries, and casseroles.

I first encountered the three sisters method in a gardening guide in the 1980s as a young adult trying to create a garden. On paper, planting corn with beans and squash seemed easy. You first plant corn kernels in a mound of soil. After the corn sprouts, you add beans, around each shoot of corn. Once the beans are established, you add squash. You weed while the plants are young and then leave them until it’s time to harvest.

Burger’s Marketgarden, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Creating such a garden is easier said than done, as I quickly learned while trying not to step on squash or uproot corn as I snipped bean pods. Still, I use the three sisters as a template for growing food and eating it. This lets me cook with corn and a wide variety of squashes and beans.

I adapted the accompanying chili recipe from a basic ground beef and vegetable chili. I used fresh corn from the Gomez Veggie Ville but chose Squashville Farm’s carnival squash over the butternut squash that the original recipe suggested. I also used dried red beans over canned, and ground venison instead of beef. The result was a mildly spiced chili filled with the three sisters at the center.