Did You Know

Creating Communities of Support Around Agriculture

May 16, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

If you’re a regular Saratoga Farmers’ Market shopper, chances are you’ve seen flyers at vendor stalls promoting CSAs. The acronym stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Its meaning, however, goes even deeper.

CSAs offer consumers the opportunity to form a direct relationship with a farmer by purchasing what is known as a “share” in the foods that the farmer produces. Typically, consumers – or CSA members – pay a set fee to a farm, and in exchange, receive a share of the farm’s produce on a weekly basis.

Money up front helps farmers cover costs of seeds, soil amendments, and other supplies before bringing produce to market. Members reap the harvest of their investment from farmers when they receive their share of the farm’s seasonal bounty.

“I love CSA,” says Justine Denison of Denison Farm. “It provides both the consumer/member and the farmer a unique and direct relationship, not found anywhere else in the marketplace. Both parties benefit financially and socially through a healthy and efficient partnership.”

Denison’s vegetable boxes cost $575 for 22 weeks, though the farm offers other pricing options. The boxes can be picked up at the farmers’ market or other locations, and typically includes vegetables for two adults and two children. Fruit and egg shares also are available.

Mark Bascom of Owl Wood called his farm’s CSA program a chance “to build customer loyalty.” Owl Wood offers purchasers the option of either receiving a box of produce or a market share at a price of $500 for 20 weeks. For market shares, purchasers can choose what items to place in the box.

CSAs began in Japan, Holland, and Switzerland in the 1960s, and spread to the United States in the 1980s. According to New York City-based Just Food, CSAs currently feed about 150,000 people nationwide.

While some farmers require weekly pickups, Bob and Mary Pratt of Elihu Farm have adopted a more flexible practice egg CSA. Customers can estimate how many eggs they might purchase over the course of a season, and pay that price up front, with a 50 cent per dozen discount. “I loved it,” said Lenore Reber, an Elihu customer. “I was supporting the farm, and I always knew I would be able to get eggs.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at High Rock Park.

Most CSAs begin in June, though some farmers offer year-round shares. Here is a list of some Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors who offer CSAs. Visit the individual farmers for further details about their specific programs.

Denison Farm (Saturdays)

Elihu Farm (eggs) (Saturdays)

Fresh Take Farm (Wednesdays)

Gomez Veggie Ville (Wednesdays and Saturdays)

Malta Ridge Orchard & Gardens (Saturdays)

Owl Wood Farm (Wednesdays and Saturdays)

Spring CSA Soup

Adapted from recipe by Samin Nosrat in New York Times
Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• 4 Tablespoons of olive oil*
• 2 medium onions, sliced*
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced*
• 6 to 8 cups diced vegetables (see seasonal recommendations below)*
• 1½ pounds raw boneless chicken*
• 6 to 8 cups chicken stock*
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Set a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat and add 4 tablespoons oil. When the oil shimmers, add onions and garlic.
Reduce the heat to a medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender, about 15 minutes.
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.
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.
Add more hot liquid if needed.
Serve hot.

Suggested spring vegetables: asparagus, carrots, parsnips, leeks, potatoes, kale, cabbage, mushrooms, rutabaga, and fresh herbs as a garnish.

Growing a Garden When Spring Takes its Time Coming

May 10, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

It’s May. Tulips are blooming, the scent of lilacs fills the air.

And how are our gardens growing? Well, maybe, they’re not.

For many home gardeners, this spring has been challenging, as the weather has swung from sunny and 70s to gray and rainy with threats of overnight frosts. If you’re like me, you’ve watched small healthy starts of spinach, kale, broccoli, and other “cool weather” crops droop and die overnight.

Scotch Ridge Berry Farm by Pattie Garrett

“It can be challenging when you have a lot of days with temperatures that won’t get above the low 50s,” said Charles Holub, of Scotch Ridge Berry Farm, one of several Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors who sell vegetable and herb seedlings. “There’s not a whole lot you can do, except be patient.”

Creating gardens in a region with a short growing season often means gardeners must start seedlings indoors until soil temperatures are above 60 degrees. But starting seedlings requires space, sunny windows, and frequent watering – all of which take up time. Several Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors make that job easier by selling seedlings that they’ve started in greenhouses or under high tunnels.

Still, these seedlings also are vulnerable to the cold.

“We always advise people to watch the forecasts carefully, especially at this time of year,” said Chris Dumar, of Balet Flowers & Design. “If you think there’s going to be a frost, cover your plants, or even if they’re in containers, put them under something like a picnic table to protect them.” Dumar also recommends an old farmer’s trick: Spray frosted plants with water before the sun hits the leaves.

Steve Otrembiak of Otrembiak Farm encourages gardeners who purchase seedlings not to rush to transplant. Wait until the time is right. For tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and other hot weather crops, that time is early June. For cooler crops, May can be optimal – unless a cold spell is in the forecast.

Otrembiak also says letting seedlings develop a strong root system before transplanting them will help them survive. He picked up a potted herb, tapped the bottom and flipped the pot over, removing the plant and the soil around it. At the base was a thick webbing of roots. “That’s what we like to see when we transplant,” he said.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is at High Rock Park, 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

Pea Shoot Pesto

By Chef Dan Spitz

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

1 cup, packed, of fresh pea shoots*
½ cup of fresh parsley leaves*
¼ cup of fresh mint leaves*
2 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped*
½ cup grated parmesan*
½ cup lightly toasted walnuts
1 cup good quality olive oil*
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. To make pesto using a food processor or Cuisinart, combine the pea shoots, parsley, mint, garlic, and 2 oz of olive oil and pulse until nearly smooth.

2. Continue by adding the parmesan and walnuts, pulse again until combined.

3. Then, while the machine is running, slowly pour in the remaining olive oil and a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper. Turn off and taste for salt and lemon.

Enjoy on eggs, sandwiches, salads, pasta, and just about any savor breakfast, lunch, and dinner dish. Buon Appetito!

Coloring Easter Eggs Using Natural Dyes

April 12, 2017 By marketeditor

Shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Supply List
*supplies available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• 1 dozen eggs, any color*
• 1 cup chopped red cabbage per cup of water* — makes blue on white eggs, green on brown eggs
• 1 cup shredded beets per cup of water* — makes pink or purple on white eggs, maroon on brown eggs
• 2 tablespoons ground turmeric per cup of water — makes yellow eggs

Cooking Instructions:

1. Bring 1 inch water to rolling boil in medium saucepan over high heat.

2. Place eggs in steamer basket and place the basket in the saucepan. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook eggs for 13 minutes.

3. Combine 2 cups ice cubes and 2 cups cold water in medium bowl. Using tongs or spoon, transfer the eggs to ice bath. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Dyeing Instructions

1. Add a cup of water for each color into a saucepan. Add cabbage, beets or turmeric and bring the water to a boil.

2. Cover, and turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes. You can cook longer for a deeper color. Drip a little of the colored water onto a white dish to check the color. When it has reached to color you like, remove the pan from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

3. Pour the cooled colored water through a fine-mesh strainer into another saucepan or bowl.

4. Stir in 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar per cup of strained colored water. Pour the water over cooled cooked eggs in a bowl. The eggs must be completely under the water.

5. Refrigerate until the desired color is reached. My Saratoga Kitchen Table refrigerated eggs overnight.

6. Try rubbing dry dyed eggs with oil (olive or melted coconut oil) will allow them to shine.

Chocolate’s Journey | Did You Know…

February 16, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

When you visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market this Saturday, we invite you to start your trip with a stop at Something’s Brewing and have a hot drink: coffee, tea, cider, or perhaps chocolate. Then, make a stop at the Chocolate Spoon for a cookie flavored perhaps with black pepper, ginger, cayenne, or chocolate. Amid the shopping for your week’s produce, meats, and dairy products, check out some of the delectable, dark-chocolate treats prepared by Brazilian Bon-Bon. And, of course, don’t forget that Battenkill Valley Creamery at the back end of the market has chocolate milk among its many products.

These offerings of chocolate at our fresh and local market tap into a rich and amazing cultural past. My colleague at Empire State College, Dr. Dana Gliserman-Kopans, offers a few insights, gleaned from her studies of this sweet, soothing ingredient:

Monastic memories: Chocolate consumption has origins in ancient Mexico, and was primarily a substance comprised of cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla consumed in liquid form. It was diluted with hot water, milk and sometimes wine. It was taken warm. Often as it migrated from Mexico to Spain in the early 17^th century, it became a beverage that fasting monks could use as a nutritional substitute for food.

Courtly cups: In Spain, the king was regarded as “the most Catholic majesty.” That position, reports Gliserman-Kopans, allowed chocolate to gain favor in courts and ultimately made drinking chocolate a stylish endeavor and a symbol of status. The practice spread across Europe after Anna of Austria, who had grown up in Spain, married Louis XIII of France, and brought her favorite beverage with her.

Bordello beverage: Chocolate generally was a late-morning drink, associated with luxury, languor, and love. It often was served in bordellos, and gained a following for reputed aphrodisiac qualities.

Children’s cocoa: All of these adult connotations of chocolate changed around the turn of the 19^th century when technological processes for producing chocolate changed, creating powdered cocoa. This lightened the beverage and over time made it accessible to children who were generally discouraged from taking in other morning beverages as coffee and tea, and of course evening spirits.

As of the early 21^st century, hot cocoa, in Gliserman-Kopans view, is most popularly enjoyed by children although chocolate is appreciated by virtually everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or social status. The chocolate at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market embraces that past and present. As you consume it, embrace its past and enjoy its varied forms that in which we can partake in the present.

Recipe: The following link offers a new twist on the late afternoon pick-up, replacing hot chocolate, tea, or coffee with brewed cacao. It suggests preparing the beverage with milk or water, adding a sweetener such as honey, and adding the ground cacao beans to your compost, enriching our soil.

http://www.foodandnutrition.org/Stone-Soup/February-2017/Brewed-Cacao-Your-New-Afternoon-Pick-Me-Up/

Loving Your Chocolate … Even More

February 9, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Chocolate brigadeiros from Bon Bon Brazil

What defines a chocoholic? Well, maybe me. I can eat chocolate every day, or drink it. I love it as a sweet, topped with fruit, and even sometimes shaved finely over a kale and walnut salad or stirred into a savory dish like chili. I have been known to sneak a couple squares of a chocolate bar into my breakfast. And, as Valentine’s Day advances, I find that the lengthening but still cold and damp days of February increase my longing for the sweet warmth of that substance even more. As a result, I can’t help but feel heartened when I read reports that indulgences in chocolate are actually good for you.

At the same time, I realize that something as sweet, as caloric, and as sugary as chocolate can’t exactly replace whole foods. So, I wonder, what is the proper way to make chocolate a part of a balanced diet? When must one put the brakes on chocolate and say, “enough”?

My Empire State College colleague, Dr. Kim Stote, a professor of health services, has some answers to my questions. For starters, she does affirm that chocolate can be good for you. She notes that its origin likes in a tree-grown fruit – the cacao pod – whose seeds (cacao beans) are then dried and roasted.

Like many researchers, however, Stote suggests that not all chocolate is created equally. She draws a distinction between dark chocolate and milk chocolate, the latter of which contains significantly less chocolate liquor (which is the result of the processing of cacao beans from which the natural product of chocolate is derived). Milk chocolate also has a slightly higher number of calories, a higher level of cholesterol, and lesser amounts of dietary fiber, caffeine, and theobromine, a compound sometimes used in the treatment of high blood pressure.

Chocolate cheesecakes from Argyle Cheese Farmer

Stote cites a number of studies that have found chocolate – in small quantities, again – to be useful in reducing high blood pressure, staving off heart disease, and, if kept to 90 to 100 calories a day, in supporting weight management. She further notes that chocolate has been found to help suppress appetite and to offer temporary elevations of mood.

But she also advises that the healthful intake of chocolate is all about moderation. To improve your health, manage your weight, and perhaps maintain good spirits, the best level of chocolate consumption is 1-2 ounces of dark chocolate daily, or 1 tablespoon of cocoa.

So for chocoholics, what might that mean?

A cup of hot cocoa for breakfast? A couple squares of dark chocolate before retiring for the night? Chocolate shavings over well, whatever you wish. And perhaps this recipe from The Splendid Table, shared by another one of my Empire State College colleagues, Dr. Dana Gliserman-Kopans:

The Duke’s Hot Chocolate

from The Splendid Table
5 minutes prep time; 5 minutes stove time.
Serves 4 to 6.

Hot chocolate holds on the stove for an hour or longer, and can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Ingredients

* 1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or the seeds scraped from the inside of a whole vanilla bean)
* Generous pinch of salt
* 1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper (optional)
* 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
* Fine-grated zest of a large orange
* 3 cups water, or half-water, half-milk, or half-water, half-cream
* 10.5 to 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (Lindt Excellence 70%, Valrhona 71%, Scharffen Berger 70%, Guittard L’Harmonie 72%, or Ghiradelli 70% Extra Bittersweet, in our order of preference), broken up

Instructions

1. In a 3-quart saucepan combine all ingredients except the chocolate. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 2 minutes.

2. Pull the pan off the heat, let it sit a few minutes, then whisk in the chocolate until smooth. Taste the chocolate for sweetness and enough allspice. Serve hot.

Beginning with the Base

January 30, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

What’s the secret to a great chowder?

According to Dave DeLozier, chowder chef for Moby Rick’s Seafood Company, the retail outlet for the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s Pura Vida Fisheries, it’s all about the base

“That’s the hardest thing to get right,” said DeLozier.

DeLozier spoke with me last weekend at Moby Rick’s, after I had sampled his contribution to this weekend’s annual Chowderfest at the Pura Vida stall at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, which – perhaps unpredictably – includes neither clams nor cream, two things that I had long assumed were characteristic of any chowder. One goal of Saratoga’s Chowderfest might be to dispute that claim. Among the many chowders being offered for $1 three-ounce tastings are those that contain clams and cream along with dozens that have nothing resembling those presumed stables at all.

Moby Rick's Fish Chowder by Pattie Garrett — Moby Rick’s Fish Chowder. Photo by Pattie Garrett

Moby Rick is offering a Thai inspired curry soup built from a base of fish bone broth, wine, and coconut milk. On top of the base are scallops and shrimp from Pura Vida and leeks, bok choy and onion from the market’s Pleasant Valley Farms. Garlic, butter, turmeric, ginger, thyme and a touch of sugar round out the soup.

My sample arrived pleasantly warm. Like any good fish chowder should smell, this one’s aroma said ocean all the way. But the taste was not fishy. It was mildly spicy with a gentle sweet after-taste. That combination of warm spice with soft sweetness complemented the scallops and shrimp quite well.

The Thai Curry Soup was one of several chowders that DeLozier prepared over the past month for customers at Pura Vida as well as Moby Rick’s. He dished out samples and collected feedback. This, in part, made the Thai curry soup the shop’s choice for Chowderfest. DeLozier anticipates serving 45 gallons in three-ounce increments Saturday.

“We always sold out when we had it,” DeLozier says, “and when we didn’t have it, customers asked for it.”

The soup also appealed because it was dairy and gluten free.

Pleasant Valley Farm Leeks by Pattie Garrett

But its real charm and nutritional value, says DeLozier, comes from the base: a bone broth made from a long slow simmer of fish bones, with wine and some starchy root vegetables rolled in, and coconut milk added toward the end.

Visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1p.m. at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park.

Anything Goes Seafood Chowder

Adapted from recipe by Aroostook on Food.com
30 minutes to prepare and cook
Serves 8

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• 2 cups fish or chicken broth (find fish broth at Pura Vida Fisheries)*
• 2 small onions, diced fine*
• 3 potatoes, cut into half inch chunks*
• 2 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves*
• 1 lb fish fillet of choice*
^{• 1}⁄₂ lb of shrimp or crab or lobsters or scallops or mussels or clams or oysters*
• 4 cups half-and-half*
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Heat stock and add potatoes and fresh thyme.
2. Cook gently until tender.
3. Add onions and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Add fish and seafood, and gently simmer 10 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Add half-and-half and butter.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve w/ common crackers or oyster crackers.