Saratoga Farmers' Market

eating fresh

Enjoying What’s Fresh

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

 

Early Summer Produce at Owl Wood Farm’s Stand, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

The many vegetable farmers who bring their harvests to the Saratoga Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays offer an abundance of early summer freshness – thick luscious leaves of kale and Swiss chard; bountiful bags of lettuce and salad mixes; tender carrots, sprightly radishes, and bright baby beets accompanied by long leafy tops.

This festive array often makes one want to buy everything. But then comes the question: How to enjoy it all before it wilts?

“How to store it, how long will it last? These are questions we get a lot,” says Justine Denison, of Denison Farm.

Such issues might particularly perplex subscribers of community supported agriculture (CSA) programs who receive boxes filled to the brim with produce every week. CSA subscribers are vital to many farmers’ livelihoods and the boxes, in return, are intended to offer up ample supplies of produce for up to a week. Many others also rely on their weekly or twice-weekly market visits for much of what they eat. As a result, it is in the interest of everyone to know how best to keep these seasonal vegetables fresh.

Denison offers the following tips:

  • Shop early. Farmers harvest and cool vegetables within a day if not hours before market. As a result, produce is most fresh right at the market.
  • Bring coolers to keep produce cool if you’re not heading straight home.
  • At home, give leafy greens like kale a cold water bath if they appear wilted. Drip or spin dry the leaves before storing them.
  • Store vegetables in a crisper in bags that are left open, allowing the produce some room to breathe.
  • Don’t wash vegetables until you’re ready to eat them.
  • Strategize. Radishes, turnips, and beets last longer than their green tops, all of which are delicious steamed, lightly sautéed, or in salads. Clip the tops off and eat them first. Save the roots for later.

And don’t hold back. What’s in season changes fast. Owl Wood Farm’s snap peas have been a hit. Now, though, “That season is about done for us,” says owner Mark Bascom. Meanwhile, “green beans are just starting and we’ll start to pick them next week.”

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 Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and check us out on the FreshFoodNY app. E-mail friends@saratogafarmers.org for volunteer opportunities.

Easy, Almost Instant, Hollandaise Sauce

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Recipe courtesy of Mary Pratt of Elihu Farm

Total time: 10-15 minutes

 

If you’ve thought about making Hollandaise Sauce, do you shrug, because you’ve heard it’s too complicated? This “egg sauce” is ideal sauce for spring.

Ingredients

*Ingredients available at the farmers’ market

  • 1 lemon
  • 1 whole egg *
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter*  (or 1 tbsp olive oil* and 3 tbsp butter* or 2 tbsp of each)
  • 1 tbsp heavy cream*
  • Salt to taste
  • Optional additions:

Lemon zest

Whipped heavy cream*

Parsley *

Capers

Orange zest and orange juice

Instructions

  1. Whisk 1 whole egg in a bowl which will fit atop a 1½ quart saucepan. Whisk in 1 tbsp lemon juice; add a pat of cold butter. Using a whole egg instead of egg yolks makes a more forgiving sauce that’s less likely to curdle. (Use 2 egg yolks if you prefer a richer sauce.)
  2. Heat the olive oil and butter, or just butter, in another pan, until the butter foams but doesn’t burn, (If you like a more lemony sauce, add some lemon zest.) Keep warm.
  3. Bring to a simmer about half an inch of water in a 1-1/2 or 2-quart pan. Put the bowl of egg mixture over the simmering water (no need for an official double boiler). The bowl cannot touch the water.
  4. Whisk constantly as the egg heats up and the butter begins to melt. Don’t heat too fast, or the sauce might curdle. Then, add the hot butter or butter and oil to the bowl, in a slow stream while whisking briskly. Allow the sauce to heat slowly, whisking more and more, until it changes texture and appears custardy.
  5. If the sauce begins to curdle, remove from the bowl from the heat. Add a bit of lemon juice and a smidgen of butter or oil and whisk until the sauce becomes smooth. Then put the bowl back on the pan and continue, until all the butter or butter and oil are incorporated.
  6. Remove from the heat; whisk in 1 tbsp heavy cream to make the sauce more spreadable. Keep warm until ready to serve on asparagus, broccoli, fish, or atop eggs Benedict.

 

Additions and substitutions: For orange flavor, add orange juice and half the lemon juice, and substitute the zest of half an orange. Other additions can include, whipped cream * (Sauce Mousseline), capers (don’t overdo), finely minced parsley, or some paprika.

Learning to Cook, Farmers’ Market Style

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Callie Noland started her senior year at Skidmore College full of excitement. She and her housemates had signed on for a weekly CSA share, and she was looking forward to a fall of kale, bok choy, and kohlrabi. With the Internet at her disposal, she felt sure she would be able “to find something to do” with all of the luscious, vitamin-packed vegetables.

Soon, reality hit. As a college student with limited time and few cooking skills, she felt almost intimidated by the prospect of cooking for herself. More often than not, she ended up picking up pre-made foods on campus or eating at the dining hall. Much of the produce went to waste.

From Noland’s frustration came inspiration. She and a group of Skidmore students are teaming up with Saratoga Farmers’ Market volunteers to create a series of cooking classes for students based on easy, healthful, and flavorful meals that feature seasonal items available at the market. The first class is this Sunday.

The menu includes two hummus dips – one featuring sweet potatoes and the other parsnips; a beet salad, kale with caramelized onions and barley, roasted vegetables, and a potato cheese soup. Students will work at cooking stations set up in the college’s test kitchen with market volunteers serving as guides. Produce and cheese will be obtained from market vendors tomorrow, and students will go home with a booklet of recipes for their own use.

The goal, from market volunteer Ann Haden’s perspective, is to teach how cooking with fresh food doesn’t have to be complicated.

For Noland, a public health major, the classes are a way of helping students feel empowered about cooking with local produce. For her, she says, “I’m hoping for myself to gain some confidence.”

Noland hopes to add a few staple dishes to a chili she tries to make weekly, based on a recipe from her father.

“I feel that the stakes for cooking on a given day are high,” she says. “It’s an investment of time, of money, of food that should not be wasted. If it ends up tasting bad or failing in some way, so much is wasted.”

Visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building in Saratoga Spa State Park; follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; and contact friends@saratogafarmersmarket.org for volunteer opportunities.