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farming

Farming philosophies and practices

September 9, 2020 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

What are your farming practices?

As a farmer, I receive this question in varying forms often from customers who visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. So do many of the other agricultural vendors who bring fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses, spirits, and other locally produced items to market. I appreciate the question. It creates an opportunity to chat and build a relationship through a sharing of farming philosophy. But because farming is a personal endeavor, how the question gets answered varies.

I decided last Saturday to ask a few of my farmer friends at the market to share their philosophies and practices. Here’s what I learned:

Moxie Ridge Farm & Creamery, photo provided

From Lee Hennessy, owner of Moxie Ridge Farm, which brings goat milk, yogurt, and cheeses to market as well as pork: “The philosophy behind my farm … is based in terroir (a French term that depicts a sense of place in food and wine).”

For Hennessy, terroir is achieved through what his goats and other animals eat: “Everything is non-GMO and comes from within 10 miles of my farm. That sense of place in milk and in meat is what makes it unique.”

From Andy Burger, of Burger Farm, a multi-generation family farm that brings seedlings, potted plants, and vegetables to market: “We are no-spray, non-certified organic. We try and keep as close to naturally grown as we can.”

Burger’s MarketGarden, photo by Pattie Garrett

Burger’s use of the terms no-spray, organic, and naturally grown offers a means to differentiate many practices. “No spray” means no chemical insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides are used to protect crops from pests. “Organic” allows for certain spraying and fertilizer use, while “naturally grown” further limits these uses to materials that are fully natural. “Non-certified” highlights the fact farms use organic and naturally grown methods but have not sought formal recognition. Such is the case with my farm. We do not use sprays and minimize organic fertilizer use by incorporating animal manure into our soil.

Green Jeans Market Farm, photo provided

Organic certification comes from the USDA. It is expensive and time-consuming, but it ensures crops are grown in the cleanest possible environment, as Echo Creek Farm owner Jennifer Palulis has explained.

And the difference between certified organic and certified naturally grown? “The single biggest difference is the certifier,” says Jason Heitman of Green Jeans Market Farm, which receives its certified naturally grown recognition from another farmer. “I don’t use the USDA; I use a colleague.”

This week’s recipe: Summer Squash Pasta Bake

Filed Under: Featured Article, homepage feature, News Tagged With: Burger's MarketGarden, certifications, certified naturally grown, Echo Creek Farm, farming, green jeans market farm, Moxie Ridge Farm, no-spray, organic, practices, usda certified organic

Harvest Season — in February???

February 18, 2019 By marketeditor

by Pattie Garrett

A visit to Saturday’s Saratoga Farmers’ Market during the cold winter months brings surprises: the tables are overflowing with vegetables and fruit, and each week newly harvested leafy greens and other fresh-picked produce appear. This leaves me wondering, how is it possible to grow vegetables when the temperature is below freezing? 

Paul and Sandy Arnold, who have been working the land at Pleasant Valley Farm for the past 30 years, explain that they started experimenting with winter farming in 1992 with low tunnels, and in 2006 with high tunnels. 

Paul Arnold and his daughter Kim harvest greens in a high tunnel. Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

“Through much trial and error, the high tunnel winter greens production has proven to be worthwhile. Customers are excited to come every week of the year and be able to get fresh, healthy greens. Each year, our systems have been improved so that we have a more consistent supply throughout the cold winter months, though we will always be challenged by the weather,” explains Paul, with a knowing smile.

I decided to visit the farm on a cold February day. I drive down ice covered unpaved roads for miles; upon arrival I’m greeted by a hawk’s screech and an overwhelming view. Walking past several high tunnels full of colorful vegetables, I find the Arnolds harvesting vegetables, spinach, lettuce and more. High tunnels make it possible for local farmers to extend the growing season and provide us with locally grown fresh vegetables year-round at the farmers’ market. On the Arnold’s farm, the high tunnels are made of polycarbonate material and plastic over a steel structure; the tunnel protects the plants from weather extremes, controlling the environment for the plants in a safe, natural way. The vegetables are planted directly in the soil inside the tunnel. If the tunnel detects the temperature is too high or low, the tunnels’ side curtains will move up or down automatically to maintain an appropriate temperature.

Lettuce sown in the soil of a high tunnel. Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett.

The 5000 square foot high tunnels enable the Arnolds to grow tasty winter greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, mustards, broccoli raab, Asian greens, arugula and more. Paul explains, “The seasons change the flavor of the produce. The cold may bring out its flavor or heat will enhance its sweetness.” So, enjoy your favorite vegetables and fruit from the farmers’ market, grown locally and naturally healthy and delicious all year, thanks to innovative farmers like the Arnolds.

Filed Under: Featured Article, homepage feature, News Tagged With: Asian greens, broccoli raab, farming, greenhouse, high tunnel, lettuce, low tunnel, mustard, New York State farm, Pleasant Valley Farm, Spinach, swiss chard, upstate farming, weather, winter agriculture, winter farming, winter greens, winter salad

Garlic and the Love of Farming

August 13, 2018 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Jim and Himanee Gupta-Carlson, owners of Squashville Farm, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

My husband Jim and I love garlic. Not just the sight, smell, and taste of the bulbs, which are at their peak season now at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, but everything about the planting, tending, and harvesting of it.

We began growing garlic seven years ago, well before our backyard land became Squashville Farm. We started with cloves we got from the Row to Hoe Farm. The following year, we purchased garlic in bulk and began saving seed. By 2015, we were harvesting about 600 bulbs a year.

During those years, we also helped form the Friends of the Saratoga Market volunteer organization. In that capacity, we got to know local farmers, learned more about growing food, grew an increasing variety of vegetables, and began raising laying hens, meat chickens, and goats.

This spring, we became vendors at Saratoga’s Wednesday market. At our stall, just past the central pavilion on the north end, you will find lettuce, kale, chard, and other greens; a range of seasonal vegetables; eggs, chicken, and several cuts of goat meat. And, of course, garlic. This is the food we grow to eat and enjoy offering to others.

Garlic comes in numerous varieties, and we like to sample a lot of them. We do this by traveling to the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, where we meet growers and taste their wares. We decide what to plant based on what our taste buds like.

This year, we chose three varieties, one from each of the “hard neck” families. Our Red Chesnok is a purple stripe, great for baking and eating roasted; our Georgian Heat is a porcelain, great for general cooking and longer-term storage; and our Ukrainian Red is a rocambole, known for having a lot of cloves in varying sizes and a true garlic taste.

We planted cloves in November. They sprouted in the spring. The sprouts turned into stalks that produced scapes in June, which we cut off and sold. The stalks then turned brown, telling us it was time to harvest.   

As my husband notes, garlic is magical. It’s a year-round anticipation, planning, and celebration of farm-grown food.

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 out the FreshFoodNY app. E-mail friends@saratogafarmers.org for volunteer opportunities.

 

Filed Under: Featured Article, News Tagged With: fall harvest, farming, garlic, garlic varieties, Jim and Himanee Gupta-Carlson, locally grown, planting, Saratoga Farmers' Market, Squashville Farms, Wednesday Market

Holiday Market Showcases a Different Facet of Farming

December 14, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Dark Horse Designs, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Often we think that farms are only about food. We know and love our favorite farmers at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market for the produce they grow and the animals they raise. Less known perhaps is the creativity that comes from farming and its spirit of doing things one’s self.

That creativity shows itself in full force at the holiday market.

The holiday market is a special offering of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market that takes place through Dec. 30 alongside the regular market. It features specialty foods, handicrafts, and opportunities to participate in such activities as making your own wrapping paper.

Last Saturday at the market, I headed upstairs where the holiday vendors were based. For the next half hour, I sampled Saratoga Chocolate Co. niblets, sniffed beans roasted by the Upper Hudson Coffee, and admired the horseshoe wine racks made by metalworker William Herrington, and the ceramic creations from Zoe Burghard, and the market’s newest holiday addition handmade furniture from Dark Horse Designs in Ballston Spa.

The artists behind these creations greeted market shoppers and described their creations. Dark Horse’s Heather Mason, for instance, noted that the workbenches, dog beds, and kitchen islands on display all came from the horse farm itself. The farm recently replaced its fencing. Rather than throw out the wood, owner Kyle Hauptfleisch turned it into kitchen islands that contain shelving, work tables, drawers, and even horseshoes for hanging dish towels on the side. Mason added paint and other designs.

Living Resources at 70 Beekman, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

I also made wrapping paper with help from Emily Valle, of Living Resources Art. Valle laid down a sheet of plain packaging paper and handed me raw potatoes, purchased from the vendors downstairs and cut to create stamps of trees and stars. I created my paper by dipping the stamps into the paint and imprinting them on paper. Valle taped my paper to some railing and I did my weekly shopping as the paint dried.

Living Resources will be at the market again on December 23. Its gallery at 70 Beekman St. also is open weekend afternoons from 2-4 p.m. for those who wish to create more intricate wrapping paper designs with self-carved linoleum blocks, for a $10 fee.

 

 

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building in Saratoga Spa State Park. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Filed Under: Featured Article, News Tagged With: Christmas, Dark Horse Designs, farming, gift giving, Holiday Market, holiday shopping, Lincoln Baths, Living Resources at70 Beekman, local artisans, locally made, Saratoga Chocolate Co, Saratoga Farmers' Market, Upper Hudson Coffee

New farmer brings the ‘moxie’ to her work

November 9, 2017 By marketeditor

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Leah Hennessy decided to become a farmer on the day she had her first affectionate encounter with a goat.

Now the owner of Moxie Ridge Farm & Creamery, one of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s newer vendors, Hennessy recalls that she was on a business trip as a wine consultant in Provence, France. She had asked if she could visit a fromagerie, or cheese shop. A day with a regional cheesemaker was arranged.

At the end of the day, the cheesemaker took her to the barn to meet the goats. As the animals excitedly approached the equally excited American visitor, the cheesemaker murmured in French to a translator accompanying Hennessy. Hennessy caught the word “bisou.”

 

“I know what that means,” she exclaimed. “It means kisses.”

“That’s right,” replied the cheesemaker via the translator. “They like kisses.”

A yearling goat poked her nose through a fence, and Hennessy bent down.

She was hooked.

Hennessy had worked and lived in Hollywood for eight years. She packed up that life and returned to Albany where she grew up. She poured her savings into farmer-training seminars and courses and schooled herself in goat rearing, herd management, cheese-making, and sustainable agriculture while working at area farms.

In late 2016, through a partnership with Dirt Capital, and assistance from such organizations as American Farmland Trust, the Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corp., FARMroots, and the Agricultural Stewardship Association, she acquired the farm formerly operated by Longview Farm owners Dave and Liza Porter.

Cannonball Cheese by Moxie Ridge Farm

In her first year, Hennessy has brought French and other European inspired cheeses to market. She also offers chicken and goose eggs, poultry, goat milk and yogurt, and pork.

The ridge in the farm name reflects the area topography. Moxie reflects Hennessy herself – a tough woman determined to persist. She uses minimal machinery, relies on animals for land maintenance, and loves each and every animal under her stewardship passionately.

“All my life I’ve looked for something that would be meaningful to me and give me complete fulfillment,” says Hennessy, at her farm. “I’ve found it here.”

 

 

As if in agreement, chickens squawk, goats bleat, and a gaggle of geese parade between the farm entrance and her front steps.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

Filed Under: Featured Article, News Tagged With: artisan cheese, cheese, chicken, farming, fulfillment, geese, goat, goat products, Leah Hennessey, Moxie Ridge Farm, new farmer, pork, Saratoga Farmers' Market

Creating Great Cheese Starts with Happy Animals

October 10, 2017 By marketeditor

By Julia Howard, Market Administrator

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

“Happy goats (and sheep) make great cheese” has been Nettle Meadow Farm owners Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan’s motto ever since they first began creating cheese. That motto embodies their desire to share their products and philosophy with others in the Saratoga area.

Nettle Meadow joined the Saratoga Farmers’ Market this year as a Saturday vendor. They offer an array of fresh, semi-aged, and hard mold ripened offerings at the market and at other local retail outlets.

Their desire to connect with the local community is reflected not just in their presence at the market but also in the weekly tours they offer at their farm and the Kemp Animal Sanctuary that they have established on-site.

Lambiase and Flanagan began creating cheese in the 1990s while working at a law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. They purchased two goats and raised them on a one-third acre homestead that they established in the yard of their home on a cul-de-sac.

“We weren’t happy at our jobs and we would look so forward to milking Shady Lady (their goat) before and after work,” reminisced Lambiase, with a laugh.

In 2005, Lambaise and Flanagan purchased Nettle Meadow, a 50-acre farm in Thurman, NY. Today, the farm houses more than 300 goats, dozens of sheep, guard llamas, chickens, and ducks. It also includes the Kemp sanctuary space for retired and rescued farm animals.

“Animals are the first priority and the cheese supports the animals,” said Lambaise as we toured the farm.

As we walked through the area, we passed a large goat with long black hair and spiraling horns.

“Alex, you are just magic,” Lambaise exclaimed.

Throughout the tour, she greeted the farm’s animals by name, told stories about them, and described their daily fare: natural grains, hay, kelp, wild herbs, raspberry leaf, and whey – a  by-product of making cheese. Not only is the diet high in nutrients, it also is aimed at long-term sustainability. Little goes to waste.

The farm has a cheese shop on site and welcomes visitors. To learn more, visit www.nettlemeadow.com and www.kempsanctuaryatnettlemeadow.org.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at High Rock Park through October. The market moves indoors to the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park on November 4. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Filed Under: Featured Article, News Tagged With: artisan cheese, farming, goats, Kemp Rescue Santuary, livestock, Nettle Meadow Farm, Saratoga Farmers' Market, sheep

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Instagram

Another week, another Market Crush Monday! This we Another week, another Market Crush Monday! This week we talked to Argyle Cheese Farmer’s Dave, who brings a variety of aged cheeses, curds, yogurt, smoothies, frozen pizzas, and more to the market each week!

1. How did you get started with Argyle Cheese Farmer?
My wife, Marge, and I started back in 2007 with producing yogurt, buttermilk and cheese on my family farmstead which had been in operation since 1860. Over the years, Marge - who is quite the visionary! - has expanded our business and product line immensely but we have always stayed committed to using only high quality milk from local farms without artificial hormones.

2. Can you tell me a little bit about your recent expansion?
We recently opened a retail store and production facility in Hudson Falls where you can buy all of our products as well as a collection of local artisan’s eggs, honey, maple syrup, and much more. The cool thing about this location is that we built it with windows into our production area so you can watch some of your favorites being made!

3. What is your favorite part about vending at the market? 
That would definitely be meeting the people who love our products. I’ve made some really great friends over the years and it's nice to be able to see familiar faces each week. 

Be sure to visit the Argyle Cheese Farmer every Saturday from 9:30 to 1:30 in the Wilton Mall food court! 

Are you interested in becoming a vendor at the market? Our summer vendor applications are open now from January 15th-31st! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to grow your business and join the farmers’ market community!
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#saratogafarmersmarket #farmersmarket #saratoga #knowyourfarmer #farmermarketfinds #farmfresh #shoplocal #farmersmarketfresh #argylecheesefarmer #argyle #cheese #dairy
Give your gut a little love during these cold, dar Give your gut a little love during these cold, dark winter months! Grab @puckersgourmet probiotics, like pickles, kimchi, and sauerkraut, at the market this Saturday. We'll be open with 40+ local vendors from 9:30am til 1:30pm at the Wilton Mall food court. Healthy has never tasted so delicious!

🤸 What's your favorite gut-boosting food? 🤸
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#farmersmarket #saratoga #saratogasprings #saratogafarmersmarket #upstateny #pickles #probiotics #puckersgourmet #puckerspickles #tasty #healthy
Market Crush Monday is back! This week we talked t Market Crush Monday is back! This week we talked to Laurie from Kokinda Farm who brings her homemade jams & jellies, vegetables, eggs, bread and a variety of hand-sewn items to the market.

1. How did you get started with your farm?
My parents were dairy farmers and I always had a garden and did a lot of canning. Then I just happened to meet someone who got me into the market and have slowly learned things by trial and error to get to where I am today.

2. Do you have a favorite jam?
Definitely my peach jam that I make with my own peaches! Around 60% of my jams are made with all my own fruit that I grow and the rest I supplement with fresh fruit from local pick yourself farms.

3. Why do you like vending at the farmers market?
I love working for myself and being able to interact directly with customers, it’s very rewarding. It’s also great getting to know other local farmers and be able to share stories, information and goals with each other. I've been a school bus driver for the past 23 years but this May I’ll be retiring and am very excited to go full time for farming!

Are you also a local farmer or producer and are you looking to expand your business in 2021? Our summer season vendor applications are open January 15th-31st! Keep an eye out on our page for how to apply. And make sure to stop by Kokinda Farms every Saturday from 9:30-1:30 in the Wilton Mall food court!
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#saratogafarmersmarket #farmersmarket #saratoga #knowyourfarmer #farmermarketfinds #farmfresh #shoplocal #farmersmarketfresh #smallbusiness #growyourbusiness #smallbusinesssaratoga
Shop safely at the market! Please don't touch any Shop safely at the market! Please don't touch any products before purchasing, just point at what you want and our vendors will bag your order for you! This Saturday, lots of vendors will be back after a holiday break - pick up goodies like freshly caught fish from Pura Vida Fisheries. We'll be open 9:30am - 1:30pm in the @wilton_mall_leasing food court.

What's your order from Pura Vida? 🐟

📸: @mysaratogakitchentable
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#farmersmarket #saratogasprings #upstateny #shoplocal #knowyourfarmer #fish #freshfish

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