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Garlic and the Love of Farming

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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.

 

Holiday Market Showcases a Different Facet of Farming

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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.

New farmer brings the ‘moxie’ to her work

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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.

 

Creating Great Cheese Starts with Happy Animals

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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.