Shop Local, Eat Fresh at the Saratoga Farmers' Market | Food, Crafts, Music in Saratoga Springs

Shop Local, Eat Fresh

Friends of the Market

Market Creates Community at High Rock Park

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Shortly before 9 a.m. tomorrow, Saratoga Mayor Joanne Yepsen will cut a ribbon at High Rock Park to officially open the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s summer season. With her will be farmers and other vendors, volunteers and staff, artists and musicians, community service providers, dignitaries and other guests.

The brief ceremony captures a sense of how the market twice a week from May through October creates a sense of community that is vibrant, festive, and supportive.

“Community is our sustenance,” says market director Julia Howard. “It brings us all together.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market started in 1978 with starter plants and produce. Over the years, meats and dairy products, prepared foods, wool and fiber, household cleaners, gift items, and crafts were added the offerings.

For farmers and other vendors, the market is a vital source of income. But the market also is much more.

Running the River by Eric Jenks
Running the River
Photo by Eric Jenks

“Having music at every market helps local performers gain exposure,” Howard says. “Plus, we work with such organizations as Saratoga Bridges to offer employment for some of our janitorial tasks to individuals who need it. And our weekly children’s activities are often the result of our relationships with local businesses, libraries, and youth groups. We couldn’t be who we are without those networks of support.”

Tomorrow’s market will highlight these networks. CAPTAIN Youth & Family Services will offer a free planting of flower seeds to children of all ages. Musician Thomas Brady and the band Running the River will perform. Mamatoga will co-host a meetup from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for mothers and children. And new vendors – among them Zoe Burghard Ceramics, Freddy’s Rockin’ Hummus, The Smoothie Shoppe, Dickinson’s Delights, and Slate Valley and Nettle Meadow farms – will join the market’s regulars.

Setting up market at Rock Park by Eric Jenks
Setting up market at Rock Park
Photo by Eric Jenks

Behind the scenes, the Friends of the Market volunteers will operate its compost collection and recycling programs, assist shoppers with its veggie valet service, gather donations for the Franklin Community Center food pantry, and be on hand to relieve vendors. Also behind the scenes vendors will arrive early and stay late to put out market signs, traffic cones, and help clean up High Rock Park before and after the market.

“That cooperative spirit makes us so much more than a shopping place,” Howard says. “We’re in it together.”

Visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Markets at High Rock Park from 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays.

Chopped Spring Salad

Adapted from recipe by Jenny Rosenstrach and Andy Ward featured in Bon Appetit
4 Servings

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• ½ cup plain yogurt*
• 2 tablespoons olive oil*
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated*
• ¼ teaspoon Vital Eats Sriracha Ketchup*
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives, plus more for serving*
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint, plus more for serving*
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• ½ Asian cucumber, chopped (about 1 cup)*
• 2 asparagus spears, chopped*
• 2 scallions, chopped*
• 3 radishes, trimmed, chopped*
• 1 cup pea shoots*
• ¾ cup cherry tomatoes, quartered*

Preparation

1. Whisk yogurt, oil, lemon juice, garlic, Sriracha, 2 Tbsp. chives, and 2 Tbsp. mint in a small bowl to combine; season with salt and pepper and let dressing sit at least 1 hour to allow flavors to meld.

2. Just before serving, toss cucumber, asparagus, scallions, radishes, pea shoots, and tomatoes in a large bowl to combine; season with salt and pepper. Divide evenly among plates and drizzle with dressing. Top with chives and mint.

Do Ahead: Dressing can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.

What I Eat When My Wife’s Away

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By Jim Gupta-Carlson

My home state of Minnesota is known for a few things: SPAM, Prince, and hot dish. The beauty of “hot dish” is that one word: dish. Everything goes into a single dish.

Potatoes by Pattie Garrett
Photo by Pattie Garrett

I love food, particularly the good food that we make with produce and meats and other goods from the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, where I spend nearly every Saturday. I do not love doing dishes.

My wife Himanee is a good complement to my simple tastes – she believes every meal should contain 57 flavors, and every one of them should be prepared and served in its own dish.

Running our homestead by myself when Himanee travels for work is tough. But it comes with some pleasures: Simply prepared fresh food, bourbon, and listening to Prince and Phil Collins without ear plugs. So, as she began planning a trip to India with her parents, I started dreaming about food. Food that can be cooked in a few minutes. Food that can be eaten directly from the pan in which it’s cooked. Food that is healthy and flavorful but lacks frippery. For instance:

Saratoga Apple by Pattie Garrett
Photo by Pattie Garrett

• apples and cider from Saratoga Apple;
• carrots from Gomez Veggie Ville;
• Asian greens from Pleasant Valley Farm;
• Potatoes from Sheldon Farms;
• Steak from Longlesson, Lewis Waite or M&A farms.

These are good healthy, hearty local foods that can be cooked easily and cleanly – and without a kitchen full of dirty dishes.

My favorite meals when I’m home alone? To some extent, it depends on the season. But being a Minnesota kid, I’m a meat and a potatoes man. So a steak thrown on the grill, pork chops seared in a cast iron cooking pan, goat riblets, chicken roasted with a little rub of black pepper, paprika, and garlic is the first step. And then we have potatoes, which I like best as fries. I slice them up, wrap them in foil, bake them until they’re soft, and then give them a quick fry. I eat them with catsup or barbecue sauce that I make from our garden. I might also add some horseradish or Ballston Spa Apiaries’ honey mustard to my meat, and I will eat salad greens. Or maybe kale, as long as I can cook it quickly in a pan with nothing more than a little water, lemon juice and oil.

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

 

Jim’s Spicy Meatloaf

Recipe by Jim Gupta-Carlson
Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced*
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  • 1/4 cup milk*
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 eggs, beaten*
  • 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs*
  • 1 pound ground goat, lamb, mutton, or beef*
  • 1 pound ground pork*
  • 1 cup salsa*
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy 10″ skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic, and cook uncovered for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring constantly, until the vegetables are tender.

3. Add the salt, peppers, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce and mix well. Remove the skillet from the heat and let cool 15 minutes.

4. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a bowl and stir in the milk, ketchup, eggs, and bread crumbs and mix well.

5. Then add the ground meat and ground pork and mix gently with your hands, just until combined. Place the meatloaf mixture into a greased, 9″x5″ loaf pan, patting gently and evening off the top.

6. Combine the salsa and tomato paste in a small bowl and spread over the top of the meatloaf.

7. Bake the meatloaf, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until it is dark brown and the meat pulls away from the sides of pan. The interior temperature should be 160 degrees F as measured with a meat thermometer. Carefully drain the fat from pan. Cover the meatloaf and let stand for 10-15 minutes. Remove it from the pan and put it onto a serving platter before slicing.

Chocolate’s Journey | Did You Know…

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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 17th 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 19th 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 21st 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/

 

 

 

Friend-ing the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

food-fact-4As one of the organizers of the Friends of the Saratoga Market volunteer group, I’d like to thank the regular shoppers, first-time visitors, community organizations, farmers and other vendors, and most especially the market administrator for making 2016 such a rousing success for the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. I’d also like to invite you in 2017 to become a friend of the market and join our ranks.

First off, kudos to market administrator Julia Howard who carried out a vision for helping to make our market a force for building community in Saratoga and beyond. In 2016, Howard organized an Easter extravaganza, a spring festival of workshops, the first ever summer Power of Produce Club for children in Saratoga, a series of do-it-yourself workshops in the summer Wednesday market, a taste of the market festival, a holiday bazaar, and much more. Thanks to her efforts, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market enters 2017 energized and eager for new growth.

Now, who are the Friends of the Market and what do we do? And, why do we want you to join us?

We established ourselves informally in 2011, after a longtime market shopper suggested that the market could use a citizens based support group to serve as a bridge between shoppers, vendors, and the community. Our membership remains small but solid. Our roles are easy to learn, and focus on relationship building that is in line with our mission to help the market continue to thrive.

At about this time last year, market administrator Howard threw us a challenge. The challenge was to help her make the market more of an outlet for creating a sense of community. This challenge expanded our existing roles considerably. We currently:

  • – Manage a Veggie Valet service during the Saturday summer market and a Friends’ table during the winter market. Here, shoppers can leave bags, coats, strollers and anything else during the winter market.
  • – Provide relief to vendors by handling transactions at their stalls so they can take restroom breaks, grab a bite to eat, and/or shop for their own weekly supplies of produce, meats, and dairy items at the market.
  • – Write weekly Saratoga Today articles and provide recipes on seasonal foods, the vendors at our market, and other market events.
  • – Help capture the energy of the market through photographs.
  • – Operate a fledgling compost drop station and recycling effort.
  • – Coordinate a food donation program in which market vendors and generous shoppers are able to donate fresh and local produce and other items to the Franklin Community Center food pantry.
  • – Assist market staff with token transactions, general questions and answers, and in a few cases, we have been asked to help clean up spilt milk.

food-fact-2As our roles expand, the need for more help has intensified. We invite you to join us and share your talents. We welcome those who would like to contribute to the weekly Friends’ corner in the newsletter as well write articles for Saratoga Today. We also can use help in getting the word out on our recycling and composting efforts, and with our booth at the weekly market. We also are always looking for new ideas to support the market.

To contact us: e-mail friends@saratogafarmersmarket.org with a statement expressing your interest.

Happy New Year from the Friends of the Market.

Cauliflower Soufflés

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Adapted from recipe by Williams Sonoma, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table
Serves: 4

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

• ½ pound cauliflower florets (about 1 cup)*
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 4 eggs*
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup shredded smoked Gruyere cheese or Gouda cheese*

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray four 1 cup ramekins with cooking spray and place them on a rimmed baking sheet.

2. In a steamer basket set over simmering water on the stove top, steam the cauliflower until just tender, 10 minutes. Drain and chop it into ¼ inch pieces.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the cottage cheese, eggs, nutmeg, and cayenne. Add salt and pepper as desired. Gently fold in the chopped cauliflower. Sprinkle the flour on top and using a rubber spatula, fold it in. Stir in half the cheese. Divide the mixture among the ramekins and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm.

 

Saratoga farmers helping to fill food pantry with fresh and local items

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Did you know…

that the Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors have donated more than 400 pounds of fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and other food items to the Franklin Community Center’s food pantry in Saratoga Springs since October 15?

food-donationsThe donations are part of a new initiative launched by the farmers’ market and the food project that is being facilitated by the volunteer Friends of the Market group. Its goals are to:

• ensure that produce from local farmers that might be less saleable by the end of a market day but still healthful and flavorful not go to waste;

• build a stronger alliance between the farmers’ market and the communities it serves;

• encourage consumers of all income levels to see the Saratoga Farmers’ Market as a welcoming space where one can purchase locally raised produce and farm produced items at an affordable price;

• encourage food pantry clients and others to use local produce to bolster the health not only of their budgets but of themselves and their families, as well.

The project began as a result of outreach from the Capital District Food Pantries, which is dedicated to helping farmers and food pantries connect with one another. How it works is fairly simple. Toward the end of each Saturday market, Friends of the Market volunteers visit food vendors and ask them if they have any items that they would like to donate to the Franklin Community Center’s food pantry.

I volunteer with both the market and the food pantry. I gather the donated items and transport them to the center. There, I sort out the donations, weigh them, and store them in appropriate refrigerated or shelving spaces.

Often, I leave notes for the other volunteers at the center as to how to prepare such donated items as pea shoots, braising greens, watermelon radishes, pickles, and herbs. All of these items are greatly appreciated by food pantry users but often create an initial question of what to do. My farm-to-fork sampling program at the center and a garden established on site also are part of the project to interest more people in taking advantage of the diversity of produce that our region has to offer.

We would love to see the program expand so that farmers are feeding not only consumers who seek emergency food assistance at the Franklin Community Center but also other food banks in the region. We also commend the many Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors who have been donating to the effort and thank those who also contribute to other food pantries. These efforts are changing the perception of food pantries as recipients of only surplus canned or boxed items, and are increasing awareness of the value of nutritional health across all income sectors.

The Friends of the Market encourages market customers to join the effort. Shoppers can buy a small amount of extra produce for the Franklin Community Center’s food pantry while making their regular purchases. Donations can be left at the Friends of the Market table (located on the ramp behind Shushan Hydroponics). Please leave only items purchased at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Other goods can be donated directly to the Franklin Community Center.