Saratoga Farmers' Market

kids

POP Club 2020

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POP Club has returned at the Wednesday Market this summer! Get ready for fun, food, and adventures in farming! Due to COVID-19, we will be offering POP Club in a take-home format at the market and online this year. We will not be issuing POP Passports or give out prizes this year.

The Power of Produce (POP) Club provides a fun opportunity for children ages 5-12 to engage in the local food system through conversations directly with farmers, educational games and demonstrations, and exposure to new fruits and vegetables. Continue reading “POP Club 2020” »

POP Club offers children’s activities ‘to go’

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By Julia Howard

POP Coin

Summer has officially begun and throughout the state, summertime activities have been re-imagined to ensure safety and to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s Power of Produce Club, or POP Club, will continue to offer children nutrition education with new take-home activities and online support.

Beginning on July 8, children can participate in POP Club by visiting the Saratoga Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays with their parents or caregivers. At the market, they will receive an activity bag “to go”. The POP Club activity bag will include a take-home activity, recipe cards, and a $2 POP coin that can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at the farmers’ market. POP Passports will not be handed out and stamped this year, but families can anticipate nourishing activities with complete directions and supplies. Although the club is open to children, it is especially geared toward those aged 5-12.

In addition to weekly POP Club ‘to go’ bags, parents and caregivers can visit the farmers’ market’s website for video tutorials and photos that pair with each activity. This online platform will give children and parents the opportunity to ask questions, share experiences, and connect with the farmers’ market for additional support.

Photo by Pattie Garrett

“We are very happy to host our fifth season of POP Club with the generous support of the Christopher Dailey Foundation,” says Emily Meagher, market administrator. “It’s important that we give children the tools to be involved in agriculture and community, to help them understand that food and farming are intrinsically connected.”

POP Club continues to be a free program and will run for 8 weeks beginning on Wednesday, July 8, and running through the end of August. POP Club activity bags will be available at the green market information tent on Wednesday, 3-6 p.m. at the farmers’ market.

This season’s take-home activities include crafts, recipes, experiments, and information using seasonal fruits and vegetables as POP Club continues to give both children and their parents a chance to learn about local foods and farming in a hands-on way.

Buying produce with a POP coin gives children a chance to meet farmers, learn money skills, and make smart food choices.

This week’s recipe: Lightened Up Strawberry Shortcake

Quarantine Cooking with Kids

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By Julia Howard

With schools closed and many of us working from home, parents are desperately looking for ways to keep their children occupied. Food provides many opportunities for learning and play as well as nourishing our bodies and teaching important life skills. Here are 5 simple ways to use food and our local food system as learning tools for young children:

1. Cooking and Baking
Cooking and baking offer many learning opportunities for children; organizational skills, counting, measuring ingredients, team work, even writing out a grocery list. Cooking can be as simple as a smoothie, a salad, no-bake cookies, or assembling a picnic. Offering choices and presenting the activity as a game can be helpful in keeping the attention of your little ones.

2. Crafts and Games
The internet is peppered with DIY crafts and games to keep kids entertained, but look no farther than your fridge for real fun. Making fruit and vegetable prints with discarded stalks, cores, and stems is a creative, no-waste activity for little ones. Building constructions or creating a piece of art from cut fruit and vegetable pieces can make a tasty snack much more entertaining.

3. Planting Activities
If you want to garden with your kids but you’re not quite ready to dig out a space in your yard, here are some ideas that provide opportunities to grow on a small scale. Herbs, leafy vegetables, and celery may simply grow in water by cutting the plant at its base and placing it in water. An indoor herb garden or an outdoor container garden offers the full gardening experience. If you don’t have time to plant seeds, contact your local nursery as many are offering curbside pickup for plants.

4. STEM Activities
Whether your child is learning about taste vs. smell or the phases of the moon, food can be used for countless STEM experiments to stimulate higher thinking and problem solving. Try shaking heavy cream to make butter, experiment with the many ways to bake a potato, or make ice cream with salt, ice, and cream.

5. Driving Farm Tour or Virtual Tour
For families itching to get out of the house, a short drive through farm country can lift spirits during this difficult time. Make a map of your local producers, roll down the car windows, and take in the beauty that the area has to offer. Nettle Meadow and the Kemp Sanctuary even offer a virtual tour of their farm with opportunities to meet their famous rescue animals.

This week’s recipe: Apple & Carrot “Superhero” Muffins

Creatively Extending Thanksgiving Traditions

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By Julia Howard

Thanksgiving is often defined by gathering with family and friends over an abundance of food. During this time, many of us lean heavily on traditions by preparing a family recipe or sharing an activity year after year. Traditions, however, are ever changing — perhaps you cannot make it home for Thanksgiving or a family member wants to start traditions of their own. What can you do to heighten, deepen, and extend Thanksgiving to its most memorable end? Here are some ideas from the Saratoga Farmers’ Market.

Photo by Pattie Garrett

Make a memorable Thanksgiving with your children by getting them involved. Even the most simple prepared dish can be an engaging activity offering a sensory experience, bonding with a friend or family member, and perhaps even encouragement to try something new. We recommend baked apples, a recipe shared by Saratoga Apple and available on our website, or a vegetable tian which is a wonderful way to introduce basic cutting skills and creativity with arranging colorful vegetables.

Holiday Centerpiece

Create a holiday centerpiece as a different way to contribute to the Thanksgiving table. Find inspiration in a palette of local items such as colorful winter quash, flowering kale, beeswax candles, unique pottery, and holiday greens. Items may be arranged by tiers or in a long row down the holiday table. Rely on your own creative instincts and enjoy decorating a festive gathering place.

Photo by Pattie Garrett

Shop for holiday meal ingredients together at the farmers’ market. Eating together is at the heart of the family experience, which means shopping together is just as important. Enjoy time with family and friends by organizing a holiday menu and shopping for the items at the farmers’ market. The farmers’ market provides a community gathering place for a shopping experience that is social and fun.

Holiday Cheese Plate, photo by Pattie Garrett

Bring a little bit of everything to the holiday table… on a cheese plate or charcuterie board. Whether presented as an appetizer or part of the holiday feast, a cheese plate or charcuterie board allows for a variety of foods to be piled high and enjoyed by all. Fermented vegetables, artisan bread, fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, and cheeses are just some of the items that can be used to create a unique spread that’s as visually stunning as it is delicious.

Healthy Back to School Snacks

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By Barb Biagioli

It’s that time of year again: Back to School. This typically means back to messy mudrooms, crazy schedules, pick-ups, drop-offs, empty refrigerators and unorganized pantries, and most scary of all, “hangry” kids running amok in the afternoon hours, impatiently awaiting a snack.

If you’re back to school this season, having snacks ready to go is key to preventing meltdowns and madness. With a little bit of preparation, you can make a week’s worth of snacks ahead of time – ones to take to work, pack in kid’s lunches, keep in the fridge for after school snacks, or take on the road. I’m often asked what snacks are best for kids, what’s easy and best for on-the-go, or can be made ahead of time, so I’ll share a few of my tips with you.

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

1. Avoid snacks that come in a box, bag or wrapper, and use your local farmer’s market to inspire healthy snacks for yourself and your kids! Keep it simple, nutritious, and colorful and snacking will be tasty and fun.

2. Cut, chop, and prep easy staple snacks – like veggies for dipping – in containers in advance of the school week.

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

3. Dig out old baby food containers – you know, the ones you used for freezing pureed baby food. They’re ideal individual snack trays for your children. You can make sweet or savory trays using farmer’s market produce – try cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and carrots with hummus in the center for dipping. Or slice apple, pear, and place roasted sweet potatoes into the tray paired with nut butter.

4. Make healthy green muffins for the week, double the batch and place them in your freezer for later in the month.

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

5. Throw together a hummus quesadilla with whatever suitable produce you have left in the house. Otherwise known as the “everything but the kitchen sink” hummus quesadilla. I’ll show you how.

Seasonally, we are edging out of summer produce but still relishing in tomatoes, peppers, and dark leafy greens, as we’re also sharing in the wonders of the autumn harvest! The best of both worlds colliding to yield a farmer’s market bounty that is overflowing from bins and baskets – the perfect inspiration for our “anything goes” quesadillas. There are a few fun ways to put together a hummus quesadilla, but certainly no wrong way as long as you have some veggies on hand, hummus and tortilla wraps.