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Kokinda Farm

Holiday Traditions on the Farm

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By Julia Howard

Laurie Kokinda’s horse Hyde, photo courtesy of Laurie Kokinda

The holiday season evokes traditions that create lasting memories while reinforcing our values and identity. This week, we look to our local farmers and producers as they share some of their favorite memories of their holiday traditions on the farm.

“When we were kids, Christmas Eve was always when we had our big dinner and presents,” shares Laurie Kokinda of Kokinda Farm and Laurie’s Jams and Jellies. “Christmas morning, we always saddled horses and went for a trail ride through Luther Forest. Back then, it was a single dirt road and especially beautiful if we got fresh snow.”

Christophe Robert of Longlesson Farm takes a traditional New Year’s Day family hike on their farm. “After a big New Year’s Eve celebration full of food and drinks, we hike to cure the hangover,” says Robert. They also bring their goats along as, according to Robert, “they hike better than the dogs.”

New Year’s Day Hike with the goats, photo provided by Longlesson Farm

At Slate Valley Farms, Gina Imbimbo happily anticipates the farm’s New Year’s tradition of making natural dyes from their farm-grown Christmas trees. The dye is a red-brown hue used to color yarn, socks, and linens. Their family also prepares for the maple season by tapping maple trees on the first full moon in January, the wolf moon, per Native American traditions.

Matthew Leon of Lovin’ Mama Farm describes their family traditions as “land-centric.” “Normally, around Thanksgiving, we do cider pressing, and in the New Year, we help with processing maple syrup,” says Leon. Processing maple syrup is just for their use, and Leon explains their rustic tradition of carrying buckets of sap to be boiled.

Nettle Meadow and The Kemp Sanctuary, photo provided

Nettle Meadow Farm and the Kemp Animal Sanctuary celebrates Christmas with a big holiday bash hosted by the farm owners for the employees. The farm’s annual party includes a feast, a secret Santa gift swap, games, and good conversation. Farmworker Sean Dean jokes that the farm’s senior rescue turkey has the safest home.

This holiday season, we encourage you to build traditions of your own. Perhaps by sharing a favorite recipe, shopping for your holiday feast at the farmers’ market, or simply spending time with loved ones — which is where the true spirit of the season lays. The farmers’ market will be closed on Christmas Day and reopen on January 1, 2022.

This week’s recipe: Buttery Breakfast Casserole

A Farm-to-Table Thanksgiving Guide, Part 2: Sides, Desserts, and More

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By Emily Meagher

Last week, we looked at the different meats (and meat alternatives) that will be available at the farmers’ market this holiday season, with something for any size gathering. This week, we are looking at all the other items our vendors will offer this Saturday to make your favorite sides, desserts, and more.

Gomez Veggie Ville, photo by Pattie Garrett

Since traditional Thanksgiving meals use seasonal ingredients, you will find many vegetables needed to create your favorite dinner sides at the farmers’ market. A mash will please most holiday guests, and local farms have potatoes aplenty right now. Mix it up by grabbing beer from Mean Max Brew Works to make beer mashed potatoes (recipe below!). Sweet potatoes or celeriac also work great for a mash.

Nettle Meadow, photo by Emily Meagher

Many types of squash are available to make into soup or pie. For flavorful roasted vegetables, try carrots, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. If a side salad is on your menu, we have fresh greens and kale. Grab maple syrup or honey, too, for a delicious glaze or dressing. You will find plenty of fresh herbs at Shushan Valley Hydro Farm. Add these herbs to stuffing along with freshly baked bread, which you can get on Saturday to turn perfectly stale for baking by Thursday. For a low-carb option, try cauliflower stuffing instead. Add cranberry jam from Kokinda Farm for an easy and delicious condiment.

Then, for the sweetest part of dinner: dessert. You can find baked goods at several vendors, including frozen, unbaked pies at The Food Florist for an easy dessert that still feels homemade. One of the market’s newest vendors Boozy Moo!, offers alcohol-infused ice cream (5% ABV) to add a joyful spirit to the event (a great way to reduce any potential family friction!).

Muddy Trail Jerky Co., photo by Emily Meagher

And, for those who prefer savory over sweet, charcuterie boards and cheese plates are always a holiday hit. Add items like Nettle Meadow’s cranberry fromage frais for a seasonal touch.

Whiskey, beer, spirits, and ciders are available to be enjoyed with your meal. Add Muddy Trail Jerky’s mulling spices to the latter for a heartwarming way to cap a day spent enjoying good food with your loved ones.

This week’s recipe: Beer Mashed Potatoes

Connecting to farms with fall fun

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By Julia Howard

The fall harvest season is the perfect time to discover local agriculture, one of the many aspects that make this area unique. Explore, experience, and enjoy farm tours, U-pick opportunities, dining, farm stands, and community events. Here’s a peek at what Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendors are offering.

Saratoga Apple, photo by Pattie Garrett

Pick Your Own
Saratoga Apple is a family farm and apple orchard located in Schuylerville, NY, offering “pick your own” in the fall. On weekends, get your U-pick bags at the big tent next to the orchard store, and on weekdays get them inside the orchard store. The store is open daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; however, customers should purchase U-pick bags by 5 p.m.

Dancing Ewe Farm, photo by Pattie Garrett

Farm-to-Table Dining
Dancing Ewe Farm is an authentic Tuscan-style family farm in Granville, NY, crafting impeccable, fresh cheeses & meats. They are currently taking reservations for their farm-to-table weekend dinners & lunches, featuring a selection of Italian wines and imported olive oil. Visit their website or Facebook page to see their menu and to make a reservation.

Fall Festivities
The DBA’s 2nd Annual Fall Festivities will be family-friendly and so much fun on two weekends: October 23 & 24 and October 30 & 31. On Saturdays, October 23 at 30, stop by the farmer’s market to shop with local farms and businesses. While you shop, enjoy live music and activities for all ages. The Saratoga Farmers’ Market will also host Customer Appreciation Day on October 27, their last Wednesday season’s market. Market-goers can enjoy special sales on market products, live music, and a free craft for children hosted by the Saratoga Springs Public Library.

Farm Tours & Live Music
Nettle Meadow Farm has a fun-filled weekend planned. Tonight, enjoy Nettle Meadow cheeses and local wine at their Cheese Jam concert, with proceeds supporting the Kemp Animal Sanctuary. Then, on Saturday, October 9, enjoy the Thurman Fall Farm Tour. This self-guided tour of regional farms includes talks, tours, wagon rides, breakfast and lunch buffets, and more.

Kokinda Farm’s farmstand, photo provided

Farm Stands & Garden Nurseries
If you’re looking to enjoy fall flowers and produce, consider stopping at a farm stand or garden nursery. Butternut Ridge Farm, Burger’s Market Garden, Balet Flowers & Design, Gifford Farms, and Kokinda Farm have the season’s harvest available right at the farm!

While you’re marking your calendar for these events, skip to 2022 and take note of the Washington County Fiber Tour that takes place in late April, The Cheese Tour scheduled for mid-September, and the Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival in late September. These events are excellent opportunities to discover local agriculture.

This week’s recipe: Chicken Spinach Salad with Butternut Squash

Local bakers continue to offer quality goods

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By Madison Jackson

Mrs. London’s, photo by Pattie Garrett

Chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls, coconut rum cakes, and blueberry scones are just a handful of the freshly made baked goods you can find at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market every Saturday. With choices like these, you can’t go wrong picking a treat to enjoy throughout the week, if it even lasts that long.

The farmers’ market has many talented bakers that bring their ‘from scratch’ goods to sell you each week. There is something for everyone’s taste and necessity, from decadent desserts like triple chocolate teacake from The Chocolate Spoon to wholesome bread like fresh honey oat bread from Kokinda Farm.

Mrs. London’s bakery offers fresh croissants, pastries, bread, and scones at the farmers’ market. Their recipes are rooted in the French culinary tradition and have been perfected over decades to bring you authentic and traditional baked creations from scratch using high-quality ingredients.

The Chocolate Spoon, photo by Pattie Garrett

The Chocolate Spoon has irresistible baked goods with distinct flavors and unique combinations. Owner Marcie Place has spent years perfecting her classic recipes like banana chocolate chip muffins and chocolate chip cookies, but she never stops experimenting with her baking. Try something new like a sour cream coffee cake with maple glaze or chocolate-orange chocolate chip cookies.

Goodway Gourmet is famous for its Caribbean rum cakes but has other baked options like cinnamon rolls, cookies, macaroons, and pound cakes. The best part about buying their sweet treats is that each purchase contributes to teens’ educational opportunities.

Goodway Bakery, photo by Pattie Garrett

The Food Florist is well known for their prepared frozen meals like pot pie and lasagna, but they also make various traditional sweet pies. Pie varieties include classic apple, cherry, blueberry crumb, and quadberry (a mix of blueberry, cherry, strawberry, and red raspberry).

You may be surprised to find baked goods from vendors like the Argyle Cheese Farmer and Kokinda Farm. Argyle Cheese Farmer, known for their prize-winning yogurts and cheese, also makes fresh cinnamon rolls, donuts, finger rolls, and bread. And Kokinda Farm sells a variety of baked bread like honey oat, cinnamon raisin, and honey wheat with pumpkin seeds. The next time you need fresh bread, sweet rolls, cookies, cakes, or something fresh from the oven, stop by the farmers’ market or preorder online for pickup on Saturdays.

 

This week’s recipe: Apple Kuchen

Sowing the seeds for a new season

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By Emily Meagher

Greenhouse full of seedlings at Pleasant Valley Farm

Walking around a farmers’ market, you see tables neatly displayed with mountains of produce. There is a long journey before produce lands on market tables and then, eventually, your table. Farmers are on a tight schedule to do all they can to make sure their crops flourish. Now that we are deep into winter, we asked local farmers how they are preparing for this year’s growing season.

Planting onion sets to be scallions, photo courtesy of Pleasant Valley Farm

Laurie Kokinda, owner of Kokinda Farm, says, “It’s the hardest time of year, in terms of grunt work.” Farms are working tirelessly to sanitize their greenhouses and tunnels and repair and order new equipment. Farms are starting their first seedings like tomatoes, alliums, and head lettuce. This year, many farmers ordered their seed supply earlier than usual due to Coronavirus-related increases in demand as well as mail delays. Paul and Sandy Arnold, owners of Pleasant Valley Farm, note, “Normally, we can get seeds in the day after we order. This year, we’re waiting weeks!”

Local farms often choose to work together to share resources. Pleasant Valley Farm’s Sustainable Farmers’ Network Group is hard at work in the mid-winter, bulk-ordering supplies so that farms may share discounts. Gomez Veggie Ville works with Denison Farm to get this year’s supply of organic potato seeds. And, for the first time, they will work to grow ginger. “I am learning how to grow ginger well in our climate. Hopefully, if it works out, we’ll be able to bring some to the market in September,” says Efrain Gomez.

Finished planting garlic, photo courtesy of Squash Villa Farm

Owl Wood Farm is taking this year’s seed shortages as an opportunity to try a new practice: seed saving. “We’ve wanted to save seeds that aren’t offered commercially, like tomato heirloom varieties and Abenaki flint corn, for a while. It involves a lot of work and isn’t very economical; you have to dedicate a new plot of land and grasp a whole new knowledge base,” says Mark Bascom. “But we see that seed saving is important this year especially.”

Squash Villa Farm (formerly Squashville) is trying not just a new crop or practice but also a whole new land plot after moving farms in 2020. “There’s lots of anticipation! As soon as the snow melts, I’m eager to walk the new land and just get a feel for what it’s like to step into the soil,” says Himanee Gupta-Carlson.

This week’s recipe: Beans and Greens

Thoughtful Gift-Giving During a Pandemic

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By Julia Howard

As challenging as 2020 has been so far, the holiday gifting season feels like a bright way to end a dark year. Perhaps more than ever, gift-giving is a means of reconnecting with friends and family, some of whom we haven’t seen in person for nearly a year. We also get that gift-giving can be a source of stress even in the best of times, so we have some strategic ideas to make gifting during a pandemic a little more seamless, meaningful, and even enjoyable.

● If you prefer shopping from the comfort of home, find our vendor directory and shop locally online. Find links to local businesses’ websites, Instagram, and Facebook pages. Use the DM functions or pick up the phone to ask for suggestions and place orders.
● This year, some of the most thoughtful gifts are things that make time at home more enjoyable for your friends and family. Think practical and useful.
● Get creative with whatever budget you have. A great gift does not have to cost a lot of money.

Now let’s get gifting with local businesses at the farmers’ market!

Home Decor
These days we work, exercise, relax, and even attend school at home. We recommend Feathered Antler’s original paintings and framed prints of animals and landscapes to define and decorate living spaces. Feathered Antler also has hand-painted wooden fence posts adorned with positive sayings and nature scenes that can function as leash hangers, key hooks, and jewelry organizers.

Pendants & jewelry from Big Breath Wellness, photo by Laura Kenny

Local Libations
Wine, hard cider, and spirits always make great gifts – and local vintners and distillers make the very best. Slyboro Cider House and Saratoga Apple makes hard ciders from apples grown in their orchards. For wine-lovers, Fossil Stone Winery makes memorable wines from grapes grown on their farm. And, spirits enthusiasts will love everything from Yankee Distillers and Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery.

Gift Certificates & Subscriptions
Give the gift of something to look forward to, like Saratoga Farmers’ Market gift certificates. Elihu Farm offers a subscription for flavorful and nutritious eggs from their “hens on pasture.” Moon Cycle Seed Co. sells subscriptions for nutrient-dense seeds for hormonal balance. The 2021 CSA season will be here before we know it, so check with local farmers at the market to purchase a subscription for a friend or family member.

Jewelry
Is there a more classic holiday gift than a beautiful piece of jewelry? Kim Dolan Designed Jewelry makes unique, handcrafted silver and gemstone rings, necklaces, and earrings. If you’re looking to make someone feel special and promote wellness, Big Breath Wellness has various holistic healing jewelry. For nature lovers, Feathered Antler has
handmade jewelry with quartz, charms, and tassels.

Earth To Mind, photo by Laura Kenny

Self-care
Self-care means something different to everyone. Perhaps it’s cozying up to a cup of hot chocolate from Saratoga Chocolate Co. or making Earth to Mind’s CBD oil and rubs a part of the daily routine. There are many items at the farmers’ market to nourish and encourage self-care, like bee balm from Ballston Lake Apiaries and tinctures from Sweetbrier Farms.

 

Stocking Stuffer Ideas from Small Businesses
*Starred items are perishable and should be put into stockings just before gifting.

Saratoga Chocolate Co. photo provided
Cookie boxes from The Chocolate Spoon, photo by Laura Kenny