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Shop Local, Eat Fresh

Night Work Bread

Stuffing

By

Recipe shared by Night Work Break

Serves 6-8

Prep & cook time: 1 hr 30 min

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

  • 6 oz long grain and wild rice mixture
  • 3/4 c sherry
  • 2 tbsp poultry seasoning
  • 1 ½ cups chopped celery*
  • 1/4 lb. butter
  • 2 cups sourdough* croutons
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

Cook rice, substituting 3/4 c sherry for water in the rice. Sautee celery in butter until the celery begins to soften, about 6-8 minutes. Add the croutons and hot water, allowing the bread to absorb the water, and mix well. Then, add pecans and the cooked rice and mix. Bake in a casserole dish with the turkey or use as a stuffing. If baking on its own, bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

 

Saratoga Farmers’ Market Bread Vendors

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By Mary Pratt

Saratoga Farmers’ Market has diverse bread vendors – Argyle Cheese Farmer, Kokinda Farm, Night Work Bread, and Parchment Baking Company.

Argyle Cheese Farmer, photo provided

Dave Randles’ family has owned their farm since 1860. He and his wife, Marge, started their Cheese House in 2007. In addition to their delicious yogurt, cheese, and smoothies, Argyle Cheese Farmer brings bread to the farmers’ market. They save whey, a leftover liquid after milk has been curdled, for the liquid they need to make bread.

Their loaves of bread include Homemade Cheese Bread with their grated cheese, and Honey Oat Bread, for making grilled cheese sandwiches.  

Kokinda Farm, photo by Toni Nastasi

Laurie Kokinda joined the market 25 years ago. Kokinda Farm’s products include jams, jellies, veggies, eggs, and bread. She uses King Arthur organic flour for her yeast bread.  

Most recently, she brought Cinnamon Raisin Bread to the farmers’ market. In addition, she makes Honey Oat Bread and Honey Whole Wheat Bread with local honey from Rich Green’s Ballston Lake Apiaries. Laurie will return to the summer market.

NightWork Bread, photo provided

One of the farmers’ market’s newest vendors, Night Work Bread, is run by Cindy Rosenberg and Leigh Rathner. In addition to their sourdough bread, their products include scones, pies, cookies, and babka. They joined the Market in May 2021 and will continue this summer. Their local ingredients include King Arthur Flour, Elihu Farm’s eggs, and honey from Ballston Lake Apiaries.

Their bread at the farmers’ market includes Midnite Rye, Garlic Artichoke, Olive, Focaccia, and Seeded Country. Their old-world techniques include fermenting the dough for 16 hours with wild yeast. 

Parchment Baking Co., photo provided

Another new bread vendor is Parchment Bread. Isabel Burlingham said her mother’s Scandinavian family traditions inspire their baked goods. She uses her ancestors’ recipes with fresh and local organic ingredients, such as organic flour from Champlain Valley and Farmer Ground.

Their Rugbrød is a dense rye-based sourdough. Julekaker is a yeasted brioche-style bread with cardamom, crystallized ginger, and raisins. The butter and organic eggs used in this bread are both locally sourced. Their Kardemummabullar, or Bullar for short, are yeasted cardamom rolls made with local butter. Seasonally they make Hvidt Brød and Limpa, both with yeast.  

This week’s recipe: Simple Bread Pudding

Stuffing

By

iStock

Recipe shared by Night Work Bread
Serves 6-8
Prep & cook time: 1 hr 30 min

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● 6 oz long grain and wild rice mixture
● 3/4 c sherry
● 2 tbsp poultry seasoning
● 1 ½ cups chopped celery*
● 1/4 lb. butter*
● 2 cups sourdough* croutons
● 1 cup hot water
● 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions
Cook rice, substituting 3/4 c sherry for water in the rice. Sautee celery in butter until the celery begins to soften, about 6-8 minutes. Add the croutons and hot water, allowing the bread to absorb the water and mix well. Then, add pecans and the cooked rice and mix. Bake in a casserole dish with the turkey or use as a stuffing. If baking on its own, bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Building community with bread

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NightWork Bread, photo provided


By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

In February 2021, Leigh Rathner and his wife Cindy Rosenberg moved from Los Angeles to Saratoga Springs, where Rathner had lived earlier in life and raised his children. They had a dream: to feed people and build community. At the center was bread.

Seven months later, their dream has grown into NightWork Bread. NightWork is derived from Rathner’s previous work of logging difficult late-night hours in the film business. Now, those late hours mean care and passion. Rathner makes slow-rising, naturally fermented sourdough bread, often working late at night.

Rosenberg brings the bread to the Saratoga Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, where it sells fast. In seven months, Rathner has gone from making 25 loaves a week to 325.

Their feat is remarkable. Besides learning the basics of business and the many factors that influence the making of artisan bread, they have had to figure out how to build customer support as newcomers to a place where old loyalties run deep.

Leigh Rathner of NightWork Bread, photo provided

The secret is bread.

“I’ve always been a community builder,” Rosenberg says. “Bread is a community builder, too.”

The connection got clear in 2020.

Rathner and Rosenberg lived in Los Angeles in a 145-unit condominium, where they knew three other people. Everyone was working or commuting. The COVID-19 pandemic brought people home, including Rathner who saw making bread as a means of calming the mind after his work dried up. As the loaves piled up, Rosenberg began distributing them. They met more people and in the once-lifeless building, a sense of community formed.

People began stopping in open-air hallways and other spaces to chat. Chats became meetups with food and drink. Neighbors began offering Rathner money to cover his bread-making costs. Then came preorders, and ultimately a product Rathner felt comfortable selling to others.

“That’s how we lived through the pandemic,” Rathner says. “Bread was a part of it.”

He and Rosenberg yearned to move to a smaller town with a strong farm-to-table ethos. Saratoga seemed like a good fit.

Cindy Rosenberg and NightWork Bread at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, photo by Pattie Garrett

Rosenberg, an acupuncturist, learned how to use Instagram from one of her clients in her last days in Los Angeles. En route to Saratoga, she posted reports via Facebook and began friending people and businesses locally, including me after a mutual friend put us in touch.

Rathner’s past ties to Saratoga also helped. His children had attended the Waldorf School, and even after he left, his friendships with some Waldorf parents had remained strong.

NightWork Bread is now available at three farmers’ markets, including Saratoga, and Rathner and Rosenberg hope eventually to open a store.

This week’s recipe: Panzanella

Panzanella

By

iStock

Recipe shared by NightWork Bread, adapted from the recipe by Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● 1/2 loaf Night Work Country Sourdough*, cut into 1-inch cubes
● 3 tbsp olive oil*
● 3 large tomatoes*, diced
● 1 large cucumber*, diced
● Two large handfuls fresh basil leaves*, coarsely chopped
● 1 tsp sea salt

Dressing:
● 3 cloves garlic*, minced
● 1 tsp Dijon mustard
● 2 tbsp rice vinegar
● 1/3 cup olive oil*
● 1/2 tsp sea salt
● Freshly ground pepper

Instructions
Heat olive oil in large saucepan on medium. Add bread cubes and season with salt. Stir occasionally, 8-10 mins until toasted and browned.

Whisk together dressing ingredients. Add to chopped veggies, mix in bread cubes and top with basil. Season salad with salt and pepper. Best served at room temperature.

Pro tip: You can add all kinds of great veggies from the farmers’ market to this salad, depending on your taste. Try some red or yellow bell peppers, red onion, lightly roasted summer squash, roasted beets, or microgreens. Enjoy!