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Saratoga Farmers’ Market to remain at Wilton Mall for winter season

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By Madison Jackson

Gomez Veggie Ville, photo by Eric Jenks

On Saturday, November 7th, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market will move back inside the Wilton Mall for the winter season. The farmers’ market will be located in the mall’s food court which is accessible by the Bow Tie Cinemas entrance and within the mall interior. Markets will run every Saturday from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm from November through April.

As days get a little shorter and a lot colder, the farmers’ market is grateful to take up our winter home in the Wilton Mall, moving indoors from our summer season in the mall’s parking lot. This indoor location will provide some much-needed warmth for vendors and shoppers alike and the convenience of one-stop shopping for a variety of products.

In order to accommodate proper COVID-19 social distancing and safety guidelines, vendors will be spaced accordingly, hand washing and sanitizing stations will be easily accessible, and crowds will be closely monitored by market representatives and mall management staff to make sure shoppers feel safe and have a pleasant experience. The Wilton Mall has also installed a hospital-grade air filtration system in its high-quality HVAC system. The farmers’ market ensures that only the vendors handle their products until they are purchased. And, masks are required to be worn by all.

Photo by Pattie Garrett

While COVID-19 may have changed some of the ways we operate, we hope to offer a sense of familiarity and comfort to our community through the farmers market. The pandemic has posed some new challenges for us all but with the support of the community, we have remained a safe and reliable source for local foods and products. During these uncertain times, it is especially important to support our local farmers and businesses who are determined to bring their products to customers in the safest and healthiest way possible.

In addition to many familiar faces, we will also be introducing a number of new vendors including Fossil Stone Vineyards (wine), Bear’s Cup (bagels and other baked goods), Hebron Valley Veal (fresh meats), and Sweetbrier Farms (herbal wellness and body care goods). With 50+ vendors bringing a variety of fresh produce, ready-to-eat foods, and artisanal products each week we strive to remain accessible and affordable to our local residents throughout the winter.

Find our winter vendor directory here and our winter market map here!

Mrs. London’s, photo by Pattie Garrett

Saratoga Farmers Market Kicks Off Outdoor Season at High Rock Park

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By Julia Howard

Saturday mornings are market mornings for hundreds of area residents. Join them tomorrow at High Rock Park as the Saratoga Farmers’ Market’s 41st season opens.

Farmers, home artisans, and craftspeople will join city officials and others for a ribbon cutting just before 9 a.m. Then, as music from the Running the River band fills the air, vendors will begin offering fresh vegetables and fruits, meats, eggs, dairy products, home-baked goods, prepared foods, flowers, art, and more.

Anna Mae Clark rings the opening bell, photo by Eric Jenks

“We are thrilled to welcome several new vendors this year,” says market administrator Emily Meagher. “Our variety of local products is unparalleled.”

About 65 vendors participate in the Saturday market. The Saratoga Farmers’ Market also operates from 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays, with about 30 vendors.

Bring your shopping list and walk, bike, or drive to High Rock Park. Grab a coffee made with locally roasted beans and perhaps a light breakfast from one of the many prepared food vendors featuring items like crepes or breakfast sandwiches.

And shop.

Vendor stalls fill the pavilions and spill out onto the lawns. Volunteers will watch your bags and help transport your goods to your car with the Friends of the Market’s veggie valet wagons. The FreshFoodNY app and pickup service is available for pre-ordered items.

This year, we encourage you to visit the market via bicycle, if feasible. We also invite
you to bring your own bags to reduce plastic and will have totes available for purchase. We are continuing our compost collection program and will accept fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, used tea bags, and similar items. We have an ATM on site, and many vendors accept credit cards. We also accept SNAP benefits.

Shushan Hydro Farms, photo by Eric Jenks

While shopping, check out the children’s activities, and booths featuring the Adirondack Live Steamers, Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, and Cornell Cooperative Extension Service’s master gardeners.

Says market administrator Emily Meagher, “To experience spring in Saratoga is to opt to dine on the patio, order tickets from SPAC, and embrace the return of the outdoor farmers market where the fragrance of flowers and produce mixes with freshly baked bread.”

See you there.

 

Saturday Vendors at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market 2019

Alaturco Mediterranean Grill
Argyle Cheese Factory
Balet Flowers & Design, LLC
Ballston Lake Apiaries
Battenkill Valley Creamery
Burger Farm
Clark Dahlia Gardens & Greenhouses
Dancing Ewe Farms
Dickinson’s Delights
Elihu Farm
Euro Delicacies
Feathered Antler
Freddy’s Rockin’ Hummus
Giovani Fresco
Gómez Veggie Ville
Grandma Apple’s Cheesecakes, LLC
Green Jeans Market Farm
Halls Pond Farm
Humiston’s Vegetables
Kim Dolan Designed Jewelry
Kokinda Farm
Lake George Distilling Company, LLC
Lewis Waite Farm
Longlesson Farm
Lot 32 Flower Farm
M & A Farm
Mangiamo LLC
Mariaville Mushroom Men
Momma’s Secret Salad Dressings
Moxie Ridge Farm
Mrs. Londons
Muddy Trail Jerky Co.
Mugzy’s Barkery
Nettle Meadow
Nut Zez, LLC
old world farm
Otrembiak Farm
Owl Wood Farm
Petra Pocket Pies
Pleasant Valley Farm
Puckers Gourmet
Pura Vida Fisheries, Inc
R&G Cheese Makers
Ramble Creek Farm
Rock Hill Bakehouse
Row to Hoe Farm
Saratoga Apple
Saratoga Chocolate Co.
Saratoga Crackers®
Saratoga Peanut Butter Co.
Saratoga Spicery
Saratoga Suds ‘n’ Stuff
Saratoga Urban Farm
Scotch Ridge Berry Farm
Slate Valley Farms
Slyboro Cider House
Something’s Brewing
Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery
The Chocolate Spoon
The Food Florist
The Saratoga Winery
The Smoothie Shoppe
The Vermont Spatzle Company
Underwood’s Greenhouse / Shushan Valley Hydro Farm
Vital Eats
Wild Things Rescue Nursery
Yankee Distillers
Zoe Burghard Ceramics

Wednesdays at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

When the opening bell rings at 3 p.m. next Wednesday at High Rock Park, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market will begin its 41st season.

The Wednesday market runs May 1-October 30, from 3-6 p.m. Like the Saturday market, it offers a wide array of amazing foods fresh from our region’s local farms, along with locally made wines and spirits, art, and meals to go.

For many market regulars, the Wednesday market is the farmers’ market at its best. It offers an opportunity to browse at a leisurely pace, planning a few nights’ meals while listening to local music, and taking part in a series of all-ages activities.

Earn a $2 Bicycle Benefits coin each time you ride to the Farmers’ Market

“The intimate size of our midweek market creates a more relaxed pace,” says market activities coordinator Julia Howard. “It’s a little more spacious, airy. It’s a great way to meet up with friends.”

This year, the market is celebrating eight new vendors:
● Goode Farm, fresh and dried flowers and wreaths;
● Slate River Farm, herbs, meats, eggs, and seasonal ramps and fiddlehead ferns;
● High Peaks Distilling, spirits;
● Italian Market, pasta sauces;
● Alaturco Mediterranean Grill, gyros;
● Oliver’s Café, crepes and kettle corn;
● Left Field, snow cones; and
● Vedanta du Mas Designs, art.

As always, the Wednesday market will offer free music, children’s activities, its Power of Produce Club, and information booths. About 20 other vendors – ranging from small farmers to local artists and food entrepreneurs – will be returning to the market, as well.

Power of Produce Club at the Wednesday market

The Tisch Family Band will serenade market visitors on opening day. Throughout the season, the market will participate in the Bicycle Benefits program, and host tours. Market staff also are planning to organize monthly bus trips for Saratoga seniors.

As a shopper and a farmer, I look forward every year to the start of the Wednesday market. It evokes the historic roots of Saratoga’s producer-only market and the region’s agricultural heritage. I enjoy talking to vendors as I fill my bags with great foods for a few days before I return to the market Saturday to replenish.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market moves indoors on Saturday November 3rd

By

by Kristin Cleveland

Tomorrow, November 3rd, is Opening Day for the Saratoga Farmers’ Market winter season! The market will be held from 9 am to 1 pm every Saturday, from now through the end of April, inside the Lincoln Baths building at 65 South Broadway in the Saratoga Spa State Park.

Just before the 9 am opening bell tomorrow, Saratoga Mayor Meg Kelly, NYS Parks Assistant Regional Director David Barone, Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau president Darryl Leggieri, Spa State Park General Manager David Guest, and longtime local conservationist Barbara Glaser will share in a brief ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the start of the winter market season and the benefits of having the year-round Saratoga Farmers’ Market. 

Then, at 9 am, customers can head indoors to shop from over 40 farmers, specialty foods vendors and local artists, hear acoustic music, and enjoy the camaraderie of connecting with the community on Saturdays throughout the winter in a beautiful and fully accessible historic building. 

Saratoga Farmers’ Market indoors at the Lincoln Baths. Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

The musical guest for November 3rd will be an unplugged version of the ever popular Running the River band; information about additional upcoming Saturday musicians, sponsors of children’s activities, and other guests can be found on the calendar page of www.saratogafarmersmarket.org. Also on the website is a link to sign up for a weekly email newsletter, making it easy to find out about seasonal vendor offerings and special community events.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market has been in operation since 1978 with a commitment to providing local products from Saratoga county and surrounding Schenectady, Rensselaer, Washington and Warren counties. For the next six months on Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths, customers will find a wide variety of fresh, locally grown autumn and winter vegetables, fruit and mushrooms. Also available all winter season will be locally produced meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, yogurt, milk, homemade baked goods, jams, wine, spirits, soap, and freshly prepared and ready-to-eat foods. New farms at this year’s winter market are Ramble Creek Farm, Squashville Farm, Green Jeans Market Farm, and Saratoga Urban Farm. 

In addition to farm products, the winter “Holiday Market,” offered every Saturday in November and December, provides unique hand-crafted clothing, jewelry, elegant glass art, gourmet dog food and treats, baby items, and other artisan goods perfect for gifts for everyone on a holiday list.

Move to High Rock Begins Cycle of Seasonal Growth

By

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Eggs and ham sizzling; vendors in flannel cupping cups of coffee; a ribbon cutting and the clang of a bell. These sights, smells, and sounds are markers of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market outdoor season at High Rock Park.

The market celebrates the start of its outdoor season at 9 a.m. Saturday, with a short step back to the past: acknowledgment of a City of Saratoga Springs commemorating the market’s 40th anniversary, welcomes from Mayor Meg Kelly and State Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, and introductions of some of the market’s original vendors.

Then the ribbon will be cut and the season will begin.

Going outdoors for farmers, home food producers, and other local creators of artisanal foods and crafts is like a seasonal ritual, transitioning the farming cycle away from the stored foods of winter and moving toward the new growth of spring and bounty of summer and fall.

“Farmers feed us,” says Anna Mae Clark, one of the market’s original vendors. “That’s something people sometimes forget.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is about feeding the body as well as the senses. The market is a producer-only market that ensures at least 70 percent of its vendors will be purely agricultural while also creating space for other local businesses to thrive.

The result is a community fest every Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoons that involves eating alongside entertainment and education about living in sync with the seasons.

This week, check out the big bags of spinach from Owl Wood Farm, $1 off. Visit Grandma Apple’s Cheesecakes and pick up two individual sized cheesecakes for $8, or $4.50 for one. And for your garden stop by Scotch Ridge Berry Farm, which will be among the vendors offering vegetable starts.

The market will have community tables and a free children’s activity as it does every week. Running the River will perform, as it does on the first Saturday of each month, helping to make music also a market staple.

“Knowing other is a means of helping one another when possible or when necessity occurs,” says Clark. “May we see 50 years, then 75 years and 100 years of operating as a farmers’ market.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at High Rock Park. Look for us on the new FreshFoodNY app. For volunteer opportunities, contact friends@saratogafarmersmarket.org.

Saratoga Farmers’ Market Celebrates Last Gasp of Summer

By

By Julia Howard, Market Administrator

 

High Rock Park, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

October is inching toward November. At the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, this means that we are preparing for our annual transition, from outside to in. Join us tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at High Rock Park for our final celebration of summer and our last outdoor market.

What’s fresh in late October? Still ripening tomatoes, crisp salad greens and frost-sweetened kales, freshly dug sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, our amazing seasonal pumpkins and an array of other winter squashes, cups of warm apple cider and, as midday temperatures creep toward the high sixties, iced lemonade.

The market also will be participating in the Saratoga Springs’ Downtown Business Association’s annual Fall Festival. We will feature music from Four Old Guys and Er Go Blue and a free fall wreath-making activity for children of all ages. We also will announce the winner of our annual Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin contest at 10 a.m.

We also are looking forward to our fifth winter season at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park, which begins next Saturday, Nov. 4. As tomorrow’s market ends, we will pack up our summer signs and shut down the market shed. When you visit us next Saturday, you will find us under not open-air tents but in a bazaar-like atmosphere indoors.

Our winter market features many of our summer vendors, thanks to farmers who make use of greenhouses, high tunnels, and state-of-the-art storage technologies to grow and maintain a high level of quality local produce year-round. We also will be holding our seasonal holiday home arts and crafts bazaar.

While we love the summer market, we relish our November through April time indoors, too. For many of our vendors, the winter market offers a cozy, intimate space for farmers and shoppers to get to know each other better. Winter is a great time to ask your favorite farmer questions about their farms. Winter also is an opportunity to stockpile recipes and other food preparation tips.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market ends its summer season tomorrow at High Rock Park. The market moves indoors to the Lincoln Baths Building at the Saratoga Spa State Park on November 4, where it will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday through April. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.