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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

Maple Syrup a Sign of Spring

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By Julia Howard

In the quiet of the night, on the eve of a March snowstorm, Slate Valley Farms’ owners Pat Imbimbo and his daughter Gina Willis began boiling sap for their first batch of maple syrup for the season. 

“Last year, we started boiling on Valentine’s Day, so I worked hard and tapped our entire farm in February thinking I was behind,” says Gina. “But then it stayed cold this whole time, so I had weeks of waiting and checking every day to see if we could start boiling.”

For maple syrup producers, the climate is a crucial factor. When daytime temperatures rise above freezing and nighttime temperatures fall below freezing, the fluctuation creates pressure in the maple trees, encouraging sap to flow. 

120-yr-old maple at Slate Valley Farms, courtesy of Slate Valley Farms

This season, Pat and Gina tapped 4,000 maple trees on their 101-acre family-run farm in the hills of Granville near the Vermont border. 

Their sap-gathering is automated, using a vacuum system Pat monitors on his iPhone. The sap runs through a reverse osmosis system, removing much of the water before boiling.  This method results in less boiling time, less fuel, and a better quality syrup. 

This Saturday, March 19, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market celebrates the beginning of maple season and the return of Slate Valley with the season’s first batch of maple syrup. There will be plenty of maple-infused food and drinks to enjoy, too!

 

TogoNola, photo by Toni Nastasi

TogaNola offers $1 off of its products made with locally-produced maple syrup. Nettle Meadow will bring their maple chevre, and R&G Cheesemakers will have their sweet and spicy maple chipotle chevre. Argyle Cheese Farmer will have maple Greek yogurt and traditional maple yogurt. Stop by Something’s Brewing for a maple latte or a bag of maple-nut flavored coffee beans. Muddy Trail’s Jerky Co. will bring a variety of maple products: maple beef snack sticks, maple BBQ dry rub, and pancake mix for soaking up all that delicious maple syrup.

Various local farms will bring eggs, bacon, and ham to make sweet and savory maple-drenched breakfasts to help you celebrate maple season at home.

Children and families can look forward to a maple-themed activity at Saturday’s celebration of maple season.

At Slate Valley Farms, Gina is hopeful for a lengthy and abundant maple sap harvest with prolonged cold temperatures. A reason for all of us to appreciate the changeable temperatures that come with spring’s onset.

This weeks recipe: Baked Oatmeal with Maple Syrup

From Making Cheese to Bottling Milk: Partnership Expands Offerings

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Argyle Cheese Farmer is known for its yogurts and cheeses. Marge Randles spent years working with milk, cultures, and natural flavorings to create a growing array of items ranging from cheese curds and schmears to sweetened and plain yogurts.

Argyle Cheese Farmer, photo by Pattie Garrett.

She and her husband Dave have been part of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market since 2007. Over the past two years, their offerings have expanded – to such items as pizza, baked breads, grab-and-go macaroni and cheese, and now bottled milk.

The changes are a result of a partnership they formed in 2020 with Ideal Dairy Farms whose herd produces the milk for Argyle Cheese Farmer products. Unlike Argyle Cheese Farmer, Ideal Dairy’s business was primarily with wholesale milk purchasers, which meant they lacked local familiarity. By putting both names on most of their new product labels, the partnership has benefited both.

Argyle Cheese Farmer production facility, photo provided.

Take the milk. It is known as A2 and is available at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market in a variety of sizes, and as white milk or in chocolate- and coffee-flavored varieties. The term A2 refers to a protein found in milk, and as Marge Randles explains, this milk contains only that protein.

 

“It’s genetic,” she says. “In Ideal’s herd, there is a group of 250 cows that produce milk that contains only this protein.”

The lack of other proteins make the milk closer in structure to that of goat milk. While the milk still contains lactose, A2 milk often is more digestible for those who have difficulties tolerating milk.

A2 Milk, photo provided.

It also tastes good. It is rich in protein, and high in flavor. This is because it “is a whole milk, almost straight from the cow to container,” says Marge Randles. The milk is pasteurized for safety and homogenized for consistency and texture. However, unlike other milk producers, Argyle Cheese Farmer does not separate the fats from the milk.

The new Argyle Cheese Farmer offerings reflects how some smaller dairy farmers are adapting to changes in local agriculture. Dave Randles is part of a multi-generation dairy farm family. He and Marge no longer keep cows but still put their expertise to good use.

This week’s recipe: Cheeseburger Pie

Every morning, A Farmer Greets His Bees

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By Kara Winslow

Jason Heitman starts his day of farming with a quick stop at the beehive, where he listens to the happy whir within and then greets the bees. The ritual fits into his philosophy of farming, which is all about learning how “to read the land better and influence it less.”

Heitman owns Green Jeans Market Farm, one of the new Saturday vendors at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. He farms on one-eighth of an acre of land leased from another market vendor, Otrembiak Farm.

The land – uncultivated – was covered with perennial grass, six feet tall. It now hosts rows of intensively cultivated vegetables and herbs.

Heitman was an English major in college. He graduated, landed a job in technology, and then decided he wanted to become a farmer because he saw it as a means of offering safe and healthy food to his community. He wanted to “do it right” so he picked up a book and learned about how food systems operated.

He completed internships at a farm in Denver and with Pleasant Valley Farm, also a Saratoga Farmers’ Market vendor, for a year and a half, “every moment of which was precious.” He also worked with other market vendors to learn how different farming systems worked.

Green Jeans became “certified naturally grown” before Heitman sold his first radish. The designation indicates that the farming is done without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or genetically modified organisms. It is comparable to being certified organic except that the certification relies upon peer inspections and direct relationships between like-minded farmers.

Heitman does his farming by hand and remains attentive to the natural processes of the land. The evidence of his labor is found at his booth at the south end of the market in the array of greens he brings each week.

Heitman credits his ability to farm to the help he received from other farmers. Now, he too wants to reach out and help others. “It’s always on the back of my mind,” he says. “I know this farm is small, but I hope to be able to help others as they’ve helped me.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at High Rock Park. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and check us out on the FreshFoodNY app. E-mail friends@saratogafarmers.org for volunteer opportunities.

Stuffing Stockings with the Local and Good

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

A monk, Nicholas, learned of a man who was broke. Late in the night, Nicholas crept by the man’s home and threw through the window a sock loaded with gold. He did this three times, which helped make Nicholas a saint and let the man support himself and his daughters.

We fill stockings today in honor of that generous act. And with Christmas Eve approaching, we invite you to fill them at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market with sweets, treats, and gifts grown, raised, and made by our farmers and other vendors.

Need ideas? Here are a few, based on some shopping that market photographer Pattie Garrett and I did at the market last week:

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Children: For those who believe in Santa – as well as those who might have some doubts – one must start with cookies. Marcie Place of the Chocolate Spoon has everything from gingerbread men to decorate-your-own sugar cookies. Try her chocolate dipped candied citrus strips, which evoke the oranges said to symbolize the gold that Nicholas left.

After cookies, think future farmers, and connecting them with our farms. We added a Saratoga Apple Cortland, honey from Ballston Lake Apiaries, sweet Greek yogurt from Argyle Cheese Farmer and a hedgehog shaped soap from Saratoga Suds.

 

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Pets (and pet lovers): A walk in the park accompanied by pets is part of many market regulars’ Saturday ritual. For them, we found a Saratoga Farmers’ Market water bottle and a packet of dog treats from Something’s Brewing. We added a Kokinda Farms catnip pillow, a Feathered Antler pet portrait, and from our special holiday market, a dog collar and leash from Meg Kennen’s Spot On Soaps & Collars.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Newlyweds: Just about everything at the market is also a gift of romance. We chose a wine from Northern Star Vineyard paired with a wine holder made by holiday vendor William Herrington. In the holiday market, we also found hot chocolate from Saratoga Chocolate, a ring holder by ceramicist Zoe Burghard, and a dressing from Momma’s Secret Salad Dressing that features sea salt, maple syrup, and chocolate. Owl Wood kale and Puckers’ Gourmet olives created our final flourish, along with a Gomez Veggie Ville brussels sprouts stalk.

 

 

Visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building in Saratoga Spa State Park; follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; and contact friends@saratogafarmersmarket.org for volunteer opportunities.

Cultivate Your Sensual Side with Garlic

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Now that the stars of summer – tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants – are starting to exit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market stalls, it’s time to turn attention to one of our area’s more sensually spicy offerings: garlic.

Garlic harvest at Pleasant Valley Farm, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Garlic is typically planted in mid-October after some frosts but before the ground has frozen. It appears in mid-spring as an early green garlic, in early summer as scapes, and in July as bulbs encased in papery outer skins. Underneath those layers are cloves that mellow as the months pass into a warm, rich seasoning for soups, casseroles, roasts, and veggie sides.

Garlic is available in late winter. It is also among the area’s easier crops to grow. If you’d like to try your hand at doing so, now is the time to start.

As you visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market through October, buy some bulbs to eat and additional ones to plant.

At home, gently break your bulbs apart, separating the cloves. Choose the biggest cloves to plant and eat the rest. Create a space in your garden, where you can plant your cloves two to three inches deep, about eight to 12 inches apart. Place the cloves in the ground, bottom ends down, and cover them with soil. Then, cover these cloves with a thick layer of straw, hay, or even leaves to overwinter.

As the snow melts in late March or April, you should start to see green tips poking through the mulch. Pull the mulch off, and watch your garlic grow. Through April, May, and June, stalks will form and start to thicken. These stalks and the immature bulb beneath the soil are edible as green garlic, a taste of what’s to come.

Around mid-June, the winding, curvy tendrils known as scapes will start to appear on the plants. Cutting them off helps the bulbs grow. By July, the stalks will wither and turn brown. That’s the sign that your garlic is ready for harvesting. Use a garden spade or spoon to gently dig deep around the stalks to get to your bulbs.

Farmers typically cure freshly harvested garlic in dry, airy spaces.

After your harvest, go through your bulbs and save some cloves to plant for the next year.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is Wednesdays 3-6 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at High Rock Park through October. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.