Saratoga Farmers' Market

Slate Valley Farms

Sweets, Meats, and Other Easter Treats at Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Emily Meagher

Easter evokes images of eggs hunts and other community events. We invite you to make next Saturday at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market a part of these events. On Saturday, April 20, arrive early and fill your shopping bags and baskets with our fresh, locally grown, raised and produced foods.

Kokinda Farm Eggs, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Near the market entrance, look for the eggs. Not the edible ones – those come next – but rather the reusable gift containers, available while supplies last. Inside each will be a coupon offering a discount from one of the market vendors.

 

Now, for real eggs. Elihu, Kokinda, and Squashville farms are offering them in abundance. Check out their hues and try them for their fresh, farm-raised flavor. Keep an eye out, too, for rich duck and giant goose eggs.

Saratoga Chocolate Co. Easter Basket, photo courtesy of Saratoga Chocolate Co.

This weekend, the market also will be featuring chocolate eggs. Further in the market are such treats filled with maple cream and maple marshmallow at Slate Valley Farms. Other sweet treats include homemade marshmallows from The Chocolate Spoon, chocolates formed into nest and bunny shapes from the Saratoga Chocolate Co., hot cross buns from Mrs. London’s, and cheesecakes in a range of sizes and flavors from Grandma Apple’s Cheesecakes.

That’s dessert. Now, let’s look for vegetables and main course meats.

Many vendors are offering Easter specials on their farm-raised meats: At Lewis Waite Farm, fresh and smoked ham roasts and steaks are five percent off. Longlesson Farm is offering 10 pounds of ground beef for $60 (instead of $80), and Mariaville Mushroom Men is taking 20 percent off its pork. If poultry is your preference, try Ramble Creek Farm’s turkey or Squashville’s chicken.

And there are the early spring vegetables to consider: Pea shoots from Saratoga Urban and Pleasant Valley farms, along with Pleasant Valley’s super-sweet spring parsnips. Storage vegetables remain abundant at Gomez Veggie Ville and Pleasant Valley, and mushrooms at Mariaville and Ramble Creek.

Looking for libations? Try Saratoga Apple’s farm-brewed hard and sweet ciders, spirits from Yankee Distillery, cyser from Ballston Lake Apiaries, Battenkill Valley Creamery milk and Something’s Brewing’s home-roasted coffees.

And, there’s more: apples, pickles, cheeses, and cured meats.

 

‘Coffee Lady’ Wakes Up Saturday Farmers’ Market with Her Special Brews

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

For many Saratoga Farmers’ Market regulars, Saturday morning starts with a stop at Something’s Brewing owned by Beth Trattel, aka “the coffee lady.” Trattel offers coffees made from beans that she roasts herself, teas, ciders, Italian sodas, and a range of other beverages, brewed out of Trattel’s imagination and willingness to do a little “homework.”

Roasted Coffee by Something’s Brewing. Photo by Pattie Garrett

“I’m here to support farmers,” she says. “To help them make a living.”

Trattel grew up in Argyle, on land adjacent to a dairy farm. Her father yearned to be a farmer, but her mother wanted a home with a sidewalk in front. Her father became a cooperative extension agent with a large garden on the side.

Trattel inherited her father’s love for growing flowers, berries, herbs, and simple greens. She began working in the restaurant industry at age 19, and in 2004, opened Something’s Brewing as a coffee shop in Greenwich. In 2008, Dave and Marge Randle, owners of Argyle Cheese Farmer, suggested she bring her brews to the Saratoga Farmers’ Market.

“They had nothing of the sort at that time,” she recalls.

Trattel uses and promotes market ingredients in her offerings: milk from Battenkill Valley Creamery, cider from Saratoga Apple, marshmallows from The Chocolate Spoon, maple syrup from Slate Valley Farm, to name a few.

She also creates ingredients on her own: She makes syrup for Italian sodas out of berries she grows and creates teas with flowers and herbs from her garden, gathering, dehydrating and blending them herself.

“I like experimenting,” says Trattel.

Real Maple Latte

In 2018, Trattel embarked on a new experiment. She began roasting her own coffee beans, creating hearty, flavorful blends. She now sells her blends in half-pound packets, giving customers who like their Saturday morning market coffee an opportunity to make their own at home.

“I enjoy roasting,” said Trattel. “It’s interesting to work with beans in this way.” 

As for her mother, she did get her house with a sidewalk when her parents retired and moved to a house in Ithaca, leaving their daughter to carry out her father’s passion for growing edible things.

Maple Syrup Pudding

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Adapted from the recipe by Schoolhouse Maple, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Serves: 4

 

INGREDIENTS

*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

  • ⅓ cup dark maple syrup*
  • 2 cups milk*
  • 3 Tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 large egg* yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 Tablespoon butter*

 

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Whisk syrup, milk, cornstarch, and egg in a saucepan. Cook on medium high heat for 8 minutes while continually whisking. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter.
  2. Pour in 4 individual dishes. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

 

NOTES:

Top with whipped cream:

1 cup whipping cream (heavy cream*)

3 Tablespoons maple syrup*

Beat cream until soft peaks begin to form. Add maple syrup and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

 

The Magic of Maple: New Spins on an Old Favorite

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by Kristin Cleveland

 

Sap lines at Slate Valley Farms

As light returns to our region and cold nights alternate with warm days, sap runs in the trees and maple sugaring season begins. On Saturday, March 16th, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market celebrates this sweet time of year with Maple Day! Vendors throughout the market will offer maple-inspired samples and recipes, and Gina Willis, manager of the maple production at her family’s Slate Valley Farms, will introduce a new spin on this traditional treat: maple syrup infusions.

Willis grew up learning about making maple, honey, and other farm products with her parents Pat and Susan Imbimbo. She earned a degree in Agricultural Business and Horticulture at SUNY Cobleskill and then returned to help run the family farm.

Sugar House at Slate Valley Farms

This decision makes Willis unusual in the maple industry, as most maple operations are run by men. Willis is excited to take up the family tradition and also innovate. Last summer she attended classes at the Maple Producers Convention to learn about naturally infusing a variety of flavors into maple syrup. She has since tested over 30 infusions in her commercial kitchen, and on Saturday she’ll bring samples of four (vanilla bean, blueberry, Ceylon cinnamon, and coffee bean) plus a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. In addition, she’ll offer samples of all of the grades of syrup made at Slate Valley Farms during the 2019 harvest.

Willis is also continuing a project, started by her grandmother, of sharing a wide variety of maple recipes, from sweet to savory, salty to spicy. Instead of a traditional cookbook, Willis is developing a cooking video web series. She’ll provide a sneak preview at the market, giving out recipes like Maple Apple Sheet Cake and Savory Maple Rice and Beans, which she loves because it combines “northeast sweet flavor with southwest zest!”

Willis is thrilled to devote her life to both the beloved traditions and new possibilities of maple. She enjoys having a connection to her family’s woodlands and managing them year-round to ensure a great maple season. She explains, “Being able to have an occupation that allows me to be in tune with nature is a wonderful perk.”

Also at Saturday’s market will be an opportunity to try an old New England sugaring tradition, sweet maple syrup drizzled over a sour dill pickle, plus some local vendor creations like maple-vanilla Italian cream sodas, real maple lattes, and maple cheesecakes.

Maple Yogurt Cake

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Adapted from the recipe by Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate & Zucchini
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Serves 8

 

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

  • 1 cup plain yogurt*
  • 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons maple sugar* from Slate Valley Farms, divided (see note)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • a good pinch salt
  • one large apple* of a variety that holds its shape when cooked


Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 360° F and line a 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
  2. Set aside 1 rounded tablespoon of the maple sugar for the topping.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, the remaining maple sugar, eggs, and oil.
  4. In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Peel the apple, then core, quarter, and slice it thinly. Add the flour mixture to the yogurt mixture and whisk it in quickly, until just combined. Don’t worry about lumps and do not overmix.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, arrange the apple slices on top, starting from the outside, and sprinkle with the reserved maple sugar.
  6. Put into the oven to bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If you feel the apple slices might be browning too quickly, cover with a piece of parchment paper.
  7. Lift the cake cautiously out of the pan and transfer to a rack to cool. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

Substitute 3/4 cup maple syrup and use just 3/4 cup yogurt to make up for the extra moisture.

When Sap Starts to Run, Spring is About to Come

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

 

Slate Valley Farms, photo courtesy of Pattie Garrett

Pat Imbimbo starts plotting out spring in the cold darkness of January. For him and for his family, this means trekking across the 101 acres that make up their Slate Valley Farm, inspecting the health of their 2,600 or so maple trees, and preparing to install taps, buckets and other equipment needed to capture the sweet flow of sap when it starts running.

By tradition, Imbimbo likes to start putting the taps into the trees on the first full moon of the year, or shortly thereafter. Then, his daughter, Gina Willis, waits for him to tell her to start opening them.

Willis sells Slate Valley’s maple and honey products at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. She smiles in delight as she recalls how customers start asking her in late January if the sap’s running.

“It’s the anticipation, the excitement,” says Willis. “A sign of spring coming.  It’s like that little animal … the groundhog. We wait for it to come out of the ground every year.”

In general, maple tree sap starts to flow when daytime temperatures rise above freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and nighttime temperatures go below freezing. That fluctuation creates a pressure in the trees that encourage the sap to flow.

“We get excited as the time gets closer and closer,” says Willis. “We have one tree kind of near the house that sort of acts as a gauge for us. As the temperatures start getting warmer, we’re checking it all the time.”

Maple sap is the first official agricultural harvest of the year in New York State. But like the uncertainty as to whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow the actual beginning and duration of the season can vary. In addition, Willis notes, the sap flow is a bit temperamental. If it gets too cold or too warm, it might stop and then restart again.

Behind the excitement are long hours. Forty gallons of sap are required to produce a single gallon of syrup. The boiling begins as soon as the sap starts accumulating, often taking place at night when the day work is done and lasting for Willis sometimes until 3 a.m.

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.