I know I’ve written about farmers markets and Restaurant Supported Agriculture before, and I know they are hot topics now, so I want to share with you the synergy of the two I experienced a few weeks ago.
Recently 100 people sat down to break bread and celebrate their food connections. The Saugerties Farmers Market hosted a FARM FEAST on August 2nd. The premise of the event was to collect ingredients from all the participating booths in the market and have local chefs cook a huge dinner with all that good food. The slogan of the event was PURE CATSKILLS - Buy Fresh Buy Local, which is also an excellent motto to live by. The awareness raising event was underwritten with grants from the Watershed Agricultural Council and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. They have a real stake in organic and sustainable agriculture surviving and thriving in the watershed of the largest unfiltered water supply in the world - New York City's. It is a win/win situation for everyone concerned. New York City saves billions by not having to build a water filtration system, and the residents have a pristine area in which to live, with various supports in place to make the living possible.
Historical Society front lawn "tented" for the Farm Feast
I asked Judith Spector, who is on the Farmers Market board, what the dinner was all about. “It was not a fundraiser. We did not make money. The purpose was to spread the word about the Saugerties Farmers Market, buying local, tasting local fresh food, and getting to know how easy it is to do the same for yourself at home by buying products to cook from the market and/or purchasing some ready to eat items. We are intent on opening the door wider to bring people in and increase the number of our customers. The meal was a community builder and good will effort that we hope will produce more customers coming to the market.”
If my experience was any indication, everyone was served plenty of well-prepared fresh food. What better introduction to the Farmers Market can there be?
Dinner started with a sangria - either virgin, or not - with seasonal fruit and fruit juices. The Hudson Valley is the oldest wine making region in America, with a large and growing number of wineries on wine trails dotting the countryside. A local one, Cascade Mountain Wines, has a booth in our farmers market every Saturday. They provided the wines for a white sangria that really hit the spot on a hot Summer evening. I hadn’t tasted their wine before. At 
9 AM on Saturday morning it simply doesn’t appeal to me. But now that I’ve tasted it I’ll buy more.
Our volunteer waitstaff was made up of students from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. They were joined by board members of Saugerties Farmers Market. The servers passed between the tables with a collection of appetizers to go with the sangria. We enjoyed smoked trout and/or free range egg salad on crostini, and venison kielbasa slices topped with chutney and spiced mustards. I wasn’t that fond of the venison, (others raved about it) but the condiments came from Solomon's Rose Company, where I bought the chocolate sauce I used for RICHARD FRISBIE - Cheese Cake "To Die For!" They were excellent, and they “made” the venison. The trout and the egg salad were fantastic! Such incredibly complex and very fresh tasting food lets you know why a farmer’s marketplace is so important to a community. I was reminded of this course after course.
Vegetarian spelt and Heather Ridge Farm Chicken Cacciatore
For the entrée we had Heather Ridge Farm chicken cacciatore with tomatoes, onion, garlic and peppers. Celebrity Chef Ric Orlando, of New World Home Cooking, found all the ingredients at the market. Carol Clement, who is a childhood friend that went on to become a community activist, back-to-the-land, natural farming, whirling dervish of an energetic woman, built Heather Ridge Farm on the premise that if she was going to eat meat she wanted to raise it herself. Starting with honey bees and two hogs, she now has free range chickens, grass fed beef cattle, many hogs, two herds of sheep and four lamas to “watch dog” the whole crowd. I first ran into lamas used this way on Harley Farms in Pescadero, California. SEE RICHARD FRISBIE :: Following Fromage From Farm to Feast . Dee Harley owns the only diary farm in San Mateo County. She built it up from scratch and now sells her incredible goat cheese up and down the California coast. Carol reminds me of Dee in the way she is committed to producing the best quality farm products physically possible. The store at Heather Ridge Farm has an amazing collection of natural foods available fresh and fresh frozen all year long. The chicken cacciatore was delicious. Cooked skin on, with all the bones present, the flavor and juiciness of the rich dark meat made it the best tasting chicken I’ve had.
The cacciatore was served on a vegetarian pilaf of spelt*, with Gary Wiltbank’s mushrooms and Maynard Farm’s seasonal vegetables. It was an expedient, but confusing presentation for the vegetarians in the crowd. I mean, is it still a vegetarian dish if there is chicken in it? I didn’t mind, the flavors melded beautifully, but there was at least one person looking for the vegetarian dish.
I’d never had spelt before, but after tasting Ric’s I went to the health food store to buy some the next day. It’s a nutty and very healthy grain to eat, (see footnote) and it is quite filling. Fresh-picked butter & egg sweet corn from Davenport’s Farm was also passed, along with a plate of the delicious bread from Rock Hill Bakehouse. Other vendors provided the greens for the big bowl of salad on the table. It was a groaning board of healthy foods! The chatter of conversation trickled to a halt until only an occasional “please pass the bowl” was heard. All 100 people were very intent on enjoying that food.
For dessert, Chef Ric used Maynard Farm’s fruit with fresh granola from Platte Clove Naturals crumbled on top. It was baked and served with fresh whipped cream as a rich and sweet dessert that had all the goodness of fruit and grains in a crunchy, and deliciously aromatic combination. Mmm Mmm! And it was good for me! (At least that’s what I kept telling myself.)
The whole event took place under a huge tent on the front lawn of the Kiersted House, home of the Saugerties Historical Society. It is right next door to where the market is held every Saturday morning from 9-2. As the dishes were being cleared to a few speeches thanking the volunteers, we got to visit with our neighbors and savor all the tastes and flavors we’d just shared. Then we retired inside the Kiersted House for a preview of a Dick Smith photography exhibit whose theme was the old farms and farmlands of Saugerties. It was a community strengthening evening of good food, good fellowship and good friends, all celebrating the fresh food, farms and farmers of the Catskills.
*SPELT (also known as wheat berry) is an ancient grain related to wheat, that can be ground into flour and used as a wheat substitute for anyone with wheat allergies. Often that is all one needs to know about spelt, but there is so much more. It is a very healthy grain! Spelt is an excellent source of vitamin B2, a very good source of manganese, and a good source of niacin, thiamin, and copper. Spelt and other whole grains help to reduce cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease. It also tastes nutty, crunchy and it has, if you soaked it and cooked it in herbed liquid as I did, a savory rich flavor.
RECIPE - Put 1 cup spelt, ½ tsp ground bay leaves, ½ tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp thyme, cayenne to taste in a medium size metal bowl. Cover with cold water about 2 inches and let soak overnight until ready to cook. Bring entire mixture to a boil, cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Simmer uncovered until liquid is absorbed. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Serve warm with sautéed vegetables, mixed with brown rice and vegetables or added to soups, and serve cold sprinkled on salad.
Go to Saugerties Farmers Market www.saugertiesfarmersmarket.com for links to all the Catskill Mt & Hudson Valley farmers who provided the food for this wonderful evening.
Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:
RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food
It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- I look forward to hearing from you. You can read all of my articles http://rfrisbie.gather.com/ or find them with those of the other Food Correspondents, plus celebrity chef content and plenty of other Foodies at http://foodtalk.gather.com
BIO - Richard Frisbie writes culinary travel articles, is a columnist for his local newspapers, and is a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications, GoNomad and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.
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Comments: 43
Thanks so much for the spelt recipe. I've had spelt bread before, but didn't really know what it was. I'm marching right over to our health food store to pick some up, now that I know what to do with it!
Thanks so much - sounds like you had a grand time!
Thanks Selene - it is a simple and versatile recipe, and the taste is GREAT!
I appreciate the extra exposure, Kathryn - thanks!
Looking for you again, Sonia, thanks for the visit.
Madame - I've curtailed my traveling this Summer, even canceled a Mexico trip because of my photo-sensitivity from the antibiotics. I'm always willing to learn something new, though! Hope you are having a great time! So - how would you cook spelt.
Thanks Heather - it was!
buyfreshbuylocal.org & .com now. Nevermind - someone already did - they are for sale.
I'm really enjoying my fresh farm food this year. I always enjoyed the farmer's market but it's even more fun now that we have our "own farm and farmers" and eat what we get instead of choosing what we want. We've been much more creative in meal planning. My daughter and I are thinking we might work a day on the farm to get even closer. (Note the word thinking in that sentence.)
My community is much more involved. I passed a farmer's market on the way somewhere the other day and was almost late because I couldn't get through the traffic - and that was just the cars, many people walked or rode bikes. It's exciting to see this happening.
Meanwhile, enjoy all that good food, Sandy.
Marilyn - each of us can find a common ground with our neighbors if we want to. From there communities are built! Thanks for stopping by.
I published a little piece a couple of days ago about using some local produce and such....what bothers me the most here is that there are not that many farmers forming CSAs here. I found one, but they are a bit far for us and they don't deliver....it would be way out of our way.
One locally owned Big Island supermarket chain developed a "house brand' they call Mountain Apple under which they sell not only locally grown produce but also locally made products. This helps small farmers to sell their crops and producers of things such as jams, jellies, sauces, and other bottled or packaged items with an outlet for their products.
It is a great partnership in my opinion.
Our local chain (3 in the Valley) grew from a farmstand. They carry local produce & home made products - with the farms identified - as well as quality meat, cheese, fish, bakery and a full garden center. Sometimes the farmer's best goes to the chain and the produce at the farm is second rate!
I get most of my locally grown food there when the farmers market isn't open.
A quaint practice you don't see much anymore.....one of our little roadside stands is open only between noon and 5 - closed on Sundays... but most of the time, there is no one there....Cash box honor system!
Richard, I meant to ask you how you were feeling now? Hope you're well on the way to recovery
I know, Dorine - it's amazing to me to see widely different recipes and so few people who've cooked it. I guess that's why I bought a few lbs and just cooked away! With good healthy flavor, more people should eat it.
I love learning new things. Thanks, Tina, for sharing the wonder with me.