Americans love pickles. According to Pickle Packers International, on average, we eat about 9 pounds (or about 106 pickles) per person per year. They’re common with sandwiches, burgers, various salads and charcuterie boards. Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and nut-free, pickles are great ...
It’s August — time for tomatoes! Fragrant, juicy, warmed by the late afternoon sun, in-season, local tomatoes straight off the vine are completely different from those winter fruit shipped across the continent. Known as pomid’oro, or “golden apple,” in Italy and pomme d’amour, or ...
No, Matilda ... all fresh beans are not green. They come in many colors! I was recently surprised to learn from local grower Jim Tucker that some people aren’t aware that not all fresh beans are green. The supermarket has trained us well, with canned and frozen “green” beans. Green ...
Summer is time for picnics and salads. At the first picnic I went to this summer, there were various potato salads, several macaroni and pasta salads and a few lettuce and spinach salads. The next picnic had more interesting fare. There was tortellini salad with basil, tomato and ...
Mid-summer is time for berries and fruit! Our currant bushes are loaded with red berries. In the woods, blueberries and raspberries are ripening. At the farm stand, I bought New York peaches. Tiny, tasty, loaded with nutrients, berries of all types are one of the joys of summer. Enjoy ...
I’ve been waiting for the feathery, bright green, wispy leaves of fresh, fragrant dill — and it has finally begun to show up at farmers markets and farm stands. Fresh dill weed has a much better flavor than the dried form of the herb. However, it wilts and loses flavor quickly — so ...
Returning home from mom’s doctor’s appointment in Canton, we stopped at Martins Farm Stand. I bought some tomatoes, cukes, dill and spinach. For some reason, although it’s already the middle of July, this is the first fresh spinach I have purchased this season. Because it is considered ...
Summer has arrived, and local farm stands and farmers markets are in full swing. Eileen sets up a farmstand three days each week where the bike trail crosses Route 86 on the way to Lake Placid. Hers is big. Paul Gutmann operates a farm stand on Averyville Road in Lake Placid. His is tiny ...
It’s summer! Yesterday was the Fourth of July — when we celebrated our nation’s independence. And how do we do that? With songs and parades, yes — and with cookouts and picnics. And it’s also garlic scape time! Those beautiful garlic tops cut before the garlic is harvested can be ...
It’s summer! Time to enjoy the long days and fresh produce. Move over, pasta. Move over, old, starchy winter potatoes. While fresh local corn won’t be here for several more weeks, young, tender potatoes are here at our farmers market. Our cool climate, sandy soil, abundant rainfall and pure ...
It’s summer. We’ve had some hot weather. I bought young, tender beets, together with their greens, at the farmers’ market. It’s time for … cool beet greens soup! Beets and herbs grow well in the harsh, cool weather of central and eastern Europe — Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, ...
SARANAC LAKE — The first Third Thursday Art Walk of the summer was this week, and though torrential rain, lightning and a tornado warning drove the majority of art vendors into the Hotel Saranac, there was hustle and bustle in the hotel and a few brave souls who stuck it out on the sidewalks ...
It’s June. Spring slowly becomes summer. You’re busy with the end of school, gardening and yard work. Gardeners and farmers are harvesting asparagus, fresh greens, radishes, scallions, sweet baby carrots and peas. All of these go great with pasta for quick weeknight ...
What is your relationship with food? According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control, 4 in 10 Americans are obese. Another third are overweight. More than 60 chronic diseases are linked to obesity. We simply eat more than earlier generations ate and exercise less. Today, Americans eat 23% ...
It’s time for cookouts and farmers markets! May is National Barbecue, Vinegar, Strawberry and Egg Month. And this year, our first farmers market was on May 28 — the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend! The unofficial start of summer means beaches, baseball, paddles and lots of special ...
May is National Egg Month — and for good reason! As days lengthen, birds lay eggs. That includes chickens — the eggs we eat most. Though other eggs, like duck eggs, are also consumed. Spring is time for fresh, tender asparagus. I just bought some from my favorite farm stand. Spring is ...
It’s May, and farmstands are beginning to open! My favorite farmer is back, and I bought lettuce, radishes and eggs. With those ingredients, I made a salad that same day, because fresh is best! Fresh greens available now are spring lettuce varieties, pea shoots, arugula and baby ...
It’s time for ... ramps and dandelions! It’s May. The spring rains have made the grass turn green, daffodils are blooming. So is forsythia, shadbush, trout lilies, spring beauties. Dandelion greens are abundant — pick them while they’re tender; when the flowers bloom golden, they ...
It’s May. Last week we still had a few snow showers. But the days are getting longer and warmer. In gardens, crocuses are beginning to give way to daffodils, and on my way to Plattsburgh, a forsythia bush was blooming along Route 3. Sunday is Mothers’ Day. The second Sunday of May has ...
Spring officially started a month ago. But last week’s snowstorm dumped a foot of heavy, wet snow and knocked out power for many. I have friends who went skiing! That snow is rapidly melting, and the crocuses it covered are showing through. Other spring flowers like daffodils, tulips and ...