Author: Kacie Cotter-Harrigan
Goodway Bakery Offers Freshly Baked Goods with a Purpose
Goodway Bakery has been baking a variety of cookies, cakes, pies, and brownies in Troy, New York for over 40 years. However, the bakery’s roots dig deeper than a passion for sweet confections explains Goodway’s marketing manager Danielle Croley.
“My uncle started the business in 1979 as a fundraiser to offset the cost of educational opportunities for African American students,” explains Croley. “ When you purchase one of our delicious, made-from-scratch products, your contribution is an investment in the education of our youth.” Several hundred students have benefited from Goodway Bakery’s efforts to date.
This purpose became known as the Founder’s Choice Scholarship program and has helped bring Goodway Bakery’s confections across the country as organizers use Goodway’s baked goods to fundraise in various cities and states. Through this exposure, Goodway Bakery’s products have made a reputation for themselves. The bakery’s notable cookies, cakes, brownies, and pies have become sought after nation-wide.
Goodway Bakery’s product line shifted about 10 years ago when their head baker traveled to the Caribbean islands. While there, he developed a passion for Caribbean cuisine, namely rum cakes. Today, rum cakes have become Goodway Bakery’s signature product. They bake 8 different flavors of rum cakes in various sizes and even offer gluten-free options.
“Our baked goods are made fresh daily and contain no added preservatives or artificial ingredients,” says Croley. She attributes the quality ingredients including Madagascar vanilla and Bacardi rum to the popularity of their products. The rum cakes, in particular, have an excellent shelf life and stay moist and delicious for 2-3 weeks at room temperature making them excellent gifts and party favors.
Since COVID 19, Goodway Bakery has made yet another shift; from traveling the country to pursuing a more local customer base through farmers’ markets. Their variety of sweet, moist rum cakes, as well as macaroons, cookies, brownies, and pound cakes, can be found at several regional farmers’ markets.
“We love being a part of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market,” states Croley. “The farmers’ market has been a wonderful experience for us and we enjoy connecting with our customers now that traveling to fundraisers and food shows has become difficult,” she explains.
Online ordering through their website is also a convenient way to acquire their famous cakes. Goodway Bakery has shipped its goods worldwide; even to Australia. For local shoppers, Goodway Bakery can be found every Saturday at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market
Saratoga Farmers’ Market runs at Wilton Mall 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our newsletter www.saratogafarmersmarket.org/weekly-newsletter.
Heart of the Home
Hello my Foodie Friends!
This past week both my wife and I celebrated our birthdays (having a birthday one day apart from each other was one of the many reasons I married her!). Recently I found a birthday card that my mother gave me for one of my milestone birthdays. I lost my mother in 1999. However, I think about her every day. Back to school time brings back memories of my childhood and the chaos of getting five children to do their homework, eat dinner, brush their teeth and get to bed every school night. I often reminisce about the work my mother had in raising three boys and two girls. In many of my articles I have talked about growing up in an Italian family. I was reminded by one of my customers that Italians are a matriarchal nationality. It’s the women who carry on the traditions and hand out the majority of discipline, wisdom and nurturing to the children. As a child, every room in the house where I grew up included constant teaching and training by my mother. The bedroom task was making your bed, dusting furniture, sweeping the floor or vacuuming the rugs and organizing your clothes. The bathroom was to be kept clean at all times and the living room was “keep your feet off the couch!” The kitchen was the most intense training, washing and drying dishes to cleaning and setting the table. When we all sat at the kitchen table, our family discussions were learning times. We shared everything from how our day went to how to pass the potatoes. We learned manners, how to hold a fork and at the beginning of the meal watching how much Mom did to prepare the meals and us for dinner. One of my mother’s favorite cooking tools, and is my wife’s favorite, is the wooden spoon. My mother used a wooden spoon for all of her daily cooking tasks. She would let us “taste” her sauce using a wooden spoon. There were wooden spoons for frying the meatballs, stirring the sauce and one that would sit at the kitchen table while we ate.
At Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store, we have Tools for Cooks. Stop by and shop our line of Beechwood wooden spoons and instantly take your culinary, dining, and entertaining experience to the next level. The wooden spoon was a primary cooking utensil used by Julia Child and other great chefs around the world. Each of our beechwood spoons are made in France where they are lovingly handcrafted to standards of unsurpassed quality. For centuries wooden spoons and wooden cooking utensils have been preferred by chefs for their numerous advantages. Unlike metal or plastic, a wooden spoon can be left in the pot without the risk of melting, burning your hand, or ruining a temperature-sensitive dish. A wooden kitchen utensil will not change the taste of acidic foods the way metal will. Wooden spoons are versatile. Simply wash your kitchen utensil with warm soapy water and allow to air dry. Restore your wood utensils to their satiny finish by treating them with a little mineral oil or beeswax compound.
As we all are working through our hectic schedules, remember that family time is the most important time. Eat together as a family, share stories, talk about your day, listen to each other, enjoy good food, and remember to compliment the chef. Bring your family together for at least an hour a day. Meal time is family time. Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”
Take Care,
John & Paula
Notes from Chamber of Commerce: So How Was Your Summer?
In early August, my wife and I escaped to York Beach, Maine, for a few days. One late-afternoon, we walked the Marginal Way and found our way to a local restaurant along the shore.
We sat outside socially distanced from another couple. There was an adjacent outdoor patio where there were three people sitting together at a table above us. I looked closely at the man’s hat at the table nearest us and sure enough it was from Saratoga. It had a NYRA logo on the back.
When he turned a little, I yelled out to him asking how he got the hat. He turned and smiled noting that he typically goes to Saratoga with his wife every year but not this year. They love the community but the lack of fans at the Saratoga Race Course had sent them to the Maine coast instead.
Just then, the three people on the patio overheard us say that we lived in Saratoga. So now they chimed in with a similar story. They visit Saratoga every year but not this summer.
The next day as I was reading a book on the beach. I saw a person walking up from the freezing cold water. He looked familiar but I doubted it was who I thought it might be. A little later, I noticed him just to our right side with two kids digging a big hole.
Yes, I knew him. He lives in Edinburg. We’ve worked together for the last five years on Saratoga’s Giant PumpkinFest. I yelled over to him and we ended up talking for 30 minutes.
Not sure about your friends on Facebook, but a lot of mine spent time in Maine this summer. You know who you are.
For us, it made sense. Maine is an easy drive. It has a beach. You can spend nearly the entire day outside. Maine was NOT on New York’s quarantine travel list. Nor did we have to quarantine going there. I read two books – – The Great Halifax Explosion and A Woman of No Importance. I bought both books at Northshire Bookstore before I left. They both were amazing stories, one from World War I and the other from World War II, which I had never heard before.
The people working there and visiting there appeared to be taking the right precautions. We marveled actually at the fact that nearly all of the young children we saw were wearing masks and didn’t seem to be complaining. My wife and I were actually thanked by a person who said he worked for the town just for wearing our masks as we left the beach one day.
No fans at the Saratoga Race Course. No NYC Ballet or Philadelphia Orchestra at SPAC. No Live Nation Concerts. No Saratoga Casino. No Yaddo Gardens. No Caffe Lena. Very few small weddings. Very few youth sporting events. So many more people unemployed than in prior years. So many states with sky high rates of COVID 19 that they couldn’t come here.
Generally summer is a time when local businesses look to thrive. The summer of 2020 for many local businesses is one they had to work harder than ever just to survive. The same will be true this fall and winter. It’s about surviving, not thriving.
We, as a community, are going to have to take collective action to help save our local businesses. We’ve already learned that we can be stronger together. We survived a near complete economic shutdown. We’ve made considerable progress slowing the spread of COVID 19 locally.
Skidmore College has now opened safely which will help our local economy. The City Center’s parking structure will be operational in time for the Holiday season. The Saratoga Casino is open and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame has reopened after a $20 million modernization.
The City’s motto is Health. History. Horses. Health has always come first. Now with summer over, we have to expand this definition of health to include our economic health as well as our individual wellness. This means a focus on doing our part to help our local independent businesses. Let’s help them survive this fall and winter so that we can all thrive again.
Farming Philosophies & Practices
What are your farming practices? As a farmer, I receive this question in varying forms often from customers who visit the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. So do many of the other agricultural vendors who bring fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses, spirits, and other locally produced items to market.
I appreciate the question. It creates an opportunity to chat and build a relationship through a sharing of farming philosophy. But because farming is a personal endeavor, how the question gets answered varies.
I decided last Saturday to ask a few of my farmer friends at the market to share their philosophies and practices. Here’s what I learned:
From Lee Hennessy, owner of Moxie Ridge Farm, which brings goat milk, yogurt, and cheeses to market as well as pork: “The philosophy behind my farm … is based in terroir (a French term that depicts a sense of place in food and wine).”
For Hennessy, terroir is achieved through what his goats and other animals eat: “Everything is non-GMO and comes from within 10 miles of my farm. That sense of place in milk and in meat is what makes it unique.”
From Andy Burger, of Burger Farm, a multi-generation family farm that brings seedlings, potted plants, and vegetables to market: “We are no-spray, non-certified organic. We try and keep as close to naturally grown as we can.”
Burger’s use of the terms no-spray, organic, and naturally grown offers a means to differentiate many practices. “No spray” means no chemical insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides are used to protect crops from pests. “Organic” allows for certain spraying and fertilizer use, while “naturally grown” further limits these uses to materials that are fully natural.
“Non-certified” highlights the fact farms use organic and naturally grown methods but have not sought formal recognition. Such is the case twith my farm. We do not use sprays and minimize organic fertilizer use by incorporating animal manure into our soil.
Organic certification comes from the USDA. It is expensive and time-consuming, but it ensures crops are grown in the cleanest possible environment, as Echo Creek Farm owner Jennifer Palulis has explained.
And the difference between certified organic and certified naturally grown? “The single biggest difference is the certifier,” says Jason Heitman of Green Jeans Market Farm, which receives its certified naturally grown recognition from another farmer. “I don’t use the USDA; I use a colleague.”
Saratoga Farmers’ Market runs at Wilton Mall 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. Follow on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to the newsletter www.saratogafarmersmarket.org/weekly-newsletter.
My Little Cupcake
Hello my Foodie Friends!
This coming week Paula and I will each celebrate another birthday (we stopped counting the years). One of our favorite desserts to have to celebrate is with a cupcake that allows us to each choose our own creative flavor. With so many special events such as baby and bridal showers, birthdays, and weddings, bakeries and small businesses have been busy making delectable desserts for these events. The cupcake is a baked good that has gained tremendous popularity over the past two decades. The big business and trend of making cupcakes has expanded through entrepreneurial bakers and bakeries taking advantage of the multiple varieties and creativity that can come with cupcakes. However, making your own cupcakes can be an endearing gift that you can make for yourself or for someone special.
So, what is your cupcake personality? Do you prefer to indulge in rich double chocolate or simply vanilla? Maybe a wonderful red velvet or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting? Peanut butter fudge sounds delicious or even salted caramel, mocha, or coconut. Whether your personality is fun and festive, salt and sweet, business like, lovey-dovey, colorful, adventurous, or serious, there is a cupcake flavor for you. Since their creation, cupcakes have become a pop culture trend in the culinary world. They have spawned dozens of bakeries devoted entirely to them. While chocolate and vanilla remain classic favorites, fancy flavors such as raspberry meringue and espresso fudge can be found on menus. There are cookbooks, blogs, and magazines specifically dedicated to cupcakes.
The history of cupcakes (retrieved from All About Cupcakes) is interesting to learn about. The cupcake evolved in the United States in the 19th century, and it was revolutionary because of the amount of time it saved in the kitchen. There was a shift from weighing out ingredients when baking to measuring out ingredients. According to the Food Timeline Web, food historians have yet to pinpoint exactly where the name of the cupcake originated. There are two theories: the cakes were originally cooked in cups, and the ingredients used to make the cupcakes were measured out by the cup. In the beginning, cupcakes were sometimes called “number” cakes, because they were easy to remember by the measurements of ingredients it took to create them: One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs, one cup of milk, and one spoonful of soda. Clearly, cupcakes today have expanded to a wide variety of ingredients, measurements, shapes, and decorations – but this was one of the first recipes for making what we know today as cupcakes. Cupcakes were convenient because they cooked much quicker than larger cakes. When baking was done in hearth ovens, it would take a long time to bake a cake, and the final product would often be burned. Muffin tins, also called gem pans, were popular around the turn of the 20th century, so people started creating cupcakes in tins.
At Compliments to the Chef, your neighborhood kitchen and cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Place, we carry various accessories to assist you with making your favorite cupcake recipe. Cupcakes are a sweet way to please a crowd, and to say “thank you” or “I love you” to your little cupcake and to celebrate “another” birthday!! Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”
Take Care,
John & Paula
Estate Planning Basics
With the Federal estate tax exemption (the amount you can pass estate tax-free) at more than $11.5 million per person, or over $23 million for a married couple, many people may be inclined to believe that estate planning is simply not something they need to concern themselves with. While that may be true from an estate tax perspective, estate planning is a multifaceted concept with certain principles that apply to virtually everyone.
At the end of the day estate planning is about making sure your assets go to whom you’d like them to, and in the most efficient way possible. One way to do this is to write a will which dictates the distribution of your estate, but a will, alone, can be a very inefficient tool due to a process called probate.
Probate is the public process of certifying your will and distributing your estate. During this process your will can be contested, making the process potentially very long and expensive. You could expect to spend up to four percent of your probatable estate in legal fees and, even after a years-long process, your estate may not be distributed as you would have wished.
In order to help eliminate these concerns, it is usually recommended that your assets be titled in such a a way as to avoid probate altogether.
Non-retirement funds can be titled as “Transfer-on-Death” accounts. If held jointly, these accounts can also be titled as having “Rights of Survivorship.” Upon your death, assets in these accounts would be easily transferred to your joint owner first, and then to the named beneficiaries upon the second death.
Your retirement accounts, including IRAs and employer-sponsored plans can have named beneficiaries. Just as with a Transfer-on-Death account, upon your death your assets can be easily transferred into the names of your beneficiaries.
Because these types of designations are contractual, they are excluded from probate, and cannot be contested. Avoiding probate means these funds are available to your heirs almost immediately, and privately.
We recommend reviewing your beneficiary declarations annually, or upon a life event, to help ensure they accurately reflect your wishes.
This certainly isn’t to say that a will is unnecessary. Quite to the contrary. A will is an important estate planning tool for distributing assets which can’t be distributed in a more efficient way.
Many people mistakenly believe that if they don’t have a will, and don’t utilize beneficiary declarations or joint ownership tools, then their spouse will simply inherit everything. They are often wrong.
This is called dying “intestate.” In this instance these assets would still be subject to a probate process, but without any documents to dictate your wishes, the State determines who inherits your assets.
If you die intestate in New York, with a spouse and descendants, then your spouse will receive the first $50,000 of the intestate estate, plus half of the remainder. Your descendants would receive the other half. Nobody will be more surprised than your spouse!
Work with your Certified Financial Planner ® and a qualified estate attorney to help determine the best way to help ensure your estate goals are met. You may not require an intricate estate plan with many moving parts, but you should certainly be aware of the basic steps and tools available to you to help simply the process for your heirs.
Stephen Kyne, CFP® is a Partner at Sterling Manor Financial, LLC in Saratoga Springs and Rhinebeck.
Securities offered through Cadaret, Grant & Co., Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Sterling Manor Financial, LLC, or Cadaret, Grant & Co., Inc., SEC registered investment advisors. Sterling Manor Financial and Cadaret, Grant are separate entities. This article contains opinion and forward-looking statements which are subject to change. Consult your investment advisor regarding your own investment needs.
The Responsibilities of a Guardian After Appointment: How to Comply with the Reporting Requirements
If you are appointed as a Guardian under Article 81 of the New York State Mental Hygiene Law, you are charged with certain responsibilities under the statute. Included in those responsibilities is the completion and filing of an Initial Report and Annual Reports.
What is in the Guardian’s Initial Report?
The Guardian’s Initial Report includes the details of the assets of the incapacitated person (IP). The Guardian must set forth exactly what IP assets are coming under their control at the outset of the guardianship. The Guardian must also detail their plan to meet the medical, physical, and social needs of the IP.
When does the Initial Report need to be filed?
The Initial Report must be filed within 90 days of the Guardian receiving their Commission.
Is there an educational requirement for the Guardian?
Yes. The Guardian must take a state mandated course regarding their responsibilities. Proof of completion of the course must be filed with the Initial Report. In some cases, however, the Court waives the educational requirement.
What is in the Guardian’s Annual Report?
The Annual Report addresses the ongoing property and personal affairs of the IP. Regarding their property affairs, the Annual Report details the amount of assets the IP started with at the beginning of the year and the amount of assets they finished with at the end of the year. Each item of income and expense during the course of the year must also be itemized. Regarding the personal needs of the IP, the Guardian must report regarding the general welfare of the IP – including the medical care received by the IP during the year, the appropriateness of the IP’s current residence, and whether there is any reason to change the guardianship.
When does the Annual Report need to be filed?
The Annual Report must be filed by the end of May each year regarding the activity from the prior calendar year.
Where do the Guardian Reports need to be filed?
Where the reports need to be filed varies depending on the particular circumstances of the guardianship; however, in all cases, the reports need to be filed with the Examiner of Guardianship Reports for the county where the IP resides. The Examiner will then review the report and issue their own report to the Guardian and the Court.
The completion and filing of proper guardianship reports can be a challenging process. If you need assistance complying with your responsibilities as a Guardian, you should seek the assistance of an experienced elder law attorney.
Matthew J. Dorsey, Esq. is a Partner with O’Connell and Aronowitz, 1 Court St., Saratoga Springs. Over his twenty-three years of practice, he has focused in the areas of elder law, estate planning, and estate administration. Mr. Dorsey can be reached at 518-584-5205, mdorsey@oalaw.com, and www.oalaw.com.
Home Stretches
Working from home has become the new normal for many people.
While some are lucky enough to have a dedicated home office set-up, many others find themselves in an ergonomically challenging work environment which can result in aches and pain throughout the spine.
Incorporating stretches into your daily routine can help counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting and less than ideal work stations. Stretches should be performed on a daily basis and can be done once or twice a day. Stretches should be held for 30-60 seconds.
