Author: Saratoga TODAY

This past Wednesday officially marks the fall equinox. Still, without consulting the calendar, we start to feel the signs: the first leaves begin to turn, we wake up to cooler and darker mornings, and pumpkins and other winter squash make bold appearances.

At the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, we are preparing to fully embrace the transition to a new season by honoring pumpkins, a quintessential symbol of fall. This year, the market is kicking off the autumnal season by co-hosting the 6th Annual Saratoga Giant Pumpkin Fest, organized by the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, on September 25th. The giant pumpkins are brought in by local growers and will be displayed in the Saratoga Springs City Center Parking Garage starting at 10 am, with the official weigh-off at 11 am.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market, located at 112 High Rock Ave., will be open from 9 am-2 pm, staying open an additional hour from its usual times to accommodate event crowds. A select group of vendors will continue vending until 4 pm, coinciding with the end of the Chamber’s event. Stop by the farmers’ market before or after viewing the pumpkins to browse a selection of seasonal fall goods from local farmers and producers.

You will find fall staples like apple cider, cider donuts, and pumpkin-flavored products, including cheesecake, peanut butter, jams, pies, cheese, and granola. Vendors will also have plenty of fall decor (and apparel, too) like potted mums, gourds, and of course, plenty of pumpkins. The farmers’ market will welcome a new vendor, Snyder’s Brooms, offering old-fashioned handmade brooms ready for sweeping those fall leaves. 

In addition to the bounty of fall products on Saturday, families can enjoy free children’s activities, including a live book reading by Elizabeth Macy and Lucky the Dog at 10 am and live music by Brendan Dailey and Zak Trojano. Stay tuned for more family-friendly activities to be announced before Saturday’s event. 

This Saturday will have it all: leaf-peeping, pumpkin purveying, and a farmers’ market bursting with fall fun and local products. We are getting into the spirit of the season with a recipe for apple pumpkin upside-down cake, and many ingredients will be available at the market this Saturday.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. at High Rock Park. Find us online at www.saratogafarmersmarket.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Hello my Foodie Friends! 

Back in early August, Paula and I had the opportunity to visit a beautiful part of our country to attend our treasured friend son’s and our son’s best friend’s wedding being held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. If you have never seen the Grand Tetons’ or Yellowstone Park, you need to put it as a “must” on your list. Part of Teton Village is a quaint historical inn called the Alpenhof Lodge. It is one of the original hotels in the village. It provides a warm, cozy, welcoming environment with a restaurant that offers tasty Alps-inspired food. Each morning we were offered a menu selection that included offerings from the Alps region that really highlighted some of the most unique and exciting European cooking with Swiss, German, Austrian influences.

One of my favorite breakfast foods was Rösti with ham and eggs. Rösti is a Swiss shredded potato casserole that’s perfect for brunch. It comes out of the oven, brown and crisp on the edges, melting cheese in the middle, soft-cooked eggs on top. Swiss Rösti recipe is more like a pancake than a casserole. It’s made by pressing shredded potatoes into a cast iron skillet to form a cake, and cooking it in hot butter until it’s brown on the outside and soft inside. Back in the early 1800’s this was a common farmer’s breakfast – cooked over the fire in a wood stove. Nowadays in Switzerland Rösti is served for breakfast, lunch or dinner and sometimes as a hearty side dish with meat.

To make this dish and many others that require peeling, we carry one of our favorite and best-selling kitchen tools; the Kuhn Rikon Swiss peeler. The Kuhn Rikon vegetable peeler can be one of the mandatory items that chef’s require you to come to work with and as part of the every-day kitchen. 

The Kuhn Rikon peeler has a little hole at the end, and you just loop your index finger into it, gripping the peeler with your thumb and middle finger; all you have to do to peel a vegetable is just pull. The flexibility of this peeler is fantastic — it curves around whatever vegetable you are peeling. You can peel using the entire blade — other peelers don’t allow you to do that. It is super light. It is easy to clean because it has no nooks, and easy to store because it has the hole, so you can hang it on a hook. And this design provides the most comfortable way to peel, and you don’t have to worry about nicking the end of your fingers.  Sometimes with kitchen tools you want complex, awesome technology, but sometimes you just want the simplest thing ever, and this is it—simplicity at its best. It’s the most efficient peeler that’s out there. Many of the Chef’s in the area will buy 10 at a time.  The ergonomic design works in right or left hand.

Stop by Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store for your culinary needs. Trying out international food recipes and doing them in an easy and quick way is a fun way to learn about the different cultures of the world. The wedding in Wyoming was absolutely beautiful with a week filled with lifelong memories. Congratulations to Brad and Julia for a lifetime of magnificent adventures and happiness. Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”

Take Care,
John & Paula