This workshop next Tuesday evening is nearly full, with a handful of spots left. It’s our first time ever offering this fascinating topic and it’s a combo deal with presentation and tour! If you’d like to increase your self-sufficiency or store produce in the non-growing months, find details at the event and registration page here. This session is part of the Homesteading for Everyone series created by CCE St. Lawrence and with a diversity of topics offered throughout the year.
My favorite time of the year is here – summer. I love the warm days, fireflies, bonfires, farmwork, and of course, the fresh local food the season brings to us in abundance. Now is the easiest time of year to support our producers and eat refreshing fruits and vegetables. All the area outlets, from CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms, farmers’ markets, farm stands, and natural food stores, are filling their shares, stands, and shelves with produce. We are once again able to enjoy big bunches of leafy greens, salad mix, carrots, garlic scapes, radishes, turnips, snap peas, onions, berries, and more as the season progresses.
My husband and I enjoy watching the moonrise with bonfires on summer nights.
Summer also brings full schedules. With the nice weather I find myself needing or wanting to do all sorts of different things – work in the orchard, fix fencing, mow the lawn, preserve fruits and vegetables, plant flowers, go canoeing, take my dogs for a hike, visit with family and friends – the list goes on! Prioritizing fresh food can slip lower on my activities to do, even when it’s most available. That means easy-to-make but versatile recipes are key to my summer eating. A favorite recipe we enjoy at home is Dragon Noodles. When you google “Dragon Noodle recipes”, there are many different variations that pop up and often have an Asian flavor influence. Our version stems from a friend’s recipe my husband learned while working on a vegetable farm in New Jersey. It consists of rice noodles, a stir fry of vegetables, a protein source, and a peanut sauce.
One of my favorite things about fall is the beautiful seasonal color. Of course, I am talking about the glowing ruby reds of… cranberries! One of the last fruits of the year to ripen, these native, low-growing berries are a staple of holiday feasts, but they have application far beyond turkey condiments. Cranberries are high in fiber and vitamin C, as well as anthocyanin – that’s what gives them their vibrant color; it is also a powerful antioxidant. Naturally low in sugar, cranberries are often prepared with additional sweeteners – but they don’t have to be!
We are incredibly lucky to have one of just two cranberry farms in New York State right here in the North Country, at Deer River Cranberries of Brasher Falls. When I first tasted these berries – available fresh and frozen from many local retailers, as well as direct from the farm – I was amazed by how different the flavor was compared to supermarket ‘fresh’ berries. In fact, they are so tasty that my family and I like to snack on them raw, without any added sugar.
Autumn harvest at Deer River Cranberries in Brasher Falls. Photo courtesy of Sasha Kocho-Williams.
But, if you do want to prepare something with them, you will be spoiled for choice. From a simple cooked cranberry sauce (whole-berry, crushed, or strained style) that can be water-bath canned for long-term, shelf-stable storage, to fresh relishes, juicing, and baked goods, cranberries are as versatile as they are beautiful.
Deer River cranberries wholesales most of their berries, but they are also available for sale by the pound onsite during October harvest. Photo courtesy of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
