With the cooler temperatures, my mind (and stomach!) automatically turn to soup. Although I dearly love fresh tomatoes and fennel in salads, they are absolutely incredible when roasted along with leeks, and then pureed into a delicious, low-fat, and nutrient-rich soup. In fact, this soup is so good that I ate the entire first test batch in one sitting (yes. By myself. It really is that good!). The tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant lycopene, vitamin C, folate, and potassium. Leeks are a fantastic source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and K, iron, and manganese. Fennel also provides fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and manganese. Each of these components assist in facilitating overall healthy body functioning, including repair of cellular damage and supporting a healthy immune system, making this soup an excellent choice for an immune-boosting dish. Roasting the vegetables allows the sugars in them to caramelize, creating a lovely darker color and fabulous flavor that shines in this simple soup. Although you can lightly drizzle olive oil on your vegetables prior to roasting them, you do not need to. They will still caramelize beautifully!
Local food: Roasted Tomato Fennel Leek Soup
Spinning cream into Gold
Learn about how high-quality cultured butter is made, in this piece by Kelsie Meehan for Adirondack Harvest. Meehan is the owner and butter-maker of Gold Bar Butter. She has been milking cows and making cultured butter since 2012.
Read more: https://adirondackharvest.com/churning-up-gold-in-the-adirondacks/
Photo: Kelsie Meehan pours cultured cream into the churn. Photo by Lisa Godfrey for Adirondack Harvest.
Local food: Easy Chunky Applesauce
Once you have eaten fresh, homemade applesauce, there is no going back to the sad, canned stuff! This recipe is simple, quick, and will make your kitchen smell incredible while it is cooking. Although you can use any type of apple, if you use apples that are bursting with flavor – especially ones picked fresh from your local orchard – then your applesauce will taste even better! If you would like to substitute stevia or another sugar substitute for the brown sugar, use one teaspoon of stevia for the 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar called for in this recipe. » Continue Reading.
Lake George area restaurants join in on fall-themed dining promotion
Restaurant Appreciation Week’s new 2020 format spans two weeks in September, includes photo contest
This year, the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce & CVB will be showcasing the hard-working restaurant staff as well as apple and pumpkin-themed food and drink during the new Fall Lake George Region Restaurant Appreciation Weeks.
This region-wide event features 16 restaurants from Glens Falls, Queensbury, Cleverdale and Lake George.
Taste NY event pairs food buyers, producers
Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Washington County and the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce & CVB will co-host a Virtual Taste NY Producer Showcase on Tuesday, October 27. This event will be the first of its kind in the state. The two-hour online event, offered in partnership with Taste NY and NYS Grown & Certified, will provide a unique opportunity for New York food and beverage producers to connect with area food buyers. The event will help these businesses to expand their reach in the marketplace that, in many cases, has been impacted due to the nationwide pandemic.
In Pursuit of Giant Puffballs, the queen of edible mushrooms:
Puffball is the generic name for a large group of edible mushrooms with similar characteristics. They come in many sizes and are usually spherical or globular in shape.
Puffballs are distinguished from other mushroom groups by the fact that they lack many of the features or characteristics that other common mushrooms possess. A puffball has no stem. It has no cap. And no external gills. All of the spores are produced inside of the fruiting body.
The most common way in which they release their spores is through impact; the external force of rain or falling debris landing upon them or of animals stepping on or brushing against them, thereby compressing and/or breaking the peridium; the protective layer that encloses the spore mass inside the fungus. When that happens, as the name puffball implies, the spores are ejected in a large puff.
Healthy recipe: Oatmeal Energy Bites
Here is a kid-friendly recipe for oatmeal energy bites. They are full of protein, nutrients, and healthy fats, are easy for people of all ages – especially kids – to make, and are the perfect school, work, or any time snack.
Oatmeal Energy Bites
Servings: 20
North Country Co-op provides place of solace during pandemic
The North Country Food Co-op in Plattsburgh is more than a neighborhood grocery store. It’s become a place where shoppers can find healthy food and comfort, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As Tim Rowland writes in this recent article on the Adirondack Harvest website:
With many businesses and institutions closed, and even friends and extended family off limits, the co-op offered more than food, it offered comfort and support to its clients. They might have lost a job, or had people in their lives fall sick or die, or suffered from plain loneliness. For them, the co-op was well stocked not just with food, but with sympathetic ears. Some people were just very lonely and needed somebody to talk to,” Co-op Manager Carol Czaja said. “In the past we would have given them a hug.”
Read the full story here.
Eat local: Blueberry Refrigerator Jam

Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh blueberries
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
Hamilton Co. program connects people to fresh food
Farm fresh fruits and vegetables are a highlight of the Adirondack summer, but for those with limited incomes, this source of produce may be entirely inaccessible. A new offering at no cost to eligible seniors and individuals in need has been launched by a partnership of community groups this summer.
The Hamilton Healthy Food Connections program offers $20 nutrition certificates to all Hamilton County seniors who currently rely on delivered meals from the Warren/Hamilton County Office of the Aging meal sites. Hamilton County Community Action food pantry clients are also eligible.
Hub on the Hill Launches Fundraising Campaign for New Vehicles
Public welcome to donate at https://www.caringcrowd.org/provide-meals-food-insecure-families-impacted-covid-19
Resulting from a successful partnership with AdkAction, The Hub on the Hill will deliver approximately 5,500 Emergency Food Packages (EFPs) by October 1, 2020. This project has supplied tens of thousands of meals and put food on the tables of hundreds of families facing increased food insecurity due to COVID-19.
Local food: Salsa fresca
Tomatoes are finally ripe, so here is a recipe for salsa fresca. Although it is delicious as-is, if it sits, covered in the refrigerator, for an hour or so before serving, the flavors have a chance to blend even better.
Salsa Fresca
Any type of salsa is delicious, but there is something incredible about salsa made from fresh ingredients, and not cooked or processed in any way.
Eat local: Fresh Basil Pesto
If you like pesto, there is nothing quite like making and eating it fresh! Although you can substitute bottled minced garlic and shaker-can cheese for the garlic cloves and freshly grated cheese called for in the recipe, using fresh ingredients will make the flavors truly pop.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups of fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 Cup (around 2 ounces) of freshly grated Romano or Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
- 1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 Cup pine nuts
- 3 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 Tablespoon minced garlic)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Grant funds Emergency Food Packages project through 2020
AdkAction and their partners have been awarded $225,000 from the Adirondack Foundation, as well as the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, and the New York State Health Foundation to continue the Emergency Food Packages Project. The project provides healthy, locally grown food to Adirondack residents in need.
To date, over 2,300 food packages (about 35,000 meals) have been delivered to families with the help of 700 independent donors, and the Adirondack Foundations SUN Fund. Over $100,000 has been put into the local agricultural economy as well through this project, in turn supporting roughly 20 farms and 75 farmworkers. This new grant should double these results and assist AdkAction in building a program which will subsidize local food purchasing, and greatly increase Hub on the Hill’s food distribution capacity.
Local food: Sarah’s Blueberry Cake
For an old-fashioned twist on a blueberry dessert, try this delicious blueberry cake recipe, created and shared by a very dear family friend. The flavors of blueberry and lemon blend beautifully, making it a lovely addition to any summertime meal. You can top it with vanilla ice cream, more blueberries, or just enjoy it as is!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (Softened)
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 4 Eggs, Well Beaten
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 3 ½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 4 Tablespoons Baking Powder
- 2 Cups Blueberries (Fresh or Frozen)
- Zest of One Lemon (optional)
- ¼ Cup Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
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