A community pancake supper will be held at the North River United Methodist Church, 194 Thirteenth Lake Road in North River on October 14th from 4:30 to 7 pm.
Menu will be pancakes, sausage or bacon, applesauce, real maple syrup, light dessert, coffee or tea. Take outs are available. Donations will be accepted. » Continue Reading.
Carnivorous oysters are lurking about in the North Country, and residents who venture into the woods are advised to carry butter and a skillet at all times. Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus, native wood-decaying fungi often found on dead and dying hardwoods, are delectable when sautéed in butter. Maybe hikers should carry a few cloves of garlic and a press as well. It’s good to be prepared.
It may be stretching a point to call oyster mushrooms carnivorous, as the only “meat” they consume are nematodes, which are a type of small roundworm that live in the soil. But they are one of the very few mushrooms in the world known to do this, so why not play it up. The nematodes provide the oysters with nitrogen, a scarce nutrient. » Continue Reading.
Celebrating Thurman’s agricultural heritage, this year’s Fall Farm Tour on October 7th reflects the upsurge in small specialty farms in the regional marketplace. Three new farms have joined the maple farms, goat and sheep dairy, all-natural vegetable and poultry farm, llama hobby farm and certified tree farm that have built the popularity of this annual day of free farm fun.
Visitors to this tenth anniversary event will self-guide to ten sites. Valley Road Maple will host a pancake breakfast from 9 am to 1 pm in their pancake annex, this new space allowing the hosts to offer evaporator demonstrations all day in the sugarhouse. Their shop will be stocked with all their usual maple wares, and their two NYS Fair 2017 award winners: uncoated maple sugar and crystal-coated maple sugar. » Continue Reading.
The Lake Placid Brewfest is set to return for its sixth year, bringing back dozens of breweries, hundreds of beers, food and more, on Saturday, September 23rd.
The Brewfest features live music with Drunk & in the Woods and as many as 66 brewers and hundreds of different brews. Ales, ciders, lagers, pilsners, porters and stouts will all be available to drink and sample, from 4 to 8 pm in the Olympic Center’s 1932 Rink. » Continue Reading.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Alaska Organic Fertilizer company are offering grants to support school gardens in the United States, excluding it’s territories.
BirdSleuth, Cornell Lab’s K-12 education program, will distribute $25,000 in grants to 20 schools that create or revitalize a garden that supports local wildlife, healthy living, environmental education, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning. Grants range from $500 to $2,000. » Continue Reading.
It’s harvest time. Tomatoes, corn, beets, carrots, peppers and other fruits and vegetables are readily available from farmers’ markets, roadside stands, and your own gardens. Preserving the bounty safely for the winter can be economical, delicious, and safe if laboratory tested rules for food preservation are followed.
Since 1994, testing facilities, universities and the USDA tested recipes and directions used in food preservation books seven times in different areas of the country and under different conditions to assure that directions to be used would assure the product canned would be shelf stable, nutritious, flavorful, and free from both food spoiling bacterium and deadly bacterium such as clostridium botulinum-botulism. It was found that many canning instructional materials were not safe. » Continue Reading.
Saranac Lake’s Farm 2 Fork Festival started through the passion and forethought of the former Adirondack Green Circle’s Founding Director Gail Brill. Brill wanted to bring attention to regional farmers and provide a connection to the consumers buying their product. Her vision continues this weekend with the 8th Annual Farm 2 Fork Festival at Saranac Lake’s Riverside Park.
The Adirondack Cookout themed event continues Brill’s celebration of local food in the most delicious way possible, right onto our plates. This year’s menu includes grilled Mace Chasm Farm sausage, vegetable lasagna, Dak & Dill Pickles, salsa, coleslaw, garlic and herb roasted potatoes, and apple crisp. » Continue Reading.
Paul Smith’s College will host several events next month, beginning Wednesday, September 6, with the Paul Smith’s Music Festival, featuring Annie in the Water, Run With It, and the Seth Yacovone Band.
The festival, which will run from 4:30 to 9:30 pm on the college’s Great Lawn, is free and open to the public, and will include a beer tent, a variety of games, as well as food and beverages for sale. » Continue Reading.
Today’s explosion of an appreciation of and demand for local foods is a positive affirmation of farming. There is a new gratefulness for farmers as caretakers of the working landscape and purveyors of quality foods raised nearby. A better understanding of the need for open spaces, preserving soil, safeguarding water and practicing safe animal care has increased markedly. It is an invigorating time, especially for those of us who have been embroiled in agriculture most of our lives.
I think back to when I enrolled in a two-year agriculture program there were only 12 students in the major and only 1 female. The four-year baccalaureate was struggling and certainly not overenrolled. Fast forward to today and most Colleges of Agriculture are busting at the seams with students. » Continue Reading.
The 2017 Farm 2 Fork Festival will be held at the Riverside Park in Saranac Lake on Saturday, September 2nd. This year’s theme is Adirondack Cookout. The menu includes grilled Mace Chasm sausage, vegetable lasagna, Dak & Dill Pickles, salsa, coleslaw, garlic and herb roasted potatoes, and apple crisp.
The inaugural Heirloom Award will be handed out at the festival, honoring a local person that goes above and beyond to support local farmers and local food. The first recipient will be Farm 2 Fork Festival founder Gail Brill of Saranac Lake. » Continue Reading.
Three new route options and four new farm stops have been added to the second annual Bike the Barns, a one-day recreational bicycle tour that takes riders through the agricultural landscapes of the Adirondack region, on Sunday, October 1st.
This year’s event, which is hosted by the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), will start and finish at the historic Whallonsburg Grange Hall in the heart of the Champlain Valley. » Continue Reading.
The Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension has announced the hiring of James Meyers as the new viticulture and wine specialist for a 17-county region in the eastern part of New York State. Meyers will provide regional grape growers with a combination of on-the-ground grape production assistance and some high flying technology.
Meyers earned his PhD in Viticulture at Cornell University and has applied a Masters degree in Computer Science from Brown University to his viticultural research. Using satellite imaging and drone technology, Meyers has mapped canopy and vineyard variability to help growers in the Finger Lakes region of New York and in the state of California optimize the efficiency and profitability of their vineyard operations. He will continue the use of that technology in eastern New York. » Continue Reading.
We’re living in an age of global markets, with almost all of us buying our food from chain supermarkets, convenient stores, and fast food outlets; rarely thinking about where our food comes from or how it was grown or processed.
More often than not, the food we eat is grown on large industrial farms, before being shipped across the country, or from central or South America or overseas, to huge distribution centers, where it’s sorted, packaged, and processed before it’s trucked to retailers. This means that a remarkable diversity of food is available all year round, for consumers who can to afford to buy it. » Continue Reading.
The Saranac Lake Farmers’ Market has opened its 2017 season. The market, which takes place at Riverside Park in downtown Saranac Lake, operates on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm. The market is a rain or shine event and continues through mid-October.
Farmers and producers will bring vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, cheeses, arts, wines, spirits, baked goods and more.
The market will also be expanding the number of local musicians who will be playing at the market thanks to a donation from the Adirondack Green Circle. » Continue Reading.
New York’s Champlain Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) includes Clinton and Essex counties with 11 commercial vineyards and six wineries with a near-term growth projection from 15.47 acres to more than 78 acres. To accommodate that growth, the Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Program (ENYCHP) of Cornell University Cooperative Extension is now recruiting a new grapes specialist.
“The Champlain Valley AVA is distinguished by its short growing season, cold winter temperatures, and production of cold-hardy North American hybrid grape varieties, including Frontenac, La Crescent, and Marquette,” according to Elizabeth Higgins, business management specialist, Hudson Valley Lab, Highland, NY. » Continue Reading.
General inquiries about the Adirondack Almanack should be directed to Almanack founder and editor John Warren.
To advertise on the Adirondack Almanack, or to receive information on rates and design, please click here. 
Help us keep bringing you the Adirondack information you value.
Email
Twitter
RSS
Facebook
Recent Almanack Comments