it’s that time

Hudson Farmers’ Market opens Saturday May 5th, 9am – 1pm and runs Saturdays through November.

Like them on Facebook or sign up for their emails to learn more about vendors, or even better, what’s coming to market.

This is one happy food muse!  🙂  I’m excited about rhubarb.  Are you?

new year’s resolutions anyone?

Personally, I don’t make them.  Just the word diet makes me reach for a cookie.  At least for me, resolutions seem a recipe for failure.

how can you say no to this?

I think of this after running into our neighbors at the Acres Co-op Market this weekend.  I was clutching my Dutch Desserts raspberry tart and my neighbor told me she’s not doing that sort of thing this month.  They’re eating clean and healthy for this month, including no drinking and no dessert.  Like I said…

So, here we are in the depths of winter and we have two, count ’em, two food markets in the town of Hudson.  They actually both opened up last weekend, January 6/7, but since I was laid out flat with a cold (ie, napping after breakfast, going through a box of kleenix in a day, etc.) I only explored them this past weekend.  Food happiness.

The Acres Co-op Market is worth checking out to find some new producers and products for Hudson.  I won’t dare try to list them all since I will inevitably forget someone, but in addition to the lovely raspberry tart I also got a small chunk of gruyere, tasted smoked chicken (!) and picked up a couple of Block Factory tamales for lunch.

a perfect light lunch

Acres Co-op Market is open Saturdays, 10am – 2pm.

Lick The Market has many favorites from the Hudson Farmers’ Market – so we were able to pick up Loaf pretzels, eggs and the stuff for a yummy roasted beet salad.  People were squeezed in, looking at the fresh herbs, picking up bread and leeks and veggies and I overhead someone say “We’re not in a food desert anymore”.  I’m not sure we’re there yet, but we’re making great strides.  Lick is open Friday, Saturday AND Sunday.

Along a similar vein, have you heard about the Hudson 10% challenge?  There was a notice in one of our bills this month, but you can also find more info here.  Naturally, I would like to use 10% less energy not only in the name of saving the earth, but also saving 10% $$$ a month.  That sounds good to me.  In digging around their website, under Quick & Easy Changes, points 3, 4 and 5 are:

• Buy local
• Join a CSA
• Shop at farmers markets

And then further down they suggest to eat less meat (since large commercial meat production drains resources) and use reusable bags.  For me, this will happen a lot faster than filling my cold walls with insulation, I’m afraid.

Will this town take this “buy local” advice and support two small food markets plus the CSAs & non-CSAs we have available?  They all offer the mix of organic and conventional, primarily local but reaching further for certain goods.  It’s articles like this and this that make me want to get closer to the farmer and the source of my food.  Then again, I’m not willing to give up olive oil, citrus, salt, etc…   It can be mind-boggling, no?

How do you define good food?  How will you eat good food this year?

the farmers markets are closed for the season – now what???

Phew!  As much as I bought this past Saturday, the last day of the season for the Hudson Farmers’ Market, I’ve already run out of things.  The Winter Indoor Market is being held Saturdays, November 26th – December 17th at Christ Church Episcopal at 431 Union Street, 10:00am – 1:00pm.

I am always looking for options when I shop for food.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m always looking for the best price (and good value) or if it’s from my days as a traveler, but I always want to know what’s out there.  Also, sometimes I run into situations…  Like, this past weekend at the Farmers’ Market, I wanted to buy 2 dozen eggs from a vendor (I was making the pumpkin souffle I had mentioned last week – which was totally worth the 10 egg whites btw).  The vendor was only willing to sell me one dozen, because she didn’t have a lot of eggs and she was saving them for other customers.  Ouch!  Luckily I had options, and I walked over to the next vendor who sold me more eggs.

I like to buy direct from the farmer/baker because my food money goes directly to my food producer – it’s the best way to support a local producer.  However, what do you do when you want regular ole’ graham crackers or a can of baked beans?

I am very excited about the Hannaford scheduled to open up in Bell’s Pond just outside of Hudson, mid-2012.  Why get excited about another big box grocery store, you ask?  There’s something about Hannaford which is just clean.  I’m afraid I have nothing more logical to offer.  I hope this location will offer Local Ocean fishies.

But, if you don’t want to drive outside of Hudson, what do you do?

Cheese guy said he may open Lick in January to sell cheese, mushrooms, some others things…  What about winter ice cream???  Stay tuned.

Bruno’s offers a small selection of seasonal veggies plus I noticed (not exactly local but very useful) limes.

Across the street the West Indies Natural Food & Grocery has an eclectic assortment of food stuffs, including fresh ginger.

Olde Hudson has a fabulous selection of cheeses as well as other comestibles.

Mercedes offers the Hudson Farm Box – a townie CSA delivery on demand, perfect for the commitment-phobic.  This is a great offering for anyone who does not have time to go from farmer to farmer collecting their produce.

The Italian Market at the corner of 7th & Columbia is a good source for Italian goodies.

And of course, hopefully soon we will have Acres Co-op Market within walking distance.  Why “hopefully soon”?   Acres needs members!  At the very least, visit them during Hudson’s Winter Walk, coming up December 3rd.

What a great excuse for a walk.  Whether you are celebrating Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day today, you have to eat, right?

Acres Co-op Market meeting this week

The next Acres Co-op Market meeting is coming up this Wednesday, October 19th, 6:00pm at the Christ Church Episcopal Parish Hall at 431 Union Street.  Join in to find out more about fundraising efforts, the latest news on planning and to socialize with others wanting clean, competitively priced food in our community.  Also, be sure to check out the website (link above) and the Facebook page to find good info like a potential floor plan, fundraising progress, a story on a recent failed co-op (and how we can avoid that fate).

They are actively seeking members now – if you have not yet sent in your membership application, you can find it here.

I’m a member – are you?

acres co-op

…will need help from all of us.   The Register-Star (finally?) wrote about the effort today.  Linda is the new Membership Coordinator and she can be contacted via acrescoop@gmail.com.

More good food is coming our way.