Last Post As Saratoga Local (for now, sort of)

So about the problem of being a landless, aspiring homesteader - sometimes your landlord sells your house. On Sunday Tamara and I will fill up a horse trailer with all our belongings and move them and ourselves to the eastern most of the finger lakes, Skaneateles Lake - call it manifest destiny.

August will be filled with travel - graduate school interview in Boston, relaxing on Cape Cod, a bachelor party in Atlantic City, a concert in NYC, canning back in Skaneateles, farming in Philadelphia, and backpacking in the White Mountains, in approximately that order.  Somewhere in there I plan on laying the groundwork for building a wood-fired outdoor oven and planning some renovations for my parents 120 year old barn.

That should put us into September and hopefully we will find ourselves clearheaded and inspired for the next phase of things.  Should I get accepted into the graduate program we may return to Boston after a 2 year hiatus.   Otherwise a winter in CNY could be on the horizons.  Still, I can't rule out a return to Saratoga or the surrounding area.

With all that in mind, I think the blog posts will be even more sporadic, but I will try to get one or two done for anyone who might stumble upon reading them.

Last, but not least, some pictures to hold you over.

Tamara's Mead w/o and later, w/ labels (made by her brother Eli)

Cherry Pie waiting for a top crust, wait for it - Cherry Pie ready to eat.

And .... some bread

A Week of Local Meats

Early in the week we made burgers using ground beef from the Grant's M&A Farm - we bought a 1/4 of a cow, but they sell numerous cuts of beef and pork as well as duck, chicken and eggs at the farmer's market in Saratoga.  Earlier in the week we also had some kielbasa from the Grant's - definitely worth the trip to the market.  We topped the burgers with mesclun from New Minglewood, onions and tomatoes from the Kilpatrick's.

On Tuesday we paired beef tenderloins from the Grant's with a root crop hash of celeriac, golden beets, new potatoes, and kousa squash all from KFF once again.

Two weeks ago Jonathan Kilpatrick had a bunch of his chicken's processed, so Tamara and I loaded up on chicken for the summer.  I gave the grill a break - even though it was 100 degrees - and made fried chicken.  I can say with confidence that pasture-raised chicken is a completely different animal than the bastardized product peddled by the likes of Purdue.  Check out Eat Wild and Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm for more detailed information on pastured meats.  I cut the chicken into 6 pieces instead of the traditional 8 and soaked it in buttermilk for about three days before frying.  It was literally the best chicken I have ever had - I could feel my ego growing, my head about to burst.

Last, but not least, last night we made some kabobs and got the grill going again.  Using Sirloin tips from our cow and squash, onions, and cherry tomatoes from the Kilpatrick's, this was an easy and perfect end to the weekend.  I also made a potato salad with greek yogurt from the Argyle Cheese Farmer, a bit of mayonnaise and dill, and of course new red potatoes from KFF.  

And for further proof that we didn't live like a wild pack of carnivores here this past week, I should also mention that I made a gazpacho on Tuesday.  I made enough to last all week and it has been a constant refreshment with all this heat.  I used tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and sweet red carmen peppers, basil and parsley from KFF.  A little full circle tomato juice (not local, but organic - I can settle occasionally), sherry, olive oil, and red wine vinegar went in as well.  To thicken the soup I boiled an egg and mashed it with two or three cloves of the fresh garlic now becoming increasingly available with each passing week at the Saratoga market.  It sounds a bit odd perhaps but it really did the trick and doesn't impart any boiled egg flavor onto the gazpacho.  We garnished it with some of the greek yogurt and dill.  It was our appetizer of the week, going well with all that local meat.