I’m not the only one who has been thinking about how our community of Albany, NY, jokingly referred to locally as “Smallbany”, is pretty fantastic. A popular local food-blooger, Leah the Nosher, just wrote a piece for All Over Albany extolling the virtues of the wide net of friends and family that came to her…
{pantry 101} Guide to Using Oil
Much like vinegar, cooking oil is such a broad category it can be hard to know which oil to use. There are so many options to choose from – olive oil alone has seemingly endless varieties. Keeping a well-stocked pantry means including a few different types of oils, but how do you know which oil…
{WNIMKW} Spoon Butta’
Since Christine lobbied & successfully resurrected our ‘What’s New In My Kitchen Wednesdays‘ I’ve known what my next WNIMKW post would be: Spoon Butta’. Spoon butter first made its presences known to me when Swapper Courtney brought her homemade spoon butter (and displayed it w/ an amazing tablescape) to January’s Saratoga Food Swap. What’s kinda sad,…
{diy confessions} Baking Bread
Editor’s Note: I have the unbelievably cool job today of introducing a very special guest contributor, Greg Dahlmann, the Co-Founder & Co-Editor of the Capital Region’s best news website/blog All Over Albany (AoA for short). Greg and his partner-in-crime, Mary, have created a one-stop resource for all things- Capital Region. During a recent business coffee…
{diy exercise} Of Dog Trotting and Stand Up Desks
I have a very scary birthday coming up next year. When I think about my birthday, I am reminded of the Frederick Nietzche quote, “And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” The only good things about this birthday are that I am not dead yet and that it…
{weekend reading} Springtime Fun Edition
{FOOD NEWS} If you didn’t watch Jillian’s Hatch Cam 2012 it was fascinating watching 15+ eggs turn into fluffy little chicks…now they are 2 weeks old and got a bit of sun this week, take a peek. PEEP! {LOCAL FOOD NEWS} Honest Weight Food Coop’s expansion plans are back on! (YAY!) A wonderful essay by…
{weekend project} Dehydrator Yogurt
$1.00 per small container of greek yogurt seems like a good deal until you learn how easy and cheap it is make your own. Last year my husband and I purchased a 9-tray dehydrator. It’s a thing of beauty in our eyes. My husband noticed the yogurt setting on the dehydrator and that was the…
{announcing} FSC Book Club
Now that we’ve gathered over 2,000 friends on Facebook, it’s about time to announce our latest and greatest community-building project: the FSC Book Club! I’m sure you have figured out by now that we are book lovers. We read them, write book reports on them, cook from them, give them away as prizes… we love books….
{FSC SWAPPERS} The Homemade Pantry Book Event
{Yours Truly w/ Ms Alana Chernila, The Chef’s Shop, Book Launch, Saturday April 7th} Now that we have found a permanent home for the Troy Food Swap, its time to get serious. Time is precious, so why not have the food swap incorporate events within the food swap event? Am I right? A two’fer, if…
{gluten free / dairy free} S’mores Muffins
As the weather has turned warmer, and more Spring-like, my family has been spending more and more time outdoors. We take walks after dinner, race down the giant slides at the playground, and delight in the smells from our neighbor’s grill. A few evenings we have even smelt wood burning from fire pits and campfires…
{FSC EVENT} Free Kids Cooking Class at Chipotle
Besides Farmer Michael of Kilpatrick Family Farm, Justine & Brian of Denison Farm, Dianna & Michael for their urban maple syrup, Josh & Stephanie of West Wind Acres, Rick of Ballston Lake Apiaries, and the uber-talented Canners & Jammers of FSC Swappers, I can also thank General Manager Tracie, Kendra & Kaia and the rest…
{Northeast Grains System} a kickstarter campaign
The Somerset Grist Mill has a week left in its Kickstarter campaign , Flour with the flavor of home, so I have to tell you again how much I love this project. Visiting Skowhegan, home to New Balance shoes and under 9,000 people, I felt like I was stepping onto a movie set. A slightly…
{backyard chickens} Hatching Chicks!
Last time I posted, I talked about incubating chickens and how to candle them. 21 days came and went and on that last day I had the privilege of watching 16 chicks hatch out of their shells. Seven of them were from Brown Betty Farm and fellow From Scratch Club blogger Liz, and the other nine were from…
{announcing} FSC Academy
Home Dairy…. Jams, Jellies & Preserves… Fermenting… Bacon Curing… Water Bath Canning… Bread making 1, 2, 3, 4… The Art of Tarts… Home & Body Sampler… Summertime Condiments… Food Preservation 101… Seasonal Soups… Home Brew… Baby Food… Ohhhh am I so excited to share this wonderful news! After a long organizational process, FSC is ready…
{field trip} The Women Farming Conference
Just over a week ago I was able to attend the Beginning Women Farming Conference presented by Holistic Management International (HMI) at UMASS Amherst. I actually heard about the conference just days after the NOFA-NY Winter Conference. For weeks I toyed with the idea of going, but it wasn’t until I found out that the…
