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Keepin' It Local

The following article was written by Karin Ursula Edmondson and appeared in the Catskill Mountain Region Guide.

Holiday Gifting Guide
December 2007

Folks who fantasize, fetishize and forage for fine foods frequent the ranks of almost everyone’s family. This year, ditch the exotic and far flung food gifts for epicurean delights closer to home. This is merely a sampling, and a rather subjective one (mine). Most of these farmers and food artisans do many things very well. Visits to the farms and stores are wise moves indeed. Gift the Catskills. Eat the scenery. Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah. Peace.

Pastured Meats
All the fixin’s for a special and sustainably correct Christmas breakfast—free range eggs and heritage bacon and sausage—await at Horton Hill Farm. Hams and pork roasts are from Gloucestershire Old Spots, heritage pigs renowned for docile, even tempers and richly flavored meat, making for especially succulent bacon. Horton Hill Farm is located at 127 Horton Road in Jefferson. For more information or to place an order, please call Bill or Carol at 607-652-9450, visit www.hortonhillfarm.com or e-mail info@hortonhillfarm.com.

Dairy
Butter better than anything you’ve ever tasted—even abroad in the Alps—can be found at Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery, 5037 State Highway 23 in Norwich. For more information, call 607-334-5339.

Finally, a regional cheese—made only in Thurman, New York—has ascended to national prominence. A triple-cream cheese, Kunik is a white mold-ripened wheel of Jersey cow cream and goats’ milk reminiscent of extra-rich brie. Nettle Meadow’s Kunik was featured paired with Heather Ridge Farm raw honey in Williams Sonoma’s Holiday Catalog: the Hudson Valley Kunik Cheese and Heather Honey Collection (www.williamssonoma.com). Nettle Meadow Farm is located at 484 South Johnsburg Road in Thurman. For more information, call 518 623 3372 or visit www.nettlemeadow.com.

Tonjes Farm Dairy in Callicoon produces buttermilk like they used to make (and market: ever notice how low fat buttermilk is our only market choice?) in a lovely glass bottle, as well as fresh pasteurized Fromage Blanc, the posh cousin of crème cheese that pairs superbly and indiscriminately with toast, fruit, desserts, honey, biscuits…you get the point. All cheese is produced from a closed herd of 90 to 100 Holsteins, purely grass-raised. Tonjes Farm Dairy is located at 188 Tonjes Road in Callicoon. For more information, call 845-482-5971 or e-mail cowhill@warwick.net .

Honey
Give raw heather honey in three varieties—light golden summer, dark rich autumn and Irish Style Lemon—from the bees at Heather Ridge Farm. The Lemon Honey grabbed Best Honey in the Hudson Valley in 2006 as voted by the readers of Hudson Valley Magazine. Heather Ridge Farms’s honey was featured paired with Nettle Meadow’s Kunik in Williams Sonoma’s Holiday Catalog: the Hudson Valley Kunik Cheese and Heather Honey Collection (www.williamssonoma.com). Heather Ridge Farm is located at 989 Broome Center Road in Preston Hollow. For more information, call 518-239-6234 or visit www.heather-ridge-farm.com.

Chocolate
Handmade luxurious small batch dark chocolates made from organic and fair trade chocolate are available at Lucky Chocolates in Saugerties. Good. Good for you (isoflavens) and good for the cocoa farmers. Lucky Chocolates is located at 1534 Route 212 in Saugerties. For more information, call 845-246-7337, toll-free at 888-582-5910, or visit their Web site at www.luckychocolates.com.

Handmade artisanal chocolates from Vasilow’s Confectionery in Hudson will take you back to the chocolates of yesteryear. Vasilow’s Confectionery specializes in fresh, small batches of chocolates, nuts and confections made with the finest natural ingredients and chocolate available. In fact, it’s the same chocolate brothers Louie and Jim used in 1923, when they opened their store and made available to the residents of upstate New York some of the finest candies ever created.

Visit Vasilow’s at 741 Columbia Street in Hudson, shop online at www.vasilows.com, or call 518-828-2717 for more information.

Goat Milk Fudge will replace all those fond memories of mere mortal cows milk fudge. Farmer Denise Warren stirs by hand (for hours) the fudge made from the fresh milk of her grass-fed goats and organic cocoa. Quarter pound boxes are available with walnuts or plain. Stone & Thistle Farm is located at 1211 Kelso Road in East Meredith. For more information, call 607-278-5800 or visit www.stoneandthistlefarm.com.

Vegan
Agave nectars are the hot hip healthy baking ingredient. Raw, organic, unrefined, gluten-free, dairy free and vegan Organic Nectars Agave Syrups come in light or dark and flavored: Chocagave Raw Cacao Chocolate, Chocagave Bold Roast Chocolate, Vanillagave and Gojiagave. Gift baskets are available. For more information, call 845-246-0506 or visit www.organicnectars.com.

Preserves
Strawberry jam—a singular strawberry sensation—from the Catskill Mountain Country Store clarifies why strawberry is the perennial favorite. Get the large jar. One weekend, I (with due help from my friend Mark) slathered the entire contents of the small jar over two batches of warm Southern biscuits. Catskill Mountain Country Store is located at 5510 Route 23 in Windham. For more information, call 518-734-3387 or visit www.catskillmtcountrystore.com.

Cake
Mince Meat Pie—an American classic—elevates to new heights with Amy Jackson’s expert touch that replaces cloy and gloop with warm rivulets of spices and melted fruit enfolded in rich, buttery crust. To buy or order one, visit Amy’s Take-Away on Route 214 in Lanesville or call 845-688-9759.

Snag one of baker Craig Thompson’s pies, cakes, cookies, bars or tea cakes before he becomes elusive “by appointment or by chance” après the holidays. Craig interprets classic American desserts and bakes with the seasons to create goodies with rural mountain casual rusticity that do town and country with equal panache. For more information, call 845-688-2728 or visit www.shandakenbake.com.

Country Stores
Slow Down Food Company, “a food shop with wonderfully delicious things” has a special holiday feasting menu along with the usual artisanal, locally crafted food items like Hudson Valley pears offered pickled or poached in coffee or red wine and cassis or in a vanilla bean syrup. How about a bottle of Balsamic Figs or Balsamic Cipolline? Or basil or olive pesto? Special cookie gift boxes are stuffed with all hand crafted cookies baked from organic ingredients and tastefully packaged in a craft box. Slow Down Food Company is located at 22 Lee Lane in Andes. For more information, call 845-676-4488 or visit www.slowdownfoodcompany.com.

Specialty Markets
Michael and Heidi Ferraro are the proprietors of the authentic German Metzgerei, or butcher store, in the region. For the holidays, in addition to all of the traditional German sausages and cold cuts, the Smokehouse features a wide variety of smoked meats. The store is full to the rafters of German holiday chocolate ornaments and Kris Kringles, lebkuchen, Stollen, Pfeffernussen and Advent calendars. The Smokehouse of the Catskills is located at 724 Route 212 in Saugerties, New York and is open Thursday through Saturday from 8 am until 6 pm and Sunday from 9 am until 4 pm. Please call 845-246-8767 for more information or to place a special order.

Holiday Markets
The Sullivan County Area Farmer’s Market Association hosts two Holiday events: one in Liberty on Saturday, December 8 and one in Callicoon on Sunday, December 9. Both markets are from 10 am to 3 pm. For more information, contact Jan VanNostrand at 845-292-6180, ext. 115.

Visit the Pure Catskills Holiday Market on Saturday, December 8 from 10 am to 3 pm at the Peekamoose Restaurant in Big Indian. Over 20 vendors will sell items including wool products, honey, maple, preserves, specialty foods and farm and food related books by local authors and, for the first time this year, local wood artisans. For more information e-mail Challey Comer at ccomer@nycwatershed.org. The Peekamoose Restaurant is located at 8373 Route 28 in Big Indian. For more information, call 845-254-6500 or visit www.peekamooserestaurant.com.