Farmers Everywhere
By Megan Labrise

Nowadays, it seems you can't skid into a snowbank without hitting the sign for a winter farmers' market.

New Paltz, Saugerties, Rosendale. New Paltz again. Where did they all come from?

One possible explanation: The sea change from organic to local is cresting. Hudson Valley residents have spoken through their spending, supporting the proliferation of summer farmers' markets in recent years. It is now an article of faith that buying local preserves farmland and farmers, viewsheds and the industries of agriculture and tourism. And there's no produce more nutritious than what's picked at peak and consumed as soon as possible.

With all the feel-good advantages to buying local, you can see a noticeable letdown in foodies' faces when first frost sends the summer markets into hibernation. Call it Growing Seasonal Affective Disorder (GSAD).

With advancements from refrigeration to greenhouses to hydroponics and beyond, it was only a matter of time before the growing season - and, with it, the farmers' market season - was extended indefinitely. Now these folks are coming to a community near you, advertising frozen, fresh and seasonal local fare that defies previous parameters.

Is enthusiasm for the winter version of a summer staple well placed? Or is it better to savor the memory and wait until the harvest rolls around again?

I investigated the phenomenon at Winter Sun Farms (195 Huguenot St., New Paltz) and the new Community Indoor Farmers Market (Robin's Warehouse Outlet, 249 Route 32, New Paltz). My third potential source, the Saugerties Farmers Market (Greco Memorial Senior Citizen Center, 207 Market St., Saugerties), was cancelled due to snow.

Both New Paltz winter farmers' markets feature seasonal characteristics. Unlike their summer cousins, they are held indoors. They are less frequent (Winter Sun, monthly; Community, bi-monthly). Among the farmers, roots rule: celeriac, carrots, potatoes, beets. There are few squash, some greenhouse greens and cold-storage apples; eggs, grass-fed beef and sundry animals. Smoked trout. A majority of the other vendors produce value-added ag products like hand-rolled cheeses, artisan breads and butters and apple cider.

For help in answering my focus question, I turned to Holly Anne Shelowitz, director of Nourishing Wisdom Nutrition in Rosendale. We met at the market at Robin's. She's been a certified nutrition counselor for ten years. Between the both of us, that's a whole decade of authoritative experience.

Her answer was a passionate "yes." Enthusiasm for winter farmers' markets is a good thing for a plethora of reasons, argued Shelowitz.

"Here's my opinion: First of all, we are in an economical situation where buying local food is so much wiser, just in general, because of supporting local farmers, keeping the money in the community - all of those things that we know and understand," she said. "It's not just this 'cool' thing to do any more. When we're eating the food of our community, having a connection to our land, to nature, can be experienced in the body energetically. It can't be measured scientifically, but it really does make a difference."

Nutritional value is one of the things that can be measured scientifically. According to Shelowitz, the nutritional-value continuum begins at fresh produce harvested at optimum ripeness and consumed quickly. The next step down is lacto-fermentation, a biological process that converts sugars to fermental acid producing live cultures that preserve food without heating. Then there's fresh-frozen or small-scale freezing (with blanching), followed by organic frozen. Because heating-cooking destroys vitamins and nutrients, large-scale freezing (think Birds Eye) and canning are neck-in-neck for last place.

CSA-based Winter Sun offers prepaid shares of frozen local produce to approximately 280 New Paltz members. Formed three years ago by Jim Hyland, credited by most as the father of the Hudson Valley winter farmers'-market movement, Winter Sun features surplus local crops processed at the peak of freshness at Foodworks in Poughkeepsie. The farmers' market, which is open to the public, is staged in tandem with the monthly distribution of CSA shares featuring local bell peppers, blueberries, cauliflower, tomato puree, etc. - on ice.

"Small-scale frozen, like what Winter Sun is doing, and what each of us can do in our own home kitchens, is a wonderful way to preserve food and maintain nutritional value," said Shelowitz.

We both agree that knowing where your food comes from is invaluable. Winter Sun labels prominently feature the farm and location as well as time of harvest. Produce at the retail booths comes with nutrition facts directly from the farmer's mouth. (Behind every good yam is a great farmer.)

Not only did I learn when my carrot was harvested, but how it was preserved. It was packed in sand to retain moisture and stored in a newly built subterranean root cellar, said farmer Jay Armour of Four Winds Farm in Gardiner. His stocky carrots, which look like gnarled fingers, are great in soup.

Among my other buys at Winter Sun were greens from Taliaferro Farms, grown and sold by brothers Ian and Pete Taliferro, and six tins of gourmet compound butters from Scotch Hands Butter Co. of Kingston, delicious small-batch-flavored butters like pomegranate-walnut, lemon-basil garlic and fiery habanero. At Community, the standouts were Lynnhaven Goat Milk Cheese from Pine Bush, hand-rolled logs of herbed, rosemary garlic, creamy-soft plain, along with luxurious cocoa-covered goat-cheese truffles made special for the holidays. Minard Farms' pomegranate apple cider is excellent.

Not all these producers have major distributors. Collecting them in one retail space is an invaluable resource for the gourmet shopper.

While they don't offer the abundance of an in-season market, it's hard to dislike winter farmers' markets. For open-minded palates, the absence of summer's diverse color palette will not translate into dissatisfaction. Then again, you'll never see a summer market cancelled on account of a nor'easter.

"I think that next year we're going to have even more markets and more farmers participating," predicted Shelowitz. "There was an active Kingston farmers' market this year, and here were farmers who would have loved to participate during the winter. In the future, farmers will grow during the season with these winter markets in mind. There is a tremendous excitement about it, and it's palpable."

For more information on Winter Sun Farms, visit: www.wintersunfarms.com/.

For Saugerties Farmers Market, visit: http://www.saugertiesfarmersmarket.com/.

The Community Indoor Farmers Market at Robin's runs every third and fourth Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon.