Count Down for Splash Path!

We hope everyone will join us for the next Pathfinder Produce Market on Thursday, May 29, starting at 2 p.m.  The great tastes of summer produce are here!

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This week all of us at Pathfinder Village are preparing for our first ever Splash Path 5K and Fun Walk, which takes place on Saturday, May 31.  We’re very excited at the positive reception we’ve received from our regional friends, businesses and organizations.  We have over 400 participants registered to take part and nearly 50 sponsors!  That’s very good news indeed!

Registration will get underway on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. in the Pathfinder Gym; parking will be along the west side of the Village.  Parking attendants will be available to help direct people,  and we extend our thanks to our Edmeston Fire Department and Emergency Squad Members, and other community volunteers who will be here helping behind the scenes.  The Splash Path route will take runners/walkers from the School, along Pathfinder Village Road, along NYS Route 80 and onto Robinson Road.  There will be mile markers, a self-serve water station and turn-around point on Robinson Road.  Runners/walkers will return to Pathfinder Village and follow the red arrows through the Village and finish at the Pathfinder Pavilion.  We will have several photographers here and will post images on our Facebook page.  We will also have a photo backdrop available at the Pavilion so people may take their own pictures at the end of the event.

More information is at www.pathfindervillage.org/get-involved/splash-path

The Splash Path 5K and Fun Walk is part of our local efforts in conjunction with the Bassett Research Institute’s 5-2-1-0 Every Day! Program to promote better nutrition and fitness activities in the Edmeston and Delhi areas.  Specifically, the Splash Path will help raise funds so that Pathfinder Village may build a new Community Walking Trail, a new public offering on Village property that will provide an interesting and challenging place for runners, walkers, snowshoers, and cross country skiers to enjoy to pursue fitness activities.  The trail will be maintained by Village volunteers and construction should begin in the fall.

The Splash Path route will also travel near the site of the proposed Dr. William F. Streck Community Health Clinic, just off NYS Route 80 and Pathfinder Village Road (north of Grant’s Field, our community soccer pitch).   This new $1.2 million facility will replace Bassett Healthcare Network’s current Edmeston-Burlington Health Center (also located on Village property), and will honor the life’s work of Dr. Streck, who will be retiring as Bassett’s chief administrator in July.  (Dr. Streck will continue on as the Chair of the Pathfinder Village Board of Directors, a role he has filled since 1995).  We’ll share more on this important new initiative soon!

We hope to see you this Thursday at Pathfinder Produce, and this Saturday at our first-ever Splash Path!  Until then, be well!

Lori

Where are your Eggs Stored in Your Refrigerator?

We hope that everyone will join us for another “tasteful” Pathfinder Produce fresh fruits and veggie market, this Thursday, May 22, from 2 to 5 p.m.at the Village Commons. Please be advised that as we are finishing up our blacktop re-coating, many cars will be parked on the east side of the Village, so please be careful.

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Food is all around us.  Bacteria, viruses and other contaminants also are all around us.

If we’re not careful in the kitchen, it’s all too easy for food and contaminants to co-mingle.  When this happens, it’s possible for you to become ill or have members of your family get sick.  Food safety is always an appropriate topic to review, especially as we are approaching the summer cookout-picnic-fair food season.

This week I attended a food safety seminar at one of our local county Health Departments.  The staff of the Division of Environmental Health offers classes to non-profit organizations, municipalities, and business owners to help keep the public safe, but they offered information that is easy to incorporate into your cooking routines at home.  I highly recommend attending a class, especially if you belong to a club, church or other organization that has food-based events.

The instructors pointed out that the number one cause of food borne illness is having someone who is sick preparing food. They mentioned a “worst case scenario” that occurred at a restaurant near Syracuse in 2006, through which over 1,000 people became ill.  Although the root cause of the outbreak of airborne norovirus was unknown, according to press reports it was believed that sick employees contributed to the severity of the outbreak.

This week’s class covered the essentials: 

• Know where your food is coming from and don’t use any food that is suspect.
• Cooks in any setting need to practice scrupulous environmental and personal hygiene, wearing food service gloves or using clean utensils whenever handling ingredients or finished plates of food.
• Frequent and thorough hand-washing and changing soiled gloves go a long way to stop the spread of contaminants.
• Food service staff need to properly heat and cool foods.
• Food service staff also need to prevent the cross contamination between foods and chemicals, and different types of foods at all stages (storage, preparation, holding and serving).  If you want to see videos on classic cross contaminations watch these video by Eastern Food Safety: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3cRjvCd_hU or www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cxTPUl22o0.

Hot foods need to get hot quickly, without interruption to the initial cooking process. According to the experts, crock pots are not a way to cook foods as they do not get hot enough to kill all harmful bacteria (165°F). They suggest cooking foods on the stove top and then transferring them to crock pots.  Health guidelines indicate that foods should be discarded after two-hours of their initial heat up to 120°F. (120°F is not the maximum heating temperature – different foods have different recommended internal temperatures they should reach to kill harmful pathogens).

Heated foods that need to be stored should be cooled from 120°F to 70°F within two hours, and then go down to 41°F within another four hours for proper storage.  The Environmental Health staff recommended dividing foods into smaller portions and using ice baths to bring them down within the allotted time window.

Likewise, cold foods need to be kept cold to keep toxin-producing bacteria “in limbo.”  Raw or uncooked foods must be kept below 41°F unless being used promptly to prepare menu items.  Cooling food that has been allowed to get too warm isn’t helpful, as the bacteria have already produced toxins in the food and are potentially dangerous.

I can see many people rolling their eyes, and saying “Yes, I learned this years ago in Home Economics. Why are you reminding me of this?”  To this I reply, “Where are your eggs stored in your refrigerator?”

I learned that foods that are eaten raw, pre-cooked or ready-to-eat need to be stored near the top of the refrigerator.  Foods that are more susceptible to pathogens need to be stored farther down.  Poultry and eggs need to be stored on the lowest shelf of the unit because they need to be heated to the highest internal cooking temperature to insure that all bacteria are killed (165°F).  In commercial units, food should be stored in this order, top to bottom: pre-cooked/ready to eat, whole fish, whole meats, ground meat, poultry and eggs.  (I would think the residential refrigerator could use a redesign, based on this information!)

While all of this sounds like a lot to remember, it isn’t; it comes down to having a well-calibrated food thermometer, following good hygiene, and being aware of how long foods are being left out.  Pathogens in food grow between 41°F and 135°F -- keep foods out of this “danger zone” and it will help keep it safe and you and your family healthy.

So, on that note, I wish everyone a food safe and happy picnic and cookout season!   Until next time, be well!

Lori

Hoop Hoop Hooray!

We hope everyone will join us this week for another market day at Pathfinder Produce.  We’ll be open on Thursday, May 8, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Village Commons.  We plan on having some very nice hanging baskets and other plants on sale for Mother’s Day as well. 

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This past Friday was the first of our Village staff clean-up days for 2014, and great strides have been made in the construction of the new hoop house that will allow us to extend our growing season well into the fall.  Several weeks ago, Sr. Director of Quality Assurance Dan Osborn and Edmeston Central School Food Service Director Brian Belknap started putting up the new greenhouse, which was funded through grants from the 5-2-1-0 program, the Hulbert Foundation, and the Blanding Foundation in support of our community market and gardening initiative.

 

The hoop house consists of sturdy metal-framed sides that are fastened to the ground using heavy-duty stakes.  The hoops, large metal arcs, lock into the sides and then are secured in place with additional bracing.  It’s a lot like the old Tinker Toys, only bigger!

  

Last Friday, the Maintenance Team moved in our growing frames – hefty boxes made of unfinished boards that we’ve stacked to a height of two-feet.  The additional height is helpful for our students and residents, who may experience back problems if they bend over to work for too long.  All of the boxes were put in place and then filled with a rich growing soil.  Then to keep everything dry, pea gravel was poured in around the growing boxes throughout the structure.  (A heavy duty weed barrier was placed down before hand to prevent grass from poking through).

There are a few more steps left to finishing the hoop house. Special fasteners are used to cover it in protective heavy plastic, and of course the house will need to be well-ventilated to prevent too much heat from parching our young seedlings.  In the coming days, our Pathfinder School students and other residents will start planting all our garden favorites -- tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, squash, and so on.  Working in the garden will be part of their regular activities; the resulting produce will be served during meals in our Village homes, and will be sold at our weekly Thursday market.

Our thanks go out to all who have supported our hoop house project, and we encourage everyone to take part in gardening as a hobby. There are great sites on the web on how to get started, and of course, there are many local gardeners who are only too willing to give you helpful advice.

Until next time, be well!

Lori