Monday, December 28, 2015

Happy New Year!


We hope that everyone will join us on Tuesday for our next Pathfinder Produce market at the Village Commons, from 1 to 5 p.m., to stock up on all their New Year’s produce needs.  If you are having a party or informal get together, we encourage you to serve a selection of healthy fresh fruit and veggie items to your guests.   There are many festive ways to serve healthy snacks, and recent excursions on the internet have provided images of:






Trains:


Sesame Street Friends and other Characters (for the kids):



Holiday Wreaths, Turkeys:



Some football themed trays:



And even some festive trees:



Be inventive and enjoy your observance of the New Year!

We wish everyone, a safe and healthy 2016!


Lori, Martha, and the entire Pathfinder Produce Staff




P.S.  Starting in January, our markets will return to Thursdays, from 1 to 5 p.m.



Monday, December 21, 2015

Special Markets on Tuesdays during these last few weeks of 2015!

Dear Friends & Loyal Patrons,

Please note our weekly market at Pathfinder Produce will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, December 22, 2015, at the Village Commons from 1 to 5 p.m.  We hope that everyone will join us for the produce items they’ll need for festive dinners and tempting snacks. 

Thank you for your wonderful support for our homegrown market.  We wish everyone a joyous and happy holiday, spent with loved ones, enveloped in warmth and good cheer.

All the best!


Lori, Martha, & the Pathfinder Produce Staff

Monday, December 14, 2015

Remember the Hungry during the Holidays!

We hope everyone will join us for our next fresh Pathfinder Produce market, this Thursday, December 17, from 1 to 5 p.m.  We’re here to help as you plan your menus for family get-togethers and celebrations, offering a wide variety of tasty fruits and veggies. 

Following up on our successful “Thanks For Giving” Food Drive last month, Pathfinder Produce will be accepting donations of canned goods and other non-perishables through the rest of the year, and will distribute these to our area food banks.  Our remaining markets are set for Tuesdays, December 22 and 29, from 1 to 5 p.m. 
***
When I was a 20-something, the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was released by Band Aid, a group that included pop musicians and was spearheaded by Bob Geldorf of The Boomtown Rats.  Released to combat the widespread famine in Ethiopia from 1983-1985, the song was a huge hit, making $24 million in support of famine relief.  Subsequent versions were released in 1989, 2004, and 2014, to further humanitarian efforts in Africa.

I heard the original song during my drive to work recently, and it reminded me that hunger is a specter that haunts us still.  Ethiopia and many parts of the Sub-Sahara Africa are contending with erratic rainfall, and although numbers aren’t as bad as they were in the 1980s, they are bad enough … about one-in-four persons living there is undernourished, according to Global Hunger Relief.

Here in America, our friends and neighbors are going hungry too.  According to 2014 reports from Hunger in America, in the U.S. about one-in-six struggles with hunger and one-in-seven accesses food banks to meet their regular food needs.  About 48.1 million Americans live in food-insecure households, according to the US Department of Agriculture.  Many of these people are active military or vets, working families, the elderly, or are households with children.

That’s too many and shouldn’t be happening.

This holiday season, as you are finishing up your plans and shopping, I encourage you to make a donation to your favorite global or local hunger charity; your places of worship or social organizations that support hunger programs; or your neighborhood food bank, to help fight this cruel and pernicious drain on humanity.  A list of regional food bank organizations is available at the New York State Department of Health Website.   More information can be found at www.foodbank.cny.org www.foodbankst.org, and regionalfoodbank.net.

In closing, I offer these lyrics:

It's Christmas time; there's no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade 
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy 
Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time.



Until next time, be well.



Lori

Monday, December 7, 2015

Luscious Latkes


We hope everyone will join us this Thursday, December 10, from 1 to 5 p.m. for another delicious Pathfinder Produce market.  We’ve got all your produce items for holiday get-togethers, football games, and healthy snacks, and our friendly staff members are here to share the latest holiday news and greetings.

Just a reminder, our remaining Pathfinder Produce markets in 2015 will be on Thursday, December 17, Tuesday, December 22, and Tuesday, December 29, all from 1 to 5 p.m.  Thank you all for making our market such a successful program!

***

This week, many of our friends are celebrating Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, and one of the staples for family celebrations is potato latkes.  While these traditional pancakes are fried in oil to a golden delicious crisp, there are some other veggie-based options for you to try during this holiday season. 

According to Wikipedia, latkes commemorate Hanukkah, as the cooking oil used to make them symbolizes the lamp oil that kept the Second Temple of Jerusalem lit with a long-lasting flame.  Hanukkah offers a glimpse of the Middle East’s history, as it commemorates a battle victory during 165 BC of the Maccabees, who were revolting against the Syrian king, Antiochus IV.  (Antiochus IV was the heir of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Seleucus I Nictator, who had ruled Babylon about 315 BCE.)

According to the food blogger Tori Avey, who writes the “The Shiksa in the Kitchen” column, potato latkes became standard fare in Eastern Europe during the mid-1800s, when a series of crop failures led to the mass planting of potatoes.  (Before that time, ricotta cheese latkes were common for the celebration; these were made popular by Rabbi Kalonymus in Italy during the late Middle Ages.  The cheese connection celebrates the story of the Jewish heroine Judith, who cunningly used her culinary wiles to inebriate and decapitate the Babylonian general, Holofernes).

A basic recipe for potato latkes can be found at Delish.com, and a more colorful, purple potato variation can be found at Ecurry.com.  (Purple historically has been the color of royalty; that tradition also emanates from the Ancient Middle East.  Purple dye was made in the Phoenician city of Tyre from a rare sea snail, and was incredibly expensive to produce.  Royal babies would be dressed in purple cloth, hence the saying “born in the purple.”)

Veggie based latke varieties may be found at these sites, and you may want to try them to sample different combinations of flavors:


Until next time, enjoy the lights of the season and eat well!


Lori

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Holiday Excess & How to Avoid Overload

We hope everyone will join us tomorrow, Thursday, December 3, from 1 to 5 p.m. for our next delicious Pathfinder Produce market.  Our friendly market staff is ready to help you with your purchases, and as it’s the official holiday season, there are plenty of items to stock up on.  We hope to see you here!

****
First a few reminders:

  • The Pathfinder Village Holiday Show and Tree Lighting is scheduled for tomorrow evening, Thursday, Dec. 3, starting at Pathfinder Gym at 7 p.m.  Following the residents’ comedic skits, we will feature a presentation by the Oneonta-based vocal group, “Eight is Enough.”  It promises to be another delightful and heartwarming evening!
  • The Sidney Community Band also will be presenting a holiday concert at Pathfinder Gym, on Sunday, December 6 at 3 p.m.  These talented musicians representing many of our local communities always put on a great show, and I’m sure they will be playing some of your seasonal favorites.
  • Finally, here’s a reminder for Pathfinder Produce hours during the last weeks of the month.  In as much as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on Thursdays, we will be hosting our Pathfinder Produce markets on Tuesdays, December 22 & 29, from 1 to 5 p.m.  As always, the “Little Market that Could” is here to make the holidays a little less hectic!

***

The holidays are upon us, and again we will be tempted by absolutely delicious, high calorie foods that are really hard to pass by.  And it’s always been that way, for as long as people have gathered during the winter solstice season.  (The Romans had their Saturnalia, the Norse and Germanic pagans had their Yule celebrations).  On the web, there are plenty of write-ups of cooks pulling out all the culinary stops, dating back to the Middle Ages in Europe and on up through 20th century America.


One of my favorite descriptions of holiday meals in literature comes from Otsego County’s own novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, in The Pioneers, which recalls the settlement days of Cooperstown and its environs.  This fictional Christmas feast takes place in Judge Marmaduke Templeton’s home in the late 1780s; the characters of Elizabeth and Judge Templeton were based on Cooper’s sister, Hannah, and his father, William Cooper, who founded the village in 1786:

Before Elizabeth was placed an enormous roasted turkey, and before Richard (the Sheriff) one boiled, in the center of the table stood a pair of heavy silver casters, surrounded by four dishes: one a fricassee that consisted of gray squirrels; another of fish fried; a third of fish boiled; the last was a venison steak.  Between these dishes and the turkeys stood, on the one side, a prodigious chine of roasted bear's meat, and on the other a boiled leg of delicious mutton. Interspersed among this load of meats was every species of vegetables that the season and country afforded.

The four corners were garnished with plates of cake. On one was piled certain curiously twisted and complicated figures, called "nut-cakes," On another were heaps of a black-looking substance, which, receiving its hue from molasses, was properly termed "sweet-cake;" a wonderful favorite in the coterie of Remarkable (the name of the housekeeper).  A third was filled, to use the language of the housekeeper, with "cards of gingerbread;" and the last held a "plum-cake," so called from the number of large raisins that were showing their black heads in a substance of suspiciously similar color.  At each corner of the table stood saucers, filled with a thick fluid of somewhat equivocal color and consistence, variegated with small dark lumps of a substance that resembled nothing but itself, which Remarkable termed her "sweetmeats."

At the side of each plate, which was placed bottom upward, with its knife and fork most accurately crossed above it, stood another, of smaller size, containing a motley-looking pie, composed of triangular slices of apple, mince, pump kin, cranberry, and custard so arranged as to form an entire whole, Decanters of brandy, rum, gin, and wine, with sundry pitchers of cider, beer, and one hissing vessel of "flip," were put wherever an opening would admit of their introduction. Notwithstanding the size of the tables, there was scarcely a spot where the rich damask could be seen, so crowded were the dishes, with their associated bottles, plates, and saucers. The object seemed to be profusion, and it was obtained entirely at the expense of order and elegance.

So, even as we will be tempted this holiday season, at least we may breathe a sigh of relief that we don’t need to contend with Judge Templeton’s heavy meal!  As you forge ahead through your holiday season, try to implement strategies to prevent yourself from loading up on high fat, high sugar foods.  Here are a few links that may be of use as you maneuver through the next few weeks.

How to Avoid Overeating at Parties: These eight tactical tips offered from Canadian Living are simple ways to prevent overeating at holiday gatherings, and include focusing on vegetables, standing away from the buffet table, and even eating a small healthy snack before you leave the house so you aren’t starving when you arrive.

Webmd.com, Ten Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain:  WebMD.com offers another series of tips to keep you mindful of how much you are eating, and offers in its last suggestion the idea of creating new holiday traditions that help burn off calories.  There are plenty of ways to change up your holiday schedules to add walks, play active Wii Games, or plan a family basketball game to help counter the calorie overloads.

How to Avoid Overeating during the Holidays:  This Prevention Magazine article examines some of the more deep-seated concerns and issues that are at the root of binge eating.  While the holidays can be a wonderful time to catch-up with friends and relatives, it’s also a time of high stress for some, and that can trigger poor eating habits.

Until next time, eat smart and enjoy!


Lori