Farm fresh meats and veggies right to your table. At this weekend’s Bethlehem Farm to Table Festival, that happy, leafy-green dream could be a reality for your family.
About a dozen farm and food vendors will be offering locally-made cheeses, maple syrup, fruits and vegetables. Several will offer the opportunity to join farm-to-table Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. With CSA programs, families receive monthly deliveries of meats and produce directly from their chosen local farms. Several craft vendors and kids activities will also be present so that parents can check out vendors while kids go play.
The Bethlehem Farm to Table Festival will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bethlehem Children’s School on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 12 Fisher Blvd.
Kids activities include a bounce house, cardboard structure challenge, clown, balloons, face painting, ponies and a petting zoo from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The school is also holding a 50/50 raffle and an auction with gift cards, hand-made quilts and other items. Indian Ladder will be there with free apples, Four Corners Luncheonette will be selling cider donuts and other foods, like Bolivian empanadas, will be sold.
“By strengthening the connections between local growers and consumers, farm-to-table ensures we have healthy, locally grown food at our fingertips,” said Heather Leveille, executive director for Bethlehem Children’s School and the event organizer. “We are working with farmer to get people to recognize sustainability and food consciousness.”
As the mission statement for the school includes “education for the whole child, emphasizing nature, wisdom and wellness,” she sees the values of the farm-to-table movement as coinciding well with the values of the school. The school itself offers a hot lunch program that uses organic, locally grown ingredients.
“The hope is to bring the community to the school and give information about the local food in our area,” said Leveille.
Featured CSA program farms include Sun Catcher Farms in Feura Bush, Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent, Otter Hook Farms in Greenville and West Wind Acres Farm in Amsterdam. In addition, more farms from farther away will be there selling their locally-grown produce and meats.
“Basically what we’re trying to do is have our animals be raised in way that mimics the way they do in nature,” said David Plummer, a Bethlehem native and co-owner of Sun Catcher Farm with his fiancé Zan McKenna. It is his goal to see that their pigs, ducks and chicken “live life to fullest” and their goods are sold back to the community.
As their farm, built on Plummer’s family’s land in Feura Bush, is just short of a year old, the CSA program has been the stepping-stone they’ve needed to get their business off the ground. With opportunities like the Bethlehem Farm to Table Festival, Sun Catcher Farm is making the move from selling to neighbors to delivering to a broader audience.
“The CSA model is extremely economical for the farmer and consumer, and a sustainable, great way to be in contact with customers in a way that no other farmer can say they are,” said Plummer.
Food from their farm will be featured at the Saturday, Oct. 17, City Beer Hall Farm to Table dinner. The pair also sells their goods at Price Greenleaf in Delmar every Monday from 3 to 6 p.m.
“Farm to table is seen as this almost elitist thing, but really it’s about making high quality, local goods easier to come by,” said Samantha Kemnah, co-owner of Otter Hook Farms in Greenville with her husband Chris.
“A lot of our customers are young families trying to feed their children and themselves better. They’re not making a ton of money, but food is a priority for them. It’s really been a heartening thing for us,” said Kemnah.
The third Thursday of every month, the Kemnahs set up shop in the parking lot of the Honest Weight Food Co-Op in Albany to deliver their meats to participants of their CSA program. Customers pay $480 for a six-month commitment, and receive 10 pounds of meat per month in chicken, pork, beef and specialty meats like sausages and smoked meats.
For one year now, the couple has been selling through their CSA program purely through word of mouth. “It may be weird for some people, but we encourage people to come to our farm. We do it for a love for the animals,” said Kemnah.
