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 much closer to home. The following selections are 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. Also, please visit www.buypurecatskills.com for further information on where to buy seasonal farm gifts. The Hudson Valley and Catskill Region—out of many fertile agricultural areas in this country—were highlighted in the April 2008 Gourmet magazine on page 98: “…the five county region area in upstate New York that includes Columbia, Duchess, Ulster, Greene and Albany counties has roughly 450,000 acres in agricultural production … supports more than 2,500 farms that generate $152,000,000…” All of these numbers mean that a vast and delicious cornucopia of food products are available to those of us lucky enough to be living in the region and those folks “down South” in the city. Gift the Catskills. Eat the scenery. Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah. Peace.

Plants
Most Voluptuous Green Onions on the Planet
Natural Agriculture green onions, a.k.a scallions. If you see Tannersville resident Oscar Green, ask him his opinions on the green onions. He’ll probably tell you that “they look too pretty to eat. They should be put in a vase. I’ve never seen anything like them. They are beautiful and tasty. Robust.” Is it any wonder these plants are happy plants, since Natural Agriculture Farmer Kenji Ban coddles the green onions, propping the young plants up against the soil when he transplants them in the spring. Helping nature along is a core tenet of Natural Agriculture which looks to Nature as the ultimate teacher. “Nature can teach us everything.” Natural Agriculture is beyond organic, eschewing the obvious chemical inputs and using only local leaves, hay and wood shavings for compost and then as only a means to keep the soil moist and warm. Natural Agriculture farmers believe that the soil is perfect. Other Natural Agriculture tenets include saving seeds and continuous cropping so that the soil and the plants form a mutually beneficial and strong relationship over the years. The Catskill Mountain Foundation (map) and Shumei operate two Natural Agriculture Farms in Hunter and Maplecrest. Please visit www.catskillmtn.org/natural-agriculture/index.html for more information. Seasonal produce is available at the Farm Market in Hunter Village Square on Main Street/Route 23A in Hunter, New York. Please call 518 263 2040 for more information.

Return of the Ancient Grains in a Garden
Abundance Farm offers no less than four different amaranths along with quinoa, millet, chuffa and Broom corn. Advertising as selling “unusual, rare and ethnic vegetables,” Terry and John Hannum grow the following (a partial listing): Blauschokker Blue Podded Snow Peas, Caribe Coriander/Cilantro, Avorio Cardoon, Giant Red Celery, Siletz Tomato, Purple Peacock Broccoli, Ura Bean, Black Pearl Edamame Soybean, Arikara Sunflowers, Yugoslavian Finger Fruit, Triamble Squash, Dragon Tongue Beans, Tigers Eye Beans, Ying-Yang Beans, Snows Fancy Pickling Cukes, Purple Brussels Sprouts, Burgundy Okra. Terry and John have also planted nut trees: hardy pecans, black walnuts, filberts (a.k.a hazelnuts) along with mixed grapes, blueberries and raspberries. Abundance Farm is located at 230 Roses Brook Road just outside of South Kortright, New York. The roadside farm stand is open every day and is on the honor system. For more information on Abundance Farm, please call 607 538 1836 or e-mail Terry at jtny58@aol.com

Best Old New Apple Orchard
Fabio Chizzola is in love with his apple trees. Fabio, Italian by way of New York City, has restored—with the help of legendary pomologist, Mike Biltonen—over 300 apple trees in the last six years. “When I arrived here there were 500 trees. We cut out the dead or almost dead trees and kept the good ones but even the good ones are like old men. Losing their limbs.” Westwind Orchard is Certified Naturally Grown (www.naturallygrown.com), which is “basically organic without the paperwork,” says Mike Biltonen. “CNG was started by New Paltz’s Huguenot Street Farmers Ron and Kathryn Khosla. Member farmers inspect other farmers: inspection is entirely internal within the organization and members have to adhere to the Organic Standards. CNG is for farmers who want to grow organic but either don’t want the hassle of all the paperwork or still have enough anarchism in them to not to want to be involved with the government.” On six acres in apple production Westwind Orchard produces the following Certified Naturally Grown apples: Early Macintosh, Macintosh, Cortland, Ida Red, Stayman, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. Westwind Orchard opened for u-pick weekend business in autumn of 2008 and might be open other times by appointment. For more information, please visit www.westwindorchard.com, call 845 674 5124 or e-mail westwindorchard@mac.com. Westwind Orchard is located at 215 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord, New York.

Animals
A Real Cheese Cave in the Catskills
Painted Goat Farm in Garrettsville, New York has a real cheese cave: two poured concrete cheese caves architecturally reminiscent of gothic underground chambers located twelve feet below ground. This cheese cave might currently be the only one of its kind in the United States. Ilyssa Berg is the primary cheese maker and her husband, Javier Flores, is the goat herder. Eventually Ilyssa wants to specialize in aged cheese—cave aged, soft ripened in the French style. Currently, Painted Goat has five varieties of chèvre: Plain that is “soft and spreadable with a light creamy texture, a rich buttery taste and a hint of fresh sourness,” Rosemary and Fig Chèvre, a lovely sweet herbal mixture perfect on toast or crackers or just decadently nibbled at from out of the container with nothing to compromise the flavor, a Pine Nut and Pesto Chèvre, a four color Cracked Peppercorn Button and a Fresh Dill Button. Cave aging usually takes two to six weeks for soft-ripened cheese, but can take up to two to six months for washed and semi-hard cheeses. Painted Goat aged cheeses include a brine aged feta—100% goat feta aged from a few weeks to three months, both pasteurized and raw available, milky and less salty than most feta, naturally tangy and flavorful; Esperanza, a soft ripened small cheese from 4 to 12 ounces in buttons, logs and pyramids, with a smooth, moist, dense texture that melts in your mouth, softening and becoming slightly runny with age, milky and aromatic, slightly fruity and mushroomy; Picasso’s Palette, a natural rind cheese from 4 to 12 ounces in buttons and pyramids and logs, with a dense fudgey texture with a concentration of nutty, milky and dried apricot flavors and a high note of lemon to balance it out; Cabrita, a mold-ripened, feisty-looking wrinkled little cheese that are actually quite tame in flavor. Painted Goat Farm is located at 371 Mittedorf Road, Garrettsville, New York. For more information, call 607 321 3191 or e-mail ilyssa.berg@gmail.com.

JJF Black Angus
Farmer John Verhoeven switched from traditional Holstein dairy cows to Black Angus meat cows because “these parts of the Catskills have gravelly soils suited for growing good grass, perfect for grazing. Beef cows are a different kind of animal than dairy cows. They are more like deer: they hide their babies, and they eat pretty much everything. Dairy cows are bred to be skinny and to produce lots of milk. Angus are big, motherly sorts that birth small calves since they are birthing out in the field with minimal or no help from humans. Angus are more like wild animals. The mothers are very protective of the young—the herd will form an impenetrable circle around the calves in order to protect them from predators or perceived threats. I have to drive in a caged vehicle when tagging the calves. Rotational grazing—keeping the cattle on a section of pasture for four or five days—prevents overgrazing and it allows for manure to be spread evenly as the cow wanders from place to place throughout the pasture. Grass contains about 22% protein. The Angus are kept outside all year round, even in winter.” This winter is the first opportunity to purchase JJF Farm Black Angus whole animals, sides of animals or (most likely) retail cuts. For more information on pricing, availability or to reserve an animal, please call 518 589 5301 and ask for John. JJF Farm is located at 2708 Rt. 23C in East Jewett, New York. For more information, e-mail verhoeven.j@hotmail.com.

Animals raised on pasture are leaner and contain more beneficial fats and CLAs. Cook accordingly. The Farmer and the Grill or Grass-Fed Gourmet are both excellent books by Catskill author Shannon Hayes of Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Warnerville, New York. You can also visit www.grassfedcooking.com. For more information on the health benefits of grass-fed meats, please read Jo Robinson’s Pasture Perfect. All of these books are available at the Village Square Bookstore in Hunter. Please call Carolyn Bennett at 518 263 2051 or 518 263 2050 or e-mail bennettc@catskillmtn.org for more information.

“You’re Still The One”—Best Honey in the Hills
Carol Clement and John Harrison at Heather Ridge Farm make 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 Hudson Valley Magazine. Heather honey paired with Nettle Meadow’s Kunik cheese was such a hit in Williams-Sonoma 2007 Holiday Catalogue that the pairing is featured again in the 2008 Holiday Catalogue as well: you can find the Hudson Valley Kunik Cheese and Heather Honey Collection at www.williamssonoma.com. Heather Ridge Farm is located at 989 Broome Center Road, Preston Hollow, New York. For more information, call 518 239 6234, e-mail carol@heather-ridge-farm.com visit or www.heather-ridge-farm.com.

Best Chocolates
Slickepott: it’s a funny name (it’s Swedish) but it’s also serious hot fudge sauce from simple, luxurious ingredients—chocolate and cream. Slickepott is magnificent hot or cold with strawberries or shortcake, on toast or most effective, spooned right out of the jar. It’s the New World’s answer to Nutella. For more information, visit www.slickepott.com

Lucky Chocolates has been thinking outside of the box and has created a Hudson Valley Chocolate Box: “A great gift box using local Hudson Valley produced products as ingredients. The 15-piece box includes a truffle made with Keegan Ale’s popular Mother’s Milk, a Tuthilltown Gristmill Whiskey truffle, a molded dark chocolate clover filled with Shaver Hill Farm maple cream, a pumpkin pie truffle, a honey butter truffle made with Olive beekeeper John DeGondia’s honey, a goat cheese truffle with Painted Goat’s chèvre and more. Lucky Chocolates’ handmade luxurious small batch dark chocolates made from organic and fair trade chocolate are good, good for you (isoflavens) and good for the cocoa farmers. Lucky Chocolates is located at 1534 Route 212, Saugerties. For more information, call 888 582 5910, 845 246 7337 or visit www.luckychocolates.com.

Herbals
Heirloom Botanicals
Jamie Helper makes her all natural body products from flowers and herbs she grows supplemented with organic essential oils and flowers from an organic grower in Livingston Manor. Her philosophy is to keep her prices affordable so that more folks can experience the benefits of natural skin and body care. Most natural, plant-based creams and moisturizers tend to be expensive and out of reach—for regular use—for most folks. Jamie’s wish is for people—all sorts of people from every walk of life and income category—to be able to afford to buy her products and not save them for special, once-in-a-while use, but for generous and healthy every day applications. Her most popular product is the Cocoa Butter Body Bar, sumptuously moisturizing with a whiff of sweet cocoa butter and many herbs: lavender, calendula and rose geranium, olive oil infused with organic rosemary, castor oil, avocado oil, organic coconut oil, organic jojoba oil, wheat germ oil, aloe oil, beeswax and essential oil blend. A close second is the Brown Sugar Body Scrub: brown sugar, sunflower oil, sesame oil, organic jojoba oil, organic rose geranium infused sunflower oil, rice bran oil, aloe oil and essential oil blend. For more information and a complete list of Jamie’s entire product line or to place an order, please visit www.heirloombotanicals.com

Green Spiral Herbs
Green Spiral Herbs—a United Plants Savers Certified Botanical Sanctuary—has a cornucopia of products that includes balms, teas, salves, essential oils and tinctures. Synthetics of any sort are absent. Betty and Dan “grow authentically” and use a fertilizer tea of kelp, nettles and comfrey. The most popular product is the Healing Comfort Salve made with comfrey and calendula; it is an “all natural remedy excellent for healing chapped, cracked or bruised skin. Comfrey and calendula combine for an excellent healing effect. Put on cracked heels and elbows. Soothe onto roughened hands.” For a complete list of Green Spiral Herbs products, please visit www.greenspiralherbs.com Green Spiral Herbs is located at 166 Coon’s Road, Middleburgh, New York. Please call 518 827 8730 or e-mail bpills@midtel.net for more information.

Restaurants
Traditional Catskill Cuisine: Prospect Restaurant at Scribner Hollow Lodge
Chef/owner Guy Chirico: “The burgeoning of local growers has been a tremendous boon to those of us in the culinary trade. The Law of Unforeseen Consequences: dairy farming’s demise made room for micro-agricultural types. We are able to purvey a tremendous variety of ingredients locally. We look to serve the best of everything and don’t look much to the cost.” This sourcing local is reflected in a thoughtful, varied menu with such standout dishes as Maple Hickory Smoked Breast of Duck with Harpersfield Dairy Tilsit Cheese and Preserved Lingonberries or Butternut Squash Roasted Apple Bisque or Oil Man McCoy Flying Saucer (Pork Sausage) with Macintosh Apple Chutney and Preserved Lingonberries. The Prospect also prominently features another New York State agricultural product—grapes. The Prospect is a leader in promotion of New York State wine in a fine dining context. The restaurant received the Restaurant of the Year award from the New York Wine and Grape Association for having the finest collection of New York State wines of any restaurant in the state and was the first restaurant to do so that wasn’t located in a wine growing region. The wine menu features approximately 22 to 30 New York State wines. The Prospect Restaurant at Scribner Hollow is located off Route 23A in Hunter (betwixt Hunter and Tannersville). For more information please visit www.scribnerhollow.com or call 518 263 4211 or 800 395 4683.

Nouvelle Catskill Cuisine
The menu at the Catskill Rose states: “Our food is made from scratch, in-house, using the best ingredients. The meats and poultry are free range, the fish is wild and the produce is organic. We strive to use local produce when available. In order to bring to the table the best possible flavors, our menus change seasonally.” The appetizers and salads can be doubled and dinners can be halved so the menu makes for wanton upsizing and downsizing of such delicious dishes as Lamb Meatballs with Green Garlic Sauce and Chickpeas; Tomato and a Roast Onion and Garlic Soup; Grilled Seafood Sausage with Red Curry; Sautéed Gnocchi with Shallots, Bleu Cheese and Fennel; Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper with Chermoula and Flat Bread; Smoked Duckling with Cherry Ginger Sauce; Grilled Lamb Chops with Tomato Saffron Sauce and Mint, and Smoked Trout over Potatoes with Vinaigrette. Desserts change frequently as well but if the Chocolate Hazelnut Pie is on the menu, nab it, quick. The Catskill Rose serves dinner Thursday through Sunday from 5 pm. For more information or to make a reservation, please call 845 688 7100 or visit www.catskillrose.com.

Best New Tradition
Dog aficionados will delight in the bar at Fred’s in Stamford. By inviting village residents and neighbors and other folks to bring in pictures of their dogs, the bar area now has an irresistible gallery of dog portraits. Some are whimsical, others display a startling resemblance to human portraiture (like the black Labradoodle against the dark red background) and all are delightful. Visitors often view the dog photos as if they were in a gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The effect of the dog photos—all of them in glassed picture frames—is at once warmly nostalgic and euphoric, a tribute to these beings that reflect the love they share with their cohabiters and owners. Fred’s is doing something more places in rural America should attempt: creating a new local tradition for generations to come. Fred’s: Come! Sit! Stay! Fred’s is located at 60 Main Street (Route 23) in Stamford, New York and is open for dinner from 5 pm seven days a week and also open on Sundays for brunch from 11 am until 3 pm. For more information or to make a reservation, please phone 607 652 2265.