Monthly Archives: June 2022

Aegean Flavor in Fleischmanns, New York

The Falafel Sandwich © Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

The Catskills’ Village of Fleischmanns, has another new restaurant, offering a wide range of delicious and authentic Greek takeout food: Aegean Flavor.

The advantage of opening in Fleischmanns is that there is still a dearth of variety in the Catskills and residents are excited to have novel options. The restaurant opened last week, was immediately successful and busy without any advertising, and the food is exceptional, and reasonably priced. They do the staple lamb and beef gyro in pita bread ($8.95) that is tender, not too oily and not too dry, just perfect. The pita in which most sandwiches come is plump and fresh. Spanakopita, a spinach and cheese turnover in filo pastry, ($4.50 pictured below) is light and tasty, not too salty. For vegetarians, the falafel sandwich ($8.95 pictured above) is superb, stuffed into the pita with crisp cucumber and healthy tomato, all dressed in a lightly spicy sauce. There is also a cheese turnover called tiropita for $4.50.

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Wild Saturdays at John Burroughs’ Woodchuck Lodge: Saturday July 2nd, 2022 at 1pm

© J.N. Urbanski


This week’s Wild Saturday speaker is HEATHER BRUEGL, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and a first line descendant of the Stockbridge Munsee. Her remarks focus on generating awareness of ongoing racism, the fight for clean water, and other issues of the Native community.

Heather is a public historian, activist, and de-colonial education consultant who works with institutions and organizations for Indigenous sovereignty and collective liberation. She is the Director of Education at Forge Project, which supports indigenous artists and leaders through fellowships.

This presentation takes place on the lawn at 1pm at 1633 Burroughs Memorial Road, Roxbury, NY 12474. Bring blankets or a lawn chair.
 

Garlic

© J.N. Urbanski – Usage prohibited without consent

Most of the scapes on the garlic have been removed and I have about 70 or 80 to use or sell. The scape is the developing garlic flower – the fully-blooming flower is pictured bottom right – and it’s removed in order to allow the plant to direct its energy to the bulb.

Pictured bottom left is the scape growing on the garlic stalk viewed from above. See our Instagram story for a video that gives you a much clearer picture.

Scapes have a much more delicate, subtle sweetness than bulb garlic. They are delicious chopped and added to omelettes, scrambled eggs and stir-fry dishes like you would spring onions or shallots. They’re a lovely addition to creamy, roasted potatoes.

They also make a superb pesto. Eaten raw, garlic provides those infamous, extraordinary health benefits in addition to flaming hot breath.

Garlic Scape Pesto

10-12 large garlic scapes
1/4 cup of grated or shredded parmesan
1/4 cup of pine nuts or sunflower seeds
1/4 a cup of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend all the ingredients except for the oil in a blender. Mix in the oil when the other ingredients are blended well. If your pesto is too thick, add a drizzle of extra oil. Serve on bruschetta, toast points, crackers. Or add a dollop to soups, pasta and cheese plates. Delicious!

Spring Haying at Lazy Crazy Acres: Day 3

© Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

The rake (above) drags the freshly fluffed hay into windrows and then the baling machine is driven down those rows and presses the hay into a tight bale, while the clouds overhead look like they’re forming their own rows ready to rain on the hay. At least the rain waited until 3am, when all the hay had been baled, before it unleashed a clamoring thunderstorm, breaking the humidity and marking an end to a stressful three days.

Spring Haying at Lazy Crazy Acres: Day 2

© Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

On Day 2 of haying, farmers fluff up the hay with a machine known as a “tedder”. Nobody knows why it’s called this. The tedder looks a little like a mower, but it has sets of long prongs mounted on revolving circular heads that twist the hay around and toss it like a giant salad. This helps it dry in the sun. Tedding takes place once in the morning and again, at least once, in the afternoon because the ground and the unmowed part of the hay is still damp.

Only ten acres were mowed because after the risk assessment of the weather, comes the hedging: if it rains, then only ten acres were lost.

© Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

Spring Haying At Lazy Crazy Acres: Day 1

© Jenny Neal – Usage prohibited without consent

To be a farmer is to engage in continual risk assessment. To live on a farm is to accept a high level of risk, to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, watching the weather forecast like a skittish doe with her new fawn in Spring. Small-scale farming is dependent on something more unpredictable than the economy and that’s the weather. It’s the boss here and it’s flighty, but the farmer needs at least three days of sunshine to make hay and here on June 13th, was our first window of opportunity. After a rainy Sunday and a colder June than 2021, the forecast predicted a low chance of rain, and on Monday Jake mowed under ominous clouds, some of them as dark as slate and I held my breath as they sailed overhead.

On Day 1 of haying at Lazy Crazy Acres, ten acres of lush, bushy, thickly fertile grasses were mowed.

Plein Air Painting Show in Fleischmanns

In addition to a gallery, new arts center, and two cafes, Fleischmanns has a pop-up plein air painters group that has temporarily moved into the empty shopfront that used to be the old bank on Main Street (with its magnificent safe still in place), evoking memories of Brooklyn in the nineties when artists would occupy abandoned commercial buildings. Tomorrow, Saturday June 4th 2022, they will host an artists reception from 2 – 4pm.

EBDRPAP: 1084 Main Street, Fleischmanns, NY 12430.