{know your farmer} Mountain Winds Farm

MEET OUR MAPLE SYRUP FARMER: MOUNTAIN WINDS FARM Farmer: Randy Grippin Location: Berne, NY Produces: Light and Dark Maple Syrup, Maple Cream and Candy, Pastured Eggs and some berries/vegetables. # Acres: 140 55,000 linear SF of pipeline 1291 taps hung with tension wire, on 1291 trees of Sugar and Black Maple In Business: 6 years…

{summer farm tour} Meet Our Vegetable Farmer

The idea for these summer farm tours started a long time ago, when my husband and I began baking bread for farmers markets in 2004, meeting farmers and enjoying their fresh wares, while simultaneously learning more about the toxins that are an inarguable by-product of our industrialized food-system. As the years progressed, we asked questions,…

{summer farm tour} Meet Our Dairy Farmer

 {Meadowbrook Farms Dairy, Clarksville, NY} Christina (FSC’s editor) had it right in Saturday’s post (Meet Your Meat Farmers): “I can’t stress enough how important farm tours are to customer education & enlightenment, customer-to-farmer relations and community ties. To actually see & hear, in detail, up-close, how your food is grown or raised is an empowering…

{community voices} For The Love of Good Food

I grew up loving food, so much so that I fluctuated between 180 and almost 200 pounds from the time I was 18 until after marrying my hubs at 33, almost eight years ago (we joke that I was overweight and he was bleach-blond when we got married…must have been true love). Much of what…

{local link love} Thank You “Smallbany”

I’m not the only one who has been thinking about how our community of Albany, NY, jokingly referred to locally as “Smallbany”, is pretty fantastic. A popular local food-blooger, Leah the Nosher, just wrote a piece for All Over Albany extolling the virtues of the wide net of friends and family that came to her…

{Valentine’s Day 2012} Food Is Love

According to the Smithsonian, “French women traditionally have relied on subtle culinary cues to signal their amorous intentions. The July 1956 issue of the journal Western Folklore reported: “a young maid lets her swain know whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by what she feeds him on St. Valentine’s Day. It’s a custom that…

{the new year} All Good Bakers’ Full Plates

2011 was a year of amazing growth for me personally and for the tiny bakery my husband and I opened in April of this year. After 25 years of working in restaurants (full and part-time; mostly on, sometimes off), I’m learning how to manage our very own bakery/café – not an insignificant challenge for someone…

{edible gift} Homemade Irish Cream

Every winter, I crave an icy glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Something about it is filling and comforting when the cold weather rolls in.  This year I decided heck, I can make my own butter, I want to try this!  A mason jar filled with this delicious concoction is sure to please almost anyone this…

cold & flu season w/ fire cider

I was introduced to Fire Cider (produced by a local place, Shire City Herbals in Pittsfield, MA), a few weeks ago when a friend offered me a few precious shots of his stash after hearing me complain about inflamed lymph nodes in my throat, and the worry of a prolonged oncoming illness.  Made with apple…

Climbing {and Making} Mountains

{A View from Hadley Mountain, Summer 2010 Photo by Christina} Some days, life feels like I’m climbing a forty-five degree mountain in our ‘78 Volkswagon Westy, whose maximum level speed is about 65 mph.  Every mile requires more effort coaxed from my engine as my tread hugs the road of human highway, urging me forward…slowly,…

{fsc swappers} Swap Time is Here Again!

{photo booth style photos by Christine at the Albany Swap. amazing right?} We (Britin & Nick) at All Good Bakers hosted the second Albany From Scratch Club food swap Sunday, August 21.  Our tiny bakery was filled to capacity with an enthusiastic crowd loaded with homemade treasures, and something magical took place. Before Kate Payne…

{How To} Butter…and Accidental Crème Fraiche & Buttermilk

This past Tuesday, Nick and I learned that Meadowbrook Farms won’t be able to bring us the butter we use every week from The Country Creamery in Canestota, NY any longer. The news was a bit alarming; we use 18 lbs of the stuff each week for croissants, scones, muffins and cookies. We love its…

{pizza week} Traditional Focaccia w/ Pesto

Every weekend at our bakery over on Quail St. in Albany, my husband Nick prepares Specialty Focaccia Pizzas with fresh produce & herbs we get from our farmer friends at Farmer Jon’s Produce in Selkirk, NY and cheeses from R&G Cheesemakers in Cohoes or Palatine Cheese in Nelliston (in the Mohawk Valley). Jon and DJ…

{Love & Appreciation} Dad’s Special Cake

Lordy! Lordy! Look who’s…over the hill. I celebrated my 40th birthday over the Memorial Day weekend. I convey this information to you with a sense of pride. Life hasn’t always been easy, but sometimes it has, so I can’t complain.  It has taken me this long to understand that the hardships I’ve survived have shaped…

{hello} I’m Britin

Editor’s Note: As I announced with Erika T’s intro post, From Scratch Club is growing. We’ll be introducing a few more new guest contributors throughout the weeks to come. I’m honored to announce our newest member, Britin Foster, co-owner of All Good Bakers (with her husband Nick). I’m very excited to bring her aboard as I…