Farmers’ Markets Return to the Adirondacks for 2023
The ADK has a bumper crop of great farmers’ markets in almost every town.
We love to cook and eat with the products that come from ADK farms and food producers. And no time of year is better to enjoy the area's bounty than in Summer.
The Adirondacks aren’t known for an abundance of farmland and farms. Between its weather, short growing seasons, and mountainous terrain, the ADK has always been a less-than-ideal place to cultivate crops.
Yet, we’re super fortunate to have over 1,300 farms and 70 farmers' markets in the Adirondacks to enjoy all summer (some are even active in the winter, too). From Northville to Malone and Lowville to Ticonderoga and the many towns in between, intrepid foragers can find a market almost every day of the week.
Identify your target market.
Courtesy Adirondack Harvest and Cornell Cooperative Extension
The good people at Adirondack Harvest have a terrific interactive Famers’ Market Guide on their website to make it super easy to find the market closest to you. Users can search by destination and filter by day of the week, county and other criteria.
We’ve always been a little jealous of people who go to the market without a list to “see what’s fresh” and then be inspired to make a meal around it. However, we could never master the art of being that spontaneous. We need to plan.
Know what’s in season.
Recently, we realized that if you know what’s in season, you can anticipate what will be available at the market, allowing you to do some planning beforehand. Our new favorite tool is this handly 5-page printable calendar of what’s in season when in the ADK (also from the awesome folks at Adirondack Harvest).
There are other good reasons for supporting the area’s farms: it increases local economic development, protects the region’s incredible environmental resources, creates jobs and supplies residents with fresh, high-quality, locally produced food.
With limited access to affordable, healthy foods, Adirondack communities, especially areas with small populations, can be very vulnerable to becoming “Food Deserts” – geographic areas where residents have few to no convenient options for securing reasonably priced and nutritious foods — especially fresh fruits and vegetables.
Food deserts create extra, everyday hurdles that can make it harder for kids, families and communities to grow healthy and strong. Sadly, this risk is significant in the ADK. Farming overall has decreased steadily in the Adirondack Park since the 1950s.
Supporting local farmers is good for the Adirondacks.
Most farming today is in Essex County, which borders the western shore of Lake Champlain, directly across from Vermont. And they see encouraging green shoots for ADK agriculture.
“This area is unique in terms of diversity,” Carly Summers, PhD., Essex County Cornell Cooperative Extension, told the Board of Supervisors’ Ways and Means Committee.
Dairy, horses, pork and alpacas, vegetables and fruit, including some of New York’s highest-producing apple orchards, are found locally. The Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution celebrating farming’s growth, and several programs and initiatives are helping make Essex County a North Country agricultural hotbed.
Asgaard Farm & Dairy in Au Sable Forks
“Twenty-eight percent of principal producers in the area are new and beginning farmers (defined as fewer than ten years of agricultural occupation),” according to a recent report. “This generational shift presents us with an opportunity to revive agriculture in the (Adirondack) Park with an eye toward increasing local economic development and protecting the region’s incredible environmental resources.
“However, whether this shift represents a true change in the face of Adirondack agriculture or only a fleeting local food movement will depend on our ability as a region to support the Park’s agricultural future.”
ADK Taste encourages you to eat local and support your local farming community by shopping at a Farmer’s Market near you.
