favorite upstate farm stands
after our heirloom tomato report last week, Josh, from the excellent, all around and NY-ish food site – The Food Section, sent this over… “Mmmm. We just had some ourselves tonight (by way of Chelsea Market). Unfortunately they were a whopping $4.99/pound!! How much when you buy them from the source?”

so we checked and the word on the prices is even better than we thought… at our favorite farm, Green Acres, their wonderful heirlooms are only $1.29 a pound! for any of the several varieties that come in all different colors, shapes and sizes (including one that is green when fully ripe!) each has a flavor that’s so intense and wonderful. we spoke with the Yanick family who grow everything right out back on the farm about their heirlooms. found out that it’s a very tricky crop to grow because the tomatoes tend to split due to their odd shapes (and too much rain causes disease in the plants) they decided to try growing heirlooms 3 years ago and jumped in head first. the quality and flavors have been excellent, but it’s been a rough sell upstate (with the odd shapes and colors.) we encourage any heirloom lovers, stores or chefs out there to visit the Yanick’s for your heirloom supply! (they should be in abundance through the beginning of Sept) they also have amazing peaches, squash, sugar plums and homemade pies!

here’s the scoop on how to get there, and we’ve thrown in info on other stands to check out … there are many great farms throughout NY state; this strip has some of the best we’ve found. there are about 6 stands. a couple are big and have a gourmet-goods slant, but our favorites are the small, homey stands that are directly in front of the farms, and sell only produce that has been grown right there. in addition to the Yanick’s farm known as Green Acres (with a big blue barn) we like the Edger Bros stand for a big mix of home grown fruits and vegetables, and another stand that’s simply a platform truck on the side of the road that sells that best and cheapest corn in the area (in peak season we’ve seen as low as 12 ears for $1)

this strip of farm stands is located in Columbia County on RT’s 23 & 82 (right off the Taconic Pky/Hudson exit, or about 10 miles east of exit 21 on the NY State Thruway – this map points about dead-center in the row of stands)