Not All Fresh Foods Come To An End

As fall settles on the Hamptons and mornings grow brisk the prepares to transition into winter.

The market, which enjoyed its sixth season in the parking lot beside on North Main Street, will hold its final day on Sept. 30, according to Kate Plumb, who organizes the farmers market.

“The season is not over,” said Regina Whitney of Regina’s Farm, located on Oak View Highway. “There’s stuff to have until the first frost.” Whitney said she has only begun harvesting fresh lettuce and there will be brussels spouts and cabbages to come, as well as pumpkins and squash to eat throughout the winter.

“You can also do canning,” she said. “In the winter, I open a can and go – ah – as I smell my tomatoes, or you open a jar of jam and put it on yogurt in the morning.”

For those not as crafty, her goods will be available at the Sag Harbor market throughout the winter. Last year’s market moved indoors to the lobby of the Bay Street Theatre for the colder months, but this winter’s space has yet to be determined.

Balsam Farms of Amagansett takes a different approach to the off-season. “The jobs are seasonal,” said Emma Hoyt. She will stop working after Thanksgiving, but the owners, Alex Balsam and Ian Piedmonte, spend the winter months ordering seeds and planning, as well as selling to restaurants.

Colin Ambrose, proprietor of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Bridgehampton and A. Sisters, or the Ambrose Sisters Food Co., credits his children, Lyman, Mansell, and Whittier with the decision to sell fresh pasta, homemade sauces and drinks at local farmers’ markets.

“The reason that we do this is that we don’t do it at the restaurant,” he said pointing to his table of assorted fresh pasta, sauces made from homegrown parsley, cilantro, and mint and limeade made with local strawberries, watermelon, and peaches.

While Ambrose does not participate in Sag Harbor’s winter market, he said his pasta and sauces are available with at least five days advance notice through Estia's website.

For some, like Mecox Bay Dairy owner, Art Ludlow, who produces raw milk cheeses and grass fed beef at his farm in Bridgehampton, the winter doesn't change much.

“The winter doesn’t change much for me,” he said, as he cuts samples of cheeses for customers to taste, “because I’m still milking cows, I’m still making cheese. We are producing nutrition, not just food.”

He used to farm potatoes on the farm he grew up on, describing his transition from potatoes to cheeses and beef, “but a few things pushed me into cheese. Potatoes as a commercial crop need a lot of acreage, which is in short supply out here. I needed to farm more intensively and sell more locally, and I thought it would be interesting to get into cheese."

Ludlow, who has sold his goods at East Hampton’s Farmers’ Market for the past six years and is in his ninth season of cheese production, sells at seven markets from Westhampton Beach to Montauk, and will be at Sag Harbor's market this winter.

Pete’s Endless Summer, located in Sag Harbor, which produces marinades, sauces, salsas, and rubs, transitions to catering over the winter. Local catering is done out of the Seafood Shop in Wainscott where the fresh products are made.

Finally, if you have an off-season craving for pickles, Horman's Best Pickles has a website set up for purchasing.