Hudson Farm Market features various farming families

It is not just the produce that is thriving at the Hudson Farmers Market, but the family farm as well.  

The market, held on the village green, opened on June 9, and runs each Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., through September 30.  The market began as a class project for Leadership Hudson, part of the Rotary Club of Hudson Clock Tower in 2006, and most of the vendors are small, family-run operations.

The Gray Fox Farm booth featured an heirloom tomato plant called 'Indigo Rose'.  Farmers John & Meredith Poczontek said that this tomato is a striking, dark purple, and will produce  "absolutely delicious," tomatoes.

The couple turned their love of farming into a business in 2005, and will be selling naturally grown produce, free-range eggs and holiday turkeys throughout the season.

Across the green was Heartland Beefalo, owned by Andrew & Natalie Hammer, who have young children and “wanted them to have the experience of growing up on a farm.”

The family was late to set up for the market on Saturday, Andrew Hammer said, because they had the birth of a new calf about five in the morning.

He explained to potential customers that “beefalo” is the hybrid product of two species, the American bison and traditional beef cattle. He added that this inter-species combination has been occurring naturally since beef cattle were introduced to the Americas.

The breeding program on their farm in Canal Fulton has resulted in a product that is leaner that traditional beef, lower in cholesterol and higher in protein.

 When asked about the taste by one customer, Hammer said that many describe it as sweet.

At the Lyons Market booth, father and son, Doug and Porter Lyons were dispensing liberal samples of their family's homemade jam. Doug Lyons says that many of their recipes were handed down from his grandmother, and that he has been a fanatical jam maker since the 1960's.  

Their "Wickedly Spiked Pear Jam" contains a luscious combination of pears, golden raisins, and burgundy wine.

The Lyons family has turned this hobby into a full-time pursuit over the past five years.

Down the walk from the Lyons booth, the Thaxton family, of Thaxton's Organic Garlic, was eager to discuss the joys of cooking with garlic scapes. 

Garlic scapes are the soft, lime green colored stems and unopened flower buds of hard-neck garlic varieties.  The Thaxtons advise people growing their own garlic to trim the scapes off before the flowers open.  This makes the plant focus on bulb production and makes for larger cloves. 

Samples of pasta with garlic-scape pesto were distributed along with the recipe. As the Thaxtons had promised, the taste of garlic was light, fresh and thoroughly delectable.

Hudson's Restaurant will give a cooking demonstration of the garlic-scape pasta at next Saturday's farm market on June 16.