Thanks so much to those of you who came by yesterday, and especially for the support we’ve received from the Hudson community!

Yesterday was  a great day of getting to know the space, figuring out where the cash register is and where the spoons are kept.

Today we have a range of offerings similar to yesterday’s, and we’re also going to be serving Strongtree Coffee. The ever-friendly Sebastian will be on hand today as the guy-behind-the-counter, and Nick and I will probably stop in during the day to check things out. We hope we see you there, even if it’s just to take a quick look around.

It’s been about a month or so since our last post, because we’ve been working our tails off (and Nick’s been traveling like a baseball team). Since then we’ve found that we’re not selling our stuff at Hawthorne Valley Farm, and we are selling at the Philmont Public House, Chatham Farmers Market and Hudson-Chatham Winery. Hawthorne Valley? No clue, other than they decided to go it themselves and we wish them luck with that. Chatham Farmers Market? We’ve been finding that the farmers markets are the best single way to get our stuff out there, and we’re loving it.

Yesterday we spent about four hours at the Sangria Tasting Day at Hudson-Chatham Winery on Route 66 in Chatham, NY. HCW was doing its annual Sangria day, food was provided by Mexican Radio, the Hudson- and New York City-based Mexican restaurant and hot sauce shop (delicious flautas, guac and chips and other spicy and sweet sauces). And we were doing Mexican Wedding Cookies, quark-cake, lemon-glazed butterfly cookies, cheesesticks, croissants, petits-fours (almond cream, dark chocolate and fresh, local and organic fruit like Saturn peaches and blueberries). We sold out in about two hours, though we should have brought more.

Today we’re doing the Philmont Farmers Market, with much the same offerings. Two things we’ll be discussing in these pages soon: Christmas gift baskets and fine pastry school at Corinna’s Comestibles in Harlemville. Stay tuned!

We’re stoked about the week - apologies for the radio silence, but I’ve been heads down on some consulting work and Corinna’s been swamped in the kitchen, but it’s been a really great week over at Corinna’s.

We’re putting out several posts over the next couple of days; two new customers (Hawthorne Valley Farm Store and Kaaterskill Farm Store), some awesome sales and feedback at Chatham Real Food Market Coop, and some exciting new stores that we’re in discussions with.

Also I’m going to blog about the fantastic service we got from our local printer, Pro Printers, where Ryan went above and beyond to help us out. We’re also going to talk about last Saturday at the Hudson Farmer’s Market, where we met several local producers (mushrooms, cheese, eggs and veggies) and lest I forget, the new line of ham and cheese croissants that are selling out every time we bring them out.

But first, lemme tell you about tomorrow’s Ginsberg’s 100th Anniversary Open House. We’re there, under the big top with an array of goodies for sale. We’ll have ham and cheese, plain, almond and chocolate crouissants, of course.

We’ll also have, for sale for the first time Corinna’s quark-cakes. These are real German cheese cake, made with Quark and not Philadelphia - they’re three inches wide and about four and a half inches high and topped with a delicate  tuile butterfly cookie. Delicate and substantial, satisfying but not overly filling. Five bucks.

There’ll also be cheese sticks, lemon petits four, lemon tartlets, rye bread and  palmiers. We hope to see you there - Route 66 near Route 9H!

We’re truly happy that living up here in the sticks provides us with more than the usual opportunities for Community Supported Agriculture - that is, sharing the risk with local (in our case, mainly organic or biodynamic) farmers by buying a share of their harvest before the start of the season. This gives us two key advantages.

First, we get the very freshest fruits and vegetables all summer long, into the autumn. Second, Corinna’s gets to have the finest quality produce and fruits for our products.

To that end, we just bought two shares of the CSA at Threshold Farms, a local biodynamic orchard that does sensational apples, pears and peaches. We bought a third share for our family.

Threshold does three white peach varieties (raritan rose, White Hale and Bell of Georgia) and three yellow (Bisco, Harbrite and Red Haven). It also does Paulared, Gala, Cox Orange Pippin, Jonafree, Jonagold, Macoun, Liberty,  Golden Delicious, Fuji, Idared and Baldwin apples, and Clapps, Bartlett, Bosc and Comice pears.

For more information about Threshold, which doesn’t have its own website, visit their listing on greenPeople.org. We’ll write more about suppliers in the near future.

We’re proud and honored to announce that Corinna’s Croissants are available at the Chatham Real Food Market Coop in Chatham, NY. We’re so excited because we love shopping at the Real Food Market Coop - it recently built out from a farmers’ market to a full-fledged community resource, and it has a truly wonderful selection of extremely high quality locally-produced goods including some wonderful breads, a vast assortment of locally produced fruits and vegetables, and organic goods.  There’s a little cafe, and many people pop by for coffee break, lunch and snacks.

Chatham Real Food was founded with the specific goal of strengthening our rural community. It works with local farmers to develop our food security, and with local artisans, farmers and other producers to help build a healthy local economy in our county. The Market is a cooperatively-owned outlet for the products of local farms and kitchens, provides education about Columbia County agriculture, and promotes a more localized food system.

To some of those ends, Corinna’s baked goods will be available at the Coop from next Friday, May 22, when we deliver an assortment of croissants and cheese sticks at 10 am, in time for coffee-break.

Then, later on Friday, May 22, from 4-7pm, Corinna and I will be at the market doing a tasting and demonstration of the products. Come on out and join us for some fantastic new stuff, to talk baking and swap baking tips and tricks. There will be Mexican food available, so Corinna will bring along a batch of her seriously decadent Mexican Wedding Cookies - pecan-packed, confectioners-sugar-coated diet-busting cluster bombs.

We’re very happy to be selling at the market, and hope to see you there!

Ginsberg’s Foods, on Route 66 in Hudson, NY, is celebrating its 100th Anniversary. To celebrate its history and its ties to the community, it’s opening its warehouse and market to the public on May 30th. There’ll be product samplings, facility tours and a farmers market that will feature local produce and products from area artisans and food purveyors.

Of course, Corinna’s Comestibles will be there with a range of its baked goods - not sure what we’ll do in addition to the usual products, but there’ll be something special.

We’re customers of Ginsberg’s for our non-Organic bulk merchandise, like unbleached flour from employee-owned King Arthur flours in Norwich, VT.  We were thrilled to run into Nancy Ginsberg yesterday when we were over at Kaaterskill Farm Natural Storehouse which has re-opened in Hudson - though we had no idea who she was other than the first person to buy one of our quark-berry bear claws! As we were speaking with her, she said, ‘Oh, I run Ginsberg’s. We love real food and local products - hey, we’re having a farmer’s market later this month, you should come!’

Well, yeah! So we’re there. With bells on.

By the way, we’re also speaking with Sebastian at the Philmont Farmer’s Market - that is a really exciting piece of local commerce that we were happy to become involved in about a month ago. We’ll blog on that soon.

The Ginsberg’s celebration:

Where: Route 66, 1 mile west of Route 9H;
When: Saturday, May 30th, 2009 10am-3pm
Contact: Deanna@bakerpublicrelations.com

This afternoon from 5-8pm, Corinna’s Comestibles will be giving out croissants and quark-berry bear claws at the new Strongtree Organic Coffee Roasters in Hudson, NY.

Strongtree is a new coffee roaster and cafe at 60 South Front Street, at the Train Depot, Hudson, NY 12534 (518) 697-8851. Tonight is its ’soft-open’, where they’ll be introducing the new place to the community and trying to catch commuters on their way back from the City to tempt them with the delights that will await in the mornings.

Organic, Fair Trade, fresh-roasted, freshly-made good premium Arabica coffee. And our seriously decadent croissants, bear claws, puff-pastry cheese sticks? Maybe. If the trial run tonight works out, Strongtree and we will talk, and possibly we can get something going.

We’re extremely excited about the opportunity to cooperate with Strongtree - just the idea of a decent cup of coffee for the morning train to New York City is enough to get our blood going!

So come on down and see us tonight and enjoy a croissant and coffee on us and Strongtree!

We’re really happy to announce that the final state inspection of our production facility took place this morning, and Corinna’s is open for business! We’re beginning with croissant, bear claws and scones for some fantastic local businesses including the Berkshire Co-op Market in Great Barrington, MA and several others we’ll list when we solidify the order process.

Looking forward to working with you all, and sharing recipes, baking tips and tricks, horror stories and sharing content about organic and local foods.