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!

Last night at the Chatham Real Food Market Coop, Corinna and I set out to do a three-hour product demo, but we sold out after a bit under two hours.

These are good problems to have!

The crowds were good - usually we had several people at a time - and some were pushing others out of the way to get tastes. We went through about three dozen croissants, a gaggle of lemon-curd petit-fours, and about two dozen cheese sticks.

Meanwhile, across the room, the cash register was singing as people bought. This was a great way to get out and meet customers and describe what we do, and we’re very grateful to Marcie at the market for the opportunity.

One thing she noticed yesterday was that the ham and cheese croissants and the cheese sticks sold especially well; today’s order out to the market will contain more of those.
Today we’re off to make deliveries to the Market and Strongtree, plus checking out the Hudson Farmers’ Market.

Corinna's 'Bernie's Rye'

Back in 2004, when the Selby family moved back from Europe to the US, one of the first things we  realized was that there was a dearth of good bread and croissants. As we say in our Fine Pastry and Croissant page, the bread part was easier than the croissants, but still it’s tough. We’ve had several requests like this one:

“…German breads and pastries are almost non-existent. If you provide real Laugenbrezeln or Laugenweck, you will instantly have at least one family of die-hard enthusiasts.”

Well, yeah, but there is a boatload of good bread here in the German-influenced Hudson Valley region. Our Daily Bread, Hawthorne Valley Farm and others make some pretty good stuff.

Of course, we don’t think it’s as good as Bernie’s Rye, a heavy, German-inspired crusty loaf of truly substantial bread. The trick for the crust - thick but not a jawbreaker with a substantial crunch - is the high baking temperature (500°F), barley malt and apple cider, which makes the crust caramelize while it’s baking without making it sweet. The crumb (baker-snob jargon for, ‘the inside’) is dense and moist - but it’s not wet like most ryes in America. This is what Corinna considers ein echtes deutsches Bauernbrot - a real German farmer’s bread.

From a German, that’s high praise. We’re eating this bread at home now, and Corinna’s experimenting with commercial production. Thanks for asking about the bread, and we’ll be starting to offer it at farmers’ markets and coops in the next little bit.

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!