Fun with Vegetables Focus of June 28, 30 Workshops in NNY — Learn with Paul Smith’s & Farm House Kitchen Chefs, Blackbird Café Owner, Sweet Core Farmer
Northern New York – “Food is fun and the ‘All About Vegetables’ workshops are a great way for people to learn easy, fun, new methods of cooking to keep and enhance the flavors of our locally-grown foods,” says Chef Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy, a Culinary Institute of America graduate with experience as a chef in Germany, Florida, Texas, and Virginia and locally at The Point and The Lake Placid Lodge, is one of three regional chefs/restaurateurs teaching the 6-9 Eating Local Yet? Vegetables workshops. He is now among the School of Hospitality, Resort and Culinary Management faculty at Paul Smith’s College of the Adirondacks.
McCarthy will be instructing the public workshop participants Wednesday, June 30 in Plattsburgh, NY, at the CV-TEC Culinary Kitchen.
Other Eating Local Yet? Vegetables workshops are set for Tuesday, June 28 in Sackets Harbor, NY, with Chef Boo Wells at The Farm House Kitchen and in Canton, NY, with Blackbird Café restaurateur Katrina Hebb and local grower Kathy Rice at the 1st Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall.
Cornell Cooperative Extension nutrition educators will also be on hand to help consumers learn how to select, prepare, dress and store vegetables for maximum health and budget benefit.
“At the Plattsburgh workshop, I will be talking about what you do with that bag of produce from the farmers market or your weekly CSA (community supported agriculture subscription) share or that you grew yourself,” says Amy Ivy, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County Executive Director. “People want to know what goes in the fridge, what keeps on the counter. Carrots, for example, don’t keep well with their tops left on.”
McCarthy says he hopes people will learn to adopt and adapt the latest culinary concepts and put their own spin on the techniques at home.
“One of the techniques I will be teaching is cooking carrots to keep and enhance their Northern New York-grown sweetness by cooking them in their own juice with some ginger, a sprig of thyme and a nub of butter rather than boiling away the nutrition and flavor,” McCarthy says.
At the Canton workshop, Blackbird Café owner Katrina Hebb and vegetable grower Kathy Rice of Sweet Core Farm are teaming up to offer tips on working with fresh, locally-grown foods.
Hebb says, “We will demonstrate how to make soups and dressings from scratch and such specific tasks as how to select, cut and crush garlic.”
Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County Nutrition Educator Kristin Colarusso, who is teaching the Eating Local Yet? workshops in Canton and Plattsburgh, says there is a huge surge in interest in local foods.
“Many people have lost touch with where their food comes from as well as cooking skills. They want to get their children involved in kitchen activities to help make them more likely to eat well. Children, for example, need to have up to 18 experiences introducing them to vegetables before they will accept them,” Colarusso says.
The workshop fee is $30. Space is limited so register ahead for the Sackets Harbor workshop with Amanda Root, Cornell Cooperative Extension Jefferson County, 315-788-8450, arr27@cornell.edu; for the Canton workshop with Cornell Cooperative Extension St. Lawrence County, 315-379-9192, bmf9@cornell.edu; for the Plattsburgh workshop with Amy Ivy, Cornell Cooperative Extension Clinton County, 518-561-7450, adi2@cornell.edu.
For more information on eating local opportunities in Northern New York, contact Northern New York Regional Foods Specialist Bernadette Logozar, Cornell Cooperative Extension Franklin County, 518-483-7403, bel7@cornell.edu, http://www.nnyregionallocalfoods.com. #
Posted: June 21st, 2011 under General News.