Harvest Kitchen at the Extension Learning Farm

08/24/2026

We just wrapped up a field trip of incoming St. Lawrence University students. In addition to visiting our sheep and goats with Carmen the livestock educator, they learned tick safety and identification with our Natural Resources educator Nick. Each group harvested tomatoes and peppers with horticulture educator Erica from the onsite high tunnel and brought them to the Harvest Kitchen to make and eat a fresh batch of salsa with Flip the Local Foods Program Leader. One student said her favorite part of the whole thing was all the different smells! 🌿🍅🐐

08/21/2026

It was a special week sharing local ingredients and cooking from scratch with the youth who joined Chef Training Camp 102. Some highlights of our time together include welcoming Chef Josh from The Blue House to bake blueberry tarts, harvesting carrots and herbs from the high tunnel to make fresh spring rolls, firing up three grills to create meat and vegetable skewers with beef from 8 O'clock Ranch, and a field trip to littleGrasse Foodworks and Canton Apple & Cider LLC. The grand finale was on Friday where pairs of campers each got to make their own recipes from scratch that they'd developed throughout the week including stuffed peppers, veggie fried rice, and blueberry lemon cake. Much appreciation to the local businesses we sourced from including LOPRO, Kent Family Growers, Nature's Storehouse, and Potsdam Food Co-op. Big thanks to the kitchen helpers that made it happen: Carol, Emma, Hannah, Kadi, and Zack.

08/20/2026

Busy time in the Harvest Kitchen processing nearly 10,000 pounds of locally grown sweet corn!

08/03/2026

We took our show on the road to preserve with the curious cooks that are part of the Ogdensburg Youth Garden Club!

07/16/2026

With fresh local ingredients in hand, the Chef Training Camp 101 youth were eager for action in the Harvest Kitchen! Whether it was making homemade pasta and sauces, whipping up biscuits then scrambling their own eggs, or serving fresh strawberry smoothies to the whole camp, the group got hands-on experience in the wide world of culinary techniques including mincing, chopping, dicing, peeling, baking, caramelizing, roasting, sautéing, beating, pulsing, dehydrating, mixing, kneading, rolling, boiling, blending, julienning, simmering, and straining! In addition to our onsite high tunnel where campers harvest their ingredients, we prioritize from scratch cooking and are glad to have sourced from many local farms and food businesses including Hurlbut’s Maple, littleGrasse Foodworks, Little River Ranch, LoPro, Nature's Storehouse, Potsdam Food Co-op, and Willow Bee Apiaries. Creating this unique experience is only possible with the enthusiasm of many folks including help from Master Food Preservers Sandy and Shelby, Master Gardener volunteer Becky, plus counselors Abby, Amina and Bella and staff Erica, Flip, Leslie, and Zack. Chef Training Camp 102 is next month and we’re excited to welcome the young chefs!

07/04/2026

You officially have permission to eat locally baked British food on Independence Day!! 😜 Meet Proper North Farm, our newest Harvest Kitchen vendor. Emma bakes goodies inspired by her English home land including flavorful pasties (hand pies), crumpets, and rock cakes. Find her today at the Potsdam Farmers' Market and at future dates at Canton NY Farmers Market.

05/08/2026

Foraging and preservation were top of the to-do list this week, the Master Food Preserver volunteers harvested wild leek greens and brought them to the Harvest Kitchen to create a Ramp Kimchi! We celebrated the seasons by using the last of the Napa cabbage, carrots and daikon radish in storage from the 2025 harvest, plus the vibrant green of the fresh ramp harvest. Thanks to Kent Family Growers for the locally grown and stored organic vegetables. We saved some of the greens for a pesto making workshop, stay tuned for those pics. 🥬🥕🫚

05/04/2026

What's better than gathering with other farmers and food entrepreneurs to learn from each other?! A group that just completed the multi week online course Building a Home-Based Food Business joined a field trip including a tour of Laing Family Farm in Canton, lunch at Jernabi Coffeehouse with guest presenters of Sugar Valley Bakery of Potsdam and wrapping up the day at House of Greens and My Sister's Kitchen in Ogdensburg. From adorable lambs to developing wholesale contacts to sourcing packaging, our site hosts Traci, Scott, Kristen, Maranda, and Sam were generous with their wisdom and upfront about the creativity and perseverance required to run your own business. Thanks for being such excellent hosts and contributing to strengthening our North Country food system! This program is part of a multi-year initiative of Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County called the Ag and Food Producers Academy.

04/15/2026

Fresh-cut Farm to School processing just got easier! Thanks to Dave, Dave and Pat of St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES for bringing over a scissor lift table and pallet jack scale to help handle the 2,000+ pounds of North Country produce that's lightly processed each week by Big Spoon Kitchen at Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County. BOCES has been a dedicated partner in working to increase the amount of local fruits and vegetables on cafeteria trays in 20+ districts throughout the region.

04/03/2026

Good times in the Harvest Kitchen!

We loved hosting these passionate young chefs last weekend in the Harvest Kitchen at the Extension Learning Farm. The students showed awesome teamwork and knife skills. Great job to the student teams from Potsdam Central School District and Salmon River Central School District! It's not possible without the good-natured coaches Nicole, Alicia and William as well as our judges Alicia of Applewood Orchards, Rosie of Big Spoon Kitchen, and Sarah of CCE. Big thanks to our partner St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES along with our sponsors Kinney Drugs Foundation, SeaComm, Community Bank, N.A., and MVP Health Care. This program is a collaborative effort to inspire Farm to School programs by
encouraging regional middle and high school students to develop tasty, healthy recipes that showcase local produce and build lifelong cooking skills. 🥕🧅🍽️🍎