Farm Market ‘Maccabees’ for Thanksgivukkah

Image by anna goldenberg

By Anna Goldenberg November 25, 2013

The once-in-a-79,000-years superfeast of Thanksgivukkah is upon us, which can only mean many of us will be shopping for all the best and freshest stuff. With Thanksgiving already being a day to thank for the harvest, acquiring your pumpkins and turkey at your local farmers market only seems logical. The Pilgrims certainly didn’t import their apples from Chile or South Africa!

There are convincing historical arguments to invest in local produce for Hanukkah, too.

Sydney Davis, who works at the stall of the Mountain Sweet Berry Farm in Roscoe, N.Y., at the Union Square Greenmarket, compared the Farmers Markets’ fight against cheaper supermarket chains to fighting the Romans.

“We’re the little guys, like the Maccabees,” he said. “We make it last despite all odds.”

Turns out Rick Bishops, the farmer at Mountain Sweet Berry, has been contributing his part to the Maccabees’ ongoing popularity: From his farm in the Catskills, he sells a large variety of potatoes, and recommends German Butterballs ($3/lb) for latkes.

If you’re wondering what to put on your latkes, Jeanne Hodesh, communications associate at GrowNYC, a non-profit that oversees the 64 Greenmarket and Youthmarket Farmers Markets that are operating in New York City this season, offers some suggestions.

“Whether it’s horseradish or cranberries you’re looking for, the market has [it] – as well as a cranberry horseradish chutney from Beth’s Farm Kitchen,” she said. “We think it would be delicious on latkes.”

Anna Goldenberg was the Forward’s culture fellow.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO