Every chef posts about them on Instagram. Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, and The New York Times share recipe after recipe for them. Any foodie you know starts to scream with joy at their first sighting: “OMG ramps are here, ramps are here!” Every year customers ask us about them. Why all the hype? What are they, and why should we care? How do I even cook them? Below is a simple OurHarvest guide to ramps.

The first sighting of ramps is typically the first sign of green on the farm. Many consider them to be the true harbinger of the spring harvest, and after a long, cold, and dark winter, they provide hope for warmer days, summer cocktails, and BBQs to come. Part of the hype over ramps is their signal that the months of eating nothing but root vegetables are finally drawing to a close. The other parts of the hype come from their unique and powerful flavor profile, coupled with a rarity...

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of boiling potatoes, peeled (any potato will do)
• kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups of Hudson Valley Fresh milk
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter from Vermont Creamery
• ½ cup Hudson Valley Fresh sour cream
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Step 1

Cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes and place them in a large pot. Cover the potatoes with cold water and add enough salt so the water tastes quite salty. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the potatoes fall apart easily when pierced with a fork.

Step 2

Meanwhile, heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan, making sure it doesn’t boil. Set aside until the potatoes are done.

Step 3

As soon as the potatoes are tender, drain them in a colander. Place a food mill fitted with a small disc/blade over a glass...

Adapted from a recipe by Martha Rose Shulman at the New York Times

Ingredients

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter from Vermont Creamery
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ cup Andrew’s honey
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ cup plain low-fat Sohha yogurt
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 8 egg whites, at room temperature
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Scrub the sweet potatoes and pierce in several places with a sharp knife. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the potatoes on top. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes, until thoroughly soft and beginning to ooze. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Step 2

Adjust the rack to the lower third of the oven and turn the oven down to 400ºF. Rub the inside of a 2-quart soufflé dish...

Adapted from a recipe by Jeff Gordinier at The New York Times

Ingredients

• 1 (1 lb) loaf sourdough bread
• 10 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lb turkey sausage, casing removed
• 2 cups diced onions
• ½ sprig rosemary
• 2 teaspoons thyme leaves
• 2 sliced chile de arbol
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 1 lb of kale, tough rib stems removed and roughly chopped
• 1 chopped Honeycrisp apple
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups chicken or turkey stock
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¾ cup roughly chopped toasted almonds

Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the crust off the bread and tear remaining loaf into 1-inch croutons. Place torn bread on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 4 tablespoons olive oil, squeezing and tossing bread with your hands to help it absorb the oil. Transfer to oven and toast, tossing once or twice...

Some people go straight for the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls…but who can forget about the delicious sides? Now don’t get us wrong, we love the traditional Thanksgiving staples, but we can’t resist sharing some of our favorite sides.

Cheesy Hasselback Potato Gratin

Adapted from a recipe by Emily Weinstein at The New York Times

Ingredients:

• 3 ounces finely grated Gruyère or comté cheese


• 3 ounces finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano


• 2 cups heavy cream


• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced


• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped


• Kosher salt and black pepper


• 4 to 4 ½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8-inch thick on a mandoline slicer (7 to 8 medium, see note)


• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Step 1: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine cheeses in a large bowl. Transfer 1/3 of cheese mixture to a...

Christine Beal Dunst and Stephanie Rapp are the co-founders of Embody Wellness Company, a wellness and lifestyle concierge, specializing in creating customizable holistic wellness and nutrition programs targeted at life’s most important milestones: marriage, children, and career.

Stephanie Rapp just used OurHarvest soup bones to share a delicious bone broth recipe. We are excited to include it below as part of our guest blogger series:

Bone broth is becoming quite the trend, and for a good reason! As you might already know, bone broth helps stave away illness and speed up recovery time. But it also has a plethora of additional health benefits including improving digestion (from the hydrophilic acid in the gelatin), healing your gut, decreasing inflammation (from the amino acids, chondroitin, sulfates and glucosamine) and strengthening your bones (from the calcium and magnesium)...

On a nice spring evening after a long day of work, I love quickly mixing a nice refreshing cocktail. Something balanced - not too sweet and not too tart - that’s kicked up a notch by some of the spring’s bounty. This thyme lemonade with a vodka base is a perfect way to go. Be warned: pace yourself, it goes down really easily!

Vodka Thyme Lemonade

Adapted from a recipe by Jean Georges

Ingredients:

• 3 Lemon Wedges
• Granulated Sugar
• 2 oz Ketel One Citroen Vodka
• 2 oz Lemon-Thyme Syrup (see instructions below)
• 1 Splash Club Soda
• 1 Sprig Fresh Thyme, preferably lemon thyme

Directions:

Run 1 lemon wedge over the rim of a 12 oz highball glass; dip the rim into sugar. Reserve the lemon wedge.

Put the remaining 2 lemon wedges in a cocktail shaker. Muddle hard, breaking the lemon skins to release their oils. Add Syrup, Vodka and Ice. Cover and shake.

Pour the mixture into the...

Sometimes I come across a recipe that I know I must make at some point, even if I don’t know exactly when that might be. I file it away – either mentally or physically – to be pulled out at just the right time. Often these stow-away recipes get lost or forgotten, but I knew as soon as I first saw this recipe that it wasn’t destined for that fate!

Swiss chard is one of my favorite leafy greens. It is sturdy yet delicately flavored – with a subtle sweetness – and it is beautiful to boot. I think it’s perfect when simply sautéed (both stems and leaves) in some olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic. But the recipe we used here puts this delicious green to use in a more complex but no less delicious way. The stems get trimmed, the leaves get blanched, and then they’re chopped in the food processor with a few other ingredients to create a batter into which chunks of feta cheese are...

OurHarvest is excited to continue our guest blogger series featuring Stacie Castle, a registered dietitian with over 25 years experience.

I was so taken with the recent article about OurHarvest in Newsday, that I just had to write to Scott and Mike to tell them how impressed I was with their effort to bring the most nutritious farm-fresh wholesome food to our area. After all, it’s a dietitian’s dream come true! And what’s even better is that while you’re feeding your own family, you’re also helping one in need. Upon meeting Scott at an OurHarvest pick-up location, we got to talking and he suggested that I could write a guest blog…so I wanted to tell you about a new healthy trend that can help you save money and even lose weight. If you don’t already know it, food bowls are all the rage in the city. The upscale salad spots are creating interesting combinations for lunch while instagram...