gift-boxes-with-jarsOn a beau­ti­ful Sat­ur­day in May, my hus­band and I spent the after­noon at Crafts at Lyn­d­hurst, a well-estab­lished and well-attend­ed crafts fes­ti­val at one of the his­toric Hud­son Riv­er man­sions. What I noticed more than the art was the food. Whether the orga­niz­ers were fill­ing booths or fill­ing shop­per stom­achs, they includ­ed in the show over two dozen dif­fer­ent ven­dors that fell under their def­i­n­i­tion of “craft.” Since we are big fans of craft and arti­san foods — I fond­ly remem­ber a trip to Brook­lyn that involved shop­ping for craft gin­ger syrups and sodas — I spent a fair amount of time check­ing out the offer­ings.
Every once in awhile, I make my hus­band revis­it my craft food idea of start­ing a chal­lah-bak­ing busi­ness. But the num­bers nev­er work out — we’d have to sell an awful lot of chal­lah to be finan­cial­ly viable. That is why I tru­ly admire those who ded­i­cate them­selves to cre­at­ing craft tarts, quiche, fudge, pop­corn, nut mix­es, and oth­er good­ies. They must have to dis­play at dozens of farmer’s mar­kets and shows, as well as cre­ate a robust on-line busi­ness. I’d bet­ter not give up my day job!
Here’s a quick run­down of some of craft food ven­dors we vis­it­ed:
REALLY GOOD Fruit Spreads — I tast­ed each of the dozen or so low­er-sug­ar, hand­made jams before pick­ing a few favorites to bring to a friend. I don’t know much about own­er Ken Schnei­der or what inspired him to start a jam busi­ness, but it’s a win­ner.
Dutch Desserts, Inc. — We see own­er Mar­jan Beebe at numer­ous farmer’s mar­kets in the area and mar­vel at her abil­i­ty to cov­er so much ground in a week­end. Her fresh fruit and choco­late tarts are pret­ty to look at and have the most deli­cious crust, from a recipe brought over from the Nether­lands.
Oliv­er Kita Choco­lates — These hand-made choco­lates were as beau­ti­ful as the art on dis­play at the show. Chef Oliv­er Kita has a store­front in Rhinebeck, NY, and offers on-line order­ing. I imag­ine that hot weath­er is not con­ducive to sell­ing choco­late out-of-doors.
We also tast­ed a cou­ple of mul­ti-tasker snacks, a muf­fin-cook­ie and a bis­cuit-cook­ie, plus nuts plain and can­dy-coat­ed. Then there was the ket­tle corn that does­n’t count as arti­san in my opin­ion but is deli­cious nonethe­less.