Amsterdam Day

Yesterday my family enjoyed a very "local" day.
We started the day out enjoying cinnamon rolls from our local Price Chopper bakery. They were on sale last week for $1.99 for two giant rolls, I bought two packages. My DD1 normally loves cinnamon rolls so I bought them especially with her in mind, she ate none of them. She always picks out the Entemann looking cinnamon rolls; I figured it out, she loves the frosting, not necessarily the cinnamon rolls. So, DD2 and I enjoyed them for breakfast anyway. I am sending the leftovers to work with DH tomorrow.
We planned to visit some local farms and make the final decision on what CSA we are going to join for the summer. CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- you pay a farm a fee before crop season and each week you get a box full of fresh produce from the farm. We are undecided between two farms because one is close to us and says they use all natural growing but the other is certified organic and about a half hour ride away. I would prefer to go the certified organic route but am not sure I want to commit to a half hour ride every week during the summer with the two kiddies.
We did visit the farm which is closer to us. The lady was extremely helpful and friendly. She was more than happy to let us come and meet her and show us her animals and inside her barn. DD1 was very excited to see the animals but a bit put out that she didn't have any cows for some reason. DD2 seemed to be very alert and interested in all the animals and the sounds too. It was a bit loud in the barn, especially near their "market hogs".
After leaving the farm, a few miles up the road was the Mohawk Valley Spring Farmers Market at Alpin Haus on 5S. I wanted to go here in hopes of getting some fresh vegetables. I don't know what I was thinking, considering there is still snow everywhere. I was expecting a little stand set up with a couple farmers selling their crops. Boy was I wrong. The whole hallway in Alpin Haus was filled with different tables set up of farmers selling their stuff, mostly meats. I would say there were eleven or twelve different "vendors" there including the SPCA with a few cats in cages. There was a table full of maple syrup goods, a bakery from Johnstown, three grass fed meat farmers, a cheese place, an Amish baker, a grass fed goat farmer, an alpaca yarn lady selling yarn and hats, a soap table, a bakery/store specializing in gluten free stuff, and a lady selling drawings and bags. I was highly impressed. I don't remember the names of all the stands and I don't want to show favorites on the site, so I just generalized in descriptions. I did grab a flyer for the next market, but I think it's in the car; I will post the information for it closer to the date.
We had planned to head out to Palantine Bridge to visit the other farm we are thinking about for the CSA after leaving the farmer's market. There is also a cheese plant we were going to visit while out there and a dairy farm. The cheese plant happened to have a representative working at the farmer's market and the CSA farm said they couldn't meet with us so we decided to hold off on that trip.
Instead, we went to the Book Hound on East Main St. This is a cute little store. Upon walking in you see the owner sitting at his desk beside a nice warm fire in a room filled with books. There are three other rooms, I believe, also filled with books. We first visited this store a few months back at the Amsterdam Winter Mixer. Prior to the mixer, we didn't know the store existed and had never walked on E. Main St, just driven down sometimes to try and beat traffic at the lights. At the mixer, we bought a few books and decided we liked the store, we liked his prices, and my DH now reads his blog. Browsing the website for the Book Hound briefly, I didn't see a link to his blog. Anyway, a cute store with good deals on used books. We even got an adorable  little red rocking chair that my DD1 instantly fell in love with upon first site.
After leaving the Book Hound we took a ride up route 30 to visit the Blue Hen. I had been wanting to visit here for a couple years or so but never really mentioned it much to DH. Once I mentioned it recently, he got real excited and said he had been wanting to go and check it out too. We tried to go a few weeks ago on a Saturday, but they closed at 4 and we got there too late. It's a cute small store filled with beautiful, expensive, handmade Amish hardwood furniture. The stuff is gorgeous, but a bit out of our price range. We weren't really going to shop for anything anyway, we were just curious as to what was in there. They also sold some Amish baked goods. The lady here was also extremely friendly, she took us into the barn to see their new baby two week old calf, which was already about 100lbs.
After the Blue Hen we went to Ponderosa Steak House where DH and I ate about three days worth of calories in less than an hour. I was against Ponderosa
After Ponderosa, we went home to relax a bit. All in all, I would say we had an eventful Amsterdam day!