BY JAMES CARSEY
 
Whether you are an experienced home chef or just learning the how-to’s of cooking, there are certain essentials that every kitchen should always have on hand: A good chef’s knife, a paring knife, a solid cutting board, a selection of various oils and vinegars, flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and basic spices, for starters. But now that the summer is gone and the cold months are upon us, it’s soup season! You may want to add vegetable stock to your list of essentials. It can be frozen for later or used in soups, dressings, gravy, pastas, casseroles, pilafs, and cooking grains. 


 
Besides its versatility, vegetable stock has essential vitamins and minerals that are good for health and wellness and supporting your immune system during the cold and flu season. 
 
Instead of buying it at the grocery store, try making it at home. It has less sodium and preservatives and its extremely easy to make. There are many different vegetable stock recipes to choose from online or your favorite cook book. Below is a basic recipe that uses vegetables with neutral but savory flavors. 
 
RECIPE: 
 
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil 
1 large onion 
2 stalks of celery (some leaves are okay) 
2 large carrots 
1 bunch green onions, chopped 
8 cloves garlic, minced 
8 sprigs of fresh parsley 
6 sprigs of fresh thyme 
1 bay leaf 
1 teaspoon of salt 
2 quarts of water 
 
STEPS:
 

• Scrub vegetables 
• Cut vegetables into large pieces and set aside 
• Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot and add the onion, celery, carrots, scallions, garlic, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves. Cook over high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently. Ensure that you brown the vegetables and do not burn them. You may have to do this step in two stages depending on the size of your pot. 
• Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. When stock reaches a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure the pot is uncovered. 
• Remove the larges pieces of vegetables with tongs and set them aside. Strain the remaining liquid into quart containers or small bowls, and allow to cool. Quart containers are great for storing the stock; you can freeze or keep in the refrigerator. 

 
Some Final Thoughts
Like most things in the culinary arts there are many ways and techniques to do a single task. It’s based on tradition, habit, and how your grandmother thought you as a child. Some stock aficionados will tell you never cut the vegetables, while others say cut the produce into small pieces. Some stock experts will tell you not to use a bay leaf while others swear buy it.  Stocks are user friendly and, unlike baking and other types of cooking, they are not an exact science. Feel free to do whatever works for you. Change a technique or ingredient based on your own perception or the feedback you receive. 
 
You can also use the stock in other dishes. Comb the internet for some ways to incorporate it into other recipes.
 
If you have food aversions or allergies, you can always swap out or add any of the following: mushrooms, eggplant, the butt-ends of the asparagus, corn cobs, fennel stalks, bell peppers, pea pods, chard trimmings, celery root parings, basil, and potato parings. 
 
Do your best to avoid throwing away the cooked vegetables in your garbage. Remember, food waste that ends up in landfills decays and produces nitrogen pollution, which eventually causes algae blooms and dead zones. So, compost or food scrap your leftovers. 
 
Enjoy!

A ribbon-cutting at the new Community Solar Project.

Westchester's Largest Community Solar Ribbon-Cutting Event is Tuesday, November 10 at 2PM, at the Tarrytown Self Storage, 63 Cortlandt St.

This is a huge Community Solar installation with hundreds of high-output panels is at last on-line and producing Megawatt-hours of carbon-free, sustainable electricity to dozens of homes every day.

The panels are on the roof of the Tarrytown Self-Storage building at the foot of Wildey St.

Though this project is fully subscribed, anyone in the ConEd area who doesn’t already have solar on their home can subscribe to another Community Solar Project, either planned or operating, and save energy dollars in the process. Go to Sustainable Westchester’s Community Solar site to find out more: https://sustainablewestchester.org/solar/#benefits 
 

Planting trees in your neighborhood really is one of the best things you can do for the local environment and for the planet.

It’s no secret that trees help the environment, but you may be surprised by all the benefits that planting trees can provide.

Besides producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide and contaminants from the air, trees have many other social, economic, and environmental benefits.

Flowering shrubs, too, offer similar benefits to trees, including giving protection and food to pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

Read more here: 

A chaste tree is low maintenance, blooms beautifully and supports pollinators -- especially bees and butterflies.

As more of us are working from home, we are much more aware of surrounding noise and activities in our neighborhoods. Leaf blower use in Tarrytown was temporarily suspended in the beginning of May for health reasons during the pandemic (article here https://thehudsonindependent.com/tarrytown-re-issues-ban-on-leaf-blowers-during-covid-19-pandemic/)  but they resumed again on September 16. If you are have concerns, please contact the Village Board of Trustees https://www.tarrytowngov.com/village-trustees/faq/how-do-i-contact-members-of-the-board-of-trustees

Other communities in Westchester - including Larchmont and, just this week, Irvington - are restricting leaf-blower use far beyond Tarrytown‘s hard-to-enforce summertime ban. https://thehudsonindependent.com/irvington-bans-future-use-of-gas-powered-leaf-blowers