By Matthew Avitabile
FLEISCHMANNS — Kimchee Harvest has been growing vegetables for the last 22 years in Roxbury and a kitchen the last six years and has now expanded to a growing storefront on Main Street Fleischmanns. The popular farm location joins the expansion or opening of several other businesses in the village this year. The community has had a long history of fermentation even dating back to the original Fleischmanns (of yeast fame) family. Kimchee Harvest's San Mul is the latest iteration of that proud tradition.
Madalyn Warren, along with her mother Ji-Young Kim, her brother Arthur Warren and sister Jenny Warren created the original farm that started it all.
Warren said that she loves the agriculture and people in the area. This includes nature growing in fields, streams, and forests.
“It’s a really vibrant place as far as food,” she said. “Foodwise we’re very rich,” she said of Delaware County.
The decision to open the storefront was a needed “change of scenery,” Warren said.
Having a storefront has been “different” than farm life, she said. She enjoys the increased interactions with people. Prior, the family interacted mainly with people engaged in local food and seasonality, and the “value of eating local food and eating from local farmers.”
The opening of San Mul allows for increased access to healthy, nutritious food to Fleischmanns and beyond. Warren notes that the food is "not only delicious, but accessible and attainable" and offers a chance to "bring our passion and promise to even more people than we are able to at the farm and at markets before."
The new location is an opportunity to introduce new foods and ways of eating to a broader group of people.
“We’re still very much in the producer, seasonality mode,” she said. Working with the public is a different experience.
Visitors will come in as themselves, eat, and leave “energized,” she said. They often leave “fulfilled and ready to take on whatever the rest of the day they’re engaged with.”
This is a change to “be a part of people’s consumption of the food,” Warren said. This includes seeing their happiness after a meal.
This includes New York-produced tofu from Ithaca called Ithaca soy, including for a tofu stew flavored with bean paste.
There are also sweet potato noodles with mixed vegetables. There is also a bibimbap mixed rice bowl. The bibimbap follows Kimchee Harvest’s food ethics of having all food being seasonal and local.
The decision to run a farm and provide food came in part from her family’s experience running an establishment in the Adirondacks. She’s also inspired by the idea of being outdoors and “staying interested in life.”
The original vegetable growing business was challenged by a shorter season. Creating kimchee allowed for a “value added business.” The preservation of kimchi helped to preserve the farm, she said.
Kimchee is created with carrots, rhubarb, sunchokes, cabbage, and more. There are also preserved vegetables, including turnips, dandelion greens, ramps, beets, and more.
Prior to the pandemic, the farm hosted dinners and during, it hosted outdoor picnics.
“We believe in feeding people healthy, nutritious food,” she said.
She purchased a property in Phoenicia and plans to grow herbs and perennials. Fleischmanns is in the middle, she said.
Next year will see the business expand its offerings and focus on plant-based medicines. These include a number of herbs and roots used in traditional Korean medicine called Toraji. These include Goji berries, ashwagandha, tulsi, among others.
Kimchee Harvest is expanding its harvest, including partnerships with other farmers and chefs to host meals at the location. On Nov. 20, Catskill Fungi will be hosting a dinner and workshop with 14 spots regarding how to cook and eat mushrooms.
The Fleischmanns location is open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday 10-3pm. The 1109 Main Street location can be reached at 607-242-9780 or via email at madalyn.warren@gmail.com.
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