Eat Drink Local Week

EDL PROFILES | EDL PARTICIPANTS | INGREDIENTS OF THE DAY

EDLW: This is how we do it.

The second annual Eat Drink Local Week, planned for this fall, is a celebration of the local food chain — not just a restaurant week, but a get-to-know your local food market, farmer and artisan foodmaker week. And its mission is in many ways our mission, in fact, starting from our first issue at left, which featured a few local foods from their journey from city market to city kitchen.

EDL, as we like to call it, runs statewide from September 26-October 6, 2010, with the collaboration of all Edible magazines in the Empire State, and involves partners from the entire food chain, including restaurants, wine shops and wineries, breweries and beer bars, farms and food artisans, and cultural institutions that celebrate food. (And if you’re a restaurant or other food and drink business that would like to help partner with us or co-sponsor the event, send us an email at info@ediblemanhattan.com or check out our EDL partner information sheet here.)

Co-produced by Edible magazines and GrowNYC, the aim is threefold: 1. To raise awareness about the bounty of products grown in the region. 2. To drive customers to the restaurants and other businesses that support local food and drink and 3. to raise funds for a charitable partner dedicated to promoting regional agriculture.

To give the week more definition, and create demand for regional food and drink, each day of the week is defined by a specific local ingredient (a type of stinky cheese on Monday, okra on Tuesday, a varietal of wine on Wednesday, etc.). Restaurants that take part will be cooking with them (look for the list here in a few weeks!) and you should try them at home, too.

In fact we’re going to be putting out a proposition to cooks (which we’ll take ourselves) to do as much on our local eating list as they can before the end of EDL, from pickling or planting to jam making or fishing. Better still, we hope to be able to find someplace to share the bounty of all this work together, so stay tuned for details on the world’s best-tasting party potluck as summer unfolds.

In addition, there are some other major events planned, including:

• Ongoing online profiles of our favorite local farmers, food-makers, ingredients, recipes and other edible items of note. Check the ever-growing list of those profiled right here.

• September 23. An Amish style heirloom vegetable auction to be held at Sotheby’s

• September 25. A Long Island wine auction, HARVEST at Wolffer Estate Vineyards in Sagaponack.

• September 27. The Edible Institute at the New School, a public discourse on urban food issues.

• September 28. Hungry Filmmakers.

• October 4. The Festival of the 11 Ingredients at Chelsea Market.

• October 6. The annual, unforgettable, Taste of Greenmarket.

• Throughout the week. Edible programming at the New York Botanical Garden.

• Throughout the summer, the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarkets will feature cooking demos from partner chefs, New York wine pourings and other happenings.

And if you sign up for our enewsletter, follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook, all easily done above right, you’ll be the first to know about plans for the week as they unfold and of course any last-minute parties. And until September, check our Calendar page to see where we’ll be partying in the meantime. (Sound interesting? Please see our sponsor kit to learn how your business can support and collaborate in the week.)

Check out our: EDL PROFILES | EDL PARTICIPANTS

Sponsors of Eat Drink Local week 2010 include Edible magazines, GrowNYC, I LOVE NY, Sotheby's, New York Botanical Garden, the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, Empire Merchants, Bonterra Vineyards, Sterling Vineyards, Crop Organic Vodka and Farmer's Gin.