Each December the Stone Barns Center up in Westchester hosts a two-day, sold-out “Young Farmers Conference” that draws hundreds of new-to-farming folks and gives them a chance to hear inspiring speakers, learn hands-on methods, exchange ideas, make new friends, envision policy changes, break bread together and generally suck the marrow out of 48 hours. The conference was held Thursday and Friday, and Henry Sweets, a 29-year-old gardener and freelance writer from the Ohio River Valley, attended. He spent the past summer as a field vegetable apprentice at Stone Barns, and is currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio while he plots (pun intended) his return to New York. While we’d like to note that unlike Henry we love vegetables just as much as bacon, we present Henry’s report from the literal fields.
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In case you missed it last Thursday, we just wanted to point your attention to a brand-new national diner’s guide–but unlike those from Zagat or Michelin, when this one considers the staff, it’s not thinking of service. Instead, the new National Diners’ Guide 2012: A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of America’s Restaurants evaluates whether 150 of popular restaurants around the country provide paid sick days, pay at least $9 per hour to non-tipped workers and at least $5 to tipped workers, and provide opportunities for workers to advance. The guide, from the non-profit restaurant worker group called Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (or ROC), is available free online right here.
With apologies to the New Yorker, we’re pleased as Hot Gin Punch to present the Hendrick’s Gin cartoon caption contest. With help from this artisanal, small-batch gin, we’re offering three lucky readers who can best caption the image above two seats apiece to an invitation-only Edible Brooklyn: The Cookbook dinner inside “The Hendrick’s Enchanted Forest,” the pretty awesome indoor forest installation they’re bringing to Brooklyn for the very first time.
Nothing beats a homemade gift during the holidays. It saves the giver the stress associated with holiday shopping–but more importantly it endears givers to receivers with the thought of the time and effort that went into that one-of-a-kind gift. So get crafty! Start by hitting the 7th Annual BUST Magazine Craftacular and Food Fair this weekend.
Patti Paige of Baked Ideas (I profiled her and her cookie company in the current issue of this magazine) and some of her artist friends created this oversized gingerbread typewriter completely from sugar, flour, icing and candy, as part of a display to benefit City Harvest, currently at the Parker Meridian hotel on 57th Street.
This issue serves up stories about bottle businesses for which delectability is only one objective.
… but I’m especially obsessed with their “baby bourbon,” so my mouth started watering when owner Ralph Erenzo mentioned that he was aging maple syrup in his old bourbon barrels.
… the ingredients liquefied daily at Blueprint’s Long Island City facility are altogether virtuous: organic produce like beets and celery, sourced from local farms during the growing season.
Below the kitchens of 508 Greenwich Street, something is brewing.
Message in a Bottle. Rick Smith and Hiroko Furukawa stock 150 bottles at their Ninth Street store—the only sake specialty shop on the East Coast.
