Posted December 02, 10:12 PM UTC by sunil2
by Ed Yowell
Slow Food NYC is wrapping up the third successful season of a weekly fresh produce stand at The Children’s Storefront, a school in East Harlem, one of the City’s “food deserts,” where fresh food is a scarce commodity.
At the stand, students, aided by volunteering Slow Food members and school staff sell local produce, acquired from Greenmarket farmers, to other kids, parents, teachers, and neighbors. About eight kids will have worked afternoon shifts during the season, from September through November. They learn math, “If carrots are $1 a pound, how much does 1/2 pound cost?” , spelling, “How do you spell Broccoli?”, entrepreneurship, “Hello, please come to our stand.”, and customer relations, “May I help you?, “Thank you for shopping with us.”
And they learn about real, local food, biodiversity, and taste. When they make produce signs, the kids learn that we don’t just have potatoes, we have Adirondack Red Potatoes and Adirondack Blue Potatoes, as well as Russets, Red, and White. (And they can now spell Adirondack.) We have Yellow, Purple, and White Cauliflowers and Butternut, Carnival, Buttercup, Sweet Dumpling, and Delicata Winter Squash. And each week we have at least three different apple varieties, having garnered recently some customer complaints, “Where are those brown apples (Golden Russet) you had last week? They were the best apples I ever ate”.
Grown-up volunteers give cooking advice, “The Calville Blanc apple is the best for pie.”, “Cut the Sweet Dumpling Squash in half, take out the seeds, bake it, and than mash it with a little butter and cinnamon.”
And, perhaps most importantly, apples are becoming one of the more popular after-school snacks. At the end of each market day, unsold produce goes into the school cafeteria to appear on lunch menus during the week..roasted Adirondack Red and Blue Potatoes are popular.
The stand is not a break-even proposition. We can’t sell fresh, local produce for more than the not-as-fresh, not-so-local produce available at a corner bodega or at the nearest supermarket, about six blocks away. The produce stand is part of the Slow Food NYC Harvest Time program. We are also working with two schools in Williamsburg and one on the Lower East Side. The schools all have edible gardens and good food education programs and, at one, kids sell produce they grow.
The funds that support Harvest Time have been almost solely the result of the support received through your attendance at Slow Food NYC events. With the continued support of Slow Food NYC members and friends, the produce stand will be back in East Harlem next year. If you’d like to support the Slow Food NYC Harvest Time program, you can click here, make a donation, any amount is a great help, and designate it for Harvest Time.
Posted June 29, 10:06 PM UTC by Matt
Looking for a little bite of something good, clean and fair? Check out the Slow Food NYC Snail of Approval website to find out what’s local, sustainable and delicious in the Big Apple. Our newest Snail of Approval winners are: Smith Street favorite Lunetta, Ditmas Park outpost The Farm on Adderley, Williamsburg winners Diner, Marlow and Sons and Marlow and Daughters, Park Slope newcomer Get Fresh Table and Market, East Village eateries Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar, and green restaurant innovator Rouge Tomate. Congratulations and thanks for everything you do.
And if you don’t see your favorite Slow foodists on the list, nominate them! Slow Food members can nominate any food enterprise that contributes to the quality, sustainability and authenticity of our food supply for a Snail of Approval by simply filling out the online nomination form. You’ll be helping them to get through these tough economic times, and you’ll be helping your fellow members to find the food that’s best, cleanest and fairest.
Posted March 19, 09:03 PM UTC by sunil2
Over 50 Restaurants, Over 25 Nations Represented
New York, NY (March 17, 2009) – The second annual Village Voice “Choice Eats” tasting event is now officially sold out. The event, which takes place on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, features only restaurants reviewed by celebrated resident food critics, Robert Sietsema from his column “Counter Culture” and Sarah DiGregorio from her weekly column “Fork in the Road.” This year, the amount of restaurants has doubled with over 50 restaurants and over 25 nations being represented under one roof for only one night.
Last year, hungry New Yorkers gathered at the historic Puck building to navigate through over 25 restaurants from all the five boroughs where they experienced a diverse culinary landscape and enjoyed tasty treats that would otherwise require days of travel. New York Magazine proclaimed it “…a global cheap-eats summit. No self-respecting New York gastronaut should consider doing anything else that night.”
“Choice Eats” will be benefiting Slow Food NYC, who will also serve as host of the event. The New York City chapter of Slow Food USA is a non-profit, member-supported organization dedicated to counteracting the industrialization of our food supply. A portion of ticket sales will go to their new program, Harvest Time which promotes programs of good food and nutrition education, including hands-on food preparation and communal dining, edible school gardens, and student operated farm stands offering local farm-fresh produce at three schools in East Harlem and Williamsburg, neighborhoods identified as food deserts by the City’s Health Department with high rates of food related diseases like obesity and diabetes.
Official sponsors for “Choice Eats” 2009 include Whole Foods who will be setting up a storefront and serving local mini brownie sundaes, Southern Wines featuring Antinori, Castello banfi, Pallini Limoncello, Gosling’s Rum, Boru Vodka, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Ramazzotti, Distillerie- Brusnel, Nando, Francis Ford Coppola, Frederick Wildman, Palm Bay International, Partida tequila, Prairie Organic Vodka, Tommy Bahama, Michael Collins, Cognac, Svedka Vodka, Fcognac Ferrand, Union Beer featuring Victory Brewing Co., Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Magic Hat Brewing Co., Brewery Ommegang, Left Hand Brewing Co., Samuel Smith, Lindeman’s, Chimay, Smuttynose Brewing Co., Allagash Brewing Co., and Blue Point Brewing Co., Volvic natural spring water, Likeme.net, New York Bartending School, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Extremely Hungary, Smart Car, and Action Carting who is the official green sponsor.
All utensils, cups and compost bags are made from annually renewable plant derived plastic resins; all plates are made from sugarcane fibers; napkins are made from unbleached, recycled paper.
“Choice Eats” tickets will not be sold at the door. You must be 21+ to attend, the event starts at 6:30pm and concludes at 9:30pm. The 69th Regiment Armory is located at 68 Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th streets in Manhattan.
For More Information Please Contact:
Christina Pettit / The Village Voice
cpettit@villagevoice.com
212-475-6836
choiceeats.villagevoice.com
Posted March 13, 07:03 PM UTC by sunil2
Guiliani-era design proposal threatens unique green space
March 12, 2009 – Two Coves Community Garden has done everything right, from securing a city license through Green Thumb to building huge neighborhood support, but this beneficial addition to Astoria could be lost forever.
“We were recently notified by Parks Department of plans to change the nature of Two Coves Community Garden,” said Renee Edwards, gardener and resident of nearby Astoria Houses. “But the waterfront neighborhood surrounding the garden is already blessed with several parks and recreational areas. What this community needs is healthy food, grown locally.”
At the first of two emergency meetings to discuss the news that an antiquated proposal might be resurrected, gardeners were passionate in their commitment to saving the largest community garden in Western Queens.
“We want the garden to maintain its ability to allow local residents the opportunity to garden and grow together,” said Stacey Ornstein, gardener and Astoria CSA President. “Two Coves Community Garden provides space for hundreds of people to cultivate their own food, reverse damaging obesity and unhealthy nutritional trends, interact across cultures and generations, and harvest a lifelong love of urban gardening—all while reducing municipal costs, crime and pollution!”
Two Coves Community Garden is located in Astoria, Queens at the intersection of 8th Street and Astoria Boulevard. Although a fence was installed, grass was sown and paths were paved in 1998, the site was eventually left vacant and quickly filled with weeds and trash from illegal dumping. In late 2006, a vibrant grassroots movement turned the neglected lot into an urban oasis that today sustains and nourishes its members while beautifying the surrounding neighborhood.
“Public parks require significant funding for development and maintenance,” said gardener Garrett Ramirez. “But Two Coves is maintained by volunteers who not only garden, but do everything from pick up trash to shovel sidewalks in the winter. We’re a public space that pays for itself, that the entire community can enjoy.”
One member tossed out the idea to contact First Lady Michelle Obama who recently told the USDA that she is “a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for providing access to fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across the nation and the world.”
Others mentioned that community gardens are known to increase property values, reduce waste through composting, provide access to healthy food, and serve youth as an outdoor classroom teaching math, science, the environment, health, nutrition, social skills, leadership, responsibility, and more.
Those are among the many points gardeners will make as they contact the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and local elected officials in the coming weeks. For more information, or to get involved in the campaign to save Two Coves Community Garden, visit www.twocovescommunitygarden.org or call 718-512-8649.
The meeting closed with words of inspiration spoken by gardener Vanessa Jones-Hall, a resident of Astoria Houses: “As I sit under sunshine, I smile lilies, daffodils and roses. The scent of my breath hints fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits. My body curves, outlined by beautiful tress and sunflower stems. Collecting sweet sounds of individual chatter and laughter.
You turn to see who am I? Two Coves Community Garden, welcome!”
About Two Coves Community Garden
Two Coves Community Garden is a diverse community of more than 200 active urban gardeners including the elderly, the disabled, and young children (even babies). Gardeners come from all over the neighborhood and the world, including a large number of Astoria Houses residents, those born in Armenia, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru.
Posted February 24, 01:02 AM UTC by Matt
SlowFood NYC is proud to be a sponsor of the upcoming Brooklyn Food Conference coming up on May 2nd.
So, we thought that you might like to know that there’s a nice article in the Indypendent all about it:
A Taste for Change: Brooklyn Food Conference Organizers Step up to the Plate.
Enjoy!
Posted February 04, 03:02 AM UTC by sandramc
(This Article came to us from Slow Food USA and was written by By Kris Kohler and published in the Linewaiter’s Gazette – A Brooklyn Food Coop Publication)
High-quality farmland is already scarce enough in the western Catskill Mountains where Lucky Dog Farm produces vegetables that end up in the Park Slope Food Coop. But the level flood plain along the West Branch of the Delaware River, a source of Brooklyn water, is at constant further risk from unwise commercial development.
“If you’re a contractor thinking of building a service station or a sewer plant, your eye’s don’t’ wander up the mountainside,” says Richard Giles, the farmer who is beginning his 10th year at Lucky Dog in Hamden, New York. “The impulse is toward cheap and easy—and once the farmland is gone, it’s gone for good.”
Even as we in this community enlighten ourselves about the values of eating local food, more and more “local” farmland goes under concrete. This is a nationwide problem, but when the farmland in question is so near so many eaters, the result is tragic.
Help may be on the way. The State of New York purchases the development rights on some at-risk farmland and is currently considering an easement on some of the valley farmland leased by Lucky Dog Farm. These easements are a highly effective way of keeping farmland from being covered in concrete. Many easement grants require matching contributions, and this is where was as eaters need to step forward.
Farm Catskills, a regional farm advocacy nonprofit group, is leading the effort to raise the funds (something in the range of $40,000) required to match a state grant. Amy Kenyon, president of the organization, adds, “The State Department of Agriculture and Markets needs to know this issue matters to downstate eaters.”
There will never be a better chance to put your money where your mouth is. Applewood Restaurant in Park Slope will be hosting a fundraiser auction on February 8. (For more information, contact 718-788-1810/info@applewoodny.com).
If you can’t attend the fundraiser but sill want to help, call Farm Catskills at 607-643-1724, or Lucky Dog Farm at 607-746-9898. Or, simply send a check to Farm Catskills, 87 Sal Bren Rd., Suite 1, Delhi, NY 13753-1440.
