Archive for March 2012
The Green Table in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market
It’s late winter in New York and we still haven’t been frozen in deep, but my craving for the comfort of a candle lit table and an intimate gathering around soul warming food is deep rooted and pays no heed to this year’s unseasonable weather. A “Winter Dinner” at The Green Table promises to satiate my desire. Located in the rustic-industrial setting of the Big Apple’s Chelsea Market, The Green Table, a farm to table restaurant owned by The Cleaver Co., was founded by Mary Cleaver, who has specialized in local food catering and event planning for over 30 years. The restaurant boasts a seasonally shifting menu and responsibly sourced ingredients.
Neighbored by Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, Amy’s Bread and Ronnybrook’s Milk Bar (the Manhattan outpost of Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, a third generation Hudson Valley family farm in Ancramdale (Columbia County, NY), the sheltered neighborhood-esque block (inside a former Nabisco Oreo factory) forms a little microcosm of artisanal foods, with local trade routes crisscrossing Chelsea Market’s buffed concrete floor. Bread from Amy’s travels west to the kitchen of the Green Table, whose diners when headed east can pick up a fresh loaf from the bakery on their way out of the market to Manhattan’s busy Ninth Avenue.
My guests and I decided to order a smattering of dishes to share. Out first was the Bruschetta “Four Ways.” Four slices of Amy’s Bread piled high with a different combination of toppings. Each one a mastery of sweet and savory flavors. My favorite was a goat cheese, fig, and Surryano ham, an American version of an old world curing technique.
Next on our tongues was Grilled Sunchokes. I’m always appreciative when a chef makes the effort to tease out the gourmet potential of an ingredient previously relegated to the sometimes murky waters of home cookery. Sunchokes or Jerusalem Artichokes are a tuber native to North America containing lots of fiber, prebiotics and inulin, which is helpful for moderating blood sugar. It also increases calcium absorption, so we would be wise to eat more of this fast growing, easy to cultivate, tasty winter storage crop. The sunchokes, sliced and grilled, were delicious and worlds apart from my own novice attempts at working with them. They were served with roasted red onion, picholine olives, and garnished with an unusual variety of watercress with green and purple variegated leaves.
A boon to the dining experience was The Green Table’s knowledgeable wait staff. I’ve bumped into our waitress at a handful of food events including Heritage Food USA’s overflowing and rallying event Goatoberfest. She’s obviously dedicated to similar values as her employer and has even launched her own personal chef business, “Farm to Fridge,” which delivers ready made meals prepared with Green Market sourced ingredients to the fridges of busy, local foods supporters, and health conscious New Yorkers.
In an intriguing delivery, which almost took on the quality of a performative food ritual, our waitress brings to the table a tan parcel centered on a white ceramic dish. Using long handled utensils she makes several cross cuts into the package and as she slices it open, steam escapes from the little nest revealing an arrangement of fish, onions, mushrooms, and winter vegetables. The dish, Local Golden Tilefish en papillote, engages the traditional technique of cooking in folded parchment paper. This creates a special cooking environment, which combined with a saturating shower of Meyer lemon butter sauce, resulted in exceptionally tender fish and carrots. Line-caught fish en paillote is a cornerstone of the Green Table’s winter menu but as it is sourced locally from the Atlantic Fishery, the type of fish changes regularly reflecting both the changing seasonal nuances and sustainable fishery regulations. According to Southeast Fishery Bulletin, a few days after our meal, tilefish became unavailable:
“The commercial harvest of golden tilefish in the South Atlantic federal waters is closed, effective 12:01 a.m. (local time) February 17, 2012, until 12:01 a.m. (local time) January 1, 2013. NOAA Fisheries Service has determined the 2012 commercial quota of 282,819 pounds gutted weight of golden tilefish will have been reached by this date.”
For dessert, we opted for the trio of house-made ice cream. It was difficult to choose between the diverse selection of classic and unique flavors but we happily settled for chocolate, salted caramel, and kaffir lime. Kaffir lime is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, used particularly in Thai cuisine and “only the leaves are used in cooking” [Edible, An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008, www.nationalgeographic.com/books]. Blended with cardamom, a known digestive, the cold ice cream and tropical flavors summoned memories of summer and were a brilliant end to a dark night’s winter dinner.
After our meal, hours having passed, the sun having set, we walk out to the street passing by the picture window of Amy’s bakery. A half dozen bakers in a flurry of assembly line productivity are starting the bread for the next day’s orders. We chuckle, knowing that some of those loaves are bound for the Green Table. [The Green Table at Chelsea Market (Manhattan), 75 Ninth Avenue (between W15th & W16th Streets), Center of Chelsea Market, across from the waterfall 212.741.9174 Lunch & Dinner: Mon-Fri 11:30AM-10:00PM, Sat 11:00AM-10:00PM Lunch: Sun 11:00AM-4:00PM www.cleaverco.com/]
[Sara Worden, 3/16/12]
Court Victory Against Water Polluting CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation)
Courtesy of Helen Reddout, Photographer
Nelson Faria Dairy, a factory farm producing dairy products in the small farm community of Royal City located in Washington State’s Grant County, has been held in contempt for violating the provisions of a consent decree, which had settled litigation brought by the Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE) for pollution violating the Clean Water Act caused by its grossly inadequate manure management practices. This defendant (or related parties) manages seven CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) in the United States, the one held in contempt in Washington State, five in Texas and one in New Mexico.
A single dairy cow produces approximately 120 pounds of wet manure per day which is equivalent to that of 20-40 people according to the Environmental Protection Agency [www.epa.gov/region9/animalwaste/problem.html]. Jonathan Safran Foer, in his powerful Eating Animals (New York, Little Brown and Co., 2009), includes, as one of the three main reasons why the industrial agricultural model is not sustainable long-term, the eye-opening point that farmed animals in the United States produce sewerage which is “30 times as much waste as the human population- roughly 87,000 pounds of shit per second” [the other two reasons: (1) antibiotic overuse in raising 450 billion land animals each year and (2) the “profoundly cruel systems” which produce meat as a product]. He makes a strong case that industrial agriculture has externalized the costs for environmental degradation, human disease and animal suffering. This litigation affirms Mr. Foer’s concerns by revealing the enormous effort that is required to ensure that a single CAFO operation conforms to legal requirements in order to protect our water supply and environment from pollution. The provisions of the clean water act and similar environmental protection laws are meaningless if they are merely written on paper and not enforced.
Federal District Court Judge Lonny R. Suko determined, after a three-day bench trial conducted last November, that Nelson Faria Dairy “failed to comply with the consent decree from the very outset of its operation of the dairy” from the time it purchased the CAFO from Smith Brothers Farms, Inc. on October 2, 2006. Smith Brothers Farms had entered into a proposed consent decree eight months earlier on March 24, 2006 (which the court approved on May 23, 2006) in settlement of violations of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec 1251 et seq., which was held binding on Nelson Faria Dairy as the purchaser of the CAFO. The judge made clear that “The fact Mr. Faria was not involved in the negotiations regarding the Consent Decree and was not an original party to the Decree is of no significance” (emphasis added).
Judge Suko, in his thorough decision, details the multiple instances of non-compliance which constituted contempt, noting that there was “never any reasonable effort” by the defendant to comply with specific terms of the consent decree. The judge rejected the false notion that the defendant’s failure represented merely “a few technical violations.” He focused on a multitude of problems with the defendant’s “manure management practices.”
First, during a period of just over a month, from November 18, 2008 until December 21, 2008, the defendant applied 2,216,000 gallons of liquid manure to land located just north of its factory farm, resulting in a ponded area adjacent to an irrigation canal. The plaintiff provided persuasive evidence of this ponded area by photographs taken in an aerial fly-over in December 2008. Ponded water was observed in this area up to June 5, 2009 in violation of the consent decree which required the defendant “to abide by its Dairy Nutrient Management Plan.” This plan prohibited “the application of liquid manure under conditions that allow contaminated waters to run off fields and into surface waters, or to be allowed to infiltrate to ground water.”
Second, the defendant maintains a series of underground pipes for the transport of liquid manure from its lagoons to off-site fields. Sometime in late November or early December 2008, it applied manure water through its underground pipes to land known as the Hebdon Field. Two separate leaks in the piping apparatus “caused a ponded area to form on the north side of the Hebdon Field.” Once again, plaintiff introduced convincing evidence of this illegal ponding by the use of aerial photographs. This ponding of manure water “caused, or threatened to cause, a discharge of pollutants into surface waters and/or ground water.” Further, the plaintiff introduced evidence of soil sampling on the Hebdon Field taken two months later which revealed “excessively high levels of nitrate and phosphorus. . . consistent with over-applications of manure to the Hebdon Field.” The defendant’s Dairy Nutrient Management Plan prohibits “application of manure unless post-harvest soil test results justify a need for nutrients” (emphasis added).
Third, sometime in the course of a three week period, between November 18 and December 11, 2008, the defendant applied 3,892,000 gallons of liquid manure to a field, east of its factory farm, known as the Dykes Field. These applications occurred when the ground was frozen and/or snow covered and when “there was no active cropping.” Soil sampling on the Dykes Field taken two months later revealed “excessively high levels of nitrate and phosphorus. . . consistent with over-applications of manure . . .” Once again, defendant violated its Dairy Nutrient Management Plan which prohibits “application of manure unless post-harvest soil test results justify a need for nutrients” (emphasis added).
Fourth, the defendant uses trucks to haul liquid and solid manure off-site for application to nearby fields. Since June 15, 2009, there have been “instances of liquid manure being spilled by Faria’s trucks onto public roadways,” which were held to establish a failure by the defendant to adequately inspect and clean its vehicles that come in contact with manure.
Fifth, the defendant’s Dairy Nutrient Management Plan required it to maintain its “storage lagoons consistent with best management practices.” The ability of the storage lagoons to contain liquid manure is maintained by “regularly cleaning and agitating the lagoons to remove solid deposits.” If this is not done, the “possibility of a release of manure from the lagoons during a significant precipitation event” is increased. The defendant failed to “dredge its lagoons in 2007 and 2008 in violation of its Dairy Nutrient Management Plan and the Consent Decree.”
Sixth, the defendant’s storage and treatment lagoons are lined with a synthetic PVC plastic liner, to help prevent liquid manure from seeping into the ground and infiltrating the groundwater. Repairs to tears were not made until more than a year after they were first noticed in violation of the Dairy’s Nutrient Management Plan which requires that any damage to the PVC liner must be repaired “as it occurs.”
Finally, nitrate contamination was found in three environmental groundwater monitoring wells along the northern border of the dairy’s property and one reference well nearby. The court determined that “Faria’s manure management practices” were the predominant source of this contamination, resulting from the defendant’s “consistent over-application of manure to fields located adjacent to, and nearby, the Dairy.”
Based upon the “Defendant’s failure to comply with the Consent Decree from the very outset of its operation of the dairy,” Judge Suko determined that the Consent Decree would be extended for a period of three years, and awarded the plaintiff its reasonable past attorney fees and costs incurred in this litigation. The court’s related Order on Relief in this matter, consisting of 34 pages, specifies (in remarkable detail) the steps to be taken to ensure that the defendant complies with its Dairy Nutrient Management Plan and the Consent Decree.
The community of Royal City, most known for producing a wide variety of crops including apples, cherries, peaches, timothy and alfalfa hay, melons, potatoes, onions, wine grapes, pears, mint and corn [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_City,_Washington], may now also be known as a community with a water supply that is valued and protected, even if it took a vigilant non-profit group (with the ability to take aerial photographs to establish evidentiary proof) and federal litigation (Community Association for the Restoration of the Environment, a Washington nonprofit corporation v. Nelson Faria Dairy, Inc., No. CV-04-3060-LRS, 12/30/11, Judge Lonny R. Suko). The plaintiff, CARE, was represented by Charles M. Tebbutt, Esq., of Eugene, Oregon; Defendant Nelson Faria Dairy, Inc, by the Spokane, Washington law firm of Foster, Pepper (John Ray Nelson, Esq. and Lori A. Terry, Esq.). The complete decision by Judge Suko is available on plaintiff’s attorney Charles M. Tebbutt’s website.
To find out how many CAFOs are in your area, check out Food & Water Watch’s Factory Farm Map:
www.factoryfarmmap.org/
Also see our earlier report on the work of Lynn Herring, who won the Goldman Prize in 2010 for exposing the immense pollution cased by the CAFO industry in Michigan [knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom.com/2010/05/26/prestigious-environmental-prize-awarded-to-michigan-family-farmer/].
(FW Barrie, 3/13/12)
Edible, An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants
Sitting in a coffee shop in an upstate New York town currently benefiting from a “buy local” main street revitalization, my senses are awakened by the intersection of two food plants from distant lands. The barista, on day 23 of a Paleolithic diet, is peeling a grapefruit and the aromatic vapors are drifting across the room, through the dusty coffee air and mixing with the complex bitter flavors of fair trade beans in my mouth. I am suddenly struck by the complexity of this truly globalized experience and how reading Edible has influenced my relationship and understanding of our complex contemporary food system.
Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants, published in 2008 by the National Geographic Society, combines the stellar visual stimulation that Nat Geo has lured me with since I was a child with a top-notch encyclopedia-esque look at global eating patterns. Edible is a book worthy of just about anyone’s collection and will satisfy the plant nerd, foodie, or historian. The book includes an impressive list of contributors – a combination of nutritionists, chefs, horticulturists, herbalists, and food writers. Many contributors received a Master of Arts in Gastronomy at South Australia’s University of Adelaide and their expertise is present throughout. The department’s website states that it is a “unique interdisciplinary program for people with a passion for food and drink and a desire to understand the history and culture of food and drink, and their relevance to contemporary customs and practices.” This 350-page text explores all aspects of this theme.
Having not revisited the history of agriculture or the Fertile Crescent of ancient Mesopotamia since high school history, I steeped myself in Edible’s overview of the origins of agriculture, our evolution from gatherers to growers (the book focuses on cultivated rather than foraged plants), and how trade, exploration, and conquest has helped to form our contemporary diets. The book then goes on to explore modern advances in agriculture and looks towards our “green future.” Following this introduction, a plant directory is sub-divided into fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, herbs, spices, and beverages with each section providing historical, botanical, and culinary information about individual plants. An additional reference section includes nutritional charts with which one can compare the Vitamin C content of such diverse plants as Chayote (a pumpkin family vegetable cultivated by the Aztecs in Central America) and Mache, also known as Corn Salad or Lamb’s Lettuce (a green with a mild nutty flavor similar to spinach).
With years of experience growing food and eating locally in the Northeast, perhaps the most intriguing section of the book for me is the chapter on fruit. Its pages are filled with images and words I have never been exposed to at my farmer’s market or in the many seed catalogs I browse each winter. So many strange plants and new fruits to try! I am of course not alone in my ignorance and as Deborah Madison, founding chef of San Francisco’s Greens Restaurant, points out in her forward to the book, it is not only influenced by the particular climate I live in, but is the consequence of our society’s separation from food on many levels.
“Our ignorance goes hand in hand with our long distance agricultural systems, extensive food processing, and a way of life that threatens to eliminate home cooking. We no longer pause to consider the merits of this cultivar over that; instead, we simply read the label on the can or packet. Our distance from the foods we eat can be measured not only in miles, but also in our diminishing knowledge and physical intimacy with plant foods. We know the shank of a leek, but seldom see its long banners of leaves.”
On a cold December day at The New Amsterdam Market, I got to experience first hand, many of the fruits featured in Edible. Maggie Nesciur of Flying Fox travels from her home in Brooklyn to “U Pick” fruit farms and brings her harvest back to the city to sell to restaurants and distribute at farmer’s markets. Underneath the cold and gray sky, she unveiled a spread of tropical fruits that she had harvested from Florida orchards and drove back to NY for the last market of the season. The colorful skins and iridescent flesh surround seeds whose potential can never be fulfilled in the northeast, but represented tangible samples of the exotic fruits that fill Edible’s pages. They lay upon the table in stark contrast to the dried, fermented, and canned foods of the other vendors. Just a few fruits that were included in Edible and were represented at Flying Fox’s stand were Canistel, native to southern Mexico and Central America and also known as egg fruit (serve with salt, pepper, and lime juice), Sapodilla (tree contains a latex called “chicle,” dried and chewed by indigenous populations of Central America), and Longans (“lung yen” or “long yan,” which means “dragon’s eye,” originally from China and like lychees are enjoyed fresh, dried or cooked). Thanks to Hungry Ghost for the beautiful documentation of Maggie’s wares!
Edible serves as a crucial reminder of the very dynamic and long history of how food plants have made it to our door. So that even the apple picked from our own backyard connects us to a very distant time and place. In the midst of the local food movement, it is a good time to look back and reflect on just how we got to where we are. Since the establishment of early trade routes, humans have had a taste for the exotic. Even more so, with the advent of trucking, refrigeration, and ripening technologies our culture has come to emphasize variety over quality so that even if we never experience the true flavor of strawberry we have been content because we have access to it 12 months out of the year. The shift to a more localized food system has begun to shift this pattern and the perceived value of an ingredient is increasing the closer it was grown to the place of consumption. With its beautiful pictures, culinary suggestions, and ethnobotanical information, Edible is sure to inspire gardeners and chefs to dream of new plants to diversify their meals and gardens and will unveil the forgotten exoticism of everyday ingredients that we have come to take for granted. [Edible, An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008]
Sara Worden (3/2/12)
