Reviews

The American Horticultural Society (AHS) and the Junior Master Gardener Program (JMG program) in 2005 created national awards for excellence in children’s literature known as the Growing Good Kids Book Awards.  For the 18th year in a row, they have honored the best new children’s books about gardening, nature and the environment. The awards for 2023 were announced at the […]

“In the summer of 1971, a gathering took place here at the Earth Bridge Land Trust, between the villages of Putney and Westminster Vermont,” explains Al Johnson. “The gathering [in Windham County in the southeastern corner of Vermont] brought together people with a wide range of backgrounds, but they all had one thing in common, […]

Over the years, the most popular pages on this website have been our farm to table Dining Directories. There are dozens of directories that span the 50 states and Puerto Rico in the U.S. and the ten provinces of Canada as well as directories for Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. In addition, there are ten directories […]

There’s a received notion that American food is exemplified by the blandest of processed inventions, those rubbery slabs of “American” cheese being the epitome. By altering the standards by which the cuisine is judged – keeping the geography, but extending the history and re-coloring the inhabitants – we discover an impressive variety of foodstuffs and […]

Kristin Kimball, whose two memoirs The Dirty Life, A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love (2011) and Good Husbandry, Growing Food, Love, and Family on Essex Farm (2019) we’ve highly recommended, also shares much appreciated weekly Farm Notes. She writes from Essex Farm in upstate New York’s north country near Lake Champlain, where she and her husband farm […]

Adam Alexander, whose curiosity prompted travel all over the world collecting endangered vegetable seeds to grow and share, writes that “Crammed into two fridges in the garage behind my study are jars and boxes filled with envelopes containing – at the time of writing – 499 varieties of vegetable seeds, sadly most no longer commercially […]

If you are fortunate to live in the only suitable terroir in the world for maple syrup, the Greater Northeast, described as a triangle running from Michigan to New Brunswick (Canada) to West Virginia, you may also have luck in finding a farm to visit that is part of the fantastic revival of the art of […]

That bright pink fish became a centerpiece of our diet, its health benefits aggressively promoted, its resultant appeal so great that it even gave its name to a trendy color. You know what they say about All Good Things, and so it is with our favorite seafood. Turns out not only that farmed salmon is […]

Ever contemplated “chucking it all” and moving to a farm? Shrugging off the heavy mantle of living and working in the corporate world in order to get back to the earth sounds wonderfully noble and romantic, allowing you to glory in the knowledge that you’re providing healthy food for yourself and your neighbors. I know […]

So disgusting and pervasive is the odor of hog waste that a researcher who was hired to take measurements of particulate evidence in and around a number of massive hog barns is still exuding the noxious stink for many days after he returned home. He obsessively washes himself and his clothing, but even after two […]

A molcajete is a three-legged bowl, traditionally made of basalt, which has been used as a mortar for food-grinding for thousands of years in Mesoamerican cultures. Because it retains heat for a very long time, it’s also used for food presentation, and you’ll find it as the centerpiece of a spectacular entrée at Greenane Farms […]

Agriculture is now inextricably linked to climate change. The evidence is incontrovertible; the damage is already taking place. As Laura Lengnick observes in the opening pages of her updated and expanded second edition of Resilient Agriculture, (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, 2022). “Climate change is happening now. Climate change is changing everything.” The first version of […]

What Your Food Ate, How to Heal Our Land And Reclaim Our Health (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, N. Y. 2022) is the startlingly portentous title of a new study by the married team of David Montgomery and Anne Biklé, a book that takes a remarkably thorough look at how and why humans interact […]

The state of Vermont’s status as the greenest state in the United States is indisputable. Over the years, we have reported on Strolling of the Heifers’ annual Locavore Index, on which The Green Mountain State has consistently been atop, as it has been since the first Locavore Index was compiled in 2012. Due to the […]

Jose Andrés is much more than a restaurateur and an author of cookbooks. In our recent review of his cookbook, Vegetables Unleashed, we noted that his humanitarian visits to disaster areas where he and his crews have fed masses of people through his non-profit World Central Kitchen have made him well-known for his empathy and […]

Dumpling Day (Barefoot Books, Concord, MA, 2021), a children’s book described by its author Meera Sriram as “For little kitchen helpers everywhere,” is a book for a family to treasure, and to have handy, especially for a rainy day when the young ones need some positive “entertainment” by cooking up a delicious treat. Barefoot Books, […]

Stung with an attack of middle-class guilt, Stephen Henderson sought to expiate by helping to cook meals at a variety of soup kitchens around the world. Bringing a home-gourmet sensibility to these excursions, when placed in charge he designed menus not necessarily conducive to catering or soup-kitchen tastes, so his home-cooking-based efforts tended to throw […]

Alice Waters is the subject for a just published children’s picture book biography, which in 48 artful pages, captures the important message for young (and old) that fresh, local, and organic food is the delicious way to a better life in harmony with nature. Alice Waters Cooks Up A Food Revolution (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, […]

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that José Andrés is obsessed with vegetables. But I do know better: He’s obsessed with everything to do with food and food production. And I’m sure that hardly defines the limits of his interests. You likely know of Andrés because of his humanitarian visits to disaster areas where […]

In northern climes, the winter can seem much longer than the other three seasons.  On the latest Groundhog Day in 2022, we had a reminder of that feeling. Punxsutawney Phil, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, saw his shadow earlier this week, and the prediction is for six more weeks of winter. Still, by early […]

Until a recent pancake lunch at the wonderful Phoenicia Diner in the heart of the Catskill Mountain region of upstate New York, this pancake/waffle indulger never before had buckwheat pancakes: What a delicious eye-opener, especially when enjoyed with a couple cups of this remarkable diner’s coffee from Java Love Coffee Roasting Company based in Bethel […]

Many, if not most, of the stories you read here offer encouraging observations about people and places and the things they write and do that encourage or contribute to food safety. But sharing a look at André Leu’s book The Myths of Safe Pesticides (ACRES U.S.A., Austin, Texas 2014) is like making you watch a […]

James Rebanks sneaks up on you. His prose is colorful and decisive. He’s writing about nature, which encourages lavish description, and he’s writing about the indignities humans have imposed on nature, which encourages hand-wringing. But he does neither. Rather, Rebanks is a documentarian sharing a first-person farming experience in such a way that broader truths […]

Our most popular webpage for farm to table dining listings has consistently been the Massachusetts dining directory, which now includes over 100 listings. The Prairie Whale in Great Barrington (Berkshire County) is unquestionably a star in the Massachusetts listings. And it’s undeniably a farm to table restaurant. It’s been more than ten years, since knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom.com went […]

“Norway became oil-rich in the 1970s, so our view of the country is as a prosperous place on the right side of human rights,” said Darra Goldstein, introducing a talk about Norwegian culinary practices. “But before that they were seen as poor, and the Swedes and Danes looked down on them.” We were assembled at […]

Nothing you read here will prepare you for the experience of watching Gunda, the new film from Russian director Victor Kossakovsky. It’s about animals, in particular a pig whose name gives the movie its title. But she, and her litter, and the chickens and cows we will also see, aren’t presented in verdant colors with […]

It’s no surprise that the vibrant small city of Northampton in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts is home to the wonderful Hungry Ghost Bread, which has been providing delicious breads, naturally leavened with sourdough starter and fermented for 24 hours, and pastries for nearly 20 years to appreciative customers. Easy to see why Hungry Ghost […]

First there’s a small sense of betrayal. Mark Bittman’s cookbooks are reliable foundational items for any culinary collection, offering satisfying recipes described in a reassuring voice. His latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk, A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal (Houghton Miflin Harcourt Publishing Co., New York, New York 2021), however, is almost an anti-cookbook […]

A few weeks ago in a news article, Pizza! Pizza! A comfort food has risen to become a big pandemic winner for families and restaurants (2/12/21) by Julie Creswell in the NY Times, this pizza lover was reminded of the start of the 2020-2021 pandemic year when I took an hour’s drive from home in […]

We’re feeling the horrible effects of a global climate crisis. We’re wracked with guilt over the lousy food we consume – or we should be. There are solutions, but how do you persuade the public to change its ways? Get celebrities to give those answers. Or so believe filmmakers Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. […]

Over the past few years, we’ve enjoyed spotlighting the national awards for children’s literature created by the American Horticultural Society (AHS) and the Junior Master Gardener Program (JMG). This past November, AHS and JMG honored four children’s books with their Growing Good Kids-Excellence in Children’s Literature Awards for 2020. (A list of all winners over […]

As you make your way through this well-reasoned, well-researched, densely written book, you may hear the sound of a scream, a crescendo of pain that builds from introduction to index. In my case, it turned out to be coming from the inside of my own head. We know, or have intuited, some of the issues […]

Although she was born in Albany in upstate New York, Elizabeth Zunon (a multi-talented artist, jewelry maker, chocolate lover and author/illustrator of children’s books, spent her childhood in Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) in West Africa. Zunon’s first, of now three authored-illustrated picture books, was published only last year. Grandpa Cacao, A Tale […]

If you care about how your food is grown and distributed and you care about social justice, the one book you must read right now is Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman (Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT, 2018).  Farming While Black was written […]

I’m guessing that you and I share an enjoyment of cooking at home, and that we initially viewed the closure of dining-out possibilities a couple of months ago as no great loss. I’m further guessing that, as soon as we learned it was possible to visit an eatery again for something other than take-out, we […]

Nava Atlas’s beautifully produced cookbook, 5 Ingredient Vegan, 175 Simple, plant-based recipes for delicious, healthy meals in minutes (Sterling Epicure, New York, NY, 2019) could not have arrived at a better time. It was the beginning of our Covid-19 lockdown. We suddenly had more mouths to feed with few take-out options. Home cooking went from […]

Your view of the earth may be immediately subverted by this book: most of it takes place in Australia, where the seasons are inverted and the land is often desert. But this turns out to be an excellent location from which to contemplate the renewal of the land. Moreover, Call of the Reed Warbler, A […]

Keep in mind that Bayer AG (best-known as the aspirin company) remains in a legal hot-seat over its weed-killer Roundup, a product it inherited when it bought Monsanto. Although Bayer agreed to pay almost $40 million over allegations that it ran misleading ads about the product, it’s still got about 13,000 lawsuits – and nearly […]

You’ve probably contemplated doing more shopping at your local food co-op for many reasons, among them that you’ll probably find healthier fare and you’ll be supporting the local economy. Once you finish reading John Steinman’s Grocery Story, The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada, […]

Holly Bellebuono is an internationally regarded herbalist, teacher, and author of books about herbal medicine, natural health, and women’s empowerment. The Healing Kitchen, Cooking with Nourishing Herbs for Health, Wellness, and Vitality (Roost Books, Boulder, 2016) is a sprightly introduction to the use of herbs to enjoy their flavors and reap their benefits. As befits […]

As a term of social import, sustainable, like so many politically charged buzzwords, threatens to blur into non-specificity. Sustainable, the documentary by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher, seeks to re-focus the term into a term of art. And they do so by making the best kind of argument in favor of a social ideal: a look […]

In this pizza lover’s humble opinion, our directory of Farm to Table Pizza is a go-to resource when traveling. The directory now lists nearly three dozen pizzerias (and some bakeries), from Arizona to Wisconsin, which serve artisinal, hand-crafted pizza utilizing fresh and local ingredients. On a recent trip to attend a wedding in California, it […]

What’s most ironic about Gary Kleppel’s plea for sustainable agriculture is that he’s merely asking us to do what was done for thousands of years in the years before chemicals and industrialization dominated the fields: keep it natural, diverse, and local. Kleppel sees his essay collection The Emergent Agriculture, Farming, Sustainability and the Return of […]

Garden pests like aphids, cucumber beetles and spider mites can wreak havoc on a garden, leading to withered or weakened plants. But not all bugs are a menace to your yard. In Good Garden Bugs: Everything You Need to Know About Beneficial Predatory Insects (Quarry Books, Beverly, Massachusetts, 2015), entomologist Mary M. Gardiner, PhD, encourages […]

Good Husbandry: Growing Food, Love, and Family on Essex Farm by Kristin Kimball (Scribner, New York, New York, 2019) is a follow-up to Kimball’s first book, The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love, which came out in 2011. The Dirty Life described how Kimball and her husband, Mark, fell in love with each […]

In suburban New Jersey, not far from the intersection of the Garden State Parkway and Interstate I-78, is Arturo’s Osteria & Pizzeria in Maplewood (Essex County). Arturo’s is included in our directory for Farm to Table Pizza, which lists nearly three dozen praiseworthy pizzerias (and some bakeries) which serve artisinal, hand-crafted pizzas utilizing fresh and […]

Making a living as a farmer isn’t easy. Small farms have so much work on their plates, adding marketing into the mix may seem like an impossible task. But taking the time to make a farm more visible to consumers and to grow the businesses is a vital task for economic health. In Cultivating Customers: […]

When the Mohawk Valley village of Fort Plain in upstate New York was hit by flooding in the summer of 2013 – four years to the day after a similar horror – nearly 90 businesses told the town’s mayor that they couldn’t afford to reopen. Aaron Katovitch had only recently opened his restaurant, The Table […]

As the downside of industrial food production has become more widely understood, the demand for grass-fed beef and other meats has increased in a big way. Offering a win-win for the environment and consumers — with their healthier balance of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids and disease-fighting conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), pastured-raised meats have moved […]

What should be the cost of a healthy meal made with farm fresh ingredients? We suspect that it’s going to be more expensive than a meal made with conventionally sourced and cheaper ingredients, whether home-cooked or at a restaurant. The camaraderie at a farmers market eases the pain of spending perhaps a little more money […]

Many are the cookbooks that are underlain by themes or contain winsome backstories, but far less common is a cookbook in which the backstory holds its own with – and imparts meaning to – the recipes. The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN 2017) is […]

Covering an eight-year struggle to establish John and Molly Chester’s Apricot Lane Farm, nature is filmed up-close in the must-see film, The Biggest Little Farm. With its  profound emotion and a narrative arc that is suspenseful, this winner of Best Documentary at the Boulder Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at […]

Traveling along the I-95 corridor (including the New Jersey Turnpike) is seldom an easy drive and often stop and go. But when studying the AAA road map of New Jersey and spotting the historic college town of Princeton mere miles off the traffic-jammed highway, a lightbulb moment. On another long drive along I-90, the few […]

Sullivan Street Bakery founded in 1994 by Jim Lahey in the Big Apple’s Greenwich Village may be the longest running bakery included in our directory of craft bakeries. We take some pride in noting that our listings now number 80 bakeries, from Alaska to Wyoming in the United States, from British Columbia to Prince Edward […]

For brothers David and Dan Podoll, one of the solutions to the economic stresses of operating their North Dakota farm turned out to be heirloom seeds. The brothers’ farm has been in their family since 1953, with wheat and turkeys providing their main revenue stream. But their ability to continue farming in southeastern North Dakota […]

Like most everyone, I know how important pollinators are to the food chain. What I didn’t realize, until I read this book, was how artisanal honeys, like fine wines or single source coffees, have distinctive flavors rooted in terroir. To find a spot on my shelf these days a cookbook needs to be inspirational, have […]

As a child, Jinah Kim’s favorite dish was pan-fried yellow croaker. When her mother would prepare it for the family, it reaffirmed their Korean roots. The family had moved from Inchon, South Korea, to Framingham, Massachusetts, when Jinah was three. Other family members had a jewelry store there, which probably kindled Jinah’s entrepreneurial spirit. But […]

 That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s struggle for justice/ No Es Justo! La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia (Wings Press, San Antonio, Texas, 2008) by Carmen Tafolla and Sheryl Teneyuca (illustrated by Terry Ybañez) and Amelia’s Road (Lee & Low Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1993) by Linda Jacobs Altman (illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez) are two […]

For half a century or so, our informal but most effective agricultural policy has been to eat as much, as effortlessly, as thoughtlessly, and as cheaply as we can, and to hell with whatever else may be involved. That’s from Wendell Berry’s 2009 essay The Necessity of Agriculture, an eloquent plea for a renascence of […]

Is it really possible to boil cooking down to balancing just four elements that, when understood, can make anyone a great cook? Well, that’s the premise and purpose behind chef, author and now documentary host Samin Nosrat’s four-part Netflix series, Salt Acid Fat Heat, based on her similarly titled cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering […]

Grazin’ Hudson on Warren Street, the lively main street in downtown Hudson (Columbia County), New York, is grilling up what is hands-down the very best burgers money can buy. This small diner in New York’s Hudson Valley should be a destination for anyone hungering for a flavorful, juicy and tender beef burger. A mindful eater would […]

Chef Ana Sortun graduated from La Varenne in Paris, but her interest in Middle Eastern food has taken her beyond that classical French foundation. She opened her first restaurant, Oleana, in Cambridge, Mass., in 2001; she now also owns Sarma, a Turkish-style tavern, and Sofra Bakery & Café, all in the same general area. And it doesn’t […]

Preaching precaution (caution employed beforehand or prudent foresight) isn’t the same as practicing it. And the ounce of prevention principle, seemingly instilled in us at birth, has long gone out the window where pesticide use is concerned. Touted as the farmer’s salvation before risks were revealed, pesticides spawned a massive and profitable industry that flourishes, like any drug […]

In the heart of Cambridge (MA) near Central Square is chef Ana Sortun’s renown Oleana Restaurant serving farm to table Eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, Lebanon & Greece) food. No surprise to many that Boston Magazine included, what it called, “dazzling”  Oleana in its updated list of the 50 Best Restaurants in Boston, noting that chef Sortun’s […]

You’d think it has much to do with flavor, this diet of ours. It turns out we’re making choices based on an amazing range of factors, including the color and size of the plate on which our food is served and the volume and tempo of the music that might be coming at us. Rachel […]

On travels away from home, our directory for craft bakeries, offering naturally leavened breads and baked goods, made from scratch and hand-crafted, with the mindful sourcing of ingredients often including local grains and fruits is a handy resource to break up a long drive and connect up with the good bread movement that is taking hold […]

The story of immigration to America is a familiar one: the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free, escaping tyranny or seeking opportunity, crossing the vast ocean to start a new life. A less familiar narrative, however, is migration in the other direction, from the new world to the old. In recent years it […]

Our most popular webpages, especially in the summer season, are the directories for farm to table dining. And our most popular webpage is consistently the Massachusetts dining directory, very likely the result of the state’s attraction for vacationers. Our Massachusetts dining directory has over one hundred listings including twenty listings in Berkshire County, from Chester to Williamstown, […]

A celebrated organic farmer of peaches, grapes, and nectarines in California, David Mas Masumoto is also a gifted storyteller and chronicler of the considerable challenges and rewards of organic farming. Masumoto’s memoir, Wisdom of the Last Farmer, Harvesting Legacies From The Land (Free Press, A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York, NY 2009), is a tribute […]

Had I wanted more food, I probably could have strolled into the fields just beyond the dining area and helped myself. But that would have meant bypassing the creative, harmonious transformations effected by chefs Joan Porambo and Kyle MacPherson. They’re offering brunches and dinners (they call their farm to table meals Field Notes) at the […]

Spring – planting season – isn’t a good time to read David R. Montgomery’s Growing a Revolution  (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2017). Not when you live, as I do, in farming country in upstate New York. The plows are at work everywhere, from large green motorized behemoths to the horse-drawn antiques of the Amish. And, […]

If you are an avid baker, wanting to take your bread baking to the next level or perhaps a locavore looking for the next food frontier in taste . . . or if you’re simply interested in learning more about the grains we take for granted, then Sara Pitzer’s Homegrown Whole Grains, Grow, Harvest & […]

A Business Traveller article published on-line by CNN Travel (and updated this spring) has spotlighted resorts and hotels that grow their own food. Reporter Allison Tibaldi’s Farm-to-hotel: 10 resorts [and hotels] that grow their own food includes four destination resorts in the United States: The Lodge at Woodloch in Hawley, Pennsylvania; Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee; Omni […]

I can remember the moment a fresh local ingredient changed my life as an omnivorous human, capable of eating all kinds of foods indiscriminately. It was an apple, sampled from the tree during an excursion to Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, near Albany in upstate New York. Besides being crisp and juicy, the apple’s flavor exploded […]

Despite the best efforts of my elementary-school science teachers, the world of biology only really opened up for me as I thrilled to the exploits of Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch, and Donald Pleasance as they were shrunk to microbe size and sent into the bloodstream of a wounded scientist to effect a cure. Nothing brought […]

Wendell Berry has been the conscience of rural America for several decades, presenting a cohesive, considered response to the over-industrialization of our lives. He has done so through his essays, novels, and poetry, while living a life as a Kentucky farmer with a deep connection to the land that allows him to put his beliefs […]

After crossing the new and visually striking Tappan Zee Bridge, officially named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, over the Hudson River, this highway traveler decided to exit the NYS Thruway at the first exit after the bridge, Exit 10 for Nyack in Rockland County. Relying carefully on the highway signing for Nyack, the zigzagging […]

I’ll admit to skipping over the philosophy section when browsing bookstores. On the book buffet, philosophy sits there next to seitan or black-eyed peas – virtuous, yes, but surrounded by more enticing, tastier options. But Philosophers at Table, On Food and Being Human (Reaktion Books, London, UK, 2016) by two American professors of Philosophy, Raymond […]

Two years ago, just before Thanksgiving 2015, we shared Francesca Zambello’s delicious recipe for Pumpkin & Kale (or spinach) Lasagna, a perfect option for vegetarians as a Thanksgiving entrée (or for a hearty dish on a cold and snowy winter day). In preparing the recipe, the Berry Patch Farm in Stephentown (Rensselaer County, NY), which […]

The natural fermentation (or pickling) of real food, such as cabbage, cucumbers, carrots and beets has become a big part of the good food movement. And Tara Whitsitt’s Fermentation On Wheels is Exhibit A in proving that tasty food, sustainability and community building is the inspiriting consequence of spreading knowledge about pickling food. The fermentation […]

With the proliferation of cooking websites and blogs, a cookbook these days needs to be something special to justify the expenditure of one’s hard-earned cash. The Cook’s Table by Stephanie Alexander (Lantern, an imprint of Penguin Books Australia, May 2016, distributed by Independent Publishers Group in the United States) is one such book. Alexander is an Australian […]

Earlier this year, we reported on the death at 98 of Lorenzo Servitje, whose Grupo Bimbo (a company with sales of more than $14 billion and 130,000 employees), brought “bread across borders” in the words of the notice of his passing in the New York Times (2/7/17). Grupo Bimbo operates worldwide with “more than 100 […]

What you see is the beautiful array of produce, the shelves of spices and carefully chosen packaged foods, the case of chilled meat and seafood, the coffee bar, the tables, the cookies and brownies and scones. What you feel is the welcoming ambience provided by a sunny, attractive space and the pleasant vibe of pleased […]

Our Table is a regional cooperative which farms 58 acres in a spectacular location with a view of Mount Hood, about 15 miles south of Portland in Sherwood (Washington County, Oregon) in the Tualatin Valley. All of its plant-based crops, as well as its chickens and eggs are Certified Organic under the USDA’s National Organic […]

One way to make sense of new/old foods at the farmers market is to find vintage cookbooks with recipes that predate industrial agriculture. Not quite vintage, Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky (Riverhead Books, member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, 2009) is a rollicking tour of American regional cuisine before World War […]

Sasha Martin tells us on page one that this is not the book she meant to write. Life from Scratch, a memoir of food, family, and forgiveness (National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. 2015) is a beautifully written exploration of love, loss and redemption, but it started as a stunt memoir based on her popular blog Globaltableadventure.com. Between 2010 and 2013, Sasha […]

Nine miles east of Upstate New York’s Saratoga Springs and down an unpaved, dusty road in historic farm country (that once was crossed by Burgoyne’s troops on their way to defeat in 1777 at the Saratoga Battlefield) is 9 Miles East Farm. The 29 acre farm has become well-known for its farm pizza. The farm […]

With inlayed tiles of fiddlehead ferns above the windows the only identifying features (and the colorful façade more suggestive of Tuscany than the rustic Adirondacks), you might easily drive by without registering that this was your farm-to-table dining destination in New York’s Adirondack Region, but it would be your loss. The Fiddlehead Bistro is the […]

There’s a conviction shared by some top Montreal-based chefs to keep food local, explore heritage Canadian dishes and celebrate the fruits of the region’s lands and seas, harkening back to the days of Quebec’s fur trappers and tree tappers. Au Pied de Cochon (in English, pig’s foot or pig’s trotters) and Manitoba are two standout restaurants […]

The Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table, created by David Gelb (director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the 2011 documentary film about 85 year old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef), is now in its third season. Each episode of the globetrotting show has focused on a single world-renowned chef, including chefs […]

New demands from a dynamic global economy, continued decline in the quality and availability of natural resources, and the unprecedented challenges of climate change are just beginning to take their toll on the U.S. food system. That’s the starting point of Laura Lengnick’s book Resilient Agriculture, Cultivating Food Systems For A Changing Climate (New Society Publishers, […]

Tusk, a new dining option in Portland, Oregon, opened last fall to the delight of diners looking for flavorful Middle Eastern food at a restaurant with a commitment to sourcing its food aggressively and seasonally from local sources (as emphasized on its website’s homepage). With more than 30 food sources, including small farmers and artisans, […]

The Perennial Plate has created more than 150 short documentaries that share the theme of Adventures in Sustainable Eating. A recent documentary produced by the two-time James Beard Award winning online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating, is perfectly timed for St. Patrick’s Day. Episode 168: Howth, Dublin, with a soundtrack of […]

Chef Damon Baehrel names as his favorite food – an apple. I find a crisp, slightly tart, juicy apple absolutely irresistible, he writes in his new book Native Harvest: The Inspirational Cuisine of Damon Baehrel (Lightbulb Press, New York, NY, 2016). It’s a cookbook without many recipes and a picture book without many finished dishes, but it’s […]

Heavy rain pelted the window pane behind us, but inside Thistle it was warm and cozy. Outside, a blustery late winter downpour drenched downtown McMinnville. Tucked just off the small city’s famous 3rd Street, this farm-to-table dining destination attracts locals and tourists alike who appreciate its impressive dedication to local farms. With a menu that changes […]

We have sung the praises of the Slow Food movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1989 as an outgrowth of his campaign against the McDonald’s fast food chain opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome. This global, grassroots organization’s mission is to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of […]

It’s often said that being committed to a fully organic and local ingredient-based menu takes dedication. To do it for 23 consecutive years is another thing entirely. One of the first fully organic restaurants in Washington, D.C., Coppi’s Organic has remained steadfast in its commitment to organic local sourcing, despite a number of ups and […]

It’s a place that winter-welcomes you with a sign reading Seasoned Greetings but it’s a literal welcome because the Culinary Institute of America wants you to share the fare that its students are learning to cook – which, last Tuesday, meant a Tuscan extravaganza of hearty peasant dishes served in its Ristorante Catarina de Medici. […]

On a grey, mid-November day, with post-Election Day malaise prompting anxiety about the future, lunch at New Hampshire’s Hilltop Café in a cozy restored 1765 farmhouse on Abbot Hill (at 923 feet, the highest elevation in the rural town of Wilton in Hillsborough County) raises the spirits and rewards the taste buds. Committed to “using […]

One of North America’s gifts to the world is maple syrup. The earliest history of the process of boiling down maple sap to extract sugar is unknown but early European explorers and settlers observed native Americans do so and soon emulated them. By the early 18th century the conversion of sap to rock maple sugar […]

On a cross-country trip from Vermont to Oregon, friends invited us to break up the trip midway with a stopover at their home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our friends, who belong to a local CSA farm and love good food (and even have a clay oven to prepare delicious meals), knew that breakfast or lunch at […]

It’s not surprising that a cookbook from the Beekman Boys would be a classy, useful tome: everything they present they present with commendable style. The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook (Sterling Epicure, New York, NY 2011) collects over a hundred recipes, nicely described and beautifully photographed by Paulette Taormina arranged by season and encouraging you to make the […]

Dozens of men from Texas, with intellectual disabilities (guys with IQs of 60 and 70 in the words of their employer), wound up living for 30 plus years in virtual servitude in the small Iowa town of Atalissa (Muscatine County). They were there, a thousand miles from Texas, in order to provide grossly underpaid labor […]

Mary’s Restaurant, located at the Inn at Baldwin Creek in Bristol, Vermont (Addison County) features an eye-catching blurb of approval on its website from Vermont Magazine: “A visit to Vermont and missing Mary’s is like visiting Paris and missing the Eiffel Tower. . .” A proud farm-to-table restaurant since 1983, Mary’s Restaurant sources its food […]

The sweeping vistas of the Hand Melon Farm, a 425-acre estate in upstate New York’s Washington County, are broad enough to showcase row after row of growing crops, some of them in open fields, the more vulnerable under protective netting. On Thursday, August 4, the view was complemented by rows of split chickens sizzling on […]

Before serving piping hot pies from their 800 degree oven, Lovely’s Fifty Fifty in Portland, Oregon was Lovely’s Hula Hands for seven years.  Owners Sarah and Jane Minnick decided to shutter Hula Hands and redirect the space into a pizza and ice cream parlor, but not for lack of success. It was their desire to […]

There’s no better example of how a baking resurgence is being woven into the culinary fabric of New York City than at the small but widely acclaimed Runner & Stone bakery cafe, a Michelin-recommended Bib Gourmand (i.e., an affordable and excellent restaurant), located a mere three blocks from the site of one of America’s very first […]

Ken Forkish opened Ken’s Artisan Bakery fifteen years ago in Northwest Portland, an urbane residential and retail area of the city, with Old Portland-style houses, grand old apartment buildings and sleek new condominiums, plus adjoining parkland made for hiking. A perfect neighborhood for Ken’s Artisan Bakery, which has earned national attention and praise for its bread, croissants, and fruit […]

While the newspaper business in the 21st century may still be struggling to find a solid financial footing, the New York Times, at least, seems to have found one revenue stream that entertains, enlightens, and also brings home the bacon: TimesTalks, live and webcasted conversations (now in its 18th year) between its journalists and “21st century […]

You’d be hard pressed to find a more inviting and well-considered breakfast cookbook than Breakfast: Recipes to Wake Up For (Rizzoli, New York, NY, 2015), by George Weld and Evan Hanczor, the founder and chef, respectively, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s renowned farm-to-table restaurant, Egg. With a focus on classic southern staples (think grits, greens, bacon, eggs, and […]

A delicious breakfast presents fewer difficulties, than other meals, when it comes to sourcing local ingredients. The fundamental building blocks of diner-style breakfast food — eggs, meats, and dairy products— are agricultural products more readily procured in a sustainable and ethical manner from local purveyors even in a northern climate. Moreover, in the midst of […]

Twenty-five years ago in 1991, a houndy looking lab, with some golden retriever thrown in, wandered into Ted Kerasote’s campground along the San Juan River in Utah, about 100 miles down the road from Moab. This 10 month old, half-wild mixed breed, named Merle by Kerasote, became his loving companion in a person-dog relationship that […]

Vermont may be a small state size-wise, both in area and population (sixth smallest in area with less than 10,000 square miles, and 49th in population with 626,042), but it looms large in the local, farm-to-table, good food movement.  This year, Vermont topped the Locavore Index (a measure of the strength of a state local food […]

With 62,000,000 visitors annually, Orlando, Florida is the most visited tourist destination in the United States. But while its theme parks beckon millions, our listings of farm to table dining options in Florida are not many in number. But there is one particular dining destination in the Orlando metro area that deserves kudos for its […]

In London these days, you can’t help but run into one of celebrity-chef Jamie Oliver’s many shiny new restaurants. These outposts of casual upscale dining are both billboard and beachhead for Oliver’s so-called food revolution–a movement that’s built on the work of many before him but that’s brought the issues of healthier eating and local organic […]

Alice Waters hardly needs any introduction. For decades she has championed the cause of the organic food movement, strongly believing it is better for the environment and people’s health. A proponent of a food economy that is “good, clean and fair,” she has been in the forefront of the Slow Food Movement and since 2002 has […]

  In an airy, sun-filled dining room in the heart of Brooklyn, there’s a place in the popular Williamsburg neighborhood where you can revel in the simplicity of a homey, country meal. And if breakfast is your thing, you’re in luck, because egg serves it all day. But don’t let the name fool you: eggs […]

With all 50,000 tickets for Saturday’s 146th running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga sold out, and American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 37 years, set to gallop 1 and 1/2 miles this morning in a workout at the track, open to the public and free of charge, to take […]

Every city must have them: vacant lots where nothing grows but weeds, where the detritus from a busy metropolis blows in and collects in corners. Some people drive by those lots and see eyesores, just one more sign of a forsaken neighborhood. Novella Carpenter looked at the weedy 4,500-square-foot vacant lot in her Oakland, California, neighborhood (a postcard of […]

  Copenhagen’s Nørrebro, a neighborhood that is humorously labelled by Gawker as the Danish capital’s Williamsburg equivalent, is the home of Relæ, this year’s winner of the prestigious Sustainable Restaurant Award given by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. This academy is comprised of almost 1000 members, each selected for their “expert opinion” of the international […]

Thirty pages into Rowan Jacobsen’s Apples of Uncommon Character, 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, & Little-Known Wonders, Plus 20 Sweet and Savory Recipes (Bloomsbury USA, New York, New York, 2014) and I was considering how I had misspent my apple-eating life. I purchased whatever was inexpensive at the grocery store, without thinking about the whole apple universe […]

Museums are rarely known for outstanding food. The often underwhelming and overpriced fare is usually best avoided, but the Mitsitam Native Foods Café  at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is the delicious exception to that rule. Since the museum’s opening in 2004, the Mitsitam Café has received great praise; according to The New York […]

A directory of what we have termed “Craft Bakeries” was recently added to this website.   The decision to include information on bakeries making hand-crafted baked goods, with a focus on using freshly stone-ground flours (made from carefully sourced and often organic, heirloom grains) and baking delicious bread,  which relies on “natural leavening,” was prompted […]

Lofty statement?  The seasonal and locally-sourced dinner cooked by Chef Travis Olson twice a month at Glen’s Garden Market made me appreciate the true meaning of “table” and why this chef’s table (at the popular grocery store in Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, which focuses on local foods) is one of the finest. The table itself is […]

Ten dollars for a hearty dinner of tasty and fast “real food” in pricey Manhattan is a tribute to Dig Inn Seasonal Market, with its ten locations spread around one of the most densely populated areas on our planet (estimated at 170,000 people per square mile on a typical business day).  Farm to counter Dig Inn appears […]

The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball (Scribner, New York, New York, 2011). The Dirty Life is Kristin Kimball’s story of discovering the two loves of her life – the love for her future husband, Mark, who she meets while on a journalism assignment, and the love for organic farming, […]

Since the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian ten years ago in 2004, the museum’s unique cafe, the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, has become a popular destination for lunch on the historic National Mall in Washington, DC.   “Mitsitam,” in the Piscataway and Delaware (tribes local to the Washington, DC area) languages, […]

The website of the White Dog Café (with two locations, one in the University City section of Philadelphia and the other in Wayne on the Philadelphia Main Line), has a unique home page with a colorful map showing a dozen red barns and images of farm animals, cheese, fruits and vegetables.   The visitor is invited, by […]

The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning, by Julene Bair (Viking, New York, New York, 2014). The Ogallala Road is Julene Bair’s story of her family’s western Kansas farm, the impact of modern farming practices on the health and future of the Ogallala Aquifer and her search to define her connection with the land […]

A strong case can be made that Lazy Daisy’s Café makes the finest breakfast sandwich in the Toronto metropolitan area.  The Café’s Rise and Shine breakfast sandwich ($7.25) consists of Mennonite smoked bacon (from Tim & Jacqui Schmucker’s Fresh from the Farm, which sources its meats, vegetables and eggs from Mennonite farmers in the Kitchener/Waterloo region […]

Sharon Springs (a small village with a population of 547 at the 2000 census) in upstate New York’s rural Schoharie County is the home of a terrific farm-to-table restaurant, 204 Main Bar & Bistro.  As starters, my dining companions shared pot stickers ($8.00), local pork and shrimp, house made noodles, Asian slaw, spicy soy dipping sauce, […]

30 Years at Ballymaloe, by Darina Allen (Kyle Books, London, UK, 2014, Distributed by National Book Network, Lanham, MD).  This beautiful book is not so much a cookbook (although it contains over 100 recipes) but more the story of a journey.  From a culinary wilderness to the heights of excellence, a family’s journey fueled by […]

Fed-Up, a documentary film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, narrated by Katie Couric, and written by Mark Monroe and Ms. Soechtig (92 minutes)  [Distributed by Radius-TWC, a boutique label from the Weinstein Company, 2014] “Move more, eat less” has always seemed to provide an easily understood remedy for losing excess bodyweight.  Burn more calories than you […]

The Auction (Le Dématelement), a Canadian film with screenplay and direction by Sébastian Pilote, in French with English subtitles (111 minutes) [Film Movement, a North American distributor of independent and foreign films, 2013] This beautiful to behold, wonderfully acted, and deeply felt film has one uncharacteristic lighter moment.  Gaby Gagnon (played by the superb actor, […]

Forks over Knives, a documentary film written and directed by Lee Fulkerson (96 minutes) [Virgil Films, 2011] Michael Pollan in his Food Rules, answers one of the basic questions of life, “What should I eat?” with seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  Pollan’s advice to “eat food” is rooted in his rejection […]

New York City in December is a magnet with its museums, theaters and urban attractions decked out for the season. In less than 3 hours, the Amtrak train was a pain free way to travel south the 140 miles along the Hudson River from my hometown of Albany in upstate New York to meet up […]

  Nothing Like CHOCOLATE, a documentary film directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani (68 minutes) [Mirror and Hammer Films, 2013] This past June, the untimely death of Mott Green, the founder of The Grenada Chocolate Company, saddened chocolate aficionados who were aware of his mission to create a chocolate company that went beyond simply carrying a Fair […]

In the countryside a couple of miles outside Cooperstown (Otsego County), NY, is an extraordinary café, Origins.  It is housed in the greenhouse of a family-run garden center, Carefree Gardens.  From the nursery’s small parking lot, the café is approached by a short footpath that winds through thickets of perennials, edged by trees and potted […]

The kitchen garden established by Michelle Obama on the South Lawn of the White House is the first full scale vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House since Teddy Roosevelt served as president in 1902 (when the United States was still a nation of farmers).  Mrs. Obama’s tells the story of how, with […]

Nestled at the southern end of central Dublin’s busy Dawson Street, just a stone’s throw from the verdant oasis of Trinity College, is Farm Restaurant.   In Ireland up to about thirty years ago, locally produced food was something taken totally for granted.  It was a country blessed with an abundance of native food.  Ireland’s produce, […]

Ten Tables, the wonderful farm to table restaurant in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood (reviewed this past fall), hosted in April a unique seafood dinner sponsored by  Eating with the Ecosystem.  Fisherwoman and environmental activist Sarah Schumann, who in addition to her fishing license has a degree in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, […]

Known as the “Garden of Ireland,” County Wicklow lies to the south of Ireland’s capital,  Dublin.  Between the mountains and the sea, Wicklow has earned the sobriquet due to its wealth of farms and gardens that have supplied Dublin with meat and produce over centuries.  The village of Rathnew (population 2,964) is buried deep in […]

The Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts (SBN) is dedicated to “building economies that are green, local, and fair.”  The organization hosts farm to table dinners and other great events (like the Boston Local Food Festival) to bring the Boston-area community together, and last month they held an all-local dinner at Granary Tavern in downtown Boston.  […]

From a certain perspective, Warrenton, Virginia (population 9,735 in 2011) is the ideal of a Piedmont Virginia town. Its revitalized historic storefronts teem with cafés and antique stores. It’s perched up on a hilltop with the picturesque Blue Ridge mountains off in the distance. But more importantly, Warrenton sits right smack dab in the middle […]

On a wintry day, a roaring fire from within the kitchen’s brick oven greeted us at The Fireplace in Brookline’s Washington Square.  The Fireplace’s sophisticated fare perfectly matched with impeccable service and an upscale atmosphere, reminiscent of an old New England lodge, satisfies the desire for fine farm-to-table dining in the Boston area. Instead of […]

Tucked away in an unassuming storefront in a quiet St. Louis neighborhood is one of the city’s best restaurants.  Like its close neighbor, the famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, Farmhaus is set to become a St. Louis institution thanks to the creativity and skill of an excellent staff and focus on locally sourced ingredients of […]

The Green Mountain state of Vermont has an inspirational number of CSA (community supported agriculture) farms, weekly farmers markets and the most remarkable cheese trail.   The Vermont Cheese Council, dedicated to the “production and advancement of Vermont cheeses,” offers a cheese trail with 41 Vermont cheese making members (www.vtcheese.com/cheesetrail.htm).   No surprise then that Vermont […]

Northampton in Massachusett’s Pioneer Valley is a lively destination offering a stimulating urban scene including art galleries, crafts stores, an excellent Smith College Art Museum and botanical garden as well as superb farm to table dining at Bistro Les Gras.  After enjoying a visit to the wonderful William Baczek Art Gallery on Northampton’s Main Street,  […]

Jamaica Plain is a remarkably green Boston neighborhood, with a palpable closeness to nature.  Frederick Law Olmstead in the late 19th century designed and built Boston’s Emerald Necklace of parks with much of the southern section of the connecting parkland in or bordering on Jamaica Plain.  Residents and visitors to Jamaica Plain can easily enjoy […]

Michael Pollan’s insightful and simply-stated Food Rules have become well-known, especially his easy-to-comprehend mantra: “Eat Food, Real Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.”  One of his rules that comes to my mind, on nearly a daily basis, is a rule which helps me to avoid overeating: “If You’re Not Hungry Enough to Eat an Apple, […]

Nestled back among clusters of riverfront homes in Gloucester on Massachusett’s scenic Cape Ann (30 miles north of Boston), sits a seasonal restaurant to be treasured.  With a dock along the water and the freshest seafood around,  Lobster Cove Market & Restaurant is a hidden gem on the Annisquam River surrounded by picturesque views and […]

Brunswick, a documentary film directed by Nate Simms (56 minutes) [Country Boy Productions, 2011] The town of Brunswick in upstate New York’s Rensselaer County is on the eastern edge of the rapidly suburbanizing Capital Region.  The Capital Region’s three urban centers of Albany, Schenectady and Troy have all lost significant population in the past few […]

The original edition of Michael Pollan’s  Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual came out a little more than three years ago, in January 2009.  Its publication immediately inspired readers to send Mr. Pollan suggestions for additional “rules.”   Pollan notes in his introduction to the new illustrated edition of Food Rules (The Penguin Press, New York, 2011) […]

David Montgomery in his history of world agriculture, Dirt, the Erosion of Civilizations (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 2007) details the disappearance of various societies as the consequence of the abuse of the fertility of a civilization’s soil and the resulting inability to provide an adequate food supply.   Wendell Berry’s Jayber […]

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 […]

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 […]

At this time of year when a non-booted foot is hard to find and water sports are put on hold, the thriving wine tasting scene of the Finger Lakes continues to warmly welcome out-of-town visitors and locals alike.  Perfect for Sunday outings and evening forays, vineyards and wineries, dotting the lake shores, highlight the terroir […]

Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement in 1989 as an outgrowth of  his campaign against the McDonald’s fast food chain opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome.  An international member-supported nonprofit association and a worldwide network of people, Slow Food is “committed to improving the way food is produced and distributed” [www.slowfood.com].  The organization […]

The 2011 season of the Shaw Festival (www.shawfest.com/) in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake on the shores of Lake Ontario in Canada’s Niagara Region was winding down, and a forecast of Indian-summer 70 degree temperatures and sunny skies prompted a last minute drive across upstate New York from my home in Albany to enjoy a flawless and joyful […]

A cinder block one-story building barely sets Roberta’s Pizza apart from the surrounding industrial landscape in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.  However, inside a fire roars in the wood-fired oven and five white-coated chefs slide pizzas in and out of the oven creating a warming and inviting environment.  Wood paneling and casual decor encloses a […]

Kansas City, Missouri, the “Heart of America,”  is one of the great centers of American barbecue.  In the early 20th century, the Kansas City Stockyards were second only to those of Chicago in size, and this city of distinctive jazz and blues earned its food reputation for barbecue, while serving as a hub for the […]

With temperatures moderated by the ocean, Nova Scotia “is the warmest of the provinces in Canada,” and it comes as some surprise that with its population of nearly 1,000,000, “it is Canada’s second-most densely populated province” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia].  Historic Halifax, the site of the first permanent European settlement in 1604 in Canada and the capital of […]

Cazenovia, a picturesque village in upstate New York with a well-preserved downtown district, has a long-standing tradition of being a hotbed of reform movements going back to the mid-nineteenth century when it played a key role in the abolition movement, including hosting the famous 1850 abolitionist meeting known as the Fugitive Slave Law Convention.  Today, […]

The sky may not be falling, but the earth’s soil is eroding faster than it is being replaced and modern civilization’s future is endangered.  Our earth in David R. Montgomery’s words “is an oasis in space rendered hospitable by a thin skin of soil that, once lost, rebuilds only over geologic time.”  Mr. Montgomery makes […]

Café Mae Mae in “olde New York” on Vandam Street off Hudson Street, occupies the street level space of an old warehouse building on the western edge of New York City’s popular SoHo district.  Named in memory of the owner’s daughter, Café Mae Mae with its commitment to local and seasonal foods, honors her memory […]

Situated on 80 acres overlooking the Hudson River in Hyde Park (Dutchess County, NY), The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has become arguably the world’s premier culinary college enrolling more than 2,800 students from virtually every U.S. state and 30 countries in its degree programs.  At its main campus in Hyde Park (the former Jesuit […]

Edwardsville (Madison County), Illinois, home to Fond, an elegant farm to table restaurant, is just a short drive across the Mississippi from St. Louis, but it retains the small town charm of its historic origins.  One of the three oldest municipalities in Illinois, it remains the county seat and hosts Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), […]

Once a week on Saturdays from Memorial Day weekend until Columbus Day weekend, and every other Saturday in the off-season, the Bees Knees Café on Heather Ridge Farm in Preston Hollow (Albany County, NY) serves lunch to the public. This farmhouse dining in an old 1840’s working farmhouse, which has changed little in the past 170 […]

Recycling in St. Louis takes on special meaning with the continuing renewal of city neighborhoods.  Streets are slowly improving, building by building, in the Central West End, the central corridor of St. Louis, just north of Forest Park [www.slfp.com/CentralWestEnd.html].  At one edge of the expanding urbane boundaries of the Central West End is Bowood Farms, […]

When people talk about St. Louis, beer usually comes up early in the discussion.  Before Anheuser-Busch’s rise to market dominance after the 1970s, St. Louis offered a home to dozens of breweries with its combination of ethnic immigration, access to resources, and a proliferation of caves perfect for storage.  With such a long and storied […]

The weekend weather in January was frigid, with light snow, in my hometown of Albany, NY, but not so severe to alter our decision to enjoy another meal at Local 111, a superb farm to table restaurant in Philmont (Columbia County, NY).  A special winter dinner to benefit local farms and agriculture through the work […]

This past fall’s food festival of the Slow Food movement in Turin, Italy showcased 910 small-scale food producers from around the world.  The only products from the U.S.A. on exhibit were beers at the American Craft Brewers Association exhibit.  Disappointment over the lack of participation by small-scale food producers from the U.S.A. at the festival […]

What’s On Your Plate? A documentary film directed by Catherine Gund (70 minutes) [Aubin Pictures, 2010, www.aubinpictures.com/] A full house greeted the showing of the documentary, What’s On Your Plate?, at the Saratoga Film Forum’s fall fundraiser [www.saratogafilmforum.org/].  The sold-out crowd of all ages at the Dee Sarno Theater in The Arts Center in downtown […]

Five days in Pacific Grove on California’s Monterey Bay peninsula, with sunny skies, daytime temperatures in the 70s, and the roar of the Pacific through the guest bedroom window of a friend’s beautiful retirement home, is a perfect vacation in mid-November for a snow-country resident of upstate New York.  Still, with San Francisco just 125 […]

I had the privilege of studying Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace as a college student 40 years ago, with a legendary Professor Jonathan Kistler at upstate New York’s Colgate University.  The experience was life altering and turned me into a careful reader.  If you asked me to name another book that rose to the level […]

Three weeks before a recent visit to Washington, D.C., I decided some planning was in order for a special, celebratory meal.  As the proud father of a son, soon due to complete his studies at the University of Maryland for a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences with the presentation of his thesis on the interaction of […]

This past spring, Jonathan Horowitz’s “Go Vegan!” exhibit, first mounted in 2002, was restaged by Gavin Brown’s art gallery in lower Manhattan at the former LaFrieda butchery adjacent to the art gallery at 601 Washington Street. The exhibit which occupied the former white tiled butchery, included photographs of more than 200 celebrity vegetarians (including Albert […]

I was early to meet some friends for lunch, and noticed a display of Chef Davis’s cookbook, Honest and Fresh, near the entry to the main dining room of the wonderful Henrietta’s Table in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The cookbook, with its beautiful cover photograph of a hearty breakfast in an iron skillet, was irresistible and on […]

Maria Rodale’s grandfather, J.I. Rodale, founded the magazine, Organic Farming and Gardening in 1942, and her parents, Robert and Ardath Rodale, likewise championed organic agriculture.  In their footsteps, Maria Rodale, an organic food activist, now challenges her readers in Organic Manifesto (Rodale, Inc. [distributed to the trade by Macmillan], New York, New York, 2010) to […]

The longest Saratoga meet of 40 days (instead of the 36 days of the past few years) has come to an end, with only a modest dip in the overall on-track handle to $104,610,307 from last year’s $112,005,878, and overall attendance this summer reaching a respectable 878,284 in the small city of Saratoga Springs, NY, […]

The idea that an historic New England Inn has it own farm (Twin Lakes Farm), four miles down a country road from its perch on a beautiful village green, caught my attention.  With a creative chef, David Miller, trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, NY, The White Hart in Salisbury, Connecticut became […]

Local Harvest Café in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis offers diners fresh and globally sustainable meals at reasonable prices. The café is situated at the edge of Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Gardens, two of the premier green spaces in the city.  It originated in the Local Harvest Grocery store, but […]

The Farmers Diner in Quechee (Windsor County, Vt)- Even in a state promoting a cheese trail of 41 artisinal cheesemakers (www.vtcheese.com/cheesetrail.htm), it still comes as a bit of a surprise and delight to find The Farmers Diner.  Tucked into a corner of touristy Quechee Gorge Village, is a wonderfully preserved 1947 railroad dining car, moved […]

One small valley in California has become the center of vegetable production in the United States, with some remarkable production statistics. 99% of artichokes, 92% of broccoli, 94% of processing tomatoes, 94% of celery, 86% of garlic, 83% of cauliflower, 76% of head lettuce, 67% of carrots, and 58% of asparagus are grown in the […]

Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca (Tompkins County, NY)- The Moosewood Restaurant, the legendary vegetarian restaurant that has been serving delicious meals in downtown Ithaca (the home of Cornell University) for 30 plus years, naturally came to mind when we were developing the farm to table directory of restaurants. A well-used cookbook from the 1970’s called “The […]

Wild Hive Café in Clinton Corners (Dutchess County, NY)- A few minutes east of the Salt Point Turnpike exit of the Taconic State Parkway brings the traveler to what may be the planet’s best Grilled Cheese sandwich, and a remarkable alternative to Fast Food America.  The day’s lunch specials at this friendly café included an […]

Route7 Grill in Great Barrington, MA- The Berkshire’s Route 7 Grill is not part of the urbane restaurant scene of downtown Great Barrington, with its shops, galleries and pedestrian traffic.  Instead, you have to hop in the car and drive 2 miles south on busy Route 7 to reach this restaurant Nirvana for BBQ meats.  […]

Red Devon in Bangall (Dutchess County, NY)- Who knew there is a bit of California’s Napa Valley in New York’s Northern Dutchess County?  It takes some skillful map reading to find the Red Devon in Bangall, between Millbrook and Pine Plains, but the drive on pleasant country roads ends with a solar paneled, sprawling restaurant/cafe/market […]

Dish in Greenwich (Washington County, NY) has been open only a short while.  The walls are undecorated, except for a photograph of Marilyn Monroe left behind by the prior operators of a former restaurant known as Some Like It Hot, at the homey spot on the main street of this country town.  Big plans are […]