I’m happy to announce that the next Queens Swap – a Queens-based food swap – has been scheduled! It will be on September 17, 2011 at Fresh Start Market in Astoria, Queens. If you’d like to join us, please register via our Eventbrite invite.
We’ve taken an inadvertent break from organizing food swaps, but hope to make things more regular from now on (meaning, every other month). My friends Judith and Charlene will be helping organize, and we brought on another organizer, AJ. I think it’s a terrific group of organizers, if I say so myself!
Fresh Start is a great neighborhood natural foods market. They host our CSA pickups out in the back patio, which is where the food swap will be held. During the first CSA distribution, we served some amazing lemonade to our members – I think the swappers would love it, too.
I’ve been preserving all summer, so I’m looking forward to sharing some of it as part of the swap!
For a report of our previous – inaugural – food swap, please check it here: Queens Swap Success!
A couple weekends ago, I visited the Socrates Greenmarket for the first time – what a great market! It’s small, but packs a punch in its offerings. There, you can find all sorts of vegetables, fruit, bread, honey, juice, and even duck.
Apart from wanting to check it out for personal reasons, I went there as part of a meetup event with the Traditional Community Kitchen, a Meetup group focused on real, whole, unprocessed and traditional foods (I’m a co-organizer with them). Members come from a wide range of backgrounds – from those that follow a Nourishing Traditions way of eating, to Paleo, to vegan and vegetarian. Our events are a lot of fun, and the meetup at the Greenmarket didn’t disappoint.
We met around 11am and proceeded to take a tour of the market with the market manager, Markella Los. She took us to each stand and talked a little bit about the farmers and the farm and what they had to offer. It was really interesting and so nice to have more insight into each market vendor.
As you know, Hurricane Irene has been devastating to residents in upstate New York and Vermont – the flooding has been astonishing, and it has really caused a lot of pain and suffering among those who live and work up there. That includes farms – some farmland has been destroyed, and that put many small farmers and their families in financial peril.
A number of organizations are helping with relief efforts, but the one that is on my mind presently arrived in my inbox this morning, from Saxelby Cheese, a wonderful little shop among many other wonderful little shops in the Essex Street Market, a destination for those who love delicious artisanal products.
In New York City, Hurricane Irene was billed to be a potentially catastrophic storm. In the end, for us it came and went without much fanfare. However, there are countless farms across New England that suffered tremendous losses, and are continuing to suffer as power is slowly restored, roads are slowly rebuilt, and stock is taken of the widespread damage that the storm left in its wake.
Saxelby Cheesemongers depends on the vitality and hard work of our regional farmers to provide our shop with some of the country’s finest cheeses. Though many of our cheesemakers were spared from Irene’s destructive path, some were hard hit. This week from Monday through Sunday, we invite you to help us give back to our upstate and Vermont neighbors by buying their cheese! Being a do-gooder has never been so delicious!!
This week only, from Monday, September 5th through Sunday, September 11th, Saxelby Cheesemongers will donate 50% of the profits from the sale of New York and Vermont Cheeses at our Essex Market shop to Hurricane Irene relief efforts spearheaded by the New York and Vermont Chapters of the Red Cross.
Sounds like an excellent deal to me and a great way to support the Red Cross’ efforts in the area. I am planning on stopping there on Friday before I pick up my salmon share in Brooklyn. I’ll likely pick up a cheddar and some kind of goat cheese.
And if you can, please pass on this message to those local to the NYC metro area.
You may be aware that the greater food blog community is banding together to help fellow food blogger and writer Jennifer Perillo, who lost her husband Mikey suddenly (heart attack) and tragically earlier this month. It happened with no warning, with no time to prepare – it took Jennie utterly and completely by surprise, in the worst way.
I’ve had someone taken from me like this before and it’s just awful; my heart breaks for Jennie. I learned about what happened while at the end of my time in Washington State. I remember reading the news and just feeling so sad, and then a sense of urgency in getting home to be with T overtook me. I’ve been feeling even more grateful that we are together these days, in light of this (and other various natural disasters/events as of late).
Right now, Jennie is forced to deal with some tough real life issues that revolve around money. She can’t collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she makes “too much money” yearly; her health insurance payments for her and her girls are coming and are crazy expensive; her name wasn’t on the mortgage – it was totally in Mikey’s name – so there are money issues with that. In short: she needs some serious help on the financial front.
That’s where we all come in. You, me, everyone – we’re raising money for Jennie. She’s in a real pickle financially – and that’s putting it lightly – but there is a way to make this burden lighter for her. Please consider donating to Bloggers Without Borders, a new non-profit with the purpose of enabling bloggers to help others in need, “where the strength and good will of the blogging community could easily be harnessed.” They’ve got a bank account set up and Paypal account and everything; this is the real deal.
The first project is helping alleviate Jennie’s financial ordeal, if only for a little while. They’re calling it A Fund for Jennie.
I’ve donated, personally, but I’m also contributing to a collection of preserves as part of a larger auction. Kate at Snowflake Kitchen has put together a collection of almost two dozen different preserves, jams and pickles, from a whole lot of bloggers-who-can, to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. My contribution to the mix is a jar of plum vanilla jam, which I think is pretty excellent stuff. I made it last week from the plums growing on the trees in my backyard.
Plum vanilla jam and Nettle Meadow chevre on sprouted wheat bread
And at this writing, the bidding has reached $325!
If you’d like to bid on this amazing package of home preserved food, please go to Kate’s post, Jars for #afundforjennie and leave a comment with your bid. Bidding will conclude on Friday September 2nd at 11:59pm EDT. Shipping to the US and Canada only.
If this is too rich for your blood (I know how that can be, as someone who is currently unemployed), please consider donating straight to Bloggers Without Borders. Truly, any amount will help. You can do that below:
Please give as much as you can – truly, any amount is welcome and will be embraced. And you’ll be helping Jennie, a kind soul who really needs our assistance during a very difficult time. Thanks for considering this!
The other night, I had the pleasure of joining my friend Judith for the inaugural Fooditka Blogger Social. This was a really fun event organized by Judith (aka Fooditka), which involved a group of food bloggers gathering together for a meal in Astoria. We met at Ovelia, a popular Greek cafe/restaurant on 30th Avenue.
Often times, one leaves events like these having made some professional connections, but I felt like I really made some new friends: Lindsay of The Lunch Belle; Elena of The Gotham Palate; Erin of GlutenFreeFun; and of course my friend and writing partner at We Heart Astoria, Judith, who has just relaunched her Foodista blog as Fooditka. These blogs are excellent, and the women behind them are all really nice people.
One disclaimer – the food was comped, and Judith picked up the tab for the drinks. We also got quite a bit of attention from the staff. It was all very nice.
That being said, I’d eaten at Ovelia a couple of times before this (for brunch), and was very happy with my previous meals. So I did go into this eating experience expecting the dinner food to be delicious as well… and I was not disappointed. From the inventive sangria, to the feta cubes, to the barbecue, everything was delicious.
One thing we were served was the loukaniko, otherwise known as Ovelia’s house-made sausage. I’ve had it every time I’ve been at Ovelia, and frankly, I don’t want to have a meal there without it. It is so delicious.
Loukaniko is a traditional Greek sausage, made from pork and seasoned with spices, including fennel. It is also flavored with orange peel, which I absolutely love. It’s delicious on its own, but I love it with a squeeze of lemon (many dishes at Greek restaurants are accompanied by a couple of lemon slices). The lemon really makes the flavors pop – it’s fantastic! I also like how it’s served, sliced into pieces on a small plate.
We had a few other traditional Greek dishes – calamari, grilled halloumi, and Greek style pita (it doesn’t have a pocket), cut into triangles and grilled. But Ovelia has also created some really interesting and intriguing small plates. My favorite was probably the feta cubes, which were coated in white and black sesame seeds and fried. There was some honey in there, too. I also enjoyed the kafteri poppers, which were feta and jalepeño croquettes.
Additionally, there was chicken – grilled and buttermilk fried – and ribs, whose meat fell off the bone and into your mouth. It was a delight!
These savory treats were delicious and a lot of fun. I also wanted to mention that Erin, our gluten-free dining companion, did not go hungry, what with all the bread and such. The staff took very good care of her. They offered her cucumber slices in place of pita, provided the filling from the kafteri poppers without the breading, made these wonderful “crackers” out of halloumi cheese, and even slathered on some gluten-free barbecue sauce on a separate serving of ribs. We were all very impressed at how well our gluten-fee compadre was treated.
And I must write a bit about the Ambrosia Sangria. This was an unusual take on the classic mix of wine and fruit – the base was a dry rosé wine populated with bits of strawberries and kiwis. It was beautiful, and yes – a bit girly, but I like girly drinks (I’ve enjoyed many a cosmo over the years). We were all delighted by this drink.
So, judging from the delicious brunches I’ve had there, as well from as our social night together last week, I can wholeheartedly recommend Ovelia for great Greek food and more. Astorians especially – if you haven’t had a meal there yet, definitely stop on by. They have some outdoor cafe seating, which is terrific in the summer for both relaxing with a good meal and people watching along 30th Ave.
For more on our meal that night and Ovelia’s food, please click on over to the posts written by Judith, Erin, Elena, and Lindsay:
Last week, I hosted a canning workshop with my CSA… and it was a great time! We learned how to make strawberry lemon preserves, perfect for this time of year. It was a small turnout – 4 people plus myself and the teacher – but that made for a nice intimate gathering. We all learned a lot, and even after three years of canning, even I learned some important tips (and some in hindsight that seem like no-brainers). Canning 101 techniques are always good to revisit.
Our teacher, AJ Simone
AJ had already combined the strawberries, lemon, and sugar and let them macerate for a day before the workshop. He mentioned that the CSA strawberries he used made a huge difference in the end product – they were far superior to supermarket strawberries. Of course, the strawberries we got from Hepworth Farms were simply incredible, and were probably the best strawberries I’ve eaten outside of the ones my grandfather used to grow in California.
Strawberries and lemons cooking
This collage shows the strawberry-lemon mixture from the initial draining, to the resulting juice that will boil down to a syrup, to the fruit cooking in the syrup.
The kitchen sure smelled amazing during this whole process.
Processing the strawberry lemon preserves
This collage shows the processing of the preserves, from spooning them into the sterilized jars, to screwing on the lids, to processing them in the hot water bath. I’m fortunate to have a nice big pot for processing – a 16 quart stockpot! It gets used pretty much in the summer only (I bought it years ago on sale).
This is the final product:
The finished product - strawberry lemon preserves
This was one delicious batch of preserves. And look at that color! I loved the pure strawberry flavor combined with the tang of the lemon – it’s definitely not too sweet. And that’s understandable with the proportions in mind – 3 pounds of strawberries, 2 whole lemons, and only 1 1/2 cups of sugar. One can get away with a relatively low amount of sugar because pectin isn’t being used in this recipe.
This recipe makes about five half pint jars worth of preserves, but sometimes it can come out to 4.5, which is what happened to our batch. We ate the .5 amount, yum. AJ was an excellent teacher and I’m hoping we’ll see more workshops led by him in the future.
Well, I’m happy to report that the inaugural Queens Swap was a rousing success! Everyone had a great time and left with new-to -them goodies. The space, graciously donated by the Queens Kickshaw, was perfect – even Jen, one of the owners, got into the action! She swapped containers of their delicious curried pepitas for a whole bunch of yummy things. Both she and Ben, her husband and business partner, were really impressed by the event.
The whole thing lasted about 2 hours, which was the perfect amount of time for this kind of event. That included enough time for people to arrive, set up, chat with the other swappers, make trades, and even get a drink and a grilled cheese sandwich to munch on – Queens Kickshaw makes wonderful coffee and incredible grilled cheese sandwiches that are actually cooked on a grill (after starting out warming in the oven).
My favorite of their sandwiches is the Gouda, which combines gouda cheese with guava jam, black bean hummus, and pickled jalepeños, all on Balthazar’s buttery brioche bread. It’s beyond fantastic. It also comes with a small salad made of myriad greens and fresh herbs, dressed with a piquant and spicy vinaigrette. I actually arrived early so that I could eat one of those sandwiches and have a cappuccino before things started to rev up with the swap.
The Gouda sandwich with salad
Back to the swap. The variety of swappable food items was impressive, which made me very happy. There were lacto-fermented items, jams and relishes, wine, cookies, marshmallows, granola, and more. All homemade.
Here’s what I took home:
Jars of delicious things I swapped for
I’ve tasted everything except the black onion relish (left). The contents of the other three jars are all amazing, and I have no doubt that the black onion relish will be delicious. I also got a few bags of peanut and pepita brittle for my boyfriend. He tasted it last night and thought it was very tasty.
The things that I swapped were two bottles of vin d’orange, two bottles of maple vinegar, and a jar of homemade vanilla extract. It was pretty exciting to make the trades, and I’m glad there were people who wanted what I brought.
I loved seeing how happy people were, too.
Everyone smiling and happy.
And fun to see people casing the goods, making bids.
We’re already talking about and planning the next Queens Swap, which will be in July. I will share details of it here when they are in place! Many thanks for all who attended and also to my fellow organizers, Judith and Charlene. I couldn’t have brought this idea to light without their help.
