Farms, Fall, and Folly
Sometimes I’m floored by how a story on this little blog can take on a life of its own. Over a hundred people who came to the blog yesterday to read the post about Heather Ridge Farm also clicked on the Facebook sharing icon at the bottom of the page. Wow. Thank you!
Thank you for not just reading these daily musings, but for passing them along to others. It’s incredibly moving to see the invisible hand of a blog reader reaching out to help the effort of promoting our local farms.
So it’s in this spirit of thanks that I’m going to grant a reader request. Well, Jess X is more than just a reader. She was a source of great inspiration and cool in the early days of All Over Albany. And while she’s now in California, she still keeps tabs of things here back in her homeland.
Well, yesterday Jessica sent me this tweet:
Since we were on the subject of our local farms anyhow, I think it’s quite relevant. So please take a moment and scan the NYT article in the link, and then I can weigh in with my thoughts.
Finding Our Fabulous Farms
I’m guilty. So that means I can’t be too judgemental. But there’s an alarming trend that I’ve noticed, and it demands some attention.
Today, we won’t focus on the whole trend, but rather one data point. And I hope in the days and weeks to come to cover additional data points. That way, those who doubt that today’s story is part of a larger narrative will see a bit more of the big picture.
For those who are just tuning in, one of the big questions the FLB has been trying to answer over the past several years is, “Why is food not better in the Capital Region?” And we’ve come up with lots of answers. But I’ve still been flummoxed with the fact that we’re surrounded by great local farms, and yet precious little of their delicious bounty winds up on restaurant menus.
I’ve come to realize that locals just haven’t found these critical culinary resources.
International Intrigue in Aisle 2
Tourists engage in all kinds of strange behaviors. Many of them travel miles out of their way to visit a piece of rock, or some pile of steel and concrete, in order to stand in its presence and snap a picture to commemorate the occasion.
For years the appeal of international travel was lost on me. I just didn’t get it. And then I discovered food.
With that discovery I learned that indeed there were things that were special about visiting far away lands. Some foods don’t travel, and some are made in such small quantity that the best versions never leave their home country. For these culinary delicacies, you have to travel to the source.
But globetrotting is expensive, and it takes a lot of time. You don’t have to go to Wangfujing and see live scorpions being grilled on skewers to be amazed at the wonders of Chinese cuisine. All it takes is an open mind and a careful exploration of the aisles at your local international grocery store to be transported to a faraway place.
I mention this because on Saturday, I’m going shopping, and I hope a few of you will come along.
Rocking Breakfast – Recipe #11
This month I’m excited to bring you not just one, but two recipes from chef Josh Coletto. Typically, we’ve shared recipes from the previous month’s Rock N Roll Brunch to help remind people that the next one is coming up this Sunday.
Except in September, the post came after a long hiatus where among other things Josh slaughtered a pig. So last month the recipe was for a pork liver pate. This time, Rock N Roll Brunch is hot off the heels of a special burger night Josh put together at The Low Beat, so our recipes have something to do with that.
I’ll let my pal the chef explain it.
What Does Schenectady Taste Like?
This could be a fun game. We can start stereotyping cities based on the regional food options.
What does Chicago taste like? Hot dogs topped with salad, pizzas stuffed with cheese, Italian beef sandwiches, caramel and cheese popcorn mixed together in the same bag, and some of the best cocktails in the world.
San Francisco tastes like burritos, dim sum, amazing bread, fresh steamed dungeness crab, and cioppino. Sure, there’s really only one place left to get the classic seafood stew, but it’s an inextricable part of the culture. Unlike Rice-a-Roni, which is only the San Francisco treat in commercial jingles.
New York City tastes like bagels and lox, fatty pastrami on rye, dirty water dogs, greasy pizza slices, and halal carts.
But what happens when we get a bit more local?
Early Prep for Football’s Big Game
It’s football season. I’m in awe of those who spend every Sunday shouting at the TV, drinking too many beers, and eating too much fatty food. I wish I could do it, but I just can’t seem to find the time. Nor, frankly, do I have the physical stamina. The best I can do is to try and engage in these kind of manly rites at the final game of the post-season.
But it’s a big deal for me. That is my one annual shot of something approaching manliness. And I want to make it count.
Funny how the universe works sometimes. Just yesterday I was writing about the majesty of pizza and wings, which are de rigueur for my annual fete. Then I get a crazy email about a local company that’s trying to get a commercial spot in the national broadcast. And on top of it all, I just cracked the code about what may be the perfect food to eat for the big game.
So today, I’m going to share all my hopes and dreams for my February football fat fest, and you’re going to have the chance to make the hopes and dreams of someone from our community come true.
Looking Back On History
Happy Columbus Day! Like most other American holidays it offers us the chance to buy some stuff on sale. A bunch of people have the day off. And others are up in arms about the whole affair.
There are folks in other places who have decided to eschew Christopher Columbus for the indigenous peoples of the world. I’m going to take a stab in the dark on this one, and say that a majority of those people would feel more comfortable on the left side of the political spectrum. Maybe I’m wrong. And I don’t want to get all political today on this divisive matter.
I’m sure there are some Democrats who want to keep Columbus Day as it is. And I can imagine that there are some Republicans who would be glad to see it go. In my mind, I can hear Donald Trump suggesting that Christopher Columbus isn’t a hero, and saying something along the lines of, “I like people who don’t get lost.”
The Fussy Little Blog has its own history. And some of the views that I’ve championed in the past seem to no longer fit my present day sensibilities. What better day to come clean than on this contested holiday?
Food Stops Hunger
This is not a political issue. It’s a humanitarian one. There are people in our community who don’t have enough food to eat. How they got into that situation is important, but it’s not the most pressing question.
There are human beings going hungry in a nation that throws away an inconceivable quantity of edible food. Regardless of how wealthy the community, there is food insecurity everywhere. The question is, are you going to help fix the immediate problem, or not?
Sure, there are federal programs, but these aren’t always enough to make it through the month. That is why the Food Pantries for the Capital District is so important. It helps to distribute supplemental food from the food bank to communities around the region.
As a food writer, it’s especially important for me to help do what I can to support these programs. I constantly remind myself what a luxury it is to complain about the foam on my cappuccino when there are people who can’t even afford a cup of coffee. So, I volunteered to judge the Food Pantries’ annual Harvest Festival, and worked out a deal where Yelp could be a sponsor of the program too.
If you weren’t able to make it, here’s how the judging went down.
AskTP – August, September, Whatever
“Are you still doing Ask the Profussor?” That would be a fair question, since this is the longest stretch I’ve ever gone without dipping into the archive of unanswered questions, and providing each of them with their long-awaited response.
The short answer is, yes. In fact, I’m doing one right now. And speaking of short answers, I think that’s the only way we’re going to make it through over two months of neglect. My original commitment was to answer every question asked in the comments section of the blog, just so long as it uses proper punctuation. Never did I say the answer would be long or even complete.
So let’s power through this. If there is any good news, it’s that the velocity of questions has come down quite a bit. Maybe it’s because after over six years of writing this thing, people can Google the answers from within the blog. It’s hard to think of a subject on which I haven’t weighed in.
It’s been a long time since the last one. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten that most of the links go to the same place. It’s the mystery link of the day. Where will it take you today? I promise it will have nothing to do with my day job.
Now, without any further ado, onto the questions.
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