farm to table

In addition to shooting the Perennial Plate videos, I'm the chef for a series of Harvest Dinners that are hosted by my friends at Two Pony Gardens. The video below shows the work from garden to prep table to each course at the dinner. Here's a peek at the menu:

First course - Cucumber and sorrel water with raw and fermented vegetables

Second course - Wood-fired carrots and chantarelles with beets and spinach

Third course - Heirloom tomato with summer vegetables and duck jus

Dessert - Wild rice pudding with crab apple sorbet and blueberries

If you like what you see, we're doing it again on October 2. E-mail twoponygardens@gmail.com for details.

You know you should eat your greens, but if the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has its way, you’ll soon be growing them, too. As part of its new Powerhouse Plants summer exhibition, the Arboretum is featuring original artwork, demonstration gardens and interactive events to celebrate the connection between healthful plants and healthy people, and perhaps to inspire us start our own edible gardens.

As a kid, I spent countless hours, days, weeks, months - heck, even years - thinking of nothing but baseball. With 2 brothers and 3 step-brothers in my family hanging around each summer, it was easy to get a game going any time, and each night was spent in front of the TV, watching our beloved Yankees (I'm from New York) attempt to destroy the competition. My brothers and I developed special cheers for Don Mattingly, Ricky Henderson, Dave Righetti, and the rest of the team. When I moved to Minnesota, I helped my family adjust to the idea by telling them that Dave Winfield was born in St. Paul.

Found this terrific post on Tim Ferriss' website (via the Farm to Table blog), discussing meat labeling.

It was just over 6 weeks ago when I joined my first CSA, bought Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and started hunting down restaurants serving local, sustainable foods.

Super-good post the other day from Zachary Cohen on his Farm to Table blog entitled What all of us in the food movement sometimes think.

Excellent, short post on Zachary Cohen's Farm to Table blog this week about the seasonality of meat. The post references a seasonal meat article in the Atlantic, noting that, just as produce needs time to ripen before it's ready, sustainably raised, grass-fed animals need time to graze and grow before they're ready as well. Definitely worth a read.