Middle Man

Marc Alvarez’ Concierge Foods brings the East Coast organic, locally grown, gourmet food and milk to your home.

Getting Game

Photo by Judith Hausman With this local venison steak, my grill has never been happier! Doug Baum grew up fly fishing, saltwater fishing and freshwater fishing, but he didn’t start hunting until about five years ago, first with his dad and then with his son, now 12. “At first, Ben just came out in the […]

Asparagus Spears

Along with rhubarb and ramps, asparagus is in full-blown season here. Those gardeners who have patiently waited through three seasons of feathery ferns are rewarded by lots of fat purple spears.

Blank Slate

Photo by Charles Diaz We enjoyed our homemade pizza “on the rocks” during a hike. No wonder there’s been so much written about pizza: how to grill it, wood or coal-fire it; how to make it at home; how to do the cheese, the crust and so on. It’s understandable because pizza really is the […]

Food Bank Farm

Photo courtesy Food Bank  for Westchester Food Bank for Westchester grows crops that are nutritionally dense and long-lasting. In my cosmopolitan county, it’s hard to imagine that 200,000 go hungry daily. Douglass DeCandia, 25, is a young neighbor who is working to address this problem with the Food Bank for Westchester by growing produce to feed […]

Tradition … Tradition!

Photo by Judith Hausman When I make the Sephardic version of charoset (pictured left) with apricots, dates and almonds, my family wants Grandma’s more familiar recipe (pictured right) with apples, walnuts and wine. The Jewish holiday of Passover is celebrated with a ritual meal called a seder. A number of foods are part of the […]

Matchmaking for Farmers

Courtesy Westchester Land Trust/ Eileen Hochberg At Kitchawan Farm, a local native farmer is protecting family land by farming it. To help revive a little of the country-gentleman farming so prevalent in the northern part of my county a scant generation ago, an innovative suburban land-use program, the Westchester Land Trust, last year established a Local […]

Local Romance

Photo by Judith Hausman For Valentine’s Day, I like to incorporate local ingredients, such as local butter and berries, into my sweets. I also try to use ethically produced chocolate. Keeping Valentine’s Day sweets local is a fun challenge to meet around here. We face blustery cold, sad imported fruit in the supermarket and, of […]

Winter Farmers’ Markets

Photo by Judith Hausman Don’t think that winter farmers’ markets only have root vegetables for sale. Vendors at Gossett’s winter market sell a variety of produce, including mushrooms. Is everyone smiling at the Stop and Shop? I don’t think so. But on Saturdays at Gossett’s Farm Market in South Salem, N.Y., no one looks grumpy. […]

Soup Swap

Photo by Judith Hausman This corn chowder, last year’s dinner soup, will be my (much-requested) contribution to this year’s soup swap. What has become my annual, all-girl Soup Swap event will take place this Sunday. (I confess I didn’t make up the idea; I stole it from a women’s magazine I rifled in a doctor’s waiting room.) […]