The Farmplate Blog

New York Cider Week Celebrates Rediscovered Art of Hard Apple Cider
Jeff Gangemi Oct 03, 2012 News 0 comments
In honor of Fall's changing leaves, this is the first in a three-part series celebrating New York Cider Week. In this post, we highlight a number of the great hard cider producers, including our friends at Farnum Hill Ciders in Lebanon, NH. Next, we’ll highlight some of the great restaurants participating in Cider Week events and activities. And finally, we’ll excerpt David Buchanan’s new book Taste, Memory that details the effort to preserve and promote heirloom cider apple trees. New York Cider Week is now in its second year and encompasses a wide variety of New York City and Hudson Valley events between October 12 through 21. The goal? To help build greater appreciation for hard...
Farm to Table at Thirty Acres Restaurant: What’s On Your Plate?
Jeff Gangemi Oct 01, 2012 What's on Your Plate? 0 comments
Jersey City (New Jersey) Farm to Table restaurant Thirty Acres opened in April of 2012 with the same mission as many local food restaurants: to create an ever-evolving menu featuring great local ingredients. Their next goal? To establish personal relationships with the producers of those great local ingredients on their ever-evolving menu. “The reason we stay as local as possible is mainly to support all of these farmers who I've gotten to know as people,” says Thirty Acres chef and co-owner Kevin Pemoulie, Former Momofuku Noodle Bar chef de cuisine. “Not only does all this stuff taste amazing, it hasn't had to travel far. And it's great to be able to support our fellow Jersians,...
GMO Advocate Trashes Philpott, Bittman and Nestle for Endorsing Pseudo-Science
Jeff Gangemi Sep 27, 2012 News 0 comments
Several weeks ago, we noticed an important development in the GMO labeling debate that continues to rage around the country, particularly in California. Wal Mart had decided to sell Monsanto GMO corn without labels.   A recent study from France has concluded that GMO corn caused lab rats to develop tumors. Since the study’s release, there has been a firestorm of debate on the study’s scientific validity. An interesting and contentious article in Slate by Keith Kloor argues that the study was not only rigged and biased, but that the whole anti-GMO movement occupies a similar psychic space to the most fanatical of climate change skeptics. No one is suggesting that “pseudo-science” should...
Organic Macaroni and Cheese Beats Facebook Any Day
Jeff Gangemi Sep 19, 2012 News 0 comments
In a departure from our usual FarmPlate blog content, an interesting post from Wired.com caught our eye. While the world watched Facebook’s IPO (and ongoing decline) with bated breath, Annie’s Organics, the maker of the cute bunny macaroni and cheese, also went public. And it has seen success since doing so. Its stock price has risen by a third, and the company is out to prove that organic and other healthy food is not a fad. While we still suggest searching FarmPlate for the best local cheeses, it’s heartening to see a company like Annie’s go head to head with Kraft and other huge multinationals – and do it successfully.  Read on for more. “In the hype tsunami prior to Facebook’s...
Kale Chips
Lucy Caldwell Sep 17, 2012 Recipes 1 comments
Until the end of this summer, I had always been suspicious of kale. Sure, one serving of this leafy green has more calcium than a glass of milk and more vitamins than I know what to do with. "And it grows so well in New England!" people kept telling me. Humph! Kale just seemed too good to be true, too full of antioxidants, too wholesome. Plus, no one ever told me how absolutely delicious the kale they had the other night was. All I ever heard about was its nutritional value, so I stubbornly stuck to spinach. But then kale chips happened. As I had wanted nothing to do with the vegetable, it was only very begrudgingly that I even tried baking up a batch... The kale chips came out of the...