August | 2013 | The Real Foodie

August 30, 2013

CSA in Jamaica

My first delivery arrived today from Pantrepant Farm. I am so happy finally to be getting some organic food in Jamaica! I ordered arugula, lettuce, Jamaican spinach, noni, guavas, coconuts, avocadoes, green plantains, two chickens and eggs picked especially for me as they aren’t yet for sale. Pantrepant farm are just starting to raise free range chickens which are fed on fruit and vegetable waste from their packing room, corn from the farm and black soldier fly maggots. They soon will have enough to grow on a commercial scale to provide for their hotels throughout Jamaica.

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August 11, 2013

The Green Thumb, Watermill, N.Y.

The smell of this organic market in Water Mill, New York, still brings me back to my childhood and some of my earliest memories are from when my mother used bring me to shop here. We stopped coming here for many years when my parents separated and I would spend the summers with my father, where we would eat the Standard American diet a.k.a. junk food. But still every time I smelled fresh dill I would be reminded of The Green Thumb. Since changing my diet I recently started going back here. It has been owned by the same family since the mid–1600s and they have been farming organically, using natural farming practices since the 1980s. All of their crops are certified organic and they grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits. They also have their own honey and eggs and they sell some other local and artisanal market products. It is slightly overpriced probably due to the location, but when it’s the only place to find fresh, organic, local produce without driving as far as Bridghampton or Amagansett, it is worth it.

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August 10, 2013

Open Minded Organics, Bridgehampton, N.Y.

My friend Dave Falkowski, also known as ‘the mushroom man’, started growing his gourmet mushrooms in 2003, for which he is most known and sells to an impressive list of restaurants. His family were among the first Polish families to start farming potatoes and Brassicas on the South Fork, Long Island in the mid-19th century.¹ He has since expanded his farm, Open Minded Organics, to raising chickens and growing a wide array of fruits and vegetables, which he sells at the local East End farmers‘ markets and his farm stand in Bridgehampton.

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1. Halweil B (2011). The Mushroom Man, Redux. Edible East End. Fall edn.

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August 8, 2013

Station, East Quogue, N.Y.

Over the years that I have been coming to Southampton there has always been a lousy selection of restaurants to choose from, none of which serve real food. It was always my dream to open my own health cafe in this town as it is in such dire need of a healthy place to grab a quick lunch or take out; and it would probably make a fortune due to the increasing crowds that come here each summer. In my former less healthy days I used to get sandwiches at the local delis but there was never anywhere to get a delicious organic salad, which even then I craved. Of the more formal restaurants that we would go to have dinner, Sant Ambroeus, Red Bar, Savanna’s and more recently, Tuto Il Giorni were a step above the local burger or seafood joints; Sant Ambroeus serving tasty Italian panini during the day, but all of them still using conventional ingredients. There used to be an organic market and cafe called Annie‘s but it didn’t last more than one summer. Then came Organic Avenue selling raw vegan snacks, pressed organic juices and smoothies but they also shut down after a couple of years, this year selling just a few juices inside the clothing store Theory.

Now finally the world is catching onto real food and there are a few farm-to-table restaurants that have opened in the past year in and around the Hamptons. There is also a new organic pressed juice bar in Southampton which opened this summer called Juice Press and a restaurant on the highway, Cafe Crust, which sells grass fed burgers, hormone free pizzas and organic salads. My husband and I decided to give one of the farm-to-table restaurants, Station, in East Quogue a try and we were surprisingly impressed. The outside is beautifully landscaped with wild flowers. The food is delicious, simple, healthy and a perfect example of farm-to-table. Opened during Memorial day weekend, everything served is either grown or landed locally. They work with local farms, including Invincible Summer Farms, Early Girl Farm and Mecox Bay Dairy. We have gone back several times since. Now we finally have a restaurant that we can keep going back to and feel good after.