A few months ago, Eileen Roaman, a Springs resident who raises bees and chickens and keeps a home garden, had a seasonal epiphany. The number of families visiting local food pantries swells in winter, just as many nearby farmers have lost their main roadside customers.
So, working with the Amagansett Food Institute, Roaman quickly raised $15,000 in small and large donations, bought crops from a group of local farmers and delivered it to local pantries.
It smells like conversion, which is, in a sense, rotting and renewal, sweetness and energy and funk (and fruit-fly bait). Winemaking is elemental and attractive.
He sees limitless possibilities to help anyone take advantage of the land, sun and water readily at our disposal. “I know how to do this,” he says. “I don’t even know how I know.”
All told, the goal is to turn “Grown on Long Island” into a brand people will reach for like cheese from Roquefort or tomatoes from San Marzano.
local and seasonal items sit alongside high-quality
imported artisanal products—olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, ghee,
dried porcini mushrooms, salt-packed capers and anchovies, and
salami, lardo and pancetta from Salumeria Biellese in Manhattan.
The deer, under the auspices of the New York–based Venison Donation Coalition, are then transported to a butcher who breaks down the animals and donates the meat to soup kitchens.
“That way, the money would stay in the community,”she says, “the families would have fresh nutritious food and the farmers would have customers. It’s tightening the circle.”
This scene between us, drinking high-end stuff out of Styrofoam cups, might seem sordid or sinful for more than one reason. I know we should have had glasses. But worse, I know of many farms that were lost to alcohol.
An homage to Alsace for winter stews, oyster pan roasts and East End chowders.
Three vineyard tenders describe one of the strangest seasons in memory.
A North Fork cake baker, a South Fork weaver, and their confectionary creations.
Elfin carrot tops, micro mustard and radish sprouts emerge from an Amagansett greenhouse.
