NEW WEBSITE

www.GrowingChefs.org is up and running!
Love and look forward to seeing you there,
Annie Novak

Pam of Ronnybrook

Pam is the best part about buying milk and butter in New York. If you time it right, and her sister has visited her already, she might have freshly made coffee cake on hand. If not, just enjoy the fact that she's got a great smile and is secretly super sassy. I had the honor of working with Pam twice this year, and after three years of being completely in love with Ronnybrook products, it was like actually meeting St. Peter after always wanting to go to Heaven. Only better, I bet, because in heaven they probably eat boring stuff like ambrosia, and I really just wanted ginger ice cream and mixed berry yogurt drinks. Which, hurrah, Ronnybrook carries.

You can find Pam at Tompkin's Square (Ave A and 10th) on Sundays, the Upper West Side (97th and Amsterdam) on Fridays, and at the UN market on Wednesdays. Ronnybrook also sells at Union Square on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Get there early; they sell out fast!

Ray Bradley at Market

I met Ray Bradley a while ago, but met him properly this year while working the 97th and Amsterdam Market on the Upper West Side. A wonderful farmer and excellent human being, one of the best parts about Ray besides his delicious veggies is his sense of humor, which he pulls out every now and then without any warning whatsoever. It probably helps that he works next to Pam, of Ronnybrook Dairy fame, and the two of them can banter raunchily back and forth all morning long. He has a great album of beautiful photos of his farm on hand if you'd like to see it, and yummy honey. You can visit him at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Saturdays. For the wintertime, he's selling marvelous dried spices with his compadre in crime, Mr. H. Maharawal, my friend's father. They're the two most spectacularly bearded men in NYC. Meet them, greet them.

Kira's Farm

It's a pleasure enough to be able to eat well-grown food after speaking to the woman who grew it, but (hurrah!) I recently got the chance to SEE the very dirt Kira Kenney grew it on, too. Tucked against the backdrop of a wicked-beautiful ridge, we tramped up to Kira's and helped harvest a little broccoli in the bitter, sun-bright cold the Friday after Thanksgiving. Right around her house, your voice picks up a good echo, too. It's gorgeous. Thank you Kira, for the food and the lovely way you tend your dirt!

Teachin' Plants

In the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I had the fun honor of teaching at my friend Tal's after school program up in the Bronx not too far from the Botanical Gardens. We talked about lemon balm, beans, carrots and all manner of things from dirt to greens. Three cheers to Tal for taking good care of these smart (and often adorably sassy) kids!

Squash Art

As if they weren't beautiful enough on their own, Kira Kenney of Evolutionary Organics recently put these glorious squash on display at her stand in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. I've posted eight gazillion photos of Kira's produce on this blog, mostly dressed in the colors and textures nature stuck on 'em, but Kira's handiwork is so damn awesome I thought it'd be a shame not to immortalize it a bit before they got composted. Where this woman finds the time to lay fertilizer, sow a winter cover crop, carve major works of art, and bring us organic goodies to eat at market, I dunno.

Pumpkin, a la Frank Chung

Frank Chung, of a thousand volunteers at the New York Botanical Garden, has once again claimed his crown for having the most volunteer hours of all. Hurrah! Frank tends our China Garden, a four-bed plot in our Global Garden section. Look at that pumpkin in his arms! What a beautiful milky-pale beauty!

Pumpkins are rad to cook with--they can be sweet or savory. The most simple dish I put together recently was diced, steamed pumpkin in a bit of butter with a few sage leaves. A good collection of herbs can be had at the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from Keith Stewart, and if you're around on Wednesday, Kira's stand on the South-west corner can hook you up with some of the sweetest pumpkins on the planet.