Feeding Another Revolution
Valley Table Staff
ALMOST 60 YEARS AGO IN Orange County, my family was in a unique position among our urban-dwelling relatives: We lived in “the country,” which meant that our house often became
Editor’s Letter
Logic Need Not Apply
Valley Table Staff
YOU’D THINK THAT THE PRIMARY subjects of this magazine—growing, selling, preparing and eating food—would be governed by simple, straightforward logic and practiced by reasonable people. Farmers, after all, tend to
The Bottom Line
Valley Table Staff
IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE to anyone who’s even remotely involved with food that the Hudson Valley is way ahead of the curve as far as awareness, involvement and
Hit The Road, Jack
Valley Table Staff
WE RARELY PLAN AN ISSUE of The Valley Table around a single theme or subject, but that’s not to say we don’t sometimes fixate on an idea—sometimes, the stars align
New Leaves
Valley Table Staff
AFTER 16 YEARS AND 65 ISSUES, you’d think that things would settle down around here. You’d think the routine nature of a lot of what we do—seeking and developing content,
It Was the Best of Times
Valley Table
CHARLES DICKENS LIKELY NEVER EXPERIENCED a hurricane, but the opening lines in A Tale of Two Cities would be apropos to what the Northeast went through a month ago. Compared
What He Said
Valley Table Staff
One of the perks that comes with being the editor of a publication is the privilege of letting people know what you think—about the contents, about issues affecting the contents
Empire State, Indeed
Valley Table Staff
It’s almost no fun any more to pick apart the foibles of our public officials—it’s become just too easy to find examples of dysfunction and idiocy. Yet, a funny thing
Reality Check, Please
Valley Table Staff
This issue of The Valley Table presents some rather odd stories. While Congress argues with itself back and forth across the aisle for this or that wasteful, budget-bloating expenditure, and
Weighty Matters
Valley Table Staff
FOURTEEN DAYS AND SIX POUNDS LATER, the fall edition of Hudson Valley Restaurant Week 2014 is history. The vast majority of the owners of the 200 restaurants that officially participated
The Year of Eating Dangerously
Valley Table Staff
THIS IS NOT A FUNNY EDITORIAL. As we were putting the finishing touches on this issue in mid-August, word came over the news that a salmonella outbreak, on record since
Musings On A Tom
Jerry Novesky
WE’RE COMING INTO ALMOST EVERYBODY’S favorite season, at least for those who place food high on their list of priorities. However you approach food (we know for a fact that you
All Dressed Up
Valley Table Staff
WE JUST RETURNED FROM AN ANNUAL shindig put on by one of our favorite farmers out in Orange County’s black dirt. In our experience, farmers, in general, tend to worry
On Optimists Pessimists and the Rest of Us
Valley Table Staff
AS WE GO TO PRESS WITH this issue, we’ve just felt the first hint that fall is indeed right around the corner, if not barreling right down the sidewalk at
All the News That Fits
Jerry Novesky
“BREAKING NEWS” IS NOT SOMETHING that means much to a quarterly magazine, but many of the issues we address—on this page, in Good Stuff or as feature material— remain pertinent even
Letters: Gluten-Free
Valley Table Staff
GLUTEN-FREE: YAY To the editor: Thank you for the well-researched and informative article about eating, enjoying and living life on a gluten-free diet [“A Gluten-Free Primer,” Valley Table 70, June–August
Paradoxically Speaking
Valley Table Staff
THERE’S A BAD JOKE I USED to tell my freshman English classes—in the spirit of higher education, of course. “What’s a paradox?” I’d ask sometime during the lessons on poetic terms
On Butterflies, Bread and Beefsteaks
Jerry Novesky
BY THE CALENDAR IT’S STILL A MONTH until summer arrives, but the thermometer on the back deck says it’s here, right now. For a lot of people, summer means vacation, leisure, rest,
