Table Talkin’
Valley Table Staff
SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE MUST HAVE WRITTEN a book along the lines of Ten Great Conversation Starters or Sixteen Ways to Enliven Dinner Talk, or something like that. If there is such
Editor’s Letter
Reasons to Come to the Hudson Valley
Janet Crawshaw
YOU’VE HEARD OF GREAT RESTAURANT cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. They’ve got nothing on us, except population density (which they can have). We’ve got a whole big,
Sustainable, Green, Harmonious, Nonpolluting and Biodegradable
Valley Table Staff
LOOKING OVER THE EVER-EVOLVING lexicon of popular buzzwords, if there’s one word that fits the truism, “The more it changes the more it stays the same,” it would have to
Sustainable, Green, Harmonious, Nonpolluting and Biodegradable
Valley Table Staff
LOOKING OVER THE EVER-EVOLVING LEXICON of popular buzzwords, if there’s one word that fits the truism, “The more it changes the more it stays the same,” it would have to be
The Water Table
Valley Table Staff
QUICK—NAME ONE ESSENTIAL ingredient in virtually every recipe in this issue. (Hint: It’s not truffle oil; it’s not Himalayan salt, either.) Quick—what’s the single most volatile sociopolitical issue worldwide? (Hint:
Twenty Questions
Valley Table Staff
ONE OF THE MARVELOUS ASPECTS about being here on the East Coast—more specifically the Hudson Valley—is the sheer number of options we have regarding how, when, and where we get
Reality Checks
Valley Table Staff
WE RECENTLY HEARD FROM AN old friend, a former Hudson Valley resident, an excellent chef and all-around nice guy who moved up to the Adirondacks to find a little more
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
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
