(Re)build It
Janet Crawshaw
DOTTIE AND JERRY ARGENIO set out to renovate the kitchen of their countryside Cornwall home, but there was nothing impulsive about the process. This wasn’t going to be your ordinary “let’s get
Winter
In The Spirit
Ted Saad
IN 1825, MORE THAN A THOUSAND New York State distilleries produced a major share of the nation’s whiskey. The Eighteenth Amendment, adopted in 1920 under President Woodrow Wilson, banned the “manufacture,
Buying a Farm
Keith Stewart
WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND AND I set out to buy a farm 23 years ago, we had only a vague notion of what we were looking for—having lived in New York
When It Rains
Keith Stewart
AFTER A CHALLENGING SUMMER with surprising fluctuations in weather and too many hungry deer, we were banking on a congenial fall with plenty to harvest and bring to market. We
Winter Harvest
Keith Stewart
FOR MOST VEGETABLE GROWERS, early fall is the season of choice. If we’ve planned and planted well and mother nature has not thrown any serious curve balls our way, we
What is in a seed
Keith Stewart
YOU HEAR THE WORD HEIRLOOM tossed around a lot these days, not referring to handed-down relics (like your great grandmother’s pearl necklace or Victorian footstool), but referring to food, especially
Phyllis Feder of Clinton Vineyards
A Valley Table Interview
SEYVAL BLANC ISN’T EXACTLY A household name, even among wine lovers. A French-hybrid grape (that happens to grow especially well in the Hudson Valley) captured the heart of Ben Feder,
Ray McEnroe of McEnroe Farm
Robin Cherry
ONE FRUIT CAN CHANGE ANYTHING. Adam and Eve had an apple. Persephone had a pomegranate. Ray McEnroe had a tomato. It was 1988; McEnroe had recently entered into a partnership
Don’t Hold The Onions
Anne Dailey
TO MANY PEOPLE, onions conjure images of tearful moments at the sink, dutifully peeling and chopping while desperately resisting the urge to rub. These ubiquitous members of the allium family
Mushrooms, Plain and Fancy
Anne Dailey
LARGE-SCALE MUSHROOM production, once a booming business in the Hudson Valley, has shifted almost entirely to Pennsylvania, but in its wake a few small companies and farms have emerged and,
The Vegetable Everybody Hates
Liz Consavage Vilato
IT’S A SHAME THAT MOST people don’t see a Brussels sprout on their plate except at Christmas dinner. During the short time they’re available from local farms (which in the
Smoked Meats
Jennifer Clair
WHILE THE IDEA OF SMOKING meats usually conjures up images of crispy bacon or a slab of barbecued ribs, the technique originated as a means of preservation before it ever
Corn Meal, A.K.A. Grits, Polenta, Suppawn, Cornpone…
Robin Cherry
AS THE SPANISH APPROACHED the Hopi village of Awatovi, residents poured a line of cornmeal in the sand as a sign to the invaders that they were not to enter.
Robert Rosenthal of Stone Church Farm
Valley Table Staff
THROUGHOUT THE HUDSON VALLEY, indeed throughout the country, there likely are few, if any, “farmers” who receive as much acclaim as do Robert Rosenthal and his wife Noelia, who run
Kevin Zraly
A Valley Table Interview
IT MIGHT SEEM AS THOUGH Kevin Zraly has led a charmed life. Independent, good-humored, the focus of a full-page Playboy ad in 1978 (“The Playboy reader. His lust is for
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
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:
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
