And So It Continues
Genesis Farm’s singular Community Supported Garden program is unlike any other in our Garden State. In this, the first of three stories about the place that has inspired heartfelt commitment among hundreds of families, learn about its mission and how its bounty shapes the way the CSG’s multi-generational membership eats and lives. And, importantly, save the date of Sunday, April 28 for its open house.
CSG at Genesis Hosts Open House
One day every spring, the people who put “community” in Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farm open their world to visitors, giving the public a chance to get to know a farm singular in its roots and mission. This year, that day is Sunday, April 28, when tours, workshops, activities, demos, foraging walks and many family activities are planned. It's time to head down to the farm!
Fortnightly 5
Why/When It’s 3, Not 5
All told, the salmon belly, cauliflower taco and buttery claytonia would make a most delightful meal. So we’ll move past what might have been, toast this trio and hope for better in the weeks to come.
Sunday Kitchen
French Sorrel’s Sunny Disposition
As soon as the lovely spring herb rears its pretty head, snip and clip and let those lemon-tart-sour leaves play in all sorts of dishes. Especially simple white beans.
People
Direct Connections
The fresh produce is here in the Garden State, grown by our skilled and dedicated farmers. Why, then, does access for all remain elusive? Karyn Moskowitz has solutions to the problem and is actively creating links from farm to home table.
Ramps, Vintage ’24
Beware the hawker of this wild allium whose sales pitch comes with strings attached for that person is not paying the darling of spring the respect it needs to survive. Buy only sustainably harvested ramps and in this, a slow year, use more sparingly in accenting roles. In other words: Enjoy, but mindfully.
Sunday Kitchen
Burnt Leek-White Bean Dip
At first glance, leeks are sandy and coarse members of the allium family. In American cooking, they’re easy to avoid. When given a little extra time to roast in their own husks, leeks can be incredibly sweet, smooth and evocative of early spring flavor.
Food Find
Blue Lady’s Trash Can Poutine
Imported from Canada are a food truck, its chef-driver and a fabled dish. All are finding a new home in Union County.
Chef Train
Alec Gioseffi, Ironbound
Not many chefs can say they’ve helped to build their restaurant from the literal ground up. But the newest member of TPW’s chef-picks-chef society of top toques has done just that, using his synergistic approach to food, farming and community to tie it all together at Ironbound Farm and Ciderhouse in Hunterdon County.
Fortnightly 5
Produce to the Max
Merely by chance, very unsuspecting, the favorites of the past two weeks happen to be stalwarts of the produce bins given extra loving in dishes that make veg and fruit lovers most happy fans.
Sunday Kitchen
Spinach & Soy Eggs
Treat the loveliest of from-the-farm spinach leaves as you would the choicest of embellished Easter bonnets and anoint the verdant petals with hard-cooked eggs soaked in a jazzed-up soy marinade.
People
Cravings of Great Joy
Fruta-Mex in Hammonton specializes in antojitos, the light, refreshing snack foods of Mexico that belong on more menus in our Garden State. Trend-setters, please unite in support of the dishes that need to be everywhere.
People
Circling Around Hubs
What happens when a group of stakeholders in various agricultural enterprises are brought together by the New Jersey Food Democracy Collaborative to talk about the variety of hubs and the options they offer in selling Garden State produce? A lot of learning.
Sunday Kitchen
Lively Chives
Early to sprout and easy to incorporate into first-of-spring dishes, the wispy allium can star in a hearty salad that can go entrée or holiday side dish.
Spring Forecast
We’ve had a few tastes of early springlike weather this month. But now that we’re in actual calendar spring, what harvests can we look forward to once the new season takes hold? Garden State farmers weigh in on what they’re likely to be picking soonest and what will follow as the days lengthen and grow warmer.
Local Pizza Made Good
Pizzaiolo Chris Hill mines his home turf of the Northwest Kingdom of the Garden State for key ingredients he uses to build the pies he fires and sells from his food truck, A Slice of New Jersey.
Fortnightly 5
Flours and Fishes
The tops of the two weeks just past show off three very different uses of flours and two polar-opposite approaches to fishes.
Sunday Kitchen
A Baguette and a Jar of Pickles
Sometimes the most important things in life – essentials for a proper picnic, for instance – come to you without asking, These are the gifts you will cherish the most.
Veg Direct
The Garden State is missing a vital link between our farms and our independent ethnic restaurants. Until we make what’s available widely accessible, we’ll never know our true potential.
Food Find
Spruce Blue Jam
Spruce tips and Hammonton blueberries find happiness together in a Pine Barrens Post jam. Which in turn inspires a new take on an old recipe.
Having It All: Four Fields Farm
With multiples of skills and a heartfelt mindfulness of place, Liz Balchin and Ryan Lacz are creating a diversified farm in Warren County that maximizes use of their lands while respecting every inch of it to the max.
Sunday Kitchen
Grilled Radicchio Salad
Welcome the season on the horizon with a salad that uses the grill and accents anxious for action. Kiera’s how-to brings it all home.
Luzviminda, an Excursion to the Philippines
We’re now in the leanest months of the year for Garden State produce, which means it’s the right time to take a meal-length vacation to one of our transporting ethnic restaurants.
Wrench in the Food Chain
There's an ever-increasing number of restaurants with out-of-state corporate ownership in New Jersey, eateries with homogenous menus that make no or little attempt to speak to the Garden State's unique foodways and terroir. What exactly are these chain restaurants doing for our local identity and our overall economy?
Fortnightly 5
Welcome Revisits
Think you know muffins, hummus, duck, Asian seafood bowls and layer cakes? Well, not so fast: These versions made by pros with superpowers show how thoughtful tweaks can improve a standard.
Sunday Kitchen
Oat Bowl
After you’ve baked your breads, cookies and muffins, made your granola and smoothies and crumbles, grab your bag of River Valley Community Grains rolled oats and realize it’s also what’s for dinner.
Hub Hosts Bakery Pop-Up
At Marksboro Mills, life and commerce are as they should be, with bakers who use the locally grown, on-site-milled grains in their farm-to-oven baked goods selling them directly to you. At your friendly, convenient neighborhood hub.
Food Find
Norma’s Spinach Turnovers
It’s an easy-as-pie any meal, any time heat-then-eat food made by the folks at a landmark restaurant in Cherry Hill and sold at its adjoining grocery.
Chef Train
Eddie Aguilar, The Stirling Hotel
The newest inductee into TPW’s chef-picks-chef society of top toques has mastered work-life balance all the while expressing his far-ranging experiences and talents on every plate. As his fan and selector notes, he’s “never lost his flair.”
Sunday Kitchen
Tortilla de Patatas Plus
Chipping away at a world-famous recipe offers enlightenment and lighthearted fun.
Life on the Farm
Cheesemaking Does Not Stand Alone
As an integral part of a sustainable food system, the craft and its products are culturally valuable, nutritionally valuable and an intrinsic part of social and ecological landscapes everywhere. The guest writers of this special Life on the Farm column are committed to small-scale farmstead cheesemaking, practicing it year-round at their acclaimed Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse in Holland Township.