Farming

I got my start in food writing via a food and farming column for a New Hampshire daily called The Eagle. Those columns are not online, but here are some others.

Will climate change affect winemaking on Long Island? Newsday’s FeedMe magazine

It was an overcast, muggy August morning when Alice Wise barreled a golf cart down a dirt road behind her Calverton offce. I gripped a low bar next to the driver’s seat as we sailed over a bump toward a few dozen rows of grapevines.

Riding the Tide: How three oysters farmers on Moriches Bay weathered the pandemic Newsday’s FeedMe magazine

When restaurants faltered last year, Long Island’s oyster farmers had to pivot, and fast. Here’s how three side-by-side growers in Moriches Bay helped preserve one of our most iconic local foods.

Lobster Tales: Inside Jordan Lobster Farms Newsday’s FeedMe magazine

If ever a creature embodied the rise from obscurity to fame, it’s the lobster. One night, it might be scampering along the floor of a frigid bay, feeling around for shrimp and sea urchins, when, by a twist of fate….

Resurrecting Hops: Vermont brewers watch and wait as local growers try to create an industry Seven Days, 2011

One day late last fall, Ian Birkett was hiking in the Northeast Kingdom when he came across a vine that had grown up into the trees around it, covered in tiny cones that were turning brown. Birkett recognized the plant immediately…

The earthiest roast: A gourmet meal is cooked in compost Seven Days

“It’s this odd mix of ammonia and deliciousness,” Suzanne Podhaizer observes as she uncoils a foil-wrapped filet of branzino and sniffs. Once its foil is discarded, however, all that remains is an unmistakable briny fragrance.

Blood, syrup and samosas: Rendering the tastes of place at NOFA Seven Days 

“It’s not the size of the gun. It’s the accuracy of the shooter.” So explained Mark Kimball to a roomful of farmers Saturday afternoon in the basement of the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum.

Kids these days: Nigerian dwarf goats are buttery blessings Seven Days

It’s kidding time at Willow Moon Farm, and a chorus of tiny bleats erupts as dozens of goat kids romp through the fresh straw in their pen. They pounce on their cousins and spring into the air as if launched by rubber bands.