Looking forward to squash...

I continue to be crusading against what I'm calling "the grocery tax".

I live literally 1/4 mile from Gardiner's Bay, and 5 miles from the Montauk fishing fleet, and yet it is cheaper for me to buy bulk chicken and beef, than flounder. Upon inquiring at a local grocer I was told this was because of quotas. Fair enough reply, but I'm not buying it. I LIVE 5 miles from one of the biggest fishing fleets on the Northeast, and in any terroir 85% of my diet should be seafood..and it's not.

What am I focusing on? Pork. At top grocers in the area, I can buy top, top level cuts of pork for almost 50% cheaper than flounder? This be-fuddles me, and I simply have to ask the fishing community why they are not interested in an immediate (zero shipping cost, middle-man based) consumer market?

So, it was it is...And what it is, is vegetables (and pork).

Funny, if you read about food history...in France...in Italy...meat was always talked about as a luxury. Recipes for beef, especially, were always considered dishes that could only be afforded a few times a year and thus were reserved for holidays. To kill a young lamb and butcher it was always referred to as a great offering. And where you do see meat, it's always pork and chicken. Perhaps we are returning to those terroir based economies?

Anyways, my vegetable garden this year is almost entirely grown from seed. It is just starting to produce, but for me I'm finding this almost paternal connection with it. I am excited for the harvest! Yellow squash is very prevalent this year, and I recently produced a pasta primavera that was excellent. I am excited to re-create it for wifey, coming from the garden. My guest for this dish was Maria Tiezzi Borsa of the top Siena Chianti estate, Pacina...She had two helpings.

Pasta Primavera (squash based)

Finely dice a tomato. And finely chop up 3 tablespoons of parseley. Slice a lemon in half. Set aside.

Take one yellow squash, and one zucchini, and slice them very very thin into disks. Very thin. Mince two garlic cloves in sea salt. 

Heat a very large saute pan on medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons of excellent olive oil. Add squash and zucchini. Saute until slightly browned.  Add garlic and cook through. Remove from heat and set aside.

Boil salted water. Add spaghetti (De Cecco brand is preferred...8 minutes). 

Just before draining pasta , re-heat squash/zucchini pan on low heat.

Drain pasta. Immediately add spaghetti to the squash/zucchini saute pan. Remove from heat. Add tomatoes and squeeze juice of both lemon sides into pasta. Add freshly cracked pepper (hand cracked is better), and taste for salt. Finish with parseley. Re-toss.

Serve with parmesan on side. Finish with the excellent olive oil.

Wine: Pacina Chianti Colli Senesi 2008

Social Farming

Hello there,

As we enter year 3 of Indie Wineries, I continue to learn so much about wine, life, people, and relationships. Although my time and my world are getting pulled in so many different ways, the "culture of the table" continues to be what I return to- what brings me home.

I lamented about the title "rep" last year. I've been lamenting about it for quite sometime, personally. The craft of what I do- what 'we' do as wine sales consultants is truly a craft. There's an art to it. There's a dedication to it; intricacies to the work that one learns over time.

During Indie Week this past March I was explaining this to one of our growers and happened upon the phrase "social farmer" in my explanation. Sounds under-handed, but it's not. Getting people to open their eyes and see what we see takes only one thing: trust. And trust is the foundation of all relationships. Without it, a relationship does not exist.

Trust cannot be bought, or procured. It's not a commodity. It's one of the truly great assets of the world (the first of which is time). Genuine trust takes no less than somewhere around 2.5 years to build. It requires living together through successes, and failures...through death, through fame...and it absolutely requires all of the grey, non-descript in-between time. Laughter is a healthy component to trust- although not entirely necessary. Being there and caring is what trust is all about.

And that is what social farming is.

Growers will start on day 1 and look at a parcel. They will spend time and muddle over what rootstock to use, what expositions to plant, which direction the vines should face, should there be irrigation, what rootstock should be used, and finally what clones of what varieties should be planted. They will then plant...knowing that they won't see fruit from which they can make wine for 3 years, and with a 1.5-2 year winemaking process, won't be able to sell their wine for an additional 6 months to a year. So, all in, they decide to make a product which at minimum will take them 4 years to get paid on. They are growers, farmers, it's a craft, and a dedication.

Rep'ing is equally as similar. 2.5 years...that's when trust is truly there. That's a healthy relationship.

The money is just a by-product.