We wanted to share with you a new report we published on Thursday which concludes that the vast majority of New York City street fairs are bland and repetitive. Our report features ideas for improving these staples of summer from 25 innovative New Yorkers, including the founder of Chowhound, the organizer of Red Hook Food [...]

• NY Health Department Announces Rules for Restaurant Grades • Students nurture dreams of being farmers in urban Miami-Dade • Italy fears for Nutella with new EU food labels • Tim Carney @ Washington Examiner brings up the Greenpoint Food Market and asks if “more corporatism in Brooklyn” will drive folks here to libertarianism • [...]

Is that a banana in your pocket, or did you just drink some of Brooklyn’s “Magic Power Coffee?” INZ Distributors Inc./Magic Power Coffee Inc. of Brooklyn, NY announced today that it is conducting a voluntary nationwide recall of the dietary supplement product sold under the name, Magic Power Coffee. The Company has been informed by [...]

Through cumulative recent-birthday power, this household has found itself in possession of a slew of new food- and gardening-related books, sending us into a tizzy of re-working our summer reading lists & experimenting with new recipes. And as long as we’re making all that effort, we might as well share it with you, yes? So, [...]

Ibsen in Bushwick … why not? Saint Jude of the Cats is putting on Lady from the Sea (Henrik Ibsen’s “quirky 1888 drama of necromancy, gender politics, and family dysfunction”) at Chez Bushwick this weekend (Thurs., Fri. & Sat. @ 8 p.m.; 304 Boerum Street #11). If it’s good, I’m pulling for Chekhov’s “The Cherry [...]

The paper has compiled lists of Brooklyn’s summer street festivals, outdoor movie screenings, farmer’s markets and free concerts. Some North Brooklyn highlights: June 24: Rooftop Films presents “The Rural Life and Spirit” (a collection of “cute cartoons, fascinating fictions, and delightful documentaries”) on the Automotive High School lawn, 8 pm [50 Bedford Ave. at N. [...]

June is the beginning of my year. New York manifests itself as a Technicolor utopia of sunbathing book readers, of shirtless banjo boys, of the girls with ribboned straw hats. We’re children again. Life is patiently weaving daisy chains and licking coconut yogurt cones for a heated moment. Everyone is so nice, we’ll say. With [...]

Back in the 60s and 70s young people migrated back to the countryside to make a go of farming. Novella Carpenter’s parents were part of that movement. But it didn’t last. People found that growing food is very hard and rural life can be extremely isolating. The motives of today’s generation of farmers are different, [...]

I spent what seemed like a billion hours hawking nut pate and iced coffee at the Greenpoint Food Market last Saturday. Which was a wonderful way to meet even more lovely people doing groovy food things in these parts; sample a billion cupcakes (and a macaroon, but more on this later); and generally taste, see [...]

• M. Stone jewelry sale & rooftop gathering Saturday. 252 Norman Avenue, 3-7 p.m. keg beer + necklaces & earrings that look like the west • May’s Greenpoint Foodmarket is also Saturday afternoon. Church of the Messiah (basement), 129 Russell Street, 12-5 p.m. From creator Joann Kim: The market is hosted by the Church of [...]

Or “I ate at every restaurant in Greenpoint and Williamsburg this weekend.  Go on and ogle that pulled pork slider from Teddy’s Bar and Grill. [Photo courtesy of the Goddamn Cobras.] Taste Williamsburg Greenpoint was this past Sunday (if you did not happen to notice the raucous crowds feasting hungrily on North 11th) to benefit Northside [...]

… overalls in In Style magazine: June 2010 issue; page 164 In Urban Outfitters: Georgetown, DC store In H&M: Georgetown, DC store

* The Greenpoint Public Library is looking for local artists for its spring benefit art show/silent auction. Deadline: April30. * Roberta’s wood-fired pizzeria in Bushwick has a new bun in the over – literally (hahahahaha. it’s the kind of morning for bad puns): “We’ve learned a lot working with small accounts and now we’re going [...]

It had broad bipartisan support and backing from the White House, and it was expected to come to the Senate floor before the Memorial Day recess. But in a letter to Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the chairman and ranking minority member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, the [...]

* Greenpoint Soup Kitchen Garden, a volunteer-run community garden housed in the backyard of the Greenpoint Reformed Church, is holding an informational/organizing meeting this Saturday from 4-5 p.m. in the backyard of 136 Milton Street.  Looking to set up volunteer schedules for gardening, watering. * Food Safety Bill (S510) debate in the Senate pushed back [...]

We’ve been noticed, darlings! Perhaps recession solidarity is behind overalls percolating on the street and trickling down from the runway. Long associated with farmers, Rosie the Riveter and OshKosh B’gosh babies, the uniform is having a moment: the blog Brooklyn Home Companion has declared that “2010 is the Year of the Overall.” The blog, chronicler [...]

Goodness, gracious, why aren’t more people talking about this? Meat, poultry industries await new antitrust rules: Federal regulators are set to release the most sweeping antitrust rules covering the meat industry in decades, potentially altering the balance of power between meat companies and the farmers who raise their animals. At issue is how much power [...]

NY Magazine says Greenpoint, Brooklyn (my home sweet home) is NYC’s 5th “most livable” neighborhood: Ah, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A neighborhood at once blessed and cursed. Upside: It borders the East River and has glorious views of Manhattan’s spires. Downside: Much of the waterfront is blocked off by a grim stretch of decaying industrial sites. Upside: [...]

AP ran an article today titled “Farmers group touts lentils, other healthy legumes.” Lentil and other legume farmers … (have) formed a new marketing venture aimed at promoting the health and other benefits of lentils, dry peas, garbanzo beans and other so-called “pulse” crops. I often think I should eat more lentils, but I’m not [...]

While I’ve still been eating healthier lately than I ever have in my life, I’ve found myself slipping a bit, making too many allowances for just a bit of cheese, a little dairy, a drunkenly-consumed hamburger. To curb this before it gets out of control and I fall back on thinking Triscuits with Laughing Cow [...]

Lots of food policy, agriculture news this week: * Pittsburgh considers reining in urban agriculture, beekeeping and chicken raising. Says the mayor’s spokesperson, “Anytime you see something growing and expanding and there are no rules, you need to regulate it.” Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear …(but darling for the way she manages [...]

This Saturday, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Making Brooklyn Bloom” conference will feature workshops and lectures dealing with growing things in the city: Kick off the spring gardening season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden with this daylong conference on how to green up our communities by revitalizing our soil, the foundation of life in the garden. This [...]

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, right? There is no either/or involved? These are the things we’ve been arguing about around the ol’ homestead lately. Weighty, I know. Well, no matter whether the weeks bear more resemblance to Simba or Bo Peep, we’ll be keeping busy in March, supporting and [...]

Margaret Wheeler Johnson at Double X asks who the hell has time to bake their own bread? The question that occurred to me reading every one of these pieces is how anyone trying to succeed in New York or a similarly pricey and competitive cosmopolis finds the time or reason to engage in elaborate culinary [...]

All right, there’s really not that much snow on the ground here in North Brooklyn. I just want to bond with my DC friends who keep twittering about it, okay? I want a shared cultural moment and, dammit, the weather just won’t cooperate! Nonetheless. You should come out this weekend to: 1) The Love Party [...]