June 29, 2008

Dec 16, 2007

October 2, 2005

New Amsterdam Market met for the second time as WINTERMARKET on December 16, 2007.

WINTERMARKET included farmers, food producers, foragers, chefs, and - for the first time - purveyors who are committed to environmental stewardship. Gathering such vendors in one place fosters the generation of complex, self-sustaining networks.

WINTERMARKET was held under the awning of the New Market Building in Manhattan’s Seaport neighborhood, which has been a public market district since 1642. The most durable institutions are those which draw from historical continuity.

WINTERMARKET also featured the inaugural Market Meal. A genuine public institution promotes civic interaction.

to see a slideshow of WINTERMARKET produced by Adam Hirsch

purveyors | foragers | producers | cooks | guests | the market meal | the site | press release

Purveyors

A new generation of purveyors dedicated to sourcing, preparing, and selling regional, responsibly produced ingredients is helping expand the sustainable food movement. The purveyors of Wintermarket included:

Marlow and Sons www.marlowandsons.com
Mark Firth and Andrew Tarlow opened Diner in 1998, inspired by Chef Caroline Fidanza's vision for a menu featuring simple dishes made with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. When the three partners opened the adjacent Marlow and Sons in 2004, they included a small, neighborhood grocery store at the entrance, featuring many of the same ingredients used in the kitchens and providing a much needed amenity to local residents.   Their intentory of regional, sustainable ingredients continues expanding.   To Wintermarket, they brought:

re gional winter produce, dried legumes and freshly milled grains

Saxelby Cheesemongers www.saxelbycheese.com
Anne Saxelby is a new purveyor who opened a stand last year in one of New York's last remaining public markets, on Essex Street in the Lower East Side.   She sells artisanal cheeses and dairy products primarily from the Northeast, purchased directly from the farms that make them.   She ages her cheeses in a small walk-in that takes up more than half of her small market stall, and would not have started her business unless she could accommodate these products properly.   To Wintermarket, she brought:

aged, raw milk cheeses and fresh dairy products including butter, crème fraiche, and yogurt

The Health Shoppe www.thehealthshoppes.com
A committed supporter of the regions food artisans, Brant Shapiro seeks local producers of honey, bread and raw milk cheese - to name just a few - for his family's Morristown, NJ health food store. His search for quality led to Bakehouse , an artisan baker in western New Jersey who specializes in naturally leavened Sourdough bread baked in a wood fired oven.    To Wintermaket he brought:

fresh baked artisan bread and raw honey from four Northeastern producers


Wild Edibles  www.wildedibles.com
Wild Edibles runs four stores in New York City, specializing in wild and freshly caught wild seafood and other top quality ingredients highly sought by chefs and cooks.   Many of the products they carry are harvested sustainably by small scale fisheries.   At Wintermarket, they showcased:

responsibly harvested Nantucket Sound scallops and Gulf of Maine shrimp

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Foragers

Foragers specialize in gathering ingredients from wild and rural landscapes.   Their economic well being stems directly from their ability to harvest roots, bulbs, leaves, nuts, fungi, and other products from undeveloped woods, fields, and streams.   Like true hunters, foragers are ardent conservationists, and their presence at markets is always welcome.

Nova Kim and Les Hook www.wildgourmetfood.com
Nova and Les have been gathering food from wild lands and fields in Vermont for most of their lives.   They practice their art with a full understanding of all the species they forage, including numerous mushroom varieties, ramps, roots, flowers, and other delicious and largely unknown foods, seeking always to harvest everything respectfully, and are initiating a wild foragers Guild.   To Wintermarket, they brought:

highbush cranberries, wild ginger, wild watercress, juniper berries, Jerusalem artichokes, wild daylily tubers, and other seasonal specialties

Jerry Henkin   www.nutgrowing.org
Jerry Henkin is an active member and former officer of the Northern Nut Growers Association, which promotes the sustainable cultivation of nut crops throughout North America.   To Wintermarket, he brought:

a selection of nuts foraged from the Northeast, including black walnuts and shagbark hickory nuts

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Producers

Public markets are known for the diversity of their vendors, and even a market of purveyors will include farmers, vintners, bakers, cheesemakers, and other food producers. The producers of Wintermarket included:

Bee's Needs
Beekeeper Mary Woltz strongly believes that by taking the best possible care of the bees, she is able to offer the best possible product. Mary offers a unique opportunity to purchase her honey through her Community Supported Apiculture program, where she provides 12 jars of honey, featuring three different harvests, spring, summer and fall. To Wintermarket, she brought:

three seasons of wildflower honey

The Bent Spoon  www.thebentspoon.net
Owners Gabrielle Carbone and Matt Errico specialize in making small batches of artisan ice cream and sorbet using local southern New Jersey products such as eggs from Runnin’ Free Organic farm, herbs from their local school garden program, and seasonal ingredients such as cranberry and cider. To Wintermarket they brought:

New Jersey cranberry cider sorbet, ricotta and honey nougat ice cream

Eve's Cidery  www.evescidery.com
Eve’s Cidery is a small orchard and cidery located in the hills of the Finger Lakes region of New York where mineral rich glacial soils, intense summers and crisp autumn nights combine to produce exceptionally flavored fruit. Their ciders are fermented from traditional cider apple varieties of English, French and American origin. To Wintermarket they brought:

Autumn's Gold

Hot Bread Kitchen   www.hotbreadkitchen.org
Jessamyn Waldman founded Hot Bread Kitchen as a social purpose bakery to combine two of her passions:   social justice for immigrant women and great baking. Based in Long Island City, the business helps ensure a better future for immigrant women while preserving baking traditions. The bakery makes it a priority to use local and organic ingredients whenever possible.   To Wintermaket, they brought:

fresh corn tortillas, potato focaccia, and lavash

Milk & Cookies Bakery   www.milkandcookiesbakery.com
Chef Tina Casaceli, a long time baking instructor at the French Culinary Institute, is the new owner of Milk and Cookies Bakery, a Greenwich Village institution known for its use of top quality ingredients - many of them locally sourced.   Inspired by the season, Chef Tina created two cookie recipes for Wintermarket:

wild gingersnaps with apple cider molasses and chestnut/maple shortbread cookies

Pine Island Oysters   www.pineislandoysters.com
For five generations, the Frank M. Flower family has carefully tended the same oyster beds that the Dutch found when they named the surrounding waters due to the delicious oysters they found in abundance.  To Wintermarket, they brought:

freshly harvested Pine Island oysters

rick's picks  www.rickspicksnyc.com
Born out of nostalgia for making and eating pickled cukes and dilly beans with his family in Vermont, rick’s picks modest beginnings just a few short years ago has developed into a NYC institution. To Wintermarket they brought:

Windy City Wassabeans, Phat Beets, Smokra, Whup Asp and Bee n Beez

Runnin' Free Organic Farm  www.theorganicegg.com
Born out of nostalgia for making and eating pickled cukes and dilly beans with his family in Vermont, rick’s picks modest beginnings just a few short years ago has developed into a NYC institution. To Wintermarket they brought:

free range organic eggs

Salvatore Bklyn
Betsy Devine and Rachel Mark use organic whole milk from Evan’s Creamery (located in Norwich, NY) for their rich ricotta. A young company, they learned their technique while studying with Salvatore Farina of Gustavo Enoteca in Tuscany. To Wintermarket they brought:

organic whole milk ricotta

Slyboro Ciderhouse  www.slyboro.com
Slyboro Cider House, located in Granville, NY, is one of New York’s newest farm wineries and is an outgrowth of New York’s oldest ‘u-pick’ apple orchard, Hick’s Orchard. The winery—which features artisan ciders made from their fruit as well as apples from regional farms—opened in July 2007. To Wintermarket, they brought:

Night Pasture, Hidden Star, and Ice Harvest

3-Corner Field Farm   www.dairysheepfarm.com
Karen Weinberg raises sheep on organically managed pastures, where they eat natural grass, clover, and alfalfa as well as other plants and herbs that grow in their fields.   Pasture-based husbandry is sustainable because most of what the animals eat is grown on the farm itself using low-impact, traditional methods.   Karen also makes cheese and dairy products with the milk from her sheep, which further increases this sustainable yield.   To Wintermarket, she brought:

freshly butchered lamb and mutton, and artisan sheep milk cheese

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Cooks

Chefs were among the first to pioneer the use of regional, sustainable ingredients purchased at farmers markets or directly from producers.   At WINTERMARKET, chefs specializing in this practice became cooks for a day, offering recipes and tasting samples for seasonal dishes that can be prepared easily at home. In addition, chef Mario Batali served porchetta sandwiches - traditional market fare in Italy - while chef Darren Pettigrew served fried oysters, once a staple of New York's public markets.

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Guests

New Amsterdam Public welcomes the following special guests to WINTERMARKET:

Odessa Piper is the founder and former chef proprietor of L'Etoile restaurant, which she ran in Madison Wisconsin for 28 years. Odessa now works from her home office outside of Washington DC, where she lives with her husband Terry Theise, an importer of fine northern European wines.

An advocate for sustainable agriculture and regionally reliant cooking, Odessa networks with farmers in the United States and Europe, and shares her knowledge at culinary schools and a variety of foodservice venues. Odessa's projects include compiling her recipes and essays for publication, and developing an educational model, which joins farming and culinary students on the same campus to learn about sustainable farming and regionally reliant cooking.   She is a member of Chefs Collaborative, American Cheese Society and Slow Food, and Chairs the scholarship program for Women Chefs and Restaurateurs.  

Odessa maintains close ties to her Midwest community through L'Etoile's new proprietors, Tory and Traci Miller, and through her appointment as Adjunct Professor at University of Wisconsin -Stevens Point and as guest lecturer at UW-Madison, where she holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.  

Odessa has been the subject of profiles in Gourmet Magazine, Bon Appetit, Wine Spectator and the Art of Eating. In 2001 the James Beard Foundation named Odessa Best Chef-Midwest.  

Ben Watson is a book editor, writer, researcher, and activist whose specialties include artisan food, ecological agriculture, and natural and cultural preservation. He is the long-time Senior Editor at Chelsea Green Publishing Co. and has also worked for other independent publishers in New England. His   books include Cider, Hard and Sweet and Slow Food Guide to New York City (co-edited with Patrick Martins).

Since 2000 Watson has been a local and national leader for Slow Food USA, He currently acts as co-leader for the Slow Food Monadnock chapter in   southwest New Hampshire, and is Co-Chair of the US Ark and Presidia Committee, which identifies and promotes rare, endangered, historic, and underappreciated traditional foods of America. He is a lifetime member of Seed Savers Exchange and has been an avid gardener for many years.

Over the past decade, Watson has become one of the leading authorities on the subject of artisanal American cider and heritage apples. He makes frequent speeches and appearances, conducting taste workshops and introducing people to the different flavors of historic apples and various styles of craft cider. In August 2007 he participated in a Cider and Dessert Wine cheese pairing   workshop at the American Cheese Society annual conference in Burlington, Vermont. He also is one of the organizers of the annual event known as Cider Day ( www.ciderday.org ), which is held each November in western Massachusetts and which has grown into one of the largest and most influential apple and cider festivals in the world. In addition, Watson recently helped to start Monadnock Heritage Nursery, a nonprofit preservation project dedicated to spreading the knowledge and cultivation of rare and regional apple varieties.

Watson is currently working on a revised edition of his cider book, and is preparing a proposal for a new book about the apple in America, to be written with   longtime Virginia nurseryman and apple expert Tom Burford.

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The Market Meal

The Market Meal inspired, enriched, and nourished its participants through the communal act of cooking.

At 10:00 am on December 16th, a small group met at WINTERMARKET and accompanied Michael Vignapiano and Mark Hellermann, cooking instructors and caterers, to select and purchase ingredients.  

Together, they cooked and enjoyed an economical, nutritious and delicious meal in the beautiful tasting room at Pasanella and Son , just across South Street from WINTERMARKET.

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The Site

The New Market Building site was first occupied by oyster barges serving the Fulton Fish Market, which opened on the adjacent piers in 1836.   A public market hall was built here at the request of fishmongers in 1904, and the present market hall was inaugurated by Mayor LaGuardia in 1939. The Seaport has been New York's public market district since 1642.

The New Market Building was occupied by the Fulton Market fishmongers until 2005.   It is owned by the public, as is the adjacent Tin Building .   We propose that both buildings be repaired with public funds to remain in use as public markets, dedicated to regional and sustainable food.

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The Star Revealed

Download the Press Release.