Awake

Evening and Morning

Hello,

I have a slight cold (after joining a handful of snuffling people for dinner on Sunday - not that I'm pointing any fingers or anything) and right now everything seems very quiet inside my head. 

Outside though, after rain and humidity, humidity and rain, suddenly it cleared up yesterday evening.  As I walked past the Empire State Building - oddly, for the third time that day - it was still very humid but the clouds were dispersing so quickly that you'd never have thought that the sky had been completely overcast just an hour before.  And this morning too... to think that we're supposed to have more rain and humidity very soon...

Grapes and Bees

 

All has been quiet here... just working and noticing the days grow shorter, a sure sign of changing seasons that belies the warm weather.

And there are now Concord grapes at the market, the super-sweet kind that brings to mind grape-flavored candy.  These bees, desperate as always at the end of the summer, were all over them.

Hopefully I'll have more to report soon... in the meantime, I hope you have all enjoyed the weekend! 

Food News / Who is Trader Joe, Anyway?

Since I got back from my rushed trip to Vermont, I've been a bit tired and trying to cram a lot of work in... and as they say, "all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl," so I haven't had much to say for myself.

Fortunately, though, a friend of mine sent me an e-mail filled with some food news I'd like to share, and she was kind enough to even provide her sources!  The news involves the much-loved Trader Joe's, and the issue of where (and how) they source their produce.  A New York City group, the Community / Farmworker Alliance, has been working in conjunction with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, based in Florida, to further their Campaign for Fair Food, which "seeks to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers by calling on major buyers of tomatoes to pay a premium of one penny more per pound for their tomatoes, ensure that this penny is passed down directly to farmworkers."  The principal is that major supermarket chains are always seeking the lowest cost possible for the foods that they buy, and when suppliers cut costs to meet their demands this ends up trickling straight down to farmworkers, affecting both wages and working conditions.  So far, the CIW has successfully come to agreements with Taco Bell, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Burger King, Subway... all huge victories for farmworkers.  Their most recent target has been Trader Joe's, which, much to my surprise, has so far not been particularly cooperative.

A few pictures from Vermont

I got back from Vermont yesterday evening - and wish I were still there!  There's an amazing combination of natural beauty and outdoor activities, great food from area farms and restaurants, interesting historic sights and museums.  Here are a few pictures from the trip...

Lake Champlain from Burlington:

Leaves just starting to turn...

Sky over a meadow at Shelburne Farms (a "membership-supported, nonprofit environmental education center, 1,400-acre working farm, and National Historic Landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont" - where we missed the tour)

And another...

photo of a farm along route 7, courtesy of my husband

Rolling mountains in the distance (seen from an orchard in Middlebury)

Middlebury Farmer's market - I got my produce shopping in, after all...

And lots of focus on using local ingredients at restaurants - including very casual and affordable ones.  We especially enjoyed the local foods prepared at the Farmer's Diner and American Flatbread in Middlebury (where we ate one of the best pizzas I've ever had), and at a fantastic crepe place called the Skinny Pancake in Burlington (nothing "diet" about the food, lest the name mislead you).  

From window of Skinny Pancake...

From American Flatbread...

Hitting the Road...

Just a quick note to say I'm leaving for Vermont tomorrow morning.  I've been needing to go there to do a bit of research, and I'm very excited because I've never been and I've heard that pretty much the whole state is gorgeous.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to post at least a picture or two while I'm up there - we'll see!

I had the romantic idea that I would take the Amtrak up there - the route is charmingly called the Ethan Allen Express (which brings to mind buying bedroom furniture with my mother in the early 80s).  However, there is only one "express" running each day, at it takes over nine hours to get from NYC Penn Station to Burlington - quite a long journey when you only can stay for two nights!  The bus takes even longer.  And of course if you want to see other towns and scenery while you're there, there's no way around renting a car anyway.  So of course I ended up reserving a car here in New York, and plan to drive up there myself, first thing tomorrow morning.

City Sky

Since I complained yesterday about not seeing the sky in Manhattan, I feel as though I should make amends to the big city by posting some of the pictures I took last night on the North side of the reservoir in Central Park (in the company of my husband and two friends, lest my mother worry).  I can hardly say that I didn't see some sky from there... the skyline was spectacular, with lights from the buildings illuminating low rain clouds as they blew away.  I couldn't do it justice on film.

Sky

 

Like most New Yorkers, I have something of a love / hate relationship with this city.  I spent most of my childhood and adolescence in the New York City suburbs, and for me "The City" was the center of all glamor, sophistication, and excitement: I absolutely could not wait to move to Manhattan myself, and it was the one thing I knew without a doubt that I would do when I graduated from college.  As a teenager, I could (and did) entertain myself just by walking all day in Manhattan, from Grand Central Station down to the Woolworth Building, where my father used to work, and then all the way up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so forth.  Every neighborhood seemed exciting and full of potential to me, and I looked long and hard at the people passing who actually seemed to live there, wondering about their daily lives.  

 

Eataly

 

Something else very exciting happened this Wednesday, that I've been wanting to mention but haven't had time to because I actually got some PAID work which took priority (gasp)!  This was a copy-editing job that I thought would take three hours at most, but actually took ten.  On the bright side, the material was quite interesting, which was part of the reason it took so long (unfamiliar terminology, etc.)

Getting back to this Wednesday, on the advice of a friend I finally checked out Eataly, the new Italian Food emporium in the Toy Building at 200 Fifth Avenue across from Madison Square Park.  The only other time I've entered this building was for a wedding, probably about nine (?) years ago now.  I think the friend who got married there MIGHT be happy to hear that the place where she said her vows is now the most exciting Italian Food grocery store I've ever set foot in, because she really likes to eat (though she's the sort of meat-and-potatos eater who looks like she might live on edible flowers and dew).  

September

 

For some reason the sight of pumpkins and squashes at the market, starting a few weeks ago, took me by surprise this year.  I think, "but it's still summer, what's with all this produce that's meant for Halloween and Thanksgiving?"  And yet it is the end of summer, after all... and when melons are ripe I suppose it's only natural that other heavy vine-growing fruit should be, too.  I can't bring myself to buy a squash or a pumpkin yet, though.  It's too hot and seems too early.  So I only admired them... as well as these bright yellow gladiola.  Fall colors, indeed!

Another Neighbor / Hello Fall

 

Hello, welcome back from Labor Day Weekend.  This is usually the time of year when I can fill a blank page of a notebook with resolutions and ideas for things that I ought to be doing.  However, today it's supposed to be 87 degrees and sunny in New York, I'm still in summer mode, and at the moment don't have anything in the least bit intelligent (or otherwise) to say for myself.

So instead I thought I'd introduce this new neighbor I ran into on 74th Street.  It's funny how you develop well-established walking routes without realizing it, and I think for no particular reason I'd never really walked down 74th Street before.  Well yesterday evening I sort of accidentally did, and I was very surprised to notice these squirrels guarding the entry way to a townhouse (at least, I think it's a townhouse).  It was an odd coincidence as at the suggestion of a friend I'd just read No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym, a mid 20th century British novelist, and a stone squirrel lawn ornament  plays a very, very, very minor role in the plot.  And here I found that I was living not to far from a few... and they're very autumnal... and I wouldn't have selected them myself but now that they're there I can't help enjoying them...