Farmtotable

Produce Pick: A Different Side of Rhubarb

March 12, 2020 Farmtotable, Plant Based, Vegetables

(Photo: E.G. Richter Farm INC.)

Most folks think of rhubarb as a warm weather phenomenon, and they’re not exactly wrong. Rhubarb as it grows in the wild is a spring crop, so why do we have it in Provisions—a store that prides itself on seasonality—weeks before spring even officially begins?

As it turns out, hothouse rhubarb is a delicacy we’re lucky to get. EG Richter Family Farm in Puyallup, WA, just outside of Seattle, commits to the backbreaking work it takes to make it happen. The plants spend two summers outdoors storing energy, after which Richter’s farmers dig up root systems that can weigh a hundred pounds. Once it’s re-planted in dark, 55°F hothouses, things get going in a hurry. Tricked into spring growth, the rhubarb grows so fast that farmers swear they can hear it popping, and the darkness means the rhubarbs retain a prized crimson color, with yellow leaves. They’re even more tender than traditional field rhubarb!

Whether you’re itching to make early rhubarb pie, or just want to try Tim Richter’s favorite sour snack of rhubarb stalks with sugar, you’re going to want to hurry in and grab some of this remarkable rhubarb before it’s gone!

Need it delivered, as a precaution or otherwise? We offer same-day gloved home delivery in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and by van delivery elsewhere. If an item is unavailable online, call us at (718) 233-2700 and we’ll make it happen for you.

The Women Who Make Us Grape: Laura Rose

February 28, 2020 Farmtotable, Featured Farmer, Local, Plant Based, Spotlight, Vegetables

Throughout Women’s History Month, we’re featuring some of the women who make the Greene Grape the amazing place it is. The Greene Grape family of businesses is woman-powered, both historically and currently, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t shine a well-deserved spotlight on at least a few of these grape women.

This week, we’re chatting with our Produce Buyer, Laura Rose Dailey. Laura Rose and her department make sure anyone’s first impression of Provisions is a beautiful one as they step through our front door! With her agricultural background and passion for growing green things, she’s a perfect fit for the job, and we couldn’t do it without her.

What got you into the world of agriculture and produce?

I took a course on coffee ecologies and livelihoods in college and had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador to spend some time with the coffee farmers there. That experience rocked my world, and truly opened my eyes to the injustices of our food system. A few years later I decided I wanted to learn how to grow food, and took a farming apprenticeship at Amber Waves, a mixed vegetable production farm on the East End of Long Island. It was on that land where I fell in love with farming and spent the next four years (plus two winters on the other side of the equator!) growing vegetables.

What’s been part of your experience as a woman working in agriculture?

At Amber Waves, it often felt like we were in a bubble all our own, being owned and staffed by women. On the other hand, the people delivering our farm equipment, seeds, and other necessary items were usually men, and some of them broke that bubble with their questions. “Who’s really in charge here? Are you really farmers?” It was a reminder that a farm run by women is considered an anomaly, but we were never discouraged. Owners Amanda Merrow and Katie Baldwin showed me how far women could go in agriculture—I really look up to them.

What’s your favorite produce?

I can’t pick just one! I have three. Radishes: The feeling and sight of pulling a bright red, snackable root out of the ground is so satisfying and beautiful. Also, they’re a fast growing crop (~40 days seed to harvest) AKA almost instant gratification. Baby greens: Another fast growing crop, and there’s nothing like a salad made with crispy flavorful right outta the ground greens! And finally, eggplant: As a farmer on Long Island, growing eggplant is a lot of work because of the Colorado Potato Beetle. This pest feeds on the young tender leaves, and if left alone will completely destroy the plant and therefore the crop. For farmers, this meant that every other day, we’d have to check each plant on every leaf for signs of infestation. If we managed to beat the bugs and have a successful eggplant crop, we were eating eggplant parm for weeks. 🙂

Making the Case for Leftovers

November 29, 2019 Food, Grocery, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

Ah, leftovers. Thanksgiving may have come, but it’s certainly not gone. A couple good heaps of mashed potatoes, part of a dish of stuffing, and a select few slices of pie are likely haunting your fridge, even if you plied your guests with takeout containers of food at the door. Most likely of all, there’s something like half a bird in your kitchen, earmarked for a week of turkey sandwiches and other quick lunch items. Before you hit that turkey event horizon, we’ve got a recipe—that you can double or even triple—from our very own Social Media maverick, Erin!

Leftover Turkey Curry

1 lb turkey, cubed
1 tablespoon ghee or butter
1.5 tablespoons Reluctant Trading Tikka Masala Spice Blend
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 finely minced or grated garlic
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
1 cup turkey or chicken broth
1 13 ounce can of coconut milk or 1 1/2 cups cashew cream*
Optional: sliced scallions, chopped cilantro

Melt butter or ghee in a large, heavy skillet on medium-high.
Add onion, Tikka Masala spice blend, tomato paste, garlic, and ginger. Stirring constantly, cook until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Toss in cubed turkey, letting flavors combine, at least another minute.
Pour in broth and bring to a simmer. Add coconut milk or cashew cream and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Stir in scallions and cilantro; salt to taste. Serve over rice or m’smen.

*Cashew Cream

3/4 cups of cashews
Water
Salt

Submerge cashews in cold water and soak for 4 to 8 hours or soak in boiling water for 30 minutes
Drain and place cashews in a high-powered blender. Add enough water to just cover the cashews with a pinch of salt. Blend until creamy, at least 1 minute.

Made a beautiful turkey leftovers curry dish? Tag us @greenegrape and show us!

Last Call for Thanksgiving Essentials!

November 26, 2019 Local, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

THANKSGIVING HOURS
Wednesday 11/27: 8am-9pm
Thursday 11/28: 8am-2pm
Friday 11/29: 9am-8pm

Try as we might, there’s no guarantee we’ll have everything we need on the big day. We make detailed lists or recruit friends and family to bring sides and desserts, but somehow, there just never seems to be enough butter! Luckily, we’ve stocked up on vital ingredients, and we’ll be open down to the wire on Thanksgiving Day to make sure you don’t run out.

Of course, our essentials are anything but basic. Butter aficionados already know how good Rodolphe de Meunier’s Beurre de Baratte is, though vegans won’t be left out with Miyoko’s cultured cashew and coconut butter. If you’re after bacon to gussy up your greens or punch up your stuffing, get our house made bacon sliced to order—you can even choose your thickness! For the hands-on piemaker, amp up your crusts with our house made leaf lard, rendered from pastured Berkshire pigs. For the hands-on piemaker short on time, no worries; we’ll have no shortage of pre-made crusts for you to fill.

Not even sure what you’re missing on your list? Check it against our Thanksgiving collection here, and make sure your dinner isn’t going without!

Gobble-Up These Thanksgiving Pairings

October 27, 2018 Events, Food, Fort Greene, Local, Thanksgiving, Wine

There’s no time like the present to be menu planning for Thanksgiving! – And what better way to prepare for a celebration than with another celebration? Think of it like a cocktail party where the autumnal hors d’oeuvres will leave you inspired for your own holiday meal planning. Join us at Wine & Spirits for 3 free tastings in November where we’ll pair tastes of domestically made wines with samples of all the fixings and sides from our Thanksgiving Menu.

Choosing Sides

Our Annual All-American 6-Pack features American made wines in red, white, and rosé. You’re sure to find something for every wine-lover at your gathering. When picking wines, it’s also important to consider what you’ll be pairing them with. Our tasting series is designed to give you the tools to find the perfect wines for your culinary supporting roles.

While the focal point of Thanksgiving may be the turkey, sides are an essential piece of the holiday puzzle. Whether you’re looking for a dish to bring to a dinner party or outsource some of your own cooking, we have a variety of dishes to choose from. Of course we’ll have plenty of omnivore friendly offerings, but the real star this year is our veggie friendly sides! Because when you’re feeding a large group, its hard to please everyone and we recommend leaving the meat to the turkey and the stuffing. Highlights from this year’s menu include: Maple Glazed Yams, Brussels Sprout Gratin, Mushroom-Leek & Walnut Stuffing, Cranberry Relish, and gravy made two ways! We’ll have both a traditional turkey gravy and a plant-based vegan gravy!

We want your holiday to be better than ever this year, and we want to celebrate it with you! Stop by any of these complementary events to get a taste for the holidays and set the tone for a season of good friends, family, and food.

Save the Dates!
Fridays: November 2nd, 9th, and 16th from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Greene Grape Wine & Spirits | 765 Fulton Street

The Great Gobble Giveaway!

November 7, 2018 Fort Greene, Local, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

What would Thanksgiving be without the giving?

After 10 years of business on Fulton St. we know that we’ve got a lot to be thankful for: delicious food, delightful coworkers, and of course what would we be without the incredible Fort Greene community! This year we have the unique opportunity to give back. We’ve teamed up with the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership to donate turkeys to local families in need. We’ve set our goals high, but are confident in our ability, with the help of our community, to procure 854 lbs of turkey! While we can’t do it alone, The Greene Grape has committed to matching 50% of every dollar raised in this Great Gobble Giveaway.

Will you donate a pound or two to a local family’s Thanksgiving turkey?

Ask your cashier, or click here to donate a pound or two to a local family in need.

Cocktails For Turkeys!

To kick off the fundraising, we’re hosting a cocktail party at Annex on Tuesday November 13th from 6:00-9pm. All proceeds from our signature beer and cocktail sales will go to buying turkeys for 61 local families. Come out and mingle, and drink for a great cause! TOAST Ale and Ford’s Gin will be slinging beverages until we close. Mix and mingle with a spirited group of community members, local businesses and community organizers, this will be an evening to remember!

Who will be getting these turkeys?

TheMyrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership works with the Fort Greene & Farragut Fresh Pantry which gives about 10,000 pounds of fresh produce to the community each year. In addition, they work with local businesses and residents to provide the community with turkeys. This year, they have asked us to help extend their turkey donation with 61 turkeys to help provide for families living at the The Emerson Davis Family Center. This local organization offers housing, child care, medical, and mental health services. Emerson-Davis is a transitional family preservation and reunification program designed to serve parents with histories of homelessness and mental illness, and their families.

Raising a racket over this season’s squash!

October 12, 2018 Farmtotable, heirloom, Local, Vegetables

The fall harvest is here, and we’ve got a few tricks and treats up our sleeves. This season’s bounty of squash may feel like a ‘been-there-done-that’ kind of thing, but just wait until you try our newest petite treat – the Honeynut Squash!

Honeynut is a fairly new variety of squash that’s been around just under a decade having been bred specifically for a sweeter more versatile taste than its cousin the Butternut, not to mention its loads easier to manage in the kitchen than a more traditional squash! So who do we have to thank for this small miracle? Chef Dan Barber, of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns fame, approached a group of breeders from Cornell University with the challenge to make a squash that tasted better and didn’t require a machete in the kitchen, and so the journey to make this little delight a reality got put into motion.

Honeynuts are popping up in a lot of local grocers’ and farmers’ markets where sellers boast its smooth texture and sweet yet nutty flavor, but it’s not just the taste that’s getting people’s attention. The little squash doesn’t have to be peeled, which is a huge time saver. They also have 3x the amount of beta-carotene as well as being a great source of vitamin A, making them easy on the eyes.

Afraid of being left out because you don’t have a raging sweet tooth? Fear not ! We’ve got one more trick up our sleeve. Introducing the Kabocha squash, sometimes referred to as a Japanese pumpkin. This winter squash is still sweeter than a Butternut but less so than a Honeynut, lauded for its velvety texture and high in both fiber and beta-carotene, use this winter veggie anywhere you would a pumpkin or traditional squash, that means seeds too!

Much like the Kabocha, Red Kuri squash is a hearty winter squash that you might need a heavy duty knife to carve up. Unlike its relatives, however, this particular squash has an exceptional nutty flavor making it perfect for soups and risotto. The Red Kuri can also be used as a decor as it plays well with gourds and pumpkins!
Of course we would be remiss not to mention the famed thin-skinned Delicata squash, not only is it easy to cut and roast, but the creamy flesh of this squash is ideal for roasting, no peeling necessary. Stuffing the delicata is also a popular way to serve up this variety, however between our three colorful varieties of Acorn squash picking the right veggie for stuffing can be quite a challenge. Try them all, and let us know what you think!

Our squash all come from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative a non-profit all organic farmer’s cooperative of over 100 family farmers all working out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to ensure your produce is humanely raised and fresh as can be!

BjornQorn, get your BjornQorn here!

May 29, 2018 Farmtotable, Food, Grocery, Local

There’s no snack quite like popcorn! Dress it up any way you like or dress it down for a light and simple bite; it goes back almost 4000 years, and it helped save the film industry from the Great Depression. And while we always have room on our shelves for a variety of popcorn, there’s one popcorn that reigns in our hearts and our stomachs. We mean BjornQorn, of course, a uniquely flavorful vegan popcorn that we just can’t get enough of, in a charming bag designed by a local artist.

What sets BjornQorn apart isn’t just its seasoning of safflower oil and nutritional yeast, though its nutty, almost cheesy flavor and its high vitamin and protein content are certainly a big part of that. BjornQorn isn’t popped like any other popcorn, with kettles of organic corn swung out over mirrored basins on sunny days in upstate New York, no matter the season. It makes for crispier kernels thanks to the even heat of the sun; with no need for fuel, it keeps costs low, and with zero emissions, it keeps environmental impact even lower.

BjornQorn gets its name from cofounder Bjorn Quenemoen, son of Minnesotan corn farmers, and gets its solar mirror technology from other cofounder Jamie O’Shea. The two met at Bard College, where Bjorn was popping through the night to make popcorn with his family’s recipe. One very productive game of catch later, the two agreed to put food and technology together, and the rest is history. Now they strive to provide that same solar-cooking technology at “dirt cheap” prices, in Jamie’s own words, in places where energy is scarce, in partnership with those communities.

At the end of the day, though, the most important fact about BjornQorn is that it is addictively tasty. It’s one of our best-selling snacks for a reason, and we think you’ll find it hard to put the bag down.

Now Available For Delivery! – So sit back and binge watch your Netflix, we’ll bring the popcorn!

Not Your Average Grocer

April 19, 2018 Butcher, Farmtotable, Fort Greene, Grocery, Local, Vegetables

If there’s one thing we know around here, it’s that at Provisions, we’re not your average grocer. People come from all over the city to find that one amazing, rare item we happen to carry, just as much as we have a crowd of regulars who pick up everything they need from us. It’s not just our unique collection of products, though, or even our crew of diverse personalities. It’s in the way we source those products, and it’s in the way those products are made. From your basic milk and eggs to the specialty foods you never thought you’d find in Fort Greene, we strive to find and carry items that are local, sustainable, and ethically made, all held to a high standard of quality.

Many if not most grocery stores source exclusively from corporate distributor middlemen, and they in turn source from industrial farms and factories where there’s little to no transparency. It makes for a hard disconnect on where food comes from, especially when food is mistreated and wasted in the name of perfectly identical, shelf-ready products. The people who make these foods are likely to be vastly underpaid and overworked. Both people and animals suffer under these systems that are not sustainable, and yet as an individual it can seem daunting to get around it. That’s where we come in.

At Provisions, we are constantly looking for more ways to do our part toward a better, more viable food system where people and the food that nourishes them can thrive. Our milk and eggs come from farms where animals are treated like part of the family, with expansive pastures to roam, diverse grazing, and even biweekly pedicures for the cows. We source produce from small operations from as nearby as Gotham Greens in Gowanus, and our butcher counter lets no scrap go to waste when they make animal fat soaps and candles. When it comes to stocking our shelves, we work directly with small producers who hold the same values of sustainability and transparency in their ingredients and production.

Look for Not Your Average Grocer signs around the store, and find out more about what sets us apart!

Just our duck! Lucky Duck Ramen

April 5, 2018 Butcher, Farmtotable, Fort Greene, Recipes

Ramen is a staple in Japan, so ubiquitous that its origins are shrouded in mystery and so culturally important it has its own museum. With the weather still see-sawing from cold to warm and back again, we could all use a hot, brothy bowl of noodles dressed to our liking. While there are as many regional varieties as there are people in Japan, we think your new favorite variety might be our duck ramen!

Pick up a ramen kit, available for delivery here,
and follow along with Chef Kenny’s recipe:

Greene Grape Duck Ramen

Ingredients:
1 qt House Made Duck Tonkatsu Broth
1 leg House Made duck confit
2 packages Sun Ramen noodles
2 eggs
½ cup carrot grated

Garnishes:
1 pc scallion, thinly sliced
1 pack Blue Moon Acres Asian microgreens
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pinch sesame seeds

Bring two quarts of water to boil. Carefully drop eggs into water for eight minutes (seven if you like a runny yolk), then remove eggs carefully, placing under cold running water to cool. Reserve the boil water to cook noodles.
Cook ramen noodles for two to two and a half minutes, strain and set aside.
In a separate pot, heat your duck broth. Put duck confit into the warm broth for two minutes, remove and pick meat off the bone.
Divide the noodles, duck confit, & carrot between two serving bowls.
Peel the eggs carefully and slice in half.
Pour your hot broth over the noodles and duck. Finish with the egg, microgreens, scallion. Sprinkle pepper flakes and sesame seeds to taste.

(Photo: E.G. Richter Farm INC.)

What got you into the world of agriculture and produce?

What’s been part of your experience as a woman working in agriculture?

What’s your favorite produce?

Choosing Sides

What would Thanksgiving be without the giving?

Will you donate a pound or two to a local family’s Thanksgiving turkey?

Cocktails For Turkeys!

Who will be getting these turkeys?

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