by J. Michael Wheeler
Know Your Farmer
You never know where you might eat that eight-course meal; it might be in a barn, a pasture, a micro-creamery, an heirloom apple orchard or even at a dairy. What you will be assured of, at a New England Farm 2 Fork Project, is that Chef Sebastian Carosi and his band of roving rural culinary visionaries will wow you with their on farm dinners, luncheons, brunches, and other culinary events throughout the different New England seasons.
The New England Farm 2 Fork Project is an eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage food-ways, and the pleasures that surround the American kitchen and table. They work closely with farmers and producers to raise local food supply awareness, and to support sustainable agriculture and economic development throughout the Northeast.
Our destiny and mission is to serve the best local, sustainably produced artisan ingredients and to treat them with respect and simplicity in our cuisine...This means using as much of a products resources as possible, be it the greens from garden grown organic heirloom beets, or the livers and gizzards of pastured barnyard heritage chickens...Our deep-rooted regional influences have shaped and continue to shape New England Farm Cuisine and inspire our cooking and food on a daily basis. — Chef Sebastian Carosi
The project is the brainchild of Chef Sebastian Carosi, an admitted local foods junkie, turophile, and Slow Food practitioner. Chef Carosi wholeheartedly supports responsible agricultural methods, exposes diners to local food resources, and is cultivating a more conscientious food culture throughout New England.
What the Indians Ate Dinner, on May 29th & 30th, is the next New England Farm 2 Fork Project event. Here’s what’s on the menu:
Heirloom appaloosa bean, smokehouse ham hock and American snapping turtle soup, shagbark hickory cured steelhead with red alder smoked sea salt and crushed wild ramps, ossipee mountain cherry wood smoked trout cakes with misickquatash, air dried Maine raised red deer with Perkins Cove juniper berries, corn smut honey, fried parsnips and foraged wild greens, smoked squash and wild maine moose meat pie, indian fry bread ‘taco’ with braised black bear, shaved lettuce, smoked pepper sauce and pickled sunflower seeds, sinzibukwud cured magret duck breast with suppawn, crushed heirloom crane-berries and swamp cabbage.
And for desert? Abenaki Indian pudding with heirloom local rhubarb jam. Of course.
Wow.
Upcoming Events: A Shaker Supper in the Orchard, A Gravenstein cider press & dinner, and National Moldy Cheese Day & A Made in New England Cheese Social. Keep up on their Schedule.
The New England Farm 2 Fork Project
Foodie's Emporium is an Amazon Pro Merchant!
Regionality usually means eating cheese made at the farm around the corner and getting your lettuce at the farmer’s market. Saveur (July ’08) takes the concept down a few rungs on the food chain in 11 Regional Road Snacks. And they have found “homegrown treasures for your next cross-country odyssey.” While the editors have “nothing against Doritos and Snickers bars” (I can’t side with them there), we do agree that “you can almost always do better than standard gas station fare.” It just takes a sense of adventure. And trust. 
Saffron is the world's most precious and
expensive spice. The saffron threads are actually the dried stigmas of
the saffron crocus. Each
flower contains only three stigmas (or threads) and must be picked by
hand. More than 75,000 of these blossoms are needed for the 225,000 hand-picked stigmas to produce just one
pound of Saffron threads. This explains why it is the world’s most expensive spice! It's been used for everything from cooking to medicine and
aphrodisiacs.
