Before I visited Napa Valley at the beginning of this month I definitely did not have the proper appreciation for the region’s wine. I came from a workplace that revered European food and drink so the focus on domestic products was somewhat lacking. But Napa is also a great place to produce wine because it has a near perfect climate for grapes; very warm, dry days and cool nights. In this environment the grapes don’t ripen too quickly. It also has about seventeen distinct

New York State apples are finally back in stores. Beyond the obvious, this should signal the season for apples from Chile and New Zealand is over. You may or may not have known that there are two seasons for apples. There is the Northern Hemisphere season, which we are in now, and the Southern Hemisphere season, which starts in the late spring and extends through the end of the summer. I’m sure you know a lot more about the Northern Hemisphere apples so I will jump right

Before this week I had never been to Napa Valley but I knew a few things about the area. I knew it is really warm with almost no humidity. I knew it has great restaurants, the best known being The French Laundry. And I knew it has spectacular wine. But I really was not concentrated on the foodstuffs. Especially not the produce. Produce became my focus when I visited the St. Helena Farmers Market. There were so many varieties of fruits and vegetables I had never seen before. L

Heavy rain at the beginning of the summer and unseasonably cool temperatures this past month have made for an uneven fruit and vegetable growing season in New York this year. To put it bluntly, this has has not been a great year for some local produce. Berry season was a few weeks shorter than usual and we should be getting into peak season for local corn, but so far it has been very hit and miss. (Make sure you peel back the husk to see if the whole kernels extend all the

With about a month left in grilling season let’s talk steaks. And more importantly how to grill them. But first I want to tell you how to select the perfect steak. You have to start with a good piece of meat. I look for three things here: a bone-in cut with moderately abundant marbling that is about an inch and half thick. As most of you already know marbling equals flavor. What many of you probably don’t know is that there are grades within each grade of meat. For prim

Last weekend I took my first trip up to Burlington, Vermont in ten years. Two things struck me while I was up there. The first is how environmentally conscious they are. Different trash cans for recyclables and compost. Recycled plastic used to make the tableware. You can even choose to flush the toilet with less water if you please. The second thing that struck me was their locavore attitude. It seemed like everything you ate or drank was local. Produce from local far