What's A Farmbox?

A few weeks ago, I was kicking around in Adams Morgan on a Saturday morning. The residue from Snowpocalypse 2010 had finally melted, the sun was shining, and I was feeling fine. I turned the corner onto Columbia Road, and saw a big white delivery truck where a smiling, bearded man was handing happy people boxes of gorgeous produce. “What’s this?” I thought. I meandered over to......read more

From The Farmbox

Farmbox Ingredients: * Beets * Mixed color carrots * Hardneck garlic * Pea shoots   Listening to: * Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion * Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run * Mission of Burma – Signals, Calls and Marches   All these root vegetables and nowhere to go but to the braised shortribs. Mario Batali’s shortribs from his Babbo cookbook......read more

From the Farmbox

Dandelions! Greens! Is it? Can it be? It must be! (drum roll please)…It’s SPRING!   It’s enough to make my blue eyes turn turquoise. No kidding.   Now, if you’re like me, then your normal recipe for dandelions is a good hard yank with a garden-gloved fist followed by a cold beer for all your hard work. But seeing as these were Italian dandelions, that just......read more

From The Farmbox

If you happen to be making a list of (or song about, coffee table book on…) the world’s filthiest and/or ugliest vegetables, please make sure to include salsify on your list. Would you just look at how ugly these things are?!? But, through the miracle of Photoshop, look how purty I made them.   I jest. No Photoshop trickery here, just some peeling, boiling, mashing, mixing,......read more

From the Farmbox

So, I’m from Louisiana. And though I can’t be certain, I’m fairly sure that we Louisianians, categorically, are not known for eating a lot of beets. The same cannot be said for Russians, for whom beets……   Damn. I was about to say “are like potatoes to us." But that ain’t quite right. Russians heart their potatoes rather......read more

Back to the Land in Upstate New York

We'd be hard-pressed to think of two livelihoods more diametrically opposed than fashion photography and farming. There are plenty of dual careers out there that make sense: actor/model, director/producer, artist/designer. Farmer/fashion photographer does not. But that unlikely pairing is exactly the situation NYC fashion photog Fabio Chizzola found himself in when he and his wife Laura......read more

45rpm Goes Organic

With Dash, the all-organic winter collection from R by 45rpm, the Japanese brand gives lovingly detailed denim, sweaters, knitted caps, button-ups and totes the eco-treatment. Needless to say, organic clothing made in Japan brings a hefty price tag, so don’t be shocked when they ring in your purchase. ...read more

Jonathan Safran Foer on Meat

In Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book "The Eating of Animals" the lauded novelist dives deep into the complex morality of eating meat. An avowed vegetarian, Foer stops short of preaching the vegan way of life, but presents some pretty damning testimony about factory farms and the lives of animals raised on them. The Atlantic correspondant Jeffrey Goldberg had a discussion with Foer......read more

Chocolate with a Conscience

Valentine’s Day is probably the most polarizing of holidays. While all the smug couples delight in gazing into each other’s eyes over a prix fixe and a bottle of pink champagne, all the tragic singles are left to fend for themselves. And the holiday has become so aggressive that it takes hard work to avoid being gawked at like you’re some romatically-challenged leper. Fear......read more

From the Farmbox

It’s a fairly unassailable assertion that you’ve heard a bazillion times (possibly from a Brazilian?) – food cooked outside tastes better. I know. Duh, right? And there are many who would go further and argue that food cooked over charcoal is far superior to food cooked on a gas grill. I count myself among them. Then there is another smaller circle in the Fuel Preferences of......read more