Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 11

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• The perfect slice: Ohio artist, Dennis Wojtkiewicz explores the sensitive nature of time in his oversized oil paintings of fruit (above).

• Authenticity is the flavor of the new year, says NPR (and the rest of us): "What might be called urban neo-ruralism has apartment dwellers canning tomatoes, keeping bees and churning butter. The small farmer is the new gastronomic superhero, sourced on restaurant menus." Expect more craft butchers, more unusual meat (at least for Americans) like goat and rabbit, and more small batch distilling.

• All this artisan stuff is actually real business. Hyper-local markets provide big economic boost in San Francisco and across the country. "This is about jobs, the economy and community vitality....It's created a renaissance in agriculture and that's very exciting." Local Roots Market in Ohio got press as a smart new version of a farmers market. Said one participating farmer: “We won’t be slaves. We will be able to make a business.”

• Southern farmers profiled in the New York Times describe "a thriving movement of idealistic Southern food producers who have a grander plan than just farm-to-table cuisine. They want to reclaim the agrarian roots of Southern cooking, restore its lost traditions and dignity, and if all goes according to plan, completely redefine American cuisine for a global audience."

• Farmers forging partnerships is key to building regional food systems. "Food has really been the bridge that has healed the urban-rural divide."

• Looking across to Italy, we see farmers carving out new economic niches to flourish, with women-run farms ahead of the curve. Some farms are even offering day care centers as part of the mix. "The involvement of women in multifunctional agriculture has helped society in important ways 'like food security, rural development and the safeguarding of the natural landscape.'”

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 10

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Bake your way to fabulous real estate, like a gingerbread brownstone (above).

• When it comes to carbon footprint, are we worrying too much about food miles and not enought about supporting the best producers wherever they are? Some argue that what matters most is getting a handle on cars and building use.

• Local (or regional) when possible is still important to good and sustainable food systems. Massachusetts is stepping up to boost local producers by building an with an all-Massachusetts public market in Boston.

• Starbucks pushes forward recycled shipping container architecture with a new cafe design.

• In hospitality, Bill Marriott, who helped create his family's hotel empire, announced his retirement next year at age 80. He got his start in the kitchen and working as a soda jerk. In an NPR interivew, he talks about the business of the kitchen: "presentation is very important and the details are extremely important."

• If you want to play restaurateur without losing all your money, try Marriott's game on Facebook where you get to make supply and staff choices and then found out how you're doing.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 9

 a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Talk about a recipe that's set in stone, this ancient Babylonian tablet (left) contains 25 recipes for soups and stews intended for royalty or the gods.

• “There are only so many ways that food can be explored through technology...The opportunities are finite.” Start-Ups Mixing Food and Technology Vie for an Edge, but what are they leaving on the table? We don't think the dead end is anywhere in sight.

• "I spent the first two years of college with one question in mind – basically, how can I have the greatest impact in my life in the world. And the thing that I kept coming back to, that everyone connected to, was food." A great NPR story profiling the new, young crop of farmers. The word from an experienced farmer — to make it work, you have to be serious about running the business.

• We firmly believe in picking up promotional ideas from other industries and movements. Entertainment is a great place to start with Six Secrets To Branding, Ripped From "Raiders Of The Lost Ark."

• Is a caramel ever just a caramel? "Modern Britain is bizarrely food-crazed, and cultural indigestion is the sure result. What if we began to care a little more about what we put into our minds than what we put into our mouths?" asks Steven Poole in The Observer in a rant on the food porn phenomenon. Why should it be minds vs. mouth? Food, and the world of ideas it inspires, nourishes both.

• The Pork Fairy had an active week, spreading larded joy: Chef Richard Garcia pairs a cider glazed pork belly with pumpkin gnocchi coated in eggnog froth. New pig sandwiches are turning up in DC, from a pâté melt at Bourbon Steak to a fried pig's head between Parker house rolls with red onion and sauce gribiche.  at Poste Moderne Brasserie.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 8

 a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Above, an ad from the Good Ol’ Days, When You Weren’t Fat Enough.

• Our favorite quote of the week, hands down: "Don't mess with our agricultural renaissance," says Peter Shumlin, Govenor of Vermont. We couldn't agree more. Long live Team Kale.

• Will American consumers enter a brave new world of high-end canned seafood? Stewed monkfish tripe and others from Italian chef Moreno Cedroni are now available on shelves in New York.

• East African cuisine is taking the Twin Cities by storm. Camel burgers, anyone? Last year Somali entrepreneurs sold through two tons of camel meat in four days at the Minnesota State Fair (the state fair lasted 12 days).

• Do your bit for oysters! Today, Friday, December 9, is you last chance to help save Drakes Bay Oyster farm in Point Reyes, California. They need comments of support to the National Park Service.

• What will food production of the future look like? check out this floating farm idea, where greenhouses are suspended over cities like giant balloons.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 7

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Fabulous modern real estate for the stylish urban honey bee (left), Philips has designed a new at-home hive.

• Food and fantasy merge in a collection of photos by Matthew Carden, like monks in a mushroom forest and Scuba divers in your wine.

• Veggie plush toys are great, but pizza sleeping bags take snuggling with your food to a whole new level.

• An article on Seven Evolved Dining Habits That Every Restaurateur Should Know in 2012 highlights a few of our favorites: more social networking from chefs, innovations in local sourcing and food trucks.

• Cities are trying to lure the entrepreneurs of the new gastroconomy. New Orleans is holding a NOLAbound contest to bring entrepreneurs to the city. Detroit is looking at opening up the city to more farming: "I don't know what will happen... I know some people have expressed concern about turning Detroit into a plantation. That's not going to happen. This isn't about sharecropping. It's about creating economic activity."

• If you're ready to get active, American Farmland Trust is offering a free webinar December 13 on local planning for food and agriculture.

• Need a urban farming pep talk? Check out this short video with urban farmer and blogger Erik Knutzen.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 6

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Be the baker you've always felt you were with a Wonder Woman-themed mixer from KitchenAid Brasil. (above, via Laughing Squid) Now all I need is an invisible jet...

• Drinkify helps you pair music and cocktails. What to drink with Belle and Sebastian — Sipsmith Gin, on the rocks. Aretha Franklin gets her own cocktail of Vodka, Fassionola and Sprite. Serge Gainsbourg calls for nothing less than a full bottle of red wine.

• Food Truck love continues. Check out the Social-Savvy Food Truck Series and a profile of one of our favorites, SlapFish.

• Young farmers find huge obstacles to getting started. Access to land and financing is tough, and so is being a first-adopter of a "new" lifestyle. "We would gladly trade a little competition for more community and collaboration.”

• The National Young Farmers' Coalition offers community online and with events. "Make out with another person who’s got dirty fingernails!...The NYFC aims to help farmers find each other, whether they’re looking for love or just to commiserate about their 1955 International tractor."

• There's finally some good news in the battle against GMO crops. A Minnesota court rules organic farmers can sue conventional, GMO farmers whose pesticides 'trespass' and contaminate their fields.

• Brand early, not often is great advice. "While a business may not need strong branding to get off the ground, its chances of becoming a smash hit are greatly magnified by investing in their brand--in the form of sharp creative strategy and great design--from the beginning." If you don't believe us, check out this video about the power of the iPhone brand (warning, language NSFW).

• Chefs are turning problems into art, like the invasive species menu at Miya Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut. “Invasive species and climate change, they’re basically brothers,” Chef Bun Lai says.

• For turning what grows around you into dinner, from weeds to forrest treasures, listen to a full hour of Foraging Fever on NPR's On Point.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 5

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• That favorite cartoon family The Simpsons takes a foodie adventure on Sunday as Marge turns food blogger. "This was like a love letter to foodie culture," says Executive Producer Matt Selman.

• Your computer could learn to make beer: New cyborg yeast can be controlled by computer. Apparently, this could help with future biofuel production.

• Are cookbooks obsolete? asks the New York Times. Of apps over paper: “You can’t hear the onions sizzling in the pan, or how to move your knife through a salmon fillet, or see how to put your pasta machine back together in a book.”

• Reading, Writing and Roasting as cooking comes to the classroom. "Teachers and principals are seeing how the classroom cooking experience helps support critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills."

• Need money to open your restaurant? Get creative as restaurants turn to crowd-sourcing for funding. “Beyond the money...it connected us to the community, got our name out — and engendered good will.”

• Urban Homesteading is growing in popularity, and controversy in Oakland, California and elsewhere as more people want to raise animals for food.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 4

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Now you can feed the multitudes, with Grilled Cheesus (above).

• The Wall Street Journal wrote on chefs and twitter in @Foodies: Peak Into My Kitchen. "It's a power tool. Before you had to [spend] a quarter-million dollars in ads to do this."

• Trying to find opportunity in the crisis of invasive species, one Illinois company Schafer Fisheries is catching asian carp and making fillets, fish sticks, nuggets and fertilizer.

• Young entrepreneurs are finding inspiration in the past, from Sheep Lawn Mowers to raising chickens. “It’s a gateway to that whole rural dream...And with the type of recession we’re having, there’s stability in it.”

• Why stop at 140 characters when you can bring consumers to a world of information. QR codes provide the anti-tweet for wine and other foods. "I’m looking forward to the day when I will be able to scan a QR Code on a barrel of cheese and be transported to a farm instead of a news review."

• Give 'Em Shell: oysters make new homes at the Oyster Recovery Project on the Chesapeake Bay. Be part of their Shell Recycling Alliance.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 3

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Trick or Treat? Even your dinner can get in costume with edible spray paint.
• Halloween isn't the only holiday in town. This week marked the start of Diwali, celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs as the start of the New Year. Sweets, like mango ice cream with cardamom, play a big part. 
• Red tide: it's bad news for shellfish (like oysters in Texas) but it can make for gorgeous, bioluminescent night sufing (video)
• Is the New Nordic Diet the next food and lifestyle movement?  "It’s about seizing the moment, getting the best out of nature—both cultivated nature and the wild nature.”
• A new program for the issue none of us are talking about enough: the role of labor in building a sustainable food system. The University of California’s Sustainable Agriculture and Education Program (SAREP) has launched a new initiative to improve farmworkers’ living and working conditions.
• "Things are getting ugly in the tomato patch." writes Barry Estabrook as Trader Joe's refuses to talk to organizers about farmworker rights.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 2

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Paper or plastic? Kick your habit with the Plastic State of Mind (video, above).

•  Drool over the 10 greatest sandwiches your computer has ever seen.  And if you're still hungry, there's more Scanwiches.

• Food education hits the road as Jamie Oliver's big rig kitchen hits LA.

• Your money or your cheese: apparently, cheese is the most stolen food on the planet.
  

• Can Yelp help independent restaurants? Engaged diners are helping their neighborhood favorites and cutting into the marketing edge of the chains.
  

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 In Ghana, smart phones bring traceability and bargaining power for farmers

• Stroke of genius or hungry architects — Amazing Prefabricated California Roll House Adapts Easily to Harsh Desert Environments

• Refugee families tend an urban farm and farmers' market stand in San Diego when the uprooted put down roots. You can watch video of the farm on the IRC's San Diego channel.

• Mix beer and social networking in a less dangerous way and join Untappd, the social network for beer lovers.

• In Ghana, smart phones bring traceability and bargaining power for shea growers. "The phone is very useful – we do not have to walk long distances to get the prices… and the barcodes stop bags of nuts from going missing or getting lost."

• If you want to eat like a chef (meaning lots of late night options and the best hole-in-the-wall joints) check out the new mobile ap Chefs Feed.

• “You tear the limbs from the head...It’s pretty badass.” It sounds like a zombie how-to, but it's really advice on cleaning squid from the founder of SirenSeaSA, a San Francisco-based, seafood subscription celebrating local fish. You can read more about it in Fish Out of Water.