Summer Harvest

It's a beautiful fall Friday in NYC and here's a peek at my Brooklyn summer harvest. The big tomatoes are courtesy of my neighbor -- fried green tomatoes for brunch tomorrow? Here's the recipe:

3 medium, firm green tomatoes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs or cornmeal
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 Cut unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt and pepper. Let tomato slices stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place flour, milk, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow dishes.

2 Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Dip tomato slices in milk, then flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 4-6 minutes on each side or until brown. As you cook the rest of the tomatoes, add olive oil as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

We Can Make Sandwiches...

Happy Hump Day! This is one of my all-time favorite jams. The Detroit Grand Pubahs burst onto the national scene with this dancefloor anthem back in 2000. You can be the bun/And I can be the burger, girl/I know you wanna do it/We can make sandwiches. Thanks Sasha for dropping the video on me!

The Kitchen Tuesdays : No Ordinary Monkey

The weekly event series has been a huge hit with an amazing lineup of DJs and great music. Thanks to everyone who has made this late-summer jump-off a huge success. We have two more to go before we wrap up the summer so don't miss tonite's jam with the gentlemen of No Ordinary Monkey, our favorite disco party. They've been throwing underground dance parties since 2004 with some of NYC's finest guest DJs in secret loft locations and afterhours chinese restaurants! Come through on Tuesday and enjoy the musical stylings of one of New York's best kept secrets and dance the night away under the moon!! As always we'll have snacks, spacecakes, and drink specials! RSVP at thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

p.s. this will be our second to last event! We'll be taking a break on labor day (09.08) and finishing off the series on September 15th with Amir, Ge-Ology and Waajeed!

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THE KITCHEN TUESDAY @ Jungle Garden

in association with PUMA
and The Horticultural Society of New York

Every Tuesday
8PM - Midnight
61 Kent Avenue and N10 Street
Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn

TUESDAY 09.01.2009

NO ORDINARY MONKEY

Cakeballs by Sweet Jewels
Spacecakes by Let Them Eat Cake

Cheap Drink Specials!

$3 Suggested Donation at the Door
RSVP thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

21+ ONLY!
Cash only, the nearest ATM is 5 blocks away.

From the Bedord Avenue L Train:
Walk west on North 7th towards the waterfront (Berry Street). Take a right on Kent Avenue. The venue is on the corner of N10th and Kent Avenue.

Vertical Farming

NOTE: This is one of the most important Op-Ed pieces I've read in awhile! Let's bring agriculture to the heart of our cities!!! Happy Monday reading.

By DICKSON D. DESPOMMIER

If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist. This means that the majority of people could soon be without enough food or water. But there is a solution that is surprisingly within reach: Move most farming into cities, and grow crops in tall, specially constructed buildings. It’s called vertical farming.

"Imagine a farm right in the middle of a major city. Food production would take advantage of hydroponic and aeroponic technologies. Both methods are soil-free. Hydroponics allows us to grow plants in a water-and-nutrient solution, while aeroponics grows them in a nutrient-laden mist. These methods use far less water than conventional cultivation techniques, in some cases as much as 90 percent less.

Now apply the vertical farm concept to countries that are water-challenged — the Middle East readily comes to mind — and suddenly things look less hopeless. For this reason the world’s very first vertical farm may be established there, although the idea has garnered considerable interest from architects and governments all over the world.

Vertical farms are now feasible, in large part because of a robust global greenhouse initiative that has enjoyed considerable commercial success over the last 10 years. (Disclosure: I’ve started a business to build vertical farms.) There is a rising consumer demand for locally grown vegetables and fruits, as well as intense urban-farming activity in cities throughout the United States. Vertical farms would not only revolutionize and improve urban life but also revitalize land that was damaged by traditional farming. For every indoor acre farmed, some 10 to 20 outdoor acres of farmland could be allowed to return to their original ecological state (mostly hardwood forest). Abandoned farms do this free of charge, with no human help required.

Read the full NYTimes Op-Ed here.

Gold Coast Trading Company

Facebook is a strange and beautiful thing. A couple weeks back i was randomly "friend"-ed by Gold Coast Trading Company. A new line from Emeka Alams (formerly of 21MC), the transatlantic designer splits his time between Seattle and West Africa. Melding an interplanetary design sensibility with his life experience in both Nigeria and the US, Alams has set out to reshape the conversation about what constitutes African. He explains that, "it's not so much of rehashing slavery and rebelling, while slavery shaped our story it's not my history. I was tired of the same ol' hipster afro stuff I was seeing or the "Save Africa" tees. That has nothing to do with Africa or what's actually going on there. With Gold Coast Trading I'm just showing you the actuality of my Africa. Africa is more than just music and colors; it's so complex." Check the video inspiration from Gnarls Barkley for GCT's next season and peep the design jams below!

Gnarls Barkley - Going On