For decades, residents of low-income neighborhoods under-served by supermarket chains have been getting their hands on produce the old fashioned way: By growing it in their own gardens. In recent years, outer-borough farmers have taken urban agriculture a step further by selling their mostly organic haul at well-organized community markets. An article in the Times Dining & Wine section notes that the trend is proving to be healthy and lucrative. Groups such as GreenThumb and......

The California based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company is recalling all its raw and frozen beef products distributed since Feb. 1, 2006 – a total of 143 million pounds of ground beef. The largest beef recall in history was announced after an undercover Humane Society video showed workers kicking sick cows, jabbing them in the eyes and using forklifts to force them to walk to slaughter. (See the video here.) Federal regulations require meat companies to keep......

Video of "Meat and You: Partners in Freedom" from The Simpsons episode, Lisa the Vegetarian After the Humane Society revealed a tape of mistreatment of cows at the nation's "No. 2 supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program," burgers and other beef products were temporarily yanked off NYC schools' menus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had put an "administrative hold" on all products from Hallmark Meat Packing Packing in Chino, CA......

THEATER: The fall theater season gets curiouser and curiouser with the start of The Alice in Wonderland Puppet Festival at HERE. (The festival, which is not recommended for children under twelve, will feature a tea party after every show.) Tonight curiouser & curiouser fuses text from Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll’s diary entries and his muse Alice Liddell’s memoirs to try to decipher what destroyed their unique friendship. - John Del......

FESTIVAL: Conflux 2007 has arrived. Starting tonight and running through Sunday, their "annual New York City festival for contemporary psychogeography" will help re-imagine urban spaces with a series of events, lectures, workshops, installations, parties and so much more. Get all the info and schedules you need, here. 10am to 12am // Various Locations // Free EVENT: The Hold Steady's Craig Finn (pictured) plays some solo tunes tonight in perhaps the most fitting venue for the......

We almost did a little jig on the street when we walked by Grey Dog's new location on University last night and saw the sign that said it would be opening on 7/19 at 7 a.m. Guess where we're having coffee before work on Thursday? Eater informants snapped a photo. Indian mangoes are no longer considered contraband in the U.S., much to the joy of everyone who has been craving them for the past twenty......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bicyclist was struck on 72nd St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan, shots were fired on Halsey St. in Brooklyn, and there was a suspicious death at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens. A dozing violinist awoke to jump onto an arriving subway train at the Clark St. station, but left his valuable "Scarampella" violin on the platform in Brooklyn. Have you seen it? UPDATE: the violin was turned into......

One can hear plenty of trees falling in the forest in Staten Island these days, as the Parks Dept. is on a massive tree-killing spree after the notice of a few dozen Asian longhorned beetles. The insect is a scourge and first appeared in Greenpoint, Brooklyn about a decade ago, after possibly being imported in a wooden packing crate from China. The female of the species lays its eggs in a tree and the larva......

May 3: Cheezapolooza III: Naked vs Cooked Nolita House hosts cheese gurus Waldemar & Nadia as they feature six of spring's best artisanal cheese both unadulterated and then all hot and melty. Nibbles include Piave Vecchio and Pancetta Mini Grilled Cheese Sandwiches; Mini Valdeon Blue Cheese Burgers on Brioche and Four Year Aged Gouda Mini Mac & Cheese. You'll get drink tickets for a glass of wine or beer selected to pair with the each......

The good news is that the FDA didn't find rat poison (aka aminopterin) in pet food samples from Menu Foods, which is what NY State authorities found last week. The bad - very bad - news is that traces of melamine were found in the pet food, and apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten was also sent to a dry food manufacturer. From the AP:Cornell University scientists also found melamine — used to produce plastic kitchen wares......

Halloween is looking to be scarier than usual for New Jersey's pumpkin farmers this year. A hot summer with heavy rains in June and late August have left the 1,500-odd acres of pumpkin patches in Jersey ripe for soil fungi that love to devour orange gourds. Farmers are reporting losing anywhere form 50-90% of their crops this year, forcing many to import pumpkins in "from as far away as Michigan and Canada." The dearth......

Since the e. coli scare began, our spinach and leafy green consumption has gone from zero servings a day to, well, zero servings a day. But our more herbivorous readers may be sad to see that officials still haven't found how a bacteria that normally romps around our bowels made its way to our favorite iron-filled flora. The Times reports that the outbreak of the past few weeks, which may have killed as many as......

At the farmer’s market you’re entranced. The stalls swell with the season’s natural bounty—corn, tomatoes, peaches, peppers—all the foods that taste right only when eaten at this time of year. You buy pounds and lug the harvest home. But as the shortening days slip by, those special $2 bags of veggies risk going to rot in your fridge. It’s enough to make a gourmet’s heart sink. What do you do? Can it. That’s what......

Gothamist has never had a taste for foie gras (although, some of us do) as we can't get past the fact that we're eating liver, but animal rights activists are trying to get the delicacy banned entirely. In an appeal to the state legislature, groups including the Humane Society asked the state's Department of Agriculture and Markets to label foie gras as an "adulterated" food, which is defined as food that is "diseased, contaminated, filthy,......

Can you imagine the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus without elephants? The fight between Ringling Bros. and various animal advocacy groups, including the ASPCA, the Humane Society, and Animal Protection Institute, may be closer to a trial after six years of various lawsuits and court orders between the two sides. The animal groups claim that Ringling Bros. abuses its elephants, using sharp hooks and chairs for training, and separating babies from mother......

March 31: A Short Introduction to Wine Join the folks at Tasting World as they give you a down and dirty wine primer in just an hour. By the end, they claim that "you will exit the class knowing how to taste, evaluate and communicate about wine." This is all fine and good, but what really caught our eye was that they are looking for wine pourers for future events -- which means you get......

Catholics love hearing the words "special dispensation" and who doesn't loving hearing the word, "beef"? It all comes together tomorrow, as the Archdiocese of New York (and the surrounding areas, as well as other parts of the country) is allowing Catholics to eat beef on tomorrow. For all you non-Catholics, on Friday during Lent, plus Ash Wednesday, Catholics aren't allowed to eat meat (fish is okay - sorry fishmongers!). But this is special: The Archdiocese......

February review: Lots of temperature swings as the atmospheric circulation pattern shifted mid-month. Central Park temperatures wound up slightly above average for the month. Precipitation was slightly below normal but more than an average amount of snow fell. All in one storm. March preview: In like a lamb today. Tomorrow will be a bear. Pussycat weather on Friday. Today will be very pleasant, if cool. Tomorrow is looking ugly. You have waterproof boots, right? The......

Thanks to a Brooklyn meat company, one month after Japan re-opened its doors to American beef they've been slammed shut again. Because its workers and inspectors misunderstood regulations Atlantic Veal & Lamb shipped a cut of veal known as hotel rack - a cut Japan sees as a mad-cow risk because it includes spinal cord. "This was not a situation where somebody was trying to hide something. Quite the opposite happened," said Agriculture Secretary......

Yesterday we were browsing Delicious, and someone had linked this very interesting page explaining New York's dog bite laws. Our problems run more to bites of the feline variety, but if you have a poochey pal, you'll definitely want to know the rules just in case Fido goes Cujo on someone at the dog run: New York has a limited strict liability statute that makes the owner or custodian of a dangerous dog strictly liable......

Dunh dunh DUNH! The Parks Department has found the Asian longhorned beetle in a tree at East 70th-71st Streets and Fifth Avenue in Central Park, joining 47 other trees in the NY area. The Asian longhorned beetle is no friend of trees, their larvae will hatch and end up infesting and destroying trees. And the beetle is such a menace that the U.S. Department of Agricultural Farm Service sends people to inspect the trees. The......

This morning as I was getting ready for work I found myself looking into the beady eyes of a humungous cockroach. After some squealing and donning of rubber yellow gloves I managed to kill the roach with a hammer. There must be a better and cleaner way to exterminate roaches. What options do I have? Also, what is an acceptable level of cohabitation with these buggers? Is it realistic to believe that if the right......

Shirley Chisholm, who became the first black woman in Congress and first black woman to seek the Democratic nomination for President, died at age 80 in Florida. Born in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn College and Columbia's Teaches' College, Chisholm first gained prominence as an educator, advocating early education. Her Obituaries > Chisholm, 80, Is Dead; 'Unbossed' Pioneer in Congress" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/03/obituaries/03chisholm.html?hp&ex=1104814800&en=9bb0e9a778b4e5e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage">NY Times obituary is really rich with detail, describing her "unbought and unbossed" slogan in......

Today's New York Times Dining & Wine section sounds the death knell for the Bronx Terminal Market, once a thriving hub of trade in locally-grown produce. Squeezed out of the wholesale market by cheaper, more plentiful imports and lower transportation costs, and too big to profitably tour the Greenmarket circuit, many of the region's medium- to large-scale farmers are on the out-and-out. And discontent has been simmering in the food world over the declining quality......

The first case of mad cow disease is announced the U.S. Americans freak out, other countries smirk and ban U.S. beef. Take that, U.S.A., for banning our food, like Mad Cow: UK Edition, Asian bird flu, and foot and mouth disease. Mad cow disease is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, which the US Department of Agriculture calls a "progressive neurological disease among cattle that is always fatal," and which can caused by eating......