With more families turning to food stamps as food prices increases, more farmers markets are accepting them. The Farmers' Market Federation of NY says that food stamp sales have grown to $90,000 in 2007 from $3,000 in 2002 (helped in part by wireless technology that allows the farmers to accept payments by food stamp debit card); executive director Diane Eggert told the AP, "We're already outpacing 2007, so I think we're going to see significant......

No surprise here, but skyrocketing fuel costs have not spared farmers who sell produce at Greenmarkets, the AP finds. Upstate strawberry grower Franca Tantillo estimates that roughly half the money she earns at a Manhattan Greenmarket is spent on transportation costs. And it’s not just getting back and forth from the city that’s more expensive; fuel costs have driven up the price of fertilizers and animal feed, and plastic supplies for greenhouses cost more. As......

Photos of snowboarders at the Union Square Street Sessions by Tien Mao Perhaps the only place you'll see snow in New York City this winter is today in Union Square and this weekend in Central Park. On the north end of Union Square, where the farmers market and skateboarders usually are, there's now a man-made hill with 132 tons of snow trucked in from Mountain Creek in New Jersey. The Union Square Street Sessions,......

Coming up next Monday is a benefit event celebrating East New York Farms, an organization that seeks to remedy the dearth of good nutritional choices in the Brooklyn neighborhood by growing and distributing its own food, along the way inviting a wealth of community participation. “Our first season was one gardener out on the sidewalk with a table,” says Sarita Daftary, Project Director of East New York Farms! (the exclamation mark goes with the......

It's that time of year again, when pumpkins take center stage. The Parks Department is taking the big orange gourds seriously with Camp Sunshine's First Annual Pumpkin Festival on Saturday. There will be a pumpkin patch, farmer's market, puppets, and entertainment like the Big Apple Circus and Chris Barron. All proceeds will go towards Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families The centerpiece of the festival will be the......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

BEER: This one is pretty simple...there will be lots (58!) of New York beers, and a few bands to soundtrack your drinking them, at the Seaport tonight. Go, imbibe, enjoy! Friday // 5 to 10pm // South Street Seaport // $55 THEATER: Paso Doble was a sold-out hit at the 60th anniversary Festival d’Avignon last summer; for one weekend only sculptor Miquel Barceló and dancer Josef Nadj have brought their messy spectacle to St. Ann’s......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Wide Angle: Dishing Democracy (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Imagine "The View" in Arabic being beamed via satellite television throughout the Middle East. This documentary gets behind the scenes of the show, "Kalam Nawaem" which just may bring about some revolution. P.O.V.: Following Sean (Tuesday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) At the height of the hippie movement in San Francisco, filmmaker Ralph Arlyck was a graduate film student......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at Edwards Ave. in the Bronx, a disorderly crowd at Bay St. and Richmond Ave. on Staten Island, and a bank robbery near Bowling Green (that's why the 4/5 is passing Bowling Green). The New York Sun thinks the Live Earth concerts over the weekend were pompous, middle-aged and lame. Real estate group Pinnacle is accused of racketeering for siccing lawyers with eviction notices on thousands of......

Two men were stabbed at the northwest corner of Union Square at 17th Street around 4PM. WNBC says it occurred inside the farmer's market - did it involve fresh produce? The police are looking for the attacker; the victims were taken to area hospitals; one was expected to recover. Photograph taken at the Union Square Farmer's Market by Youngna Park......

Starting mid-month more fresh turkeys will be available in supermarkets throughout this country than at any other point during the year. On the whole this is good news for anyone shopping for Thanksgiving as fresh is very often best. Remove yourself from the supermarket for a minute and you might realize that the 15 pound T-day roaster you will probably eat on November 23rd is right now a 12 pounder on a farm somewhere......

While visiting some friends in Boulder this weekend, we had occasion do some serious cooking in their well-outfitted kitchen. With the local farmers market unable to provide much of anything in the way of ingredients, we hit up the local Whole Foods. In addition to finding some things never in stock at our local WF items (flatiron steak, flap meat), we came across some very good looking, never frozen, wild shrimp from Florida. A......

February 22: From Disaster to Dessert – the Fate of New Orleans Food Slow Food NYC and the Project for Public Spaces will host a panel discussion on the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on food production in New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf region. Panelists include: Clara Gerica, an independent Gulf Coast shrimper; Richard McCarthy, founder of the New Orleans Crescent City Farmers Market; Poppy Tooker, the leader of Slow Food New Orleans;......

Gothamist adores shopping for produce and foodstuffs at markets that care as much about the freshness, beauty and seasonality of food as we do. That's why we regularly seek out the best of the best at local butchers, fishmongers, produce stores and greenmarkets. And, we feel for our NYC brethren that live in nabes where these riches aren't found easily. That said, we were excited for DUMBO-ites (is that the term?), when we heard about......

Gothamist's favorite fall fruit by far is the pomegranate. Just don't look for it at the farmers' market. Without the proper dry, hot climate, local farmers can't produce these tart, ruby-red fruits, which makes us thankful for long-distance produce. You can find them at most supermarkets and we've also spotted them on lots of street produce carts. Prized by the Greeks (both ancient and modern) and the Jews, among many others, pomegranates have long been......

Now when we say “old school” we are not just referring to throwing back Cider Jack in high school behind the bleachers, because beer tasted yucky. Nope, we’re talking real old school, like Pilgrim old school. Cider has a rich history in America. In fact, the Pilgrims started making hard cider as soon as the apple trees they planted started to bear fruit. Up until the 19th century, cider was the most popular alcoholic......

It is a glorious day when the heirloom tomatoes begin to arrive at the city's various and sundry Greenmarkets. Just this past weekend, Gothamist couldn't help but note that New Yorkers were gleefully descending on farmer's market tables, heaped with a collection of gorgeously ugly, brilliantly flavored specimens. Here are few favorites to keep on your radar screen for your next greenmarket shopping spree: *Black Prince - a juicy, rich, old heirloom variety from -......

The first thing that Rick Field of Rick's Picks did when we met him at the Union Square Greenmarket one morning was put us in charge of his stall. So while he ran off to take care of non-pickle related business, we stood in his shoes for a few minutes. Friendly passers-by stopped to ask about the different varieties. "Are these spicy?" Taking a quick glance at the ingredient list for the jar of Rick's......

How To Cook Everything: Bittman Takes On America's Chefs by Mark Bittman (Wiley, 2005) Gothamist's been a fan of Mark Bittman--a.k.a. New York Times' "The Minimalist"--for years now, and with good reason. His minimalist approach to cooking is geared towards home cooks who don't want to spend all day cooking but still expect gourmet results for their efforts. With no formal training of his own, Bittman has no trouble thinking like a home cook, because......

The New York Restaurant Cookbook: Recipes from the Dining Capital of the World by Florence Fabricant (Rizzoli, 2003) It's that springtime time of year, when Gothamist's thoughts turn to summer cookouts and fresh local produce (we still retain faint memories of last summer's culinary delights). Unfortunately, when we mosey over to the Union Square farmers' market, we still don't find as many fruits and vegetables as we'd like (and don't even get us started on......

The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook: Old-Fashioned Recipes from New York's Sweetest Bakery, by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey (Simon & Schuster) Back during the fat-free craze of the early '90s, Gothamist used to make lots of very-low-fat muffins, where the fat source was replaced with apple sauce, resulting in a not-so-delicious (yet seemingly healthful) treat. But when the anti-carb brigade came along next, we learned of the ills of refined starches and sugars, and that they......

An American Place, by Larry Forgione (Morrow, 1996) Larry Forgione, who, as the chef at The River Cafe, coined the phrase "free-range chickens", is often hailed as the godfather of New American cuisine. In An American Place, Forgione provides recipes for American comfort foods like Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce and Chocolate Walnut Fudge Cake, as well as exciting experiments with fresh ingredients, like Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Pineapple Barbecue Sauce and Seared Trout with Pumpkin......

Samantha Bee, The Daily Show correspondent...

The Farmer's Market Cookbook: Seasonal Dishes Made from Nature's Freshest Ingredients, by Richard Ruben (Lyons Press, 2000) Gothamist loves the Greenmarket, that is, during the three seasons it has produce other than apples and potatoes. It appears that Richard Ruben might feel the same way: his Farmer's Market Cookbook only covers spring, summer, and fall. Ruben teaches Green Market classes at the Institute for Culinary Education, where you can take his class, Cooking in the......

And since we're on the subject of Red Hook, today's New York Daily News profiles the Red Hook Farm, a 2.5 acre farm providing fresh organic produce to the neighborhood along with gardening, cooking, marketing, and teamwork skills to local teens. The farm is run by Added Value, a non-profit whose mission is "to promote the sustainable development of Red Hook by nurturing a new generation of young leaders." These future leaders participate in the......

Girlynyc, Panty Blogger...

Last week I went to the Union Square street fair and wanted some earrings. I tried to barter and the seller wasn't having it. What gives? I thought the whole point of street fairs was bartering. Were my skills just not up to par or are there legalities involved? -Cheap in Manhattan It depends on the vender. Think of each vender at a street fair as a different store that sets their prices however they......

Hurricaine Isabel forced the Harvest in the Square Event to be rescheduled tonight. In its eighth year, Harvest in the Square brings Union Square area chefs to offer tastings of food prepared from Union Square Greenmarket Farmers Market, accompanied by Long Island and other New York Wines. Tickets are $90 in person (cash only), $75 in advance, and will benefit the Union Square Local Development Corporation, which is currently looking to enhance the North Plaza......