Locavores NYC Alert #1
I’m going to share some of the edible treasures I’m finding with my fellow New Yorkers, especially for local foods that are difficult to find or only available for short periods of time. Just leave some for me, okay? If you’re a reader from outside the New York City area, please come back soon for my next, less city-specific post.
Starting today but available only through mid-November, locally grown and milled flours and grains are available at farmers markets in Manhattan. Stock up while you can!
Wheat and Other Grain Flours, and Whole Grain Cereals:
Oak Grove Mill/The Blew Farm (45 miles from NYC) Weds., Fri. and Sat. @ the Union Square Market
Wild Hive Farm (70 miles from NYC) Fri. at the Union Square Market
Popcorn:
John D. Madura Farm (64 miles from NYC) Mon. at the Union Square Market. Note: comes in a cute little glass jar and you pay for the packaging, but it is very good quality. For bulk popcorn, see below.
Oak Grove Mill/The Blew Farm (45 miles from NYC) Weds., Fri. and Sat. @ the Union Square Market
I’m told some grains, as well as dry beans, show up seasonally at the Grand Army Plaza farmers market on Saturdays in Brooklyn. I’ll be checking that out weekly and will let you know if and when they turn up. If you spot any locally grown dry goods such as grains, flours, and beans at the farmers markets or elsewhere, let me know-especially if they will only be available for a limited time and I should be stocking up!
Not sure what this is about? Read Getting Ready for the 250-Mile Diet and The Rules
This is so helpful, thank you! I’m especially glad to know the vendors are there on Wednesday. I’m going to try both the popcorn and some flours. I’m guessing they have whole wheat and unbleached white. Do they also have bread flour? If not, what should I use?
If you go on Weds. you’ll be buying from the Blew Farm, and to be honest I haven’t tried their flours yet. I did get five pounds of their popcorn and tried some last night-it was excellent. I’m using the Wild Hive Farm flour. But I did scope the Blew offerings this past week: they have whole wheat flour, rye flour, cornmeal, and soft white pastry flour. I would use the whole wheat for bread since it may have a higher gluten content- soft wheat has very little gluten, making it excellent for pie crust but lousy for bread, so anything labeled “pastry flour” is by definition not suitable for bread.
Neither Wild Hive nor Blew have unbleached white. That requires processing out the wheat germ and bran, lowering nutritional value but making for lighter baked goods. The “white” in both farms’ Soft White Wheat Pastry Flour refers to an actual kind of wheat, not how it was processed.
Hope this makes sense!