Seafood has enjoyed a long history of acceptance among people who otherwise do not eat meat. Whether for religious reasons, health or personal taste, this has helped give seafood a smack of gentility and relative animal-friendliness compared to other carnivorous choices, such as red meat. Yet today's food gurus --...

If April showers bring May flowers, then June showers bring July... peppers! Zucchini! Tomatoes, purple string beans and strawberries! And okay, more flowers, too. And that's just the beginning of what's in store as summer harvest time approaches at Stone Barns Center For Food and Agriculture.

I recently heard...

Cross-posted from Not Eating Out in New York

A rustic scarecrow looms before the skyline of Manhattan's midtown skyscrapers. Under its watch lie more than 30 varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs on a rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But its real scarecrows, the overseers of this rooftop farming...

Spicy. Peppery. A bit toothsome. On the bitter side. I'm not talking about arugula, that rags-to-riches Italian peasant food responsible for serious controversy during the 2008 Presidential elections. But that's all over now and the good news is that another, so-called snooty salad green, dandelion, is at its prime...

Cross-posted from Not Eating Out in New York

Not so long ago, I tended to associate Long Island with being stuck in squawking traffic on the LIE and guys in wifebeaters who wouldn't think to eat an apple if the tree plopped one in his hand. True, the eastern...

It was only ten years ago that Carrie Bradshaw sloshed through the streets of Manhattan in $400 Manolos, a testament to her righteous sense of style and sophistication. I don't remember when I had that much fun ruining expensive shoes. But then, the fictional character would have had so many...

Before there were waste receptacles, trash collectors, landfills and islands of garbage the size of Texas, people burned, buried, refurbished or repurposed their unwanted goods. Pre-industrial revolution, these items were mostly natural and biodegradable. They had, and still have, many other uses.

Unfortunately, once an item is deemed garbage,...

Or moral, humane, or whatever you want to call it - reasons for the production of lab-grown meat that do not have to do with the ideological issues of killing animals. When New York magazine included petri dish meat in their "New" issue this week, along with a...

My Scrooge projections tell me that this isn't the year when everyone will stop wrapping their holiday gifts. If anything, though, it may be the year when more people stop buying gift wrapping. Green beggars can't be choosers.

The commodities related to gift-wrapping are plentiful: there's stick-on bows, spools...

In the lobby of my apartment building, there is a Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and colored lights. A boombox is placed conspicuously behind it, playing holiday tunes at higher-than-expected decimals. Both the lights and the music are kept on all day and night, welcoming the rest of the tenants...

The Hmong villagers of Chiang Mai Province in Thailand eat a well-balanced diet. They raise pigs and other livestock, grow cabbage, tomatoes and corn. A typical meal might consist of rice with spicy minced pork sauce and soft-boiled vegetables. Unlike the vast majority of meat production in the United States,...