"Long Island Food: A History From Family Farms & Oysters to Craft Spirits" by T.W. Barritt Debuts September 14

I’m excited to share news of the September 14^th publication of my first book, “Long Island Food: A History from Family Farms & Oysters to Craft Spirits.” It’s the story of a suburban boy’s search for his hometown food culture, published by the History Press.

Growing up well fed on meatloaf, tuna casserole and TV dinners, I had little knowledge of Long Island’s rich agricultural and maritime history. The book explores the past, but looks to those people who are advancing Long Island’s food legacy today in delicious new ways, in community agriculture, wine, cheese, bread, fine dining and craft spirits. There’s even a chapter on Long Island’s pickle pedigree. 

It’s filled with stories of folks who are writing the next chapter in our food history, including Restoration Farm CSA and Friends, Kerber's Farm Long Island, New York, Catapano Dairy Farm, North Fork Potato Chips, Thera Farms, Zorn's of Bethpage, Long Island Growers Market, A Taste of Long Island, Duck Island Bread Company, Long Island Spirits, Koppert Cress, USA and Sparkling Pointe Winery – to name just a few.

I’m grateful to all of the people who generously shared their stories. It was certainly an unforgettable experience to travel Long Island over the past year and talk directly to the people who are defining what our food culture is all about. My thanks, also, to the many photographers whose beautiful work illustrates the volume. In particular, I must thank Jacob Skoglund, a talented young photographer who served as image curator for the project. 

“Long Island Food” is available on Amazon and through History Press. There’s also a Facebook page, so please “like” that if you are able. I hope you enjoy exploring the story of Long Island food as much as I did. I think you'll find it a deliciously surprising adventure!

©2015 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Raising Dough for Duck Island Bread Company

Julia Child is said to have once remarked, “How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?”

It’s a question Long Island resident Robert Biancavilla took to heart when he established Duck Island Bread Company several years ago. Bob’s gorgeous European-style breads and pastries have been a fixture – and a hot commodity – at the Northport Farmers’ Market for many seasons. He hand-shapes his breads and pastries and allows each small batch of dough to develop its deep, satisfying flavors through natural fermentation and carefully nurtured starter-cultures. Duck Island's delicious offerings include brioche, baguettes, croissants, cinnamon buns and pretzel rolls, among many other options.   

I profiled Duck Island Bread Company a year ago for Edible Long Island. Bob is passionate about baking. By day, he’s an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, but on Friday nights he shifts focus and works all night at a rented commercial bakery to shape and bake the breads and pastries sold at the market on Saturday. 

Robert Biancavilla and his wife Sherri of Duck Island Bread Company

Now, Bob is working to establish a bakeshop and retail home for Duck Island Bread Company in Huntington and has initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund store renovations and purchase of refrigeration, mixers and a proofer. 

Check out the Duck Island Bread Company Kickstarter campaign here.  It’s a worthy cause to consider this holiday season, not only because Bob is an accomplished baker, a true gentleman and community-minded individual, but I also love the idea of the community getting behind “the raising” of a local shop that sells nourishing bread made from scratch.

Because, James Beard got it right when he said, “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” 

 ©2014 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

A Visit to Historic Kerber’s Farm

If you’re a Long Island resident, you may realize that your home likely sits on property that was once farmland. When first settled, some three centuries ago, Long Island was a farming community. But today, split-level homes, strip malls, pharmacies and fast food restaurants have overtaken much of that fertile land. 

Kerber’s Farm is one of the last remaining, original farm stands in the heart of suburban Long Island and it has a new lease on life. I’m fortunate that through my association with Edible Long Island, I continue to make new discoveries about the area I call home. 

I first learned of Kerber’s Farm through a story by Meredith Shanley in the Summer 2014 issue of Edible Long Island.  

Established as a family farm in 1941, Kerber’s sold eggs, produce and pies on West Pulaski Road in Huntington for decades before falling on hard times.  The property was slated for development but was purchased last year by Nick Voulgaris III who had grown up in Huntington and had visited the farm as a child. Voulgaris completely renovated the building and reopened Kerber’s Farm in the autumn of 2013.  

Just moments from the busy main strip in Huntington Village, a visit to Kerber’s is like an escape in time to Long Island’s agricultural past. We make a Saturday excursion for a leisurely lunch and a touch of romantic rural nostalgia. 

We enter the screen door and marvel at the luscious jams and pastries in the bakeshop, and the vintage photos of an earlier era at Kerber’s.  The mellow sounds of Frank Sinatra fill the room.  

At the lunch counter, we place an order for two fresh lobster rolls and explore the vintage items on sale, which Kerber’s describes as “found objects.”  

There are weathered birdcages, rustic oars, a battered saddle and an oversized antique bread bowl amidst the summer vegetables.   

With nowhere particular to go, we sit for some time in the back garden, enjoying the shade of towering old pine trees, the silky lobster rolls and the bucolic summer afternoon.

Chickens frolic in a coop not far away. 

What better way to finish the meal, than with a Salted Caramel ice cream cone?

It’s enough just to watch the purple hydrangeas sway in the summer breeze. Kerber’s Farm has served us up a perfect July afternoon, and we’ve not strayed far at all from home to find it.

“In summer the song sings itself.”

-- William Carlos Williams

©2014 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Summer Smiles on Restoration Farm

At precisely 6:51 AM on Saturday, June 21, 2014 Summer grins broadly and announces, “I’m back.”

Still in my robe, I greet Summer on my backyard deck with a steaming earthenware mug of coffee in hand. There is still a chill in the air as Summer slips back into our lives. I am tempted to chide her for taking her own sweet time in returning, but that would be ungracious. She is here for such a short time. Summer’s smile warms me to the core of my being. We take a few minutes to get reacquainted, and chat about how to spend this, the longest day of the year.  

At Restoration Farm, Summer’s visit is welcomed with open arms. The fields yield whimsical radishes and crisp white turnips in celebration of the event.  

The snap peas greet Summer with a burst of emerald green and a sweet snap of flavor. 

Farm members emerge from hibernation.  They gather in the field to pick luscious red strawberries and reunite with each other, buzzing about the potential of the season. 

Head Grower Dan Holmes plows the fields to expose the earth to the heated passion of Summer’s smile. 

At Apple Trace, the eight heritage apple trees planted in memory of my Dad welcome their third summer standing tall, covered in vibrant green leaves.

The new additions to the farm – two charcoal gray pastured piglets from Amish country in Pennsylvania – lounge happily in the balminess of Summer’s playful gaze.  Theirs will be a jovial season of foraging and tilling the soil of the fields to their heart’s content.   

Gentleman farmer, George Garbarini – brown from the sun and now well into his eighth decade of mercurial summers – is busy assuring the grass is clipped and the fields look their best for the solstice celebration.

The blackberry bushes clothe themselves in buoyant pink blossoms – with no hint of their darker mood to come. 

Summer’s smile warms the fields, the farmers and members of Restoration Farm alike. We revel in her visage knowing too well that her visit will be far too brief.     

©2014 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved