for our meeting because the enterprise is illustrative of many of the food trends emerging in the Hudson Valley. He features Wild Hive Café in the first issue of the magazine. All of the grains used in the bread are from local organic farms and are milled on the premises. The owner, Don Lewis, began the business as an apiary in 1982, and over time became committed to reviving the cultivation of local grain in the Hudson Valley. The shelves of the store are stocked with rustic loaves of artisanal bread and plump packages of just-milled wheat flour, corn meal, oats and other grain varieties. The grain is 100 percent local, grown just a few miles away from the café which opened onsite last November. Lewis’s business model is a radical change from traditional thinking where grain is traded as a commodity, shipped long distances and can often sit for long periods of time.
“It’s very inspiring what he’s doing, but I also looked at it as, well, how far can he take it? That was my initial interest in approaching the story. Okay, he could probably take this pretty far at the local level, but where does this go on the macro level? Can this model be sustained on a larger level, which is a question I think a lot of people are asking with our national food system and even our international food system.”
A sampling of breads baked from local organic grains available at the Wild Hive Bakery and Café.
“This is the beginning of the story for Don, and I think in three years it might be a different story, and I would love to pick it up in three years and see where it’s developed. Where are the problems? Where are the obstacles?”
The question of the viability of local food systems is one that seems to intrigue Steinman. He plans to revisit stories over time, and by doing so, view the region from a more holistic, long-term perspective. He intends to embrace difficult stories, and even report on failures, as all will educate and inform. It is a fundamental departure from the approach of a traditional food magazine.
“When a lot of people think about food and lifestyle magazines, they think about these sort of unyielding celebrations like,
“Isn’t this an awesome plate of food!” he says. “But there are also other stories involved like, how did the plate of food become awesome, what are the problems in actually producing the food and distributing it, who has access to it and who doesn’t? My intention is to slowly unravel those stories and make them very unique to the region.”
He acknowledges that the very essence of food writing is undergoing a transformation.
“The level of consciousness has completely changed in this evolving food story and food writing,” he tells me. “We are going from a food culture that is about elitism, to a food culture that is about access and enthusiasm. It’s not limited to this erudite culture. Everyone has their food story and everyone has those aspects of food that they’re enthusiastic about.”
While
Edible Hudson Valley may take a different path, there are certain aspects of food journalism that Steinman will embrace.
“There is something elegant and austere about the magazine,” he says. “There will be continuity with the rest of the
Edible publications, emphasizing photography, artwork and letting pictures tell the story. But the written word is the intellect of the magazine.”
Steinman has ideas for many stories to explore. He wants to examine the relationship between the arts and food and look at children and their relationship to food. He hopes to look at local history, generational stories, foraging and root cellars, but also take a critical look at the state of institutional food in the region, from the school system to correctional facilities.
“I think there is inherent value in storytelling, because it raises the consciousness as well as celebrates what’s happening, but it also poses questions,” he says. “This is going to be in part a celebration of the region, but I’m going to endeavor to ask hard questions, that I probably won’t be able to answer about food systems and distribution and justice and whether things actually work, and who these food systems serve and who they don’t.”
Right now, the California native is focused on bringing the first issue of
Edible Hudson Valley to the community. He tells me that his understanding and appreciation of the region has grown deeper with the varied seasons since he and his wife first arrived in New York three years ago. He cites the “new beginning” of spring as a fitting time to introduce this new magazine into the communal history of the valley.
“Upon coming here, it seemed like there wasn’t much going on, but it’s ever evolving,” he says. “It started taking on this form and life of a story, and my role is to try to tell that story, not just by myself, but to use photographers and artists and writers and compile it or curate it in a way to really make sense of it.”
In a way, Steinman sounds a bit like the people of the Hudson Valley community he is reporting on. For now, his role is to cultivate and nurture these interlocking narratives – this collective local story – and see how it grows. But, that could change over time.
“Right now I’m very focused on getting the magazine out, getting writers and getting stories and really contributing something to the local conversation,” Steinman says. “But, I don’t necessarily want it to stop there. If it evolves in such a way, and there’s a need there, I would totally be willing to step up and become more of an advocate and more of a voice. I come from a long line of activists. There’s part of that that’s just in my DNA.”
©2009 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved
