Posts from — September 2007

I writing about a topic I’m sure many of our fellow small business owners, and from my past life, large companies face. Customers paying their bills. While I understand it’s a problem everywhere I thought with canvas it would be different. After all we operate in a “Holistic” space and target the LOHAS market and aligned businesses.

Wow what a wake up call I’ve gotten….

I don’t understand how people in business casually don’t pay their bills and try to beat you out of money. We pay our bills and try to pay them in a timely fashion. There have been times for one reason or another we’ve gotten the “where’s my payment” call. That said we would never knowingly not pay our bills. Yet we have experience customers who outright lie about their intentions, talk about how honorable they are and worse make don’t make payments at all, ignoring us, hoping we’ll let it go.

What a travesty, I believe in Karma and will not speak poorly of specific companies or individuals but I’ve thought many times of using the space in our magazine to share our experience, non-payment, by some of our customers. I feel it would be a reader service. If they treat us this way clearly the image they’re portraying to their customers is false.

How can people who operate like this look at themselves everyday in the mirror and suggest to others they’re “holistic.” Fortunately most of our customers do not operate like this and are a pleasure to deal with. To them we say thank you…thank you… thank you. To the others we wish you success in becoming better people.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

Small producers of artisanal foods find a welcome niche on Long Island.

Written by: Alia Akkam
On Saturday mornings until nearly the dead of winter, Long Island’s farmer’s markets can be mob scenes. Long Island foodies (and the throng of Manhattanites visiting the East End in the summer and fall), head here to stock their kitchens with the best of locally grown produce, homemade cheese and baked goods.

While the country currently seems to be gripped by the trend of eating handcrafted local foods, with home cooks valuing fresh ingredients, the prevalence of artisanal producers on Long Island stands out thanks to a rich history as a farming Mecca and American breadbasket.

An abundance of fertile soil greeted Europeans when they settled here in the 17th century. Although the proliferation of working farms churning out wheat, fruits and vegetables has greatly dwindled throughout the years, Long Islanders–locals and transplants alike–still cling to the attractive notion of celebrating our storied land by creating lovingly prepared food and sharing it with the public through farmer’s markets, small farm stands and special events.

Land of (Goat’s) Milk & Honey
Artisanal cheese producers Karen and Michael Catapano never thought they’d be making cheese for a living. “We just thought it would be fun. We didn’t know it would take off like this,” says Karen Catapano. Their award-winning goat cheese, under the label Catapano Dairy Farm, the only goat dairy on Long Island, can now be found in places like Whole Foods and Gourmet Garage. “Michael loves the chemistry and science, the making of cheese. I love the animals,” she adds.

In 2003 the husband and wife team bought a tiny hobby farm in Mattituck with 18 goats and a shed for a kitchen. Michael, a physician, thought it would be a great retirement package. After experimenting with cheese making, though, it became clear this wasn’t going to be just a time-wasting hobby. In 2005 they won the National American Cheese competition and last year sold their farm and moved into a five-acre home in Peconic with a huge cheese kitchen, milk room and 90 goats that are fed alfalfa grown upstate. “We’re still only making four or five cheeses, and our goal is to make boutique hard cheeses like blue,” says Karen.

The current cheese portfolio includes items like cream, fresh chèvres and decadent goat milk fudge. “Every year the herd gets better and better,” notes Karen.

One of the newest vendors at farmer’s markets like the one in Sag Harbor is Mary Woltz, a beekeeper who recently launched her own honey company, Bees’ Needs in Water Mill. “You just can’t beat local honey,” says Woltz, a North Carolina native who worked at the Hamptons Honey Company until last fall. “At Bees’ Needs, the bees’ needs come first. By focusing on them, and taking the best possible care of them, I am assured the best possible product,” she explains, pointing out that she tends to everything, from bottling and extracting honey to building the equipment needed to house her bees.

Woltz sells her honey raw, unheated and unfiltered, preserving the important enzymes and aromatics that make honey so special. (Note: The FDA advises against children, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems eating raw honey or milk products.)

While working as a garden manager at the Pfeiffer Center, a biodynamic research and training center in Rockland County, Woltz was first introduced to the plight of the honeybee, which is currently experiencing an as yet unexplained worldwide die off. She then decided to devote her life to bees, eventually trying out some of her own ideas about small-scale beekeeping. “Taking a hint from the vastly popular CSA (community supported agriculture) movement, I wanted to begin selling “shares” of my honey this fall. By selling my honey directly to the customer, it widens my margins and allows the customers to be in closer touch with their food supply and, of course, the bees,” Woltz says. “Long Island has the unique combination of a dense and diversely populated metropolitan area at one end, and a threatened but thriving agricultural heritage at the other. It’s a very powerful and fruitful environment for someone willing to work to make something happen.”

Juicy Harvest
Fresh fruits are available on the Island nearly year-round, from summer berries and peaches to apples in the fall, and small-scale farming is exemplified at places like Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue where Prudence Wickham Heston says continuing the family tradition was a natural decision. Growing up she’d always find herself helping out at Wickham’s Fruit Farm during the summer. Tracing its history back to 1680, the farm has been growing fruit for the past 90 years. For many en route to the Hamptons, a pit stop at Wickham’s, open May through December, is a must. Here, more than 20 different fruits are grown on the nearly 300 acres of farmland including fresh apples, strawberries and rhubarb that go into their famous fruit pies.

“We specialize in high-quality products that last, not what looks the best. It’s hand-graded and people can choose a perfect piece for the high price,” says Wickham Heston. During this time of year you’ll find tomatoes, peaches, raspberries, and melons in their farm market. For those visitors who want to add another enriching dimension to their farm experience, they can also pick their own blueberries, blackberries and sour cherries among other fruits.

If drinking the fruit of the harvest is more your style, the East End’s wine industry has something on tap for everyone. One winery, in particular, follows principles of sustainability that are good for the land—and the end product.

Opened by David Page and Barbara Shinn, owners of the cozy, 15-year-old restaurant Home, in Manhattan’s West Village, Shinn Estate Vineyards in Mattituck grows Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes. The newly opened Shinn Estate Farmhouse B&B allows visitors to be on hand to witness the farm’s daily workings.

“David and I met in Berkeley, so we were very tuned into the pairing of food and wine. After moving to [the city] we discovered the North Fork and started making wines under the Home label with different winemakers,” says Shinn, who opened their own winery in 1998.

Most of the week, Page and Shinn find themselves working the farm and the 1880s farmhouse themselves. “We farm our lands sustainably. We pay a lot of attention to each detail,” adds Shinn. Production is small, topping out at roughly 3,200 cases per year. The B&B, with only four rooms, upholds their commitment to personal service and gives their guests access to their grape-growing bounty. Guests will also be treated to Page’s homemade charcuterie. Smoked potted duck and pork loin are popular snacks. Those who can’t spend the night can join Shinn and Page for weekend afternoon walking tours and wine tasting.

By Bread Alone
Baking bread for the past 26 years, Keith Kouris of The Blue Duck Bakery Café in Southampton is another producer who understands the importance of reaching out to the community. You’ll find him selling his freshly baked artisanal bread at the East Hampton Farmers’ Market while he sends his daughters to Sag Harbor and Westhampton’s markets in his stead. “I love those markets because they’re about community and when we opened that’s what we wanted to be—a community bakery,” he says.

When they opened in 1999, he started off with five or six different loaves of bread and now bakes roughly 25 classic French, Italian and German varieties. Kouris compares baking to making wine. Good bread also relies on fermentation, requiring a dependable sour you can use before building up your inventory. “My tastes evolved from the bread we had as a kid that was soft and mushy to the better bread you found in Brooklyn at the time that was hard and crusty. The European breads are the next level,” he adds. “I don’t know of anybody that is making bread exactly the way we make it. We do European bread, the bread specific to Italy, France and Germany made by the same method with the same appearance. We’re not just giving bread a name.”

All of Blue Duck’s breads are made by hand on the premises. Although Kouris might look into expanding to the North Fork, he has no desire to stray too far from the neighborhood, because then he’d have to adjust his production methods and risk sacrificing the quality of his breads. He’s perfectly content to reside in Southampton. As he says, “It just seemed the right place to open up this kind of bakery because people appreciate finer food.”
Pick Your Own To Craft At Home
Want to try your hand at making your own home-goods using local bounty? First head to some of these pick-your-own farm stands, then head to the kitchen and start canning:

Davis Peach Farm
Wading River, (631) 929-1115
Pick your own peaches up to mid-October, nectarines through late September and apples through October. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Fort Salonga Farm
Northport, (631) 269-9666
Open daily, Aug. 15 to mid October, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Many varieties of apples, including Jersey Mac, Gravenstein, Granny Smith, Fuji, are grown on dwarf trees. Pick-your-own raspberries and strawberrieuntil first frost. Farm-produced honey also available.

Fritz Lewin Farms
1989 Sound Ave. (at Edwards Ave.), Calverton (631) 727-3346
Peaches, plums through mid-September. Open daily Aug. 1 until first frost. Pumpkins 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends Sept. 15 to Oct. 28.

Harbes Family Farm
Mattituck, (631) 298-0800 www.harbesfamilyfarm.com
Pick-your-own raspberries mid-July through September; blackberries in August. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. June through October.

Lewin Farms
Wading River, (631) 929-4327;
Pick-your-own strawberries in June; peaches, peppers, tomatoes, late July through October; apples August through October. Second location: Fresh Pond Ave., Baiting Hollow. Pick-your-own apples August through October. Open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily, late May through late December.

Milk Pail Farm and Orchard
Between Water Mill & Bridgehampton (631) 537-2565;
www.milk-pail.com
Fifteen varieties of apples growing on dwarf trees, and pumpkins ranging from one-half to 150 pounds are available for picking throughout September and October. Minimum apple pick is half bushel. Also available: farm tours on a farm wagon and The Milk Pail country store. Open Friday through Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Seven Ponds Orchard
Water Mill, (631) 726-8015
Open daily July through November, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Picking starts in late August: raspberries, blackberries, tomatoes and apples.

Wickham Farms
Cutchogue, (631) 734-6441
Pick peaches and blackberries in August, apples in September. Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays. Hay rides 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and Columbus Day in September and October.

Woodside Farms
Jamesport, (631) 722-5770
Open July through November daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pick-your-own apples