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December 6, 2009 New York Times
Backyard Bounty, Local chefs seize on the Garden State’s fresh produce to cook up tempting menus
It's one thing to know where your food comes from. It's quite another to meet it on your way to dinner.
http://www.nj.com/homegarden/garden/index.ssf/2009/08/new_jesrey_restaurants_use_loc.html
One recent steamy afternoon, dozens of well-heeled foodies gathered at Griggstown Quail Farm in Princeton for the first Sustenance on the Farm dinner, organized by Slow Food Northern New Jersey president Margaret Noon through her for-profit Sustenance Events.
The dinners, catered by like-minded chefs and served in the fields of Garden State farms, highlight locally grown produce and encourage people to seek out provisions with the smallest carbon footprint possible, she says.
… At the Griggstown dinner, farmer George Rude took his guests on a tour of the farm, showing off his young chickens and poussin. Then the diners climbed gingerly into a trailer hooked up to his tractor -- yes, the $145-a-head event includes ground transportation -- and jostled past the fenced-in thickets where the pheasants and heritage turkeys are kept.
After a short walk past rows of beets, tomatoes, eggplant and bright orange squash blossoms, they headed to a white tent pitched in an empty field and settled in for a five-course dinner catered by David C. Felton, formerly of the Pluckemin Inn. Felton certainly practices what he preaches: He's the executive chef at Ninety Acres Culinary Center, a restaurant, cooking school and working farm set to open this fall in Somerset County, on the grounds of what will be the Natirar Spa & Resort.
In addition to raised beds and production fields for vegetables and herbs, Natirar will also breed and raise grass-fed Hereford cows and lambs for meat, hens for eggs and meat, and there's talk of cheesemaking down the road.
For the Griggstown dinner, Felton prepared a chilled cucumber soup with fava beans so fresh they squeaked when eaten. Following the soup was the farm's grilled quail atop yellow beans and radicchio, and plump chicken with squash, Japanese eggplant and garlic scapes.
After a cheese course from Vernon's Bobolink Dairy, Christopher Albrecht of Eno Terra in Kingston (which also maintains its own garden) presented dessert: macerated summer berries and lemon verbena curd tucked inside crespelle and paired with honey-lemon thyme ice cream. Albrecht picked the berries himself that morning from Terhune Orchards, a few miles away. "It gives you a new respect for the produce when you have to pick them yourself," he says, wincing a little at the memory. "To get on your hands and knees to pick raspberries, that's little sobering."
Spring 2009 Prattfolio Food Issue
Margaret Noon, Taking it slow Advocate of locally produced food has a reputation for action. Read more…
Story by BY PEGGY O'CROWLEY / Photos by JERRY McCREA
Want to know who makes excellent artisanal breads in New Jersey?
Ask Margaret Noon. What dairy in New Jersey was just praised by Gourmet magazine for its hand-crafted cheeses? Margaret Noon knows. Which chefs use produce, meats and cheese grown by New Jersey farmers?
Margaret Noon's got the list.
Noon, of Scotch Plains, is the leader of the North Jersey chapter of Slow Food USA, the American branch of an international group that emphasizes fresh local food that is grown or raised in an ecologically responsible way by producers who are treated and paid fairly. Just as importantly, people should slow down and enjoy it…..
French Culinary Instiute, The Hot Plate, Monday, January 28, 2008
The story explores her active involvement in the growing slow food movement in New Jersey. To read the full story, please visit nj.com
The New York Times, November 14, 2008
Home Is Where the Food Is Grown
By KELLY FEENEY
Others, too, see the holiday as an opportunity to highlight the abundance of the Garden State.
“There’s so much around,” explained Margaret Noon of Scotch Plains, the leader of the 200-member Northern New Jersey Chapter of Slow Food USA, part of an international organization that advocates the merit of locally grown food. “The more I learn, the more I realize there’s more than enough food here to satisfy my diet.”
On her menu: turkey from Plaid Piper Farm in Branchville, stuffing made with local sausage, a napoleon-like tart made with apples from Best’s Fruit Farm in Hackettstown and sweet potatoes from the Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farm in Blairstown, where she is a member of the C.S.A. (community supported agriculture program). This New Jersey-centric meal will not be consumed locally, but will be carried in coolers to Amherst, Mass., where Ms. Noon will share it at a holiday gathering with family and friends.
Sourcing local food may be rather easy for Ms. Noon, who also runs a “green” event planning company and has expert knowledge of area producers.
Edible Jersey, Spring 2008,Local Hero Award
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