Primarily we produce a print magazine, but a few times a year we try to bring those pages to life through events where you can actually meet your makers and taste the foods they grow, raise or cook. One of the biggest and best is Eat Drink Local Week, seven days of parties and restaurant specials designed to show off the best of our foodshed, both in terms of edibles and people. It officially begins on the 24th, but we’re kicking it off with the Festival of the 7 Ingredients tasting this Saturday at the Openhouse Gallery. That’s followed by dozens of tastings, parties and demos this June you won’t want to miss below.
JUNE 22
Taste of Greenmarket: The fantastic annual fund-raiser for the city’s Greenmarkets at Studio 450.
JUNE 24-30
– An interactive bring-something-win-something happening at the Union Square Greenmarket to encourage New Yorkers to cook, grow and forage. There will also be cooking and food preservation demonstrations at Greenmarkets citywide.
– Visit any Whole Foods Market in NYC to taste the delicious results of their Eat Drink Local Culinary Challenge and special prepared dishes featuring our 7 ingredients of the week. The in-house Culinary Specialist at each store has created a summery dish using as many of those as possible. Each NYC store will have a Foursquare offer that awards a coupon for a free Organic Valley product to anyone that checks in during Eat Drink Local week.
– Visit our partner restaurants from Montauk to Midtown to sample meals made with our seven ingredients and local foods.
– Take the Eat Drink Local Week challenge to change your own food-centric behaviors for the better.
JUNE 26
Beer and barbecue at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack to kick off Eat Drink Local on the East End. Look for all seven ingredients, including a roasted lamb with yogurt and chives, smoked oysters, plenty of peas and strawberry-rhubarb something. For more information and to RSVP, call Townline, 631.537.2271, or check here.
JUNE 29
Our first-ever “Meet Your Maker”: a local food and drink artisan tour at the Brooklyn Brewery. Reserve your space here.
JUNE 29
The Strawberry Social: to raise funds for Food Systems Network NYC at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden. Reserve your space here.
JUNE 30
A Long Island oyster and beer party to end Eat Drink Local, at Jimmy’s No. 43
There are also many more events downstate and upstate, so check our weekly calendar of happenings here and be sure to visit the complete list of Eat Drink Local Week events here. And because Eat Drink Local Week is also about creating change through food and our appreciation of it, we’d also like to encourage you to cook a seasonally inspired meal at home, to take a friend to the Greenmarket, to compost, or to visit a farm. There are dozens more ideas for what you personally can do right here, too.
