Notorious for his pricey produce and a mean Health Loaf, Eli Zabar has an iconic presence in the Upper East Side as the czar of his empire of gourmet retail stores, restaurants, and bakeries.  Radishes and Rubbish took a trip uptown to visit his greenhouses atop Eli’s Vinegar Factory.  In a neighborhood where real estate reigns supreme, Eli Zabar decided to convert his precious rooftop space into a growing ground for produce, which he then sells and serves at his namesake establishments.  While recent growth and interest in vegetable gardens and greenhouses has spiked, spurred by a growing global awareness of social and environmental concerns about harmful industrial agricultural practices, this is not something new for Eli Zabar, who has been somewhat of a trailblazer and early-adopter of urban farming.

Written up in the New York Times in ’93 for his “want not, waste not” philosophical approach to running his businesses, he boasts at the multitude of ways unsold produce are recycled and reused, tomatoes reincarnated into sauce, Parmesean used to top the pizza.  It was no surprise that two years later Eli decided to take his passion for food a step further by building greenhouses above his Vinegar Factory.  Harnessing the heat from the furnaces that expel heat exhaust from the ovens where Eli’s wholesale bakery operates, he supplements the natural light that shines through the frosted plastic roof.

After browsing the aisles and getting startled by the $18 strawberry jam, we were led on a tour by the General Manager of Eli’s Vinegar Factory.  Proudly wearing his white Eli’s sweatshirt emblazoned with all of the names of Eli’s retail stores, bakeries and eateries, he forewarned us that he was not the greenhouse expert, but merely oversaw the operations.  As we climbed up the stairs up to the greenhouse, the air grew damp and warm.  Supported with strings that strung down from the roof, the tomato vines precariously dangled midair; tomatoes ranging from light green to deep red hung off the vines.  Our next leg of our tour was to the greenhouses right across the street, where elevated beds of micro salad greens sprung out from the soil, like a lush green carpet inviting us to lay down.  Lining alongside the several greenhouses are Adriatic fig trees, which the manager exclaims are one of Eli’s favorite fruits.

While Eli’s greenhouse is a leading example of how urban farming can be effectively executed, there are still flaws and issues left to be addressed.  Sustainably speaking, pumping gallons of tap water into the greenhouses is quite a wasteful practice.  An alternative to this could be utilizing rainwater to supplement the tap water diet that the plants are currently subsisting on.  The type of soil and fertilizers used in the greenhouse also call into question of whether the produce grown on the rooftop is truly organic, but without an authority on the greenhouse, we were unable to attain specific answers.

Ultimately, our tour ended nicely with a stroll to a park nearby Gracie Mansion, where we laid out our lunch spread.  Despite an unfortunate knife mishap that led to a unanticipated trip to the ER for stitches for Annie, one of the Radishes and Rubbish organizers, we continued with our picnic lunch.  Lunch included homemade egg salad (made by Annie), rye bread freshly bought from Eli’s Vinegar Factory, and spicy pickles, in addition to other items that don’t immediately come to mind right now; a nice conclusion to our day uptown.

panko-crusted shrimp, brussels sprouts, grapefruit, pickled onion

pork and chive dumplings

blood orange salad, frisee, purple cabbage coleslaw, ricotta salata, fennel, toasted almonds

seared duck breast, french lentils, duck confit, olives, eggplant, red wine reduction

braised lamb shank, sugar snap peas, purple rice

steve’s key lime pie, whipped cream

caramel tea flan, almond brittle

Recommendations:
pork and chive dumplings
panko-crusted shrimp, brussels sprouts, grapefruit, pickled onion
seared duck breast, french lentils, duck confit, olives, eggplant, red wine reduction
caramel tea flan, almond brittle

The Good Fork
391 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

http://www.goodfork.com

Leaving my apartment at midnight, passing sleepy passerbyers eagerly on their way home, my night was just beginning.  Part of Radishes and Rubbish, a series of visits to local food producers (hence the radishes) and waste management sites (rubbish) sponsored by a Green Grant from the NYU Sustainability Taskforce, one of the most recent trips was to the new Fulton Fish Market in Hunts Point, Bronx. Leading the excursion was Dave and Kate, chef and sous chef of Mario Batali’s Esca, and Sean from Sea 2 Table, a distributor that seeks out locally and sustainably managed fisheries needing better access to direct markets, serving as a liason between fishermen and chefs.

Upon our arrival, after an hour ride from the East Village, we waited anxiously outside of the big walk-in refrigerator of a building, the nocturnal workmen passed by, giving us all curious glances as they went about their own business. Men on forklifts whizzed by, narrowly missing us, as we ventured inside, cameras in tow. The market itself consists of a sterile white, refrigerated warehouse space, which is then divided into stalls that form along the two sides of the lengthy, rectangular space. Frozen and fresh fish are displayed out front, nestled within ice shavings. Men with machetes and sharpened knives skillfully hack away at the fish, more forklifts speed by. Invited by some burly fish butchers to come watch them work, we observed with intrigue as they worked a streamlined assembly line, starting with the first man cutting a whole fish to the last man slicing clean fillets.

One of the more interesting species of fish I encountered was ivory salmon, which is  albino salmon with white flesh rather than the pink fleshed kind we are so familiar with.  Disturbingly, while the market supposedly is a HAACP facility, the men had no qualms smoking cigarettes and cigars while handling the fish in close proximity.

Ivory Salmon.

Our excursion concluded at the Brooklyn headquarters for Sea 2 Table.  We arrived close to 5 am, exhausted yet oddly ravenous.  A cross between an antique store and a lived-in apartment, fledgling sprouts were laid out next to the window.  In the small kitchen space, we all set to work.  While someone brewed the Crop to Cup coffee, others sliced bread, laid out the jam and mixed the bloody mary.  Kate went at the striped bass that was to be our breakfast, cleaning the fish into two large fillets.  A simple seasoning of salt was used for the fish, which was browned with olive oil then set into the salamander broiler to cook through.  Two dozen eggs were whisked old school-style, using an manual mixer, by the New York Magazine reporter who had endured long enough to stay for a rewarding breakfast.

Thus ended my morning of fish and fun, a perfect prelude to the weekend.