2010 » Markets of New York

Happy Holidays and a Hearty Thank You!

Happy Holidays!

I’ve been called away from my market passions for family reasons for the past couple of weeks. But I hope the 2010 NYC Holiday Markets Guide has helped you find some amazing gifts, and maybe even explore parts of the city you wouldn’t normally think to visit.

For some reason I have more holiday cheer than ever. I’m not quite sure why, but I think it has something to do with the basic elements of happiness that came shining through this year. Family, friendship, community, creativity, risk, challenges – this year was chock full of all of them. At the risk of sounding like a Hallmark Holiday Special, I feel like this season is not so much about the shopping frenzy, but more about thoughtfulness, caring, and helping each other out whenever and however we can.

I want to thank all the brilliant and creative market vendors and managers for producing all of the amazing, superlative artisan, farmer, food and flea market events throughout the year. You are the heart of design, food innovation, and entrepreneurship. I spend almost every weekend wandering through your tents and tables, and I’ve never had more fun shopping for unique and beautiful products and eating delicious, amazing food.

I’m going to take off for two weeks to move into our new apartment, launch my new business, Sirene MediaWorks, and take care of my family. I wish you a wonderful holiday, and I for one am very excited for what 2011 has in store for all of us! I leave you at with this video tribute to Manhattan’s classic and inspiring holiday markets. And a special thanks to Duke Ellington for Three Suites, my very favorite holiday album.

My Newest Ornaments from Central Asia Craftspring

Last night, my husband and I went for a stroll through the Columbus Circle Holiday Market by Urban Space. Central Park is such a lovely setting for a market, and every time I go there, I find something new and wonderful. Tonight we sampled some delicious organic, fair trade chocolates from Raaka. We took home a lavender blueberry bar and a dark chocolate with hazelnuts. Raaka’s chocolate is incredibly rich, which is great because the bars last slightly longer than usual!

The items that struck me most this time at the market were the handmade felted holiday ornaments from Central Asia Craftspring. They are not only beautifully made, but they are very cleverly designed as well. The thick felt is fashioned and stitched into unusual shapes like ibexes and rams, and also chubby horses, sweet angels wearing scarves, colorful birds and even turtles. Each one has a slightly different expression, so it’s worth taking the time to select the exact ornament that is perfect for your tree. My ram has pale blue horns, a pink swirl on his side, and a look of erudition. The ornaments pictured are equally special.

What makes them even more wonderful to me is that they are all handmade by women artisan/entrepreneurs in Central Asia, “at the heart of the ancient Silk Road.” The felting techniques are actually part of their ancient traditions. These women are supporting their families and communities with their crafts, and the are also making sure that their design skills and felting methods are not lost to time. Central Asia Craftspring also has a booth at the Union Square Holiday Market by Urban Space.

Head over to the Columbus Circle Holiday Market and let me know what treasures you find!

Bountiful Gift Baskets and Custom Gift Wrapping at Chelsea Market Baskets

Chelsea Market Baskets is at the heart of the holiday spirit at Chelsea Market! The shop is loaded with delicious treats, from chocolates, candies and tins of cookies to pickles, cheeses, and crispy crackers. They can whip up a splendid gift basket filled with treats and wrapped in cellophane, festive ribbons, and colorful ornaments.

I am thrilled to tell you about their gift wrapping service this year! In addition to their custom baskets and beautiful gift boxes, they have teamed up with a New York photographer to create a special collection of New York City themed boxes for the season. Photographer Grégoire Ganter took photos all over the city of random letters that he used to create collages of Brooklyn, Chelsea, and New York City for these gift boxes. He originally had the idea create photo collages to teach his daughter the alphabet. They turned out so beautifully that he now sells the Lea’s Alphabets collection of prints, magnets, postcards and note cards.

Chelsea Market Baskets is offering special Pop-Up Holiday Gift Wrapping Center for products purchased in their shop and for items purchased from any other store in the market. You can’t miss it – it’s the storefront just next door filled with piles of baskets, stacks of gift boxes, and rows of wrapping tables! Prices range from $5 – $25 for gorgeous gift boxes to spectacular large baskets festooned with cello, shred, ribbon and other decorations. A bountiful goodie basket from Chelsea Market Baskets will make someone on your list very, very happy!

More later this week about the Jingle Market in Chelsea Market, back and better than ever!

Bellocq Tea Atelier at the New Amsterdam Market

I have been a tea drinker since I was a small child. In fact, my mother used to put me down for a nap with a bottle of warm, sweet tea. Interestingly, she’d fall fast asleep next to me while I stayed wide awake through the afternoon. Be that as it may, I drink a pot of tea every morning and every afternoon, and sometimes I’ll have a cup of Verbena or Chamomile before bed. I wouldn’t call myself a tea snob, but I do love a steamy, fragrant cup of carefully crafted tea, I’ll admit. My tea of choice is Earl Grey French Blue from Marriage Freres in Paris. However, there is something uniquely lovely about a Lipton tea bag soaked in a thick ceramic mug at a New York City diner. It’s all part of the grand tea experience.

So I was absolutely thrilled to meet fellow tea afficcionados Heidi Johannsen Stewart and Michael Shannon at the New Amsterdam Market. They are the founders of Bellocq Tea Atelier, along with colleagues Young Yoon and Scott Stewart. The original tea atelier is located on Kings Road in London, and we are very fortunate to welcome their new outpost in Brooklyn. They blend full-leaf organic teas into wonderful, rich flavors, such as No. 1 Bellocq Breakfast with “notes of honey, malt and a touch of leather.” I’ve been drinking it in the morning, and it is indeed a wonderful way to wake up. No. 22 Noble Savage is an organic black tea blend featuring juniper berries, douglas fir tips, and blue cornflowers. You must try it during these cold wintery days.

One of the things I love about Bellocq is their obvious passion for tea and their talent for creating organic tea blends that are unique, fragrant, and flavorful to invigorate or calm. And the tea leaf blends themselves are stunning to look at, such as No. 52 Etoile de L’Inde, with its pink rose petals, yellow marigold petals, blue cornflowers, jasmine silver needles and green tea leaves. Bellocq’s London tea shop was recently featured in Vogue and Wallpaper.

Bellocq Tea Atelier will be at the New Amsterdam Market through December 19. This weekend the market is hosting Coffee, Cocoa and Citrus, featuring coffee tastings and brewing tutorials.

Bellocq Tea Atelier's Beautiful Organic Blends at the New Amsterdam Market

McFlashpants: Not Your Old Bent Spoon Ring, No Sir

Featured Vendor at the Brooklyn Craft Central Market!

Jen McGlashan is the creative force behind McFlashpants, a line of incredibly innovative jewelry and accessories made from vintage cutlery. These are not your traditional bent spoon rings. Where you and I see a butter knife, Jen sees a miniature planter. We might see just a pile of old spoons, and Jen sees a whole school of fish. I had a chance to talk with Jen about her design influences, life on the farm, and what she’s bringing to the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market.

Where do you get your cutlery? I’m asking right off the bat because I know it’s a good story. I have lots of friends with antique stores. They sell complete sets of silverware, but if a set is missing a piece or two, the value drops dramatically. So I pick them up for a good price and make other things out of them. In fact, some days I’ll come home and find a pitcher full of butter knives that someone has dropped off for me. It’s like getting a visit from the Magic Cutlery Gnome, or living in a place where spoons and knives grow on trees.

How lucky! I have a Magic Orchid Gnome who rescues orchids from the trash room and leaves them at my door. So, where did you get the idea to make jewelry from all of this cutlery, especially the knife handle vases with little plants in them? Whenever I was out in the garden, I wanted to be in my shop. And when I was in the shop, I wanted to be outside. So creating and wearing jewelry with a live plant was my way of being wherever I want to be at any time.

My mother had a teeny blown glass vase brooch so she could wear a cut flower in water all day long. I just wanted the plant to last a little longer. If a plant wants to live, it should live. The result is the same prettiness, and the live plant is very easy to maintain. In fact, once they realize they are living in a small space, they adjust and start to dwarf themselves into beautiful bonsais. It’s a lot like a New York apartment.

I loved the fork squid necklace at The {NewNew}’s Treasure Chest this past summer on Governor’s Island. How did you come up with an underwater theme for your jewelry? I did a show at an art gallery with an underwater photographer. So I adapted my jewelry designs to go with her photography. I made a sea anemone sculpture with 25 forks for the show. I learned new skills, and so if I want to expand into sculpture, I know I can do it. My birthday present to myself this year is a welding kit and a tank of oxygen. I used to want to be a princess. I’m pretty sure Princess Jen would be mortified to know that I want to weld iron and steel these days.

Are you bringing some extra special items to the Brooklyn Craft Central Market? Yes! I’m bringing several new things, including jewelry made from found objects. I was walking in Carroll Gardens and came across a pile of rubber tiles that had been tossed out from a home renovation. To me it was “found gold.” So I’m bringing rubber tile necklaces to the market. A friend of mine repairs old lamps, and he recently delivered a bucket of old Art Deco brass pieces from 1920’s lamps. So I’ve made jewelry out of them as well.

I also have a new Japanese inro necklace design, which is a traditional case for holding small objects. The necklaces are tiny boxes made from knife handles with a lid that slides up and down on the chain.

How has living on a farm affected your creativity? Life on the farm informs everything I do now. It reinforces the reuse of everything, which is the theory of my work. I have a framed picture in my workshop that says, “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without.” Recycling is nothing new, especially to farmers. We plan on making the farm an artists retreat in the near future, along the lines of Peter’s Valley in New Jersey. In the meantime, we’re busy with vegetables, goats and chickens. Eventually we’ll get alpaca too.

We’ll come and see your chickens very soon! In the meantime, we’ll see you on December 18^th and 19^th at the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market!

Video of the Week: Macaron Parlour at the Makers Market

I went to the Holiday Sugar Market at the Old American Can Factory Makers Market a couple of weekends ago. You really have to experience the Old Can Factory Markets for yourself because the handcrafted products and food are always high quality, and the location in the old loading dock of this former factory is really something special. I always meet interesting people at this market and find something amazing to take home.

I couldn’t resist the Sugar Market, and I was not disappointed. It was a beautiful event full of amazing food innovators and great designers, sponsored by Petit Paris, wonderful pastry makers that made my day with their amazing Linzer cookies and other sweet treats. Our friends from P&H Soda Co. were there too, pouring delicious, artisanal sodas. Their hibiscus syrup is to die for, and I can’t get enough of their cream soda.

We caught up with Simon Tung of Macaron Parlour too! You may have seen my review of their gorgeous macarons in August. I asked Simon what his French customers think of the S’Mores macaron. Watch this video interview to find out! [By the way, the macaron collection was a huge hit at our dinner party that night, although there were a few tense moments with a bit of snarling over the Salt Caramel one. So we cut it in 5 teensy but satisfying bits, and peace reigned once again over the table.]

This Sunday brings another top notch artisan event at the Old Can Factory: Holiday Ceramics in Brooklyn Market. I have pieces from several of the city’s top ceramicists, and they are wonderful additions to my home. (There’s a phenomenal piece under the tree for someone very special this year, but I can’t tell you what it is!)

Macaron Parlour will be at the Hester Street Fair’s Big Social Market, starting on from December 17 – 23rd. You can also find three gift box collections of their macarons on IndieShop.com!

Festive Food at New York’s Holiday Markets

We are thrilled to be a part of Manhattan Users Guide’s “NYC Bloggers Do the Holidays”! Here are links to all the other dedicated New York blogs participating!

A Child Grows Where to See Santa in New York City and Brooklyn

Eater’s Digest 10 “Warm-You-To-the Bone” Holiday Eats in NYC

Give and Get NYC G&G For the Holidays: Gifts That Give Back

‘the improvised life‘ Design (or Hack) Your Own Holiday E-Cards

Manhattan User’s Guide The Gift Guide: 21 Over $21

Mommy Poppins 11 Experience Gifts for NYC Kids

NY Barfly Holiday Cocktails, And We Ain’t Talkin’ Egg Nog

offManhattan The Anti-Holiday Travel Guide: 5 Quick Getaways from NYC

the skint 11 free and cheap non-holiday things to do this holiday season

This is FYF A Drug-Friendly Guide to Your New York Holidays

Patell and Waterman’s History of New York Christmas with Andy Warhol

Walking Off the Big Apple A Mortal’s Guide to the Angels of New York City

We Heart Astoria The Best Places To Shop Local – WHA Holiday Gift Guide

Now On To The Markets!

New York at the Holidays… Miracle on 34th Street… 5th Avenue Holiday Windows… Shopping… Skating… Yeah yeah yeah. We all know – and love – these things about our fair city. But I’m here to tell you about the Food at the Holiday Markets!

The markets feature savory and sweet foods, as well as the hot drinks you need to sustain you as you wend your way through boutique after boutique. I’d like to take you on a tour of some of my favorite edible delights at the big seasonal artisan and food markets in Manhattan, plus the Brooklyn Flea, long known for it’s amazing food offerings.

Columbus Circle Holiday Market by Urban Space OPENING DAY TODAY 12/1

Crif Dogs: Yeah baby! These guys take a perfect food to a new level! Of course I’m all for healthy, local, organic food and all that. But a beef hot dog wrapped in bacon and covered in sour cream or avocado, or some other such topping? Hold me back!
Fatty Crew: Fatty Crab, Fatty ‘Cue, and Cabrito all rolled up in one booth? Yes, please. Their brisket sandwich at the Madison Square Market was so rich and delicious it almost killed me.
Sigmund Pretzel Shop: Sigmund makes some pretty amazing organic, hand rolled pretzels. I can’t stop going back for another gruyere cheese one!
Pies-n-Thighs: Even if you’ve never been a Southerner, Pies-N-Thighs will make you nostalgic for the South. Seriously. Their fried chicken on a biscuit is out of this world, not to mention all the side dishes. And the pies? Well, you just have to try them for yourself.
Raaka Chocolate – I had a sample of Raaka’s blueberry chocolate, and it was rich, flavorful and completely satisfying. They are a new bean-to-bar maker in New York. If I’m not mistaken, they are making their market debut at Columbus Circle!
Les Canelés de Céline: Canelés are delicious traditional French pastries made from crêpe batter and with a crunchy coating. Celine also makes tiny Financiers, perfect with a cup of coffee from New York’s own Ferrara Bakery at their nearby Central Park kiosk!

The Holiday Shops at Bryant Park

Daisy’s Grits: The next New York food trend. You read it here first. Try the Sausage and Pepper and the Cuban Picadillo. If you’ve never had grits, just think of them as Southern Polenta. All the ingredients are sourced locally in Queens.
Vegetarian Oasis: The name says it all. Their food is beautiful, healthy and deeelicious. I had the Black Bean Burrito with avocado, baby spinach, corn, salsa, and brown rice on a whole wheat tortilla. Ahhhh…
Kettle Corn NYC: You might recognize their HUGE industrial popcorn popper from the summer street fairs, and the fellow with a giant stirring stick and a protective visor making fresh popcorn all day long. I just love their traditional caramel corn. If that makes me boring, so be it.
Big Apple Cider: Grab a cup of hot, delicious, smooth apple cider. No bite at all. ‘Nuff said.
Yona’s Gourmet Delights: These savory, bite sized borekas and quiches are the perfect market food. You get a little bag of 5, and you can munch your way around the market. I like to pop a whole earthy, salty, buttery mushroom boreka right in my mouth.

Big Social Market by the Hester Street Fair

Macaron Parlour: You may already know how much I ADORE Macaron Parlour! They make perfect French confections, some with a distinctly American and Asian twist. Touch my S’Mores macaron and suffer the consequences. But I’ll share all the rest with you because they are so incredibly flavorful!
Luke’s Lobster: My dad’s family comes from Maine, and I know from lobster rolls. I’m here to tell you that Luke’s are absolutely sumptuous. Just warning you that you’ll want more than one.
Robicelli’s Cupcakes: Here’s all I have to say – Chocolate Candy Cane, Hot Buttered Rum, Tiramisu. And run, do not walk for a DUCKWALK: vanilla cake, blueberry port mascarpone buttercream, port glazed wild Maine blueberries.
SkimKim: Kim Chi Pot Pies? I’ll be honest and say that I never recovered from the time my jar of kim chi exploded in my market tote, but I’ll definitely try this pot pie at the Big Social!
The Regal Vegan: Yup, delicious salty and sweet foods that are also super good for us! Thank you, and can you please open up a counter at Newark Airport?
Dora NYC: In case you’re overdosing on apple cider and hot cocoa, you’ll always have Dora’s LES coffee! http://doranyc.com/

Solstice and Bell Ringing at the New Amsterdam Market

Wild Gourmet Food - Everything they bring to the market is wild crafted, or found growing naturally in, well, nature. I got some incredible chanterelle mushrooms from them and made a lovely sauce.
Shandaken Bake: I cannot wait to try these amazing baked goods. Brioche sticky buns, maple glazed crullers, and chocolate dunked apple cider donuts? Bring it on.
Bellocq Tea Atelier: I just met Bellocq, hand crafted tea purveyors newly arrived from London, at the New Amsterdam Market two weeks ago, and I am in love with their amazing products. I’ve been drinking their fragrant Bellocq Breakfast, which is wonderful for tea purists like yours truly.
The Bent Spoon: Could these New Jersey ice cream makers and bakers be bringing ice cream to the market in December?! Well, they did in November: roasted pumpkin cocoa nib, cranberry-apple-red pear sorbet, bourbon caramel sweet potato!

Union Square Holiday Market by Urban Space

Bar Suzette: This local creperie serves up perfect savory and sweet French crepes, made to order and served up steaming hot. I just can’t get a Ham and Swiss without taking home a Nutella Banana.
Stuffed Artisan Cannoli – Delicious bite sized nuggets of crunchy pastry filled with cream. I had the chocolate one filled with chocolate cream and covered in chocolate. Next time I’m trying the candy cane one.
Momofuku Milk Bar: Why on earth would you wait in line to get into Momofuku when you can just go to the market and sample their amazing Asian Fusion sweets?!
Breezy Hill Orchard Ginger Bread Cookies: Breezy Hill is a Greenmarket staple, and it’s great to see their ENORMOUS gingerbread cookies all week long at the market.
Nibmor Chocolate: All natural and organic chocolate bars to nibble on, and also delicious, rich hot cocoa served. How can something made with no refined sugar, dairy or gluten be so tasty? It’s a mystery to me.

The Brooklyn Flea’s Gifted Market

Rick’s Picks: Can I say that Rick’s Pick’s is the Gus for the New Millennium? He’s been making pickles and selling them in the markets for years, and now he’s nationwide! I reviewed his Hotties, and they were tasty and veeeery hot.
Liddabit Sweets: I cannot resist Liddabit’s signature slurtles (beer caramel + pretzel + chocolate). Or, frankly, any of their handmade candies. Great snacks and great gifts!
Fine & Raw Chocolate: I have seen people hunt down Fine and Raw at the markets to buy stacks of their bars. They use low heat processing, and so their handmade chocolates retain all of the health benefits and the intense flavor they were born with.
Nunu Chocolates: More chocolate. See why I love the Brooklyn Flea so much? NuNu Chocolates are made with care, love, and a dash of sea salt! Their salt caramels are stupendous, and their chocolate covered graham crackers send me straight over the top.
SchoolHouse Kitchen: If ever there was a reason to eat breakfast, it’s so that you can spread Schoolhouse Rosemary Peach Spreadable Fruit on your whole wheat toast! They make amazing fruit spreads, as well as mustards, chutneys, and dressings. And they give a portion of their profits to support educational causes.
Kumquat Cupcakery: A tiny cupcake from Kumquat Cupcakery was the very first thing I ate at the Brooklyn Flea when I was just starting to do research for Markets of New York City. They are compact and loaded with flavor, and my favorite is the maple bacon. I also love the chocolate lavender. And the red velvet. Oh, heck, I love them all.

And there you have it: Markets of NYC’s Holiday Market Food Picks! Now go out, eat it all, and let me know what you liked the best!

Folk Couture Designs by Grace Napoleon

Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market Featured Designer!

Grace Napoleon has an eye for colors. And for patterns. And buttons. And somehow she can see how they all might work together in the must unusual ways as she cuts up recycled clothing and stitches the pieces together to create an entirely new, singular design. “I make clothes from clothes,” she says.

I met Grace two summers ago at the Brooklyn Flea underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. She had a gaggle of hip girls under her tent trying on adorable mini-dresses with stripes, appliqués, and other unusual details. Grace has a lovely, fun manner, and a glorious head of long, salt and pepper curls. Her displays at the Flea are always inviting. She sells vintage items, from eyewear to kitchenware, but Grace’s clothes are what first grabbed my attention. She calls her designs Folk Couture. The concept is around creating new and fun things to wear out of previously owned pieces. They are handmade, unique and meant to be worn every day. You and I might wear a sweater for a few years and then discard it. But if you are Grace Napoleon, you breathe a whole new life into it instead.

Now that it’s wintertime, Grace has brought out her one-of-a-kind designs for colder temperatures. She’ll cut out the collar from a colorful sweater, add a beautiful button accent and some bright embroidered details, and voilá! It’s a stylish new neck-warming accessory! She cuts the sleeves from a sweater, passes a few stitches over them, and suddenly you have yourself a pair of stylish and practical fingerless gloves. Her dresses feature combinations of colors, fabrics and patterns, and they fly off her racks every weekend, both at the Brooklyn Flea and at the SOWA Market in Boston. For me, though, Grace’s sweaters are where the real fun is. She has been doing lots of scalloped cuts and asymmetrical wavy necklines, with swatches of brightly colored appliqués and vintage buttons sewn onto felted wool cardigans and pullovers. No two Grace Napoleon Folk Couture Designs are even remotely alike.

Starting in January 2011, Grace will be offering Recycle Your Clothes Classes. Invite 5 or more of your friends over for wine and snacks, and have them bring 2 or 3 pieces of clothing to turn into one great new item. Grace will spend the evening helping everyone figure out what to do and then how to put it all together. At the end of the party, everyone goes home with a great new thing to wear and a little more room in their closet. The fee is $45 per person, and Grace supplies all the needles, thread, great fabric swatches, loads of patience and great advice. If you are interested in learning more about these classes, leave a comment here. Grace will get back to you!

Come see Grace Napoleon’s designs for yourself at the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market!

Final Reflections on the Markets of New York City Crowd Funding Project

I was amazed and thrilled to exceed the funding goal on my IndieGoGo.com crowd funding project, See the Amazing Markets of New York City, to enhance the site with videos and add a whole new dimension to my writing about independent designers, dedicated farmers, and innovative food purveyors. I have purchased the equipment (see photos!), and I am learning more and more about the wonders and possibilities of creating videos. I have two that I’m working on for the coming week, so stay tuned!

I knew it would take a lot of effort for my crowd funding project to be successful. I also knew that I did not want to overdo it and cause the community that I’d been building with such care and effort to get tired of seeing emails about it. I sometimes felt that I posted too frequently on Facebook and Twitter. But in retrospect, I think I probably had a bit more leeway. Nobody ever said, “Stop bugging us already!” In fact, it was quite the opposite, and I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the people who contributed, shared the link, or offered a word of support.

I recently took a good look at my stats, which revealed some interesting lessons. Here are the cold, hard numbers:

Funding Goal: $1500
Project Length: 60 Days
Team Members: 0
VIP Perks Offered: 7 (with multiples of most of them)
Updates Posted: 10
Videos I Made with My Still Camera: 5
Videos I Could Actually Post: 3 plus one I borrowed (Thank you, Hester Street Fair!)
Photos Posted: 10
Times I contacted the IndieGoGo Customer Happiness Team: 5
Number of Emails Sent to My Mailing List: 9 to 3 different lists
Frequency of Facebook and Twitter Postings: 3-4 times a week under Markets of NYC, less frequently under my personal account.

And here are the numbers that comprised my project’s success:

Total Funds Raised: $1,690
Exceeded Goal By: 11.25%
Number of Funders: 35
Number of Funders Who Selected VIP Perks: 26
Total Siblings (including In-Laws) Who Contributed: 60%
Contributors Who Are Friends and Colleagues: 91.5%
Smallest Contribution Amount: $20
Largest Contribution Amount: $500 (I was so surprised, and incredibly grateful!)

Five Things I Would Do the Same or Differently for My Next Project:

1. Definitely add team members. IndieGoGo statistics show that projects with teams are significantly more successful.

2. Offer fun perks again. One of my perks was 10 lbs. of Peanut Brittle for a $50 contribution. People loved that one.

3. Do a single really great pitch video from the beginning, rather than 3 just okay ones. It is worth taking the time to get it right once, no matter how many times you have to flub your lines and need to reshoot!

4. Send out at least an email every week to my mailing list, and even more frequently towards the end of the project. Predictably, the contributions came in groups and in response to email and personal outreach. They also came in when others shared my link with their communities. And the largest number of contributions, 20%, came in the final four days of the project. So, as I’ve said before, it is important to stay the course till the very end!

5. Work with the IndieGoGo Customer Happiness Team. They are incredibly responsive and helpful – and nice. They know their stuff, and they want our projects to succeed!

I learned a great deal during my project, and I am incredibly grateful for the support I received from friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers. If you have an idea you’d like to fund, consider doing it with others on IndieGoGo.com

Thank you! Now back to the Markets!

Nutritious, Delicious and Gorgeous Purple Vegetables

One of the greatest things about eating with the seasons is the colors of the fruits and vegetables at the markets. I was wandering through the Union Square Greenmarket last week and was gobsmacked by all the purple vegetables I saw. PURPLE!

We’ve read about the eating by color because deeply colored foods, like kale, spinach, pumpkin, and blueberries are rich in nutrients and possibly event contribute to preventing and fighting cancer. Purple vegetables have to be right up there in the Super Foods categories too. The New York Times published this “List of 11 Foods You Aren’t Eating.” Five of them are purple. Case and point.

Plus they are so very pretty! Here’s what I found:

From Norwich Meadows Farm

Purple Brussels Sprouts - That day at Union Square, I had the great good fortune to be there just in time for the food demo of Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts. Someone in the crowd proudly showed us all the purple Brussels sprouts she had just picked up. We all ooh’d and aah’d. It was a special market moment. Then several us raced to the other side of the market and bought some. So beautiful raw, and delicious with a dab of maple syrup and butter.

Purple Onions - Flavorful and not too biting. Great raw on salads (and hot dogs too. Yeah, I said it).

Purple Kohlrabi - Nope, I had no idea what to do with a kohlrabi until I looked it up. It’s gorgeous, and apparently mildly sweet and delicious, and a member of the cabbage family. Any recipes?

From Van Houten Farms:

Purple Broccoli - Broccoli is already a Super Food, so I can only imagine that this even more deeply colored version is a vegetable Super Hero.

Rutabaga - Not fully purple, but purple enough and rich in vitamin C!

Get everything you need for a wonderful Thanksgiving at your local Greenmarket! Eat all you want, guilt free because it’s local, delicious, and nutritious. And I’ll meet you at the gym on Friday!