Thought for Food

That’s me, arriving for the inaugural benefit dinner for the Queens County Farm Museum (co-sponsored by Slow Food), and thinking, “My ancestors are rolling in their graves with laughter. The big city girl dons a cocktail dress and heels to accompany her well-dressed beau to eat a pricey meal at an OLD FARMHOUSE?!”

We had such a lovely time — nothing ironic about that.  We met very interesting people — not surprising, given the context — and ate more rabbit than I ever have in my life.  (Fried rabbit legs, rabbit rillettes, and “the rabbit plate” — braised leg, seared loin, and passed offal.)  The rabbit farmer was there (she showed slides of the hutches that she moves every four days to keep the does and bucks in optimum grazing territory), and she was just as sweet and unassuming as you would expect a rabbit farmer to be.  (Plus, she really appreciated my bunny-print dress.)

We sat across from one of the founders of Brooklyn Based, Annaliese Griffin, who wrote this Times article about the Museum/farm; Lindsay, a chef who brokers CSA shares and turns the produce into meals for busy New Yorkers to take home; and Michael Robertson, the agricultural director of the museum.  He’s blond and adorable, with eyes that remind me of Ryan Gosling, dead-pan and smart, and, I mean, he’s a farmer who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn!  I developed a crush on him on behalf of a certain single girlfriend; I’m convinced they’d make a marvelous match.  A meeting is in the works.  (Everyone knows it’s okay to have crushes when you’re in a committed relationship so long as they are the unselfish, just-looking-for-a-friend kind.)

Michael’s idea is that the Museum will have foodie events every couple of months.  The next one is on May Day and there will be a Fourth of July pig roast, camp-over, and game of capture the flag — M. and I are almost certainly going, at least to the May Day event.  You should, too!