"Little Gerrys" raise money for ALS

Fresh Chickens, or “Little Gerrys” on Sale at North Fork Table and Browder’s Birds

July 15, 2014 | By Gianna Volpe | Photographs by Gianna Volpe

Holly Browder gives the Little Gerrys scraps for North Fork Table. 

You’ve heard about farm-to-table, but what about farm-to-table-to-farm-to-table? That’s right, the North Fork’s Browder’s Birds have begun a locavore poultry project that is sure to have you singing, “It’s the circle of life,” in no time. Mattituck’s organic free-range chicken farmers are currently feeding two of their flocks scraps from the highly touted North Fork Table and Inn and the chickens will ultimately appear on the restaurant’s menu on the weekend of July 25. The well-fed fowl are dubbed “Little Gerrys” in a playful synthesis of Seinfeld fame with the name of the North Fork Table’s executive chef, Gerard Hayden. “We’ve been working with North Fork Table for five years,” says Holly Browder. “They were the first restaurant we sold eggs to, and we’ve always talked about doing a local chicken for them, but it’s taken us five years to get to the point where we could do it, so we’re really excited.”

Lucky birds, for now. 

Through October, flocks of 100 Little Gerrys will be processed every two weeks with 40 chickens per flock to appear at Hayden’s table. The chickens will also be available at the Browders’ farm stand at 4050 Soundview Avenue in Mattituck, which is open every Friday through Sunday, this weekend. They will be sold fresh. Though these chickens will also appear on the menus of other East End hot spots, such as Greenport’s First and South and Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, Browder says she is hoping to be able to retail some Little Gerrys to the public. A portion of the proceeds, including the difference in the wholesale and retail price of Little Gerrys will be donated to aLove Shared. A Love Shared is a collaborative fundraising effort formed by the region’s brightest culinary stars to promote research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and provide care for Hayden, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. More than 15 A-list chefs will be featured at a Love Shared’s River Cafe reunion tomorrow night, including Nick & Toni’s Joe Realmuto.

About Gianna Volpe

Gianna Volpe is a freelance multimedia reporter on the East End of Long Island and 2013's New York Press Association Rookie Reporters of the Year. She received her bachelor degree in journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism at the University of Missouri in 2010 and grew up at the foot of the Palisades in New Jersey, which overlook New York City. She now lives in Riverhead.

All Posts By Gianna Volpe

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The Art of Scalloping

I'm was recently asked for a copy of my Sag Harbor Express scalloping story from last year so I took a bunch of iPhone snaps of it and figured I'd toss it up on the good ol' writer's blog while I continue to not have a website like a total dope.

Enjoy!

Local bayman Joshua Clauss of Harvest Moon Oysters said, "Well done, I think you captured our romantic view of it all and I like the analogy of the good presence at party."

Brain Drain

As Housing Prices Rise, Younger People Take Off

Publication: The Southampton Press

By Gianna Volpe

  Apr 28, 2014 10:36 AM 
 Apr 28, 2014 3:41 PM

Call it what you will—“brain drain” or “birth dearth”—but a recent study by Community Housing Innovations Inc. claims young talent is becoming increasingly rare in towns like Southampton and East Hampton due to high costs of living as well as a lack of jobs and affordable housing and rentals.

Overall, Long Island lost 12 percent of its 25- to 34-year-olds between 2000 and 2010, according to the nonprofit housing agency. That stands in contrast to a 6-percent loss in northern New Jersey and a 3-percent gain in New York City. The study claims age disparity is most severe in Long Island’s wealthiest suburbs.

Housing Innovations found that higher income municipalities like Westhampton, which lost 57 percent of 25- to 34 year-olds, have lost far more young adults than lower income municipalities such as Patchogue, which registered a 4-percent gain.

Tom Ruhle, East Hampton Town’s director of housing and community development, said this marked sparsity of millennials that has already begun to show its face along the forks, threatening community vitality.

“Fire departments are having trouble recruiting and are having to hire year-round EMTs because they don’t have enough volunteers,” said Mr. Ruhle. “It raises the question of where are we going to be in 30 years if this continues.”

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Suffolk County residents are already older, on average, than people across the United States as a whole—with an average in Suffolk County of 39.8 years compared to 37.2 years nationwide. Mr. Ruhle said the Housing Innovations claim that the disparity is more severe in wealthier areas can be demonstrated when dissecting the neighborhoods in East Hampton Town.

The average resident of East Hampton Village, he said, is 55.5 years old. Amagansett and Napeague came in at 52.2 and 55.4, while in Springs the average age is only 38.2 years old.

“Our population is slowly skewing older and older ... and that’s a big picture issue that we all have to look at,” Mr. Ruhle said.
Southampton Chamber of Commerce president Micah Schlendorf said the trend is affecting local businesses, whose owners are reporting increased difficulty in finding quality employees.

“A big issue we hear from chamber members is that it’s hard for them to find talented individuals to work for them—even part-time high school students to get started working for the local businesses, maybe go to school and come back and be interested in working there later on,” Mr. Schlendorf said. “That, unfortunately, seems to be diminishing because a lot of young ones are not coming back after school is over.”
Mr. Schlendorf said he believes high real estate costs, along with stigmas attached to the idea of workforce, or affordable, housing, are to blame for Long Island’s dwindling millennial population.

Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island, an advocacy organization that seeks to help local communities adapt to a changing world, suggested that towns and villages need to be willing to accommodate many young adults’ partiality to lively, walkable downtown areas.
“If Long Island wants to take advantage of young people’s preferences, which seem to be toward more urban living, we can, if we choose, adapt our downtowns to make places amenable for young people,” said Mr. Alexander. “The challenge for the East End is a lack of flexibility in allowing for the building types needed to make activities affordable enough.”

The CHI study claims millennials will continue migrating up and off-island to lower-cost urban enclaves like Brooklyn until there is a change in status quo on the literal home front, in addition to adapting downtown spaces to fit changing lifestyle preferences.
Former Southampton Town Supervisor Patrick Heaney said he believes this to be true.

“The way the zoning laws are configured in the Town of Southampton pretty much ensure that the only type of housing that will not be greeted with public outrage, public opposition or lack of political will is a small McMansion—and that’s discouraging,” Mr. Heaney said. “Someone who just gets out of college doesn’t have the equity to buy a house or a condo, so communities need to realize that if we were to ever put flesh on the bones of the ideas in our Comprehensive Master Plan, we need to have the courage to implement the ideas that appear in these studies.”

Mr. Heaney, legislative director for the Southampton Business Alliance, said he hopes the current Town Board will adopt legislation that creates standards for multifamily housing proposals to be directed immediately to the Planning Board if proper criteria is met.

“That way there could be a rational discussion based on the need for housing rather than the topic of multifamily housing in a Town Board room, where it’s just politicized,” Mr. Heaney said. “I say that because I was there. I know how difficult it is to get affordable housing.”

Current Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst did not return a call for comment.

The Southampton Housing Authority is currently partnered with developer Georgica Green Ventures on a proposed affordable housing project called Sandy Hollow Cove, which 25-year-old Tuckahoe resident Noelle Bailly, who works in real estate, said she opposes in favor of accessory apartments in private homes.

“It’s a really small lot, so we’re basically trying to figure out who’s behind it and why it has to be on this piece of property and why they’re forcing 28 rentals and now they’re calling it workforce housing,” said Ms. Bailly, who added she does not believe there is a local “brain drain” of her age group.
To her, the loss of local young people is a natural progression, not a problem. “Kids go,” Ms. Bailly said. “They go. I’m not from here. I’m from Montana. I left Montana and somebody goes and takes my place in Montana."

Itty Bitty Busy Bones

Hi there!

Thug Child Gangsta here checkin' in with an inadequately prepared update on what's been going down in my little world of freelance journalism. 

I covered the Katy's Courage 5K on Ssturday, April 5, for both the Sag Harbor Express and Dan's Papers, which was my first time covering an event for multiple publications. 

One of my photos graced the front cover of the Express and the story I wrote about the event may or may not represent my very first for a newspaper's sports section (Can't imagine that's true)

I think I also made the front cover of the Rockland County Times that Thursday, April 10, after covering the formation of the group, "Rockland Clergy for Social Justice" and writing that here represents the first time I realized I made two different front covers in two different counties on one day.

Check it out:

GIANNA VOLPE    Bronx-based Rabbi Ari Hart of Uri L’Tzedek—Orthodox for Social Justice—voiced his support of newly formed “Rockland Clergy for Social Justice” in the packed basement of Spring Valley’s First Baptist Church on Tuesday afternoon, when the group announced its intent to petition Governor Andrew Cuomo for immediate fiscal and administrative oversight over the East Ramapo Central School District.

Other things:

I photographed the first annual Horseradish party on Saturday, April 12, for Dan's Papers and even competed in the Bloody Mary contest,  placing third of 10 despite forgetting the Worcestershire sauce and both lemon and lime. 

It was there I learned Moustache Brewery was holding its soft opening the next day and I'm pretty sure I was the only member of the Press there.

I wrote that up as a story for last week's issue of Dan's Papers, in addition to photographing the grand opening of the brewery for this week's issue.

I am really excited about the fact that I just handed in two stories to the Southampton Press - the first two I've written in a long while and will not discuss as I believe they're both being held for next week's paper. 

Also wrote two pieces for the Sag Harbor Express - one on weed-eating goats and another about well-known local chef, George Hirsch. 

Just handed in my first of two upcoming magazine features for the Express, one of which I am incredibly excited about because it's a first-person feature and I love those. 

I write the other one tonight, but now I have to go shower and get ready for work at the bar.

Such is life for this busy little Gia!

My 27th birthday is coming up in June, so if you don't know what to get me, an acountant/personal assistant/both would be incredibly helpful!

Long-time LI Farm Bureau executive director announces retirement

As seen on: Libn.com

Gergela retiring from Long Island Farm Bureau

By Gianna Volpe

When Joseph Gergela III retires in December from the Long Island Farm Bureau, local farmers will lose one of their own.

The lifelong Island farmer and longtime executive director of the Calverton-based nonprofit informed its Board of Directors of his retirement plans in March. When he steps down at the end of the year, it will be after 26 years with the LIFB – and over 50 years with type 1 diabetes, a diagnosis he received at age 7.

Gergela, now 58, has weathered numerous diabetes-related complications through the years, including multiple heart attacks and a 2012 kidney transplant from his brother. He cited health concerns as the main reason for his pending departure.

“That’s why I have to retire,” Gergela said. “The physical work of walking the halls of the New York Legislature is a challenge now. I have heart problems and circulation problems, and that wears you out.

“And trying to make time all the time, and to have your best, most charming personality day in and day out, plus the stress of what the farmers are going through … I just know it’s time,” he added.

At times during his LIFB career, you might not have known Gergela was ill. The executive director has garnered a national reputation for his political and PR chops, including management training from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, service on the National Farm Bureau and what he described as a “personal friendship and working relationship” with former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

Locally, he’s known as the farmer’s best friend. A tireless point man and booster for the regional agricultural community, Gergela called the 2002 negotiations for the East End’s former KeySpan property, now known as Hallockville, one of the best victories of his LIFB tenure.

With many environmentalists clamoring for public park space – a plan that would have cost 300 acres of prime farmland – Gergela brokered a farm-saving deal between KeySpan and then-Gov. George Pataki.

“That was my baby,” he said. “The beauty of this, which is how I sold it to the governor, was that the farmers would buy the land with the development rights sold to the state, and the money would go into a pot to a build a state park on [Long Island] Sound.”

That $3 million is still sitting in a fund in Albany, waiting to build that park, Gergela noted.

Long Island Farm Bureau President Karen Rivera said the organization will miss Gergela’s wisdom and energy.

“Joe has been a fearless and effective advocate for Long Island agriculture,” Rivera said. “He is greatly respected not only here on Long Island, but also in Albany and Washington.”

Rivera did not mention a specific successor, but noted the LIFB Board of Directors “has formed a committee to formulate a plan for the organization moving forward.”

Whatever direction the bureau takes after he leaves his post, Gergela – who plans to retire to Boca Raton, Fla. with his wife, Donna – said the LIFB’s greatest strength will always be the Long Island agricultural community itself.

“We’re proud of our farms, our land, our crops,” he said. “It takes a lot of personal pride. You have to be really into it, or you’re not going to make it in farming.”

Read more: http://libn.com/2014/04/16/gergela-retiring-from-long-island-farm-bureau/#ixzz2zAynKxW8

Express lane to victory!

I am so unbelievably proud of The Sag Harbor Express for winning The New York Press Association's inaugural "Newspaper of the Year" award at this year's Better Newspaper Contest, which took place this weekend in Saratoga Springs.

I've been honored to write a number of compelling monthly magazine features for them in the past year, including my all-time favorite "Art of Scalloping story."

The Express apparently received a number of accolades for these magazines

(I am completely unsurprised - they are gorgeous.)

New publishers, Gavin and Kathryn (Georgie) Menu, wrote the following on the subject: 

"What a great weekend at NYPA's spring newspaper convention for The Sag Harbor Express! For those of you who don't already know, The Express collected a total of 31 awards in categories that touched every aspect of the business--editorial, advertising and design. Our magazine series, which every one of you played a huge part in, dominated the special section categories, with The Summer Book, XO, Harvest, Festival, Voyeur and Home & Garden all winning awards. 

In the end, The Sag Harbor Express was named Newspaper of the Year and received a huge ovation from over 500 of our peers, representing 178 different newspapers across New York State.

We all joke that the awards "don't mean anything," but the truth is it's tremendously rewarding to be honored in such a way in front of our peers. If nothing else, the awards validate all the hard work we put into making such outstanding newspapers and magazines.

Kudos to you all."

Passion of the Blimp

Blimpie to celebrate 50 years with 50 cent sub; chain’s founder sits down for interview with Rockland County Times

BY GIANNA VOLPE

The original Blimpie Base

The tri-state’s own submarine sandwich chain, Blimpie, turns 50 years old on Friday, April 4 when the first 200 customers of any Blimpie location can celebrate the half-century anniversary with a 50-cent Blimpie’s Best— and that’s cheaper than the 95 cents it once cost for the same sandwich during the chain’s 1964 inception, according to founder, Tony Conza.

“It was the most expensive sandwich at 95 cents and at the time we called it a ‘Super,’” Conza told The Rockland County Times of Blimpie’s very beginning, which saw he and two high school friends slap a sandwich shop together with $2,500 and the dream of bringing the cold subs of South Jersey to their hometown of Hoboken.

“The concept of a salad on a sandwich wasn’t really being done at the time,” Conza said. “It was just hero sandwiches—meatballs, ham and cheese on Italian bread—not shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes or onions.”

Blimpie forever altered that culinary landscape. From the moment the doors opened, Conza said folks were lining up to buy a ‘Blimp,’ a marketing descriptor he said was chosen to teach North Jersey folk the concept of the sandwich, inspired by Point Pleasant-based Mike’s Submarines, while associating it to the Blimpie brand.

“Back then the sandwiches weren’t known as ‘submarines’ and though we knew people in Philadelphia called them ‘hoagies,’ we wanted to teach everyone a word that was our own. We went through the As and Bs and got to blimp and said, ‘Okay, the sandwich kind of resembles an airship’ and then we just added an –ie to the end of it— that was our big market research,” he said with a laugh. “These days you spend a million dollars to come up with a name.”

Conza–author of “Success, It’s a Beautiful Thing: Lessons on Life and Business From the Founder of Blimpie International”– is no stranger when it comes to learning what it takes to build a successful business. What began as a lone sandwich shop on Seventh and Washington in Hoboken ultimately ascended to more than 2,000 locations by the new millennium, but in the beginning, Conza said there was darkness. “We were selling a lot of sandwiches but we really weren’t making money because we didn’t know what we were doing,” he said. “My partner [Peter DeCarlo] and I … went through some very difficult times. I remember one time we pulled up to the tollbooth at the Lincoln Tunnel and when I reached into my pocket, I didn’t have the 50 cents it cost at the time. I said to [DeCarlo], ‘Give me 50 cents to pay the toll,’ and he said, ‘I don’t have any money.’ Neither one of us did.”

After briefly considering getting out of the business in 1989, the year after the small public company had lost money and was selling for only 15 cents a share, Conza said he realized he had “lost the passion for Blimpie” and swiftly set a five-year/ 1,000 location goal for the company.

“Once I made that mental decision to get the passion back for Blimpie – everything changed,” Conza said of the start of an eight-year stretch of record company earnings. “In the beginning it was like being behind a Mack truck and trying to push it up a hill by myself, but eventually more and more people got on board—and the rest is history.” Sadly for local Blimpie fans, the few Blimpie locations in Rockland County have all been put to pasture in recent years. If you want to get your 50 cent Blimpie fix on Friday, you’ll have to hop over the border to Mahwah, Allendale or Westwood in nearby Jersey. For those working in New York City or Westchester, there are also several Blimpie locations to choose from, which you can find at www.blimpie.com/locator.

This story sourced from The Rockland County Times website: http://www.rocklandtimes.com/2014/04/03/passion-of-the-blimpie/

Rock(l)and Roll

Just picked up a new publication (The Rockland County Times) and already love working for them. See my next post to read this week's piece on Blimpie's 50th anniversary. 

The following is the woebegone tale of how I came to be united with my latest 'client.' (Man, that's really fun to write)  

The day was Wednesday, March 19, and

I happened to be in the immediate area when RCT's Dylan Skriloff offered a story to the first-responder who wanted to cover one of Governor Andrew Cuomo's press conferences about property tax reform.

I'd been stranded at my father's house all day due to a case of lost keys and remember wondering aloud to myself (and the neighboring kitchen appliances), "They say everything happens for a reason, but I just do NOT understand what reason could be behind this."

A police officer had even helped me break into my car using a wooden spoon earlier in the afternoon (I think I could, at this point, write a book called "Breaking In: the 5-0 Way) to see if I'd left them inside the vehicle. I had no such luck, outside the fact that car alarms will, eventually, stop sounding/alerting everyone within a mile radius that you are  the hugest idiot in the universe.

But I digress.

I had just hopped out of the shower when I was alerted that I'd received the email that I had a possible chance to do the job of journalism, and further, that I was a twenty-or-so minute drive away from doing so.

"Ahhhhhhh - so THIS is why I lost my keys," I said, triumphant finger pointed toward the heavens, as my father pulled said keys from between a chair cushion I'd already searched several times over and handed them over to me with a facial expression denoting exactly that I am the biggest idiot in the universe (But I digress)

Both this event and Katy's Courage 5K, which took place yesterday AM in Sag Harbor, taught me that 

IT. IS. TIME. 

for me to get new camera equipment because this Nikon D500 is just not cutting it. Not even slightly. 

It will make an excellent "extra" camera, so I can FINALLY graduate to being the kind of pro who has two cameras at any given time (three counting an iPhone)

The photos were bleh and though I had taken notes, my iPhone had decided to stop recording at some point because it was crammed full of content.

(I have since upgraded to one with more space/have established back-up techniques to cull content and keep that from ever happening again)

However, I did get to interview our state governor, which is a pretty righteous rite of passage for any young journo. 

I also need a new tape recorder....

Is there any rich journalist (cue the canned laughter), or at least one who now has a talk show, who wants to help me get new audio/visual/computer equipment? 

(Cue the cricket reel) 

Following the event, I flew to a nearby diner and began to write furiously, but as I have some horrific Dell without so much as a genuine version of Windows (which it reminds me about every two minutes) three-quarters of my copy blasted off into a nearby dimension never to return when I was nearly finished and I then spent the next few hours trying to recreate the article from memory.

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is - oh right - the moral of the story is, my dear, young journalism professionals, you need to somehow have enough money to be able to afford the best technology, or at least a computer with a genuine copy of Windows. 

I haven't quite figured out how to do that as a freelancer without going into further debt than my journalism degree has me, but once I do - you'll probably be the first ones I tell.

Scoopin' the East End

Scooped nearly every publication for the story on Long Island's first mobile slaughterhouse except one 

(which taught me a very valuable lesson about how pitching a story may mean having it stolen from you)

I ultimately gave the story to Dan's Papers, which has been giving me steady work as both a writer and photographer. 

Print version comes out on Friday, but check out the story on the Dan's Papers website:

http://danspapers.com/2014/02/browders-birds/

(Story inserted below for the truly lazy)

Gianna Volpe photo

Holly Browder sets up the Browder's Birds booth on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Riverhead Farmer's Market.

If you’ve ever bought one of Browder’s Birds to serve certified organic local free-range chicken at home or had one tantalizingly prepared for you at well-loved locavore paradise The North Fork Table & Inn, chances are you’ve been jonesing all winter long for another taste of the lean, local meat.

And you’re in luck, because not only are farmers Holly and Chris Browder the proud new owners of Long Island’s very first mobile slaughterhouse—thanks in part to a $61,375 grant awarded by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council—but the farmers are also seeking a license that will mean they will no longer be subject to a 1,000-bird annual cap.

New York State’s small farm exemption currently allows the Browders to sell 1,000 chickens every year from their 16-acre farm in Mattituck.  They are looking into becoming licensed with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets as operators of an MPU, or mobile processing unit, which will increase that limit to 20,000 birds annually.

“Every small state exemption is different, so in Virginia that’s enough to make into a small business at 20,000 birds, but at 1,000 birds we sell out in October and then we’re done,” Holly Browder said of the difficulties in operating under New York’s small farm exemption, adding that she and husband will “never” reach 20,000 birds in hopes of maintaining their reputation as responsible, caring poultry farmers, who raise their local chicks free range.

“We’re not trying to be a huge chicken producer because the whole thing with pasture-raised animals is that you don’t want too many animals,” she said. “We just want to grow our business enough to be sustainable.”

Though Long Island’s first MPU is a 28-foot aluminum trailer filled with stainless steel equipment capable of processing upward of 500 poultry animals per day, Chris Browder, a former managing director at Bank of America and two-decade Manhattanite, said he isn’t looking to produce that kind of volume.

“Right now I’m just interested in learning how to use this thing properly,” said Browder, who has historically manually processed his chickens. “We’ll probably do 100 chickens at a time until we get super comfortable with it. Once we feel like we have everything under control, then maybe we’ll increase that number.” He said the facility “absolutely” has the capability to be moved around to other farms that have access to 100 amps of electricity, propane and potable water, but added he is not at a point where he has seriously considered doing so.

“Until I know the ins and outs of this thing, we’re just going to use it ourselves,” he said.

Browder plans to begin using the MPU come Memorial Day weekend, but added he will remain limited to 1,000 chickens until the licensing process is through.

“First order of business is getting the 5-A [license] so we can ramp up past 1,000,” he said. “Who knows if that will take two days or two years.”

Though Browder said the mobile processing concept is relatively new, he hopes the fact that the unit’s design has already been approved by New York State will help streamline the bureaucratic process.

“This particular unit was designed and built by a friend of mine named Ed Leonardi from WildCraft Farm upstate in Swan Lake,” Browder said of the facility, which he purchased last month. “I learned about him because of his MPU and called him shortly after he’d finished it in 2009 or 2010 and said that I would love to come up and take a look … It took him a long, long time to get that thing licensed, but he was finally able to get Ag and Markets to sign off on the design, so that unit is approved for [poultry] slaughter in New York State.”

Browder said though discussions of a mobile red meat slaughterhouse on Long Island are ongoing, he doesn’t believe it’s likely one will be rolling to the East End any time soon.

“Those things are expensive and they need a lot of throughput so the question is, ‘Is there enough volume out here to justify something that expensive?’” explained Browder. “The jury’s still out on that.”

Holly Browder said she is hopeful, adding that a recently-formed committee is looking at logistics on the subject looking forward. ”Everybody new is doing livestock,” she said of the East End animal raising trend.

Browder is a member on the Long Island Farm Bureau’s board of directors and was instrumental is the founding of Riverhead’s weekly indoor farmers market, Saturdays at 117 East Main Street, across from Suffolk Theater.

Gianna Volpe

Agentjanefox@gmail.com

Bylines Abound!

Hey there reporter's blog!

Just checkin' in with ya to let you know that I got my first hard copy bylines with Edible East End and Dan's Papers!

Unfortunately the Dan's Papers byline is coupled with an article that I did not write and (winemaker of Osprey's Dominion and Coffee Pot Cellars) Adam Suprenant's name was spelled wrong in it, but that's okay- my article about local wine for the holidays can be found in the Dan's Papers special holiday preview that came out about a week ago!

It's got a Christmas tree on it and my article is called "Wine Down," if you happen to see it on your travels around the East End/Manhattan.

I work my little squirrel tail off, so I haven't yet gotten the chance to post clips here for y'all, but I'll get there! (All in good time)

Super psyched to see the review I wrote about Leann Lavin's "Hampton and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" when it gets posted on Edible's website 😊

In the meantime - check out this portrait of me from First and South in Greenport's "prohibition night," which was well attended by what seemed to be the entire population of the East End's 20-something hipsters--dressed to the nines in historic garb  (including yours truly)

Cheers, friends (and enemies too!)

Filling in the gap

Now that I've downloaded the blogger app for my iPhone, I'm sure I will begin using this more frequently (rather than next to never.)

Let me update you: I am currently one of the four New York Press Association "Rookie Reporters of the Year," an award I won the Suffolk Times for my reporting throughout 2012.

This is something I'm incredibly proud of - especially because two of the four rookie reporters are from the Queens Courier, where crime actually occurs now and again.

Obviously I'm being a bit facetious and truth be told, I am incredibly proud I received this honorable award.

So don't worry, I have made sure to tell every living creature that has crossed my path in the past few months that, "I'm one of the four New York Press Association 'Rookie Reporters of the Year.'"

I celebrated the win by consistently scooping a former colleague with crime stories, which was fun!

Now I've turned to freelancing stories, mostly for magazines and newspaper supplements.

This is something I've been avoiding (along with living in New York City.....until I have enough money to actually LIVE there..... because if I'm going to just scrape by I would rather do it with some leg room), but at this point in the game I'm beginning to wonder why.

Something I finally said out loud today while pondering why it felt like Denise Civiletti had just stabbed me in the abdomen when she suggested I turn my sights toward magazines is that my training as a newspaper writer and photographer may have led me to look down on magazines.

The gloss, the flash, the color, the broader brush employed through their diction induced a recoiling reaction from me.

I was so busy learning to kill my voice that I couldn't even think about marrying it to my facts, which is why features were actually more difficult for me when I was starting out!

Now I write features like it ain't no thang and during my tenure at Times/Review, I certainly wrote a lion's share of those bad boys.

Nowadays I get steady work with the Sag Harbor Express, will hopefully continue writing/photographing for Edible East End and the other gorgeous Edible magazines, and have just begun my relationships with the Southampton Press, Long Island Business News and Dan's Papers.

Barbaraellen Koch, a local veteran photojournalist for whom I have the utmost respect, thinks it's time for me to somehow get into The New York Times, maybe by writing a column about the two weeks I just spent being homeless on the East End or by breaking a big story............ So yeah, if you are the Long Island serial killer, hit me up at agentjanefox@gmail.com and offer me an exclusive because I'm not sure if The Grey Lady prints columns written by veritable nobodies!

I will start updating this ol' boy with my work - I swear! So people can um. You know. Read my stuff. And things.

That's all I got, so signing off, this is special agent Jane Fox aka Gianna Volpe.

Over and out