WSJ

Farm to Table: The Art of Farming Auction

A twitter tipster sent us a link to Sotheby’s $1000/crate heirloom veggie auction, coming up, so naturally, I had to research:
PSFK reported in June:
As part of  this year’s Eat Drink Local Week (September 26-October 6, 2010) hosted Edible magazines and GrowNYC, Sotheby’s will be hosting a special auction of food items and culinary experiences on September 23rd that celebrate the local flavors of New York State called “Farm to Table: The Art of Farming”.
And WSJ gots all the deets:

Sotheby’s Auction House, that purveyor of all things rare and fine, will soon dabble in something a little more pedestrian: vegetables.

But these aren’t your average garden greens. On the auction block are mixed crates filled with veggies such as Turkish Orange Eggplant, Lady Godiva Squash and Pink Banana Pumpkin. Rare, indeed. The asking price: $1,000 a crate.

The auction is part of a Sotheby’s benefit featuring heirloom vegetables—vintage varieties that aren’t commonly grown by the mass-produced agriculture of today. The Sept. 23 benefit, titled “The Art of Farming,” is the first of its kind by Sotheby’s and is being held in the auction house’s Manhattan showroom,

Yes, the proceeds benefit charity:

Proceeds from the event will go to GrowNYC New Farmers Development Project, an initiative helping immigrants to become farmers, and to the Sylvia Center, a program that teaches children to eat well.

And guess what?  The idea is that of Mr. Brent Ridge, one half of the duo of The Fabulous Beekman Boys.  If you haven’t seen the show yet, I highly recommend the goat birthing episode.  It will bring legit tears to your eyes.

So, looks like hell yes – sort of ridiculous – but then again, charitable and (egads) sorta fun.  Shoot.  Me.

(the amount of tags for this entry = mucho)

WSJ Writer Brags About Some Stuff

Jay McInerney in happier times

In the brief and tumultuous blog yesterday AM  entitled Drinking Alongside Paul McCartney, Mr. McInerney discusses the following FASCINATING EVENTS of last weekend.  I encourage you to read it, or, you could just read my synopsis:

This weekend Mr. McInerney had house guests from California. They needed to eat, why – I do not know, considering people like this don’t really eat.  So, they called a hoity-toity “insanely fashionable East Hampton restaurant”, and most likely threw a snobbish temper tantrum –  asked for the manager, got a table.  When they got there, they were pissed that nobody cared who they were as they’re escorted to their table without the usual 76 trombone parade.  Jay was all, *shrug* “Sorry, that girl is toooooooooootally getting fired who seated us because I am super duper important and wonderful, and you all deserve more than 15 minutes of socialite fameballing.”

Ten minutes after they are seated, Paul McCartney, accompanied by his girlfriend, sat down at the empty table next to their’s.   Since they were trumped in importance, although wildly important in their heads when thinking of the facebook statuses this would inspire, the collective bitching about the shit entrance stopped.  (Then Jay describes how great looking Paul & Co are in a sort of brown-nosing, flattery-is-the-best-policy sort of manner.  Sorry dude, he’s not gonna call you.)

Unfortunately, these losers were sober except some woman named Anne who was drinking champagne (this is where it gets a little too “Vile Bodies” for me).  They order some 3 year old bubbly that I guess we should know, name-drop name-drop look at my wine knowledge, etc.

Not long after Jay made his selection, he couldn’t help but notice that Paul McCartney had the same wine on his table (zoinks!  tiny bit of pee in the pants!), most likely because he was extremely close, trying to literally crawl up Sir Paul’s bum at this point.  Then he grabbed the sommelier and said, “Yo wine lady, Paul’s got great taste, har har honk honk guffaw” and she said, “Oh, he asked what you were drinking and ordered it” (LIES) and then the finish:  “Clearly a gentleman of taste and discrimination, and secure enough to be happy with a seat in the back room.”

*fin*