Brooklyn Tourism Postcard Set

A photograph I took of The Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm at The Brooklyn Navy Yard received an honorable mention in the Mi Brooklyn Postcard Competition presented by Brooklyn Tourism, an initiative of Borough President Marty Markowitz, in collaboration with United Photo Industries. All seven winning images will be part of the new Brooklyn Tourism Postcard Set which will represent Brooklyn to the world. I am thrilled to be able to share a view of the rooftop farming happening in Brooklyn as well as a peak into the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

Click here to learn more about Mi Brooklyn and the other talented photographers in the set, Don Alman, Mustafa Onder, Monia Lippi, Douglas Ljungkvist, Kirk Lawrence and Robert Banat.

2013 Food Book Fair Foodieodicals Event

All images © Valery Rizzo

For the second year the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn hosted the Food Book Fair. Three days of books, magazines, panel discussions, cooking demos, signings  and tastings. This year I was one of the photographers asked to photograph my favorite event, Foodieodicals. Food + Periodicals = Foodieodicals, a zine fest celebrating creative food publishing in the magazine world. ACQTASTE, Sweet Paul, Swallow Magazine, Edible Brooklyn, Rocket, Gather Journal, Diner Journal, Chickpea, Modern Farmer and many many other beautifully produced magazines attended. 

Brooklyn Photo of the Week / Marlow & Daughters

Photo © Valery Rizzo

Marlow & Daughters, 95 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2013.

The Chicago Tribune Garden Issue

Photo of Annie Novak © Valery Rizzo

It's that time of year again, where we start thinking about our gardens and begin planting our seedlings. This will be my fourth year with my vegetable garden in our backyard and I have my eye on exploring a few new urban farms in Brooklyn.

Last weekend I was thrilled to have a photograph I took of farmer and co-founder Annie Novak of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm published in the beautiful Garden Issue of The Chicago Tribune. Annie was featured as World's Cutest Urban Farmer and that she is! 

I also have great news about a photograph I took at The Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm during my residency at The Brooklyn Navy Yard being chosen to be part of the new Brooklyn Tourism Postcard Set. You can read more details about that on my other photographer's blog by clicking here.

In and Around Brooklyn / April 2013

All images © Valery Rizzo

Instagram has become a community in itself and a great way to document each day and it's just downright fun and addictive. I also realize not everyone is on instagram so in addition to the recipes, stories and Brooklyn Photo of the Week, I will be adding another segment to Eating Brooklyn, once a month, called In and About Brooklyn, dedicated to showing some of my iPhone captures of everyday life.

1. Arugula scramble with hemp toast.

2. Orange tree in Brooklyn, Botanic Garden.

3. Vollkorn bread with almond butter.

4. Farmacy, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

5. Taylor Farms baby kale, from the Park Slope Coop.

6. Soon-to-be masterpiece, my niece Siena painting.

5. Vintage cameras, Kings County Salvage, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

6. Cara Cara Oranges.

7. Ramonita's Restaurant, Moore Street Market, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

8. Coco, Moore Street Market.

9. Platanos, Moore Street Market.

10. Vintage car during Hurricane Sandy.

11. Historic Cannon, The Brooklyn Navy Yard

12. Repurposed the coolest whiskey bottle ever, with my homemade Limoncello.

13. Lunch, fettuccine with arugula and cherry tomatoes.

14. The same!

15. Bierkraft, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

16. Cafe Regular du Nord, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

17. Vollkorn Bread, dense malty loaf made with 100% organic rye flour and sprouted rye berries, topped with seeds, from Bakeri, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

18. Vintage flour package, Bakeri.

bthere Magazine: My City On A Plate

Brussels Airlines in-flight magazine, bthere, featured Eating Brooklyn this month in their April, Art Brussels Issue, on it's food page. There is a nice bit about the blog, recommendations for visitors to some of my favorite spots in the city and a photo I took at New Amsterdam Market. it's a beautiful publication and I hope to be collaborating and working more with the magazine in the future. Click here to view the entire on-line issue.

Edible Brooklyn / The Water Issue

Photos by Valery Rizzo / Cover photo by Nelson Ryland

I was really happy to photograph the fabulous Mermaid's Garden, CSF (Community Supported Fishery) for Edible Brooklyn's beautiful Water Issue. You can browse the entire issue online or subscribe here for a printed issue. Additionally I included some outtakes from the shoot below.

All images © Valery Rizzo

Farm Fresh Brunch Skillet for One

Photo © Valery Rizzo

For brunch today I made use of some of the special places we have here in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I went to Valley Shepard Creamery on 7th Avenue, for their Farm Fresh, True Free Range Brown Eggs. I bought my favorite Quinoa Polenta at The Park Slope Coop along with the organic red peppers and thyme. Then for the first time I went to Fleisher's on 5th Avenue, where they have grass-fed and organic meats. I chose their Maple Breakfast Pork Sausage, which is made with salt, black pepper, sage, ginger, nutmeg, cumin, onion, garlic and maple syrup. The sausage caramelizes really nicely and is really lean, but if you are not into meat you can just add another slice of the polenta and its just as good. The fun part is you can just eat it right out of the skillet!

Farm Fresh Brunch Skillet for One

2 farm fresh brown eggs 

Quinoa polenta (you can use any ready to slice polenta)

3 slices of organic red pepper (or 1/2 a pepper if cooking two servings)

Fresh thyme

unsalted organic butter (I used Kate's Homemade, also from the food coop)

1 maple breakfast sausage (you can use any grass-fed organic sausage)

Freshly ground peppercorns

Sea salt 

You will need 1 or 2 frying pans and your 6 inch cast iron skillet for your serving dish. 

Give your frying pan a drizzle of olive oil. I cooked a couple sausages and 1/2 of a red pepper in separate pans and used the extra for a second dish for my husband. Add your sausage and red pepper to the pan/pans. When peppers and sausage are ready, save on the side.

In your cast iron skillet melt a bit of butter and add a slice of the polenta about 1/4 inch thick.

cook for a couple minutes on each side or until it starts to slightly brown.

Break two eggs into the skillet to fry them and add a bit of salt and pepper. Add your sausage and peppers to the pan and sprinkle everything with fresh thyme.

When eggs are cooked its ready to serve and eat directly out of the skillet. Enjoy!

Follow me on Instagram

Photo © Valery Rizzo

Did you know you could follow me on instagram as well? If instagram is your thing, and it does get addictive you can search valrizzo (Valery Rizzo) for extra images of recipes, food, restaurants, my life in Brooklyn and New York City or where ever else I might travel to and find myself. http://instagram.com/valrizzo

I made this very simple healthy and yummy recipe today for lunch. Steamed sweet potatoes, cauliflower and organic chicken sprinkled with Pecorino Romano, freshly ground gourmet pepper blend (Park Slope Coop) and Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Pepper Salt. Could not be any easier than that.

Field to Fork Kings County Distillery for Nona Brooklyn

All images © Valery Rizzo

I recently shot a Field to Fork story for Nona Brooklyn tracing the corn from Lakeview Organic Grain in the Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York to the Whiskey being made at Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn. You can check out more photos and the full story written by Nona's editor Peter Hobbs by clicking here. 

There are also some outtakes from the shoot throughout my other blog, if your interested.

A tour of Kings County Distillery which ends with a tasting is a must do in Brooklyn, their whiskey truly is THE best around. They also make a chocolate whiskey, great for your valentine.