From Homeland to Heartland: Support Mumford Farms, A Documentary on Food

There's a lot of excitement in the city, but sometimes you have to step back from it for a while to see the big picture behind the Big Apple. That's what happened to Anna Mumford, who's working on a documentary film, Mumford Farms, now in its final leg of fundraising. After working tirelessly for various food justice causes and filming urban farms, local food advocates and events, she took a stint on her family's farm in Indiana, and came back with a sharper sense of how our food system works.

Black Beans with Summer Vegetable Sauté

Who needs rice with black beans when there's sweet corn, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, Swiss chard, and if not peppers just yet, then new, sweet-tasting potatoes, in season now? That's my summertime take on the Latin American classic, with the black beans on the bottom this time.

Spicy Beet Salad With Smoked Almonds on Toast

I find the mild flavor, mild texture, and outrageous color of roasted beets so enjoyable that I'll pop them into my mouth whole like popcorn. Only, it's not all the time that I get to roasting a few beets, especially when it's been as warm as the last few weeks in New York. However, I did roast a lot of very good beets the other day -- good, because they were just in season at the farmers' market (rather than having been in cold storage for several months, from last summer's harvest) -- and I had some stragglers after the popping-whole session.