Soups to Nuts at the Seaport
By Andrea Appleton
POSTED JANUARY 1 2008
Neither rain nor cold nor vast puddles of slush could keep thousands of die-hard food lovers from the wild ginger, lemon ricotta ice cream and countless other culinary offerings at the South Street Seaport on Sunday Dec. 16. They were there, crowding under the New Market Building awning, for the “Wintermarket,” more than 20 vendors selling seasonal food produced within 500 miles of the city.
Beekeepers hawked their honey, bakers their bread. Piles of produce—purple cabbage, white daikon radishes, enormous green leeks—covered the table of Brooklyn grocer Marlow & Sons. Down the row, apple expert Ben Watson handed out slices of little-known varieties grown upstate, including the crisp Ashmead’s Kernel, which tastes like champagne. Nearly a dozen volunteer chefs, among them the famous Mario Batali, cooked up free samples of dishes made from market ingredients, ranging from sauerkraut and pork stew to polenta with sautéed daylily tubers. Across the street, in the back room of the Pasanella & Son wine shop, a dozen participants cooked a 
 meal made from market ingredients under the direction of two chefs, and later sat down to eat it with them.
The one-day event was organized by New Amsterdam Public, a non-profit organization with the mission of creating a permanent year-round market in the Seaport. Co-founders Robert LaValva and Jill Slater have spent years gathering support for such a market, which would sell only regionally produced food from farms where animals are treated well and plants are grown without pesticides, using methods that do not tax the land or pollute the water. Their aim is to occupy the New Market Building, and they hope to convince General Growth Properties, which leases much of the Seaport property from the city, that their plan is viable.
“This is a pilot for a permanent market,” Slater said. “Look at the bounty of food in December. If you
can show people what’s possible in winter, it shows what’s possible year-round.”
Janell Vaughn, General Growth’s manager for the Seaport, attended the event and deemed it a success. (“I’m a foodie,” she admitted.) As for the company’s official stance, she would only say: “We think there’s a definite need for a public market in the Seaport and we hope to incorporate one in our plans.”
For gourmet cooks and novices alike, a special appeal of the Wintermarket was what one visitor 
described as “food with a face.” Customers could talk with butchers, bakers, picklers and cheese makers. At one table, Nova Kim and Les Hook, who make their living “wildcrafting”—gathering food from the wild—described digging through snow to gather pepperwort roots, Jerusalem artichokes and deer truffles in the Vermont woods. Further down the row, beekeeper Mary Woltz waxed sentimental as she described her bees. “I don’t have any kids,” she said. “They’re my girls.”
Despite the cold, visitors glowed as they nibbled on samples of sandwiches and even ice cream. “This is amazing,” said NYU student Tasha Gerken. “I already gave my $5 donation, but I’m gonna give more.”
“I think it’s great,” said Tribeca resident Miriam Boyce. “It’s too bad the fish market had to leave, but it would be nice if something like this came in its place.”
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