Ee-I-Oh

Last night, Aisling (who deserves credit for co-naming this here blog, but more on that some other time...) and I attended the autumn harvest at Public Farm 1 in Long Island City. The evening got off to a somewhat bumpy start with a long line full of hipsters who were all grumpy over the fact that the event was quite badly organized. Luckily the less than stellar staff working the admissions table meant that Aisling and I were able to use tickets that were actually under our friends' names without trouble (don't worry, they gave us permission). So yes, the event was a little understaffed, and the two tables serving samples created based on that day's harvest could hardly keep up with the hungry crowd, but how fun to eat skewers of concord grapes and pickled radish that had been picked that very day in Long Island City!? The highlight of the array of produce delights was corn on the cob smothered with some sort of jalapeno butter concoction. We would never had snagged any had we not made friends with the bespectacled sous-chef who slipped us a couple ears before the waiting hoards descended upon the tray, eager to get their $12 worth of appetizers to pair with their chef-selected wine. We enjoyed our treats under the glow of the Citibank skyscraper while sitting on surprisingly comfortable structures that appeared to be fashioned out of barrels and some sort of reclaimed rubber material. The best part of the night was meeting an employee from WORK Architecture Company who explained to us the ins and outs of the exhibit including the column of solar-powered cell phone chargers (one for every model) and handed us some sort of leafy green picked directly from a pot and told us to eat it. Apparently everyone and anyone is welcome to harvest anything, but no one really does. I guess contemporary art can be confusing. All in all, it was a lovely autumn harvest.