Last Chance Foods

It’s known as roquette, salad rocket, or, more scientifically, eruca sativa, but whatever you call it, arugula is a flavorful green beloved all over the world.

If you happen to pass by a pile of apricots at a farmers market in the New York area, take a little time to appreciate the combination of skill and luck that brought them to harvest. While California produces a bounty of the fuzzy little stone fruit, locally grown apricots are a comparative rarity and the season is short. Red Jacket Orchards senior orchard operations manager Mike Biltonen expects that this year’s local apricot season will wrap up around the second week of August.

In the 1920s, New Yorkers grew 2,700 acres of gooseberries. These days, they are a fairly rare sight, even at farmers markets. In part, that’s because growing gooseberries used to be illegal in New York State. The law was enacted in the early 1900s to prevent the spread of white pine blister rust. The federal version of the law was rescinded in 1966, and New York eventually followed suit in 2003.

They descend like locusts and can decimate an entire cherry crop in just one weekend, said Gekee Wickham of Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue, Long Island. She wasn’t referring to insects, though, but the hordes of cherry fans that come for the pick-your-own season.

Like rides on the Coney Island Cyclone or picnics in Prospect Park, iced coffee is a simple summer pleasure. When it comes to coffee, though, there are a multitude of opinions on the best methods for creating the caffeinated beverage. It’s not as simple as pouring leftover Joe on ice, according to coffee expert Liz Clayton.

Bibimbap is a Korean dish of rice and vegetables familiar to many. But what’s in that delicious melange? Two important ingredients, according to Christine Colligan, are kosari, also known in English as fernbrake, and doraji, which is bellflower root.

Summer is right around the corner, which means many of us will head out to Long Island for clams bakes and time on the beach. But there’s a problem lurking in the waters around the Great South Bay. According to studies from The Nature Conservancy, excessive nitrogen is polluting the waterways.

Hot, sunny weather seems to finally be here to stay. That means zucchini and tomatoes should be here, too, right? Well, not quite. This spring has been long and cool, particularly compared to last year, according to area farmers.

Seeing heaps of ramps at farmers markets can be a little alarming for anyone who has read about the possibility that the tender spring onion is being over-harvested in the woods. The New York Times took up the issue two years ago. Nonetheless, the desire for ramps continues to gain momentum.

Before açaí and goji berries became the “it” health foods, there was flax. The whole grain has been cultivated since 3000 B.C., when even the ancient Babylonians had an inkling that flax was nutritious, according to registered dietitian Samantha Heller.