Last Chance Foods

Crunchy, fresh and licorice-flavored, fennel offers a welcome change of pace during the winter months, when starchy tubers tend to dominate. Whitney Wright, a senior editor and photographer for Gilt Taste, points out that the vegetable is versatile both in taste and in texture.

Zingers, Devil Dogs, Sno Balls, or classic Twinkies? Ever since Hostess Brands announced a few weeks ago that it’s going out of business, everyone seems to be declaring their snack-cake allegiances. Since it’s uncertain how much longer the everlasting creme-filled yellow cakes will be available, Last Chance Foods dubbed it a worthy topic and, this week, strayed from the produce section to check out the snack aisle.

Thanksgiving traditionally brings to mind images of turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. In reality, though, the dishes that appear on our tables are as diverse as the friends and families gathered around them. 

The crank of a can opener and the wet sound of suction — there’s a distinctly “semi-homemade” quality to many pumpkin pie recipes. With Thanksgiving less than a week away, cookbook author Hiroko Shimbo recommends avoiding canned filling and using kabocha squash in pie instead.

Farmers are a tough bunch, and when it comes to Superstorm Sandy, many are counting themselves as lucky, too.

There are lots of pigeons on the 4,000-square-foot roof of the Metro Baptist Church in Hell’s Kitchen. On its own, that’s not particularly surprising, but what is unexpected is that those birds are there with the intent of feasting on swiss chard. Even more unusual is that the leafy greens are growing in converted kiddie pools. To quote a venerable society columnist, “Only in New York, kids.”

Dora Hinds grew up as a city girl in her native Guyana, but that didn’t stop her from creating her own agricultural oasis when she moved to the Nehemiah houses in East New York, Brooklyn, several years ago. Her new home came with a large, sunny backyard, and Hinds quickly got to planting.

A little dry weather can go a long way, according to Kurt Alstede of Alstede Farms in Chester, N.J. While crops in the Midwest were blasted with severe drought conditions this year, farms like Alstede’s fared much better in the Northeast’s moderately dry summer.

For the rest of the summer, we’ll be revisiting previous episodes of Last Chance Foods. 

Europeans used to believe that eating so-called “mad apples” caused insanity, leprosy and bad breath. Fortunately, these days, we know that eggplant is a healthy, delicious vegetable used in everything from eggplant parmesan to Thai curries.

For the rest of the summer, we’ll be revisiting previous episodes of Last Chance Foods. 

Francis Lam has a confession: He doesn’t like to can. The Gilt Taste editor may spend his days touting the glories of caramelized watermelon salad and chatting about food and culture with chef Eddie Huang, but a home canner he is not.