Hasta La Ideas

Truly tough cheeseboards born and made in New York

Take two food-obsessed Brooklynites with a family history in rock mining, add an entrepreneurial spirit, and you have Brooklyn Slate Company. In 2009 co-founders Kristy Hadeka and Sean Tice started making cheeseboards using slate from Hadeka’s third-generation family quarry in upstate New York. The two saw the idea as “the perfect opportunity to participate in the local food movement” and since have hired on an intimate group of artisanal craftsman to help create elegant boards in their South Brooklyn studio.

After cutting down larger slabs, each platter is then hand selected for proper thickness and ideal hue. And because of the specific geological location of the source quarry, all cheeseboards are available in either a smokey black and dark red color, with red being unique to the New York Slate Valley.

Aside from the obvious aesthetic advantage over traditional wooden serving trays, the non-porous properties of slate make it impervious to mold and fungus while also resisting decay and discoloring over time. Due to their natural origins and minimal processing, each product is one-of-a-kind, having unique shapes, cuts and colors.

The finishing touch, a soapstone pencil included with each cheeseboard offers a clever route to identifying your freshest find from the local farmer’s market. Available for just $26, look to Brooklyn Slate Company online for stockists. While you’re there check out their slate coasters and garden markers that sell for $20 and $12, respectively.

All-in-one gardening solution simplifies at-home growing

From luxury chicken coops to high-tech wind turbines, the more accessible tools of today’s self-sustainability movement mean you can do things like raise fresh meat and harness affordable energy without going to extremes—providing you have the cash. But gardening at home, like an express lines for farm-to-table eating, tends to pose the greatest challenge for those craving homegrown produce.

Anyone who has tried to raise tomatoes or put down a bed for basil knows that between the watering, weeding and general maintenance, it takes some serious dedication to get great veggies. Enter Ken Kuhne, a 36-year veteran of customized green-home design and construction. Addressing the common problems faced by home gardeners, he came up with Grow Y’own, a self-contained, secure system for “no-brainer gardening.”

Put simply, the Grow Y’own solution combines a traditional raised bed with a greenhouse. Constructed of renewable cedar planks, the base supports plastic hooping that provides the structure for either a UV-resistant cover for summer or a flexible glass winter shell—allowing for year-round growing anywhere from the hot dry desert to the rainy Pacific Northwest. Because the covers are always on the risk of insects or other pests is nearly eradicated. The beds can also be raised, making gardening for those with mobility issues possible.

Suitable for places ranging from urban rooftops to rural estates, sizes go from 2′ x 4′ all the way up 4′ x 8′. An optional gopher screen keeps critters out and each Grow Y’own unit can easily connect to watering systems.

The DIY attitude that gave birth to and drives this product forward encourages buyers to customize and innovate with their garden beds. Order a kit from Kuhne and it will arrive with simple instructions to get you started. The kits are flat-packed and very easy to assemble. All it takes is attaching a few brackets and a little time to have your garden up and running. Alternatively, if you are in the Sante Fe area, Grow Y’own staff will install on site, adding any and all features you could desire.

We caught up with Ken Kuhne to learn a little more about the Grow Y’own system:

What’s the utility of Grow Y’own?

The Grow Y’own Hooped Raised Beds enable people to grow their own organic food source outside their backdoors, with the secure knowledge of how the plants were watered and handled, picked and brought to the table. They dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of shipping food thousands of miles, and most effectively support the ‘green’ movement that is so essential to the health of our planet.

How user-friendly is Grow Y’own? Could my grandmother maintain one?

More than anything, it is ‘no-brainer gardening.’ All that clients then have to do is watch their gardens grow, and go out and pick fresh food. The need to weed or maintain the beds is almost non-existent. I have 90-year-old grandmothers using them, who never thought they would garden again because of all the work involved—prepping the soil, fighting the sun, winds and critters. I’ve worked with school children in kindergarten who have not only grown successfully, but learned where their foods came from, the meaning of sustainability and how light, temperature and climate affected the plants.

What kind of yield do you get from a well-maintained Grow Y’own?

A 4′ x 8′ grow bed will feed a family of four continuously and amply. Many people have more than one grow bed, because they want to grow more things. I have single women with as many as seven and they keep wanting to get more!

How do you think this product fits into the bigger movement of locally sourced food and sustainability?

We’ve shipped to 25 states and everyone is growing successfully, whether it’s in extreme cold temps in Montana, in the ultra-heat of Tucson or the continuous rains of Ohio. Everyone across America is getting on the bandwagon of food growing. Grow Y’own is committed to empowering individuals all over the country, helping farmers and growers extend their seasons year round, and teaching people that ‘no brainer gardening’ is alive and well! One day, someone will give their grow bed to a grandchild and tell them, “This was Grandma’s garden, and one day you will continue the chain and pass it on.”

You can purchase all Grow Y’own’s models from the online store. The kits start at $225 and include hoops and a summer or winter shade.

London’s one-night-only art exhibit and pop-up dinner dedicated to all things hamburger

One of the few meat menu items that even tempts health nuts and vegetarians, burgers are not just a ubiquitous dish but in recent years have been taken to new culinary heights. Burgerac, a burger detective on the creative blog of the same name that’s dedicated to the sandwich itself, as well as burger-inspired art and design, sniffs out the best of these around London and NYC. To celebrate the beloved beefy treat, Burgerac tapped a slew of talented artists and food critic Daniel Young for a one-night-only burger bonanza and exhibition, called Burgermat.

While Young’s BurgerMonday events are a staple for London gastronomes, as Burgerac’s NYC correspondent (known as Colonel Mustard), I can attest to the level of extra energy put into the upcoming. Burgerace’s founder has selected 24 illustrators to each manifest their original work in the form of a paper placemat, on which BurgerMonday attendees will dine. At the end of the three-course meal, you can keep your ketchup-laden placemat or turn it in for a personalized Burgermat to take home.

The artist lineup includes Crispin Finn, South African vegetarian Richard Hart, Rob Flowers, James Joyce, The Lazy Oaf’s Gemma Shiel, Jon Boam (who also designed the Burgerac logo) and many more. Combined with chef Fred Smith’s cooking up a bold bacon cheeseburger and fries on the flat-top griddle, the night promises to enrapture the 64 lucky guests in full burger bliss.

Those hoping to join the fun should act quickly—Young’s previous four BurgerMonday events have sold out within hours of going on sale. Tickets will be available the morning of Monday 13 June 2011 and are £40, which gets you the print, burger and plenty of wine and beer. To keep in the loop, follow the Burgermat Twitter feed. Those who can’t make the show can try to snag their favorite giclée print of the Burgermat works through Print-Process.

A master craftsman’s line of carbon steel knives for at-home chefs

The term “Master Bladesmith” may stir images of medieval men hammering steel on anvils, preparing for battle. Yet visit the workshop of Bob Kramer, one of only a hundred certified such experts in the world, and you’ll find a modern craftsman at work, renowned for his custom-made carbon steel blades—which regularly sell for up to $26,000 per knife. For those without Batali-deep pockets to afford the $400 per inch his one-offs typically run, Kramer will release a new knife in collaboration next month with Zwilling J.A. Henckels to arm today’s cooking aficionados for skirmishes on cutting boards.

The partnership was born from a recognition that many Americans are returning to the kitchen with a desire for high-quality ingredients and and the tools to match. Not for the amateur culinary enthusiast, Kramer’s blades require a much higher level of care then their more widespread cousin stainless. But if you are serious about cooking and can commit to the maintenance, the rewards are plenty—carbon steel can hold a keener edge, will retain that sharpness much longer and will develop a patina over time giving each blade a totally unique look.

Kramer designed the series of blades from tip to handle and, by taking advantage of Zwilling’s scale and technological capabilities, was able to create a product that meets his standards but at a more realistic price point for the average domestic chef. Lightweight, precise and with grenadille wood handles, the hand-finished knives feel amazing in the palm, and make an impressive addition to any kitchen.

The series ranges from a 3.5″ paring knife to the classic 10″ chef’s knife. They will be available in June, exclusively from Sur La Table and ranging from $140-350.

Also on Cool Hunting: Cut Brooklyn