Eat Drink Local Profile #24: Sotheby’s Heirloom Veggie Auction & Farmers Market
Black Sea Man tomatoes like these will go to the highest bidder on Sept. 23 at Sotheby’s. Photograph courtesy of Seed Savers.
The Auction:
Art of Farming at Sotheby’s
What it Is:
It’s a little known fact that we here at Edible Manhattan have an Art section that celebrates food-centric Gotham works like Andy Warhol’s soup cans, a rendering of McSorley’s bar, and Hopper’s Nighthawks, the iconic image of a lonesome Manhattan soda shop in 1942. So we are particularly delighted that on Thursday (Sept. 23rd) some 30 some-odd farmers from the greater New York foodshed will bring their art — meaning heirloom veggies from cranberry beans to Newtown Pippin apples — to Sotheby’s to be offered up on the auction block to chefs, grocers and other bidders.
The auction is a passion project for some Sotheby’s staff and farmer friends, who declare there’s as much valuable works being created on nearby farms as in SoHo studios. The cases of auctioned produce will get eaten throughout the city in the days that follow, becoming part of the ingredients and dishes celebrated during Eat Drink Local. (Decide where you are going to dine now.)
How to Go:
Tickets are still available to the cocktail party ($250), which will be crammed with chefs, farmer and other food community movers and shakers (not to mention some arty types). That includes admission to the experiential auction of Edible-friendly items, like a private tasting with the owners of Tuthilltown Spirits, a tour and tasting at Red Hook Winery, four potted Newtown Pippin seedlings (delivered to anywhere in the five boros), a B&B getaway to Long Island wine country, and a signed copy of a cryptic, comestible tale, “Celebration!!!,” commissioned from James Frey for the auction. The gala dinner (sold out at $1000 per seat) follows with courses prepared by Jeff Gimmel of Swoon Kitchenbar in Hudson, New York, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Chef of ABC Kitchen, Roberto Alicea, Executive Chef of Andaz 5th Avenue and Myriam Eberhardt, Pastry Chef of DBGB Kitchen and Bar.