Brooklyn Photo of The Week / L & B Spumoni Gardens

L & B Spumoni Gardens, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, 2013. Photo © Valery Rizzo

A classic Old School Brooklyn gem. The squares are the way to go here as well as the homemade Rainbow Spumoni.

End of Summer

Photo © Valery Rizzo (iPhone 4S)

This weekend is the official end of summer so I am trying to make the most of my garden as things begin to wilt and die off. I still have some peppers coming, loads of heirloom tomatoes (the best year yet despite the first time spider mites), a few cucumbers still growing, basil just beginning and lots of herbs still there for the grabbing. I made my Collards four times this year, the last time adding bacon with my usual onions and garlic, so good, thanks to my neighbor Will, who is a chef and hangs out of his kitchen window and talks to me while I am gardening and he is smoking :) don't love the smoke, ah but what can you do. My string beans gave me a few nights of steamed string beans and potatoes with red onions. I also have to say thank you to my friend Rita and her daughter Zoe for helping my turn the soil and prep the garden and my aunt Kathi who drove to Brooklyn from Long Island to help me weed and left me in awe when the bottom of my garden looked as clean as my kitchen floor!

Now we have fall to look forward to.

Brooklyn Chocolate Makers / FRONT & MAIN

Last week I was thrilled to have west elm feature Eating Brooklyn and my photographs of Brooklyn chocolate makers on their cool blog FRONT & MAIN. The photos were featured in their COLOR CRUSH . INSPIRATION section and I don't know about you but I sure have a crush on that chocolate couch! see the full feature here.

Brooklyn Grange Farm at The Navy Yard

All images © Valery Rizzo

I was back from California and shooting at The Brooklyn Navy Yard again this week. I am surprised everyday that so many people don't know about The Brooklyn Navy Yard which is a large piece of Brooklyn's history. Yes most of it is not open to the public, but they have a Museum at Bldg 92 which houses a gallery and Ted and Honey's Cafe. I saw kids the other day from the museum's summer camp outside painting skate and surf boards, how cool is that. You can also sign up for a full navy yard tour with Turnstile tours.

Brooklyn Grange has the largest and one of the most beautiful rooftop farms within the Navy Yard, which I have had the pleasure of photographing through my residency at The Yard. They have many farm stands all over Brooklyn and Queens but if you would like a tour of the farm at The Navy Yard then visit their Wednesday stand until October 30th from 12 - 5 pm, Forecourt of Bldg 92, Flushing Avenue at Carlton, and they give farm tours every hour on the hour until 4pm.

Also you should check out Anastasia's Fridge, Grange co-founder Anastasia Cole Plakias shares recipes using the Grange's farm fresh produce.

La Balena

All images © Valery Rizzo

I recently traveled to California to photograph a friend's beautiful restaurant La Balena located in Carmel by the Sea. I love the concept of a Farm to Table, Tuscan Restaurant which sources local ingredients and serves handcrafted pasta. This is just a sneak peak and while it is not about Brooklyn, I am thinking about creating a big post with the restaurant shoot and convincing owners Anna and Emanuele Bartolini and Chef Brad Briske to share their Panzanella recipe with us in which I could source all the ingredients locally in Brooklyn and make use of all the wonderful tomatoes being harvested now. Stay tuned :)

In and Around Brooklyn / Summer 2013

All images © Valery Rizzo

Since I have been busy with assignments over the past few months, this was a long one, but you get to see some of my summer through my iphone and hopefully learn about new things and places in Brooklyn all in one spot.

1. Local Organic Raw Honey, from Bristol Hills Apiaries (found at Fairway in Red Hook).

2. Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm at The Brooklyn Navy Yard.

3. Herbs from my garden, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

4. Steel Skeleton of Building 128, The Brooklyn Navy Yard.

5. Pratt Institute, where I studied Illustration.

6. Double decker bicycle, Clinton HIll, Brooklyn.

7. The kitchen at Bakeri, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

8. Salted Honey Pie at Four &Twenty Blackbirds.

9. The kitchen at Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Gowanus, Brooklyn.

10. Bikes of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

11. Backyard shrimpboil, Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

12. Bean Salad at the shrimp boil.

13. Mother and daughter, backyard, Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

14. Digging into the boil.

15. Shrimp boil served in wheelbarrow lined with newspaper.

16. The boil cooking with celery, chili peppers and spices.

14. Pregnant with tattoos.

15. Assorted cherry tomatoes from my garden.

16. Park Slope, Brooklyn.

17. Cherry Blossoms, Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

18. Fava Beans from the Park Slope Coop.

19. Red Lentils from the Coop.

20. Mixed bean salad, plate by Helen Levi.

21. Friend and great photographer Katie Quinn Davies (What Katie Ate), not in Brooklyn, but loved this shot I took of her shooting after we lunched at Buvette.

22. Dodge Dart, Red Hook, Brooklyn.

23. Chicken Coop at The Brownsville Farm.

24. Copy of Modern Farmer from The Food Book Fair at the Wythe Hotel.

25. My first pepper harvested from my garden.

26. Exploring Brooklyn, a United Photo Industries exhibition I had work in, Dumbo, Bklyn.

27. Willy and his 1932 Black Phantom Schwinn, Bushwick, Brooklyn.

28. Vintage cars, Red Hook, Brooklyn.

29. 61 Local, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

30. Marlow & Daughters, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

31. Mexican items from a specialty shop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

32. La Fresca and Pernil Aprepas, Caracas Arepa Bar, from Brooklyn at Rockaway Beach.

Happy Summer!

Eagle Street Rooftop Farm / Blossom Zine

It's that time of year again at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, where the harvesting of peppers and the making of hot sauce begins. So I thought it only appropriate that a story I shot about the farm's sauces was published in the Summer Issue of the Italian online garden magazine Blossom Zine. Fear not, parts of it are written in English! or you can teach yourself some Italian. 

To read Blossom Zine click here.

Guide To Urban Moonshining

Pleased to have a few photographs included inside this wonderful book by Kings County Distillery founders Colin Spoelman and David Haskell. Colin is a former rooftop moonshiner from Kentucky and David is the great-grandson of a Prohibition-era bootlegger from New York. 

The book will be available in October but you can find out more about the book and pre-order a copy now on Amazon by clicking here. Congrats guys!!

Brooklyn Slate Company / Slate Cheese Boards and Other Goods

All images © Valery Rizzo

Brooklyn Slate Company in Red Hook, Brooklyn is the third story in my three part series shot for Nona Brooklyn about makers of food related products in Brooklyn. 

I have wanted to do a story about Brooklyn Slate Company since I purchased one of their beautiful Slate Cheese Boards over a year ago. Husband and wife team Sean Tice and Kristy Hadeka live and work in Red Hook Brooklyn and source the black, red and green slate from Kristy's family quarry in Upstate New York. Pieces are carefully handpicked and transported to their studio for additional cutting and cleaning to make them food safe. After giving each one its signature rough edges they are then packaged in small batches using materials that can later be repurposed. They have also cut custom boards for Williams-Sonoma and many fine establishments in Brooklyn use their boards such as Mast Brothers Chocolate, Baked, Stinky Bklyn, Beer Table, Fort Defiance, home/made and Parish Hall.

The Company has since expanded enormously and now produces a whole line of slate products and accessories including slate beverage coasters, placemats, garden markers and their popular terrarium rocks. Additionally they produce wooden cheese knives, mineral oil and soapstones for the life of your cheese board and have most recently added a showroom which is open to the public, in Red Hook, where they feature other specialty items for gatherings and the home.

Visit their showroom at 305 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn or you can find more information or order from their website here http://www.brooklynslate.com/

Click here to view the other parts one (Cut Brooklyn) and two (CLAM LAB) in the series.

CLAM LAB / Handmade Ceramics

All images © Valery Rizzo

This is the second of a three part series shot for Nona Brooklyn, about makers of food-related products in Brooklyn. (part one)

CLAM LAB is a line of small batch ceramics, handmade in Brooklyn, from designer and maker Clair Catillaz. Clair crafts each of her beautiful pieces by hand using a manual kick wheel in her Bushwick Loft Space. The line is sparked by her obsession with 20th century dishware, featuring elegant form-focused objects which are meant to be touched and used. Her palette is mostly neutrals and whites with other pieces glazed using subtle tints of color and then there is the surprisingly different darker clay collection which is gorgeous as well.

Looking at her designs, you seriously want to buy everything! To me I could live happily with only her pieces surrounding me in my home. You can find CLAM LAB in Tribeca at the beautiful Steven Alan Home Shop, online at Madesmith or for more information and to view the collection see the CLAM LAB website.

Food Photograph:
Photographer Valery Rizzo
Food Stylist Camille Becerra
Ceramics CLAM LAB