Life's an (Urban) Beach

The High Line

NY, NY- I was inspired to start this blog because of my love for urban farms and gardens-  but what about urban beaches. I’m not talking about Miami Beach or San Diego. I took a trip to Manhattan recently  to see the High Line, a public park which opened in 2009 on the old elevated freight rails on the West Side and it got me thinking about urban beaches.

Urban beach, as defined by Wikipedia (so it must be true): urban beach, or urbeach, a space that includes an intellectually, artistically, or culturally sophisticated water feature that is also an aquatic play area, and is located within a culturally or artistically significant area of a city



Diller-Von Furstenberg Water Area

At the High Line, there’s a section of the park with built-in wooden chaise lounges and benches called the Diller-Von Furstenberg Water Feature, that looks out to the Hudson River. For the summer, water seems to come out of the rocky earth itself and visitors can remove their shoes and take a barefoot stroll for several yards. As the park can be a sensory overload, it takes a while to pick up on all of the well-planned features that exist along this stretch of urban heaven.

View from the High Line looking up

For all of the people and things happening at the High Line, I was almost shocked at how relaxed the native New Yorkers and tourists seemed to stroll through the park. It was a true delight, and while not my first time there- I was just as impressed. This makes a great day trip to the city dweller or the suburban warrior. Bonne chance!



It's Vernalicious, a food truck with a Philly 'tude

By: Sarah Punderson

Philadelphia, Pa.- Ah the summer. Hot days and cool nights. Ice of the creamed variety and juices from fresh fruit dribbling down sunburned chins. Flip flops, sand between toes. Fryer oil? Diesel fill-ups, propane for the generators and seven-day work weeks? Enter the new life of Verna Swerdlow and her boyfriend David Jurkofsky- co-owners of Vernalicious Food Truck, located in Philadelphia, Pa. If you ever dreamed of packing up your office and saying sianara to your colleagues in pursuit of a better life, where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want- Swerdlow will give it to you straight:

Vernalicious Food Truck

“It’s a hard life- we work a lot,” Swerdlow said while chatting at Love Park in Philadelphia one afternoon while Jurkofsky and employee Becca handled what remained of the lunch rush.

Summertime has changed for Verna.

“Some days we go out for 24 hour shifts. I’m usually up between four and five o’clock in the morning to begin prepping,” said Swerdlow. “We start with a day-time service, schlepping everything into the truck and then we clean, lock and load for a late-night service at Frankford and Girard- to get home at four or five in the morning.

Frankford and Girard is a busy intersection of bars in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, and Vernalicious parks itself right between several popular spots including Frankford Hall, Johnny Brendas and Barcade.

“The late night thing goes against my body clock, but we love it,” said Swerdlow. “We love the people, we love the energy. It’s not just a bar crowd- we get a lot of neighborhood people out for a late-night snack.

Before she was driving a food truck with a charicature of herself on it, Verna was an optician for 20 years. She owned a high-end fashion forward practice in Bryn Mawr for 10 years and previous to that was a glass artist (which she went to school for at Rochester Institute of Technology).

“I wanted out of optical, and I wanted to be in food, but food sales-like DiBruno Brothers, I wanted to sell for a quality food distributor,” Swerdlow said. “I couldn’t get a nibble, I offered my services for free- I couldn’t make anything happen.”

So on to Plan B, opening a food truck. The life of a food trucker has similarities to restaurateurs, but one of the biggest differences is the schlepping, according to Swerdlow.

“It’s hard to make this a sustainable business, because there’s so much schlepping,” Swerdlow said. “It’s like carrying in a restaurant everyday, and then taking it off, cleaning it and packing it all up again.”

Not that she’s complaining now- Swerdlow cooks whatever she wants every day of the week. When I stopped by to interview her, I bit into a crispy on the outside, cheesy on the inside grilled cheese for lunch.

“Everyday I cook my wish list, because I’m not making anything in particular,” Swerdlow said. “I make whatever I feel like.”

This summer, seafood is on the brain at Vernalicious. Swerdlow has already done a shrimp roll and plans to cook up lobster rolls in the next few weeks. With a fried oyster po’boy also in the works, she’s keeping things straight up and simple. 

“I’m not fancy. I prefer to eat that way out but not on the truck,” Swerdlow said.

Hailing from the Main Line, Swerdlow lives in Wynnewood, a suburb of Philadelphia and currently and can be spotted shopping at the neighborhood Whole Foods. The Vernalicious truck was at the Bryn Mawr Farmer’s Market last year and plans to return this fall (2012). Most of the time white and green truck can be found at Frankford & Girard and private events.

When she’s not noshing on her own truck fare, Swerdlow likes to chomp down at The Smoke Truck, Delicias, Pitruco Pizza and Nomad Pizza.

“We’ve got a really strong food truck scene for a small city,” Swerdlow said. “I’m really looking forward to see what comes out next- Mac Mart, Sum Pig and Sunflower Truck Stop are some of the newer trucks to look for.”

With four stars on Yelp and robust Facebook and Twitter followings, Swerdlow finds herself updating these sites late night or first thing in the morning to keep her fans, both old and new, in the know.

“With the truck, you never know how busy each day will be,” Swerdlow said. “I’ve had some of the best days in the pouring rain. Using the social media sites makes it easy for people to find us.”

Asked if she’s working on any other projects right now, Swerdlow’s mouth curled into a bemused smile.

“If it weren’t for Dave, I’d be stark naked right now,” Swerdlow dead-panned. “He does the laundry and he’ll stop me if my clothes are inside out before I leave the house…other projects- you’ve got to be kidding me.”

As for how she uses local and seasonal ingredients on Vernalicious, Swerdlow says she uses produce that’s close to home. The tomatoes and lettuce on the truck the day I interviewed her- from her neighbor's garden harvested that morning. Blueberries for a blueberry buckle she’s planning on making- from Jurkofsky’s mom’s house in New Jersey.

“I’m more local than organic- for me it’s about quality, as long as it’s good I’ll use it,” Swerdlow said.

Keeping it local is more than food for Swerdlow, who hasn’t ventured far from home and stays true to what her parents taught her. She values a strong work ethic, and thinks that honesty and integrity are among the most important traits anyone can have.

Vernalicious co-owners (l-r) Verna Swerdlow, David Jurkofsky and employee Becca.

“Dave and I put in long days and we have a great team- Becca, Jaryd and Andrew, and we all work hard and have fun,” Swerdlow said.

And what about working in a space of about six feet with her business partner and boyfriend, with no escape on busy days.

“Not only are Dave and I partners, we’re lovers and we’re together 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Swerdlow said. “We had the advantage of being together for five years before Vernalicious and have worked together in the past. We work really well together and we get results.”

One final question Verna, any good stories from all of the people watching you’ve been doing while on the truck?

“People just never cease to amaze me,” Swerdlow said, shaking her head.

Some things you just have to see for yourself.

Lift your pinkies ladies, it's tea time

Philadelphia, Pa- I've been drowning in a sea of vegetables this summer. My CSA (community supported agriculture) pickup every Tuesday leaves me conducting a full-scale veggie Olympics each Tuesday evening, trying to make use of everything in my share. This week from Henry Got Crops! Farm, I picked up scallions, kohl rabi, rainbow carrots, rainbow chard, lettuce mix, cherry tomatoes, mint and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else.

What I've been doing is making a huge salad every week and keeping it in the fridge to eat portions of each day. I also sliced up some beets from last week's share, along with summer squash and scallions,  whipped up some eggs with pepper to create a kind of veggie casserole, topping it off with  homeemade bread crumbs. I baked it for an hour with foil at 350 and it came out just right.

I also have all this left over tea from the winter, so for the first time in my life (although my mom's been doing this forever), I made my own iced tea. Boiled about two gallons of water in a big pot and then steeped some mint tea for about eight minutes in it. Let cool, sliced up some cucumbers from the farm and have two growlers of it sitting in my window sill. Mmmmmm.

Oh I hear it someone's birthday this week- Happy 30-something Restaino :-)

Tom McCusker’s just a guy following his meaty taco dream

By: Sarah Punderson

It all began for Tom McCusker on a motorcycle trip to Austin, Texas with two friends. There were food trucks, there were breakfast tacos-and they were damn good.

McCusker, owner of Honest Tom’s Taco Shop at 261 S. 44th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the western part of the city, was just 26. After graduating from Drexel University in 2004 he worked a string of underwhelming jobs including delivering beer, cooking in restaurants and grinding it out for his family’s Cider Mill Services demolition company.  The newly minted hotel restaurant management major was ready to follow his dream of opening a taco shop, something he had been planning since college. When he got back to Philly, he quickly found a food truck for sale and got to work.

Tom McCusker, owner of Honest Tom's Taco Shop.

Figuring out a way to finance his dream, McCusker remembered he had something in his wallet that might be of use.

“When I was 20, I filled out a credit card application on campus and said my annual income was $700, 000,” McCusker said, smiling. “The company sent me a card with a $20,000 limit. I had the card for years; I’d use it occasionally and pay it off right away. When I decided to start up the taco truck, I took the whole thing out in cash.” At the Clark Park Farmer’s Market in West Philly, McCusker’s truck, a specimen looking like it just arrived via travel by map from the summer of love (although it was the summer of ’09), would park to sell his tacos and burritos, sourcing the food close to home.

“I’d walk over to the farmers and use their produce as I went and then I’d take some for the week too,” McCusker said.

McCusker currently gets his eggs weekly at Clark Park year-round and as the growing season progresses, he expands his locally-sourced produce accordingly.  The truck was out at the park a few times this spring, but McCusker decided to shift his focus. He wanted to trade in his wheels for a brick and mortar shop.

On December 19^th, 2011, Honest Tom’s Taco Shop opened. McCusker’s vision wasn’t just limited to a food truck anymore, he now had a storefront. Making the transition to a storefront was something McCusker hoped would be more consistent year-round.

“Holidays, rainy days, cold days, hot days, just a lot of days I couldn’t go out on the truck,” said McCusker. “It was so frustrating.”

Frustrating indeed- and McCusker’s got specks of gray hair to prove it. 

 “I was a wreck for about a year and a half,” McCusker said. “I went from not having anything to worry about to being overwhelmed by taking on so much.”

 “It was just too much, doing both, I’m just doing the shop for now,” McCusker said.

 As for starting the business, McCusker just jumped in. His parents thought he might just do it for a bit and then get back to real life.

 “People would see my truck, with long lines, and assume I was making a ton of money,” McCusker said. “But over the winter, I wasn’t making any money. “I’d work 15 hour days all spring, summer and fall and I was still losing money.”

Did he ever consider giving up?

“I used to think about it,” said McCusker. “The second winter I had the truck, I stopped and worked some odd jobs, and by the third winter I just did the truck on Saturdays at Clark Park. But I’d think about what I’d do if I closed it, and I couldn’t think of anything else so I kept working.”

Frugal by nature, McCusker’s fashion sense in West Philly has been flannel shirts by necessity. He wears multiple layers of the stuff and says he hasn’t worn a jacket in about 12 years.

“At the beginning of every winter I buy four or five flannels at Forman Mills where they’re about three bucks,” McCusker said.

Financial issues have been some of the toughest that the small business owners who spoke with Farm Office have encountered. For McCusker, he went for three straight years without making any money. Any paper he did make went right back into the business. As soon as McCusker became profitable, he opened the storefront, which put him right back in the red.

“There have been many missed parties, weddings and family events,” McCusker said of working in business for himself. “But it’s exhausting in a good way. I’m constantly stimulated and the business feels like its growing.”

However, McCusker does have some words of caution for wanna-be food truckers:

“Everyone thinks lunch trucks are killing it right now,” said McCusker. “It’s a great business, but some people have unrealistic expectations of it. A lot of the people getting into the food truck business don’t know the deal. Even with long lines, at the end of the day, it’s a lot of work.”

McCusker remembers a conversation he had with a customer in the first few weeks his truck was open. A gentleman was telling McCusker about his brother who owned a pizza shop. The pizza shop had been open for five years and was just starting to make money.

“In my head, I was like, what’s wrong with that guy, it took him five years to get it together,” said McCusker. “I started out so busy, so I thought it would only get better. But I had no idea the amount of work that went into operating the business.”

Working for yourself can be great, as McCusker can attest to, but going it alone was a struggle.

“I quickly learned I couldn’t blame anything on anyone but myself,” McCusker said. “When you’re working for someone else you can walk around and kick cans, saying ‘my boss sucks’ but that doesn’t do much when you’re working for yourself.”

Lucky for sure, McCusker had a strong following from day one. Word of mouth and social media are McCusker’s marketing tools. He updates his own Facebook and Twitter pages, and he’s gotten more used to the idea of it. In the beginning, pre-laptop or smart phone, he struggled to keep up with customer queries.

“I’d post where we’d be for a few weeks in a row and then assume people knew where we were so I wouldn’t have to do any of the social media,” McCusker said. “Then I wouldn’t put it online and nobody would show up- then I’d post again and a huge crowd would be there. Unless people see it, they’re not going to think about it,” he cautioned.

As the el jefe at Honest Tom’s, McCusker has seen his role change as he’s expanded. Just 30 years old, McCusker has eight full-time employees including himself, with a handful of part-timers rounding out his crew de once. That’s eleven for you non-Spanish speaking math majors.

“My role’s been weird lately, since I’ve got my original crew from the truck, the new hires that only know our business as the restaurant, and my girlfriend now works in the shop. I’m learning everyday about being a boss,” McCusker said.

With a chef that McCusker raves about in Aric Danz, business at the shop has been constant. Honest Tom’s is open seven days a week and will even bring a burrito to your casa-within a reasonable distance of course.

As for his team, McCusker has relied on a few key people for business support. Brian Higgins from Powelton Pizza was his first go-to guy when he started the food truck in 2009. Since then, he’s added lawyers and accountants for formal support, as well as his parents who know all about running a business.

With his team behind him, McCusker has some future plans for Honest Tom’s Taco Shop.

“I turn down a lot of business right now for catering private events, but I think I’m going to rent out the second floor of the store and make it a separate catering floor,” McCusker said. “Two squads making food on either floor, I think that’s pretty awesome.”

As for a second location?

“Maybe one day- in center city or Northern Liberties, or maybe in a different city,” McCusker said.

He’s not too worried about that quite yet.

And an update on McCusker’s flannel formal, with an honest twist:

“Lately I’ve been into crewneck sweatshirts,” McCusker said. “But that could all change since I have some money now, maybe I’ll get real fresh- suits, fedoras- really do it up,” he said with a smirk.

Before McCusker got up to leave, he had some final thoughts for potential start-ups.

“Commit to it if you’re going to do it,” McCusker said. “The goal of starting a small business should be to earn a paycheck, not to become a millionaire. There’s a very good chance it’s never going to make you a millionaire, so be content doing what you’re doing,” he said.

Summer Barn Sale

I didn't forget about you! Farm Office has been busy lining up some swoony interviews for you. So try not to get your demin cut-offs in a twist as you wait...patiently. In the meantime, this looks like it's worth checking out:

Three Potato Four is opening a storefront in Manayunk and hosting an opening party Friday night (6/8) from 6-9 p.m. Then they're hosting a barn sale Saturday and Sunday. It looks like a few food trucks will be on hand for opening weekend festivities including Pitruco Pizza, Say Cheese and Zsa's Ice Cream.

Zea May's, a Native American inspired food truck that you need to try

By: Sarah Punderson

It’s been a riveting week for Zea May’s Kitchen food truck owner Sue Wasserkrug, as she stepped into the limelight for the first time in her new career. Less than a month into operation, Zea May's landed a bit of free publicity many other food trucks would be salivating over. Wasserkrug’s brand new job and shiny set of wheels intersected with the British Food Network recently as she was filmed for a segment of Andy Bates’ American Street Feast. 

Zea May's Kitchen. Photographer: Ellie Seif.

 

I had mentioned Wasserkrug on Farm Office a few week’s ago, and as promised here is the complete interview, taken from the past several weeks I’ve worked with her. 

 

And so it began, a former lawyer (Wasserkrug) and a former collegiate athletics
administrator (me), embarking on a new journey-no legal pads or box scores needed. Wasserkrug bought her truck in the fall. The name is a play on the scientific name for corn (maize) - Zea Mays. The truck had its unofficial opening on May 5^th at Mt. Airy Day in Philadelphia, where Wasserkrug resides with her husband David. A friendly, tree-lined neighborhood, Mt. Airy is also home to Weaver’s Way Co-op, a food cooperative on which Wasserkrug sits on the board of directors. It seems only fitting that she would get her wheels spinning in such an independent, free-thinking neighborhood.

Wasserkrug’s vision began with an idea for a restaurant, along with an educational non-profit component about Native American culture. Her interest in Native American culture and food began as an undergraduate student at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she spent an academic term at the University of Arizona studying the topic. Wasserkrug graduated from Oberlin with a B.A. in cultural anthropology, and went on to earn two M.A. degrees from the University of Arizona- in journalism and medical anthropology, respectively.

Her studies, however, were far from over. Wasserkrug began law school at the University of Iowa. While there, she spent a summer on a Sioux Indian reservation, working in the legal department. With the Sioux, she had a life-changing moment, while riding in the back of a pickup truck what could only be called a bison safari, with a local guide.

“Seeing the bison up close on the reservation, it was just beautiful and I remember that moment vividly,” Wasserkrug said.

Back in Iowa, the burgeoning law student wrote a column in the alternative weekly newspaper in which she had a series called ‘The Zen of Food’. For that series, her penname was Zoya Cilantro. Cilantro penned about different culinary experiences like the joy of picking blueberries and making a cobbler or the trying out the local beets.

The freedom to write about her passion for food and her experience preparing local ingredients was just a hobby for Wasserkrug, but that would all change several years later.

In 1999, Wasserkrug moved with her husband to Philadelphia. She practiced law in the non-profit sector for 12 years, keeping her passion for cooking Native American cuisine for after-work hours. It was time for a change.

“Some people can’t stand change, but I can’t stand not changing,” said Wasserkrug.

She considered opening a restaurant, but a food truck seemed like a safer bet.

Wasserkrug lined up a few food trucks to look at, and fell in love with the first one she saw. 

“My husband said: you can’t buy the first one you see!” Wasserkrug lamented. “So I looked at a few more and then went back and bought that first one,” she said.   

The truck she bought used to be Far from Home Café, which Philadelphians will fondly remember sold empanadas and burgers.  At Love Park recently, while serving the lunch crowd, a gentleman reminisced about the longest line he ever saw for a food truck- Far from Home. 

“The line was around the park,” he said. “People didn’t care if they had to wait 45 minutes for empanadas, it was worth it.”

Zea May’s Kitchen hopes it can hold on to that lucky streak with the food-loving locals. And Wasserkrug doesn’t mind working hard to achieve that goal.

Starting a small business is no joke as any entrepreneur will tell you and going it alone makes things doubly challenging. With no business partner, Wasserkrug enjoys some parts of the job more than others.

“Cooking and being creative, coming up with new recipes, I love that,” Wasserkrug said. “But emptying the fryer oil- just add that to the list of one more thing I can do.”

Finding a commercial kitchen was another challenge for Wasserkrug, as she needed a place to create her Native American culinary feats. She eventually found a kitchen commissary in Mt. Airy that would suit her just fine- a shared space with two other food trucks, Pitruco Pizza and Strada Pasta.

“The guys (in the commissary) have been really helpful and great resources,” said Wasserkrug.

 

I met Wasserkrug in the kitchen one weekday morning to make empanadas. She has three different types right now- a savory mushroom, sweet potato and strawberries and cream and more recipes in the works. We were prepping for the Mt. Airy farmer’s market, where the British Food Network came to film her. Being one of only a handful of food trucks in the United States doing anything Native American related, Zea May’s has already been drawing attention.

“This idea is bigger than the truck, it’s about educating people,” Wasserkrug said.

It was just another day at the office for Wasserkrug when the film crew did show up, and Mt. Airy came out to support Zea May’s, including an Indian chief, much to the delight of Wasserkrug.

Sue Wasserkrug, owner of Zea May's Kitchen (center). Photographer: Ellie Seif.

The timing was right for Wasserkrug to join the food truck fray, as both the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote stories about the business recently. The industry is booming with atypical food trucks in cities like Portland, Austin, New York City and Los Angeles. In L.A., Aunties Fry Bread is one of the few Native American inspired trucks around.

For would-be food truckers, Wasserkrug advises potential start-ups to join the Philadelphia Mobile Food Association (PMFA), an industry association that offers an abundance of resources. She also advises any potential new food truckers not to go it alone, having friends and family as part of the business eases the burden.

Taking it day by day, Wasserkrug is gearing up for her next big event, Night Market Philadelphia. Night Market, run by The Food Trust, celebrates the city’s ethnic restaurants and gourmet food trucks with a half mile of eats, all less than five dollars (according to nightmarketphilly.com). The first one of the year is on Thursday (5/24) in Northern Liberties from 7-11 p.m. It should be a chaotic night of fun for Wasserkrug, as she deliberates how much food to bring. Right now she’s thinking empanadas and salads- and you can even get a free pint of beer from Yards.

For Zea May’s complete schedule, check out the Facebook or Twitter pages. And do yourself a favor this summer and grab a bison hot dog before you’re the last meat-eating hipster to bite into one.

South of the border this week

Hilton Head, S.C.- Checking in from Hilton Head, SC this week. As the youngest in a group of five awesome ladies (my mom included) on this trip, I’ve been designated as the tech guru, which I find entertaining. This means I demonstrate how to delete their email ‘trash’,  show them Obama and Jimmy Fallon and Chiquita Banana YouTube clips and most importantly teach my post-menopausal posse techy phrases like ‘JFGI’ (just  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Google it). Oh and since they’re all from Jersey, I also pump the gas.



Loggerhead sea turtle.



Anyway I’ll keep this short because, well, I’m on vacation.

However, I couldn’t leave you without a few fun facts with a little section I like to call:

DID YOU KNOW??

• The waters around Hilton Head Island are one of the few places on Earth where dolphins routinely use a technique called "strand feeding" whereby schools of fish are herded up onto mud banks, and the dolphins lie on their side while they feed before sliding back down into the water. Thanks Wikipedia.

• You don’t have to travel to the Caribbean to see Loggerhead turtles nesting. Hilton Head has a turtle nesting season that has just begun.
• There are gators in the water here. I’m scared.

Until next time...