The Long Island Blog

What do I do on crisp Autumn day on Long Island?

Long Island is suburbia. House after house. Block after block. Town after town. Pick any water cooler on Long Island and you’ll hear small talk about the things people are doing around their houses. Especially at this time of year.

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. I love them all, really, and Long Island does the four seasons so well. Each comes in with conviction, yet none overpower us. But fall just has so many things going for it it’s hard not to put it at the top of my list.

The quieting of summer’s energy, the crunch and scent of fallen leaves, and those crisp, frosty mornings ease us into our winter hibernation. It feels so good to slow down.

Oh, but there I go again waxing poetic. The reality of autumn on Long Island is yard work, plain and simple. Is it hard? Yep. Is it boring? Doesn’t have to be.

We have five senses. Pay attention to them and savor what they bring you. This weekend I fixed a leaky chimney, winterized my boat, and did some yard work.

I can’t describe what I felt, smelt, tasted or heard, but…

Here’s what I saw:

The Montauk daisies that attracted so many butterflies have lost all their petals.

Windblown tomato stakes stand fruitless vigil over dead tomatoes.

Fixing a leaky chimney may be a chore, but it offers an opportunity to see things in an unusual way.

A mocking bird perched on one of my dead sunflowers.

So, what did you see?

Shelter Island, so named because of the way Long Island’s north and south forks shelter it from the sea, is a trip back in time. The island is pristine, dotted with old farm houses on large plots, and is so beautiful it’s almost unbelievable.

On Friday I had the “privilege” of driving a carload of teenage girls to their annual retreat at Saint Gabriel’s on Shelter Island. Their weekend started with a beautiful sunset view on the ferry ride from Greenport.

The four girls along with Shelter Island are silhouetted by the beautiful sunset. What a great way to start the weekend.

While they were on retreat I spent the rest of my weekend enjoying Long Island’s North Fork.

In all, I ate at 4 Long Island restaurants (Jedediah Hawkins Inn was amazing), visited 3 Long Island wineries and stayed in 1 Long Island hotel. (How many hotels can you sleep in in 1 weekend anyway?)

Needless to say I came home exhausted. And now I have a lot of writing ahead of me…

I wasn’t going to post about Long Island Restaurant Week. It’s been in the papers and on a lot of Long Island related blogs.

Every Long Islander that’s interested in food already knows about it, so there’s no need for yet another announcement.

However, since this post is about food I didn’t feel right about not mentioning it. So, here goes:

Long Island Restaurant Week gives you the chance to dine at some of Long Island’s finest restaurants at an unbelievably low price.

For one week, starting Nov. 5th, all participating restaurants are offering a fixed price menu for only $21.95 per person.

Friends, how can you go wrong? Get out there and start eating!

Or, stay home and cook.

Fall is that time of year when many of us get the urge to cook. We want to come in from the cold and get warm by the stove. The smell of a roast or a cake or maybe even some homemade bread can be irresistible. And there’s nothing like sharing the warmth of heart and hearth (even if it is just the stove) with good friends and family.

I’m a big fan of the fact that Long Island offers so many ways to enjoy food and drink.

In addition to the hundreds of restaurants we have to choose from, local farms, fishermen, wineries and breweries are an excellent source of fine ingredients for your home cooked meals.

Local chefs such as John Ross have been instrumental in defining Long Island’s regional cuisine and showing us how to cook using Long Island’s wonderful bounty.

For recipes and history of many Long Island restaurants I highly recommend his book, The Food and Wine of the North Fork.

On Saturday night we roasted a chicken and some vegetables, and toasted the seeds from the pumpkin used in the vegetable dish.

We enjoyed a bottle of good Long Island wine too (Wölffer Estate 2003 Reserve Chardonnay).

For desert we ate the pumpkin seeds and were amazed at how well the wine worked with their toasty flavor.

In all we spent 5 hours in the kitchen cooking, eating, talking, and cleaning up; time well spent and a lot less expensive than dining out.

A note about Long Island wine. You can pick up a bottle of Long Island wine for under $10. That may be more expensive than what you’re used to paying, but compared to the cost of dining out it is a real bargain.

A home cooked meal using fresh, Long Island ingredients. Far less expensive than dining out, yet priceless.

If I’m cooking a decent meal, something that takes time to prepare and time to enjoy, I’ll spend $20 to $40 on a bottle of Long Island wine. The same cheaper-than-dining-out logic applies and, if I’m spending that much time cooking, I’m not going to cheap-out on the wine. It does make a difference.

Price is not always a good indicator of wine quality, so when I’m not sure about what to buy I turn to my friend, Lenn Thompson. Lenn just happens to be (among many other things) Long Island’s premier local wine expert.

If you want to learn about Long Island wine I highly recommend visiting his blog, LENNDEVOURS.com.

That a storm hit Long Island this past weekend is news to no one. Many Long Islanders lost power (I was fortunate and did not), lost trees, and sustained property damage.

While everyone was out cleaning up the mess, what was I doing? What I always do after a storm…taking pictures.

Most of my shots are the same old boring storm pix; trees down, etc… but this one I like.

It’s a dramatic image of the Great South Bay looking west in late afternoon sunshine. You can see the Robert Moses Bridge, and the water tower on Fire Island. What you can’t see is how hard the wind was blowing. I had a very difficult time opening my car door and the bay was kicked up into a spray. I love days like that.

In the Here’s-something-you-don’t-see-everyday department, I found a 1960’s era landing craft at the East Islip marina.

The picture above and the one below were taken just minutes apart. The difference in appearance is due to the direction of the camera. Above is looking west towards the sun. Below is looking east away from the sun.

From the looks of the water in this sheltered part of the marina you’d never know the wind was howling at 30+ knots.

Behind the boat is Heckscher State Park, one of Long Island‘s largest and most popular parks.

One of the nice things about living on Long Island is it’s easy to see nature in action. The coast is easily accessible and we have a larger number of parks and nature preserves, but sometimes all you have to do is step into your own backyard.

From my yard I’ve been watching the monarch butterflies make their way south for the winter. Although we’re nearing the end of their fall migration I’m still seeing plenty of hungry monarchs feeding on my flowers.

Long Island is directly under the monarch’s flight path as they head to Mexico, Texas and parts of Florida for the winter, so if you have flowers in your yard you’re bound to see the monarchs too.

I find them all over my Montauk daisies–sometimes half a dozen at once. My son, a commercial fisherman, has been seeing “swarms of them” fly over his boat on the Great South Bay.

It’s hard to believe, but these butterflies travel thousands of miles south every fall to roost in a warmer climate for the winter. In the spring they’ll make the trip back. Simply amazing for such delicate and simple creatures.

Nature watching is one of the great pleasures of living on Long Island and as anyone who knows me will attest, something I never grow tired of.

Why don’t you try it? Bundle up, grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage, and sit quietly in a corner of your yard for a while. I promise you’ll see things you’ve never noticed before.

My son, Joe and I took advantage of Sunday’s beautiful weather with a quiet sail on Long Island’s Great South Bay.

The wind was light, so we just ghosted along soaking up the late season sun on what was very likely our last sail of the year.

That we are surrounded by salt water is one of the things I love about Long Island.

Even though winter is coming, I won’t stay away from the shore. I just can’t go for very long without hearing, seeing and smelling the sea.

There will be frequent visits to the boatyard and the beach. I’ll daydream my way through a cup of 7-11 coffee, recalling summers past and planning next season’s adventures.

A nearly empty ferry returns from Fire Island with Robert Moses Bridge and water tower in the distant haze.

A sure sign the sailing season is over.

Although not officially over yet, for all practical purposes summer is history.

The cool evenings hint at the coming seasons of frost and festivities and I find my thoughts turning from boat and beach to heart and hearth. Even my taste buds have noticed the changing season as I find less beer and more wine on my table.

As if to pry free my one last finger of a grip on summer, Ginny Clancy of the Stony Brook University Center for Wine, Food and Culture sent me her Fall schedule of Long Island food and wine classes.

These are excellent classes and I highly recommend them for anyone interested in Long Island wine, food and Long Island’s regional cuisine.

At $55 ($45 for two or more people, $40 for three or more classes) they are the most reasonably priced wine tasting classes you’ll find anywhere on Long Island.

Classes I’ve attended:

• Chef John Ross on Food, Wine and Integrity on the North Fork
• An Italian Heritage of Flavor
• From Aroma to Bouquet: How Wines Age
• Creating a Regional Cuisine – CoolFish

First class starts October 5th. Register early because they fill up fast!

It was reported in yesterday’s Newsday that Donald Trump and Steve Carl (of Carlyle on the Green in Bethpage) will be opening a new restaurant at Jones Beach to replace the old Boardwalk Restaurant which closed down years ago and was recently demolished.

Donald Trump on Long Island? I’m not sure I like the idea…

Pros:

Anything built by Trump is top notch. This won’t be a half-baked sham or under funded project.

Plans call for a 36,000-square-foot facility on 6 acres, which could handle groups up to 1,400 people. In addition to the restaurant the three story building will also house a nightclub.

According to Mr. Trump, “When it’s finished, there will be nothing like it anywhere in the world.” Of course…

The facility will be open year round and includes an outdoor dining facility for beachgoers.

Cons:

Probably not too much in the con section. Anything is better than what was there.

My only concern is that the facility will be “marketed towards an affluent clientele,” not the everyday guy like you and me. According to Trump and Carl however, it will be accessible to “those who aren’t Rockefellers.”

Is it just me or does that not sound encouraging?

Jones Beach was built for the masses and I think that tradition should be observed. To plop down a haven for the affluent in the middle of it seems just plain wrong.

Most Long Islanders work pretty darn hard for a living and places like Jones Beach offer a great escape from the week’s BS. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want when I’m relaxing is a reminder of how not rich I am.

Well, the place isn’t even built yet so maybe I’m overreacting. We’ll see.

Back on the Pro side, Donald Trump is against the LIPA proposed wind farm. Good man, Donald! Although he’s against it purely for aesthetic reasons I’m still glad he’s against it.

Tangent

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In my opinion the wind farm is a bad idea. It’s going to cost us a fortune to build and is not going to save us ratepayers a single cent.

Not only will it ruin the view all along Long Island’s south shore, but you’ll hear it as well. That’s right, the windmills make noise.

For a preview of how bad this is going to look check out these pictures on the LIPA Offshore Wind Park website. Click on each link below and when the picture opens scroll back and forth a dramatic panoramic view.

Jones Beach | Cedar Beach | Gilgo Beach | Robert Moses

Then read this eye opening article opposing the LIPA Wind Farm by Long Island resident, Richard Moore.

(Note: the links non longer work, so they were removed)

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Construction of Trump by the Ocean is scheduled to start this year with a completion date sometime in 2008.

Regardless of the targeted clientele, this project is a much needed improvement to Jones Beach. I just hope it’s not so pricey we can’t even afford an anniversary or birthday dinner.

Stony Brook University’s Center for Wine, Food, and Culture will host a weekend symposium, Sustaining The Good Life, on September 16 and 17 in Chancellor’s Hall at Stony Brook Southampton (formerly Southampton College).

Over 200 East End residents and weekend visitors are expected to attend the event, which will highlight the University’s planned curriculum focusing on sustainability: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The event runs from 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 16 and 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 17.

Long Island wine industry pioneer and Center Director Louisa Hargrave [author of The Vineyard] will preside over the two-day program.

Saturday morning will feature excursions aboard the University’s Marine Sciences Research Center’s vessels and hands-on discovery activities with Stony Brook marine scientists.

After a picnic lunch and welcome from Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny, the legendary environmentalist and author Peter Matthiessen [author of Men’s Lives] will give a keynote address titled Greed and Heritage.

Following the keynote address, regional farmers, fishermen, chefs, designers, educators, and preservationists will address East End sustainability issues in a series of panel discussions:

What Have We Got To Lose? The Resources that Make Life Good

What Role Do Education, Politics, And Culture Play? Taking Care of the Next Generation

How Can We Plan For The Future? A Visionary Prescription.

The day concludes with a Harvest Reception, a walkabout tasting hosted by 16 leading East End wineries and restaurants and accompanied by music provided by a Stony Brook University String Ensemble.

On Sunday afternoon, selected artisanal producers, farms, and wineries on the North and South Forks will participate in an exclusive tour, with special tastings for symposium participants.

Admission is open to the general public.

Saturday: Entire Day’s Activities: $75 per person (includes Harvest Reception)
Harvest Reception Only: $45 per person
East End Tour Only: $35 per person
Full Weekend Package includes both days at $100.00 per person.

Registration and payment are required for attendance.

Registered participants will be sent colored wristbands as proof of payment. Please register as early as possible, as space is limited, and note that the Center has a 48 hour pre-event cancellation policy.

Read more about Stony Brook University’s Center for Wine, Food, and Culture.

A friend of mine is planning his retirement. He’s looking at places in the Midwest. Ugh. I could never live so far from the ocean. I need the smell of the salt air, fresh fish, a place to sail my boat, and the sound of crashing surf.

I guess living on Long Island has spoiled me. I’ve spent my entire life on the water and I still can’t get enough of it. Take me away from the coast and I feel somewhat less than whole.

On my way to work this morning I noticed a beautiful full moon setting over Main Street. Six and a half minutes later I was on the shore of the Great South Bay taking pictures of it, and the rising sun.

Both of these pictures were taken at the same time.

The first picture is of the moon setting and was taken looking West towards Robert Moses Causeway.

The second picture was taken looking East towards Heckscher State Park.

It’s scenes like this that keep me in love with Long Island.

Looking West at 5:55am. The full moon sets over Long Island's Great South Bay. The barely visible lights are the Robert Moses Causeway leading to Fire Island.

An early morning glow envelopes Heckscher State Park while the Great South Bay, flat as a mirror, reflects lights at the East Islip Marina launching ramp.