May | 2019 | Jenn Hall

Edible Jersey: When We Gather – Preserving Family Time at Savoie Organic Farm

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

Farm life evokes romantic visions: Tractor rides at dusk. Landscapes in the saturated tones of summer produce. A breeze always rustling the grasses. The reality? Well, that’s a bit different. Farming is sun-up, sun-down work. Everything is grit and grind, the kind that gets under the fingernails. Carving time for anything other than seeding, weeding, harvesting and marketing is a victory. Still, it makes one philosophical about the things that count: food, family, living a healthy life—and when you get […]

Categories: food & drink, when we gather

Jersey’s Best: Made in Jersey – Connection to the sea inspires artist’s nautical creations

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

We tend to see barrier islands as constant — stationary across bridges — and beckoning the swimsuit-clad masses come summertime. Yet, as with certain creative souls, the nature of a barrier island is to drift. Turn back the clock 20,000 years, and the Barnegat Peninsula on which Lavallette sits lived farther out at sea, near the continental shelf, said jewelry artist, metalsmith and former environmental scientist Jen O’Reilly. “As sea levels rise through melting glaciers, a barrier island’s nature is to retreat […]

Categories: artists, on the water • Tags: oysters

Edible Jersey: Red Bank Road Trip

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

When I was a kid, our first family dog was Molly, a wire-haired terrier mutt with a vague resemblance to a Gremlin and the countenance of an estate heiress. Her namesake was the Molly Pitcher Inn, the 20s-era banquet hotel perched on the banks of the Navesink River and known for its decadent brunches. At the Molly, my single mom waited tables to support my sister and me. I remember her gorgeous as she left for work in a crisp, […]

Categories: food & drink, travel

F-I-N-E Fine (flash fiction)

May 4, 2019 by jennhallwrites

I need to get this computer off me, she says. I can’t tell if I’m sick or depressed. Depressed is sick, I tell her, but she says there’s a difference. She would know. Her mom, and her mom’s mom, and the moms before them, all swirled out into that inaccessible distance. One killed herself. One got committed and clothed in a buttermilk dress. The rest toiled on amid children and husbands, saying everything’s F-I-N-E fine. They repeat it like a […]

Categories: fiction

Jenn Hall

2019 Best American Food Writing Notable.

Monthly Archives: May 2019

Edible Jersey: When We Gather – Preserving Family Time at Savoie Organic Farm

Jersey’s Best: Made in Jersey – Connection to the sea inspires artist’s nautical creations

Edible Jersey: Red Bank Road Trip

F-I-N-E Fine (flash fiction)