Wen-Jay Ying Invites New Yorkers to Reconnect with Food at Local Roots Cafe
Local Roots
By Annie Burky
It is mid-March, the weather is waffling between winter and spring, the sky bringing a dreary mix of snow, sleet and rain. At a time when traditional community-sourced agriculture programs would be shuttering their doors and waiting for the sun, Local Roots marches on.
Through a partnership with 36 farms and purveyors within a five-hour radius of NYC, Local Roots’ Harvest Club provides a mix of fruits, veggies, and animal products year-round. The late winter brings the bounty of red onions, golden potatoes, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, galarina apples, garlic seitan, and Delmonico steak. What is picked up weekly by subscribers is a curated cornucopia with loose recipes to invite member creativity in the kitchen. Subscriptions start at $6.24 weekly for local cow milk and extend to $91.62 for “the works.”
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“Local roots is my love letter for New York,” said Owner and Founder Wen-Jay Ying. “There was a time in 2011 when it was really hard to access good food. It’s a city of abundance, yet what’s most important is the hardest to access.”
At the time, Wen-Jay saw a small demographic of people being able to afford healthy food. All other New Yorkers were relegated to bodegas and convenience stores for what was at the time, less than stellar produce and in turn, experiencing health issues. So instead of the vicious cycle of food swamps, she decided to create what she calls a virtuous cycle of emotional and physical comfort within a food community.
It has now been almost 11 years since she started growing the modern CSA. She said the move was partially molded after the community she found in New York’s underground music scene. Seeing the stark contrast between the lack of affordable, nutritious food opinions within the boroughs and the edens just outside, she decided to bring the two together.
“When I first got introduced to CSAs, I was amazed at how people can come together in New York City over this love of food, telling your story through food, bringing people together culturally through food,” Wen-Jay said. “My first time going on a farm was amazing because of the connection to nature and you see how hard these farmers work and how passionate they are.”
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Seven months ago after finding the ideal brick and mortar, Wen-Jay expanded the project into a cafe. Cozied into Carroll Gardens at 398 Court St, Local Roots Market and Cafe includes a small market, an open kitchen, and a backyard just begging to host a small summer wedding.
The cafe follows the same principles of the Harvest Club by bringing healthy, in-season food to New Yorkers. Upon entering on a cold March night, the staff informed us that the cafe technically closes at 3 p.m. (three hours earlier) but they would love to scrounge something up for us. The jack of all trades staff whipped up traditionally minded but New York adapted scallion pancakes and mapo tofu with black sticky rice. Wen-Jay said these menu items found their advent at the confluence of sustainability and the comfort food of her childhood.
The mapo tofu’s mushrooms are sourced from a local year-round purveyor. The sticky rice is also used in the shop’s popular fan tuan rice rolls to reduce food waste. Traditional Chinese tea eggs are from local chickens. Bread rise in nearby bakeries. All are inspired by the food she was raised on.
“There’s a ritual and emotion in making food, those rituals, the sound of cutting up scallions, of holding tofu in your hands, my ancestors get to experience that through me,” Wen-Jay said. “Food really connects you with everything, it connects you with the land, your community, yourself.”
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