Foodie Tour Speakers

Chris Pinto – Feisty Acres Farm – Southold
The Joys and Challenges of Raising Specialty Poultry

Feisty Acres raises quail, French guinea fowl, chukar partridge, silkie chickens, and heritage breed ducks, chickens and turkeys all on North Fork pastures, and markets them directly to buyers.  The farm prides itself in offering the highest quality, best tasting game birds and eggs that you can get, well, anywhere.   In addition, Feisty Acres runs a bobwhite quail release program with the intention of helping to re-invigorate the native population of Northern Bobwhite Quail.

Ursula Sala-Illa, who prefers to be known as Ursula XVII (Disset = 17 in Catalan), is  a passionate chocolatier who has trained with world renowned pastry chefs while working at several Michelin starred restaurants and shops in Europe and the United State.  She uses extracts and essences from products grown on the North Fork to flavor her exquisite bonbons.

The Ark of Taste is an initiative of the Slow Food Movement to save heirloom foods that are at risk of extinction.   Ark of Taste works to keep these foods in production and on our plates.  Farmer Mimi Edelman of Orient, who works with the Ark of Taste, will talk about this exciting program and the work that Slow Food is doing to identify and champion these foods.

Master Beekeeper Chris Kelly, a Cornell trained entomologist with a specialty in apiculture, has run Promise Land Apiaries, a sustainably managed bee operation located on the North Fork of Long Island, for the past 30 years.  They currently have over 100 beehives with hand-raised Long Island survivor stock queens and they manage an additional 100 colonies for clients across Long Island.  This translates to approximately 10 million bees spread out over roughly a hundred-mile radius, managed as sustainable survivor stock, kept free from the diseases which have been decimating bee populations throughout the world.

Peter Stein – Peeko Oysters – New Suffolk
The Rewards and Perils of Growing Oysters and a Business

After years in the corporate life, Peter Stein traded desks for docks and founded Peeko Oysters in 2016.  Since then he’s never looked back, guiding the business through high season summers and global pandemics alike. A native New Yorker and avid fisherman, Stein’s lifelong love of the North Fork imbues his work from tide to table, which makes eating and learning about Peekos a true treat.  Peeko Oysters are grown in Little Peconic Bay.  You can find them on the best menus of some of the top restaurants in Manhattan and Long Island or buy them directly at their dockside shop in New Suffolk.