Riverhead farm produce featured at auction

Brian Gajeski's 120-acre Riverhead farm has known four generations of produce growers.

Gajeski, 35, said he and his family raise "a little bit of everything," from lettuces to onions to peppers at Gajeski Produce. Black cherry tomatoes are his prize produce this season, and Gajeski drives them and other crops to farmers markets several times a week around Long Island, Westchester and New York City.

A Sotheby's auction house event Tuesday aims to promote the work of Gajeski and other local farmers, highlighting the farm-to-table relationship and raising funds for farming education programs for youth.

The second annual Art of Farming dinner and auction will sell crates of locally grown heirloom vegetables for $1,000 each, with the produce going to New York City community food programs and the funds going toward youth initiatives at nonprofits GrowNYC and the Sylvia Center at Katchkie Farm in upstate Kinderhook.

"It's the perfect metaphor, the art of farming," said Liz Neumark, an event organizer and chief executive of the organic Katchkie Farm. "Instead of the heirlooms being a silver set or beautiful paintings, it's seeds."

Gajeski is one of about two dozen farmers contributing produce to the event. "It's important to know your farmers firsthand, what we're growing and everything," he said. "It's important to know where your food is coming from."

The night's meals will be prepared with locally grown ingredients by about 20 prominent chefs, including Dan Kluger of Manhattan's ABC Kitchen.

The $500 event ticket includes access to the auction, which also puts up for bid summer farm internships for students, school field trips and celebrity chef dinners.

Last year's event raised more than $200,000. Organizers hope this year's will be a similar success, especially in light of the damage Tropical Storm Irene did to some local farms.

"The timing is perfect given how much farms were impacted here. They need New York supporting them more than ever," said Amanda Gentile, spokeswoman for GrowNYC, which is collecting storm relief donations separate from the Sotheby's event.

From the farmers growing the produce to the city residents consuming it to the young people learning how to sustain the balance, the event is meant to emphasize community and interdependency, Neumark said.

"It's great to do an event that introduced farmers to their customers. The food chain can be convoluted, what goes from fields to grocery stores," she said. "Introducing the groups to each other, that was the idea of the Art of Farming, that we would utilize the fruits of their labor."