It’s 2015, or it will be in just a few hours from when we wrote this, and we at North-Forks wanted to thank everyone for their support and enthusiasm that defined our 2014.
The concept behind North-Forks came about in July 2014, just a few months ago. It took a few weeks to gestate and we found our concept and reason: We love visiting the wineries, breweries, and restaurants, and realized that this was our way to support them beyond being a customer. We love living on the North Fork and wanted to do our part to keep it beautiful. To paraphrase Juan E. Micieli-Martinez, winemaker at Martha Clara, “No one ever tears down a house or a condo to build a farm or a vineyard.”
On July 30th 2014, North-Forks was born with two posts: Welcome to North-Forks, and Why Grapes Hops and Plates?. We wanted to introduce ourselves, the “us” being North-Forks, and in telling our story, explain why we chose this labor of love.
In the beginning, we had a plan. In our free time (we both have real jobs), we would market our idea: Cheerleaders of the North Fork. Our sole purpose was to promote the breweries, restaurants, and wineries and their events and the only thing we asked in return was for them to promote the articles in which they were featured. We figured that within our first year we could start adding new features. After only a few weeks, however, Edible East End asked us to contribute content for their site, linking back to our original articles. Almost immediately, we discovered that we no longer needed to wait that year; it was time to expand our coverage.
We started a series called North Fork Celebrities. These are the people who make the food, wine, and beer that represent the North Fork. We wanted to ask them not just about what they do in their place of business, but to share how living on the North Fork adds to their life. We wanted to learn a little about the person operating in the background. Who Makes My Wine? Who Makes My Beer? Who Makes My Food? became the sub-categories for this series. We spoke with Miguel Martin of Palmer Vineyards as well at Matt and Lauri Spitz of Moustache Brewing Company.
For Wine Club of the Month, we wanted to interview wine club managers and give them an opportunity to talk about the benefits of membership and what separates them from everyone else. We spoke with Sparkling Pointe and the Hamptons Wine Club.
There have been some bumps in the road. Time is always a challenge. Getting the kinks out and learning what works best for the site takes time. In the coming year we have many more interviews planned, and we hope to have more businesses become part of the North-Forks family.
We especially want to thank to all those who supported us as we started this year:
Sparkling Pointe, Noah’s, Lieb, Martha Clara, North Fork Table, Palmer, The North Fork Food Truck, Baiting Hollow Farm, Touch of Venice, Harbes Family Vineyard, Noah’s On The Road, Moustache Brewing Company, Bistro 72, Belle Voci, Little Creek Oysters, Edible East End, our friends and family who “suffered” along on our research expeditions, and of course, all our readers, whether you first discovered the site today or have been back every week.
As 2015 begins, we look forward to a fantastic year ahead. Thank you for joining us on this journey so far. Please help spread the word.
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