Tea at Trianon: The Empire of Anya Fernald

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, January 5, 2013

The Empire of Anya Fernald

Food & Wine magazine reports on an entrepreneur who wants to turn the organic food trend into a way of life for more than just a few.

This kind of grass-pastured, organic beef—as well as Belcampo’s pork, chicken, lamb, rabbit and squab—isn’t cheap. To meet the quality that Fernald demands, Belcampo owns every step of the process, including the grain farm and slaughterhouse. (To build this empire, she also has an investor, like-minded food lover and Wall Street veteran Todd Robinson.) But Belcampo’s ultimate aim is to lure more capital into sustainable food, to help those “brokavores” make money, too. “There’s no guarantee any of this will pencil out,” she says. “But what’s magical for me is that if we can make it work, then there will be a lot more capital for a lot more people. It will open up doors for everybody.” (Read entire article.)