Allan Appel Photo
“We’re going to dethrone the Monarch Kale. Elm City is going to become Broccoli City. We’re going to make broccoli the president of vegetables!”
Drew Morrison issued those defiant Presidents’ Day declarations at a press conference held Monday afternoon in the produce section of the Elm City Market on Chapel Street.
He and two fellow Yalies held the conference to launch a new campaign to pump up an underappreciated superfood: broccoli.
Organizers aim to have broccoli replace kale as the vegetable people reach for when they’re aiming for healthful eating.
Team Broccoli: Goff, Morrison, DiLeo.
A bunch of local businesses — Claire’s Corner Copia, Edge of the Woods, Atticus Cafe, Campus Customs, the Blossom Shop — have all agreed to offer special deals and hold events in the coming month to make broccoli a winner, and to make New Haven the city to show how to make that happen.
Morrison and fellow Yalies Monica DiLeo and Adam Goff convinced an ad agency Victors & Spoils to donate clever, smart-alecky designs to be used in ads to promote the campaign. Look for them on CT Transit buses and on I‑91. Victors & Spoils originally drew up the designs for this New York Times Magazine broccoli cover story, which inspired the Yale students to launch the New Haven campaign.
The students raised $2,000 prior to launching the campaign. They also created this website for it. They’re asking people to eat “fad-free.” Now they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise another $600.
Eaters declared the strawberry broccoli salad “delicious.”
Team Broccoli held its press event Monday in their Broclyn and Eat Fad-Free green and yellow T‑shirts. Elm City Market Marketing Manager Amy Christiansen had prepared a strawberry broccoli salad (strawberries, broccoli, cashew halves, red onion, Monterey Jack cheese) that local eaters all declared a hit.
The market will sell broccoli for only 99 cents a pound, half price, through Feb. 26, said Christiansen.
Calling broccoli the “alpha vegetable,” the campaign urges people to order a “bro-quet” from the Blossom Shop (203 – 782-1550).
Iris Elizabeth O’Neill fed broccoli to her new stuffed deer. Dad Ryan said he’ll be steaming it and serving it with fish tonight — the broccoli, not the deer.
Goff, who said that after graduation he might pursue a career in food or farming, will be keeping track of the success of broccoli and kale both through sales at the participating businesses and from measuring the hits on the social media sites.
Don’t miss Elm City Market’s kale-versus-broccoli cook-off March 7, to be held at the market as part of the Ninth Square and the Town Green Special Services District First Friday series. Special broccoli-inspired green confections will also be available at Atticus and at Claire’s, said the organizers.
