Our Top 10 Moments from Provisions

Yesterday we celebrated the one year birthday of our Provisions shop. You might have noticed that we’ve been exuberantly sharing cake, giving gifts, and popping Champagne for days now.

While the party has been fun, we wanted to take a minute to reflect on the past year and share some of the best moments. Here are our top 10 Provisions highlights, from oh my word we actually did it to pinch us, we get to design lobster bibs for a living.

 

1. Our first Provisions purchase! This is our proudest moment of the past year, after all the work -- from the tech team to our office manager -- that made it happen.

2. Your stories and pictures top our list. Food52 has always been about our community. It’s important that everything we share helps make us better, happier cooks -- and nothing makes us happier than seeing our striped straws in your smoothies or our drink stirrers in your happy hour cocktails.

3. Highlighting the green Ball heritage jars: Beautiful, classic basics are what really motivated us to start our shop. These Ball jars have been around for decades, and we were excited to stock them in green and blue, and write about all the different ways to use them beyond canning.

4. Our R. Murphy collaboration: We’ve long admired this 200-year-old knife company, so it was a natural fit to collaborate with them. Our first design (reclaimed wood carbon steel knives) was such a success that we went on to craft our very own everyday steak knives, combining our cooking background and R. Murphy’s metal skills.

5. Holidays and the Creekside Farms wreath: Holidays were a whirlwind, and we learned a lot. One highlight? Finding Creekside Farms’ wreaths -- a nontraditional version of a holiday essential that helped us think beyond the kitchen. It wasn't a sure thing -- initially we decided against it, thinking it wouldn't sell since it wasn't a classic design. But we took a risk, tried it out, and it has consistently topped our best-sellers list -- proving that we should keep pushing our boundaries (and also, that you all really love wreaths!).

  

6. Designing the lobster bibs: Yes, we love lobster, whether in a buttered roll or steamed whole. But we didn’t love plastic lobster bibs, so we designed our own with the help of Dot & Army. The original sketch was inspired by the cloth bibs that Merrill’s mother made for their whole family, which they use every summer in Maine. We trimmed ours with seersucker, because we’re fancy.

7. Sourcing the Malfatti Prosecco glasses: These Italian Prosecco glasses are handblown using a centuries-old glassblowing technique. They’re on our own wishlist as the perfect match for formal and casual entertaining. Featuring a wavering, imperfect edge, they're a great example of rethinking an everyday item -- because life isn’t all clean lines and smooth edges.

  

8. Uncovering vintage items: We’ve worked with several incredible merchants who source vintage pieces, like copper fish kettles and one-of-a-kind cake servers. They make every kitchen stand out -- and they tell a story. Amanda loves giving gifts that have “a chance at heirloom-dom,” and vintage pieces do just that.

9. Launching the compost bin: As cooks, at the end of the day we really just want a clean, organized kitchen. Finding this walnut compost bin hit home that useful, practical things like compost bins and fruit baskets don't have to look dull. Cliff Spencer, the maker, made us want to display our compost right next to our prettiest dishes on the counter, and that's an achievement.

10. The Rock, Paper, Scissors collection: One of our earliest collections was also one of our favorites. We came up with a lot of creative and unusual concepts for collections, but this one stood out because it was quirky but also full of useful and uncommon items for our kitchens. We struggled to find the right products to fit -- testament to the stumbling blocks every new project encounters -- but it eventually came together and featured some best-sellers, like these heirloom brass-handled scissors and this slate cheese board.

So thank you to you all -- and happy birthday to us!

Photos by James Ransom