Farmers markets

Bulk / Citrus / Farmers markets / Meat / Preserving+canning — 7 Comments
17
Jan 10

Eating locally in winter: It’s just not that hard. In fact, it’s possibly easier than eating locally in spring and early summer

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Kristi went to the Winter Farmer’s Market in Wayland yesterday. This is what it looks like there, in mid-January. An abundance of food, not just of the root variety, but fresh and green and vibrant, as well.

Sometimes in the spring and early summer, when the markets start up and the CSA starts rolling in, I experience this guilty sensation. I want to just dive into full-on local eating, but you can’t really eat greens, garlic scapes and strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s just not enough calories.

The nice thing about the deep winter is that you can count some serious local calories to be the backbone of a meal. Like potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, beets, turnips, kohlrabi. Then fresh and green things are welcome additions.

So I have a bone to pick with consumers and with farmers/infrastructure builders. Consumers: it is not difficult to buy 50lbs of potatoes (for example) and tuck them away in a reasonably potato-friendly spot in your home. Farmers/People with Resources and Power: It would be even better if YOU invested in root cellars and stored the food for us. Then we could be sure that our carrots and onions were well preserved. And we could get our asses out to you, or you could get our turnips to us here in the city. [Mental blip: Perhaps we need municipal root cellars.]

Last bit of this for everyone: It’s not hard to eat locally and well in the winter. With events like the Wayland Farmer’s Market, it doesn’t even require the advance planning or upfront capital of a winter CSA.

Events / Farmers markets — 1 Comment
9
Jan 10

Woh: Another winter farmer’s market


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Just got notice of this from David Scanlan in North Attleborough: On Sundays from Jan. 10 to March 28, with the exception of Feb. 14, they’ll be hosting a winter market at Attleboro Farms. (We also found the variation of Attleboro and North Attleborough disconcerting.) From noon to 4 — and there’s more info about what vendors will be there on their Facebook page.

Farmers markets — 3 Comments
30
Dec 09

Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market

Last winter we made a bunch of noise and said we would organize a winter farmers’ market for the Boston area. Well, just to be clear, they are no small feat and require at least a year’s worth of planning (farmers, after all, plan their crops at least a year in advance). So hats off to Peg Mallett for getting this off the ground.

Saturdays, 10 am - 1 pm, January 16 - February 27, Russell’s Garden Center, Route 20, Wayland.

And here is a partial list of vendors:

Bola Granola Crunchy almond granola
Dragonfly Longarm Quilting Quilts & finishing services
E & T Farms Lettuce mixes, honey, beeswax products
Fairweather Farm Vegetables
Gay Grace Tea Tea and baked goods
Giovanna Gelato Gelato and sorbet
Great Harvest Bread Delicious breads
Healthy Habits Kitchen Healthy, fast, affordable meals
Karma Coffee Locally roasted, fair trade coffee
Moonbrine Pickles Dill or hot pickles, pickle t-shirts
Mr. Tarzan Raw milk, lamb, veal & yogurt
North Brook Alpaca Alpaca yarn & yarn garments
North Star Farm Mixed greens, radishes, carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, fresh mozzarella, pasta/ravioli
Red Fire Farm Kale, collards, parsnips, celeriac, rutabagas, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cilantro, rosemary, onions, shallots and more
Samira’s Homemade Authentic Egyptian & Lebanese food
Silverbrook Farm Jams, jelly & honey
Springdell Farm All natural grass-fed Black Angus Beef, Our own honey, naturally raised pork, eggs and yarn from our own sheep, apples, potatoes and winter squash
Warren Farm Pure maple syrup & maple products
Winter Moon Farm of Hadley Organic carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, radishes


				

				
				

			


				
		

				Farmers markets /  Updates —   No Comments

			    21
Oct 09 
				
Attention, Cambridge shoppers


				

					
There is a pretty good deal to be had on garlic from Grateful Farms at the Saturday Cambridgeport Farmer’s Market.


The price for up to three indivdual heads is standard - $1.50 or something. But the price is $8 a pound if you buy three or more heads. Which brings the per head cost down to about 75 cents. Or half what the going rate is on local, organic garlic.


The market wasn’t there last week because of some pompous regatta, but it resumes this week and will be there only one more after that. Stock up!

				

				
				

			


				
		

				Farmers markets —   No Comments

			    19
Nov 08 
				
A Winter Farmers Market! Praise the Lord!


				

					
A few announcements and some armchair philosophy:


Kate Stillman wrote to us to say that they’re going to keep selling, farmers’ market style, in Jamaica Plain all winter (in the Bank of America parking lot, off Centre Street). Finally! Thank you Stillman’s Farm! We’ve been absolutely mystified as to why this year-round farmers’ market concept has so little traction here in Boston. Here’s what she says:


“Our farm is hoping to make a go of it all winter at the Jamaica Plain Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from noon-3pm.  We’ll be there with seasonal produce until it runs out and then we’ll be there with our meats and poultry as well as eggs.  Also, joining us are some folks with great local honey.  We always stay at the market until Thanksgiving, but the demand from folks has been so strong that we thought we would give it a try, especially since we have to be there anyways distributing our meat CSA shares (still taking memberships for Jan if any one is interested).  The hope is that it catches on and we can slowly start to create some winter or year round markets!”


I’ve heard that the mark of a great idea is that it seems so obvious when someone takes off with it. Like the chocolate chip cookie. Or the guy at In Season who is taking orders, picking up food from farms and delivering it to people like me and Kristi in Cambridge (just this morning we woke up to fig burrata, handmade raviolis, eggs and milk on our doorstep - all local).


Stillman’s farm produce is lovely, of course, but if there is a reason to shake off a hangover on a Saturday morning this winter and drag yourself to JP before 3 p.m. it’s this: beef. This is the pinnacle of the grass-fed beef-maker’s craft. I defy any of you to buy some of their ground beef (on election night we ate burgers on brioche buns; highly recommended) and not find yourself in a conversation with your checkbook a few days later, justifying another $9/lb beef-a-palooza. Also, go for the eggs. Buy several dozen at a time, if you can’t get there every week. Fresh eggs will keep for a long time and together — yes we can!– we will bring the egg industrial complex to its knees. (Picture businessmen in suits with genetically modified breast meat so heavy they topple and break their own legs. That’s how I want to see them get to their knees).


Also, Wednesday night is an event hosted by Somerville Local First. We’ll be there. The invite says a lot about Kickass Cupcakes and local beer. It also says you need to RSVP to get in, so if you’re hot to trot, maybe write to Joe, the organizer: somervillelocalfirst@gmail.com.


Lastly, we have a TON of celeriac. How do you all prepare it? I saw something nice in Saveur about mashing and whipping it with potatoes. Ideas? Suggestions?


 

				

				
				

			


				
		

				Farmers markets —   1 Comment

			    22
Aug 08 
				
The Revere Beach Farmers’ Market


				

					
Anyone familiar with the Revere Beach of yore, the Revere Beach of my childhood, circa 1980s/early 90s, would experience the same incredulity and thrill as I did yesterday, upon plucking four perfect ears of corn from a farmers’ market stand there. It was as though the fraternal twins of illusion — reality and nostalgia — had conflated and swapped identities: I was staring at a twinkly sea with a smooth shore, no longer scarred by expired syringes and every kind of Plastic Packaging Known to Man. All around me, cheery shoppers browsed aloud with a locution indicating they had not traveled far to get there (”hi honey how are yas, these peppas are beautiful but they give me agita”).


As a Revere native, as the daughter of two Revere natives, and a granddaughter of one Nana Ceccarossi who still lives today on American Legion Highway in a house with a front yard that has been completely replaced with a paved, concrete piazza kind of thing, I would like to invite you all to go visit the Thursday (12-6) farmers’ market on Revere Beach. It is indeed a wonderful thing, and not very much like the blissful and bustling middle / upper-middle class shopping affairs that we conjure when we think of farmers’ markets elsewhere. Or I conjure anyway.


Here is what you can find there:

-A stand with what appears to be fresh caught oysters and small lobster — does anyone know anything about this?

-Farmer Dave’s lush veggie display

-Another lush veggie display from a farm whose name I can’t recall

-Baked goods

-Vinny’s Italian food…not a local thing to be found at his table, but I suspect he was strategically placed to lure the non-traditional farmers’ market shopper. A nice lookin olive bar all the same

-And curiously, more advertisement for the WIC program, as it can be used at a market, than I have ever seen. In fact, yesterday, there was a table set up where you could pick up a free tote with the WIC logo on it

-Salty air, a lovely view, voracious seagulls somehow amazingly kept at bay

-Real live people who grew up and still live on the North Shore

-An excuse to ride the Blue Line nearly all the way to Wonderland — the Revere Beach T stop is across the boulevard from the market stands.

				

				
				

			


				
		

				Bulk /  Farmers markets —   7 Comments

			    28
Jul 08 
				
Zucchini straight talk express


				

					
The hour of the zucchini is upon us, people.


But let us speak frankly about zucchini and summer squash here, among friends, alright? No stupid jokes about locking your car and no apocryphal crap about country-folk stuffing them in neighbors’ mailboxes.


OK. We don’t actually do a lot of different things with zukes. The reason is this: chop up a bunch of garlic (also available fresh right now), saute in oil, add zucchini slices, saute a bit more, add soy sauce or tamari, saute a bit more, eat. It’s so good. They say mice faced with cocaine or zucchini cooked with garlic and soy choose the latter every time.


Here are a couple of secrets, from someone who has ushered a lot of zucchini prepared this way down the hatch:


* Saute the garlic on medium heat initially, and only for a moment or two. It has plenty more time to cook during phases two and three.

* Slice the zuke thin. They soak up more soy that way.

* Increase the heat when the zucchini go in the pan. This will give some of the garlic a bit of a crispy, roasted feel and allow the soy to evaporate quickly when it goes in. This prevents issues of sogginess.

* When the soy hits the pan, move the zuke around quickly so no one piece sits too long and most receive an even coating.

* Less is more on the soy. It will need a bit of pepper but definately no salt.


Also, folks, zucchini bread exists for a reason. The sad reality is that it never seems to call for enough zucchini to actually put a dent in it when it stockpiles in the fridge. But even so, it’s one of those dry ingredients + wet ingredients thrown together and voila. I found a recipe on www.smittenkitchen.com that i halved successfully last week. We ate it for dessert and breakfast.


Lastly, tonight we did neither of these things, but instead made a simple supper with plainly sauteed zukes and summer squash from last week’s CSA share (oil + salt + pepper + garlic), and threw them on top of an omlette with eggs from Misty Brook farm and Cabot cheese. Oh, and today we were in Northampton (our old stomping ground) and we ate lunch at the one and only La Vera Cruzana, where I stole 3 little plastic containers of salsa. That went all over it well.

				

				
				

			


				
		

				Farmers markets /  Fruit /  Meals —   2 Comments

			    21
Jun 08 
				
Saturday in Union Sq | CSA shares still open


				

					
Our day began at the Growing Center* — a wee sweet spot on Vinyl St just outside the happening-place-even-in-the-face-of-a-public-works-disaster that is Union Sq. We go to the Growing Center every couple of weeks to use their compost bins. Here, at home, instead of throwing our food waste in the trash, we save it up in plastic bags in the freezer until they get unwieldy. I really want to start a worm bin in the basement instead, but this scares Darry a little and so I haven’t pushed it. If anyone reading this is interested in giving me some worm guidance on the DL, please write!


IMPORTANT THINGS we learned from Lisa at the Growing Center: they are selling pepper and tomato starter plants RIGHT NOW! Go there and buy them, please, and your money will be used by a very lovely cause.


Also, Farmer Dave is STILL selling a few more CSA shares for his East Somerville pick-up (every Wednesday). The shares don’t start until July 2, so if you join now, you haven’t missed any. Farmer Dave is in Dracut and he has a unique + cool feature with his shares — you can choose your own flavor of veggies: New England, Brazilian and Central American.


We also visited the Union Sq farmers’ market for more strawberries and sugar snap peas ($5.25 total). This is the only one I’ve been to in the Bostonish area that always features live music. It’s also the only one that is set up sort of the middle of a really ugly snarl of traffic, but in spite of that, it’s quite a lively and rather youngish crowd. Stillman’s is there with meat; Drumlin Farm is there with lots and lots of veggies; and something called B&R bread is there with delicious-looking stuff. Alas, we were low on cash and couldn’t sample the goods. If you’re familiar with it, do tell.


And now, I gotta eat lunch. Bread from Hi-Rise, cheese from Cabot, and a salad: spinach and kohlrabi from our CSA share, strawbs and peas from the market today. Painfully earnest, completely yummy.


*The Growing Center is on a generous (by city standards) piece of property that used to have part of the old middle school on it. After lots of political maneuvering by hearty volunteers about 10 years ago, it was preserved as open space and even as a sort of garden. City kids cultivate it with the help of city adults who make my heartache for southern Vt or western Mass not so achey. They have an open house every Saturday morning, if you are curious. They also have lots of family-style events over the summer.

				

				
				

			


				
		

				Cheese /  Dairy /  Farmers markets —   No Comments

			    5
Jun 08 
				
Davis Square Farmer’s Market: Heavy Rain


				

					
Pictured here is Liam Madden, Iraq Veterans Against the War superman, Boston Localvore par excellence, dude in need of a raincoat on this, the second day of the Davis Square Farmers’ Market. Liam is my little brother and a mozzarella salesman on his summer break from college. He’s shilling Fiore di Nonno cheese for Lourdes Smith.


A bunch of markets kicked off this week including those in Copley and Central Squares. For those of you up in the Davis Square neck of the woods, you have it good. It’s Wednesdays from 12 to 6 and they have all the goods when the season is in full swing. Beef, bread, chocolate, cow’s milk mozzarella and chevre and all the usual produce suspects PLUS, in the fall, this guy comes in on the sly and sells the most exquisite Wellfleet oysters for a song. (He’s not *technically* supposed to for some bullshit red tape reason, but we salute his doing so. Subverting the corporate industrial food complex is kind of our middle name).


After seeing Liam soaked to the bone with three hours to go, I walked over to the Goodwill and purchased a couple of sweatshirt-y numbers for him. If you see him at any subsequent markets, a couple things to keep in mind are A). That cheese has a narcotic quality in the best possible way (also it’s cheaper at the market than at the retail locations — $5). B). Liam has an amazing recipe for spicy homemade whole grain mustard that you could ask for, then make yourself, C). He was a Marine Corps Sargeant, so don’t try any funny business. D) He’s really bright and outgoing and has a few opinions about U.S. foreign policy that let’s just say we here at BostonLocalvores.org agree with.


Somervillians: Union Square market this Saturday, 9 am to 1 pm.