Local independent shops « boston localvores

Local independent shops

The Sherman Market is actually open.

matt This is our friend Matt. He works there. You may remember him from such roles as cheese guy at Formaggio Kitchen. Or sandwich guy at City Feed+Supply. He is pictured here next to honey bears because “people love the shit out of them.” He’s also holding the lamb chops we bought there from Signal Rock Farm (Charlton, Mass.) Go in and say hello to him sometime soon.

The market just opened a couple of weeks ago — and a few months after we first starting hearing about its imminent arrival. This is exciting for several reasons, not the least of which is: it represents the first market on this side of the river that is committed to selling exclusively local, sustainable produce, meat, cheese (and a few other things, like chips and soap). Some of the highlights: meat from Hardwick Beef and several lamb cuts from Signal Rock; Fiore di Nonno mozzarella and a very respectable variety of aged cheeses from around New England; and, this is especially brilliant, single sprigs of fresh herbs from various local farms — 25 cents each, with no unnecessary plastic wrapping.

The space is still looking a bit spare, but please pardon that and visit anyway. Surely it is a complicated and risky business model to sell food that is priced to reflect the actual cost of production and a livable wage for the people who made it possible. Which is to say, if it matters to you to have a store like this around, you’d better be an active and regular patron.

Local independent shops — No Comments
14
May 09

Local Dinosaur Egg + Grain CSA

All we had to do was travel a couple hours outside of Boston to discover these treats!

First, the photo: this is an emu egg, from Songline Emu Farm in Gill, Ma, a tiny town on Route 2, just outside of the gay paradise of Northampton, where these two gays had weekended. This baby was just sitting out in the produce section of the Northampton Coop. Some fun facts about emu eggs include:

You need a drill to get at it.

You should whip it as though to scramble it, but then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze to use like individual eggs later.

It’s about the equivalent of 20 chicken eggs.

That’s Kristi’s hand holding it. She doesn’t have big hands, but she is close to 6′ tall, if that helps at all with perspective on that puppy.

$20 per egg.

A couple of bakeries in the valley out west there are growing their own grain, and encouraging their customers to do the same by tearing up their lawns and replacing it with wheat fields. They’re also baking with locally produced grains — not wheat yet, but rye, spelt and oats.

Meanwhile Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain s, a CSA project of Wheatberry Bakery in Amherst, is sold out. They’re growing amaranth, peas, quinoa, wheat, spelt & rye. Did anyone else see that PBS series Colonial House? If I could get me hands on some peas, I could make peas porridge and other sticky, hearty colonial fare like the lovely ladies of Colonial House.

Community / Local independent shops — 1 Comment
12
Jan 09

A few dolla dolla bills for buying local

Hey look here!

If you didn’t click on that, it’s a link to a brief in the Globe about the Boston Community Change program. And the Boston Community Change program is a little incentive you, the Boston area resident, can take advantage of when you buy stuff (food or other sundries) at locally-owned businesses.

Very basically:

Go to this web site. Sign up for a Community Change card. Pick your favorite charity.
They’ll send it to your house.
Buy something with your debit/credit card at one of these stores in Boston. (Others are being added all the time.) While you’re there, make sure they swipe your Community Change card, too.
A few weeks later, you’ll get a rebate on your debit/credit card for that purchase. Maybe 5 or 10 percent. It varies everywhere. That charity that you picked, they’ll get the same amount in a donation.

Local independent shops / Meals — No Comments
4
Jun 08

A spectacularly amazing local summer meal

Three hours ago, a firetruck raced down our quiet street in Cambridgeville and I was sure it was because we had frightened the neighborhood while trying to make our grill, Smokey Joe, do magic tricks. The truck flew past our house however and we proceeded with our simple + sustainable feast. Several (local) beers later, I would like to enumerate the beauty.

1) Sweet Italian sausage from Lionette’s (in honor of Mr Gary Smith). Forgive the raw footage above. The pig comes from Ferrisburg, Vt, each week. The brave men at Lionette’s butcher the beast and make the sausage on site. It is like no sausage you have ever tasted. Price: $7ish for three.

2) Asparagus — our first of the season! — also from Lionette’s, but by way of a farm in Massachusetts, possibly Atlas in Deerfield. If you have never experienced young asparagus with a carcinogenic accent layer (aka grilled), it is important that you do someday soon. $5.50 / enough spears to serve three.

3) Ipswich Ale, original, from, of course, Ipswich, a wee nook on the North Shore. Bitter, pleasantly hoppy. Purchased at the United Market on Brookline + Putnam, our grocer around the corner. Ipswich Ale, you probably know, can be purchased in many places less special than the United Market and will be featured in our forthcoming pages on local brews e vinos. $9 for a sixer.

4) Strawberries. Darry picked these up at Lionette’s too. She thinks they were from CT, but can’t remember. We ate them plain and with our fingers for dessert, and herein lies a segue to plug the Strawberry Dessert Festival, an event from June 14-29th. Participating restaurants will serve local strawberry desserts + dishes that week and donate money to the Farmers’ Market federation. $4.25 for a pint.

Under $30, we ate, we fed our friend Rachael, we got reasonably tipsy and the coal is still burning.

Local independent shops / Milk — No Comments
14
May 08

Cupcakes + local milk in Somerville

A few days ago, when it used to be spring, Darry and I were having a pleasant stroll through our old hood, Davis Sq., and, specifically to Kickass Cupcakes.

#1 | If you have not yet been to kickass cupcakes, get on the red line and go there immediately. I recommend the mojito, though the classic vanilla on chocolate is rather spectacular too.

#2 | AND HERE IS THE SURPRISE! Next door and adjoined to Kickass Cupcakes is … *The Dairy Bar.* It had just opened the day (10 May 08) we were there: A wee little, spartan kind of space that sells, ahem, dairy products — milk, butter, ice cream.

But the really wonderful feature is that The Dairy Bar seemed packed with lots of local stuff, including Shaw Farm milk, which comes from Dracut, Mass.