Winter CSA shares

2 September 2008 – 12:29 am

Last year, we handled winter eating thusly: On her way down for a visit in November, my mom picked up a 50 pound sack of potatoes and a 30 pound sack of onions from Harlow Farm in Westminster, Vt. Not exactly unsustainable — she was going by it anyway — but not exactly helpful for you in Boston, either. We also were spending a lot of time in Vermont, where Kristi had commandeered a renegade newspaper, so we’d stop at the Brattleboro Coop and buy bags of Pete’s Greens mixed root vegetables. I think some apples and squashes lasted into the cold. Other than that, all I remember eating is cheese.

This year, we are going to buy a winter CSA share. The only one we know of at the moment is Gretta Anderson’s at her Belmont CSA. She collaborates with a couple of other farms to bring members about 35 pounds of produce per month for about 3 months, but winter CSAs are not unheard of by any means (Drumlin farm, out in Lincoln, has one too, for those of you out that way.) It’s a lot of stuff that keeps really well. Think butternut squashes, onions, cabbages, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets and sweet potatoes. 

You can read more about it here, on Gretta’s blog. 

I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, but I truly believe that human beings are designed to eat these storage crops, roots, and preserved foods for part of the year and it’s a great conspiracy that has convinced us that “fresh” food all year long in the form of mealy Driscoll’s strawberries, etc., destroys health (also environment, economy, connection to earth, seasons, and ultimately oneself. But no one asked me).

Also, and perhaps this is *the* argument I should make and give up on the rant above — the stuff is good! It really is. We roast root vegetables in a big oily pile all the time, but always cut up to help expedite the cooking time. Do as I say, not as I do. Recently, after watching the irrepressibly shaggy Mr. Jamie Oliver on TV roast whole beets (and rip a whole head of garlic into bits with his bare, English paws), we gave it a try. We did beets, carrots and turnips, all whole. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All the beautiful, delicate flavors were preserved, enhanced. 

Anyway, check out the Belmont CSA blog for deets. A share is $225. You have to pick it up in Belmont, but once a month isn’t so bad, and it’s only for a few months.

By darry | Posted in CSA | Comments (4)

Local bender; you really ought to come

26 August 2008 – 12:35 am

 

This sweet puss is Bea (”Bay-uh”), our cat, modeling a bottle of Peoples Pint — the best thing happening in Greenfield, Mass — which we are trying very hard to include in our local beer fest: 

On the eve of Sept 13, a not-so-distant Saturday, we’ll be at the Muddy Charles Pub, alongside the MIT Food Initiative, to present you with a small but serviceable variety of brews from Massachusetts and surrounding states. (The roll call is forthcoming, once we settle a few things with distributors.) The idea is we will chat with you, relative strangers, passively learn about local beers, and actively taste them. 

Because it costs a bit to rent the Muddy and a bit more to purchase the beer, we’ll be asking for a small admission fee — $5. We wanna keep it reasonable for you less ambitious capitalists in the bunch. For the high achievers who turn out, however, we encourage you to *donate* a little more. Just to help us cover the cost.

We’re really really excited to see you there. Please bring friends!

 

 

By kristi | Posted in events | Comments (3)

The Revere Beach Farmers’ Market

22 August 2008 – 2:08 pm

 

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.

 

 

 

By kristi | Posted in market | Comments (0)

The bargain of my life: $1/lb tomatoes

19 August 2008 – 12:42 am

Today. Government Center Farmers’ Market. I bought all of them, five glorious pounds of red ripe tomatoes for five dollars, and had to call Kristi for a ride home from the Central Square T station because I was so weighed down and my bag was ripping.

No farm is going to go out of its way advertising their seconds (aka sauce) tomatoes. They won’t be tarted up like the heirlooms or spread across the whole table like the uniform field tomatoes. There might not even be that many to begin with. But rest assured, in this epoch of $4/lb tomatoes, they are well worth looking for. From now until late September, when tomatoes are coming in fast and furious, farmers will be playing fast and loose with these ever-so-slightly damaged-but-otherwise-still-perfectly-delicious babies.

In truth, these weren’t our first cheap seconds tomatoes. Last week, we were riding bikes in Hadley and happened on a little cart of vegetables outside a house. Tomatoes: a quarter each. A quarter each! We bought all of those. Kristi made them into sauce, simmered gently and loaded with garlic and basil, light and sweet and clean. Kristi is not off the boat Italian, but close, and she brings a fantastic, genetic paesan’s touch to our humble gravy.

The Government Center tomatoes became a pretty spicy salsa today. Please hear me out. My ethnic heritage has no salsa in it whatsoever (boiled cabbage, though, and lots of it), but I make a good salsa. It’s sort of adapted from The Joy.

First, I also bought poblano and some other miscellaneous spicy peppers. We had some red onion, garlic and cilantro procured at the Central Square market today as well — and a lime.

I cut the tomatoes into halves and quarters, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and threw them in a 400 degree oven until they were lightly roasted, soft and fragrant.

Meanwhile, I put the whole peppers on the open flame on my stovetop, blistering their skins and giving them a kind of roasty, smoky flavor. You need to let them cool and peel them before you use them.

Once you’ve organized the tomatoes and peppers, throw them in a bowl with chopped onions (red or white) a ton of garlic, some raw jalapenos or some such, olive oil, the fresh lime juice, salt, pepper and big, wild fistfuls of cilantro, stems and all. We have one of those stick things that purees soup. We call it the Zhusch, but we still haven’t figured out how to spell it. Use that or a food processor.

It’s pretty delicious, but we’re freezing it to help us later, in February, when the dark lords of limp, lifeless imported South American produce rule the misty, overlit produce sections.

By darry | Posted in Bulk, Uncategorized | Comments (4)

The trouble with this local-foods thing: Filthy lucre

10 August 2008 – 9:54 pm

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences” Susan B Anthony

I read this the other day and it got me to thinking about what’s been happening here, at Boston Localvore HQ, and out in the greater world of the local food frenzy.

We don’t have a mission statement, because those are for real organizations, not just couples posing as real organizations, but if we did it might say something about how the glories and tastes and good health side effects of eating local food should — must — be accessible to all income levels, or else this whole shift in the food system ain’t gonna fly. So it is with heavy hearts full of complicated feelings that we post announcements here for local foods events that cost between $80 and $150 per person.

On the other hand, as I was politely reminded by the organizer of one such event when I asked the other day, farms and growers and people involved in this whole shebang should be able to make money. Isn’t that part of the message here? That the real cost of food is high, that people in this country pay a ridiculously small percentage of their incomes on eating, that, if we’re to staunch the agricultural bleeding and the dying of so many small farms, it needs to pay?

This is from the email I exchanged with Diana at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton which is hosting a Localvore Lobsterbake this month. Tickets are $80 each:

“We believe farming should be an actual business model and not a non-profit seeking constant donations, because our customers are willing to pay for the quality of produce and believe in how we run our business. We do not believe farms should be subsidized by anyone but their customers, and that people should learn the real cost and value of small scale organically grown vegetables and animals.”

And it’s not as if some nice fresh, crisp lettuce costs $80 a head. There is still plenty of food that can be had on low incomes. I do understand that. But there is a perception problem out there, and I’m not sure that any other “organizations” are standing up, a la the radical and unstoppable Ms. B Anthony, and saying, you know what, let’s wipe some elitism off this and make it even more viable by making it even more universal. So here we are, wiping elitism (I know, weird analogy) off local foods.

We may reassess how to make this happen. Maybe it’s less event driven work and more getting-local-foods-into-local-grocery-stores-in-poorer-neighborhoods kind of work. Not sure yet. Any words of wisdom would be very welcome. 

On a different note, this goat/Sistine Chapel piece of art posted above is was taken today at Red Fire Farm in Granby. The goat is Bridgette. The hand of God is Kristi’s. Red Fire is our CSA farm, and members are encouraged to make trips for pick-your-own fruits and veggies. We succeeded in our goal of making ourselves sick on cherry tomatoes, and would recommend a trip to your own CSA (or any farm whose produce you’ve been enjoying this season). 

 

By darry | Posted in Rants | Comments (6)

Pickles, the experiment

6 August 2008 – 2:00 am


Too long were we tempted by the pickling cukes: smaller, cuter and cheaper ($1.25 per pound-ish), are they, than their cousins, the regular old eatin’ cukes. Too long were we intimidated by the prospect of buying a bunch and practicing whatever alchemy transforms them from plain veggies to preservation superstars. It did not make sense. We’ve made kraut, we’ve conquered yogurt. We have even had a successful batch or two of kombucha. 

And so last week, at the Cambridgeport farmers’ market, we bought as many pickling cukes as we could fit in our hands from Stillman’s and a pretty bit of dill from the Hmong farm. We agreed to sacrifice a half-gallon ball jar that Just Dairy usually fills with our milk (sorry Just Dairy, we’ll return it…eventually!) and make. it. work. People!

Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions guided us through a very simple pickling process — seriously, I put a load of laundry in downstairs and when I came up, Darry had started and finished — and we can proudly say we’re now on Day 3 of having a big pretty jar with almost-pickles on our counter. We cracked open the lid and they’re smelling like pickles for sure.

Here’s the recipe from Sally — for 1 quart

4-5 picklin cukes
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoons fresh dill
2 tablespoons of sea salt
1 cup of filtered water

-wash the cukes; put ‘em in the jar
-combine remaining ingredients and pour them over the cukes, adding more water if necessary to cover the cukes
-cover tightly and leave at room temp for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage
-we’re guessing you leave it in cold storage about 2-3 weeks for it to get real pickly… but it varies, and is up to your pickliness preference

 

 

By kristi | Posted in Bulk | Comments (0)

Local veggies: vehicles for butter and salt

1 August 2008 – 4:24 pm

When we picked up our CSA share this week, we were instructed to collect about a pound, at least, of green beans. We hadn’t finished the bag from the previous week, but we were not daunted! Because green beans, like corn, like zukes, eggplant and so many other lovely (and relatively cheap) veggies now abundant at your nearest farm stand and all of them can be gobbled up quite easily with the assistance of butter + salt.

Now is not only the hour of zucchini, it is sort of the hour of everything. It really doesn’t matter what else is going on; find time to go to a farmer’s market this weekend — either Cambridgeport, JP, Roslindale, Somerville’s Union Square, Waltham or the dozens in the not-so-distant burbs — and consume. 

But back to green beans. We did two delicious things to get them gone this week.
 
1) a quick variation on green beans almondine: took some almond slivers from Trader Joe’s, browned them with butter in a skillet; meanwhile, boiled a bunch of green beans. when the beans were soft, I strained them and threw them in the skillet with the browned almonds for a few minutes. then, in a bowl, mix the beans and the almonds with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and pepper. miraculously, the almonds ended up tasting like really crispy bacon. we had ours with pasta from Capone’s.

2) this morning Darry warmed up some toasted sesame oil in a pan. when the pan was really hot, she tossed in a couple handfuls of beans. fried ‘em. then, in a bowl and added sea salt. these beans are pictured above. there aren’t many left in the photo, because I was eating them like a fiend this morning for second breakfast. tasted like popcorn!

 

what else can we do with beans? i know there’s a way to freeze them too…. and we probably will if they keep piling up. suggestions?

 

By kristi | Posted in Bulk, Meals, market | Comments (4)

I’m a meat eater, and that’s OK

30 July 2008 – 3:55 pm

EDITOR’S NOTE: Folks! Presenting JJ Gonson, local chef, local eater and now, a contributor to our blog. Consider this, as well, an invite to anyone out there who would like to blog about their Bostonish Localvore exploits but don’t want the commitment of maintaining their own site. We will maintain it for you. And the whole point here is to help each other source and devour sustainable foodstuffs in and nearby the city. So please, contact info@bostonlocalvores.org and participate. 

One thing I really like about this local food movement, is that it has sort of made it OK again to eat meat.  I have lived through so many moments of vegetarian trends, vegan trends… I had a roommate who hated me because I fed the cats food with meat in it.  Say no more bout that.

Point is, that there are times I feel like I should say, “Hi, my name is JJ, and I eat meat. Please. Please, someone, help me!” But, like any good addict, I can’t seem to stop. I love meat. I love to cook it and I love to eat it. And because I love meat, I love me some meat farmers. The stars have aligned, and I’m going to take full advantage of it.

Now here’s how:

1.  Austin Brothers Farm’s steak tips
Marinate for at least 24 hours in lime and ginger, with some light oil and salt and pepper, and grill, hot and fast.  You can cut them into kebabs, or slices, as think as you want. They are very tender, and sweet.

2. River Rock’s flank steak.
You can’t get it, but if you could, rub it with a wet paste made of garlic scapes, rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil.  Leave them rubbed for 12 hours or so, wipe off the rub, salt and pepper em and grill them, hot and fast, again.  Let ‘em sit for 10 minutes, tent them if there are bugs, and slice them thin, thin, thin.

3. Stillmans butterflied leg of lamb
Cut it for kebab, or leave it whole, and marinate it in a paste of ground cumin, salt, pepper, white vinegar and olive oil for as long as you can.  At least 24 hours, but if it’s four days that’s good too.  Grill it, yeah, you got it, hot and fast, and serve it with yogurt mixed with a bit of cumin and salt.  You could stir some chopped garlic scapes, or shallots, or mint, or cucumber or cilantro in there… You get the idea, I’m sure.

Tomorrow I’m serving spare ribs, marinated for 24 hours in a cider brine, with allspice, star anise, fresh ginger, cider vinegar, kosher salt, Sichuan peppercorn and black peppercorn, then dry rubbed in brown sugar, paprika, cumin and oregano, slow roasted for 8 hours at 200 (braised once an hour with the brine liquid, which is first mixed with white wine, then boiled and then triple strained) and then brushed with pomegranate molasses and grilled.

I got them from Lionettes, and I know they were from a pig that came from Vermont, but I don’t know what farm they were from. That’s OK. I love that Lionettes can do that consistently!

The only complaint I have is that I simply cannot get baby-backs this year. And they really are a superior cut for that recipe.  But really, I should just be happy that it is summer, the barbeque is in bloom, and for now, eating a healthy meat option has made it socially acceptable to be a carnivore!

Hooray for our team — I just know those old cats would be so proud!

By JJ | Posted in Fancy shoppes, Rants, meat | Comments (4)

Zucchini straight talk express

28 July 2008 – 1:42 am

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.

 

 

 

By darry | Posted in Bulk, market | Comments (7)

Farmer Al made me do it!

22 July 2008 – 12:49 pm

                   

Yesterday I went to the Central Sq farmers’ market, one of my favorites, and stopped by Farmer Al’s stand, because I had something to give him. For the first time and perhaps the only time this year, his callaloo was being upstaged by another crop: his blueberries. There was literally a trash barrel-size container in the back of his van full of them, and he was pushing them, in his singsongy, jovial + passively aggressive way, on people by the bucket load. ($17 for just the berries, $19 if you wanted to take the cute little blue pail home.) He also had instructions posted on how to freeze these babies for the winter. Super simple. 

1) wash them by the bowl-full in ice cold water
2) strain
3) line a cookie sheet with wax paper, spread the berries out so none are touching
4) pop the whole thing in the freezer for about 1 hour
5) if the berries are hard, toss them into a freezer bag 

We now have 5 or 6 quarts of berries frozen which I will try my best to ignore until February or so, when it is so dark and there is nothing living, they will give me the strength to go on….  

Al is at the Davis Sq market tomorrow, Wednesday, probably with the last of his bulk berries. Go!

…and speaking of farmers markets: the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets, aka the Feds, or the people who make the six biggest markets in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area happen — the organization is turning 30 this year. And that’s OK! to celebrate, Henrietta’s Table is hosting a fancy ($$$) dinner of all local fare on July 29.  Tickets are $150 and available by calling (781) 893-8222. Most of the money, or so I gather, goes back to the Feds and the good work they do. 

 

By kristi | Posted in Bulk, Uncategorized, events | Comments (2)