Media: Argument Against Locavorism in NY Times

This seems like a specious argument to me, that the quality of the experience doesn't necessarily justify locavorism. Of course it doesn't, but it certainly does add to its value.

Sherman Market Opens in Union Square

At long last, Sherman Market opened yesterday in Union Square. A spinoff from the nearby Sherman Cafe, Sherman Market features locally sourced foods. It's roughly twice the size of the Dairy Bar in Davis Square, so here's hoping they have a broader selection of local foods. When I went in today, they had local, organic produce such as heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and fresh herbs. They also had jams, jellies, teas, coffees, ready-made soup stock, and a freezer full of Giovanna gelato made in Newton. We picked up one pint of coffee gelato and one of chocolate. Mmmm... I think this may be the same gelato we ate at Stone Hearth Pizza last weekend. Next week, I hope to chat a bit more with the owner and find out where they get their products. Actually, their twitter feed says a great deal about their sources. (Their web site is currently under construction.)

ASIDE: I found wild hen of the woods mushrooms at flora restaurant's stall at the Arlington Farmer's market yesterday. These wonderful, seasonal mushrooms are a real treat, so keep an eye out for them again next week. Other lovely surprises included our favorite ham steak from Chestnut Farms on sale, organic numex green chiles, and lobsters on sale for $4.99-$5.99/lb. Wow!

Restaurant: Stone Hearth Pizza, Belmont, MA

It's not often that I get the opportunity to write one post for two blogs, but Stone Hearth Pizza in Belmont, MA fits the bill. We've dined at the Stone Hearth Pizza in Cambridge near Porter Sq., but the restaurant there is small, cramped, and suffers from slow service. We'd heard that the Belmont restaurant was larger and had better kid amenities, so we decided to check it out.

The Belmont restaurant is indeed about three times the size of the Cambridge location and rather more plush, but it had no kid amenities at all. And where the Cambridge location has one wall covered with placemats colored in by their underage patrons, the Belmont location has no such kid-friendly atmosphere.

The food, as always, is quite good. Stone Hearth Pizza uses local, mostly organic ingredients. Their menu and their pizza boxes feature a map of New England showing exactly where their ingredients come from (see a complete list here). Their pizzas are inventive and tasty. Our favorites are the Sausage and Carmelized Onion pizza and Bacon and Blue pizza.

This time out, we tried the Farm Fresh pizza, which sounded great on paper: "Garlic oil, cherry tomatoes, charred red/yellow peppers, Yukon gold potatoes, artichoke hearts, green/black olives, fresh mozzarella, topped with salad of arugula/red onion/prosciutto." Unfortunately, the olives completely overwhelmed the flavors of the other vegetables. When we picked the olives off (to our omnivorous two-year-old's delight), we discovered that the pizza without them had hardly any flavor at all.

The girls had better luck with their pizzas. Our five-year-old practically inhaled her cheese pizza, and our two-year-old had to compete with her daddy to finish her cheeseburger pizza. We knew from past experience to stay away from the mac 'n' cheese, which was oddly too spicy for the kids to eat. I like it that way, but the kids won't touch it.

The kid's meals included drinks (lemonade and chocolate milk, respectively) and desserts, a choice of cookies or gelato. Both girls chose the gelato, vanilla and chocolate respectively, and my husband also ordered the hazelnut. The vanilla gelato's vanilla flavor was overpowering, and my five-year-old gratefully traded her sister for the chocolate when she was done with it. My husband's hazelnut gelato was chunky with bits of hazelnut but also somehow over-flavored. The chocolate, however, was quite good.

Regardless of how good the meals were and the quality of the ingredients, we got some mild sticker shock from the price: $8.50 for a kid's meal is a bit much, especially when we paid only $12.50 for our own pizza. Then again, when you do the math, an 8" cheese pizza is $5.60, a drink is $2, and gelato is $4 (two cookies are $1), for a total of $11.60, which means the kid's meal is actually a bargain. I do wish, however, that just one of the kid's meals had included vegetables.

Overall, while I applaud Stone Hearth Pizza's commitment to local, organic foods, I'm not all that impressed by either their pizzas or their prices. Zing! Pizza in Porter Sq. also uses local, organic ingredients, has more interesting and inventive pizzas, is less expensive, and they deliver. Their restaurant is seriously tiny, though, so if you want to eat out, Stone Hearth pizza is a better bet. If you're eating in Cambridge, I recommend that you call ahead and order in advance to compensate for the slow wait staff. For the record, the service at the Belmont location was fine.

Poll: Lexington Community Farm

This week's Lexington Minuteman online poll asks whether Community Farming is a good idea for Lexington. Please take the poll and let Lexington know that you support local, community farming.

Fundraiser - Urban Barn Dance for Farmers' Markets

Received this today from the Mass. Farmers' Markets newsletter:

The Second Annual Urban Barn Dance

A lively celebration of the 2009 growing season featuring
Chef Bob Sargent of flora restaurant.

Friday, October 16
(just a month away!)
6:30 -- 9:30 pm
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Dante Alighieri Italian Cultural Center
41 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Proceeds from the event will benefit the work of the Federation of
Mass Farmers Markets

NOW'S THE TIME TO GET YOUR TICKETS!
$50 each

To purchase your tickets,
call Mass Farmers Markets
at 781-893-8222
or e-mail Martha.

Event Details:

Guests will toast the hard work of their favorite farmers with a hearty locally grown supper, and then continue the celebration with live music and dancing. Music will be provided again this year by Sean Smith, with musical accomplices Janine Sirignano and Peter Buchak. Contra caller David Titus returns to lead us in dances that new and experienced dancers will enjoy.

Dinner will feature several different preparations of locally raised pork from Austin Brothers Valley Farm, vendors at the Central Square Farmers Market in Cambridge.

Chef Bob Sargent of flora restaurant is once again generously donating his time to create mouth-watering pork dishes as well as hearty sides to accompany them. There should be plenty of food for hungry vegetarians as well!

Guests will also enjoy a silent auction with prizes donated by local businesses.

Libations will be available at the Dante Alighieri Center's cash bar.

Please consider being a sponsor for this event at one of the following levels:

• Golden Watermelon ~ $400 (includes admission for two)
• Silver Queen Corn ~ $250 (includes admission for two)
• Bronze Fennel ~ $100 (includes admission for one)

Urban Agriculture Fair in Harvard Square

This came in Henrietta Davis's mailing list:

Please come to Cambridge's 1st URBAN AG FAIR in Harvard Square, Sunday, Sept. 20th 11 am - 4 pm.

Celebrating Local Gardens, Growers & Foods!
Sample recipes, get tips on composting, community gardening, rain barrels, and bee-keeping! Cooking demos from local chefs, and "Cambridge School student-growers" will be held throughout the day. Enter your own items in a judged competition of home-grown fruits, veggies, home-made baked goods, honey, flowers, preserves, pickles and eggs! All Events are free, open to the public and family-friendly.

Visit www.harvardsquare.com http://www.harvardsquare.com/ for entry form and more info.

Resource: Green City Growers

I spotted a flyer in a cafe across from my daughter's elementary school for Green City Growers.These folks will come to your house, build raised beds, and plant organic vegetables for you. They also make rooftop beds and work with schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. There was no word on their web site on whether they offer a maintenance plan (i.e., someone comes and weeds the bed for you), so I'll send them email for clarification.

This comes as a great relief to me. I was starting to think I would have to start up this business myself. Nothing is more local and sustainable than growing food in your own backyard, and nothing's as nutritious and tasty as food picked and eaten immediately. If you have any interest at all in growing your own vegetables, but you have no idea how, I encourage you to contact these folks.

If there's enough interest from do-it-yourselfers, I can also write up a series of posts on how to create your own backyard garden with a minimum of work and fuss.

Pete & Jen's Pig Roast at Verrill Farm, Concord, MA

Speaking of local meat, Pete & Jen are providing the pork at an event on Sunday, September 13th:

On Sunday 9/13 from noon - 4 pm, at Verrill Farm, you can enjoy our very own Pete and Jen's Pastured Pork at the Pig Roast and BBQ! Yes, it will be our very own delicious Tamworth pig on the spit. Music and hayrides will be sure to entertain.

Meat Share Round Up

A friend recently asked me about meat shares, and I promised to put together a list of local meat shares for her (a week ago). Here they are - sorry about the delay, Laura!

• Chestnut Farms, Hardwick, MA - my own meat CSA, and we LOVE them! I pick up in Arlington Center on the first Tuesday of every month or the following Wednesday at the Arlington Farmers' Market, but you can also pick up in Natick, Waltham, or at their farm in Hardwick, MA. Cost of the meat depends on how much you buy: $80 for 10lb, $115 for 15lb., $150 for 20lb., $175 for 25lb. Shares include chicken, beef, pork, and lamb, with a promise of goat in the future. You can opt out of pork or lamb, if you wish. You can also order turkeys, and they frequently have eggs for sale at their pickup locations. Last I heard, they had a 6-month waiting list.
  
• Stillman's Farm, Lunenburg and New Braintree, MA - pickup locations in Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Cambridge, Quincy, and Lunenburg. They also offer chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and seasonal turkeys. Their pricing model gets cheaper the more you pay in advance and is otherwise comparable to Chestnut Farm. They do offer a 5lb quarter share for smaller households, and they give their shareholders a 20% discount when they buy additional meat at farmers' markets.
• Austin Brothers Valley Farm, Belchertown, MA - This relatively new meat CSA just got started in August, so they may actually have shares available. They've sold meat in the parking lot by Harvest Coop in Cambridge for years, and I've found the meat quality to be quite good. Pickup locations in Cambridge, Amherst, Belchertown, and Worcester. 5lb/month for $9/lb, 10/month for $8.25/lb, and 20lb/month for $7.75/lb. They offer only beef and pork.

Remember that there's also a fish share now available, too. Pick up in Harvard Square, Cambridge.

In researching this, I came across this (slightly out of date) list of local CSAs: http://fitfool.livejournal.com/143862.html.

Hmm, so few meat CSAs. Is this an opportunity for aspiring farmers?

Eat Local to Reduce Health Care Spending

Michael Pollan makes a well-reasoned argument that eating more local, healthy foods will help reduce the cost of health care in his NY Times article today, with references to his sources for fact verification. I love the Internet and the ease with which writers can connect their articles to their sources of information.

Time to Order Winter Shares

A friend recently asked me for recommendations for winter shares. This interests me, too, because our CSA, Brookfield Farm, will not deliver its winter shares from Amherst. Here's what I came up with. Be aware that I'm biased towards CSAs that deliver to the Arlington/Cambridge/Somerville area.

1. Drumlin Farm - requires that you spend 10 hours working on the farm, which is kind of cool. No word on pickup location, but Lincoln isn't very far from Cambridge.
2. Enterprise Farm - has an autumn share that just started yesterday and a year-round share - pickup at Kick*ss Cupcakes in Davis Sq. Wed. 2-7. They also offer home delivery.
3. The Food Project - pickup in Lincoln for Nov. and Dec. only.
4. Heaven's Harvest Farm - Another fall share until just before Thanksgiving, pick up at Cambridge Harvest Coop.
5. Red Fire Farm - has a winter share and delivers to Cambridge and Somerville for a small fee. May be sold out.
6. Stone Soup Farm - has a Nov-Dec winter share, pickup at Democracy Center in Cambridge.
   

Creative Use of Farmshare

Tonight, I made a massive, insanely ambitious dinner, given that my kitchen faucet is broken and I have no running water in the kitchen. But we were being overrun with vegetables, and something had to be done. Our farmshare buddy is exceedingly pregnant and not at all in the mood to be cooking veggies. My plan was to cook as much of the farmshare as possible in one meal, invite my pregnant friend and her family over for dinner, and then freeze the remains for use after the baby is born.

First, I thawed a frozen lamb shoulder from my meatshare. I'd been saving it months for a special occasion, but I just threw up my hands and decided that the lamb was a special occasion in itself. I rubbed it with olive oil, shallot salt, Spanish thyme (three of only five non-local ingredients in the entire meal), and homegrown rosemary and roasted it at 425 degrees F.

While that roasted, I chopped up a variety of root vegetables: Yukon Gold new potatoes and shallots from the farmers' market, carrots and yellow onions from the farmshare, red and golden beets from my own garden (I saved the greens). I sliced these very thin, going for roughly quarter-sized pieces about an eighth of an inch thick. This I drizzled with Kate's Homemade Butter, olive oil, maple syrup from North Hadley, and table salt (non-local ingredient number four). Using both olive oil and butter is key - trust me. I laid this out in a very shallow layer on a large baking sheet and popped it in with the lamb.

Next, I looked at what was bursting out of the veggie drawer of my fridge: eggplant, zucchini, onions. Aha! Ratatouille! I ran out in the rain and picked two tomatoes. Into the skillet: olive oil, homegrown garlic, farmshare yellow onion. Once they were translucent, I added the tomatoes, chopped. And once that had broken down into a nice stew, I chopped up and tossed in three japanese eggplants, one fat zucchini, and basil from the farmshare, seasoned with salt.

I left the ratatouille on the backburner and turned back to the beet greens. I pulled out my All-Clad everyday pan (something between a skillet and a paellero, indispensible), and tossed in some chopped Applewood Farms bacon (non-local ingredient number five, but at least it's all natural and uncured). I added to this some chopped red onion from the farmer's market and sauteed until translucent, then tossed in the beet greens and swiss chard from the farmshare, seasoned lightly with salt.

While this was cooking down, I pulled out the farmshare spaghetti squash I'd roasted earlier in the day because my husband, mistaking it for a cantalope, had cut it open. I scooped out the flesh into a glass baking pan, topped with more Kate's Homemade Butter, and popped it into the oven beside the lamb to reheat.

By then, the lamb had reached 120 degrees F, the root veggies were starting to crisp up, the ratatouille was done, and the greens had wilted nicely. Time to set the table. By the time I got everything else out, the lamb was up to 140, but smelled done. I suspected the meat thermometer, so I pulled it out and made a couple of experimental slices. Turned out that the top of the roast was quite nicely done, but the muscle beneath was not. So I carved what was ready and brought it out.

Caveat: two out of three of the children refused to eat any of this except the spaghetti squash and had to be supplemented with Barilla Plus penne and melted cheese, so technically, the meal had two more nonlocal ingredients. (My two-year-old eats anything and loves vegetables, just as my picky five-year-old did, when she was two.) Otherwise, by volume, I'd guess that over 90% of the meal came from within 100 miles of our table.

The dinner was marvelous. The lamb was probably the best I've ever cooked (hurray for Chestnut Farms!), the root veggies delicious, just slightly crispy and sweet, the ratatouille perfectly cooked, neither underdone nor soggy and infused with the marvelous flavor of the basil, and the greens nicely counterpointed by the bacon. The one problem: we had almost no leftovers! I still have a bit of the lamb, and I froze about 3/4 quart of the squash and 1/2 quart of the ratatouille. But it did nicely solve the problem of my overfull refrigerator. Now, if I can just get rid of that red cabbage...

Afterwards, our dinner guests commented on how good the meal was, and I asserted that it was the ingredients, which they pshawed. But it's true. These are all dishes I make all the time, and they were just so much better with high quality, fresh, local ingredients. Hmm... now I need more lamb. Thank goodness the meatshare is coming on Tuesday.

Farmers Markets Need Farmers

As an indication of how well the local food movement is doing, the Boston Globe today has an interesting article on how farmers' markets are having difficulty finding enough farmers. This helps explain why we see things like local bakeries, coffee companies, and Taza Chocolate vendors at the markets - they help fill out the available space as well as offering a nice variety of goods to shoppers.

Farmers are also making a lot more of their profit from farmers' markets, which is extremely cool. But clearly, there's a pressing need for more local farms in Massachusetts. Anyone care to start a farm?

It's August. Time to Talk Turkey.

Believe it or not, if you want a locally raised turkey for Thanksgiving, now's the time to order. Kim Denney of Chestnut Farms just sent out the following email to her meatshare members:

We raise turkeys once a year - for Thanksgiving for our CSA members. The turkeys are raised in fresh air and sunshine from birth to plate. Over the years we have become more and more adept at predator control and use an automatic light and radio to keep foxes, coyotes and fisher cats away. We have also learned to have a smaller, but still comfortable dance floor. Last year our turkeys danced across nearly five acres of pasture. This year we will offer them a space of about 1 acre and move them more frequently. We have also planted field peas in an experiment of turkey self-feeding. The peas are higher in protein than grass so we shall see if the grain consumption declines as a result.

The turkeys go for $75/bird, regardless of size, which I thought was interesting, and they're only available to CSA members. However, there are lots of other places around Boston that offer locally raised turkeys. There's a good list available at http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/turkey.htm. A slightly better resource for free-range, organic, heritage birds can be found in Yankee Magazine. And Local harvest has a good search engine that yielded these results.

Here's a little more information on some of the farms.

• Bob's Turkey Farm in Lancaster lists having Broad Breasted White turkeys, famously too stupid to reproduce. The web site also implies that they are fed antibiotics for the first four weeks.
  
• Stillman's Farm in Lunenberg practices conscientious farming and raises free-range birds. They offer broad-breasted white turkeys at $65 for a 10-15 lb. bird and $80 for a 16-22 lb. bird. They also offer a few, small heritage breed turkeys: $100 for a 6-15 lb. bird. They have convenient pickup locations throughout Boston and Cambridge.
• K&M Farm in North Andover has much better prices for organic, heritage birds: 10-12 lbs $65.00 14-16 lbs $75.00 18-22 lbs $110.00. This farm also offers Indian game bird, cornish hens, and rabbits, which, I think, merits a visit sometime soon.
• Stone Pony Farm in Westford offers a small number of organic, free range, heritage turkeys.
• Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre raises broad breasted whites organically and sells them for $4.50/lb. They're quite far from Boston, though, and do not deliver to the Boston area.
• Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton raises free-range, organically fed Bourbon Red turkeys. No word on how much they cost or how to order them.
  

If you don't have a Chestnut Farms meatshare, it looks like Stillman's Farm and K&M Farm are your best bets. If you can't drive up to North Andover, Stillman's is the place to order your bird.

Chicken 3 Ways! A Benefit Dinner for the MPPU Project

Pete & Jen are at it again. They're sponsoring a chicken dinner to benefit the NESFP's Mobile Poultry Processing Unit project. Here's what Jen said in her email announcing the dinner:

Join Pete and Jen &
SLOW FOOD BOSTON at Allandale Farm for Chicken Grilling Extravaganza!

August 30, 2009
5:30 pm until the moonlight guides us home....

The summer heat is in full swing! We hope you are all busy enjoying the bounty of seasonal, local food. In the spirit of summer, we would like to extend an invitation to load up your picnic basket with a comfy blanket and a bottle of your favorite beverage - but don't worry about the food. Slow Food Boston has got that covered! SFB is hosting an outdoor gastronomic fundraiser (a Chicken Extravaganza one might say) on Sunday, August 30th in the fields of Allandale Farm. Join us and relax on your blanket watching the sunset, relishing the smell of grilling chicken, and contributing to a good cause! Chef Andy Husbands (of Hell's Kitchen fame) and the amazing Tremont 647 will be preparing three different chicken dishes, plus bbq appropriate sides (greens? yup. corn bread? check!) plus a fruit dessert luciously ripe from local orchards... OH, and we're not talking your mother's chicken here - instead think banana guava ketchup, sweet & spicy bbq glaze, and a red pepper aioli! Though it's not Pete and Jen's tasty, tasty chicken (we sold out long ago), it is sure to be divine!

So why this 'fowl' celebration you ask? Well, beyond the phenomenal food, we're also continuing to raise funds for the Mobile Poultry Processing Unit, eliminating the need for MA farmers to share the ONE unit that's available throughout the entire state. These mobile units are one of the few ways that small producers have to guarantee that the quality & care of their work is maintained all the way from the farm to your table. We will be at the picnic to share first-hand how the MPPU project is making it easier for us to produce and process our birds and for you to buy local, healthy, sustainably-raised food.

This event is a double BYOB - bring your own blanket, as well as the beverage of your choice. Cost is $40 for adults and $20 for children under 12. Reservations & payments must be made in advance on the Slow Food Boston website.

Plan to arrive early! Starting at 5:30pm, John Lee, Allandale's farm manager, will be giving hayrides of Boston's last working farm - concluding in time for dinner to be served at 6:30PM. Oh, and if it happens to rain, we'll convene the next night Monday, August 31st same time, same place.

Pete & Jen's Egg Carpool Mailing List

We love our eggs from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds, but their store in Concord is just a bit far for a casual shopping run. Some time ago, we noticed that Pete & Jen had put out a signup sheet for an egg carpool mailing list. The idea was to connect customers that live in Lexington, Arlington, and North Cambridge so that they can arrange to pick up eggs for each other as convenient.

Since we run a data center, BaseSpace.net, it's easy for us to create mailing lists. So we offered to set it up for them, Jen send us the list of email addresses, and voila! My husband set up the pjeggpool mailing list.

Now we can post when we make the journey out to Concord to see if anyone in our area would also like some eggs. If anyone responds, we can then arrange a pick-up location for the eggs. While the folks currently on the mailing list are all in Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge, I see no reason why people from other areas around Boston can't also arrange pickups in the same way.

If you'd like to get in on the EggPool, send email to pjeggpool-subscribe@basespace.net.

Poultry, Poultry Everywhere

Sheesh! I got busy for a few days, and when I looked up: poultry!

Here's a brief synopsis of poultry-related topics that I'll elaborate upon as time permits:

1. Pete & Jen's Egg Carpool Mailing List - send email to pjeggpool-subscribe@basespace.net.
   
2. Chicken 3 Ways! A Special Farm Dinner to support the MPPU project
3. Order your Thanksgiving turkey from Chestnut Farms NOW
   

Busa Farm Conceptual Drawings - Tuesday, August 11 at 7:30pm

The Lexington Community Farm Coalition is meeting tomorrow to review conceptual drawings:

Come find out more about farm plans, learn what you can do to help, and see a conceptual sketch of our farm! Come to a Farm Planning meeting for updates on our progress and dark brown refreshments. Meet at Lexington's Cary Memorial Library community room, Tuesday August 11 7:30 pm.

Early Impressions of the NOFA Conference

My head is spinning from all the information I've been gathering at the NOFA Summer Conference. I've attended workshops on how to start a CSA, how to make the most of your forested land, and, of course, lots of workshops on mushrooms and mycology. One of the two keynote speakers, Paul Stamets, is a recognized mycological expert, and the projects that he's detailed have been wide-ranging and utterly fascinating, including:

• Counteracting bioterrorism
• Cleaning up toxic oil spills, in soil and in the sea
• Finding better treatments for tuberculosis and smallpox
• Growing crops like corn twice as strong and productive
• Finding treatments for neurological disorders such as Altzheimer's
• and so much more...

The conference has had fantastic child care for the kids, including grooming Jersey heifers, painting banners, marching in a parade, and putting on a play, so this has been something of a vacation for my husband and I. Well, a vacation in which we are constantly racing from workshop to child care to workshop to child care to lunch to child care to workshop, etc.

Aside from the sheer amount of information I'm gathering, a couple of things have really surprised me. One is the number of cool things I'm now thinking, Hey, I could do that. The other is the sheer number of random people we've connected with, including a CSA family from New York and a couple from Santa Fe trying to start a community farm.

And there's the amazing range of niches and markets represented here: alpaca farmers, black walnut orchards, raw milk dairies, and yes, I even found a farm that produces sunflower oil. Too much to describe right now, and it's time to put the girls to bed. More tomorrow.

Locavore Media: Boston Globe Article on Mass. Wine and Cheese

This morning, the Boston Globe had a nice article on wine and cheese produced in Massachusetts. Some of the stories of how these businesses got started are fascinating. Now, if only there were a list of where we could buy these products. I'd really like to try some blueberry wine.

Locavore Activism in Cambridge: Henrietta Davis Goes Local

Henrietta Davis is kicking off her election campaign to retain her seat on the Cambridge City Council by hosting a "locally inspired potluck supper" and a screening of the movie, "Fresh." The event is titled "All Politics is Local" ad will be held August12th at Davis's house, 120 Chestnut St. The potluck starts at 6pm, and grilled foods will be provided. Attendees are asked to bring a salad, dessert, or "other local dish." The movie starts at 8pm. Her invitation came with a guide to Cambridge Farmers' Markets and a list of Local Food resources.

I encourage locavore residents of Cambridge to show up and let Henrietta know you support her efforts.

Locavore Activism: Lexington Selectmen Discuss Busa Farm Tonight

The Lexington Selectmen are scheduled to discuss the Busa Land Lease Agreement tonight under “Items for Individual Consideration” starting at 7:50 pm: see http://ci.lexington.ma.us/Selectmen/agenda.cfm for the complete schedule. The Busa Land Lease likely refers to the the town's plan to lease the land back to the Busas for two years following the town's September 17 closing on the land. Selectmen's meetings take place at the Selectmen's Meeting Room, 1625 Mass Avenue (Town Office Building), second floor.

In the Media: Video of Butter-making in Maine

Boston.com today has a great article accompanied by a video on Kate's Homemade Butter, which really is made in the owner's home garage in Maine. You have to see it to believe it. I love Kate's Homemade Butter, but I almost never shop at Shaw's anymore, and thus never see it available. Perhaps I'll make a special effort for this award-winning butter.

Locavore Activism: Busa Farm in Lexington

Today, I visited Busa Farm in Lexington. Located just over the border from the Arlington Reservoir, Busa Farm is 7.85 acres of severely neglected farmland. When we visited, it had a tiny farm shop which supplemented the farm's produce with eggs from Chip-In Farm, honey and preserves from McClure's, and fruit from California. I did buy an enormous zucchini for only 25 cents that I intend to stuff for dinner (tonight, homemade pizza with locally made fresh mozzerella).

Outside, the flats of perennials, annuals, and patio tomatoes showed that Busa Farm has definitely fallen on hard times. The paths were overgrown with weeds, all the seedlings showed signs of stress, and the tomatoes were dying in their pots. The greenhouses were missing many of their panes of glass, and not by design, and these, too, were overgrown with weeds. Of the three greenhouses we saw, two had been abandoned to nature. The buildings other than the farmstand were in various states of disrepair, and the chicken coop we spied down the road looked forlorn and empty.

Which is why, in May, the City of Lexington purchased the land from its owners. The owners will continue to run the farm and maintain the property until at least Dec. 31, 2010 while Lexington figures out what to do with it. Lots of ideas have been floated: recreational parkland, community gardens, affordable housing, community farm.

Yes, you read that correctly. A group of citizens is pushing to turn the space into a community-run farm. Apparently, this model has precedent. Newton bought Angino Farm in 2005 and operates it as a community farm. During the summer, much of the farm is maintained by volunteer middle and high school students from Newton.

Our mission is to preserve and improve this historic open space site for the benefit of the community, to provide local, sustainably grown produce, and to educate the public about sustainable use of land and other natural resources.

This sounds like a fantastic option for Lexington. I'd be contacting the Lexington Community Farm Coalition right now, offering to get involved and start raising awareness amongst my neighbors... if only I lived in Lexington. If you are a Lexington resident, I encourage you to contact your local representatives and urge them to preserve Busa Farm as an educational, community resource. Also see the web site for other ways to help this worthy cause.

NOFA Conference: Mission for Missin' Local Products

I try to eat as much local, organic food as I can, but there are some things I have to buy nonlocal. A few of these are preferential - I have New Mexico green chile on my breakfast burrito every morning. I've tried growing it here, and it just doesn't come out right. Then there are things that just can't be grown in New England that we consider essential: coffee, black tea, chocolate, bananas, olive oil, cinnamon and similar spices.

And then there are the things that ought to be available locally that I can't find: nuts, mushrooms, oils, and sugar. I was delighted to find a workshop at the NOFA conference on growing black walnut trees for nuts and timber. Hopefully, I will meet other nut growers there and find out where I can buy local nuts the way I used to buy pinon nuts on the side of the road in New Mexico. Similarly, there are lots of workshops on mushrooms, which I have yet to spot at a farmers' market anywhere.

Oil and sugar are the two that burn my noodle most. In the land of maple, you can find lots of maple syrup and maple candy, but no actual, commercial granular maple sugar. Why? And beets grow prolifically in New England. Why is there no beet sugar available? Admittedly, cane sugar from Florida is not a terrible compromise, but it just bugs me.

Finally, I have yet to find, anywhere, locally produced cooking oils. Olive oil is admittedly impossible (and the top on my list of crops I'd grow if I ever return to New Mexico), but surely there are plenty of other sources: corn oil, sunflower. Does rapeseed grow here for canola oil? And cycling back to the discussion on nuts, what about walnut or almond oil? Of late, I've been substituting locally produced butter, but there are a lot of cases where I'd much rather use a good oil instead. With any luck, I'll find a source of locally produced oils at the NOFA conference.

What are some other examples of things you ought to be able to find locally and can't? Please comment.

Buying the Farm

Right now, my two-year-old is chanting "Old McDonald Had a Farm" just as I'm contemplating becoming Old McDonald myself. It's a tough question: do I want to become a farmer?

My husband and I have been exploring the possibility in the last few weeks, ever since we returned from Sweden. There are a lot of pros and cons.

PROS:

1. I grew up on a farm. I run a community garden. I have a clue what it takes to successfully raise vegetables.
2. Local CSAs have absurdly long waiting lists, on the order of years. Many won't even advertize their shares anymore. So there is huge demand.
3. The New Entry Sustainable Farming Association has a list of farm properties near Boston available for lease or sale but not enough farmers to work them.
4. It would be highly satisfying in many ways. We'd have the freedom to grow our food (produce, eggs, meat) any way we like.
5. It's a healthier lifestyle and would encourage us to get a lot more exercise.

CONS:

1. I grew up on a farm. I know how much work it is, and that's rather daunting.
2. I grew up on a farm in New Mexico. That's an utterly different climate, and I'd have a lot of learning to do. It was a cattle farm, and I'm unlikely to want to raise cattle here, though I did have a herd of goats growing up and know how to care for them from birth to butchering. We never milked them, though, so that would be an interesting learning experience right there. And I know almost nothing about the use and maintenance of farm machinery.
   
3. My husband did not grow up on a farm. He was utterly astonished the first time a seed I'd planted sprouted. Nor does he have any desire to be a farmer. He doesn't like outside work, he doesn't like the smell of dirt, he doesn't even like houseplants. He says he's willing to take care of the business end of farming: finances, hiring labor, etc., but I'm dubious. I do not want to be stuck with all the work, and I'd miss the family- and community-building aspects I know and love.
   
4. My health is not the best. I have multiple chronic illnesses, almost all of which I control with diet, and I sprain joints at the drop of a hat. While more outside work would undoubtedly be very good for me, our business could outright fail if I sprain an ankle again.
5. We have two small children, one just about to start kindergarden. They're a full-time job in themselves right now, and at the very least, we should wait until they're old enough to contribute to the farm in a meaningful way. (My five-year-old wants goats.)
   
6. We live in a wonderful, supportive community, and we're not sure we want to leave it, although there are good reasons why we might, farm or no farm.

My current inclination is not to buy a commercial farm. It's too risky, and I don't think we have the proper resources. Microfarming, on the other hand, makes some sense to me. Defined as mixed-use farming on two to five acres, this seems like a manageable amount of farm to me. My grandfather's farm was five acres, and on this scrap of land, he grew alfalfa for his cattle, orchards consisting mostly of apples and pears, a large amount of corn, and two good-sized gardens for family and friends. Pumpkins grew up into his macintosh trees, the strangest apples you ever saw.

He couldn't and didn't make his living off of it, but he did make our lives much richer, healthier, and more fulfilling. It's the kind of life I can imagine being extremely satisfying. I could grow my own vegetables, trying different varieties and preserving heirlooms. I could have a greenhouse for fresh produce all winter long. I'd have orchards of fruit and nut trees chosen for easy maintenance and flavor. We could have a small goat herd and some chickens, maybe even ducks if we have a pond. Herb beds. Grape vines. Mushrooms. Corn.

I still have my doubts, which is why our whole family is attending the Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference next weekend. We received the program booklets just a few days ago, and I'm fascinated and frustrated by the workshops listed. Should I attend the Backyard Medicinal Herb Walk, the Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread at Home workshop, the Farm and Garden Native Bee Habitat Creation workshop, or the Simple Gifts Farm tour? ARGH!

Just the fact that I get this excited about these topics tells me I'm on the right track. And perhaps the conference will help me figure out which less-traveled path I should take.

Backyard Local: Fight Tomato Blight

Warning to all backyard gardeners: there is a serious epidemic of late blight this year affecting tomato and potato plants. This is the same fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine, and a combination of conditions this year (wet weather and contaminated tomato plants sold at places like Home Depot) have made this the worst outbreak of late blight in decades. Our CSA, Brookfield Farm, just mowed down all their potatoes in the hopes of saving the tubers and preventing the spread of the fungus to their tomatoes.

What makes this fungus particularly pernicious is that its spores are airborne, passing from plant to plant on the breeze. If you have tomatoes in your garden, regardless of where you got them, please go out and check them for blight. See www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm for pictures of late blight. Look for brown patches on the stem and wilting leaflets around it. If you find blight, remove ALL affected foliage immediately. If it's in the stem, you will likely have to remove the entire plant.

Do NOT put infected foliage in your municipal yard waste, where the fungus can infect their mulch and compost. Bag it and throw it away. In New Mexico, we'd burn it, but I doubt that's allowed around here.

If you have other tomatoes or parts of tomato plants that show no blight yet, spray it with fungicide immediately and after every rainfall (yes, this is a pain, but, o! the horror of a summer with no tomatoes). There are many recipes for homemade fungicide, including:

• http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/recipe-for-home-made-fungicide.html
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090619125802AABbIUf (you can substitute dishsoap)
  

Or you can buy this organic fungicide: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/greencure.html. Brookfield Farm is using copper as a fungicide.

Here's a good FAQ on late blight and how to deal with it: http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/lbfaq.pdf

Also, keep in mind that there are plenty of other fungi around to prey on your tomatoes. The tomatoes in my community garden have early blight, and I'll be directing our gardeners in foliage removal and fungicide spraying this afternoon. Early blight is much less deadly than late blight, but it can transfer to other species like eggplants. It's treated in the same way as late blight, although treated plants are much more likely to survive. Tomatoes are going to be precious and rare at farmers' markets this year, so it will be well worth it to maintain your own love apples. And squash plants of all kinds are likely to be affected by fungus as well, so it's worth checking your squash for a white dusting on the leaves and treating it with fungicide or at least soapy water.

On the plus side, all the rain has had other benefits. Our greens, carrots, cucumbers, beans, and squash are going crazy, and despite the cool temperatures, I've got a lot of peppers and eggplant (hurray for black row covers). And for the first time this year, we had a noticeable blueberry harvest (we suffer from alkaline soil, but we seem to have finally brought up the acidity enough - sulfur helps, too) and will harvest our first lingonberries ever!

Side note: if you have midsummer-bearing raspberries, they should be running out of fruit right now. Once the fruit is gone off the canes, you should prune away the fruitbearing canes, leaving the new canes (those with no little stubs from the fruit) to grow as much as possible before winter. These non-fruiting canes will bear fruit next year. Removing the old canes means the roots only have to support the new canes, and they will be healthier and more prolific next summer.

Locavore Activism: Oppose Factory Farming

The Food and Water Watch is asking people to sign a petition asking the USDA to stop offering guaranteed loans to new pork and poultry factory farms. The petition reads, in part:

USDA is currently guaranteeing loans to new production facilities, which contribute to over-supply in an already saturated marketplace. At the same time, USDA is using taxpayer dollars for bonus pork and poultry buys in order to stabilize prices resulting from overproduction. (On March 31st, USDA committed to a $25 million bonus pork buy, and in May the industry asked for an additional $50 million pork buy.)

They argue that this is an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars. I would also argue that factory farms cost taxpayers even more by damaging the environment. More relevant to this blog, this USDA policy makes it difficult for small, local, more sustainable and ecologically responsible farms to compete against big factory farms.

Know Your Wild Edible Plants Tomorrow Evening

Russ Cohen is giving a walking lecture on wild edible plants of New England at Blue Heron Farm in Lincoln, MA tomorrow from 6-8pm. This is awfully tempting, especially if it gives me a better clue about identifying wild mushrooms, but I don't know if I can make it. We shall see.

Jennifer Hashley Speaks

Here, in its entirety, is the letter Jen sent us as a thank you after the dinner. In addition to helping run Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, Jen works for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. Some very interesting stuff in here.
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Hi Friends,
I would like to thank everyone again for taking the time to attend last week’s delicious donor appreciation dinner at Beacon Hill Bistro and especially for your leadership support of the MPPU project through the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at the Tufts Friedman School. It was great to meet many of you in person and to see all of you in this context - sharing in the delicious food made possible through your contributions and support of this vital project. For those of you unable to join us for the dinner, you were certainly there in spirit and we hope to catch you at a next event.

Since the restaurant venue was a bit loud, I didn't get the opportunity to share a few highlights of what New Entry is all about and how much it means to me, both personally, and to the new farmers we create through our programs and how all of this ties in with your gifts and leadership support of the MPPU project (an update of where the MPPU project stands is below).

I hope you've had some time over the weekend to explore the information about the project we shared with you on the thumb drive and I'd love to share with you some of the thoughts I had hoped to verbalize during the dinner (get cozy, read on!). In my role with New Entry, (the other "hat" I wear in life), I have the opportunity to work with all of the incredible individuals New Entry has helped train as new farmers in Massachusetts. I have gained an incredible education from the amazing individuals we work with on a daily basis – helping them achieve their farming dreams and goals and truly become the next generation of culturally diverse farmers.

New Entry was originally founded to assist socially-disadvantaged immigrants, refugees, and asylees with agricultural backgrounds “re-enter” agriculture in Massachusetts. We have worked with individuals from Southeast Asia, Latin America, African Countries, the Middle East, and beyond. Many of our participants are low-income, many with English as a Second Language, varying degrees of education and literacy. This has been an incredibly rich experience where folks who had no idea (living in urbanized areas in Massachusetts) that there was the potential to farm here and to grow their traditional crops. It’s been a learning curve for everyone – for the farmers – to learn what will actually grow here (most of them are from tropical climates) in our short and finicky growing season, and for staff to learn all of the exotic crops and growing methods such diverse farmers bring to the project. Over the past two years, with the growing interest in local food production, we have expanded our target audience and are now also working with traditional US-born individuals (gringos) who want to farm. This has increased our ability to serve additional clients and expand our current network of food producers. We are now an extremely multi-cultural program with participants hailing from over 30 different countries. It makes for interesting celebrations and meetings – we all learn from each other and it’s a truly rich experience!

You might wonder what we do and exactly how we do it. Briefly, we offer a series of training programs and services for new farmers:

• An Explore Farming! Program to provide folks with an orientation to our programs and services and what it means to operate a farm business in MA
• We have a 6-week Farm Business Training course that helps prepare folks with a first-year business plan they use to develop their markets, crop production, equipment and supply resources, and figure out how they begin to farm.
• The project leases over 30 acres of “Training Farms” from private landowners and Land Trusts that we develop with all the infrastructure a new farmer needs to get started (storage, greenhouse space, small equipment, irrigation, etc.) where individuals can rent land from the project for up to 3 years to build their skills and capacities in production and marketing.
• We offer practical skills training – a series of 12+ on-farm workshops throughout the growing season to help folks get the hands-on training they need to succeed with the latest technology and approaches.
• And, we offer hours and hours of individual technical assistance to help people address all the farming-related needs they have –whether production, business planning, market access or preparing for the “transition.”

After farming on a training / incubator site for the 3-year period (if they choose), we help folks transition to independent farmland that they can continue to grow their business on their own indefinitely. In doing so, we are continuing to keep scores of acres of farmland in active production. Our other programs include:

• Our World PEAS CSA program – to help new farmers with market access, we coordinate a multi-producer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we combine the products of 30+ farmers in our program and deliver 218 shares to over 300 families in the Greater Boston area. What’s unique about our CSA is its ethnic flair where folks get exposed to veggies they might not be familiar with – we of course provide recipes and instructions!
• Farmland Matching Service– we help landowners find farmers and we help farmers find land to expand, or grow their business.
• Farm Employment Connections– we also help folks connect to farm jobs if they need more skills development or need to work for a paycheck before they start their own farm business.
• Agricultural resource development – we also produce training materials, resource guides, and other educational resources on agricultural related topics.

People always ask me – “what do you do in winter?” I always have to chuckle and inform folks of all the program areas I just mentioned – and noting that developing new farmers is a full-time / year-round job. We do much of our trainings, ag conferences, and one-to-one planning and marketing work with individuals in the winter months. And part of my focus is ongoing development work. Our biggest obstacle to farm training is ongoing funding and we rely on the generosity of private donors like you, foundations and grants to carry on our work.

MPPU Update:
You might also be asking yourself, how does New Entry's work relate to the MPPU project? Over the years at New Entry, we always have individuals (new farmers) who would come to our program and not be exclusively interested in vegetable production (which is the bulk of our training curriculum)…so, we began to think of ways we could incorporate a livestock production training component into our programming. Me, being a pragmatic optimist, thought we could easily start with a poultry project at our training farms. Poultry is an “easy entry” livestock product that is great for beginners learning new skills – it doesn’t require a significant amount of land, it’s a fairly limited financial investment to start up on a small scale, there is incredible market demand, and if someone realizes it’s not right for them – in less than 8-10 weeks, there is a harvestable product and it is possible to recoup most of the initial investment.

Then reality set in, and I realized New Entry would be setting ourselves up with the same challenge Pete and I were having with the lack of processing infrastructure, and I determined that before we begin training new farmers in livestock production, poultry in particular, we should begin to address the infrastructure piece of the equation. Thus the MPPU project was born! My entire goal for this project was not just to meet an immediate “Pete and Jen” need, but a growing statewide need for us to truly have a sustainable local agriculture infrastructure. We need access to processing facilities that are in decline in the Northeast and across the US. I’ve been working for the past 2 years in my role as New Entry director to secure funding to address the regulatory aspects of the MPPU and to get the existing unit “up to snuff.” We accomplished that and we are ready for expansion. We were recently awarded a training grant to help train new producers in the MPPU regulatory protocol and food safety components, and we had over 25 producers attend our first May 29th training event. The challenge has always been that there is only 1 MPPU currently serving all of Mass, and as we continue to reach out to more farmers (and the market demand is creating interest among more farmers every day) – we need more capacity. The best part is – you’ve already put your resources where your values are and recognized the importance of this project – hopefully not just for Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, but also for New Entry who can help take this project and expand it to a broader farmer audience throughout the state (and beyond – we have folks from RI, CT, NH, NY and others looking at our model). Currently, there are 4 farms using the MPPU in Massachusetts – but we expect that by 2010, there will be at least a dozen, if not more, producers licensed to use the MPPU and it will continue to grow exponentially. This will mean more local, tasty chicken at farmers’ markets, being served at restaurants, such as BHB, as meat shares in CSAs, and elsewhere. It means more demand for more MPPUs and the continual rebuilding and energizing of a vibrant local food and farming system. It’s pretty exciting stuff!

So, our next steps with this MPPU project is to leverage the funds we’ve raised and get the next unit constructed. We currently have $27K raised toward our $35K goal (which is now turning into a $45-50K goal to build the next iteration of the unit we want with a few upgrades and fancier bells & whistles than we originally envisioned). We have submitted a proposal for a USDA Community Food Projects grant that may provide additional resources toward a new unit and help us get our New Entry Poultry Demonstration project off the ground at our training farm sites in Dracut, and we are submitting a USDA Rural Development grant this week in partnership with the New England Small Farm Institute (who owns the existing unit) to fund 2 additional units throughout the state and develop a better management and business model for ongoing operations. With your contributions toward this project, New Entry would then lease and manage one of the units for our Eastern Mass farmers to share.

Need for continuing support: I wanted to wrap up my update with a quote from the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture - "A dollar spent on food from a local farm buys more than just groceries. In addition to sustenance, real nutrition and good flavor, it also buys vibrant rural communities, food security, and confidence in your food supply." That said, I can assure you that your dollars spent toward the MPPU project are supporting more than just a trailer that processes chickens – we are helping recreate vibrant communities of food producers, keeping farmland in active production, and assuring the future of our food supply. The generous contributions from all of you provide New Entry with the critical resources needed to expand in new directions and help us cover our continuing expenses related to these types of new initiatives that we are developing now and into the future. So thank you once again for your generosity and support, and I hope to have your support of New Entry for years to come!

If you have any questions about your gift to the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at the Tufts Friedman School, please contact me or Sean Devendorf, sean.devendorf@tufts.edu.

I hope to see all of you at our August 6th Farm Tour in Dracut - if not before.
Thanks so much again!
Best, Jennifer

The Ultimate Locavore Meal: Beacon Hill Bistro

As a wonderful side benefit of donating money to the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project for a new Mobile Poultry Processing Unit, my husband Alex and I were invited to a locavore meal on Thursday, July 16th, prepared by Executive Chef Jason Bond at the Beacon Hill Bistro, located in the Beacon Hill Hotel on Charles St. in Boston.

And it was spectacular! Aside from getting to sit next to Jennifer Hashley (of Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds) herself, the food was phenomenally good. Of course, all of the ingredients came from Pete & Jen's own livestock and Verrill Farm's vegetables, so they were fresh and wonderful. The meal also came with an impressive selection of (regrettably not local) wines.

The Beacon Hill Bistro is a smallish restaurant with lovely arches and wood beams. It suffers a bit from poor acoustics - we had to shout to be heard throughout the meal, and I noticed that felt had been tacked to the undersides of the tables to help absorb some of that noise - but it's also cozy and comfortable. Be warned that the restrooms are not handicapped accessible (down two flights of stairs in the basement). The wait staff was wonderful and attentive with a well-informed somalier describing exactly where and how each of the wines was produced.

As we stood or sat down to chat, we nibbled on appetizers from three platters of pates and terrines (I had never even heard of terrine before - it's essentially upscale meatloaf made of finely chopped meat, cooked in an earthenware dish called a terrine, and served at room temperature, and it's as different from meatloaf as pate is from devilled ham). The pates were made from chicken or rabbit liver, and the terrines were made of pork, including one stuffed into the hoof of a pig. All were utterly delicious with amazingly smooth texture. There was an aspic that made the rounds of the tables but somehow never got back to me - o, woe! This was served with a selection of fresh breads and mustards. (Mustard was a recurring theme throughout the meal.)

The first course was an arugula salad with seared rabbit livers, grained mustard, and creme fraiche. This is according to the menu, and I have to say that I don't recall the creme fraiche at all, but the liver was tender and delicious in the mustard, and it was accompanied by a rabbit heart and kidney, both of which were astonishingly good. This was accompanied by the best wine I have ever tasted. Seriously. It was Jim Barr "The Lodge Hill" Dry Riesling, Clare Valley, 2008. Smooth, dry, and utterly without aftertaste, I could have happily drunk nothing but that wine the entire evening. Alex and I are planning to lay in a case of it.

The second course was the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had - no offense, Mom! Incredibly tender dark chicken meat with homemade egg (of course) noodles, carrots and peas and other vegetables in a strong, subtle broth. Marvelous. This was accompanied by a chardonnay that was probably pretty decent but suffered by comparison with the riesling (Domaine Talmard Macon Chardonnay, Bourgogne, 2007). I should also say that I've never really liked chardonnay, and this was no exception.

The entree knocked Alex's socks off; smoked Tamworth ham with glazed new carrots, kohlrabi, and cabernet radishes. Alex is a serious ham fan - his favorite breakfast these days is breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, chunks of ham steak from Chestnut Farm, shredded cheddar cheese, and green chile. This ham blew away every other ham we'd ever tasted. It was almost sweet, it was so tender and flavorful, so the inevitable mustard balanced it very well. To our astonishment, the radish was roasted and utterly delicious. Alex was convinced it had to be a sweet onion and not a radish. I am dying to try this trick myself with the last few radishes in my garden. The ham was accompanied by a fairly nice syrah (Clos la Chance "Black Chinned" Syrah, Central Coast, 2005).

For dessert, we had "Just Dug Carrot Cake," and it totally lived up to its name. Carrot cake is my favorite kind of cake, and this one had carrots so fresh and wonderful, I almost didn't notice the cake. I was also distracted by the accompanying creme fraiche and cream cheese ice cream (this must be tasted to be believed - it's as creamy as you might imagine something with "cream" twice in its name, but not very sweet) as well as several candied herbs. We all had a great time trying to guess which herbs. The tarragon was easy, but we were stumped on the other two, which turned out to be shiso and angelica leaves. Wow! This was accompanied by a tiny glass of slightly effervescent strawberry wine every bit as good as the Riesling. This was not on the official menu, and I couldn't here the somalier's explanation of it, but I will be keeping my eye out for strawberry wine in the future.

It turned out to be Jen's birthday, with Pete's coming on the following week, so Chef Bond also brought out a chocolate cake for them, which the rest of us refused to touch on the grounds that a) it was theirs and they deserved to have all of it, and b) we were utterly stuffed. I did, however, get to taste some candied angelica stem (had to be removed in order to put the cake in a box), which was lovely. I've never had candied herbs before, and I'm deeply intrigued. The candied shiso really surprised me, and now I find myself wondering: candied sage? Candied cilantro? Hmm...

Chef Bond came out with the cake and spoke to us about his commitment to local food sources and the MPPU project. Apparently, he has gone out and helped Pete and Jen slaughter their chickens in the past. He described how wonderful it is to have this deep connection to the food he works with, and about the superior quality of locally-sourced meats and produce. Pete and Jen presented him with a framed set of photos of their livestock in appreciation of the meal.

Of course, this was a special dinner with special ingredients, but knowing the chef's commitment to local, sustainable food, I'd return to the Beacon Hill Bistro in a heartbeat. While the dinner menu is pricey ($20-30/entree), the lunch menu is nicely affordable, offering dishes like Tea-Cured Gravlax, Herbed Potato Salad, Green Beans, Baby Greens for $13.00 (intriguing) and Local Grass-Fed Beef Steak, Frites, Watercress and Madeira Butter Sauce for $15.00.

I highly recommend the Beacon Hill Bistro for its excellent food and commitment to local, sustainable food.

Worthy Cause: New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

In our search for the ultimate local eggs, my husband and I stumbled across the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (NESFP) at Tufts University. This program "was originally founded to assist socially-disadvantaged immigrants, refugees, and asylees with agricultural backgrounds 're-enter' agriculture in Massachusetts," says Jennifer Hashley, better known as Jen of Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds. Today, NESFP helps anyone who's interested in starting a farming business, even "gringos." My husband is planning on attending the Explore Farming! course at Tufts someday (when the girls are consistently sleeping through the night, and we have enough brain to think about such things).

Right now, NESFP is trying to raise money to purchase a new Mobile Poultry Processing Unit (MPPU), a movable chicken slaughterhouse. Currently, if you're a small farmer raising chickens, you have to bring your chickens to a large commercial slaughterhouse and pay to have them processed for you, but these slaughterhouses are few and far between. With an MPPU, farmers can slaughter the chickens at their own farms and sell them directly to their local customers, reducing transportation and processing costs and ensuring an incredibly fresh bird.

A month ago, my husband and I donated $500 to this worthy cause, and we did so at just the right time, because last week, Pete and Jen hosted a dinner at the Beacon Hill Bistro for all donors who contributed $500 to this cause (more on the dinner later). We actually got to sit next to Jen and discuss local, sustainable farming and the needs of the New England farming community. The MPPU will vastly improve the independence and sustainability of many small farmers, who tend to use far more humane and healthy chicken farming practices than large, industrial companies. It will also encourage more people to start small farms and raise high quality chickens in our local area.

If you would like to donate to this worthy cause, you can donate online through the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Please scroll to gift designation 3 and specify that you would like your donation to be directed to the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project or NESFP.

Backyard Local: When It Pays to Consult an Expert First

Today, I did an exceedingly stupid thing. I ate a wild mushroom without consulting an expert first.

Before you gasp in horror, I'm (obviously) perfectly fine. I knew immediately, with the first nibble, that I had the wrong fungus in my mouth and washed it out before ingesting it. The mushroom turned out to be the rather well-named False Chanterelle. It had me totally fooled, although it did not have the characteristic apricot smell and was rather more orange than I'd expected. I found them growing on the side of the driveway into my work and gathered a few this morning to test. They really, really do look like chanterelles, but the giveaway (I found out later) is that the gills do not extend down the stems.

False chanterelles are not terribly poisonous. Some people even consider them edible, but they're known to cause gastrointestinal upset. The tiny nibble I took was spicy and peppery in flavor, rather than fruity as a chanterelle should be.

So the moral here is to be properly trained in the identification of wild mushrooms. I have contacted the Boston Mycological Club for more information on their classes and guided walks and will let you know when they get back to me. I'm also planning on attending a workshop or two on mushrooms at the Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference in August.

Free Local Cheese Tasting on Thursday

Boston Localvores is sponsoring a local cheese tasting at the Growing Center in Somerville on Thursday from 6 to 9 pm. While the tasting is free, they encourage you to donate $3 to cover costs and perhaps bring some bread/crackers/jam to go with the cheese.

See http://bostonlocalvores.org/blog/ for more info.

Don't Trust that Organic Label: Another Reason to Buy Local

An article in today's Washington Post reports that the standards by which a food product can be judged "organic" by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has been significantly watered down.

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula.

This is just another reason to get to know your food by buying local and talking to the people who produce your food. When you go to farmers' markets, don't be afraid to ask questions like, "What, exactly, does integrated pest management mean? Do you ever use pesticides? What do you feed your chickens?" Remember, these foods are about to become part of you, and you have a right to know what's going into your body.

Towards a Local Food Culture

My trip to Sweden changed my perspective in so many ways, but the one thing relevant to this blog is the extent to which Swedes have a local food culture. We happened to be in Sweden for Midsummer, which is a very big holiday celebrated in much the same way that Memorial Day is in the U.S. as the official start of summer. It's actually a much bigger deal there, where the winters are so terribly dark and cold. And how do they choose to celebrate it? They weave garlands of wildflowers to wear upon their heads, dance around a maypole-like structure festooned with ivy and pine branches, hold a bonfire to ensure there's light through the shortest (and not terribly dark) night of the year, and they eat local food. Lots of it. In particular, strawberries and new potatoes.

Because of the unseasonably cold and wet weather, locally grown strawberries were less abundant than usual and thus in high demand. Strawberries are a key symbol of midsummer, and if you dare to show up to your midsummer party toting strawberries imported from Poland, oh, my! The sneers and jeers. Far better to pay $10 for a local pint. In grocery stores, the wooden strawberry baskets were stamped with an elaborate Made in Sweden symbol. Along the highways, local farmers set up farmstands selling strawberries, potatoes, and bouquets for garlands. Every restaurant we went to offered local strawberries and cream for dessert and pancakes with strawberries as a kid's meal.

Swedes also take tremendous pride in locally grown new potatoes. Ask any Swede, and he'll expound at great length on the superiority of the Swedish new potato in flavor, texture, and abundancy. I have to admit, they were tasty and creamy. Swedes even have special potato tumblers - they look rather like salad spinners - in which you place a dinner-sized amounts of new potatoes and turn a crank to remove all the peels.

Swedes take pride in several other local foods, such as lingonberries, shrimp (particularly in Stockholm) and crayfish (particularly in Gothenburg). What astonishes me, however, is that they take pride in their food at all. Aside from New England maple syrup and clam chowder, and chile in New Mexico, I've never experienced this kind of fierce loyalty to one's regional food. Sweden has a deeply ingrained local food culture, of the kind that Michael Pollan discusses in his book, In Defense of Food.

...the "What to eat" question is somewhat more complicated for us than it is for, say, cows. Yet for most of human history, humans have navigated the question without expert advice. To guide us, we had, instead, Culture, which, at least when it comes to food, is really just a fancy word for your mother. What to eat, how much of it to eat, what order in which to eat it, with what and when and with whom have for most of human history been a set of questions long settled and passed down from parents to child.

Somehow, Swedes have never really lost this culture. Yes, I saw Mexican food in grocery stores, passed a sushi restaurant, ate at a pizzeria in Gothenburg (bleh). And Swedes love their coffee and are the highest per capita consumers of bananas in the world. And yet, nearly every meal I ate while in Sweden had its roots in Swedish food tradition, from the herring appetizers with nubba (shots of aqua vit) to the hot dogs (korv) sold on street corners.

And Swedes can be inventive when using local food. On the one day of the vacation when I utterly succumbed to jet lag and stayed home instead of visiting yet another castle, my husband brought me back an enormous tub of horseradish soup. That's right, horseradish. Apparently, he and his various relatives had gone to a restaurant where the cook knew a local farmer with a bumper crop of horseradish. She blithely made a creamed soup out of it, using cream, creme fraiche, butter, eggs, and herbs and spices. This is so quintessentially Swedish, where nearly every dish has some addition of butter, cream, or both. And the soup was utterly delicious. I can't wait to start hunting through farmer's market stalls for horseradish so that I can try it myself.

This all reminds me of New Mexico, where I grew up. New Mexico also has a strong local food culture, particularly centered around chile and corn. My mother is Hispanic, and in my grandparent's house on their farm in Albuquerque, I ate very traditional New Mexican cuisine: enchiladas, tamales, posole, chicharones, sopapillas, calabacitas, papitas con carne al caldo, carne adobada, biscochitos, empanaditas.

And, just as described in Michael Pollan's book, my mother cooked almost none of these with the notable exception of enchiladas. (A favorite family story is how my Anglo father used to wash my grandparents' ceilings for seven-layer enchiladas with a fried egg on top. My dad is 6'4", and the ceilings were 7 feet high.) Instead, my mother made chicken cacciatore, chicken imperial, spaghetti and meatballs, salmon croquettes, Hawaiian hot dogs. And they were all wonderful - my mother is a fantastic cook. But they weren't her culture, nor were they local (with the exception of homegrown vegetables and beef from the farm). When my family eats out, and they do that more now than ever, they eat Chinese, Indian, Italian... anything but local cuisine, until I come to town and demand a run to Los Cuates or El Pinto. And yes, there are lots and lots of New Mexican restaurants in Albuquerque, all doing a fine business. There is still a local food culture in New Mexico. But it's not what it used to be.

Other regions of the U.S. have retained their local food culture, most notably the South. Living here in Boston, however, I have to look hard to find any remnants of a New England food culture. It's easier to find on the coast, in places like Hull and Gloucester and Cape Cod, though I have to wonder how much the tourist industry has tainted this cuisine. This seems tragic to me, that we have no real local cuisine. One of the things I love about Boston is the abundance and variety of restaurants: Greek, Chinese, Ethiopian, Himalayan, you name it. But I can't think of a single restaurant that serves only traditional New England cuisine. Has it died out altogether?

I think it's time to create a new New England food culture and cuisine, one that builds on old traditions and makes use of new techniques but always and particularly makes use of locally available foods. If you know of a restaurant that specializes in traditional New England food, let me know. If you're an nth-generation New Englander with recipes passed down through the generations, please share them! Let's revive our local food culture and make it stronger and better than ever.

Back to the Blog

Sorry, folks. I've been on vacation in Sweden and just returned last Sunday. I've been working and battling a Swedish virus my daughter brought back with us, but now, finally, I have time to blog again, and I have so much to write, I don't even know where to begin. Here's a brief synopsis:

• Local food culture in Sweden
• Farmshares are back!
• Locavores on WBUR
• Harvest Coop sponsors first ever ShiftMob
• Duck eggs from Golden Egg Farm found at Arlington farmers' market
• Backyard local: picks from the veggie garden
• Cooking with garlic scapes

Okay, now to tackle these head-on, and not necessarily in the above order.

A Local Egg Community Writ in Cartons

My husband recently returned from his much-anticipated "midlife crisis" walkabout in Vermont with 25 dozen eggs. Not quite the outcome I'd expected. It turns out that Cobb Hill Cohousing, where he was staying, was experiencing an egg crisis. Their egg manager had quit, and they had dozens of eggs piling up. My husband sent out email to our friends and managed to sell about 22 dozen eggs for them (which means we have 3 dozen or so extra, in case you'd like some.)

So our dining room table is now covered with cartons of eggs. And here's the interesting thing: every one of those cartons has been reused. The cartons come from all over New England, some from grocery chains like Shur-Fine, some from large commercial egg businesses like Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs, and some from much smaller farms. The most intriguing carton is entirely blank with a handwritten label: "Maple Knoll Farm."

Not a single one of these cartons has anything to indicate that it contains eggs from Cobb Hill Farm. All the folks at Cobb Hill added were small pieces of tape with the collection date on them. The cartons of eggs I buy from Chestnut Farm are also unlabeled. In both cases, these eggs have no need of labels because they are bought directly from the farm that produces them.

This is locavorism at its best. Looking at the pile of cartons, you know that customers brought them in to the farm to be reused, not just because it's the best thing to do for the environment, but because they have a personal relationship with the farmers and thus with the food they're eating. I certainly enjoy gathering cartons from my cohousing neighbors and bringing them to Chestnut Farm every month. Boy, will they be getting a surplus of cartons next week!

If you'd like to become part of the supply chain for your eggs, but you don't have a convenient farm to donate your used cartons to, consider bringing them to your local farmers' market, now that they're open again. I'm sure the egg vendors there will thank you.

HFCS vs. Cane Sugar

Slate.com today has a very interesting article on whether cane sugar is environmentally better than high fructose corn syrup. The simple answer is yes. Beet sugar is also better than HFCS, but it's unclear whether cane or beet sugar are better. Sugarcane produces more sugar per acre, and its byproducts are used to power the plants that process the sugar, making it rather efficient, but it requires a huge amount of water to produce and can only be grown in tropical climates. Beets grow happily in northern climates but require more processing.

Which raises the locavore question: is it possible to get locally produced beet sugar? If so, would the reduction in transportation costs offset the processing cost? Does anyone know of a source of local beet sugar? And how does this measure up to maple syrup and honey as sweeteners?

The general conclusion of the article, incidentally, was to use less sweeteners overall.

First Farmers' Market of the Season Tomorrow!

The first farmers' market of the season starts up tomorrow in Copley Sq. from 11am to 6pm. Check out the revamped Mass Farmers' Markets website for more details. Don't raise your expectations too much, though. It's mighty early in the season, and you're not likely to find much other than greens (lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, etc.). If you get there early, you might find some asparagus, garlic scapes, rhubarb, and fiddleheads (edible fern shoots).

The City Hall and Davis Square farmers' markets will open on May 27th, Central Square starts on June 1st, and Framingham Village Green on June 11th. From there, it's probably open season everywhere. Hurray! Time to cancel my Boston Organics box.

Know Your Stuff, Too

Paul Krugman's column in the NY Times today presents a compelling argument that any efforts we make toward stemming our carbon emissions will be insufficient in the face of China's rapidly growing carbon emissions.

How can we convince China to make improvements to their infrastructure? Simple: vote with your dollars. China can churn out junk that is cheap because they use highly polluting coal-burning power generation facilities, passing on the cost of environmental degradation to the rest of the planet, including their own people.

If we refuse to buy their products and instead buy locally, thoughtfully, sustainably made products, we not only support our local economy, we promote better environmental standards worldwide.

So before you buy that cheap plastic toy stamped "Made in China," think again. I will do some research over the weekend to find locally made products that are sustainably produced.

Packaging

It occurs to me that another compelling argument for buying local goods is packaging. My very first job out of college was working as a technical editor for Kraft Foods in some suburb of Chicago. I was editing recipe specifications for various products (Blueberry Morning cereal, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc.), and while there were generally two or three specifications for each product that were actual recipes, the vast majority of the specifications were packaging. For Mac'n'Cheese alone, you have the foil bag for the powdered cheese mix, the small paperboard carton for the macaroni and the foil bag, then a corrugated cardboard carton in which 12 or 24 paperboard cartons go, and sometimes there's an even larger corrugated cardboard carton in which four of the smaller corrugated cardboard cartons go, and finally, a pallet on which the cartons are stacked, frequently with more cardboard between the layers of cartons, and wrapped in plastic wrap.

Pallets account for an appalling amount of lumber usage and are rarely fully recycled. Vast amounts of cardboard are used to protect the product while it is shipped over large distances. And foil packets are completely unrecyclable.

By contrast, locally produced foods have almost no packaging, and most of that packaging is reused many times before being recycled. Our farmshare comes in reusable waxed corrugated cardboard boxes, which we save and return to them each week. Occasionally, loose greens will be packaged in plastic bags, but other than that, even the rubber band used for bunches of vegetables like kale can be returned for reuse.

Meat from our meatshare does come vacuum-sealed in plastic, but it is delivered in wholly reusable coolers. And their eggs are packaged in reused egg cartons. I've organized my cohousing community to save all their egg cartons and deliver them to Chestnut Farm each month when I pick up my share.

Produce brought to farmers' markets is typically brought in reusable plastic totes or bushel baskets. If you plan ahead and bring reusable bags, you can avoid taking home plastic bags as well.

Even locally produced goods such as maple syrup, honey, cheese, soaps, jams, jellies, flours, and breads probably use no more packaging than is needed for the product itself. That means far fewer trees felled to produce pallets and packaging cardboard, and far less energy consumed in producing the packaging.

I'm curious to know whether glass milk bottles are more energy efficient than plastic or paper bottles. They're heavier and more costly to transport, but they use renewable materials more effectively and, in my opinion, better preserve the flavor of the milk. Does anyone have information on this?

The Story of Stuff

The New York Times today reported on a wonderful little web documentary called "The Story of Stuff" on consumer economics and how it is trashing our environment and destroying communities and cultures. On the Story of Stuff web site, they briefly list buying local as one of the ways to reform the system:

When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community.

This inspired me to do a quick search on "buy local reduce waste" which turned up a great article on Bright Hub. Food for thought.

Cocoa Mulch from Taza Chocolate

I send email to Taza Chocolate asking how to buy their cocoa mulch. Laura Cere responded, saying that you can "call and order for pick up at our factory. The cost is $25.00 for 40lbs."

This a great, highly sustainable product. Cocoa mulch is made from the shells of the cacao beans. Since this is a natural byproduct of the chocolate-making process, it's sustainable. The beans are shelled locally, so you're not buying mulch that has consumed extra fuel to travel here. And the price is quite competitive. Best of all, it makes your yard or garden smell like chocolate.

Two warnings:

1. Cocoa mulch contains high levels of theobromide, which is toxic to cats and dogs. While cats generally aren't all that interested in chocolate, dogs will happily eat the mulch, which can cause serious illness and even death. So do not use cocoa mulch in spaces frequented by dogs, probably not even in a front yard without a fence.
2. Cocoa mulch is fairly alkaline. If your soil is alkaline, as, alas, mine is, you may not want to use this mulch. However, if your soil is rather acidic, for example, in a yard with lots of pine trees, this could be a very useful amendment.
   

Weekend of Locavore Mania

Ye gods, I don't even know where to start. This weekend, I packed entirely too much locavore activity into three days (I don't work on Mondays). Rather than sock you with a ridiculously long posting, I'll give you the highlights and flesh them out over the next few days.

Saturday

• Noon: Toured the Taza Chocolate Factory. Cool new thing I learned: locally available, sustainable cacao mulch can be bought there.
• 3pm: Visited Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds. Bought soap made with "saponified local pork tallow."
• 4pm: Verrill Farm's temporary farmstand. Mmm... their own hothouse greens and spinach, plus locally raised and highly seasonal fiddlehead ferns and ramps.

Sunday
Collapsed. Well, cooked fiddleheads and ramps, along with delicious london broil from last month's meatshare.

Monday
Got two great things I heard about in email:

1. http://tinyfarmblog.com/ - Organic micro-farming. What a great concept.
   
2. http://www.namanet.org/csf/cape-ann-fresh-catch - A fishshare! I just told my husband last week I wanted one, and lo! one appears. Amazing. Hope they have herring.
   

Summer in April

It's 11:30am and 82 degrees F. Summer has arrived in the midst of April. I washed all our winter coats and went out to hang them on the clothesline, passing the vegetable garden as I went.

The garden is a field of blooming dandelions. My goodness.

I checked on the peas, a little concerned that the snap peas had not yet sprouted, even though the snow peas have been up for nearly two weeks. If they don't come up in this weather, they never will. To my relief, I spotted one solitary pea shoot amid the straw. Snap peas in June. I can hardly wait. Last weekend, I planted lettuce and radishes, now quietly germinating under row covers to protect them from flea beetles and neighborhood cats, and scattered parsley seed in the herb bed.

The overwintered kale has shot up into a purplish-green bush of leaves, and an overwintered mustard actually had the temerity to bolt into bright yellow bloom. The garlic is perking up, sending out new shoots. Soon we'll have garlic scapes for salads and stir fry. The sage is greening up and needs pruning, now that it's obvious which stems survived the winter. Chives are poking green fingers at the sky. The rhubarb has exploded into a rippling mass of leaves, and the stalks might be ready in as little as a couple of weeks. The strawberries are blooming, the blueberries are sending out their first new green leaves, and the peach trees have burst into blossom. And, strange but wonderful, the fennel planted last year has come back from its roots in a little olive green hedgerow. Does anyone know whether such fennel will set good heads for harvest? I had no idea that fennel could be grown as a perennial.

Growing your own food has more compensations that convenience and environmentalism. Gardens in spring are surprisingly, stunningly gorgeous. I can't wait to see what comes up next.

TODAY: Free Local Food in Harvard Square

Green Streets is sponsoring the following Earth Day event in Harvard Square today, which includes free food from Henrietta's Table! Enjoy.

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Join in the Big Green Walk/Ride Day Party in Harvard Square THIS FRIDAY!

Drop by between 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at Winthrop Park (Mount Auburn Street and JFK Streets) in Harvard Square. There will be a variety of events and activities, including a computer and cell phone recycling drop off, organic compost from Boloco, green food samples from Grendel's Den, Henrietta's Table, Upstairs on the Square, and Om!, and a "Spring Clean" at 1:00pm.

Green Streets will have stencils and paint for anyone who wants to decorate shirts, bags, hats, socks, bike flags, etc. with Walk/Ride Day themes. This will be BYOC (Bring Your Own Clothes). Give life to old clothes and create a one-of-a-kind look!

We'll also have our popular buttons for sale!

Click [http://www.harvardsquare.com/Home/Articles/Great-Big-Green-Party-in-Harvard-Square.aspx] here for event details!

Taza Chocolate Factory Tour - Saturday, May 2nd

Taza will be hosting another of their open houses on Saturday, May 2nd, and I plan to attend with my daughters in tow. Hope to see you there! Here's what they said in their newsletter:

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Tour Taza Chocolate on Saturday May 2nd
Visit the factory, learn about our process, shop for Mother's Day.

Eight days before Mother's Day, we're opening our doors for chocolate tastings and tours of the factory. Join us at our Somerville facility on Saturday, May 2nd 2009, and learn how bean-to-bar chocolate is really made. We'll have plenty of samples for snacking, and a coloring table for the kids.

Check out our gorgeous Barth Sirocco cocoa roaster, learn what the heck a winnowing machine does, and run your fingers over the grooves in our millstones of our Mexican molinos. Plus, you'll get to taste every one of our products, and sip a tasty chocolate drink made with Taza Chocolate Mexicano.


Taza Chocolate Factory

561 Windsor St
Somerville, MA 02143


Open House Factory Tour
Saturday, May 2nd 2009
10am to 6pm
Click here for directions


Just a reminder - we're expecting a high turn-out, so there may be a short wait in between tours. Families and children are warmly welcomed, but encouraged to come early, as we will be busiest from 12 pm to 5 pm. We'll have a gift shop set up for all your Mother's Day gifting needs - trust us, moms love chocolate.

The Great Locavore Meal - Part 2

Well, the meal was an enormous success. Despite the fact that the root veggies came out a little crispy, the whole wheat bread was not completely cooked through, the pork also did not quite completely cook, and I never got around to dipping the strawberries in chocolate, all of the diners were extremely satisfied and happy with the quality and flavor of the meal. I was very pleased by the moist chicken, probably the best I've ever tasted. One diner proclaimed the pumpkin pie to be the best she'd ever had. While it was a huge amount of work, I'd happily do it again.

Here's what I posted to my community about the meal. Note: for those of you who don't know me, I live in a cohousing community with a large common kitchen and pantry stocked with staples like baking powder and spices. We hold common meals three times/week, and I was cooking this as a common meal. Thanks to the cleanup crew for dealing with the messy aftermath! For more on cohousing, see http://www.cohousing.org. Now, on with the post:

Here’s a little more information about the local foods in Sunday’s meal, along with recipes for the bread and pie. Really, I can’t take credit for the fabulous taste of the food. Most of that came from the outstanding ingredients we obtained, so if you want to reproduce that flavor, BUY LOCAL!!!

The pork and chicken came in our meatshare from Chestnut Farm: http://www.chestnutfarms.org/. They were rubbed with canola oil from the coho pantry and seasoned with Maine sea salt and herbs from our garden. I stuffed the chicken with organic onion from Trader Joe’s and apple from the Boston Organics Dogma Box: http://www.bostonorganics.com/fresh/thisweekbox.html to keep it moist.

The vast majority of the root vegetables came from the Dogma Box. The remainder were more organic onions from Trader Joe’s (likely grown in California), locally grown but not organic new red potatoes bought at Pemberton Farms, and locally grown organic parsnips bought at Lionette’s Market (http://www.lionettesmarket.com/). These were tossed with thoroughly nonlocal olive oil, melted garlic butter from Mendon Creamery (not organic but local in Mendon, MA) bought at the Dairy Bar in Davis Square (http://www.kickasscupcakes.com/Dairy_Bar.php), Maine sea salt bought at Lionette’s, maple syrup from Ewen’s (http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farm.php?farm=2252) bought at the Dairy Bar, and fresh thyme, sage, and chives from our garden. I sliced the vegetables fairly thin and roasted them a bit too long (almost 90 minutes) at 375 degrees F.

The organic greens came primarily from Pete’s Greens (http://www.petesgreens.com/) bought at Lionette’s with a small contribution of greens and broccoli sprouts from the Dogma Box – all organic. We added the stems from the mushrooms. The dressing was homemade by Alex using locally produced blue cheese bought at the Dairy Bar, a raspberry-infused vinegar we got as a free sample in our Boston Organics box over a year ago, more Maine sea salt, and canola oil from the coho pantry.

The mushrooms were all grown in Pennsylvania. The white mushrooms came in the Dogma Box, and I bought the crimini (not organic) at Pemberton Farms. We stuffed them with sauteed kale and onions that had overwintered in our veggie garden and topped them with more of the local blue cheese.

I made the bread from scratch (see recipes below) using mostly flour from Littleton Grist Mill in Littleton, NH (http://www.littletongristmill.com/), which I ordered through Boston Organics but supplemented with some King Arthur’s Whole Wheat flour from the coho pantry. The eggs were from Pete & Jen’s Backyard Birds of Concord, MA (http://peteandjensbackyardbirds.com/default.aspx) bought at Lionette’s. The butter was Kate’s Homemade Butter (http://www.kateshomemadebutter.com/) bought at Shaw’s. The cream was from Shaw Farm in Dracut, MA (http://www.shawfarm.com/) by way of the Dairy Bar. I also used Maine sea salt and maple syrup for sweetener. All other ingredients came from the coho pantry.

The pumpkin pie was made from pumpkin I had either received in farmshare or bought at the farmers’ market last October, all organic, which I roasted and froze. I simmered it to cook out much of the moisture before blending it up for the pies. Oddly enough, the freezing process leeched most of the orange color out of the pumpkin. I’d never seen that before, but it tasted just fine. Eggs were Pete&Jens, cream and milk from Shaw Farm, sweetened with honey from the Boston Honey Company (http://www.bostonhoneycompany.com/) and just a little Ewen’s maple syrup. I used spices from the coho kitchen. I made the crust using Littleton Grist Mill flour, a Pete & Jen’s egg, Maine sea salt, and ordinary Crisco shortening because I was running out of butter.

The strawberries came from North Carolina by way of Heaven’s Harvest Farm (http://www.heavensharvestfarm.com/). I had planned to dip them in Taza chocolate (www.tazachocolate.com), but the meal had gotten a bit pricey by then, and we were also flagging a bit by the end.

Many people commented that it must have been a lot of work to put this together. Actually, it was pretty easy. With the exception of our outing to Lionette’s Market, which we’d been wanting to do anyway, we got most of the food quite easily. We get our meatshare once/month, Boston Organics delivers to our door, and we make regular stops at the Dairy Bar for eggs, milk, cream, and butter. This is a lifestyle we’ve consciously chosen, to eat locally. For more on why a locavore diet is a good idea, see:

http://www.locavores.com/how/why.php

http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/elc/2006/04/10_reasons_to_e.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food

And here’s how to become a locavore:

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/344/locavore.html

http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/elc/2006/04/a_few_tips_for_.html

Recipes:

Honey-Maple Pumpkin Pie

1 medium sugar pumpkin, roasted, or 2 cups cooked pumpkin

Pie crust (below)

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs lightly beaten

¾ c honey, slightly warmed

¼ c maple syrup, slightly warmed

½ c milk

½ c heavy cream

Make pie crust and place in a 9-inch pie pan. In a food processor or blender, combine all other ingredients and blend well. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted one inch from edge comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Pie Crust

This recipe is actually intended for quiche and makes enough crust for two pumpkin pie shells or the top and bottom of a fruit pie.

3 c flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 Tablespoon vinegar (cider vinegar is recommended)

1.5 c shortening or butter

~7 Tablespoons ice water

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend in shortening with a pastry blender or fork. Combine egg and vinegar separately. Add to mixture. Add ice water as needed. Avoid touching the mixture with your fingers! Roll to thickness desired.

Quick Irish Soda Bread (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together in a large bowl:

2 c sifted all-purpose flour

1.5 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Cut into the flour with a pastry blender, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse cornmeal:

¼ cup chilled butter

Stir in ½ to 1 cup raisins

Mix together:

1 beaten egg

2/3 c heavy cream

1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Add to dry ingredients and stir well. Knead briefly and place on a greased sheet or in a greased 8-inch round pan. If the latter, press down so the dough fills the pan. Cut a bold cross over the top and sides so the bread will not crack in baking. Brush the top with milk.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow.

Quick Sweet Whole Wheat Bread (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix:

2.5 c whole wheat flour

¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons double acting baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine:

1 beaten egg

½ c maple syrup

¼ c brown sugar

¼ c vegetable oil

Optional: 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange peel

Add the flour mixture alternately with 2/3 c. heavy cream, buttermilk, or yogurt. Note: you may need to add flour if the mixture is too sticky (I added about ½ c more). Pour into a greased pan and bake about 50 minutes.