Tag: strawberries

At the Market: a Visit to the Prudential Center Farmers’ Market

One of our walks this week took us to the Prudential Center where we picked up a few items for our supper from the specialty food vendors. The Prudential Center Farmers' Market is open on the Bolyston Street side of the complex from 11 am to 6 pm each Thursday.

We'd been missing the pretzels, and pretzel rolls from swissbäkers. We know they have a new shop on Western Avenue in Allston, but we haven't made it there yet! We'll add it to one of our Watertown runs. For now, it's great to have them back in the city at the Prudential and Dewey Square markets.

We enjoyed our pretzels with cheese and zingy pepper jelly from Stir It Up. We took our cue from the sample they were offering and their famous savory cheesecake torte baked with a glaze of their pepper jelly (below). Think about picking up one of these the next time you need party food.

In addition to chilled goat cheese with a dollop of "sweet heat" (as they call it), we also warmed some brie and spread the lime pepper jelly on that. It was a big hit!

This market will be another source for fresh-from-the-boat fish this summer with Cape Cod Fish Share on hand.

While we do occasionally visit the Coolidge Corner shop for a When Pigs Fly bread fix, it's good to have them back in the neighborhood on Thursdays!

We also stopped by the Copley Square Farmers' Market on Friday and picked a great dinner from the vendors there including a fine fillet from Red's Best seafood. Looks like it will be a summer of healthy eating!

A special thank you to Dave Gilson from The Herb Lyceum for bringing some chervil clippings to town to share with cooks like Penny. She sprinked rouchly chopped chervil leaves on that moist flakey fish before serving it. Perfect!

In Season Right Now!

We also saw: mushrooms, swiss chard, spinach, green garlic, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, lots of annuals, herbs, and vegetable plants, hot house tomatoes, scallions, and cucumbers.

Enjoy now before it's gone!

Asparagus and early hoop house strawberries.

Follow all our Local Food/Farmers' Market and At The Market reports:

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

May 29, 2013
At the Market: a Visit to the Prudential Center Farmers’ Market

One of our walks this week took us to the Prudential Center where we picked up a few items for our supper from the specialty food vendors. The Prudential Center Farmers' Market is open on the Bolyston Street side of the complex from 11 am to 6 pm each Thursday.

We'd been missing the pretzels, and pretzel rolls from swissbäkers. We know they have a new shop on Western Avenue in Allston, but we haven't made it there yet! We'll add it to one of our Watertown runs. For now, it's great to have them back in the city at the Prudential and Dewey Square markets.

We enjoyed our pretzels with cheese and zingy pepper jelly from Stir It Up. We took our cue from the sample they were offering and their famous savory cheesecake torte baked with a glaze of their pepper jelly (below). Think about picking up one of these the next time you need party food.

In addition to chilled goat cheese with a dollop of "sweet heat" (as they call it), we also warmed some brie and spread the lime pepper jelly on that. It was a big hit!

This market will be another source for fresh-from-the-boat fish this summer with Cape Cod Fish Share on hand.

While we do occasionally visit the Coolidge Corner shop for a When Pigs Fly bread fix, it's good to have them back in the neighborhood on Thursdays!

We also stopped by the Copley Square Farmers' Market on Friday and picked a great dinner from the vendors there including a fine fillet from Red's Best seafood. Looks like it will be a summer of healthy eating!

A special thank you to Dave Gilson from The Herb Lyceum for bringing some chervil clippings to town to share with cooks like Penny. She sprinked rouchly chopped chervil leaves on that moist flakey fish before serving it. Perfect!

In Season Right Now!

We also saw: mushrooms, swiss chard, spinach, green garlic, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, lots of annuals, herbs, and vegetable plants, hot house tomatoes, scallions, and cucumbers.

Enjoy now before it's gone!

Asparagus and early hoop house strawberries.

Follow all our Local Food/Farmers' Market and At The Market reports:

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

May 29, 2013
At the Market: New Location for City Hall Market

The big news this week is the relocation of the City Hall Farmers' Market to the Congress Street side of City Hall Plaza. This move is due to the MBTA's renovation of the Government Center Station over the next three years.

It's also close to the site of the planned permanent public market. Both the City Hall and the Dewey Square farmers' markets are operated by the Boston Public Market Association. While this market may be closer to the Haymarket MBTA station, the vendors here sell local, farm fresh, high quality products and are not associated with that other market known for clearance goods that shows up on weekends.

One new addition to both the Monday and Wednesday roster at City Hall is Red's Best seafood. Penny had already purchased asparagus from Silverbrook Farm and asked what would be a good match. Not only did she get a recommendation of scallops, but the chef at their stand even gave her a tip for cooking them.

Penny prepped the aspargus for oven roasting with a sprinkle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a chopped shallot, and popped them into a hot oven. While they cooked, she seared the scallops in a very hot pan with just a coating of grapeseed oil. Just before these beauties were done, she added a piece of butter and squeeze of lemon.

With some good bread and dessert from Pain D'Avignon, we had the perfect farmers' market supper.

Monday's stop at City Hall was followed by a Tuesday visit to the market at Copley Square. Penny was on the hunt for strawberries from Atlas Farm and didn't want to find them sold out so we arrived just before opening and camped out on a bench near their stand.

We weren't the only ones impatient for the 11 a.m. opening call.

It's interesting to watch the vendors set up their stands. Ann from Crystal Brook Farm wheeled her sign and supplies to her spot where she would soon be selling her amazing goat cheese and clever brown bag lunches.

In Season Right Now!

All the items we mentioned above plus:

Radishes from Atlas Farms

Cucumbers from Foppema's Farm / Keown Orchards – they also had herb plants, rhubarb, greens, and popcorn on the cob.

We also saw mushrooms, green garlic, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, lots of annuals, herbs, and vegetable plants.

Coming Soon!

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

May 23, 2013
At the Market: New Location for City Hall Market

The big news this week is the relocation of the City Hall Farmers' Market to the Congress Street side of City Hall Plaza. This move is due to the MBTA's renovation of the Government Center Station over the next three years.

It's also close to the site of the planned permanent public market. Both the City Hall and the Dewey Square farmers' markets are operated by the Boston Public Market Association. While this market may be closer to the Haymarket MBTA station, the vendors here sell local, farm fresh, high quality products and are not associated with that other market known for clearance goods that shows up on weekends.

One new addition to both the Monday and Wednesday roster at City Hall is Red's Best seafood. Penny had already purchased asparagus from Silverbrook Farm and asked what would be a good match. Not only did she get a recommendation of scallops, but the chef at their stand even gave her a tip for cooking them.

Penny prepped the aspargus for oven roasting with a sprinkle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a chopped shallot, and popped them into a hot oven. While they cooked, she seared the scallops in a very hot pan with just a coating of grapeseed oil. Just before these beauties were done, she added a piece of butter and squeeze of lemon.

With some good bread and dessert from Pain D'Avignon, we had the perfect farmers' market supper.

Monday's stop at City Hall was followed by a Tuesday visit to the market at Copley Square. Penny was on the hunt for strawberries from Atlas Farm and didn't want to find them sold out so we arrived just before opening and camped out on a bench near their stand.

We weren't the only ones impatient for the 11 a.m. opening call.

It's interesting to watch the vendors set up their stands. Ann from Crystal Brook Farm wheeled her sign and supplies to her spot where she would soon be selling her amazing goat cheese and clever brown bag lunches.

In Season Right Now!

All the items we mentioned above plus:

Radishes from Atlas Farms

Cucumbers from Foppema's Farm / Keown Orchards – they also had herb plants, rhubarb, greens, and popcorn on the cob.

We also saw mushrooms, green garlic, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, lots of annuals, herbs, and vegetable plants.

Coming Soon!

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

May 23, 2013
At the Market: New Location for City Hall Market

The big news this week is the relocation of the City Hall Farmers' Market to the Congress Street side of City Hall Plaza. This move is due to the MBTA's renovation of the Government Center Station over the next three years.

It's also close to the site of the planned permanent public market. Both the City Hall and the Dewey Square farmers' markets are operated by the Boston Public Market Association. While this market may be closer to the Haymarket MBTA station, the vendors here sell local, farm fresh, high quality products and are not associated with that other market known for clearance goods that shows up on weekends.

One new addition to both the Monday and Wednesday roster at City Hall is Red's Best seafood. Penny had already purchased asparagus from Silverbrook Farm and asked what would be a good match. Not only did she get a recommendation of scallops, but the chef at their stand even gave her a tip for cooking them.

Penny prepped the aspargus for oven roasting with a sprinkle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a chopped shallot, and popped them into a hot oven. While they cooked, she seared the scallops in a very hot pan with just a coating of grapeseed oil. Just before these beauties were done, she added a piece of butter and squeeze of lemon.

With some good bread and dessert from Pain D'Avignon, we had the perfect farmers' market supper.

Monday's stop at City Hall was followed by a Tuesday visit to the market at Copley Square. Penny was on the hunt for strawberries from Atlas Farm and didn't want to find them sold out so we arrived just before opening and camped out on a bench near their stand.

We weren't the only ones impatient for the 11 a.m. opening call.

It's interesting to watch the vendors set up their stands. Ann from Crystal Brook Farm wheeled her sign and supplies to her spot where she would soon be selling her amazing goat cheese and clever brown bag lunches.

In Season Right Now!

All the items we mentioned above plus:

Radishes from Atlas Farms

Cucumbers from Foppema's Farm / Keown Orchards – they also had herb plants, rhubarb, greens, and popcorn on the cob.

We also saw mushrooms, green garlic, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, lots of annuals, herbs, and vegetable plants.

Coming Soon!

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

May 23, 2013
Strawberry Shortcake Dessert Bar for Your July 4th Party
Entertaining this weekend? How about a "build-it-yourself strawberry shortcake table" for dessert? We've done this for years, and our guests love it!

It's easy on the host and fun for the guests. Here's the step-by-step on how we do it.
- Reserve the most perfect berries for dipping in chocolate and eating out-of-hand. Put a shaker of sugar near the plain berries for those who would like to sprinkle a bit on their choices
- Slice and sugar the rest and allow them to form a natural sauce overnight in the refrigerator.
- Collect a variety of bases– dessert cups, short cake, biscuits, ladyfingers, cookies, and angel food cake are a few I've used for this.
- Since it's July 4th, add a big dish of blueberries for red, white, and blue creations.
- Add a fondue pot of dipping chocolate, and you'll have guests swooning.
- Arrange a selection of toppings. I've set out whipped cream, yogurt, ice cream, creme fraiche, and fudge sauce.
- For something tall on the table, add wine buckets filled with bottles of sparkling wine that guests can pour over a few berries in a champagne glass.
- Set up a tray of "special enhancements" (rums, liqueurs, and dessert wines) to drizzle on the cakes or sip with the shortcake. Most popular around here was limoncello.
- Add big napkins to protect clothes; spoons, dishes, or wine glasses to hold your guest's creations; and let everyone have fun with the fruit.
What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon – Get Ready for Summer – Everything You Need and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Boston Public Library's 2015 Concerts in the Courtyard Series
July 2, 2012
Get Your Fresh, Local Strawberries While They Last

We heard the first warnings that strawberry season may be short this year from Barbara Hamilton of Hamiliton Orchards last Friday at the Copley Square Farmers' Market.

We were telling her how much we've been enjoying this year's crop of super sweet, juicy berries when she said that with the heat, hers may be gone soon. (But, her blueberries are almost ready and a few may show up this week.)

As you can see from the photo, these strawberries are totally ripe and very delicate. Penny carefully carried this container home because she wanted to photograph these plump, rosy jewels in their wooden cradle.

But, most of the time, we tuck our own covered containers into our market backpacks to protect delicate items like berries, ripe tomatoes, or delicate pastries. We pick out the container of berries we want and dump them into a sturdy, sealed bowl for the trip home.

We're also coming to the last week of the Mass Farmers' Market Association Strawberry Festival fund raising event. Choose a special strawberry dessert from a participating restaurant and they will donate to the group that helps our farmers and farmers' markets.

And, speaking of farms, here's a link to find the MassGrown map where you can search for places to pick your own berries.

Related Posts: Here are our Local Food & Farmers' Market Posts

What's on your Summer Food shopping list? Shop Amazon – Get Ready for Summer – Everything You Need and support this site! Here are the containers we use for berry transport. Perfect to keep in your market cooler or tote bag.

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

June 26, 2012