Tag: farmers

Coming Home with Full Bags from the Copley Farmers Market

Happily our shopping bags were heavy on the way home from the Copley Farmers Market on Friday. We did miss out on our favorite strawberries so we plan on being on hand at the opening bell today.

The Atlas Farm stand had a nice selection of greens, vegetables, and even some heirloom tomatoes. And, of course, this market has a great fish vendor, bakeries, meat, and prepared foods.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2015 Penny Cherubino

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June 9, 2015
December 23rd Celebration: Night of the Radishes

Did you know that December 23rd is Noche de Rábanos or Night of the Radishes in some regions of Mexico? It's a time of celebration with displays of elaborately carved radishes.

Photo by Travis S.

Yes, this photo shows some of the little ones we know and love, but the main sculpture is made from giant radishes (they can be more than 6 pounds) grown for this purpose. More photos of fabulous carvings here.

I remember carving radishes into roses and pointy floral designs to decorate cold cut trays for my parents holiday parties. I remember discovering the trick of cutting petals all around and then dropping the radishes into ice water so the petals would swell and open like a flower.

We might have forgotten this holiday except that over the years our original discovery of this holiday and a post we did on carving radishes keep popping up this week in the list of favorite pages of BostonZest readers.

For more about radishes in general, here's a post, "Radishes, Fireball to French Breakfast!," with more information about this sunny, snappy veggie.

It's fun to learn about other cultures and how they celebrate. We'll soon be out looking at the ice carvings around Boston. Have you ever adopted a cultural event just because it appealed to you?

Here is every tool you might ever need to carve radishes or any other vegetable. Or, how about whittling? That just takes a pen knife or here's a kit with everything you need.

International Culinary Carving Set 80 Piece, Wood Case

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: by Travis S. Used under creative commons license. Here's his photostream on this topic.

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 comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

December 23, 2013
December 23rd Celebration: Night of the Radishes

Did you know that December 23rd is Noche de Rábanos or Night of the Radishes in some regions of Mexico? It's a time of celebration with displays of elaborately carved radishes.

Photo by Travis S.

Yes, this photo shows some of the little ones we know and love, but the main sculpture is made from giant radishes (they can be more than 6 pounds) grown for this purpose. More photos of fabulous carvings here.

I remember carving radishes into roses and pointy floral designs to decorate cold cut trays for my parents holiday parties. I remember discovering the trick of cutting petals all around and then dropping the radishes into ice water so the petals would swell and open like a flower.

We might have forgotten this holiday except that over the years our original discovery of this holiday and a post we did on carving radishes keep popping up this week in the list of favorite pages of BostonZest readers.

For more about radishes in general, here's a post, "Radishes, Fireball to French Breakfast!," with more information about this sunny, snappy veggie.

It's fun to learn about other cultures and how they celebrate. We'll soon be out looking at the ice carvings around Boston. Have you ever adopted a cultural event just because it appealed to you?

Here is every tool you might ever need to carve radishes or any other vegetable. Or, how about whittling? That just takes a pen knife or here's a kit with everything you need.

International Culinary Carving Set 80 Piece, Wood Case

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: by Travis S. Used under creative commons license. Here's his photostream on this topic.

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 comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

December 23, 2013
December 23rd Celebration: Night of the Radishes

Did you know that December 23rd is Noche de Rábanos or Night of the Radishes in some regions of Mexico? It's a time of celebration with displays of elaborately carved radishes.

Photo by Travis S.

Yes, this photo shows some of the little ones we know and love, but the main sculpture is made from giant radishes (they can be more than 6 pounds) grown for this purpose. More photos of fabulous carvings here.

I remember carving radishes into roses and pointy floral designs to decorate cold cut trays for my parents holiday parties. I remember discovering the trick of cutting petals all around and then dropping the radishes into ice water so the petals would swell and open like a flower.

We might have forgotten this holiday except that over the years our original discovery of this holiday and a post we did on carving radishes keep popping up this week in the list of favorite pages of BostonZest readers.

For more about radishes in general, here's a post, "Radishes, Fireball to French Breakfast!," with more information about this sunny, snappy veggie.

It's fun to learn about other cultures and how they celebrate. We'll soon be out looking at the ice carvings around Boston. Have you ever adopted a cultural event just because it appealed to you?

Here is every tool you might ever need to carve radishes or any other vegetable. Or, how about whittling? That just takes a pen knife or here's a kit with everything you need.

International Culinary Carving Set 80 Piece, Wood Case

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: by Travis S. Used under creative commons license. Here's his photostream on this topic.

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 comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

December 23, 2013
Corn Micro Greens from Silverbrook Farm
If you love the flavor of sweet corn, you'll find dozens of ways to tuck these spunky, corn micro greens into your summer dishes.

When one of our trusted farmers says, "Try this," with a big smile on his face, we often discover a new something spectacular. Scott Hurwitz from Silverbrook Farm convinced us to try what he was calling "micro popcorn" last week. They are actually young corn shoots. And as you nibble your way from the tip of the leaf to the stem, the pure corn flavor intensifies.

These tiny corn plants were tucked among the more traditional micro greens that many farms are producing now for area chefs. In fact, if these are still around next week, we may buy them as thank you gifts for some of our favorite chefs. There's nothing like a new ingredient to make a chef smile.

Here are a couple of descriptions from other people who have tasted these little flavor bombs.
- "…sweet corn shoots, those are my favorite. They have a really sweet flavor that almost masks the corn flavor. It kind of explodes on your palate," says Eric Longhmi, a chef at the Boulder Country Club." f rom here.
- Scott described them as tasting like kettle corn.
How would you use a micro green that tastes like corn intensified and has a flavor that lingers?

We see it sprinkled on a taco to reinforce the corn flavor. Or, adding a second hit of corn to our summer corn and potato salad.

You may remember that it was the team at Silverbrook that started us eating cucumbery cat tails. Here's the report on that adventure that Penny wrote for Serious Eats.

Here's where you'll find Silverbrook Farm this week.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino
July 9, 2012
The Boston Homegrown Cookbook

When my review copy of The Boston Homegrown Cookbook: Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes arrived last month, I leafed through page-after-page of old friends, long-admired farmers, and chefs and recipes I wanted to try. This is a collection that will be dear to Boston food lovers.

(Photo by Margaret Belanger)

The book profiles 28 Boston area chefs who work together with local farms to bring the freshest, locally grown, sustainable foods to their menus. Farmers like Kate Stillman, from Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm, and Chef JJ Gonson (above) often work together and laugh together.

The author, Leigh Belanger is a food writer and the program director for the Boston-based Chefs Collaborative, a national network of chef and culinary professionals dedicated to improving the food system through education and community building. With this publication, she has shown the strong community links that exist between Boston area chefs, local farmers, and food producers.

Pairings

The book is first divided into seasons. When you create a local and sustainable menu, seasonality is a driving factor. Each season has a collection of pairings of a chef with a food producer. An introduction gives some background on each member of the team and then recipes with the chef creating dishes using the food from that farm or source.

Among the chefs of summer is Steve Johnson of Rendezvous in Central Square paired with Eva Sommaripa and her legendary Eva’s Garden herbs that have been the secret of chefs since the 1960s. Steve puts summer tomatoes to good use in a Turkish Tomato Salad that he pairs with Grilled Mackerel.

I can't wait to try both. And, with the new fish vendors at the farmers' markets, I may be able to shop for the entire menu in one spot.

Photography

In addition to celebrating local heroes, seasonal food, and having recipes you’ll want to try year round, this is a beautiful book. You may want to keep it on your coffee table so you can open it often, each season, and try new recipes.

Photographer Margaret Belanger has a keen eye for the beauty of food from hoof, to field, and onto the plate. Her photographs are a family album that captures the people, places, and products that are part of the Greater Boston foodshed right now.

You can sneak a peek at some of her art in the preview provided on Amazon.

Book Tour!

There will be a cooking demo and book signing for The Boston Homegrown Cookbook: Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes on June 28th, 7 pm, at Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Newbury Street.

We've invited Leigh to update us on any other book signings and appearances in the comment section of this post. We'll send word out to you as we learn of them.

Thanks to everyone who remembers to click over to Amazon from here to support this site! And, for our readers in other parts of the country, there may be a Homegrown Cookbook for your area.

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino

Photograph Of Kate & JJ : © 2012 Margaret Belanger

Cover Art: Courtesy of Quayside Publications.

Disclosure: The publisher did provide me with a review copy of this book. Here is our full disclosure policy.

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 5, 2012
Edible Boston Spring 2012 Issue

Have you picked up your copy of the Spring 2012 Issue of Edible Boston yet?

I look forward to each new issue of this quarterly collection of great writing, wonderful photography, locavore lessons, and down-to-earth philosophy. I learn something from every article.

This time, publisher Ilene Bezahler and her team have shined their spotlight on those who produce our local food and on those who want to be our next generation of farmers but need the land to do it.

Describing this issue, Ilene says, "… you will read about a young generation who wants to farm, wants to help provide us with local produce but are struggling with how to afford to do it. And about dairy farmers who are committed to keeping their farms full service dairies in their families’ tradition."

You can also read the magazine at their website. If you do that, I suggest you filp through the full print edition so you will see one of the tastiest group of advertisers around. Please support these people who make it possible for us to have this great publication.

We are a small local business too. So, if you do have to shop for something online, remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny Cherubino
Screenshot: Courtesy of Edible Boston

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 a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 20, 2012
The Night of the Radishes: Readers’ Choice

Did you know that tomorrow, December 23rd, is Noche de Rabanos or The Night of the Radishes in some regions of Mexico? It is a time of celebration with displays of elaborately carved radishes.

Photo by Travis S.

Yes, this photo shows some of the little ones we know and love, but the main sculpture is made from giant radishes (they can be more than 6 pounds) grown for this purpose. More photos of fabulous carvings here.

We might have forgotten it this holiday except that a post we did on carving radishes last August keeps popping up this week in the list of pages that visitors are coming to BostonZest to read.

It's fun to learn about other cultures and how they celebrate. We'll soon be out looking at the ice carvings around Boston. But tomorrow, in Mexico, people will gather around radish carvings.

Here is every tool you might ever need to carve radishes or any other vegetable. Or, how about whittling? That just takes a pen knife or here's a kit with everything you need.

International Culinary Carving Set 80 Piece, Wood Case

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: by Travis S. Used under creative commons license. Here's his photostream on this topic.

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 comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

December 22, 2011