Wicked Tasty Harvest

Yes! It's the best...

Get ready. The holidays are already swinging and you still need to tackle the best part of your list. Of course you do—you always save the best for last. Wicked Tasty Harvest has drawn up a list of must-have and very-cool things to please anyone who loves food and local goodies. How do we know they'll love all of these things? Because we would. (Side-note to our stumped loved ones: Read on and stop fretting over which sweater we'd look hottest in. This season, we're all about the local treats.)

These amazing local treats make stunning gifts, and fill gift baskets and stockings deliciously well. If you arrive in style at the next holiday party with one of these in hand, the hosts will gush. These local favorites are all tasty, well-made, and sought after. 

Homemade jams and preserves from Bonnie's Jams in Cambridge. Flavors like apricot-orange, raspberry and strawberry-ginger elevate breakfast toast into something special. $10.95, Formaggio Kitchen, Savenor's Market, Russo's and more.

Effie's Oatcakes and Corncakes from Hyde Park, MA, are the perfect biscuits for tea and cheese lovers. These crisp, crunchy and rather addictive biscuits are slightly sweet and salty—and they're just right for tea time or snack. They're also fantastic as a cracker with cheese. Try them with cheese and apples, a dollop of jam, or just plain. The oatcakes are a favorite for straight-up snacking and the corn is perfect for cheesy accompaniments. $6, at your local specialty store or at Whole Foods. Or buy them direct.

Taza Chocolate, made in their Somerville factory, offers a wide variety of tasty treats, from bars to nibs to hot chocolate scented with almond. They say they're the only American chocolate-makers offering stone-ground organic chocolate, employing a traditional grinding method from Oaxaca, Mexico. They work closely with growers to ensure top quality and fair pay. You can find the chocolate at many area stores, including holiday packages at Greenward, but if you need to buy in bulk (and who doesn't?), they're now offering free shipping on purchases of more than $50. 

Lake Champlain Chocolates, made in Vermont, have some particularly appropriate holiday offerings, including a bag of silver- and gold-wrapped disks of dark chocolate and peppermint dark chocolate. They also have a lovely box of Chanukah gelt (and they're kosher), much tastier than what you ate in Hebrew school. Buy them at Whole Foods and Sherman Market in Somerville, starting at $8.

Perfect for someone who prefers sour to sweet: Root Cellar Preserves, local pickles that sell in stores around town such as Formaggio Kitchen, Harvest Coop, and Russo's. We particularly love their sweet and spicy pickle mix, $8.

 Ask your neighborhood cheese purveyor for some lovely local cheeses. Some of our favorites include Cabot cloth-bound cheddar, Twig Farm Tomme, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company's Bijou aged goat cheese, Great Hill blue cheese, and Shy Brother's Farm's Hannahbells (pictured). Check out our holiday cheese plate primer or let your local cheese shop select a great combination of cheeses. Formaggio Kitchen and Farmstead (Providence, RI) both do amazing cheese baskets—and they ship. Don't forget about the Concord Cheese Shop and the delicious and deftly edited selection at Central Bottle. Cheese-lovers on your list are well-cared for in this area.

Traditional Goat's Milk Caramel from Fat Toad Farm is crazy delicious. It's like dulce de leche, but it's made from goat's milk, like cajeta. You can taste the flavor profile of goat's milk instead of the slick sweetness of cow's milk (also good, but different). Fat Toad Farm is a small family-run dairy in Brookfield, VT, and they make several flavors of their caramel: original, vanilla, cinnamon, and coffee. The original is awesome on ice cream, tea cakes, or a spoon. $9 at Formaggio Kitchen, Cambridge Naturals, and Farmstead (Providence).

One of the Wicked Tasty team lives very close to L.A. Burdick. Deliciously close. Too close. Burdick's chocolates rival those of the well-known European chocolate houses (and we're well-studied on those). A clear favorite is the truffle filled with caramelized lavender honey. The mouse and penguin chocolates may be too adorable to eat, but you'd never let that deter you from picking up a quarter-pound box. Heck, make it a full pound. Then, warm up holiday visitors with hot chocolate made with their shaved dark, milk and white chocolate. They're made in Walpole, NH, and they have a lovely café in Harvard Square. Boxes start at $15.

Made by Maureen Gallagher at the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center, the Sassy Sauces line includes an addictive rum caramel sauce, spicy dark chocolate sauce (Valrhona chocolate, chipotle, Vietnamese cinnamon and cayenne), milk chocolate caramel, bittersweet chocolate, peanut butter fudge and vegan butterscotch. All are sublime over ice cream, with fresh fruit or breakfast treats, or straight out of the jar. Recently, Wicked Tasty got to try the Vera Cruz sauce (the first savory Sassy Sauce product and so new that the labels were handwritten). We seared salmon on both sides then simmered it in the sauce to finish. Easy and delicious! Sassy Sauces are available online and at Bacon Street Farm in Natick, Savenor’s Market, and select Whole Food Markets in the Boston area.

What great meal is complete without well-lubricated conversation or a tasty aperitif? Here's where to go for a gift that says, "Capital, darling!" instead of merely Kappy's. 

Drink is one of our favorite bars, and with good reason. There's no cocktail list...but there are gift certificates for your friends. And for a mere $10, the bartenders will whip them up a custom libation based on their tastes (whiskey or gin? citrus or bitters?) and, better yet, indulge their inner cocktail nerds by happily dishing on the drinks' origins (often pre-Prohibition) and variations.  We find it's best to stick to our favorite base liquor and ask the exceptional staff to steer us seasonal. Recently, we've enjoyed a twist on the traditional Frisco (made with homemade pumpkin simple syrup) and the Leather Coat, which employed Scotch, apple butter and sage to a heavenly, fragrant end. For Christmas in a glass, ask for the Lion's Tail: bourbon, allspice dram, lime juice, simple syrup and angostura bitters.

Once the lovely staff at Drink have sent you home with a few handwritten recipes, you'll find the corner packie not up to your new liquor-buying needs. Hit Brix—with shops on Broad Street and Washington Street in the South End—to source Luxardo maraschino liquor for homemade aviations, small-batch bourbons, and St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram for that Lion's Tail. The shop also has a well-curated wine selection and handsome gift baskets capitalizing on that to boot. Next hit up The Boston Shaker—online and opening any day now in Davis Square, after starting as a mini-store within Grand in Somerville's Union Square—for the dash that makes the difference. The store has the most extensive selection of bitters we've ever seen (celery, cardamon, Xocolati mole, whiskey barrel, Peychaud's and many others), along with a strong supporting cast of simple and shrub syrups, heirloom-quality muddlers and perfectly sized 5-ounce cocktail glasses.

Gift card to Craigie on Main. Though perhaps better known for the delectable food out of the kitchen, the bar has gained acclaim for creative, delicious libations using small-batch spirits and local produce that change with the seasons.

 

Sometimes a cook needs some new and gorgeous things.

A slate cheese board from Brooklyn Slate Company is ideal both for a festive party or a regular Tuesday night dinner. Brooklyn Slate Company gets the grey, black or red slate from the family quarry in Upstate New York and offers the non-porous, food-safe pieces with a rough-hewn or clean edge. They also add in a soap pencil to write cheese names right on the board. They're very lovely and at a very reasonable price. Find these gorgeous cheese slabs at Formaggio Kitchen and Wasik's Cheese Shop in Wellesley. 7" x 12" boards, $20; 10" x 14" boards, $24.

When it comes to recipes, we often find that weight is more reliable than volume or size. After all, what does "three large potatoes" mean? Are the ones I've selected large enough? Some recipes today offer both size/volume and weight (for instance: "one medium-sized squash, or 2 lbs of squash"). A food scale is an incredibly handy tool, especially if you love cookbooks printed outside the US, where weights are the standard format. Make sure you get a scale that can do both pounds and grams, so recipes in metric are no problem. Electronic scales make taring a breeze. Try your local hardware store or cooking goods shop for one, like this Salter Baker's Dream scale that has an 11-lb limit and switches units with the click of a button. $39.95, Tags Hardware in Cambridge, and other kitchenware stores.

It's good to eschew plastic water bottles in lieu of tap and filtered. But what if you prefer bubbles? Then it's either plastic bottles or glass ones shipped at a high carbon cost, right? Not so. In looking for a local soda water delivery service, we found this iSi soda siphon. Like their whipped cream canisters, you charge the filled water canister with CO₂ cartridges, making the tap bubbly and wonderful. The soda from the siphon is not short on bubbles, either. It makes a fierce soda water, which is lovely. Since Boston-are tap water is very good quality, the end result is very tasty, indeed. No more bottles, no more shipping our beverages from Italy, and yet no compromising on the brisk drinking experience. If you're so inclined, you could add flavors or juices right into the siphon. $69.99 at Tags Hardware and local cooking goods stores.

The Ratio iPhone app is not really a gadget at all, but still a completely cool tool. This program transforms your iphone into a cooking assistant based on Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio, which offers up the ratios of ingredients needed to make nearly anything without a recipe. You can store the recipes you devise and share them on Twitter and Facebook. $4.99 on iTunes.

We love a bit of class. Cooking class, that is. An evening of cooking (and learning, and eating, and drinking) is a great gift for someone you love—or or yourself. Two of our absolute favorites would be the highlight of anyone's holiday.

Get a gift certificate or sign someone up for a specific class at Stir Boston, Chef Barbara Lynch's fantastic demonstration kitchen and cookbook library in the South End. We've gushed about the classes there before and with good reason. The small-sized classes not only show you foods and techniques up close, but also provide an evening of stellar food and amazing drink as you taste it all and chat with chefs and students. The food you eat is on par with No. 9 Park, Barbara Lynch's flagship restaurant, but you leave knowing that you can do it in your kitchen, too. The cost may seem high but think of it as dining at the chef's table while asking your chef friend to ply you with wine and share his or her secrets. Totally worth it.

Learn to cook with local produce and meat from Ana Sortun, award-winning chef at Oleana and Sofra Bakery. Sit in Sofra's cozy dining room and watch and learn as Sortun and pastry chef Maura Kilpatrick guide you through a handful of flavorful recipes—and you then enjoy the tastes of their labors. The recipes are fantastic when made in a home kitchen, too; we've know, because we've tried. Ana even offers an entire class in the spring focused on making the most of your CSA.

A good cookbook is part story and part culinary sherpa. They help you get where you're going, whether it's how to boil water or the lofty heights of specialized cuisine.  

Craft of Cooking, by Tom Colicchio. Sure, Top Chef-viewers love him. You know why he's really loved? Because his food is so damn good. A trip to NYC is lacking if not for a stop at one of his many Craft incarnations. This cookbook gives you the simple tools to transform lovely ingredients into stunning food with some simple techniques and ideas. Your home cooking will get easier and tastier after reading this book. It works so well with the CSA/local ideas because the recipes make the most of quality ingredients.

Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition, by Barbara Lynch. This local chef (and head of her own growing No. 9 Park empire) has a cookbook that just came out this fall. It's named after her South End demonstration kitchen and it has some of her signature dishes. Check out how to make your own ricotta and some of her amazing pasta dishes that have made tables at her restaurants a hot commodity.

At Wicked Tasty Harvest, we love eating local and getting to know neighborhoods through their food. That's why Savoring East Somerville: A Taste-Based Guide to the Neighborhood is on our wish list. The new cookbook from East Somerville Main Streets promises recipes and full-color portraits from 26 East Somerville restaurants and business owners and family-cooking traditions from 25 neighborhood residents. Recipes from large Italian families, Salvadorian cooks and Brazilian bakers? Um, yes, please!  Order your copy (gift wrapping and shipping available).

I Know How to Cook, by Ginette Mathiot. Not only does it have a fantastic pink cover and a title that offers a fun variety of dramatic readings (I know how to cook, I know how to cook, I know how to cook), this book is a wealth of awesome French cooking techniques. This tome has been a standard for French women for decades and was on every French woman's grandmother's shelf. It's recently been translated into English and is a sort of French version of The Silver Spoon. It's full of wonderful recipes updated by Clotilde Dusoulier. French food, we find, does very well with the excellent produce, fantastic meats, and gorgeous dairy we have in New England. Might as well know how to do it the way it's been done in French homes for decades.

Gifts are more than lovely little things that make our lives delightful. They're also about those gifts that make the world a better and safer place. What gift guide could be complete without including organizations that are doing their part to improve the reality of the world. If you're giving gifts this season, consider a gift to an organization that is out there changing the world. And if you're getting this season, think about passing along some of that great feeling to others in the world. 

Gardens for Health is a Cambridge-based organization that provides tools, seeds, equipment and assistance to people living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. It helps them create food co-ops where they can grow food, improve their nutrition (which in many regions of the world is lacking in people suffering from HIV/AIDS), and earn income when they might otherwise have no jobs due to illness. This organization helps stop the cycle of poverty, malnourishment, and illness. Like Heifer International, your gifts are paired up with actual tools and supplies: $4 for a hoe, $180 for 100 plum tree seedlings, $500 for 8 wheelbarrows. 

Share Our Strength is trying to end childhood hunger by supporting school breakfast and year-round meal programs, improving access to fresh produce to families, encouraging farmers' markets to accept food stamps, and creating programs that teach families how to make nutritious healthy food on a limited budget. You can make a donation, order gift cards to share with other people, or buy tickets to their benefit, Taste of the Nation. The benefit is set for April 2010 and will feature Andy Husbands of Tremont 647, Jody Adams of Rialto, Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley's Bistro, Jason Santos of Gargoyles and about 70 restaurants and wineries. Tickets to the event and silent auction are 20 percent off by January 1 when you enter the code JINGLE10.

There are plenty of other organizations that bring food and giving, together. Take a closer look at the Greater Boston Food Bank, Heifer International, and City Sprouts, just to name a few.

Here's to a Tasty New Year!

 

Area CSAs and Eating Locally

by April Paffrath

New England is a bounty of food goodness. On Friday I shared some of that tastiness with the readers of the awesome website BostonMamas.com

In that guest post, I wrote about the benefits of local eating and why that’s a bit easier for your life. Basically, local foods are fresher and you can have greater control over the growing practices that you like (sustainable, organic, heritage, whatever) than you can at a supermarket. Local, fresh foods that are packed with flavor make an easier dinner because you have to do so very little to them to make them amazing.

That’s the great secret I’ve learned from my family’s CSA adventure. Simple food is simply good. Ramp it up a bit for a special occasion, but in general you’re less stressed at dinner when you’re starting with great ingredients. You can do crazy preparations because they’re fun, not because you need them to mask bland or bitter veggies. (And seriously? I love me some crazy preparation. I also love a quick dinner that needs almost no work at all because it’s fresh from the fields and singing with flavor.)

Do I get everything locally? No. But I look local first. If I can find it locally, I know I’m getting a fresher ingredient and I’m supporting a part of our regional community that I want to see become even more robust.

Below is the list of local CSAs that I shared with BostonMamas readers. The Boston area is lucky enough to have vegetable, meat, fish and grain CSAs—pretty amazing, really. There are plenty of amazing CSAs available in the area (this is just a sampling). Check them out, read their websites, give them a call and ask questions about their growing practice and regular CSA quantities and you can find the one that suits you best. I listed the prices based on what is currently one their websites. Some are already in the midst of signing up new members.

Later today this week, I’ll post a recipe for amazing and creamy gratin potatoes. You’ll make it all winter long, so check back. Mmm, I’m hungry for it already. Your holidays will never be the same.

Siena Farms, Sudbury, MA

Pay $750 for the weekly box share and pick up at Sofra (Farmer Chris’ wife is chef Ana Sortun of Oleana and Sofra), or $500 for the market share, which is a discount of 50% at the Copley farmers’ market or at their Sudbury farm stand.

I happily renewed my “membership” for next year’s box share. The food is amazing and almost unbelievable. It comes to you pristine and glowing and full of flavor. They offer varieties that are grown for their amazing taste. It’s no surprise that the city’s best restaurants also get their produce from Siena Farms—places like No. 9 Park, O Ya, Beacon Hill Bistro, Craigie on Main, and more. When you prepare the produce from Siena Farms, it tastes amazing, even if you only treat it with a bit of olive oil and salt. Their mesclun is peppery and wonderful—a real highlight!

Chestnut Farms, Hardwick, MA

Pick up this meat CSA once a month in several locations, year round (Arlington, Natick, Northhampton, and about 5 more). Prices depend on how much you’re getting each month. It starts at $80 and 10lbs a month ($8/lb). It costs less per pound if you get more. A bonus is that CSA shareholders are eligible to sign up for one of their coveted natural turkeys. They raise cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. The pasture animals (like cows and sheep) are pasture-fed as long as the New England weather lets them, and they get hay with occasional grain over the winter.

Red Fire Farm, Granby, MA

Pay $640 for the summer season CSA. They have add-on shares like eggs, flowers, and fruit. You can pick up your weekly share in Brighton, Cambridge, and Jamaica Plain, as well as a handful of other towns. You can also get it delivered at extra cost through MetroPedal Power. Shareholders get special pick-your-own privileges.

Parker Farms, Lunenburg, MA

Steve Parker is a fixture at the Union Square farmers’ market. Pay $325 for the small share or $500 for the large share. Pick-ups are in Davis Square, Somerville, and Porter and Central Squares, Cambridge.

Lands Sake, Weston, MA

Lands Sake is an education farm. (It’s also a fantastic pick-your-own farm with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and more. What’s so nice about that is that it’s organic, and it’s hard to find u-pick organic fruits.) We love to visit the farm because it’s a little bit hippy and super calm. They had some trouble with their CSA last year due in part to weather, but it’s a long-running farm that cares about treating the land and the food right.

Stillman Farm, New Braintree, MA

Another meat CSA, year round. You can find them at farmers’ markets and they’re very popular. CSA members get a 20% discount at the markets! Like Chestnut, they have grass-fed, pastured animals that are raised in a sustainable and humane way. Shares go from 5lb for $46/month up to 20lb for $155/month. Pick-ups are in Jamaica Plain, Brookline, and Lunenburg.

Six Farms CSA at Silverbrook Farm

Pay $325–500 for a half share or $565–730 for a full share; prices vary based on pick-up or delivery location.

Silverbrook teamed up with 5 other farms to offer a CSA. Some farms specialize in certain products or add in something special to the whole partnership. You also get Hannabells from Shy Brothers Cheese, since they’re one of the six farms. Mmm. Pick-up locations around Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, and more. In Cambridge, they’ll deliver your share through MetroPedal Power, included in the CSA price.

Cape Ann Fresh Catch, Gloucester, MA

This CSA is really a CSF, a community supported fishery. This unique program brings some of the local sea bounty to New Englanders, year-round. Each fish is valued the same, no matter the species. That allows the fishermen and women to go out and catch fish without chasing the highest paying species. There’s no toss-back of caught, dead fish that don’t get as high a price as other species. There’s less environmental damage in the quest for the priciest fish. They can fish unstressed areas and not risk their lives as much bringing it in. You’ll get cod, haddock, hake, shrimp, and more. They use innovative shrimping tools to minimize by-catch and environmental damage, and this shrimp is local — not the ecosystem-damaging shrimp you can find in the freezer section.

They have a bunch of different sign-up options, including all shrimp and a shrimp-fish combo. Pay $125-$400 for a 10-week share from anything from 5lb of shrimp to 40lb of fish. Pickups are all over the area, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Acton, Ipswich, and many more.

Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, MA

Drumlin Farm is a Mass Audubon Sanctuary. They also have a popular CSA, as well as a winter share that comes from their root cellar. Pay $575 or $525 if you work the farm for 8 hours. Pick up at the farm, Central or Porter in Cambridge, or in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, and Quincy

Picadilly Farm, Winchester, NH

This certified organic farm has pick up in Arlington, Bedford, and Belmont. The form isn’t online yet for 2010, but 2009 shares were $525.

The Best Carrots

by April Paffrath

I know the CSA from Siena Farms has come to an end. I'm coming to terms with it, but it may take a while. And the Farmers' Markets that I frequent are finished for the year (although I do hope to find a few winter markets to visit). It's a wistful time of year, this end of the harvest season. It seems only last week I was reveling in all of the amazing food coming from, not only our great CSA share, but also from farm stands, markets, and local shops. I am reminded constantly throughout the season what amazing foods we have available here in New England. In addition to the end-products, we also have a wealth of committed farmers, growers, purveyors, brewers, chefs, and lovers of food and local goods. Let me tell you, it's easy to be thankful. It's also so easy to support these people in their efforts to make, grow, shepherd, and produce the most delicious things. Easy because our support comes back to us in so many tasty ways. It seems as though our regional food system is mutually nurturing, and that makes me glad.

It also makes me hungry. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I found myself thankful for our local situation as I am nearly every day. How lucky we are! Still, the end of the CSA season and the farmers' markets makes me miss the high living of fresh crisp produce that will, by February, seem like a distant legend—we'll talk like old men on a porch about the shallots that were so fresh that they were practically luminous with their reddish-purple sheen. Or the kale that wasn't tough but was a joy to eat. Or the fresh berries that made a pie you would gladly travel 80 miles for. And how tasty were the carrots?! The carrots might induce a rapture of reminiscence, which no one would dare interrupt. (Check out the easiest way to make carrots evah, below.)

Like the Scarecrow at the end of the Wizard of Oz, carrots may be what I will miss the most. Store-bought carrots cannot compete with the bolero and rainbow carrots that thrilled us all season long and transformed our dinners, stocks, mirepoix and more into transcendent home cooking moments. The carrots straight from the farm tasted delicious and sweet and healthy—healthy in the best way possible. They tasted full of nutrients and flavors and—because they were always a joy to eat—you never shied away from seconds and thirds. It was easy to get your 7+ servings a day.

I recently bought some "regular" carrots and I swore something was terribly wrong with them. They were acrid and bitter and sharp, and not the sweet candy-like burst of carroty goodness that we became used to this whole summer. The sad truth is that's what's available and "normal" in many stores. It's going to end in tears, I can tell.

Luckily, carrots are a fantastic storage crop. We have pounds and pounds of them in our refrigerator. We've been fast and loose with the vegetable abundance, but I sense that we will begin using them with the reluctance that scarcity provokes. Maybe it will start with one fewer carrot in the stock. But until that day, we're enjoying every carrot we have—and using every bit of spare fridge space for storage crops like carrots and cabbage and celeriac. I think I want a root cellar. In my 5th floor apartment. That's not exactly normal, I know.

(Celery is a close second in vegetable wistfulness. The difference between the Siena Farms celery, which is bright green and full of impeccable leaves, and the chalky white-green, leafless store celery is just as vast as the carrot difference. I don't have any celery from the farm left and I will be missing it all winter.)

Carrots are delightful to eat straight. A simple cooking will highlight the natural sweetness and make the simplest food into a major side dish. The carrots at the end of the season are the sweetest because the plant is working on storing its natural sugars in the root of the plant—the part we eat— now that the leaves are matured or gone and the flowering is over. When you cook up the late-season roots, they taste sweet yet complex. The sugars caramelize, adding great depth notes to the flavors. You don;t need to add brown sugar or anything like that.

Here's the easiest way to make carrots, which I discovered half by accident not long ago.

The Best Carrots

• carrots
• oil
• salt

1. Before you do anything else with the meal, wash a bunch of carrots and peel them. Cut any thick ones lengthwise in half or quarters, so they are all about the same thickness, 1/2"-3/4" wide. They'll cook evenly that way.
2. Put the carrots in a roasting or baking pan and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Then toss them around with your hands, so the carrots are coated with oil all over. I keep them all going in the same direction, so more carrots are in touch with the pan and are more likely to caramelize.
3. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil to prevent the carrots from drying out.
4. Put them in the oven and then turn it on. I hardly even look at the temperature. I just turn it on. If I have something that will go in the oven next, I turn it to that temperature.
5. As the oven heats up, so do the carrots, slowly and evenly. Test them with a fork occasionally. Take the foil off at some point, when they really get cooking—that will help the carrots and oil brown a bit, enhancing the lovely sugar flavors. The best is when the edges and bottoms of the carrots caramelize and the oil and natural sugars make a kind of sticky syrup that clings to the pan-side of the carrots.
6. They should be done and fork-tender, but not fall-apart mushy. These are easy-eating carrots, so you don't want to have to use a knife. These are carrots that make it easy to say, "Oooh, just one more!" Before you know it, your dinner party has finished the whole roasting pan of carrots and feels very healthy, happy, and quite superior about it. And they should.
7. (Remember, if you still have plenty of cooking to do, remove them from the oven before they're done all the way and just reheat them when you're finishing up the other dishes. If you haven't eaten them all as a cooks treat in the meantime.)

photo (cc) djkd on Flickr

Holiday Feast Cheese Plate

* had to rename the post to "Holiday Feast..." After all, we need cheese all season long.

Thanksgiving is in two days. A cheese plate turns a meal into a feast. But what to bring? Fret not. Robert Aguilera has a fantastic guest post for us—the primer you need to match the cheese with the party. After this post, you'll walk into your local cheese shop and order without hesitation. Then you'll arrive at the party with a cheese tray (and accompanying tidbits of info) that will have any group clamoring for more (pdf). Best of all, Rob just wants people to love cheese and he helps both the enjoyers and the makers. Good man.

Robert J. Aguilera learned about cheeses while working at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, and then at Farmstead in Providence, Rhode Island.  He now distributes cheese making and packaging supplies to cheesemakers across the United States. He's also one of the minds behind an invitation-only Bueno Queso Social Club cheese salon, where people get together to try cheese, food, and wine—and talk about it all afternoon. “I hope to continue to help the cheese landscape in America in any way I can.”  For any questions please send emails to roberto@buenoqueso.org.

The impressive cheese counter at Formaggio Kitchen.

By Robert Aguilera

A good rule of thumb for buying cheese is the "rule of four." Buy a cow's milk, a goat's milk, a sheep's milk and one blue cheese. With this combination, you make everyone happy, but you also keep it interesting for those that are true "cheese heads."

Traditional Thanksgiving with in-laws and loads of guests
This category is all about tried and true cheeses that go great with the multitude of wines, beers and cocktails that will be swirling around the cheese plate.

Comté Marcel Petite (24- or 36-month)—French gruyere with a dense, velvety texture, a caramel-nutty flavor and an affinity for pairing to medium-bodied red wines, Belgian beers and medjool dates.

Bleu des Basque—Sheep's milk blue cheese from the Pyrenees Mountains that rides flavors of spice, biscuits, honey and leather. Great for the Port wine drinking set, as well as those who love pairing chocolate with cheese.

Constant Bliss—Jasper Hill Farm’s small format cow's milk cheese that is similar to brie, but with more life. With flavors of butter, flowers and sweet cream, just grab a crisp wheat beer and some cranberries to pair with it and dive into that political conversation with your Uncle.

Pecorino, Rosso and Morchiato (small format Tuscan, semi-aged)—Tuscany’s sheep milk cheeses, made in the traditional style, give us a texture that is somewhat hard, but loaded with vanilla, walnut and herbal flavors. This is great for the cocktail “swillers” in the group, especially the gin and vodka set.

Bucheron—French goat's milk cheese in a log shape. Simple and elegant with its flaky, yet creamy, texture and subtle floral and citrus notes. It's a great pairing for those who enjoy sparkling wines, fresh fruit and even crisp lager beers.


Foodie Friends Holiday Gathering
You're going to be with friends who know their cheese and just want delicious and wonderful. Here, your goal is to please those who can be hard to please when it it comes to food. So, don’t be afraid to up the ante here.

Rogue River Blue—Award-winning cow's milk blue cheese from Rogue Creamery. If your friends follow good food, they will have heard of this one, or at least say they've heard of it. Rogue Creamery makes other blues as well, but they are all made to pair with hearty food and drink. Of course, port will do as a pairing, but if your friends are discerning, offer them Muscat and Banyuls dessert wines with this champion of the curd.

Montgomery Cheddar—Jamie Montgomery’s a master at making his family’s legacy: real, clothbound cheddar from Somerset, England. As the original, the texture will be far more crunchy and creamy than any typical cheddar that you may have tried. With flavors of citrus, grass, butter, nuts and earth all balanced with a sturdy sharpness, you can’t go wrong—especially when you pair this cheese with your favorite IPA beers. The two seem to shake hands as if they were old friends. The complexity of this cheese will make it possible to pair with older red wines, especially if they are made with Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and even Grenache.
 
Carlisle Farmstead Chevre & Tommes—Goat's milk cheeses made by Tricia Smith at Carlisle Farmstead. These cheeses are covered in the white mould you typically see on brie, but their flavors of clean grass, root vegetables and subtle citrus will demand some contemplation from your gatherers. Please pair these cheeses with Champagne, sparkling cider, wheat beers, pears and apples. (You know what, put it on the Turkey! You'll thank me for this recommendation.)

Ossau Iraty—Pyrennes sheep's milk cheese in its best form. One of the oldest tommes, it is both rustic and reminiscent of the shepherd tradition it grew out of. It's also elegant in its balance of semi-soft texture and flavors of vanilla, baked cookies, berries and earth. It's great with Bordeaux and Rioja wines, as well as stout and porter style beers.

Tomme de Chevre au Muscadet—A goat's milk cheese to remember, a bright orange-rinded wheel, with a stark white interior. This cheese from the Loire in France is carefully saltwater-washed to bring out the intense color. However, the process also brings out floral aromas and heady, yeasty perfumes that will take you back to the boulangerie you visited in Paris. Pair this wheel with Champagne, Chinon red wines, and Belgian beers. If possible, add to the pairing by finding dried plums and rose hip jam.

Other Greats to consider for this group
Robiola Roccaverano—Piedmont, Italy’s luscious little cakes of gooey cheesiness.
Gruyere Alpage—Switzerlands finest cow's milk cheese with caramel, walnut and smoky flavors and a thick texture speckled with crunchy little diamonds!
Pecorino Caggiano—Southern Italy’s aged sheep's milk cheese loaded with vanilla and spice flavors

Timid Folks' Holiday
The Cheddar Set

Fromage de Meaux—Great pasteurized brie from France, but not boring. Mushrooms, flowers and butter flavors dominate this luscious beauty.  Believe me, one try and you will convert the masses of “cheese phobia” gatherers.
Grafton Cheddar—Cow's milk cheddar from Grafton, Vermont. Get a good amount of this pineapple- and butter-flavored beauty. Those who see the yellow on the table will usually attack this one. I don’t blame them; it pairs well with most of the offerings at your holiday table. Go ahead, try to find one food item it wont pair with. I dare you.  (P.S. Try this cheese with Scotch, you wont be disappointed. And don’t forget the apple pie pairing here.)
Manchego—Spain’s finest sheep's milk cheese, made in the simplest way possible. OK, its not that simple, but this cheese, with its simple vanilla cream and semi-hard texture, will really enjoy pairing against cured meats, salty marcona almonds and red wine—not to mention creamy ales. 
Gouda—Veinweidekass and Old Amsterdam to be exact. Gouda is semi-hard, salty buttered caramel in flavor in varying degrees, but always pleasant whether it is two or four years old. Also, it pairs great with apples and pears, as well as heftier beers like stouts and porters. 


Locals Only Please.
Some of the New England's greats.

Hannahbells—Shy Brothers Farm’s cow milk buttons. These little thimbles bring herbal and floral aromas and flavors to the table. Give them sparkling wines, crisp white wines from the Loire Valley, and an American saison-style beer like Jack D’Or from Pretty Things Brewing.

Bayley Hazen Blue—Jasper Hill Farm’s cow milk blue. Think of it as Stilton’s cooler little brother. It has bold spice and butter flavors with hints of mushroom, grass, butter and shortbread biscuits. Try pairing this cheese with ales, porter-style beers, and big red wines. Make sure to give chocolate a try with this cheese.

Bouree—Dancing Cow’s washed-rind cheese. The pinkish-orange rind with a yellow interior has almost a funky peanut butter flavor—the good kind of “funky.” Hey, you can’t go wrong with a cheese named for a peasant dance and which loosely translated means “drunk.” German dunkelweis and Belgian beers will do right when paired here.

Twig Farm Tomme—Michael Lee’s aged goat's milk wheel. Earth, stone, goat butter, herbs and mushroom flavors come through in Michael's wheels. Give them grenache and pinot noir red wines to pair with, and perhaps some cured meats.

Vermont Dandy—Peaked Mountain Farm's sheep's milk tomme, made by Ann Work in the Pyrenees shepherd fashion, complete with baked goods and almond-sweet flavors to boot. Many have tried to make this style of sheep's milk cheese in America, but Ann consistently makes her wheels with a texture that has to be described as velvet. Pair this cheese with lighter red wines, chardonnay-based white wines, and ales. It's also a great candidate for pairing with chocolate and cream desserts.

Just in case you want more:
Cabot Clothbound—The Vermont Cheddar Maker’s excellent take on the English original
Westfield Farms Hubbardston Blue—Bob and Debbie Stetson’s goat's milk blue
Great Hill Blue—Marion, MA’s bold blue cheese
Crystal Brook Farm Chevre—Excellent fresh goat's milk cheese for pairing with a Thanksgiving spread
Berkshire Blue—A take on Stilton that is big on its creamy texture.
Cato Corner “Hooligan”—A Connecticut washed-rind cow's milk cheese, whose name says it all.

Wild Cards to Consider for Any Gathering (wild, funky and interesting)
Go to your local cheese shop and at least ask to taste these gems.

Taleggio, Pantaleo, Sottocenere al Tartufo, Teleme, Ubriaco (which also means “drunk”), Saveurs (or Fleurs) des Maquis, Purple Haze, Queso Azul de Valdeon, Roomadur

photo (cc) katbert

Happy Hitchhiker

by April Paffrath

 

I was cleaning the kale from Siena Farms a few weeks ago and this little guy jumped off the kale onto the book I had on the counter. It's not unusual to have little hitchhikers, but it's less common than I thought it would be, honestly. Instead of being freaked out, it made me happy. The food we're eating is fresh enough and devoid of chemicals that this little guy is making his way unhindered. And yet the produce is always unmarred and undamaged. Seeing the kale passenger is a good reminder that our food is part of an ecosystem. It grows in the ground, surrounded by animals and weather. What we eat is connected to the farm, it's not something that just shows up in your fridge out of nowhere. That's what makes the food taste so fresh and alive—because it is. Nicholas Kristof had a good column this summer about growing up on his family farm in Oregon and how he always had to be on the lookout for caterpillars in the dinner salad. But now, he realized, he's nostalgic for those buggy encounters.

Organic is a funny word. So many people think they know what organic means, but over time—and with the addition of regulation, certification and marketing—the terms is less a part of common understanding and more a part of legal marketing. What I care about is how the produce or goods are raised, what treatments are used, and what residues or systemic permanence those treatments have. Basically, I prefer organic food. But I don't always need the organic label—especially if I know the farmer or I know that the store stocking the food has asked the supplying farmers the important questions about chemicals and practices. A farmer has to pay for certification and for some farmers who still truly take care of the land, the produce and the animals, that cost is prohibitive. Lacking certification doesn't mean their food is magically non-organic, it just means it can't be marketed as such.

Earlier this season, my husband and I took our 3-year-old for a walk through the fields at Siena Farms. We loved showing her the fennel and how brussels sprouts grow right against the stalk. What struck us most were the sounds of the farm and what those sounds mean. We heard a cacophony of birds and buzzing insects and frogs. The frogs! Growing up in the country, I was used to hearing, not the quiet of nature, but the clamor of it all. Frogs sound like rubber band drums and they are one of the first species to react to the chemical applications in the fields. The fact that the creek burbling through the fields was loaded with frogs was as good a sign as the plentiful buzzing insects and the birds who feed on them—or of the happy dinnertime hitchhiker I found in the kale—that the farm and the farmers we look to for our food are doing right by the produce, but also by the consumers and the environment the farm depends on. The loudest farm, I've decided, may be the best.

Listen in! The frogs are loud. (You'll hear some other visitors, as well as my daughter playing with pebbles in the frog-filled creek.) These sounds are of a tasty farm.

FarmFrogs

Braised Sunflowers

by April Paffrath

 
Siena Farms grows beautiful sunflowers. They are impeccable (like their produce) and intensely golden, just like you would imagine they should be. Somehow they look even brighter in huge groupings, like gigantic bouquets sitting in big buckets instead of vases.

Recently, I went to an event at Erbaluce Boston and chef Charles Draghi presented a buffet of meats, veggies and more with a bagna cauda. Included in the veggie line-up were some sunflower heads. For real. I was shocked. It's so rare that I eat something that I've *never* had before, much less something I didn't know was in the realm of possible dinner options. It was almost emotionally thrilling.

The sunflower heads looked like artichoke hearts, and tasted not too far off, either. They have that familiar tangy hit that's a tad bitter followed by the sweet sweep at the end. The sunflower, though, is less harsh and more sweet. The texture and color are very similar to artichoke, but not exactly the same. You need to try them to find out the difference.

Ever since that event, I have wanted to make sunflowers in my own kitchen. Luckily, How2Heroes posted a great video of Charles Draghi making sunflower heads (watch it below), this time filled with a ricotta herb mixture. On my next visit to Siena Farms in Sudbury—I like to go there, even though I get the CSA box, to pick up extras and see what's not making it into the box—I chatted with Trevor about the giant yellow flowers.

You want to make sure that flowers you choose to include on your plate are free from pesticides and other treatments that might not be safe for consumption. (You even have to take care with any organic treatments because "organic" does not equal "edible" in all cases.) Flowers often get different treatments if they aren't considered a food crop, so you need to ask. I asked Trevor just to be sure, even though I know Siena Farms is organic and was likely supplying food-grade sunflowers to restaurants (they are). You just need to be safe when you're dealing with chemicals and dinner. He loaded me up with a bagful of sunflowers, several of them past their bouquet prime, but perfect for dinner because they were tender and fully ripe.

I watched the video and decided to follow it pretty closely, but with a couple of tweaks….as always.

When you look at a pile of golden sunflower heads, it's hard to know where to start. I picked off the petals and trimmed around the outside edge, removing the green sepals of the calyx (the green petal-like leaves that are underneath the petals), and exposing the pith of the flower head. Next, I turned the flowerhead on edge and trimmed off the yellow face of the flower. I learned through a few practice passes that it's easy to cut too deep or too shallow. You want to remove the yellow face and be left with the pithy meat. Don't take off too much, just remove the yellow. Finally, trim off the stem that you've used as a handle, as well as the green underside of the flower. That can be a little tricky because of its concave sections, but it only took one flower to figure out the best way to go. As I prepped each one until it looked like a giant white, flat artichoke heart, I popped it into acidulated water (water + a bit of lemon juice) to stop oxidation. I went slowly on my first flower head and I noticed some browning by the time I finished, so they all got a lemon juice and water bath while I got the rest of the dish set up.

On the first flower, I trimmed the back before the face, but in doing so, I lost my handle. Oops.

I braised them in olive oil, white wine (Mâcon is what I was drinking, so that was the choice), lemon juice, garlic and herbs. When they were tender after about 40 minutes, I carefully put them in an oven-safe pan and filled them with the ricotta-herb combo. It was a difficult choice to diverge from Draghi's recipe, because it looked so good, but I split the filling in two to try different herbs. One batch was close to the parsley-thyme-basil that he envisioned and the other half was more like an herbes de Provence mix. So, each ricotta batch was a bit different: nutmeg for low flavor notes, and lemon zest for the high notes, and then different herbs for the middle range.

I sprinkled the top of the filling with bread crumbs and let it cook in the oven. It took close to a half hour to get the ricotta hot and the bread crumbs crisp and golden. Draghi suggests a vinaigrette with capers, which we tried on one part, using a caper tapenade (Formaggio was out of my favorite salted capers, so the tapenade was a compromise). I liked it, but I was in the mood for sunnier, rounder flavors. I toasted some pine nuts to sprinkle on top. Instead of vinaigrette, I drizzled a bit of the braising liquid and followed that with a very light drizzle of rosemary honey. Oh my. It was the perfect blend of sweet, toasty, bitter and awesome. To experiment, I drizzled a bit of my homemade basil oil around the plate to set off the basil notes in the braising liquid—just a touch.

Yum.

You can see how the texture is very like artichoke. The flower face feathers a bit as it braises.

Pepper with some of the plucked petals and serve with a salad and a gorgeous dressing. Then, just wish that you had thought to make this earlier in the summer when you'd have an entire season of sunflowers ahead of you, instead of mere weeks.

Check out the How2Hero video to walk you through. Then rush out and get some organic, edible flowers and try it.

Blight

by April Paffrath

A rarity this summer: ripe red heirloom tomatoes from today's farmers' market.

I had dreams this summer. Dreams of making my own ketchup, of eating dinners made up entirely of thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes in a light vinaigrette with fresh mozzarella from local Fiore di Nonno. I was going to savor so many dinners focused entirely around tomatoes. But that's not going to happen this year.

"Late blight," a rapid fungal disease, has raced through the northeast tomato and potato crops, withering them all with lightning speed. It's hard when you're suddenly faced with a reality that is staggeringly different from your culinary dreams. Those dinners and ketchups and sauces probably aren't going to happen.

This week's New York Times has a great op-ed ("You Say Tomato, I say Agricultural Disaster") by Dan Barber of Blue Hill Restaurant. (How much do I like Dan Barber? Well, I like him more, now.) It's so well written and encapsulates the issues and feelings of this year's blight so well. You really need to read it.

Farmer Chris sent out an email to the Siena Farms CSA share members this week, explaining how the tomatoes have been hit and only some varieties will be able to fight it off. He broke the news with good humor that, although they're still making every effort to fight the blight, we may not get a single tomato in our CSA boxes this year. Ordinarily we'd be flooded with them. He, too, pointed our Barber's great piece as well as Corby Kummer's follow-up about late blight, which is also worth a click.

We saw a bit of a brave face from Siena Farms as they broke the news. Kurth talked about learning about blight and how fascinating it is (true, no doubt), even though it's horrible, but it seemed clear this situation is difficult on many fronts. We can still find green tomatoes at the farmers' market (which we saw today) and at their stand at the farm in Sudbury. The thing is that no one knows how long those will last or if they'll pull through. Luckily at the farmers' market today, we were able to snag some red heirloom tomatoes from Atlas, so we did realize at least one night of the summer dream: thin slices in olive oil and salt and pepper with mozzarella. It was a good dinner that we did not take for granted.

The late blight problem this year makes us think of more than just misplaced meal ideas. Mostly I'm thinking about the farmers in the region who have pinned hopeful income on a crop that is decimated. As Kurth said in his message to CSA share members, the blight highlights the strengths of the CSA model: "The customer shares the risks of the growing season with the farmer, the farmer doesn’t bank his or her whole business on one or two crops, and both parties are reminded of how many different factors are at work in the growing and eating of food."

In growing a diverse crop selection, the damage is limited to a certain percent of the harvest. Nothing is wiped out completely and, with CSA shareholders' joint risk, the farm can hopefully weather the blight, which is far worse than a normal year's damage.

Even as we miss our tomatoes (and to some degree, potatoes), the farmers are hit worse. After all, it's only my dinner at stake. For many farmers, damage like this affects their ability to financially weather difficulties. It's helpful to the future of small farms in a tough year like this if we buy our produce from the farmers as much as possible. Tomatoes and potatoes might be hit, but if we opt for squash and greens, and celery and cauliflower direct from the farmers, we're still getting the best produce available and they're mitigating the tomato losses. We want to see them all (and then some) flourishing next year...and by next year I'll have four ketchup recipes picked out to try.

For now, I'm focusing on green tomato recipes, like Cynthia's fried green tomatoes. I made a green tomato jam (which we talk up around the house as a "green ketchup" for the 3-year-old). I used Ana Sortun's recipe with a modification passed along by a fellow customer I met at the Siena Farm stand in Sudbury.

It's super sweet and the vibrant green color dulls to a deeper, glossy green. The original recipe sounded as though the tomatoes fall apart on their own, but they didn't chez moi, so I used an immersion blender to get it all gorgeous and smooth before reducing it all the way.

It's great with all kinds of dishes, but I like it best with cheese. We use it like a sweet ketchup.

Green Tomato Jam
modified from Ana Sortun's recipe
makes 2 cups


• 4 green tomatoes

• 3/4–1 cup honey

• 1 cup white wine
• 
2 fresh bay leaves
• 
leaves from 2-4 sprigs of thyme

• 1 clove of garlic, smashed

• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil (optional)

1. Peel the green tomatoes and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. The green tomato is firm enough that a peeler works just fine.
2. Put the honey and wine on to simmer. 
3. Add bay leaf, garlic, and thyme and simmer a few minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt
5. Simmer for 20 minutes. (The original recipe said to simmer until the tomatoes were jam-like, but after another 10 minutes, it didn't look like that was really happening, so I went a different route, below.)
6. Remove the bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to purée the mixture. 
7. Add the olive oil. Return to simmer and let it reduce. The jam will get thick and sticky and glossy. Taste and adjust salt to your preference.

It's gorgeous and flavorful and sweet—a good foil to savory meal flavors from meats to cheese to, well, were still finding more and more we like it with.

Crossroads of America

by April Paffrath

North Manchester, how it looked decades ago.

This week I'm thinking a lot about the idea of farming and the community that builds up around farms. I talked yesterday with Lisa Hamilton, author of Deeply Rooted, and I remembered some things I wrote but didn't post yet about the farmland that my husband and I come from. We recently went back to visit family and I got to thinking about how farmers and community intersect, rely on each other, and help a community grow.

A few weeks ago we went to a sweet country wedding in northern Indiana. Everyone pitched in a little bit here and there to carry mason jars of flowers to the tables, make lemonade, or decorate cupcakes while laughing at someone's funny stories. Super added bonus beyond the wonderful bride and groom? The food at the wedding was delicious. (As so many of us know, wedding food isn't automatically blissful, even if the marriage is.)

My husband's aunt and uncle hosted this wedding, and their family thinks about food—where it's from, how it's raised, what it does to your body and to the planet. We knew ahead of time that the food was going to be a focus, and a tasty one at that. Not only was it flavorful and fresh—with fresh-made breads that had the bride's and groom's initials baked on in poppyseed (sweet!)—but it also featured a plethora of other fresh foods like homemade mozzarella, vibrant radishes, sweet carrots, quinoa apple curry salads, rhubarb chutney, turkey salad, cakes and so much more—all made from scratch. I'm getting hungry just remembering it all. The wedding banquet was free of additives, artificial flavors and hydrogenated oil, among other processed no-nos that they wanted to avoid. It was also sourced locally, from a handful of farms that their caterer, Katie Van, works with.

It was straight up abundance and deliciousness that added to the celebration at hand. To my husband, Matt, and me, though, it was even more amazing because it was in the middle of northern Indiana, near where he grew up. This food is what we can never find when we travel in Indiana and we have been waiting for it.

Some of it has to do with the town. North Manchester, Indiana, is one of our favorite little Indiana towns, where the wedding was. It is also the town where Matt's family tree is deeply rooted. Grandparents, great-grandparents, and before them probably a couple of generations more all lived in the area, farming and milling. Nearly every trip back, we go to North Manchester so we can drive past the farm where his grandparents lived, to see the other grandparents' grain mill nearby on the Eel River (now a museum), and drop in for a visit to Matt's aunt and uncle (who are so fun and make me hope that our own nieces and nephews might like popping by to visit us when they're grown ups). There's something cool about North Manchester, and I don't think it's just the family there. Perhaps it's thanks to Manchester College—there's enough influx of new people that the community is interesting and stands out among its fellow small towns, even though it's not shining or touristy at all.

Matt's grandparents' mill, which milled grain from surrounding farms.

Indiana may be the "Crossroads of America" but it isn't exactly a hotbed of food culture. It should be, with all the lush farmland, but those green fields are mostly corn and soy...and some wheat. Farmers tend to "specialize" on certain crops, making the most of economies of scale, but just try to make three meals a day, seven days a week out of corn and soy and some wheat. We drove around Indiana, remarking on the movies Fresh and Food Inc., which address issues like farming practices and monoculture. As a balance to the endless corn and soy, we saw plenty of pasture-raised livestock, though, which was a nice thing. Indiana has more farmland than we have around Boston, but it appears that Boston has a greater concentration of food farmers who grow produce and food that can be made directly into dinner. The distance between the field and the plate can be quite short in Boston, and it has been very long in Indiana unless you have your own garden. A visit "back home" makes us think about food and where it comes from...and why the region that grows so many crops isn't also flooded with amazing food for dinner.

But food in the Indiana we know hasn't been part of the culture or a common priority, so we sometimes feel lost. Perhaps that's why we love North Manchester. It always makes us think of my husband's wonderful Grandma Helen and her handmade noodles and mashed potatoes...and fruit slush (yum!). And the cool aunt and uncle (who hosted the wedding) who welcome us to dinner that is simple and delicious, and we sit and catch up over a meal that's not a major event—just good food and good conversation.

The Atlantic visits Siena Farms

by April Paffrath

I love Siena Farms, where I get my CSA. The food is stunning, vibrant, flavorful, and gorgeous every single week. Not a single week goes by that we aren't floored with freshness and vegetables that look better than anything we've ever seen at a store. Getting our CSA box is a bit of a thrill every week. We eat our lunch at Sofra, pick up our box in the wine store next door, and then we open it up before we even get in the car, unable to wait until we get home before peeking at all the fantastic colors and dreaming about what's for dinner. It's like your birthday and you can't wait to open the presents. a tasty tasty birthday.

This week the farm sent out an email with a special treat—a podcast that Corby Kummer of the Atlantic did with Chris Kurth, of Siena Farms. I visited the farm and walked around the fields, and I can tell you that it's a lovely place and it makes you hungry to see the wonderful rows of happy-looking plants. As Farmer Chris points out in the little video, the plants want to grow and if you keep them healthy, they will grow without much intervention. What a nice way to think of farming and food—that if you take care of the soil and the plants, the plants want to grow and prosper. And that's the making for incredible food

Take a look.

2009 Tour de Farms

by April Paffrath
How do you look in a yellow jersey? It's Tour de Farms time. You may not be Lance Armstrong, but you don't need to be for this special ride. This Saturday, August 1, the (sold out!) third annual Boston Tour de Farms takes riders on a...um...tour of farms (who would have guessed?) in the Boston area, where you will visit the farms, talk to the farmers, and try some of the food they grow. It's sponsored by several organizations, including MassBike, Urban AdvenTours, and Farm Aid. Riders get some great time outdoors and discover what foods are being carefully grown right around our city—all in the company of your fellow riders.

I so want to do this ride, especially since I have my swanky British bike with a wicker basket, but I'll be busy. Sigh. It sounds like so much fun as well as a great look inside some of our local farms—which are a real culinary and environmental treasure. It's already sold out, so I know a bunch of curious foodies must be going.

There are two loops, one is 15 miles and visits the urban farms around Boston, and the other is 40 miles and heads out further into the Boston community. Riders/eaters/curious folk will get great exercise and learn some wonderful things about food sources, first hand. (Both circuits will be led by experienced riders, helmets are required, and there is a $10 registration fee.)

The 15-mile Urban Farm circuit will visit the Food Project, Minton Stable Community Garden, Re-Vision House Urban Farm, and City Natives Nursery. They meet at 8:30am and ride until about 12:30pm.

The 40-mile Community Farm circuit  will visit Allendale Farm, Waltham Fields Community Farm, Newton Community Farm, Brookwood Community Farm, and City Natives Nursery. They meet at 7:30am and ride until about 12:30pm.

For those of you already signed up, let us know how it goes!

2007 Tour de Farms riders learn about Brookwood Community Farm from manager Judy Lieberman.

Top photo (cc) santheo via Flickr