Entries tagged with 'Massachusetts'
Page 2 of 5
Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents checks in with what's fresh at farmstands, what's coming up, and what you better get while the gettin's good. This week, we hear from Boston correspondent Penny Cherubino of BostonZest. [Photographs: Penny Cherubino] This May, a new farmers' market began operating on the plaza in front of Boston's Prudential Center. As a recent Boston Globe article put it, "Normally, farmers seek markets where they can sell their wares. In Massachusetts, the markets are hustling to find the farmers." Prudential Market founder Dave Gilson of Gilson Family Herb Enterprises was able to recruit the farms he needed. Last week he said he is pleased to have a great mix of vendors...
Continue reading »
Note: Meet Your Farmers is a Monday morning series where we profile the farmers that mean so much to serious eaters everywhere. This week, Penny Cherubino of BostonZest introduces us to John Lee. [Penny Cherubino] Name: John Lee Farm: Allandale Farm, "Boston's last working farm" in Brookline, Massachusetts How many acres? 30 Your crew: I manage two crews, one for production and one for market. Both crews are local. However, my field crew (many of whom have worked for me for many years) are almost all of Latino descent and have done farm work most of their lives. It is what they love to do, and we try to make it as easy and as much fun as possible. Hours:...
Continue reading »
Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents checks in with what's fresh at farmstands, what's coming up, and what you better get while the gettin's good. This week, our Boston correspondent Penny Cherubino of BostonZest checks in. Photographs by Penny Cherubino Bostonians who live downtown, have more than 25 farmers' markets within easy walking or public transit distance. The City Hall Farmers' Market is one of the most convenient. It's located on the plaza outside Boston City Hall at the Government Center subway station. It's also close to many places that bring people into the heart of the city. Peaches were on my shopping list with a whole new use in mind. Neelam Batra, author of 1000...
Continue reading »
Since 1980, the Newton Parks and Recreation Department has sponsored a large and popular farmers' market every Tuesday in Cold Spring Park, which brings together 25 vendors and as many as 1,000 shoppers during peak season. Nicewicz Family Farm has been selling at the market for 20 years. They have a reputation for outstanding peaches and corn. Alan Nicewicz explained that even before his grandparents purchased the farm in 1929 there were peach trees on the land. "The soil is very good up there. It's hilly. We have a lot of clay which adds to the sweetness of the peaches. As for the corn, I think we grow some good varieties. We work very closely with the seed companies."...
Continue reading »
"What real chefs can do with red-sauce Italian." One could be forgiven for expecting very little from Basta Pasta. It sits on a traffic-heavy Cambridge street lined with bodegas and split-level homes. No waiters—just a walk-up counter whose chalkboard menu reads like the Olive Garden’s. There’s a refrigerator stocked with Pepsi and Gatorade; a flat-screen TV hangs overhead. The name’s a little corny. And the owners aren’t even Italian. But with one bite of homemade fusilli, none of this could matter less. MIT grad students, the Cambridge fire department, and Central Square denizens have been holding out on the rest of us—Basta Pasta is no ordinary red-sauce takeout. Order well, and the dishes handed over the counter will be phenomenal....
Continue reading »
Note: Each week, one of our various Market Scene correspondents from around the country checks in with what's fresh at the farmstands in a particular region. Today, Penny Cherubino (Boston Zest) drops by from Boston. The Brookline Farmers Market has been a part of the Coolidge Corner shopping experience for thirty-one years. It's a place of full-flavor shopping with produce, cheese, eggs, ice cream, bakery, specialty foods, beef, turkey, pork, lamb, and fish vendors. It's a busy market, with long lines forming at favorite vendors like Clear Flour Bakery. This family-operated, artisan bakery specializes in creating the authentic breads of Italy, France and Germany. Clear Flour always appears in any list of the best bakeries in the Boston area....
Continue reading »
Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents from around the country checks in with what's fresh at the farmstands in a particular region. Today, Penny Cherubino (Boston Zest) drops by from Boston. Steps from Harvard Yard, with historic Memorial Hall as a backdrop, you'll find the Harvard Farmers' Market. It's part of the University's Food Literacy Project, which "cultivates an understanding of food from the ground up." One of the wettest Junes on record has delayed sun-loving summer crops in the Northeast. Farms with greenhouse operations have had an advantage by producing some early broccoli and cauliflower....
Continue reading »
Note: This week we add Boston to our mix of Market Scene reports. Penny Cherubino, of BostonZest, reports. Photographs by Penny Cherubino There's been a farmers' market in Copley Square for decades. Long before the local food movement took hold, residents and workers in the historic heart of Boston have been buying fresh, local products from Massachusetts farms at this location. In the past five years, this market has doubled in size. On Tuesdays and Fridays the park is turned into a festival of fresh produce, eggs, meat, smoked fish, cheese, specialty food products, baked goods, plants, cut flowers, crafts, and prepared foods. This week I saw greens everywhere—lettuce, Swiss chard, Asian varieties, collards, mustard, spinach, and bok choy. And,...
Continue reading »
There are neighborhood cafés, and then there are neighborhood classics. The kind of local favorites where the staff gets to know your name, and you theirs. Where even though lines snake out the door, every regular considers the place his own unique find. And where the food is both honest and memorable, worth going back to—and not just because it’s around the corner. These institutions often take years to evolve. But Mike and Patty’s, opened eight months ago on a quiet corner in Boston’s Bay Village neighborhood, seems pretty close already. Its storefront may be tiny—an open kitchen behind the counter, one high table for a friendly six, and hardly enough room to turn around. What Mike and Patty’s...
Continue reading »
Opening a restaurant’s second location is like making a movie sequel. It should capture the feel, the look, and the ambience of the original—faithfully recreating everything that made it a hit in the first place. But it should also bring something else to the table. Move the story along. The Friendly Toast, just opened on Sunday (May 17) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, does so admirably. It’s hard to replicate the success of a local institution. Up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the original Friendly Toast has earned lines out the door since 1994 for its mammoth pancakes, crazy egg dishes, and over-the-top kitschy décor. But from an airy space in Kendall Square, the owners have crafted a second Crayola-hued temple of...
Continue reading »
