Newton, MA 100

This page is dedicated to sharing great local products and companies I have found as I continue to try to be a better localvore (where the things we use come from within 100 miles of where we live). Now, I am by no means fanatic about being a localvore – there are so many things out there to enjoy from all over the world and sometimes there is no replacing that. But I’m going to try to at least keep increasing what we consume locally since it is simply a good thing. Plus, it is also an interesting experiment to see how much of what we consume can be from local sources.

Since it can take so much research and experimenting to find products you love, let alone products that are produced within 100 miles of where you live, I thought I would publish my findings here should you live in the Newton (Boston) area and have a similar interest. So stay tuned as I will keep adding to this as have more to share and I hope you’ll share your findings with me.

Milk
We usually use whole (my tea and for my toddler) and non-fat milk (cereal) in our house.

• The Organic Cow
  My favorite milk right now. I had never tried it until this past July when we were in the Cape and it was the only organic milk option. I am not sure if it is the raw milk or the processing but the end result is milk that I find thicker and creamier than other whole milks. So much so that I compared the nutrition label to another brand to make sure there wasn’t more fat in The Organic Cow milk. And there isn’t, same nutritional info!  Now, I just wish they sold it at Whole Foods since I’m often there picking up other things and would to buy this milk there. The Shaws in Newtonville carries it, as does Russo’s in Watertown and the Roche Brothers in Wellesley.
• Organic Valley – New England Pastures
  We’ve been drinking Organic Valley milk for years now and it is organic and sourced from New England Dairy farms. Hard to go wrong with that. Though, after my recent discovery of The Organic Cow, I do opt for that if I have the choice. I also use their Half and Half when we need it and get their cheese sticks for my daughter’s snacks.

Great food in Provincetown, Cape Cod (MA)

Once again, we rented a lovely house in Provincetown for a week this summer. We had a really wonderful time. We enjoyed some old favorites and stumbled upon a number of new ones! I thought I’d share all of the food related ones here should find yourself in that area sometime soon. And if you only have time to read one thing in this post, skim till you find Hatch’s Fish Market – our best find yet. If I find a few more spare minutes I’ll try to write up good activities to do with the kids.

Frappo66
The food is really good, and pretty quick. Go there for brunch! You seat yourself and then order at a counter. They have great indoor and outdoor seating. They do have high chairs, but you have to ask for them. We were there for brunch and I highly recommend the French Toast Texas-Style – YUM! Their side of bacon is nice too…dry, crispy and not too greasy.
214 Commercial St, Provincetown
http://www.frappo66.com/

Lobster Pot
Large menu, good food and not too fancy. They are open all day so it is a great spot to hit for an early lunch or dinner with kids. My favorite entree is the Portuguese Fish – order it! While I haven’t had it for years, I also really liked the Seafood Linguini. And of course, the lobster is great. I would not recommend the Crabmeat Salad Panini, there was a lot of mayo and other items taking away from the crab and making the sandwich really goopy.
321 Commercial St, Provincetown
http://www.ptownlobsterpot.com/

Big Daddy Burritos
Nice little take out place. It is down a little plaza of shops on Commercial St, which can make it hard to miss, so definitely look a map. A good marker is a kids toy store right next to it, with its store front on Commercial. It may look like a dive but the menu is great, fresh ingredients and something for everyone from beef (what I had) to catfish (Jeromy had them and I tried a bite – yummy) to tofu and veggie fillings for burritos,  quesadillas and soft tacos. They even make their own salsa daily.
205 Commercial St, Provincetown
http://www.bigdaddysburritos.com/

Central House at the Crown and Anchor hotel
Very delicious gourmet menu and slightly fancier environment. We have been there twice now and both times they have been totally cool and accommodating for the kids. They even have a kids menu. We do of course always arrive pretty early.  They have a nice open air seating area, which is where we always sit.
247 Commercial St, Provincetown
http://www.onlyatthecrown.com/centralhouse/index.php

Provincetown Portuguese Bakery
I usually have to stop there a few times each visit. They have so many things that remind me of my childhood growing up in Macau. A couple favorites are the salted cod cakes and the sweet Bolas De Berlim, which are fried donuts with a creamy custard filling rolled in sugar. Yum. They have lots of great breads and other sweet treats. They even serve some hot savory items at another counter in the shop. I have yet to try anything from that menu but come close every time I’m there. Timing just never really worked out.
299 Commercial St, Provincetown
No website, so here’s the yelp link.

Far and Land
A nice little grocery. But the best part are their prepared foods, treats and sandwich counter. They make a mean egg, bacon and cheese, english muffin sandwich in the am.
http://www.farlandprovisions.com/

The Fudge Shop
Diagonally across the street from Big Daddy Burritos, on Commercial. Try the white chocolate Almond Bark – super good. I’m not normally a fudge fan but Julia let me try her Peanut Butter Fudge and it was awesome.

Hatch’s Fish Market
We did a lot of cooking while we were there and are so thrilled to have found this place. They had the most amazing fresh fish and produce. It is so great it feels like you should hear symphony music as you walk in. You will want to by everything. Try not to drool too much.
310 Main St, Wellfleet
http://www.hatchsfishmarket.com/

Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar
If you want a super satisfying fried food fix, this is the place to stop. and other healthier options. There is also an ice-cream stand on the property.
3580 State Highway, Rt 6, Eastham
http://www.arnoldsrestaurant.com/

Do you have any favorites that you don’t see here? I’d love to hear about them.

CSA Share – Weeks 4, 5 and 6

As you can see, I’m a bit behind on my CSA posts! It has been a very busy couple weeks with lots of appointments and preparations for our vacation, and then of course, we were away for a week on a lovely Cape Cod vacation (more to come on things to do and where to eat and shop in Provincetown, Cape Cod in an upcoming post).

I finally have a few moments to write as this week draws to an end. So let’s get caught up on the CSA…

Week 4: Lettuce, Arugula, Scallions, Kale, Broccoli Raab, Spinach, Carrots, Beets
PYO: Fava Beans, Herbs including basil and parsley, snap peas, snow peas, flowers

Week 5: We were on vacation so our friends split our portion

Week 6: Lettuce, Cucumbers, Fennel, Carrots, Swiss Chard, Green Cabbage
PYO: Fava Beans and Herbs including dill and basil

Both my husband and I are totally in love with fresh fava beans. In fact, having fava beans (and brussels sprouts) was one of my criteria when researching CSA options.  If you have never had them, you must try them, either at home or at a restaurant. I was introduced to them at Taberno de Haro, a tapas restaurant near Fenway Park. There they serve them sautéed with Spanish ham, and I could seriously live off of that dish! I was more than overjoyed when I saw we were getting them with our share a few weeks ago. We cooked ours that night (right after I had picked them off the plants…talk about fresh!). For great instructions on how to cook the beans, check this entry on honest-food.net. We prepared them as per the guidance in that article. Jeromy then threw them directly into his salad as is, while I sautéed some bacon lardons, drained the bacon fat and then added the fava beans for a minute to meld with the bacon. Delicious. We still have ours from this weeks share. Our CSA newsletter included a link to a grilled fava bean recipe on 101 Cookbooks.com, which we are going to try tonight (along with the fennel).

Before the CSA I had never had Swiss Chard, but it is now one of my favorites. The multitude of colors is just amazing, adding another dimension to my enjoyment of the healthy veggie. We keep it simple. I match stick the stems, slice the leaves in half vertically and then into inch strips horizontally. Then sauté in some olive oil and garlic. We cook up some short pasta and toss it into the pan just before serving. Top with grated parmesan and you are in for a treat.

Well, I have a few other topics to write about (including a great wine recommendation that goes very well with the swiss chard preparation I described above!) so that is all for now on our CSA. More next week…

For reference here are the links in this post:

• Taberna de Haro – http://www.tabernaboston.com/
• Honest Food – http://www.honest-food.net/blog1/2008/04/30/fresh-fava-beans/
• 101 Cookbooks – http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/grilled-fava-beans-recipe.html

CSA Share – Week 3

This week included: lots of garlic scapes, carrots, spinach, lettuce, red swiss chard, scallions, kohlrabi, a new asian green

PYO: snap peas, parsley, thyme, chives

Jeromy picked up our share from our friend’s house on his way home for work. It was a late night so we ordered in sushi instead of cooking. But are planning big dinner salads for tonight, swiss chard with pasta tomorrow night and probably grilling scapes and scallions over the weekend. It was such a nice surprise to see scapes again, for the 3rd week in a row. I also think I’ll cook the spinach up with some pasta too. We passed on more cabbage since we still have a lot of the vegetable slaw that we made on Sunday left. If you haven’t seen the recipe I suggest you check it out, it was a very yummy and refreshing slaw (it was my previous post).

Next week it’s our turn to go to the farm again for the pickup and I’m really looking forward it! Our farm partners with other local groups and so has other goodies for sale at pickup, I plan to get some more honey and probably some cheese and maple syrup. My friend, Jen, said the garlic goat cheese was really good. I just hope we get some better weather, this stretch of gloomy, raining days is really starting to get to me.

CSA Share – Week 2

It was our friend Jen’s turn to pick up this week. Jeromy swung by her house on his way home from work to pickup our portion.

Our goodies this week: bok choy, garlic scapes, a couple varieties of lettuce, beets, arugala, napa cabbage. PYO: snap peas, snow peas, parsley, chives, thyme

When you are splitting 2 shares across 3 families sometimes it is easiest just to take one of something instead of splitting it. For instance, this week we didn’t take any swiss chard but we took a few more beets.

I didn’t have time to take any photos before we started digging in to get everything clean and get dinner on the table. We had giant salads with lettuce, arugula, a little cabbage, some shaved beet and a white balsamic vinegar dressing with the fresh thyme that my husband made. Delicious!! I have never had raw beet before, it was surprisingly sweet.

Tonight we’re grilling. For sides we’re grilling the beets using a recipe from our CSA farm’s site (if it is good I’ll post it) and the garlic scapes. We had garlic scapes for the first time last week and grilled them based on a suggestion from a friend and they were amazing! I am so happy we have them again. From what I have read they are only around for a couple weeks a year. Thursday we’re planning a pork and bok choy stir-fry and Sunday we’re going to attempt to make fish tacos and a nice slaw (with our napa cabbage) for Father’s Day. I’m starting to salivate just thinking about it all!

CSA Distribution Pickup tips

We pick up our weekly distribution at the farm, so instead of having a box ready to go, we actually select our produce from a series of bins, almost like at a grocery store. There is a board that tells us what we can take (e.g. the first week we could choose 8 out of the 10 items available) and then each bin is labeled with how much of each we should take (e.g. 1 lb of spinach, two heads of lettuce). Each week there will also be some crops that we can pick ourselves. These tips are for that type of pick up and picking your own crops (PYO).

 -          There is a lot

• Bring a lot of bags, always better to have a couple extra sitting in the car than not enough
• The quantity and size of the produce will change each week (and year). Our first pick up included a number of large items such as collard greens, green leaf lettuce, swiss chard. I filled (overfilled) 3 reusable grocery bags to the brim before PYO and I expect the amounts to increase over the weeks

-          The veggies will probably be wet

• The farm gives everything a rinse so items are a bit wet. The day I picked up it had also been raining, so that may have added even more moisture but everything was pretty wet. My bags had soaked through by the time I got home and had to be hung outside to dry.
• I’d recommend putting a towel down in the car to soak up any water that leaks out on the ride home – just in case. We have plastic mat and it had a few small pools of water.  

-          Managing with a young child

• I had my daughter in the Ergo on my front and it was a bit of a challenge to select and then put the veggies in the bag, and it got harder as the 3 bags filled. She was a good sport for most of it, even though I kept hitting her with wet leaves. I did eventually have to put her down when I got our lettuce as I just couldn’t manage to get the 4 giant heads of lettuce in the over full bags with her on me. I put her down and everything was much easier. Actually, I also put all the bags down to get the lettuce, everything was that full.
• If your child can stand/walk I recommend you have them walk with you instead of having them in a carrier, it will be a lot easier.
• If your child can’t stand yet you might want to bring a stroller or at least use a carrier with your child on your back.

-          PYO tips

• Bring another bag for PYO – bring a solid bag (i.e. not one made of netting) since you will probably be putting small loose items in it.
• I used scissors and pint containers from the PYO stand. When I was done I emptied the snap peas into my bag and returned the pint containers and scissors to the stand. If you are able, bringing your own scissors and pint containers would mean you wouldn’t have to go back to the stand to return them (not the returning to it was that big of a deal).
• PYO can take a while, especially if you have more than one item to pick. You may want to consider breaking it up, in particular if you have a young child with you, since they will get antsy.
• Luckily, my daughter was pretty good in the fields. I have her a snap pea to munch on and she was content with that and playing with the flowers. Pretty soon though I know she’ll want to eat even more while we’re out there (can’t blame her!) and will probably want to run around more.

-          Attire

• If you are doing PYO, definitely wear clothes you don’t mind getting a little dirty, in particular if you will be picking up your child. It  might have been a little worse because Sofie’s feet were wet from the grass, but I had lovely shoe marks on my pants from picking her up to move around the farm. But still it wasn’t that bad and you should get a little dirty when on a farm
• I had Sofie in crocs with socks on (since it was a little chilly), I figured I could just throw the socks in the wash and rinse off the crocs if they got yucky. I’ll probably get a pair of rain boots or something for her to wear to the farm too.

Welcome

 

I sit here in my semi-dark home office trying to roll out this blog before my daughter wakes up. Yes, it is 8AM and my 8 month old daughter is still asleep. I’m a lucky mom. She will be up soon so I only have a few moments but the desire to get this blog started it eating at me so here I am.

My current plan is to blog about anything and all things that strike me as worthy of writing about. My interests and experience are quite varied and so hopefully my musings will be interesting to a number of you. Topics will vary from observations on humanity, this incredible evolution of social networking (a particular interest right now), general technology (I have a CS degree, used to be a developer, have run engineering, implementation and sales for a start-up and then…well, more to come on my career later), gadgets (my most recent one is an iPhone – exciting as I just left Microsoft and honestly couldn’t have had one before as a good employee), going green (for instance, we’re joining a CSA next year), travel (a passion), great food & wine (another passion), babies (joys and trials of caring for our sweet little girl and the industry around babies), living in New England and owning a 130+ year old house.

 I hope you’ll enjoy my observations and experiences.

 Some upcoming posts from my backlog of topics will be on:

-          Taberna de Haro, a fantastic Spanish restaurant

-          CSAs

-          iPhone

-          House Wine by the Magnificent Wine Co.

 

Till next time…