Posts Tagged “davis square”

On Wednesday, as is my habit, I visited the Davis Square farm market at lunchtime, bringing along two of the office interns. After all, we have an obligation to educate them, don’t we? T picked up a potted basil plant and L some banana bread from Breadsong bakery. I grabbed a pint of strawberries from Kimball Fruit Farm, even though I don’t really like strawberries, but they looked so nice and I figured the office would appreciate some healthier snacks. Also at Kimball, I snagged a bundle of asparagus, one of my favorite vegetables.

Some people like to roast or grill asparagus, and some people like to boil or sautée them. I’m a boiler, but a very very particular one. I dread overcooked asparagus and watch mine like a hawk, tongs and colander at the ready, to ensure only the most medium rare of asparagus, al dente if you will. (and yes, I snap the ends off rather than cutting them - it’s easier)

I’m similarly minimal in dressing them. No cheese or creamy sauces for me. A drizzle of olive oil, fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Can’t beat it.

And the next day, the leftover asparagus joined some canned tuna, jicama and snap peas for an impromptu approximation of a Niçoise salad. Very approximate, but still tasty, and Nice is nice.

In what is starting to become a Wednesday ritual, I visited the Davis Square Farmers Market today. It was much more lively than last week (and sunnier, too) and there was an impressive array of produce available, as the “menu” board proudly stated:

I was in a bit of a hurry since my traditional manager of a directive boss had the temerity to call me on my cell phone at lunchtime, delaying my plan by a good 30 minutes. So I made a quick survey and zeroed in on the first local heirloom tomatoes of the season, at least the first ones I’d seen. In my haste, I didn’t note the name of the farm, so I hope somebody will comment in and help me out.

The closeup is a little misleading in scale, the red one is (was) no more than two inches across, and the smaller ones grape-sized at best.

As soon as I got home, I grabbed the wrap that I had intended to bring for lunch but forgot in the fridge this morning (smoked salmon, goat cheese and greens) and cut into the juicy green mini-watermelon-looking tomato. Yum.

As I ate the wrap and the tomatoes (with some sea salt and a pomegranate spritzer) it occurred to me that this sandwich would be even better with the tomatoes inside, so I went back to the kitchen to make another, and while I assembled it, I realized that once again I had formulated an excellent Locavore Sandwich. Here’s the lowdown:

• Greens from Julia’s garden: 1 food mile, tops
• Tomatoes mentioned above, from Framingham if I remember right: 19 food miles
• Smoked salmon from Ducktrap River in Belfast, Maine: 209 food miles (plus the nautical miles, but hey, cut me some slack here)
• Goat cheese from the Davis Sq market last week, from Sterling, MA: 45 food miles
• Whole wheat lavash from Boghosian Valley Bread in Lawrence: 35 food miles

At least in the summer, this locavore thing is fun. I don’t see going all the way all the time, but especially with the awful news of contaminated tomatoes out there, eating a little closer to home is working out well for me.

Lots of half-finished business (but hardly any half-finished food) here in the secret LimeCave. After last week’s cheesy post on local eating, I learned a couple of important things:

1. It’s locavore (219,000 google results), not locovore (4,000 results)
2. Via GrowCookEat, I found a list of Massachusetts farm markets, including one in Davis square

So naturally, when Wednesday rolled around, I resolved - crappy weather notwithstanding - to visit the Davis Sq farm market and buy something local. The weather was biblical, but seven or eight local farmers had set up shop in the parking lot behind Chipotle and Starbucks - a couple of herb farmers, some with radishes and other greens, a baker, a butcher, a soapmaker, Taza chocolates and a dairy farm if memory serves.

Slightly guilty for cheating on When Pigs Fly, I bought a whole wheat loaf from Breadsong Bakery in Auburndale (8.4 food miles to the limecave) and a smoked goat cheese from Crystal Brook Farm in Sterling (45 food miles.)* According to the accompanying literature, “A herd of 70 Alpine and Saanen dairy goats produce all the milk used in the cheese operation… The animals have free access to pasture and seasonal browse. Happy goats yield high quality cheese.”

No argument there. Although my <1 food mile supply of Cambridge mizuna and arugula had run out, I still made a a nice sandwich with pretty low mileage. The bread was firm and on the sweet side (containing molasses, honey and brown sugar!) but a nice complement to the smoky but otherwise super-fresh goat cheese which was a welcome twist on the classic log. If only I had a nice slice of tomato. Maybe in a month or two.

I’d been watching the vacant spot between Kick Ass Cupcakes and When Pigs Fly Bread for a while, and just last week it bloomed into the Dairy Bar at Kick Ass Cupcakes. But I’m just going to call it the Kick Ass Dairy Bar. It’s now official - Davis Square is the Paris of Somerville. We have a bakery and a cheese shop.

I popped in today on my way home and checked out the selection of “farm fresh and local dairy milk, cream, butter, eggs, cheese, hand packed ice cream and more.” They also have some chocolate and other odds and ends, but let’s be honest, I was there for the cheese. I picked up a bright white brick of Myenberg aged goat milk cheddar and a package of adorable thimble-shaped “tiny artisinal cheeses” called Hanabells from Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA.

With a little help from a pear, some crackers, the omnipresent loaf of When Pigs Fly pumpernickel and some mizuna and arugula from J’s garden, I put together a couple of tastings for myself. There was a Marlborough (NZ, not MA) Sauvignon Blanc in there too. The Hannabells were creamy and mild with a nice note of sea salt and barely any rind. We’ll have to see if they last long enough to get more. I bought the plain kind, but they also come in herb and spicy formulae. I think the brothers should consider a variety pack.

The goat cheddar was something I’d never seen before. I didn’t know it was possible. I think it’s successful, but have to wonder if most people wouldn’t prefer cow cheddar or more traditional forms of goat cheese. I also made a sandwich of this cheese with some greens and pumpernickel. Will have to consider this for the next cheese sandwich challenge.

Since Universal Hub tagged me with the “locovore” “locavore” label, I wondered how close this spread was in terms of food miles. I did better than average, but ultimately not that well, since the Myenberg is from California. If I had made the sandwich with the Shy Brothers cheese, it would have done — bread from Maine, cheese from Massachussets, and greens from a Cambridge garden. But the Hanabells were better taken as canapes with a cracker (corner 7-11) and a slice of pear (organic from Harvest Coop, but probably from the southern hemisphere). In any case, Locovore Locavore Sandwich is a good name for a band or a blog. You read it here first.

I had just one thing on my mind heading out to lunch yesterday: cheese. Pizza? No. Cheeseburger? No. Cheese fries? Ugh. Can you just have a slab or slice or chunk of cheese for lunch? Not that I haven’t done so before, but it’s somehow just not done during a lunch break from work. So I popped into a local place and ordered up a sandwich with cheese in it. It didn’t really live up to my cheese hankering, so today, I went to a different local place and had a different cheesy sandwich. Presented here for your edification, a head-to-head cheese sandwich comparison.

Sandwich the first: “Granny & Jack” at Blue Shirt Cafe

Jack cheese, granny smith apples and caramelized onions on grilled sourdough bread. I think I would have preferred it with cheddar, but as it turned out, the cheese was so meager and thin, I’m not sure I would have tasted it. (But wait, the cheese is yellow, does jack come in yellow like cheddar does?) Onions were nicely done and in good supply, and the apple was freshly sliced. What brings this sandwich down is that the proportions are out of whack, and it’s not grilled long enough for the apple to warm up. Maybe those issues are related, because my gripe is that there is way too much apple compared to the cheese, and the apple slices are so thick that it’s hard to keep the sandwich together since the onions are pretty slippery. I think that if there were more cheese and thinner slices of apple, things would harmonize better.

Sandwich the second: “Branch Trio” at Diesel Cafe

Three cheeses, greens, cucumber and tomato on seven grain bread. I think two of the cheeses were havarti and muenster, but I’m not sure of the thrd. I was intially put off that the sandwich was not grilled, but the bread held up well. Also oddly, it was served in a bowl because they were out of plates. The cheese to vegetable ratio was right on, with both sliced nice and thin. All in all, very comforting with the greens and grainy bread giving the feeling of a somewhat healthy meal, despite all the cheese.

Although the overall advantage is clearly to the Branch Trio, Both sandwiches could have benefitted from more interesting bread, and perhaps more time on the grill. Also, neither one really satsified my cheese craving, but maybe that’s better for all concerned. In addition, I should mention that the Diesel sandwich was a bit more expensive than Blue Shirt’s.

I think I might even have a cheese sandwich for dinner. Here’s my cheese sandwich formula: 18-24 month old cheddar and fresh granny smith apple on grilled pumpernickel. I’d definitely put some cheese on each slice of bread to melt around the apple slices and keep them from squirting out the end of the sandwich when I take a bite.