Posts Tagged “locavore”

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.

Due to some byzantine scheduling issues, I found myself at home at 11am on a Monday, hungry and needing to leave the house. Fortunately, J was also hungry, so we met up at the Central Square farmers market and then got some lunch. If you’ve been reading Grow Cook Eat, you’d know that she’s been about as regular at the Central Square market as I’m hoping to be at the Davis outlet.

We poked around among super-cute fresh beets, finger-like and smaller than the neighboring radishes, and some kohlrabi and garlic scapes, two vegetables new to me. I’m hoping somebody blogs some recipes for those, but I didn’t buy any - yet. We also learned that the tiny heirloom tomatoes I enjoy are still hothouse for a month or two longer, but they’re still a lot more delicious and a lot less contaminated than the typical supermarket ones these days.

After a quick snack at the market, we headed off to Four Burgers, recently opened in Central Square where Gandhi restaurant used to be, if you’re navigating by navistalgia. A deliberately simple concept Four Burgers offers just that, in beef, turkey, salmon and veggie varieties. I had tried the veggie variety last week and found it decidedly wanting (mushy, black beany, and bland), but the beef more than made up for it.

Probably not a true locavore sandwich, the Brandt beef burger with cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato (!) was delivered medium rare as ordered, already a good sign. Waffle chips were house-made but not very crispy and not nearly salty enough. Similar critique applies to the massive plate of sweet potato fries, but they were at least flavorful. And they got better after J meddled with them, I hope she’ll blog about that.  Back to the burger: simple and straightforward, a classic.

We didn’t imbibe at lunch, but Four Burgers has a brief but interesting wine and beer list.  Another encouraging sign.

I ran into some good folks from Harmonix Music (we discussed BSG and Speck) and local photographer John Chervinsky, too.  I’m hoping they can add reports of the final two burgers.

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.