Locavore by Ali Nolin

LOCA VORE slow moving food â&#x20AC;˘ boston

no. city VOL. 1

2 MAY 2013

fresh

ALSO FEATURING

growing your own herbs, the new clover foods, whats in season & more!

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“to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”

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contents

slow moving food • boston

MAY 2013 • VOL. 1 NO.02

10 AN EXPERIMENT IN BUILDING BETTER FOOD

Clover foods and their location.

15 LOCAL VS. OTHER

We weigh the pros and cons of local versus transported.

27 CIDER CITY

All the local cideries near and around Boston.

43 HOW TO’S

COMPANIES CULTIVATING URBAN FARMING PRACTICES

Taking a look at City Fresh Foods.

EAT IT HERE

Best Farmers Markets around Town to get food!

22 SMOOTHIES YOU, YOU & YOU TOO

Smoothies made with local ingredients, good for you!

35 FRESH HERB

How to grow your own herbs very easily.

We teach you the right way to do what you love.

departments ASK LOCA HERB OF THE MONTH FARMERS MARKETS

TEAMWORK The city fresh crew gathers.

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companies

cultivating

URBAN

FARMING initiatives

CITY FRESH FOOD TAKES ACTION WRITTEN BY Patricia Harris & David Lyon PHOTOGRAPHS BY Cinthia Wellerby

LYNN LLOYD, THE CEO OF

Boston based city fresh foods catering company, had an epiphany a couple of years back, “i was standing in the kitchen at city fresh and realized that we were buying all this lettuce from California and paying a pretty good dollar for it,” he recalls. “Then I was driving up Harold Street [in Roxbury] and I just noticed vacant lot, vacant lot, vacant lot, vacant lot. I said, ‘We are going to get land and start growing food.’ ”

VEGGIN’ MAKING THE CITY INTO A GARDEN LOCAVORE

He was hardly the only one with that idea. Margaret Connors, a public-school wellness coordinator, was concerned that school meals had so little local food. She met Lloyd when City Fresh catered meals after her school’s kitchen broke down. They started tal king, and together they hatched a for-profit, urbanfarming company dedicated to providing farm-to-table produce, creating jobs, and bringing vacant neighbourhood land back into productive use. Now that it is entering its fourth growing season, City Growers has partnered with the everfamously local Massachusetts Department of Agricultural resources and the not-for-profit Urban Farming Institute of Boston to sponsor the first Massachusetts Urban Farming Conference at Roxbury Community College next Saturday. The conference will offer an update on city agriculture in the Bay State and lay out the opportunities and challenges of growing food in the city. Urban farming is hardly a new concept. Farms persisted inside city limits around the country well into the 20th century. (The orchards of Roxbury were famous for developing the Roxbury Russet apple and introducing what became known as the Bartlett pear to the United States.) More recently, intensive growing on small plots — both in the ground and on rooftops — has flourished in municipalities as diverse as Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, and San Francisco. Hard figures about how much commercial agriculture takes place in Boston are difficult to come by. Those involved locally say that this modern incarnation is in its infancy here, with most of

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the larger organized efforts involving nonprofit operations connected to hunger relief and social-service programs. But all agree that interest in self-sustaining micro-farms that grow for the market is gaining traction. During the 2012 growing season, City Growers cultivated four small plots in Dorchester and Roxbury. “That really proved our model,” says Connors. The company employed two full-time growers and a part-time grower, and got assistance from about 100 volunteers. “We grew on about 20,000 square feet, which is half an acre,” she says. “We generated $32,600 of sales on that half acre. All we need to do is get more land and we can scale that up.” City Growers estimates its break-even point at about three intensely farmed acres. Although Connors still envisions one day providing fresh food to Boston public schools, City Growers currently operates as a commercial wholesale grower. In 2012, the company sold to restaurants that ranged from Haley House and Stone Hearth Pizza to Lumière and Henrietta’s Table. Their fresh products also appeared in a few small grocery stores, including Foodie’s Urban Market in the South End, Savenor’s on Beacon Hill and in Cambridge, American Provsions in South Boston, Sherman Market in Somerville, and City Feed and Supply in Jamaica Plain. As part of a commitment to small local food producers, David Warner, co-owner of City Feed and Supply, has been a customer of City Growers from the

“The closer you can get to your food, the more you’re going to know about it and the more nutritious, potentially, it’s going to be for you.”

GROW

your own x

SWEE

T BASIL

L AV A N D U L A

DILL WEED

R O S E M A RY

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GREENHOUSE Fresh strawberries all around!

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“the time is ripe for urban agriculture”

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early days. “I’m a big believer in fewer degrees of separation in the food pipeline. The closer you can get to your food, the more you’re going to know about it and the more nutritious, potentially, it’s going to be for you,” Warner says. He also sees urban farming as an amenity for city living. “To walk down a city street and see a goodsized plot of land being actively cultivated,” he says, “adds a visual benefit. You’re seeing human activity that has an aesthetic and a beauty to it, and that enriches all our lives.” Like Lloyd and Connors, Warner will be participating in discussion panels at the Urban Farming Conference, which is generating a lot of enthusiasm around the region. “The time is ripe for urban agriculture,” says Greg Watson, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, another cosponsor of the conference. “The time is right to piggyback on the ‘buy local’ movement. I think people have made the real connection between locally grown fresh food, health, nutrition, and obesity prevention. If we can shorten the distance between where the food is grown and where it’s consumed, there will be multiple benefits.” The recognition of environmental degradation within cities through the relocation of resources to serve urban populations has inspired the implementation of different schemes of urban agriculture across the developed and developing world. From historic models such as Machu Picchu to designs for new productive city farms, the idea of locating agriculture in or around the city takes on many characteristics.

No one is suggesting turning Boston Common into a farm, but there are a lot of smaller plots around. Estimates of the aggregate of small vacant plots vary widely, from 600 to a few thousand acres. Many are simply pieces of land that have lain unused for decades. “Those vacant lots are mostly in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan,” Connors points out. Not coincidentally, that is where they are concentrating their efforts. The potential is staggering. “Take 10 percent of that,” says

Lloyd, “or even 5 percent. That would produce a checkerboard of small intensive farms where we can grow more of our food.” Linked into a single entity (such as City Growers) with coordinated market operations and pooled resources, several quarter-acre micro-farms could have a significant impact. Urban farming fits into a broader vision by Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s office that would ensure access to healthy, local, nutritious food at fair prices for all Bostonians. Encouraging food trucks, pushing for the development of a public market, and even supplying vouchers for low-income residents to use at farmers’ markets have been part of that vision. Through the Mayor’s Office

of Food Initiatives, the city hopes to foster a broad spectrum of agricultural activity that ranges from rooftop growing to aquaponds to service companies for a new agricultural sector. The economic stakes are surprising. At a City Hall agrieconomic powwow in November, Trish Karter (founder of Dancing Deer Baking Co. and now of LightEffect Farms, which proposes farming in rooftop greenhouses) estimated that the packaged salad greens market in Metro Boston is worth $100 million annually. A lot of growers would like a piece of that. were among the founders of UFI and remain actively involved in the process. Besides serving as an advocate for urban farms in policy discussions, UFI’s principal tasks are to incubate farms and incubate farmers. “For now we are looking to use city land,” says Dave Madan, a UFI founding board member and executive director of theMove, a Cambridge-based group that organizes educational farm volunteer workdays. He serves on UFI’s land-use committee. “In the future we will be looking at options to actually acquire land or look at long-term leases.” More immediately, UFI has been recruiting about a dozen would-be urban farmers for a 28to 30-week training program that begins with classroom sessions, followed by practical experience in the field. “The big vision,” says Lloyd, a UFI board member, “is that when they are done, each one gets a plot of land to grow on.” • For more information on City Farm Growers feel free to visit cityfarmgrowers.com

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nationalgrid 14

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AN EXPERIMENT

IN BUILDING

BETTER FOO LOCATION! Once only a food van, now a resturant.

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R OD

CLOVER FOOD GETS IT RIGHT

WRITTEN BY Sheryl Julian

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LOCAL AND FRESH Using only ingredients from as close to the location as possible.

EATINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; AWAY Overlooking the Clover resturant.

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EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN TO

clover food lab in Harvard Square, which opened in the fall, has a strong opinion about it.Here are some: fascinating, fabulous, cold, like a real laboratory, and where’s the beef ? If the place is adamant about not being labeled vegetarian, why is there soy bacon in my sandwich? Clover Food is a fast-food restaurant, almost always offering well made, high-quality food. The 80-seat place is cavernous, hard to warm up because it’s so spare, very brightly lighted, with a simple menu that hardly varies. There are white ChemTop tables, birch veneer stools, and large slabs of Maine red oak as tables and counters. It has a pop-up quality, as if the crew is here temporarily, planning to relocate elsewhere. You enter Clover and see an electronic menu board with selections listed with wait time, say, “2.3 minutes,’’ updated often (as is the restaurant’s site and Twitter). Ayr Muir, who started the company and has shareholders now, is a graduate of MIT (Course 3, materials science and engineering). He also has a Harvard MBA and his resume includes a stint at McKinsey & Co., the management consultants. Muir works with Rolando Robledo, who has experience at The French Laundry and teaching at Johnson & Wales. Clover began as food trucks, located at MIT and South Station, where the menu was refined before it moved to bricks and mortar. In this first location, greeters enter your order on an iPod touch system and you get change from their money belts. And then, about two minutes later, like something out of a frat house, you hear someone bellow your name. In this high-tech environment, no one has figured out how to get you to the counter without a holler. Once there, you will see very good coffee made only three cups at a time with individual filters; fine tea leaves steeping in a little pot, one per customer; counter workers making sandwiches in delicious, puffy, tender little whole-wheat pockets. A breakfast sandwich ($5) with sliced tomatoes and cheese has a Chip-In Farm egg whose yolk breaks at the first bite, spilling golden sauce into the pocket. It might be the best thing on the menu, until you dip into creamy Narragansett yogurt layered with beautiful granola and pear compote. Chickpea fritters, stuffed into a pocket ($5) with salad, pickles, and hummus is another gem. Egg and eggplant sandwich ($5) also contains hummus, nicely charred vegetables, and egg. One night

“ALWAYS OFFERING WELL MADE HIGH-QUALITY FOOD” FRESH Basil-lemonade always on hand.

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what’s on

the menu?

Locally grown Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis, commonly known as rosemary, is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region

Sustainable coffee from Bolivia Grown by coop members in a small village called Taipiplaya, at altitudes of up to 1800 meters. Generally speaking, growing at high altitudes is a desirable condition for Arabica beans.

Cheese from Grafton, Vermont Grafton is a non-profit. They exist to support small dairies in Southern VT. Their “profits” go either to the Town of Grafton, VT, or to small dairy farms located around the state of Vermont.

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THE LAB Quirky, fresh ingredients make for fun food combos.

it has an unappealing dark circle around the yolk; at lunch another day, the yolk is a pretty yellow. Fries ($3) are lowered into their bath with fresh rosemary, which lends the shoestrings their nice fragrance. For some reason, soups don’t look appealing, but taste fine. Pureed cauliflower one night is gray, squash isn’t the coral color I’m expecting, but robust beet is startlingly bright and tastes as good With all this well-made food, there are very annoyances. A sign that tells you where to put compostables and is written on blue painter’s tape. Same for tagging the restrooms. You are not allowed and cannot get salt unless you ask, and when

“A TRUE LAB, IN WHICH THE FOOD IS EVOLVING” you do, the counter person wants to know what it’s for . It’s for my egg. If you watch the staff, you’ll see them tipping juice into a tiny cup from a big square container. Of course it splatters on the counter. Look at this as a true lab, in which the food is evolving. While it might not be to everyone’s taste, there will probably be something for everyone. Something well made and delicious. Muir seems to be tweeting in his sleep, fastidiously answering customers’ questions, even blogging about his review interview, so he’s definitely paying attention. There’s no detail too small. Beside “City water, filtered’’ it says 2 minutes on the board. Put it in pitchers on a counter. That would take zero. • EATIN’ AWAY Overlooking the Clover resturant.

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INFOGRAPHIC

son fruits e the most in-sea Here we explor ur local yo t si vi so you can , es bl ta ge ve d an ht from them! and get it straig famers market

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tom

s oe

200 seeds

Per fruit. They are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside. It is a hybrid species that is cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The fruit is widely appreciated for its sweetness.

*Fragaria

ananassa

gplant

ri cher

okra

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Means radish in latin. The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe, in pre-Roman times.

rs pe

pep

radix

*Raphanus sativus

Million years ago, they were first discovered. A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source.

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*Amanita

muscaria

87%

Made of water. The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh.

*Daucus carota

collard

e gre

a pe

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USING HERBS

RECIPE of the MONTH

rosemary apple cider 1 shot bourbon 2 sprigs rosemary 3/4 cup apple cider • Put the cider and 1 sprig of rosemary in a small saucepan. • Heat until the cider starts to bubble around the edges. • Take off heat, and cover tightly. Let sit for 10- 15 minutes. • Remove the rosemary sprig, pour cider in glass along with bourbon. Garnish with rosemary sprig.

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ASK LOCA

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LOCA VORE

ask loca!

Q. WHAT DOES THE COLOR OF MY FOOD TELL ME ABOUT ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NUTRIENTS WITHIN? DEAR LOCA, I have heard that the color of food can tell somewhat about what is inside it. I was curious if you could give me some inner insight as to what may be the deal with this? I want to be more aware of what I am putting in my body.

ASK ME anything! x

EVERY MONTH

readers are encouraged to send in questions about food and living local! helloloca@locavore.com

Sincerely, Chak Lidhull

A. POWERFUL!

Green fruits & veg have both lutien and indoles; which provide the human body with the strength to maintain healthy vision and strong teeth.

The bright colors of fruit are like a code signaling the nutrients contained inside, but you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need a complicated code breaker to figure out the health benefits that come from eating fruit. Just include plenty of colors in a wide array of choices to help prevent heart disease, lower cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of developing eye or bone problems.

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Typefaces / Azkindenz-Grotesk Sentinel Clarendon

Photography / Creative commons & other All rights go to those responsible

Paper / Rolland Hitech50. 80 lb.

Design / Ali Nolin

Editors/ Anna Clark

Additional thanks / Joe Thornton & Chikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;n Little

Cover photo by / Creative commons

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LOCA VORE slow moving food â&#x20AC;˘ boston

no. green VOL. 1

MAY 2013

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houses ALSO FEATURING

repurposed containers, make your own cider, go exploring & more!