Autumn Real Food Fermentation Events

Lots of Real Food Fermentation events this fall! Including:

• September 20-22, 2013, at the Mother Earn News Fair in Seven Springs, PA
• October 8, 2013, at the San Francisco Public Library
• October 18, 2013, at Stonewall Kitchen in York, ME
• October 22, 2013, at the Dewey Square Farmers' Market in Boston, MA

Click here for full event details.

Please come say hi!

Boston Public Market Promised $10M And Building

The Boston Public Market Association, on whose board I serve, has been promised $10M and a home in an existing building. BPMA will use that money to plan and build a public food market selling local food.

The building will provide more than twenty thousand square feet of space for vendors, and is located in a neighborhood with heavy foot traffic near subway lines, bus lines, and commuter rail lines.

This is a major step forward for the BPMA. Thank you to everyone who emailed the governor on our behalf!

Some details in this Boston Globe story.

Watch this space for more information, coming soon.

Boston Farmers' Market Season Has Begun

Farmers' market season has begun here in Boston!

To find local markets, check the boston localvores. This site has a great interactive Google map, so you can zoom in on the locations you're interested in, and click to get opening times.

There are some other sites that can provide you with further details about markets, such as vendor names, products, and WIC/Senior Coupons. None of these sites is perfect. The Northeast Harvest site has partial, but not complete, vendor and product lists. The Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets site has a little more information but is difficult to use. The MDAR site has the WIC/Senior Coupon information, but has not yet been updated for 2010.

Having said that, allow me to draw your attention to two markets in particular:

The City Hall Plaza Farmers' Market is open Mondays and Wednesdays, 11AM-6PM, from now through November 24. (After November 7, it closes at 5PM.) Here's a map. Here's a vendor list. Here's a product list (note: to get the complete product list, you must scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the "Change Page" links).

The Boston Public Market at Dewey Square is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:30AM-6:30PM, from now through November 23. Map. Vendors. Products.

(Note that both of these markets include vendors selling Meat Of Known Origin.)

Why do I mention these markets in particular?

I mention these markets because they are managed by an organization I'm involved with, the Boston Public Market Association. Our goal is to create an indoor, year-round public market selling food from local farmers and producers. By helping to make our summer farmers' markets successful, you are furthering our ultimate goal of providing year-round, full-time availability of local food to the Boston area.

To learn more, please visit our web site, and email us to join our mailing list.

Downtown Crossing Holiday Market

If you are in Boston this season, you can visit the Downtown Crossing Holiday Market, located (in a big tent!) on Summer Street at Downtown Crossing from now through December 24th. Hours are Monday through Saturday 11AM-7PM and Sunday 12PM-6PM.

Why visit?

There are farmers and food producers offering a variety of excellent food and horticultural goods, including great local vegetables and fruits from Keown Orchards, delicious breads from When Pigs Fly, fabulous lillies from Stow Greenhouses, and one-of-a-kind Dessert Hummus from Crazy Camel. There are also booths selling the other sorts of things you might expect at a holiday market, including jewelry, pottery, candles, and the like.

The vendor I was most excited to see was Stillman's, a leading Massachusetts purveyor of Meat Of Known Origin (MOKO). Stillman's will be at the market five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, until December 24th.

So it will be easier than ever to get Meat Of Known Origin in Boston this holiday season!

Note: The Downtown Crossing Holiday Market is being run by the Boston Public Market Association, in coordination with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. I am on the board of the BPMA. I don't benefit personally from any money you might spend at the Holiday Market.

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Imagine if there were an indoor, year-round, seven-days-a-week local food market serving the Boston area, so that farmers and food producers like Stillman's, Keown, and Stow could easily sell their products directly to their customers.

I think this would be great, for many reasons. Here are a few: Greater availability of real food could increase the health and happiness of folks in the Boston area; it could also attract more good restaurants to the Boston area. A year-round market would make it easier for buyers to find what they needed, and easier for sellers to predict demand.  Cutting out the intermediaries would allow food producers to build relationships with their customers, sell at a better price, and take home more money for themselves. And so on.

The Boston Public Market Association's goal is to create such a market. If this vision appeals to you, please support us.

Sauerkraut Demo, This Saturday 12:30PM-1PM, Rain Or Shine

Reminder:

I'll be doing a demonstration of how to make sauerkraut this Saturday from 12:30PM-1PM on Dewey Square, diagonally across from South Station in Boston. Admission is free! Come check it out!

Rain or shine!

I'll be using cabbage from Keown Farms, one of the vendors from the Boston Public Market Sponsored by Rodale at Dewey Square.

My demo will be part of a big fair running from 12PM-6PM on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. For more details, click here.

I'm Doing Free Sauerkraut Demos, Oct 3, 12:30PM-1:00PM

What: Sauerkraut-making demo!
When: October 3, at 12:30PM, 12:45PM, and 1:00PM
Where: Dewey Square, diagonally across the street from South Station, in Boston, MA.

On the afternoon of October 3, I will be doing a sauerkraut-making demo at Dewey Square as part of the Try Something New festival on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Dewey Square is the site of the biweekly farmer's market (Tuesdays and Thursdays) run by the Boston Public Market Assocation, on whose board I serve.

The Greenway is a mile-long park stretching through downtown Boston, encompassing gardens, plazas, and promenades. It is located where the elevated portion of I-93 used to be, before the Big Dig. It is lovely.

Come out to support me, enjoy the festival, get to know the Greenway, and learn how to make sauerkraut!

Listen To My Radio Interview

2009-09-01: UPDATED with a new link that should work better, although it shows obnoxious ads.

click here to download


This past Friday, I was interviewed by the incomparable DJ Adira on WMPG, Portland Maine, 90.9 FM. In between musical selections, which ranged from belly dance to kirtan hip-hop to klezmer to tango to bluegrass AC/DC covers (whah?), we talked about:

• real food
• lactofermentation, including the class I am teaching
  
• bike share programs
• raw milk
• what is local?
• Meat Of Known Origin 
• Boston Public Market Association 
• the Stoneyfield conundrum
  

Visit this page to listen to the interview. It takes place over the course of 90 minutes. Another huge thank-you to DJ Adira for having me on her show.

Boycott Whole Foods? I Think Not.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, Inc., wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal that has caused a great kerfuffle. In this editorial, he presented his thoughts about how to improve health care in the United States. I would encourage anyone who's interested to read his editorial.

I agreed with most of what he said in the editorial, I disagreed with some, was neutral on some, and I will not be boycotting Whole Foods.

Why not?

1. Anyone who pays attention already knew that John Mackey was a libertarian, a proponent of a limited role for government. Heck, I don't even really pay attention, and I still knew this. So the opinions he expressed should not have shocked anyone.
   
   
2. You want to boycott Whole Foods. Where else do you shop? Do you know the political views of the CEOs of all the corporations you give your money to? Are they more to your taste than Mackey's? Mackey is not the only shareholder of Whole Foods; do you know the political views of all the other shareholders? Have you done a thorough survey? If you're in a boycotting mood, it's possible that there are other companies or products more deserving of boycotts, for one reason or another. (I personally boycott Coors, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, fast food, and diamonds. Probably some other things, too.)
   
   
3. I believe that Whole Foods, on the whole, has had a net positive effect on our food system. Sure, it's not all good. But it's also not all bad. I think they have raised more people's awareness of food in general, and "organic" food in particular, than any other single organization in the US. Whole Foods is a first step towards "real food" for many people.
   
   
4. I already buy all the produce I can from farmers' markets; all the meat I can from traceable sources (viz. Meat Of Known Origin); and as much dairy as I can from small farmers, as much of it raw as possible. Righteous, yes? But what if some of my farmers have political views that I disagree with? Oh my goodness! Have I asked all my farmers about their political views? Of course not. Shall I ask them about their religious beliefs, too?
   
   
5. During the summer, I hardly shop at supermarkets. There are better places to buy food. I plan to continue avoiding supermarkets into the winter. I am on the board of The Boston Public Market Association. Our goal is to create an indoor, year-round food market serving greater Boston. If you want real food, spend your time and energy (and money) helping us, rather than boycotting supermarkets! Give us money—your gift is tax deductible. Find us on Facebook and on twitter.
   

That's all.

Boston Public Market Association

I've been on the board of Boston Public Market Association for more than a year.

The goal of BPMA is to establish a year-round, indoor farmers market serving Boston, selling vegetables, eggs, dairy, meat, and value-added products from local sources, year-round, and regardless of the weather.

Some other cities in the US have markets like this. (San Francisco has the Ferry Building Marketplace; Seattle has Pike Place Market; etc.) More cities elsewhere in the world have markets like this; they serve as hubs for sellers, buyers, and community. Even more cities used to have markets like this. Over the course of the last 60 years, supermarkets have supplanted these public markets.

The BPMA project is vitally important; it is important to us eaters, to greater Boston, to New England, and to the world, for many reasons, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Public markets reduce or eliminate intermediation, making it possible for small-scale sellers to get a fair price for their goods, and making it possible for buyers to meet small-scale sellers and understand where there food is coming from.
  
• Public markets reduce transportation and distribution needs, which leads to fresher food.
• Public markets keep money in the local economy, rather than sending it to who-knows-where.
• Public markets can foster positive interaction among people of different ethnic and economic backgrounds, as well as among folks of different urbanization backgrounds (country, suburb, and city folks).
• Public markets can make fresh food available to underserved communities.
  
• Public markets are likely to be more resilient than supermarkets in the face of precipitous social infrastructure change (increased fuel/transportation costs, currency or bank failures, terrorist attacks, and so on).
• Public markets are FUN!
• etc.

(If you would like to hear more about the importance of local food, I'd encourage you to read pretty much ANY of the books that appeal to you in the sidebar to the right.)

I think it's likely that BPMA will achieve its goal within a few years.

If you have thoughts about this, or would like to be kept in the loop, please let me know, become a fan on Facebook, and/or ask to be added to our mailing list.

Farmer's market near South Station (Boston), this Thursday, 11:30AM-6:30PM

Tomorrow morning will see the opening of the BPMA's 2009 summer farmers market, officially known as Boston Public Market Sponsored by Rodale at Dewey Square.

The market is open from 11:30AM-6:30PM at Dewey Square, which is diagonally across the street from South Station in Boston.

If you are interested in following this farmers market on Facebook, please click here.

Boston Public Market Association

The goal of the Boston Public Market Association is to create an indoor, year-round market for Boston, selling and promoting local, sustainable foods. I've been on the board of directors for most of a year.

We recently got some great press in the Boston Globe:

Hungry for public market, city plans site