This Week's Food

Often, when less well-known veggies come through the seasonal mix, we can only include them in the Double Shares given that they are very limited in quantity. This week Shannon knew it was Fiddlehead season and was determined to get them for everyone. She tracked down Fiddleheads with the ferocity of Indiana Jones seeking the Holy Grail in the Last Crusade and we hope you love them. (Can someone please tell the Millennials in the room who Harrison Ford is?)

Although we are adding some non-local items, we remain a business that celebrates all of the beautiful foods created in our local community. While rolling out these non-local items, we wanted to share a bit more about why we selected them and how we are sourcing them.  Shannon, our Operations Manager and Veggie Sourcer extraordinaire, tells the story of these selections. - Erin

I love it when sweet potatoes come into the share. They're bright, versatile and really, really patient.  These guys can hang out on my counter for weeks until my lazy carcass gets around to figuring out what to do with them.  I don't know what it is about sweet taters but I really like to let them languish before I make up my damn mind. 

And why the trepidation? Sweet potatoes are incredible flexible and fantastic for your weekly meal prep. Roast or mash them and top 'em with a runny egg for breakfast, throw in a salad for some substance or treat 'em like a taco and top with melted cheese, ground beef and salsa. 

This liminal period between seasons may have us whining for more consistent temps, but there are also reasons for optimism of the culinary variety. Spinach is here and Spring Dug Parsnips have shown up ready to party. (Spring Dug Parsnips spend the winter in the ground, taking a long rest like Superman in the Fortress of Solitude. When you dig them up in the Spring they are well rested and sweet.) 

At Family Dinner, we're not too shy or humble to openly brag about how great our members are.  You are a wonderfully supportive, fun community of folks that we are extremely grateful to serve. We dream about the day we can throw a big party and bring everyone together to experience this community in person. (With near 700 weekly deliveries, that would be a VERY big party, like one of the ones in all the 1980's movies that didn't age well. Count. Me. In.)

Since we can't throw an epic local food rager (yet), we thought it would be fun to introduce you to some of your fellow members, learn about them, what they're cooking and what they can't wait to receive in their shares.

 

In our last series, we talked about the year round activities with produce and livestock farms. In this upcoming series over the next few months, we’ll be talking about the ground which grows our food! 

Before we dig into what comprises the soil that grows the food you eat, I figured we could talk about the context of the agricultural landscape of Massachusetts.

This week, with the warmer weather I found myself really craving seafood, scallops in particular.  Some nice citrusy/peppery greens, a glass of crisp white and scallops simmered in a jacuzzi of local butter.  It sounded like heaven. So when Jamey from Red's Best told me a boatload had landed, I couldn't help but order for the Pescatarians in the room. I order them for you, but also for myself. I admit to being shellfish.

We're showing you Tim's beautiful mug today to wish him Happy Birthday, but more importantly to stand with our Asian American customers and colleagues at Family Dinner and in our communities.  We stand against the dehumanization and violence against all members of our community.  I want to respond to these grotesque, racist attacks with expletives and fists. Love and solidarity, however, might be more fitting.

I'm not exactly an inspirational quote kind of a gal, the adjectives "warm and fuzzy" don't often get lobbed my way.  But, at the risk of dipping a toe into the crowded landscape of "Live, Laugh, Love", I wanted to share this quote from Elena Ferrante:

"Nowhere is it written that you can't do it."

The Musical Event of 2021 is brought to you by the Buoys of Summer, a Boston-based Yacht Rock band whose members include several of the Family Dinner All-Star Delivery Team: Peter Danilchuk, Davina Yannetty, and Ben Blanchard (left, center, and right in the photo).  The Buoys of Summer are streaming live from Cotuit Center for the Arts, Saturday, March 6, 7:30pm. 

"Activism can be a march, a boycott, a campaign to knock on a million doors or even a handful of seeds: a future, staked in the earth. It can be voices in chorus and a rising consciousness that the way we eat not only reflects, often ignobly, our choices as a society but shapes them; and that we have the power to change those choices, and the way we live." 

This is A Farmer’s Year, Part 2! Last month we talked about the year-round activities of fruit and vegetable farmers. If you missed it, you can read that newsletter here! 

This time around, I thought we could talk about livestock, and while most livestock don’t really have fully seasonal ties, sheep definitely do. Now before I crack on, wool you bear with me? Ewe’ve heard I like puns, I won’t be sheepish about it. 

In January we committed ourselves to donating at least $3,000 a month to local food banks and organizations fighting food insecurity. We want to do this by buying food directly from local producers, growers, and makers who themselves are struggling in the pandemic. On top of what we have committed monthly, you all donated over $4,200 to add to this effort.