This Week's Food

I’ve been a New Englander long enough now to have an itch that needs to be scratched. One that I think is generally pretty dang useless to scratch but here we are: What’s up with this weather?! Not only has it greatly reduced our beach days, bike rides and hikes, it has also thrown summer eating off quite a bit. Tomatoes have been late and less abundant, lettuce has been reluctant to grow, plans to grill that beautiful hunk of seafood have been thwarted... and where’re our local peaches, plums and other stone fruit?

This week marks the start of the Brookford Farm Sunflower Soirée. This flower filled fête Goes from August 12th to August 20th at Brookford Farm in Canterbury, NH.

On the weekends you can expect music, hayrides, pick your own flowers, food and cow parades. Did you hear me? I said COW PARADES. Take a moment out of your your wild morning filled with emails, laundry and eating crumbs off your keyboard and picture that. A cow parade. It just makes the udders all warm and fuzzy.

This wonderful soul is Julie Baer, long time member and supporter of Family Dinner. She's a writer, an artist, and inventive cook. Julie is always thoughtful and thought provoking, sharing interesting articles and events about food, local ecosystems and food justice. She's a gem of this community and we asked her to share a bit with all of you.

Friends, meet Sarah, a wonderful chef that will be working with Family Dinner this week. She has crafted the vegetarian proteins (eggplant meatballs) and the mezze (green goddess dressing) for MA-customers this week and ME/NH folks next week.

Sarah is the chef owner of Two Knives and a Pan and man, are we in for a treat!

ANOTHER book review, Erin? Two weeks in a row?

Yes. Another book review because I am still 8 year old me, plowing through books in the summer so I can win silly posters from the Scholastic Book Club or personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut. I'm rather a fast reader so there were a few summers in the early 90's where I was basically a personal pan pizza.

I digress. The book "Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women who Revolutionized Food In America" is a delight.

Historic flooding of the Connecticut River and others has left local farmers reeling and caused millions of dollars in damages in the state.

Fields with late adolescent corn, or hay ready to be rolled are under lakes of muddy water, unrecoverable and unsellable.

Part of the core mission of Family Dinner is to eliminate waste. Did you know that between 30-40% of food goes to waste each year in the US? It's a shocking statistic.

From our side we're trying to use technology and data to eliminate waste in the food supply chain - all of YOU are a part of that effort and we appreciate you support. At Family Dinner each week we order to meet near exact demand, we keep little inventory and almost nothing goes to waste.

The Summer Solstice just passed us and despite the rain has us feeling as bright and cheery as kittens (whatever that means).

Boy, oh boy do we love a produce based pun around here. We have the humor of a 70 year old dude in a Kenny Loggins t-shirt who lives off Coors Banquets and Werther's Originals** and we won't say sorry for it.

Howdy-

Joe here. In addition to GM-ing the heck out of Family Dinner, I've been playing in bands for... geez... 30-odd years? And back on May 19th, my current one, Gozu, hit the road for a few weeks to play a bunch of shows throughout the US. 22 days of driving ~7,500 miles across 24 states. We saw dozens of faces. And we rocked some of them. (Bon Jovi, anyone?)

We're so excited to have asparagus back in the shares this week. The season is short so we love to it as much play time as possible.

There are so many ways to enjoy this, in pasta, on a tarte, plain with butter - just don't over cook it. It goes from the perfectly crisp spear to a mushy wand in the time it takes to say "what the hell is a Vanderpump rules?". So take your time with it, be delicate and let all the summery deliciousness be the star of your plates.

We have long been Superfans of the Boston Renegades, the professional women's tackle football team.  These women are pure grit, and pure inspiration.  They also, no big deal, are four time National champions.

People have long been asking about treats and food for the the #1 person in their lives, their dogs.

This week our pals at Brookford Farm heroically answered this call. They are making raw chicken and carrot patties for your pooches to treat them like the royalty they are. Bella, pictured, can vouch for them. Two paws up.