This Week's Food

While the beginnings of the Thanksgiving Holiday are marred with atrocities (here is a great podcast about the origins of Thanksgiving from an Indigenous perspective), our team appreciates the chance to spend time with our friends and families over a meal. That being said, I asked folks what was their favorite bite (singular) was and here were their responses (plural).

This past Sept., Erin and I (Joe), purely for business/QC, of course, had the downright awful chore of sitting and snacking and drinking at Broad Arrow's new charcuterie bar, The Rooting Pig. It did not disappoint. And bonus points: their obsession with all things porcine shows as much in their skillful butchery and sausage-making as it does in their commitment to the well being of their animals.

Hello! Shannon here and we're going to chat again about how "rad" different crops can be for the soils and why we should eat more of them. And, if you are thinking, is she lining up a vegetable pun with quotes around the word rad, then you certainly have read enough of these emails to know that is 100% going to happen because, how rad are radishes for soil health?!

If you're anything like me you've been consuming news and content in roaring deluges. Between the endless emails, the doomscrolling and the bets on whether former British PM Liz Truss would outlast a head of lettuce (a truly delightful nugget of journalism) - it can all feel like... a lot. Content consumption is a sticky wicket and a hard habit to kick.

Hello friends!

A few notes:

1- We love our bags and ice packs, please return them! We wash, sanitize and re-use them. This is key to our efforts to be a low waste, sustainable company and all around pal to the planet.

2 - Thanksgiving is almost here!  Reserve your bird now--limited quantities available!

We have a new product in the store and just in time for this delightful bout of New England weather. At Family Dinner, we love us a good soup and we're near fanatical about Bone Broth.  We're such big fans that we are starting a wee musical group to sing its praises, we're calling it "Bone Broth Thugs and Harmony". Our first hit, The CrossBones is forthcoming.  ( Reference, for anyone born after 1995, can be found here.)

We recently had the pleasure of getting to re-visit Dandelion Spring Farm in Bowdoinham, Maine. Beth Schiller, owner of Dandelion Spring and her crew of almost entirely women (and two dogs!) run an amazing operation that yields incredible produce - including the arugula in this week's Maine and New Hampshire shares.

Every job comes with a host of pros and cons. Ups and downs. For me the pros are as diverse as they are numerous. Talking with our members, finding new products, eating an ungodly amount of Port City Pretzels - you get the picture.

Year after year, seasons change and every growing season brings its own challenges; droughts happen or like last year, we had the rainiest season on record. But. after years working outside and on the land many farmers have observations that indicate to them that the seasons are a changing!

"You can't please everyone, you're not pizza." Those words, uttered by some infinitely eloquent sage (was it Lao Tzu? Brené Brown? I can't recall), couldn't be more true.

The world seems intensely hectic, a pandemic-laden carnival ride we can't seem to get off of or get reprieve from. And as it spins faster and faster, there is also no reprieve from the demands on our time or attention. We pour the same amount of ourselves into an ever-increasing amount of cups, and somehow always feel like we're letting people down, not doing enough.

Farming ain’t easy. Raising animals with respect and care requires loads of effort. And one of the biggest hurdles facing many small farms is at the end of the cycle. There is a growing waitlist for animals to be processed at USDA-inspected facilities which have limited openings and capacity. The increased waits means farms are providing the good life to their animals for longer and longer periods, driving up costs. Additionally, in Maine, some facilities may only be approved to process meat to sell within the state or are only approved to sell certain types of meat.

At Family Dinner, we often say that there is something for everyone in the story of local food. Whether you are passionate about the environment, food miles, the ethical and loving treatment of animals or simply delicious tasting food, there is a chapter for you in this tale.  At Family Dinner, we often say that there is something for everyone in the story of local food. Whether you are passionate about the environment, food miles, the ethical and loving treatment of animals or simply delicious tasting food, there is a chapter for you in this tale.  

This week we have beautiful lettuces from Heron Pond and Clark Farm in Massachusetts and South Paw Farm in Maine.  Summer Lettuce, because I'm incredibly creative and can make giant cognitive leaps, makes me think of Summer Salads.