This Week's Food

We believe in the power of small businesses, local farms, and artisan purveyors. When you spend your dollars at Family Dinner you are supporting a large network of the little guys.  Like Maine Grains, Clark Farm, Feather Brook Farm, Brookford Farm, A&J King (who use TRUCK LOADS of Maine Grains in their delicious goods) , Red's Best, Forge and on and on. The folks trying to do it right, and be the David to the Industrial Ag Goliath.

In the vegetable world, if you want to talk about a powerhouse family of crops, look no further than Brassicas (Brassicaceae, if you’re feeling fancy and want to use the actual taxonomically correct Family name). With its high water content, Napa Cabbage can take on sweet and juicy flavors when cooked and especially picks up other flavors well too! Add it to stir-fry or soups, eat raw in salads or slaws, or steamed into a cabbage roll, you can’t go wrong with this shining star of the brassica family.

This week, Family Dinner will be donating $3 for every share we deliver to the Boston Day and Evening Academy in Dorchester to their "Moment of Need Fund" to help their students in these frightening and complicated times.

These incredible cucumbers from Langwater can be made into a cucumber salad or eaten straight up! However, with burgers on the menu, I am only thinking of one way I want to eat them, QUICKLES (and even quicker pickles)! Can you think of a more dill-icious treat than pickles?!

We applied to the Rockland Trust Small Business Big Dreams competition. Over the course of the contest we received mentorship from Charlie, our coach, and his colleagues at Rockland. 

We just found out that we won the competition and the AMAZING $20,000 grant that goes with it!`

Your Family Dinner team is made up of a small but wonderful crew of packers, email responders, drivers, play list creators and mid-shift Cookie Monsters.  Outside of Family Dinner they are teachers, health care professionals, life long nerds, lawyers and ... Semi-Pro Women's Football players? 

So, we're not supposed to have favorite members at Family Dinner. We're supposed to love and appreciate you all the same. That said, my absolute favorite member is Janet. Janet is 99 years young and a retired social worker. This week she recalled a vegetable that showed up in her share: "all spindly and curly, it looked like abstract art!" Janet is, of course, regaling the beauty of the garlic scapes.

A few weeks ago the Boston Globe ran a piece called Saving Chelsea about the devastating effects that COVID-19 is having on the Chelsea community and surrounding area. It laid bare the truths of how this pandemic is disproportionately effecting communities of color and exacerbating the difficulties for low-income families.

Basil and Bunny sounds like a delicious dish I would hunt in my back yard and serve up over some homemade tagliatelle and a glass of Chianti while cranking Pavarotti's Greatest Hits, but no! It's incredibly delicious vegan fair made by husband and wife team Lyslie and Mathiew Medeiros.  "Basil & Bunny is comfort food inspired by multicultural flavors and entirely plant-based. Center-of-the-plate, mouthwatering dishes that you crave."

I asked a few friends for suggestions around a food pun for the week and Kirstie at Clark Farm was quick to the draw with this visual gem. Rich, a friend and Family Dinner member, suggested I go with "There's asparagus in this week's share, urine for a surprise!" (You're welcome. We decided to forgo the visual on that one.)

We are so excited to partner with A&J King Bakery in Salem, MA for this week's grain and treats. Owners Andy and Jackie King have been at the helm of this incredible bakery since 2006. Jackie and I go even further back, all the way to Masconomet High School, to these ridiculously baggy track uniforms and Erin's awful DIY haircut. (brutal, Baumgartner, just brutal!)

Is an allium! Onions and these beautiful scallions from Clark Farm are both a part of the Allium family, from the latin allium meaning "garlic." (Nothing like some culinary etymology to start your day off, am I right??). Scallions are brighter and sweeter than onions. They can be eaten raw or cooked, and will store for a good while if you wrap them in a damp paper towel and store in a plastic bag.