It’s hard to believe the New Year is only days away. As 2014 wanes, it’s a natural time for reflection and gratitude.
As well look back over the year, the one thing the crew here is thankful for, above all else, is you. Hats off to the Boston Organics Community for your constant support and enthusiasm towards our mission to deliver fresh, organic produce while helping to grow a healthier, more sustainable food system. Thank you for your generosity in donating your boxes to the less fortunate during the holiday season. Thank you for your humor and insights across social media. Thank you for helping to shed light on the importance of organic living. Thank you for advocating for us and what we do. Thank you to our long-time customers who have been with us for hundreds upon hundreds of deliveries. Thank you to our new customers, the ones who excitedly share with us photos of their first box. We really can’t thank you all enough.
It’s been a great year for us in many ways, and as we head into our 13th year (!), we have some exciting projects in the works that we look forward to sharing with you. 2015 promises to be a year of good things, and we are so pleased to have you by our sides for the journey.
Safe, warm and healthy wishes to you and yours.
Cheers to the New Year.
The Boston Organics Crew
It’s not always easy to find a rainbow of color in regionally grown produce in the middle of winter. Our local offerings this week, however, contain a gorgeous medley of reds, greens, purples and oranges.
Boxes will be brimming with winter favorites like rutabagas, parsnips, sunchokes and beets. Some boxes will contain purple kohlrabi, which when sliced into sticks make a snappy addition to vegetable platters. And don’t be surprised if the somewhat scary-looking celeriac pops out at you—looks can be deceiving. Learn more about the mild, fragrant root vegetable.
If you’re in the mood for radishes, we not only have a beautiful blend from Winter Moon Farm, but the Local Dogma Box contains Daikons, a popular and versatile Asian variety. While many people will roast them or shred them into a slaw, we suggest trying this recipe for Sweet Pickled Daikon Radish.
This Week’s Local Produce
All of the fruits and vegetables we deliver are grown without synthetic pesticides and are USDA certified organic. Interested in receiving produce that’s both organic and locally sourced all year round? Check out our Local Dogma Box.
Similar to a CSA or farm share, our Local Dogma Box is filled with the best organic produce from local and regional farms and brought right to your door each week. It’s the easiest way to eat like a locavore!
Celeriac might not be winning any beauty contests, but once you get past the other-worldly looks of this underdog root vegetable, you’ll find a mild-tasting and fragrant interior that’ll surely win you over.
Celeriac, or celery root, is a variety of celery grown specifically for its bulbous root, rather than its stalk. It can be eaten raw or cooked, and adds a terrific flavor to any dish that calls for root vegetables, like gratins, mashes and soups.
Beloved in Europe, celeriac has quite the pedigree. While celeriac made a cameo in Homer’s Odyssey (referred to as selinon), it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that it rose to fame, and later became a commonly cultivated food item by the late 1600s. Rumor has it that it was once popular in the United States during the times before refrigeration (due to its impressively long shelf life), but was edged out of the limelight by its more attractive cousin: stalk celery.
Historically known as a medicinal plant, celeriac is a great source of both vitamin C and phosphorous. Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that helps control infections, improve immunity, and maintain healthy bones, teeth, and blood vessels. Phosphorous is an essential mineral that also plays a key role in bone health. One half-cup serving contains just 30 calories, zero fat and lots of dietary fiber.
But most importantly, it tastes fantastic with a delicate celery-parsley flavor, and it’s pretty versatile. Preparation is much less daunting than it looks. To peel the celery root, cut off the top and bottom, so that it stands on its own. Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice off the knobby peel, starting at the top and following the contours of the root to the bottom. Then cut into equal sized chunks or slices. If you’re not cooking them right away, place the pieces into a bowl of acidulated water to prevent browning. Celeriac can be boiled, roasted or steamed, just like other root veggies.
Want to give celeriac a shot? Try this tasty recipe for Celeriac Hashbrown Casserole or dig up more info on our Celeriac page.
Next week we will receive our final harvest of the year from Atlas Farm in South Deerfield, MA. Gideon Porth, owner of Atlas Farm, is a good friend of the Boston Organics Community and we’ve been working closely with him for almost 10 years!
As one of our most productive organic farm partners, Atlas Farm brings us lettuce, kale, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, squash and anything else that Gideon plants in his farm’s fertile soil. Gideon will also help coordinate deliveries from neighboring organic farms in the Pioneer Valley, conserving fuel and helping smaller farms get their produce to the Boston Organics Community.
With the help of row covers and hoop houses, Atlas Farm significantly extend their growing season, but next week we’ll receive one last haul of carrots and potatoes.
Whether or not you’re celebrating Hanukkah, you’ll want to try our Classic Potato Latke recipe. This is a family recipe, shared by our marketing associate, Eric S. Most of the boxes will have a few organic onions coming from Nature’s Circle Farm and all of the other ingredients you can order on our website.
Fortunately, just as Atlas Farm’s season winds down, Winter Moon Farm’s season picks up! Being able to work with local growers year-round is one of the many reasons why we work so hard to build a strong network of organic farm partners.
Winter Moon Farm specializes in cold weather New England crops likes beets, radishes and turnips. Next week, we’ll we have a special variety of rutabaga coming from Winter Moon Farm—the Macomber Rutabaga. Check our Local This Week page to learn more.
Many of the boxes next week will include either kale or dandelion greens. If you’re new to Boston Organics, or simply unsure of what to do with these leafy greens, you can check our recipe page for some ideas. But because most of the boxes will also include a couple of d’Anjou pears, we recommend you try a Dandelion Green and Pear Salad.
This salad is extremely easy to make when you have fresh organic ingredients and the sweetness of the pears delicately balance the natural bitterness of the dandelion greens. Try it out and let us know what you think. Tag a photo of your salad with #MyBostonOrganics on Instagram or Twitter.
Enjoy your produce and have a delicious week!
What makes an orange orange?
Well, technically the English word for the color wasn’t recorded until several centuries after the fruit appeared in Europe, so orange is the color of the fruit and not the other way around.
An orange (the fruit) is a hybrid between a pomelo and a grapefruit. The first oranges were, in fact, green and many of them still are for most of their lifespan. Oranges only turn their eponymous color as a result of cold temperatures breaking down the chlorophyll in the fruit’s skin.
But some oranges aren’t orange at all! In fact, two of the sweetest, most flavorful oranges you can find are red.
Keep scrolling to learn about the Cara Cara and Blood Oranges.
The seedless Cara Cara orange is a beautiful fat free, sodium free, and cholesterol free snack.
Cara Cara Navel Orange
Coloring: Cara Cara oranges have a yellowish-orange peel and looks nearly identical to a standard navel orange from the outside. But slice one open and you’ll discover a bright pinkish-red flesh. This coloring is caused by an abundance of lycopene, a caratenoid and powerful antioxidant that gives tomatoes their vibrant glow.
Flavors: Sweet and tangy with hints of cherry and notes of cranberry and blackberry. Cara Cara oranges have a low acid content. Though they look like small grapefruits, they are far sweeter.
Nutrients: 80 Calories, 150% RDA Vitamin C, 30% RDA Vitamin A.
(Serving: 1 medium cara cara)
Fun Fact: The Cara Cara orange was discovered in 1976 at Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela. A naturally occurring mutation of the Washington navel orange, this flavorful citrus was first introduced to the United States via Florida, but California is now home to the most Cara Cara groves in the country.
The Best Cara Cara Orange Recipe:
Kale Salad with Orange Champagne Vinaigrette
The anthocyanins that give blood oranges their distinctive coloring mop up cancer causing free radicals in the body.
Moro Blood Orange
Coloring: Unlike a Cara Cara orange, a blood orange’s skin betrays its colorful interior. The skin can range from light orange to dark orange with some distinctive red marbling. Blood oranges get their name from their deep maroon juice and flesh. Their coloring is caused by the presence of anthocyanin, the same antioxidant that makes blueberries blue and cranberries red.
Flavors: Moro blood oranges are a complex blend of sweet and tart with plum and raspberry-like overtones.
Nutrients: 70 Calories, 110% RDA Vitamin C, 260mg Potassium.
(Serving: 1 moro orange)
Fun Fact: Blood oranges grow particularly well in a Mediterranean climate where the days are warm, but the nights are cool. While most of our blood oranges come from Florida or California, Italy is one of the top producers of blood oranges. In addition to the more familiar Moro blood orange, Italians also grow two special varieties of blood orange, the Tarocco and the Sanguinello.
The Best Blood Orange Recipe:
Blood Orange Marmalade
The organic Macomber rutabagas in this week’s boxes are a truly local New England delicacy. Not much is known about the origin of this unique root vegetable, but legend has it that it was invented in Westport, MA.
Brothers Adin and Elihu Macomber attended the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and were fascinated to learn about rutabagas, a relatively new cross between a turnip and a cabbage. They brought some rutabaga seeds back to Massachusetts and planted them alongside their radishes. After some natural cross pollination, the Macomber rutabaga was born!
Macombers look similar to radishes and have a bit of a bite when eaten raw, but a little time in the oven brings out a rich sweetness unique to this variety. Not many farmers grow this particular kind of rutabaga, but Michael Docter of Winter Moon Farm has a nice crop to share with us this season!
Get the Boston Organics
weekly locavore recipe
Creamy and crispy all at once, Root Vegetable Gratin is an excellent way to use all the organic root vegetables and fresh herbs you find in your box this week.
This Week’s Local Produce
All of the fruits and vegetables we deliver are grown without synthetic pesticides and are USDA certified organic. Interested in receiving produce that’s both organic and locally sourced all year round? Check out our Local Dogma Box.
Similar to a CSA or farm share, our Local Dogma Box is filled with the best organic produce from local and regional farms and brought right to your door each week. It’s the easiest way to eat like a locavore!
It’s about that time of year when we’re starting to salivate at the thought of eating our way through the holidays. In celebration of this annual benchmark, we’ve compiled a list of side dishes, some traditional, some a bit unorthodox, for you to try out as you create your menu or your contribution to the potluck.
Whether your style is to contribute a classic side to the family table or feverishly scour Pinterest for the next big thing, we’re here to save you some time and the stress of waiting in those pre-holiday checkout lines.
We’ve pulled together seven tasty side dishes featuring items you can get delivered right to your doorstep in your Boston Organics box!
1. Roasted Beet and Kale Salad
It’s definitely been a banner year for kale and beets, so why not finish the season out strong with this trendy, vitamin-packet side?! Add organic garlic and local honey to your delivery, which may contain the kale and beets now in season. Visit TheFirstMess.com for the full recipe.
2. Sugarless Cranberry Sauce
A healthier version of the classic condiment, sans refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Add on a few bags of organic cranberries to your next delivery! Visit WellnessMama.com for the full recipe.
3. Butternut Squash Rolls
Put together this simple dough using butternut squash, Fiddler’s Green Farm White Flour and Shaw Farm milk to bake up these surprisingly moist and slightly sweet rolls. Visit TasteofHome.com for the full recipe.
4. Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Chipotles
We love Chef Bobby Flay’s spicy spin on a classic side dish. Try our organic maple syrup from Dwight Miller and Son Orchards. Visit Cooking.NYTimes.com for the full recipe.
5. Honey-Glazed Turnips
Show those winter root vegetables some love! Turnips are available in steady supply through our weekly deliveries and would pair perfectly for this recipe with a jar of honey from Eat Local Honey! Visit MarthaStewart.com for the full recipe.
6. Steamed Carrots with Garlic-Ginger Butter
Add on some organic ginger and garlic to your delivery for this simple, yet flavorful side. Visit MyRecipes.com for the full recipe.
7. German Potato Salad
We’ve got organic onions, canola oil from Maison Orphee, and apple cider vinegar from Dwight Miller and Son that you can use to make this hearty salad shine. Additionally, you can swap out red potatoes for the new potatoes, adding an additional pop of color. Visit FoodNetwork.com for the full recipe.
Merry Meal-Making!
Most of the trees may have lost their leaves, but our farmers prove once again that with hard work and proper planning they can continue to grow spectacular produce.
Jonathan’s Sprouts has some refreshing pea shoots for us this week from their greenhouses in Rochester, MA.
Seeds naturally have everything they need to sprout, but over the last 30 years Bob and Barb Sanderson have researched and developed the ideal way to grow healthy sprouts without any synthetic chemical inputs.
Try their organic pea shoots on top of a soup or salad, or toss them into a stir-fry for added nutrients and an extra crunch.
This week our citrus selection includes organic Clementine Mandarins, Cara Cara Oranges and Rio Red Grapefruit. Clementines are an excellent snacking fruit because they’re easy to peel and contain very few seeds.
Cara Caras have a low acid content, but a distinctive tangy flavor that’s sweeter than a mandarin but not quite a sweet as a Valencia Orange. The Cara Cara orange’s stunning pink flesh is a natural source of lycopene, the same disease-fighting antioxidant that gives tomatoes their red coloring.
Don’t throw out your citrus peels! Instead, follow this recipe for Candied Grapefruit Peels to make a delicious snack and a fun holiday treat.
Enjoy your produce and have a delicious week!
Beets are one of the most misunderstood vegetables. The earthy root is habitually snubbed by young children who are only familiar with the over-salted and mushy variety they’re served from a can.
First Lady Michelle Obama planted spinach and broccoli in the White House garden, but she famously refused to plant beets, citing the president’s aversion to the vegetable. Many home cooks are unwittingly wary of beets, intimidated by their rough exterior or afraid that a beet’s bright red juice will stain their kitchen.
But beets are healthy, colorful and flavorful root vegetables that are increasingly found on the menus of some of the top restaurants in the country. It’s time to put old biases aside and embrace this ruby gem.
5 Reasons to Eat Beets
1. Beets are packed with nutrients.
Organic beets are one of the healthiest root vegetables you can find.
Beets are a great source of folic acid and natural antioxidants. One cup of beetroot also has 12% of your recommended daily value of potassium.
Did you know beet greens are edible too? Store them separately from the roots for a longer shelf life and cook them like chard or kale. One cup of cooked beet greens contains 220% of your recommended daily amount of vitamin A, 60% of your daily vitamin C and loads of iron and calcium.
2. Beets are nature’s candy.
In the United States, 50-55% of domestic sugar production is derived from sugar beets! While most of these beets have been bred and ultimately genetically modified* to produce extremely high levels of sugar, beets are naturally quite sweet.
Beets are nature’s candy and this recipe for Dark Chocolate Beet Brownies will prove it.
*Certified organic vegetables cannot be genetically modified, so eating organic beets is the easiest way to ensure you’re not eating GMOs.
3. Beets are beautiful.
Beets come in lots of different colors, shapes and sizes and Winter Moon Farm is growing a few different varieties for the Boston Organics Community this year. The Chioggia beet is an Italian heirloom variety known for its candy cane stripes. Chioggia beets have a tender flesh that is milder and sweeter than red beets.
Also keep your eyes peeled for Winter Moon Farm’s golden beets and the cylindrical Forono beets.
4. Beets are easy to cook.
Beets are commonly roasted, but you can steam, boil or pickle them too! Here are the two easiest ways to prepare beets:
Oven: Scrub beets under running water, wrap loosely in foil and bake on a sheet at 400°F for 50 minutes. Let beets cool, grip with a paper towel and gently rub off the peel.
Microwave: Peel raw beets as you would a potato, then cut into 1-inch cubes. Place in a glass container with 2 Tbsp water. Cover and cook on high for 10 minutes or until soft.
5. Beets are delicious.
Hot, cold, sliced, shredded and cubed; beets are an extremely versatile ingredient. Here are some of our favorite ways to prepare beets:
Nothing livens up a meal like sprouted greens, and the organic pea shoots grown at Jonathan’s Sprouts in Rochester, MA are some of the freshest sprouts you can find.
Toss a handful of locally grown organic pea shoots into a salad or soup to give yourself an extra dose of fiber, iron, and vitamin C. And with 3 grams of protein per serving, these sprouts are also an easy way to make vegetarian stir-fries a little more filling.
This week, Bruce and Jenny are bringing some cute fingerling sweet potatoes from their farm in southern New Hampshire.
Picadilly Farm spans 40 acres in the Connecticut River Valley, but Bruce and Jenny cultivate organic produce on only 26 acres each season. By rotating their crops, the organic farm can grow more nutrient-rich veggies and maintain their naturally fertile soil.
Locavore Recipe of the Week
We have an awesome recipe for you this week: Locavore Latkes. Winter Moon Farm’s organic red beets and Atlas Farm’s rainbow carrots will make it to your door just in time for Hanukkah. Order organic eggs and oil and you’ll be ready to celebrate the festival of lights like a local lover!
This Week’s Local Produce
Carrots
Potatoes
Deep Root Organic Coop
(Johnson, VT)
Parsnips Daikon Radishes
Scarlet Turnips
Dwight Miller Orchards
(E. Dummerston, VT)
Empire Apples
Happy Valley Organics
(Whately, MA)
Thyme
Jonathan’s Sprouts
(Rochester, MA)
Pea Shoots
Cabbage
Picadilly Farm
(Winchester, NH)
Gilfeather Rutabagas
Fingerling Sweet Potatoes
Porter Farm
(Elba, NY)
Onions
Red Fire Farm
(Granby, MA)
Purple Kohlrabi
Winter Moon Farm
(Hadley, MA)
Beets Celeriac
Radishes
All of the fruits and vegetables we deliver are grown without synthetic pesticides and are USDA certified organic. Interested in receiving produce that’s both organic and locally sourced all year round? Check out our Local Dogma Box.
Similar to a CSA or farm share, our Local Dogma Box is filled with the best organic produce from local and regional farms and brought right to your door each week. It’s the easiest way to eat like a locavore!