Boston Organics Blog | Fresh. Organic. Delivered. (95)

The break room at Boston Organics has been renamed the Boston Organics Test Kitchen today! We’re juicing here in Charlestown, learning the ins and outs of raw food fashion.

There are many positive reasons to juice. Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. A small glass of juice will supply you with a large amount of micro nutrients from a variety of fruits and vegetables. Proponents believe juicing is better for you than is eating whole fruits and vegetables because your body can absorb the nutrients better. While this is still up for debate, if you don’t enjoy eating fresh fruits and vegetables, juicing may be a fun way to add them to your diet or to try fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn’t eat. It is a great way to add more variety to your diet. If you do try juicing, make only as much juice as you can drink at one time because fresh squeezed juice can quickly develop harmful bacteria. And when juicing, try to keep some of the pulp. Not only does it have healthy fiber, but it can help fill you up. Using organic fruits and vegetables for juicing is recommended because you want your drink to be as pure as possible.

If you would like to try juicing, and have a juicer handy, try this basic juice recipe! Be sure to wash your produce before putting them into the juicer, but beyond that there’s not much prep work. So long as the juicing items can fit in the juicer they can often be fed through as is.

Ginger Zinger

3 Carrots 1 Apple (cored and quartered)

1/2″ knob of ginger (peeled)

Makes 1 serving

*NOTE: We used Rainbow Bunched Carrots so juice color may vary

One of the most anticipated gifts of summer has arrived. Summer farmers markets have popped up around Boston! There’s nothing quite like meeting the farmer who grew your food and being able to ask about where your produce came from and how it was grown.

Farmers markets offer the chance for shoppers to make the most informed decisions, and that starts with knowing where your food is coming from. In order to make the best choices for you, your family, and the environment, use the farmers market as an opportunity to educate yourself! Local foods can still have pesticides on them, so ask around and find out what the farmers are using on their crops. Most farmers are more than happy to tell you all about what they do and how they grow their produce.

In order to learn more about the foods at your local farmers markets, here are some questions we think are helpful to ask the farmers you meet.

Do you follow organic guidelines or other environmentally sustainable agricultural practices?

If the farm is Certified Organic, then you can know with confidence that they are using strict guidelines that ensure your food is being produced in a safe and sustainable way. However, just because a farm isn’t Certified Organic, it doesn’t mean they don’t use sustainable agricultural methods. Without the certification, you may need to do a little more research to better understand what they are and are not doing. Farmers markets provide a great opportunity to find out directly from the grower what kinds of practices they use.
To get a better sense of what all of it means for the farmer, the crops, the environment, and you, you may want to ask the farmers the following questions…

How do you fertilize?
There are many effective and safe ways to fertilize soil in sustainable ways. Find out the farmer’s methods and look into it yourself!

Do you use any synthetic pesticides or fungicides?
As a general rule, all synthetic chemicals are prohibited in organic agriculture. The presence of agricultural chemicals like pesticides in our food system is greater now than it ever has been, and the long term effects of exposure to these chemicals are, at best, not reliably known, and at worst, proven to cause harm to humans. Due to the sheer amount of these chemicals that are used all around us, we just can’t escape them. We need to be particularly careful about what we expose our children to: even small concentrations of agricultural chemicals in growing bodies isn’t good.

How do you manage pests and disease? Do you practice Integrated Pest Management?
Some farms practice techniques such as integrated pest management (IPM) in order to limit the amount of synthetic pesticides they release into the environment. Since this is not regulated and there are no standards, IPM can vary from farm to farm.

Do you use genetically modified seeds (GMOs)?
Genetically modified seeds are relatively new but are gaining widespread use. The long term health and environmental risks which GMOs pose have not yet been adequately investigated. Genetically modified seeds and foods are prohibited in Organic standards. Organic certification is one of the only safeguards against GMOs.

How do you decide which products to grow?

What crops are coming into season next? Are they growing on a schedule?

How has the weather impacted your crops this season?

What’s your favorite fruit or vegetable?

To learn more about the benefits of produce that’s both local AND organic, check out this great article!

What questions do you like to ask your farmers at the farmers market? Let us know!

Topics: Organic Farmers

The first heirloom tomatoes of the season have arrived from Atlas Farm! We have 2lb bags of heirloom tomatoes available as add-ons, and we also have pints of smaller sized heirlooms available. Other produce highlights this week are Spanish onions from Atlas Farm, Mung bean sprouts from Jonathan’s Sprouts, and sweet corn from Lakeside Organics. We still have Vermont blueberry add-ons this week, and they should continue for 1 to 2 more weeks. Check out the newsletter!

Read More This week’s box is bursting! Read More

Topics: Local Dogma Box

The local produce keeps rolling in! This week we’ve got summer squash, bunched carrots, sage and lots more! Some boxes will receive corn. We also have those delicious blueberries from Vermont available in a few boxes as well as add-ons! Check out the newsletter to see what else is in store!

Topics: Newsletter

Corn on the cob is for sale at most grocery stores this summer and depending on where you shop it may be Monsanto’s Bt sweet corn. Since this corn is unlabeled, it’s quite possible that you might be buying it without knowing it. Here’s some basic information to help you understand more about this corn variety and why it’s a concern.

This unlabelled item is a new kind of ready-to-eat corn. It is genetically modified with Bt, the bacteria Bacillus theringiensis, commonly used on crops as a pesticide. Once the bacteria Bt is ingested by an insect, the insect’s intestinal tract fails, killing them within a couple of days.

Bt has been used as a pesticide spray for decades but farmers found that it washes off and biodegrades in sunlight. Now Bt is genetically tied into the corn plant as a built-in pesticide. This is the first genetically engineered Monsanto product being eaten directly by consumers with minimum processing. Bt Corn has been on the market since 1996, but had only been used in processed foods like corn syrup. The Bt-toxin is claimed to be safe for humans and animals, supposedly destroyed by the human digestive system. It is unclear what, if anything, will happen when an unprocessed food like sweet corn is eaten by consumers. The long term health and environmental risks which GMOs pose have not yet been adequately investigated.

Widespread cultivation of Bt corn could have major environmental and societal ramifications. Farmers must be careful to avoid creating Bt-resistant strains of the very pests that the poison targets. It also theorized that such genetically modified produce could explain the drastic increase in childhood food allergies.

The corn that we offer here at Boston Organics is certified organic and is never genetically modified. Whenever you see the “USDA Organic” seal it means that the food has been certified to conform to this set of legal definitions and rules. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as genetically modified seeds and foods are prohibited in Organic standards. Organic certification is one of the only safeguards against GMOs.

Talk to your grocers and ask where their produce is coming from!

For more information on what it means to be certified organic visit the Organic Consumers Association

Learn about Bt in Organic Farming vs. Bt in GM Crops.

Topics: Organic Farmers

Topics: Recipes

Beet the heat! This week’s all-local Dogma Box is a colorful mix of New England bounty. Purple Chioggia beets and green bell peppers complement bunches of carrots with tops on, blueberries and the white Daikon radish.

This week’s Dogma Box includes:

Below are a few recipes chosen to satisfy your palate even in this heat! The recipes utilize many of the produce items that you’re receiving in this week’s Dogma Box.

Jazar wa Kusa (Zucchini and Carrots)

Quinoa Salad with Beets, Daikon Radish and Feta

Crispy Baked Radish Chips

What are you cooking this week? Feel free to share with us at any time! For more recipes, check out the Produce Info, Storage Tips and Recipes section on our website and browse recipes by item. Here you can find nutritional information, preparation tips, and recipes for each produce item we offer. Happy eating from your friends at Boston Organics!

Topics: Local Dogma Box

It’s time for this week’s Summer Sweepstakes Bonus Point Challenge! From now until the middle of August, customers can earn points for each delivery received during the Sweepstakes time period and for participating in our Weekly Promotion for bonus points. Why accrue points? So you, Loyal Customers, can win prizes!

If you have 10 or more points at the end of the Sweepstakes, you will be eligible to win one of our amazing prizes like your very own iPad! This coveted tablet speaks for itself. Connect to the internet and use it to read your weekly Boston Organics newsletter and to access our recipe index no matter where you go.

To earn a bonus point this week, we’re asking you to share your favorite recipe to make on a hot summer day! We’re looking for recipes that include fruits or veggies and don’t require much cooking. Post a recipe to our Facebookpage, share with us on Twitter, or email it to us to earn a point!

For more information on our Summer Sweepstakes, read about it on our blog!

Topics: Contests