Boston Organics Blog | Fresh. Organic. Delivered. | Boston Organics (48)

Happy December! The fine folks at Dwight Miller and Son Orchards in Vermont are sending us Honeycrisp apples, which we think are some of the tastiest, sweetest, most crisp apples available. We’re also looking at delicious items such as green bell peppers, swiss chard, parsnips, and sunchokes. We’ve got organic garbanzo beans from Fiddler’s Green Farm as the featured add-on this week. In addition, find out about our giveaway for a Taza chocolate factory tour, and a special promotion from our neighbors at Avalon CrossFit. Check out this week’s newsletter!

Topics: Newsletter

Every week we put together a local box (which we call the “Dogma Box”) to help people eat food that’s both organic AND local! The Dogma Box includes produce that has been sourced as close to Boston as possible, and this week we’ve got some great items from Massachusetts and Vermont.

Topics: Local Dogma Box

We hope everyone had a delicious and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday! Just because the holiday is over, it doesn’t mean you have to stop eating well! We’ve got onions, broccoli sprouts, green bell peppers, potatoes, and more for you this week. Add-on grapes and pumpkins are done for the season, but we still have Missouri pecans and other seasonal add-ons. Also, get recipes for curried turnips, root veggie chowder, lemongrass soup, and apple, goat cheese, and pecan pizza! Check out this week’s newsletter!

Topics: Newsletter

We have a special thank you note from Boston Organics’ founder Jeff Barry, and we’re featuring our 5 favorite customer-submitted recipes from the Thanksgiving recipe contest! Check out this week’s newsletter!

Topics: Holiday, Newsletter

We recently took a trip down to Rochester, MA to visit our friends at Jonathan’s Sprouts and learn more about where their sprouts come from. Liz Reilley, Jonathan’s Director of Sales & Marketing, was kind enough to show us around their main sprout facility, which has been in the same large barn for over 30 years! We even got to sneak a few samples.

After putting on our hair nets and lab coats, Liz showed us their seed storage room and explained the importance of seed testing. Food safety is a top priority for Jonathan’s Sprouts, which is why they thoroughly sample and test all of their products from seed to sprout. Sprouts are grown from seed to sprout in only a week, and they can be grown year-round.

Our next stop was the sprout packing room, where we were surrounded by racks of beautiful alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, mung bean sprouts, and spicy radish sprouts. We were pleasantly surprised to find that instead of using a mechanized packing process, Jonathan’s employees weigh and pack each container of fresh sprouts by hand. They are able to package and distribute approximately 40 tons of sprouts each week!

Once packaged, the sprouts are distributed to supermarkets, specialty markets, wholesale distributors, and small grocery services like Boston Organics! Click here to read more about Jonathan’s Organic and why they believe in organic practices.

After our lovely visit with the Jonathan’s Sprouts crew, Liz took us to Buzzards Bay to see how cranberries are harvested and meet some of the cranberry growers that Jonathan’s works with each year. In the fall, Jonathan’s packages and distributes cranberries for local cranberry growers. Despite the short harvest season (October through December), cranberries are a major commercial crop in Massachusetts, and the cranberry harvest is the main source of income for many Massachusetts families.

Keith Mann, a fourth generation cranberry grower, showed us how cranberries are harvested at the bog. Cranberries grow on shallow vines, and growers flood the bogs with water in order to harvest the cranberries. Once the bog is flooded, the growers use a harvesting machine that quickly stirs up the water and loosens the cranberries from the vine. Cranberries have small air pockets in their center, which causes them to float to the top. This creates the scene that you see in Ocean Spray commercials. Check out this video of Keith explaining the harvesting process.

The floating berries are then corralled and put on a conveyor that takes them up to a truck. The cranberries are separated from the debris before being taken to a warehouse, where they’re cleaned, sorted, and packaged.

Keith explained that most cranberries are wet-picked because the wet picking process produces a higher yield and requires less time and labor. The wet-picked berries are typically used for juice, sauce, and other processed foods. Roughly 10 percent of cranberries are dry harvested and sold as fresh fruit.

As we approach the holiday that brings cranberries to the forefront of our plates, we’re thankful for the growers who work hard to get them to us. If you have any questions about cranberries, sprouts, or anything else we offer, send us an email and we’ll make sure your questions get answered!

Topics: Organic Farmers

Thanksgiving is a food-lover’s holiday. Here at Boston Organics, we love to cook, eat, and share recipes with one another, and we wanted to share a few of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes with you.

Topics: Holiday, The Boston Organics Crew

Thanks to the beautiful weather, we’ve got local Red Boston lettuce this week from Atlas Farm! Sweet potatoes, cranberries, beets, radishes, and apples are some of the other delicious local crops we’ve got coming in. We have a condensed Thanksgiving delivery schedule next week, and we’re offering Thanksgiving add-on’s such as pecans, cranberry sauce, mushrooms, and more! Also, there’s a cooking class coming up this Saturday at the Boston Center for Adult Education! Check out the newsletter!

Topics: Newsletter

How it all began:
In the early 1970’s, Bob and Barbara Sanderson started growing organic sprouts in an old barn in Rochester, MA. With a few alfalfa seeds and a vision of growing and selling good, healthy produce year-round, they started growing sprouts on a small scale for friends and small retailers. In 1976, they convinced Shaw’s to start carrying their products, and they’ve been in business ever since.

Where they are now:
With approximately 50 employees and 2 facilities in Massachusetts, Jonathan’s Sprouts is a leader in the sprout industry and supplies sprouts for supermarkets, specialty markets, wholesale distributors, and small grocery services like Boston Organics!

Bob and Barbara have been credited with bringing sprouts to the retail market in the New England region. In the early 1980s, Bob and Barbara founded the New England Sprout Growers Association, which, in 1989, seeded the International Sprout Growers Association, The associations bring together sprout growers from around the world every year to discuss important topics within the industry and strengthen the relationship between sprout growers worldwide. Bob and Barbara also played an instrumental role in bringing organic produce – as a category – to mainstream supermarkets.

Products:
Jonathan’s grows a variety of delicious sprouts, including: radish sprouts, broccoli sprouts, pea shoots, mung bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, clover sprouts, sunflower greens, and a “Munchin’ Mix” of peas, lentils, and adzuki beans. Jonathan’s grows all products using organic practices. During Massachusetts cranberry season (October through December), Jonathan’s also packages and distributes organic cranberries from local Massachusetts cranberry growers.

Why organic?
“It’s very important to me that we don’t contaminate the environment with pesticides,” says Barbara Sanderson. “Equally important is the nutritional aspect of organic produce. Plants that are not chemically fertilized send out enzymes that digest the soil, absorbing many micro-nutrients not available in the “instant” fertilizers. These “phyto-chemicals” (plant chemicals) are well known in research for helping prevent chronic and age-related diseases, as well as cancers.”

“I’m definitely an organic consumer.”

What’s your favorite fruit or vegetable?
Barbara: “I’m eating a lot of sprouts. I spread hummus or another spread onto a piece of flat round whole wheat bread, put an ounce of sprouts on it, and roll it up. I also love avocado. Avocado and Alfalfa sprouts make the best sandwich. You don’t even need a dressing.”

What’s next for Jonathan’s Sprouts?
They’re working with a grower in New Jersey who grows beautiful rainbow microgreens. They’re hoping to bring these microgreens to supermarket shelves in the near future.

We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Jonathan’s Sprouts and provide our customers with some of the healthiest and best tasting organic sprouts on the market. Stay tuned for photos and videos from our visit with Jonathan’s and their cranberry growers!

Topics: Organic Farmers

Thanksgiving is coming up, and we’ve got some schedule changes and deadlines to announce! Look out for Thanksgiving add-on’s such as cranberries, pumpkins, cranberry sauce, acorn and butternut squash, and pecans! Produce this week includes 2 types of radishes, local sweet potatoes, Florida citrus, and more. Also, we’ve got a delicious recipe for Cider Glazed Root Vegetables! Check out the newsletter!

Topics: Newsletter

We’re having a customer Thanksgiving recipe contest!!!