Spring is a season of change. First the time changed. Then the weather changed. Now, as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, the variety of fruits and vegetables in your boxes will start to change too.
The Citrus Cycle
You may have noticed that the varieties of citrus in your boxes were different throughout the winter as particular mandarins and oranges came in and out of season. The Cara Cara and Blood Oranges, which are two of the most colorful fruits available in the winter, are winding down and Valencia oranges are starting to take their place.
Valencia oranges aren’t the prettiest of the bunch (some even turn a little green after they ripen), but they’re one of the sweetest varieties of oranges. Their thin skins and bold flavors mark a delicious end to the citrus cycle. Juicy plums are starting to make an appearance in a few boxes, and soon stone fruit will replace citrus as the fruit du jour.
Meyer lemon season has come to a close, but we’re now offering 1 lb. bags of organic juicing lemons for all of your cooking needs in the seasonal produce section of our grocery add-on webpage. You can also get organic strawberries this week and organic asparagus starting next week.
Various Veggies
Over the next few weeks you’ll see our selection of root vegetables being replaced with the likes of green beans and artichokes – both of which can be found in this week’s boxes!
Almost half of the Boston Organics Community will find fresh green beans in their boxes this week, which means it’s the perfect time for us to share our recipe for Greek-Style Braised Green Beans. The recipe calls for large Roma tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes will work too if you slice them in half. Using quality ingredients is essential for this recipe, which relies on fresh tomatoes, garlic and lemon to build a succulent, slow-cooked flavor.
Speaking of tomatoes, this Cherry Tomato and Cucumber Salad is a simple yet excellent recipe for those getting the 2/3 Vegetables boxes. It can be enjoyed as a springy side dish or mixed with feta cheese and scooped onto a bed of organic red leaf lettuce for a more filling meal.
The Small Box and the All Veggie Boxes get to experience the delightful flavor of organic baby artichokes from California this week. Most of the baby artichokes haven’t even developed a “choke,” which makes preparing them a breeze. Just remove a few of the outer leaves, slice them in half, drizzle them with olive oil and throw them on the grill. This recipe for Grilled Artichokes with Parsley and Garlic is just the excuse you’ve been looking for to fire up the BBQ, but a grill pan will work if you want to stay indoors.
The seasons are definitely changing, but if you find yourself waxing nostalgic for more root veggies, you can always stock up on fresh sweet potatoes and russet potatoes in our add-on produce section.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
We hope everyone had a happy Easter, a meaningful Passover and a wonderful spring weekend.
As those fabled April showers start to kick in, we’re finally able to say goodbye to this historic winter and look ahead to an abundant local season. Winter Moon Farm, one of our most prolific organic farm partners during the winter months, is starting to slow their deliveries to the Boston Organics warehouse, but they’re bringing us a special harvest of spring dug parsnips for us to enjoy this week.
The first harvests from our summer farm partners, including Atlas Farm, are still several weeks away, but Red Fire Farm in Granby, MA and Deep Root Organic Coop in Johnson, VT are keeping our boxes full of fresh, organic fruits and veggies in the meantime.
This Apple and Beet Charoset is a marvelous seasonal recipe that can be made with the organic produce found in many of the Boston Organics Community’s boxes this week. Though it’s traditionally associated with the Passover holiday, it’s a great spread for toast and a delicious topping to organic Greek yogurt.
One of our favorite new recipes to make this spring is Baked Pasta with Swiss Chard. Every 2/3-Vegetable and All-Vegetable box will get a single bunch of chard this week (unless it’s on your No-List), the mainstay of this savory dish.
Check out the +50 chard recipes on our website and don’t forget to order Kimball Brook Farm Half & Half and Neighborly Farms Raw Milk Cheddar from our add-on section. You can also always stock up on pasta, onions and garlic if your pantry is running low.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
There’s a lot to celebrate this week! Whether you’re preparing for an Easter brunch, a Passover seder or simply reveling in the start of spring, we have plenty of delicious organic goodies for you to enjoy.
Alfalfa sprouts, leeks and collard greens are just some of the many gorgeous spring vegetables going in our boxes this week.
If you’re trying to sneak some vegetables onto a loved one’s plate this Easter you might want to try Southern Style Creamed Collards. Cooked in bacon fat and butter, then sprinkled with bacon and more butter, this is about as indulgently gluttonous as collards can get.
Those looking for something a little less heart attack-inducing might opt for a Smooth and Crunchy Vegan Sandwich. This sandwich features locally grown alfalfa sprouts and it’s a great meal for veggie lovers of all ages. Organic sprouts are also a very healthy addition to soups, salads and wraps.
Spring is a difficult time of year for organic fruit growers. We’re starting to transition out of citrus season and into the very beginning of stone fruit season. Usually we would see the first harvest of plums and pluots from Mexican growers by the first week of April, but difficulties with pollination has drastically limited the amount of organic stone fruit growing south of the border.
We’ll hopefully see more stone fruit in May, assuming California can sort out their issues with the historic drought. In the meantime, we have juicy organic strawberries and a few other treats to tide us over.
We tested out this Heirloom Apple Salsa last weekend and loved the way the sweet honey and spicy jalapeno peppers combined when paired with salty blue corn multigrain chips from Late July. We might even make it again this Friday as a modern twist on the traditional Passover dish, charoset.
Almost any organic apple can be added to this salsa, including the Empire apples from Dwight Miller and Son Orchards. This salsa’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser at parties, but it can also be used as a healthy addition to your late-night snacking routine.
Want to dye eggs for Easter but don’t want to bring a bunch of synthetic chemicals into your kitchen? Make natural dye out of organic beets, onions, cabbage and more! Click here for easy step-by-step instructions.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
It’s official—we’ve made it through one of the worst winters in Boston’s history. Spring is here and while it will still be several weeks before the official start of the “local season,” our organic farm partners are sowing seeds and prepping their fields for a new set of crops.
Signs of spring are all around us. For instance, the first berries of the year are on their way from California right now. You can already place an order for a 1lb container of organic strawberries to be included in your next delivery.
We also have delicious Bartlett and Red Bartlett pears in many of the boxes. The Red Delicious apples, which can be found in all of the half-and-half boxes this week, are also pretty tasty. This variety has earned an unfavorable reputation over the years, but after giving them a taste we felt that this batch of beautiful, organic Red Delicious apples is worth giving a second chance.
Read Miller, owner of Dwight Miller and Son Orchards and our primary local apple grower, tells us that maple season is well underway on his farm in southern Vermont. Maple season is, in fact, pretty short here in New England. To get sap from the trees, you need the temperature to warm up during the day but drop below freezing at night. You can try some of Read Miller’s grade B organic maple syrup by visiting the Pantry Staples section of our website.
Happy Valley Organics is cutting some fresh dill for the Boston Organics Community this week. Grown in their solar powered greenhouses in central Massachusetts, this dill is a wonderful addition to early spring recipes. Try it with Winter Moon Farm’s beets in this Mediterranean Beet and Yogurt Salad.
We also recommend this Potato and Radish Salad. Instead of smothering the vegetables in mayo or a heavy dressing, the mustard-dill vinaigrette provides a lighter alternative that complements the red potatoes we have coming from Nature’s Circle Farm in Aroostook County, ME.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
Change is in the air. And while the pile of snow outside our office might not agree, spring is in our minds and on the tips of our tongues.
Many of our farmers have already started seeds in their greenhouses and pretty soon they’ll plow under the winter cover crops to regenerate their soil’s nutrients and prepare their fields for the upcoming local season.
In a few weeks you’ll start to see even more organic vegetables from local farms, unless you’re a Dogma Box customer, in which case everything in your box is locally-sourced all year round!
Starting the first full week of April, you may notice some other changes in the content of your boxes. For the first time in seven years, we will be increasing the price of our boxes to adjust for the ever-growing cost of fresh fruits and vegetables. The price increase will allow us to ensure your deliveries continue to consist of exciting variety and uncompromising quality.
For more information, read our blog post on the topic and please feel free to email us at [email protected] with any questions.
What to Make This Week
St. Patrick’s Day, a perennial hallmark of springtime, is tomorrow and the Boston Organics Community is ready to celebrate—with plenty of cabbage and potatoes to go around.
Last week we featured a traditional Colcannon recipe from one of our customers and this week we have a Vegan Shepherd’s Pie perfected by our marketing manager, Tamara Monroe. This recipe requires a cup of quality organic lentils, so don’t forget to order a bag from Fiddler’s Green Farm for your next delivery.
Call it St. Patrick’s spirit or simply a coincidence, but everything in season right now seems to be green. We’re looking forward to crisp, organic bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, chard and cucumbers this week.
Chard is one of those leafy greens that can intimidate inexperienced home cooks. The easiest thing to do is blanch a few leaves for a couple minutes or sauté them with garlic and olive oil. But if you’re looking to expand your culinary repertoire, you might consider making a Savory Swiss Chard Calzone with feta cheese.
Our cow’s milk feta from Neighborly Farms of Randolph, VT is on sale this week so it’s a great time to stock up.
A Memo on Mangoes
Spring has already hit Mexico where Ataulfo mango season is in full swing. The Ataulfo mango is smaller than the better known Kent and Tommy Atkins varieties, but its small pit gives it a higher flesh-to-seed ratio. The fruit’s flesh is also sweet and creamy without being too fibrous, making it easier to eat or puree.
Remember that Ataulfo mangoes don’t turn red as they ripen. Instead, you’ll know when they’re ready to be eaten when the skin turns to a deep golden color and small wrinkles begin to appear.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
There are certain dishes that have been perfected over generations; they have stood the test of time and have come to represent not only a particular cuisine, but entire cultures and geographic regions.
One such dish is the traditional Irish cabbage and potatoes. Also known as colcannon, there are as many variations on this classic recipe as there are blades of grass on a rolling Irish hill. This week, in addition to sharing farm-fresh organic vegetables, we bring you a delicious recipe from a member of the Boston Organics Community, Caleb C.
You’ll likely find a head of cabbage from Red Fire Farm, a sack of potatoes from Nature’s Circle Farm and a few onions from Porter Farm in your box this week. If you’re short on potatoes or onions, you can always order more here.
You can also order organic milk from Shaw Farm or if you’re planning to omit the bacon, you might want to swap in a little organic half & half from Kimball Brook Farm for extra creaminess.
Pizza is another dish that has strong associations with its country of origin, however modern adaptations have led to an abundance of new derivations.
You’re probably familiar with Hawaiian pizza or Chicago-style deep dish, but have you heard of The Vermonter? Made with all locally sourced organic ingredients, this Apple Cheddar Maple Pizza combines everything we love about the northeast.
We were just introduced to this new New England classic by our very own customer service associate, Rebecca Bilodeau.
Most of the this week’s boxes already have a couple of onions from Porter Farm and an Empire apple from Dwight Miller and Son Orchard, but you might want to order some of Read Miller’s special maple syrup if your supply is running low. Don’t forget Neighborly Farms’ Raw Milk Cheddar Cheese and a pound of frozen organic pizza dough from Massachusetts-based Tuscan Pizza Company.
Whatever you make with the contents of your box, we hope you have a delicious week. And whether you try one of our featured recipes or make something new, remember to snap a photo and tag @BostonOrganics on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. Who knows, you just might find your recipe in our next newsletter!
With no end in sight for this wild winter weather, we have some of the best cold weather ingredients lined up for your boxes this week.
Organic citrus continues to make its way up the coast from Florida and we’ll have everything from organic grapefruit and Orlando tangelos to Navel and Valencia oranges. Don’t forget that you can still order sweet Meyer lemons as an add-on along with a few other seasonal produce items, but only for a few weeks longer.
You may want to try those Meyer lemons in this recipe for Butter and Sage Sauce from celebrity chef Mario Batali. Grab some fresh-cut sage from Happy Valley Organic’s solar-powered greenhouses and get ready to smother your favorite pasta in this rich, cheesy sauce.
One of the best things you can eat to keep your immune system running smoothly through these last few weeks of winter is fresh organic chard. Not only is it a good source of vitamin K, vitamin A and vitamin C, it also contains almost three dozen antioxidant phytonutrients.
A big bowl of Chard, Potato and Chickpea Stew is just what the doctor ordered. This full-flavored vegetable stew has a little kick of paprika and cayenne pepper to clear the sinuses and plenty of hearty vegetables to fill you up.
We’re also introducing a new line of organic flours and oats from Maine Grains this week! Maine Grains is a wonderful New England company that uses locally-grown grains to make high-quality pantry staples. Their whole wheat and rye flours make phenomenal breads and Main Grains’ Organic Rolled Oats help you start every day off on a good foot.
Head on over to our section of new add-ons to learn more and see what other exciting add-ons we’ve started offering over the last couple of weeks.
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
It may be hard to believe, but our farmers are already starting to think about spring. It’s still much too early to start planting, but seed catalogs are almost guaranteed to be on our farmers’ snow day reading lists.
Photo credit: Livin in the Green
Most New England farmers we work with have greenhouses that allow them to start planting seeds a few weeks before the ground thaws. And while the first seedlings are still a few weeks away, we’re beginning to talk with our local farm partners so that we know what produce they’ll have available for the Boston Organics Community once the weather warms up!
Our farmers know their soil better than anyone. We try not to tell our farmers what they should grow because it’s important that they rotate crops based on what’s most sustainable for the farm and not simply on our belly’s cravings. But if you have any special requests for spring or summer produce, we can pass that interest on to our farmers. Now is one of the best times to let us know.
Weekly Produce & Recipes
Fresh collard greens and Lacinato kale fill many of the boxes this week to the delight of dark leafy green aficionados. Lacinato kale was originally cultivated in Italy, but it grows particularly well down the Eastern seaboard and was listed among the plants Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello.
This recipe for Winter Greens with Roasted Pears and Pecorino is a delicious way to enjoy whatever greens come in your box this week. If you’re planning to make a big batch, you can always order extra kale or Olivia’s Organics Saute Blend in our produce add-on section.
The 2/3-vegetable and all-veggie boxes are getting a big dose of broccoli this week and we have a deliciously creamy soup recipe to help get you through the next arctic blast. This Broccoli Cheddar Soup takes only 15 minutes to make and just about 30 seconds to scarf down; it’s that good.
But you might want to slow it down and be careful you don’t burn your tongue!
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
We are fortunate to have a vibrant community of customers who remain committed to our mission to provide access to fresh, organic produce in a sustainable way. But this winter has been difficult, not only for us, but for many small businesses in the Boston area.
In many ways the local food economy is struggling under the devastating effects of this season’s weather. Having to close a restaurant or cancel a delivery is more than an inconvenience for small businesses that tend to operate on narrow margins.
Edible Boston recently asked its readers to “make a pledge to SHOP LOCAL this year,” and we think this is a fabulous idea.
As you continue to support Boston Organics this winter, let’s also consider the dozens of other family-owned companies that rely on our patronage to survive. Together, we can support companies that are doing good things in the Boston area; not just this month, but into the spring as well.
Organic Produce Update
While New England continues to get pummeled by winter storms, organic farmers in Florida are enjoying balmy weather and a sizable citrus harvest. We have organic blood oranges in a few of the boxes this week and most of you will find Minneola tangelos and Royal mandarins in your delivery. Also known as Temple oranges, Royal mandarins are one of the largest of the “zipper fruits,” citruses with skins that are easily peeled. Royals tend to have a few more seeds than a Clementine, but they feature a uniquely rich, almost spicy flavor.
Our local organic farmers continue to brave the winter weather and icy roads to bring us their best organic storage crops. This week, Deep Root Organic Coop has a nice haul of parsnip and turnips while Red Fire Farm has some scraggly celeriac to share. Those three roots happen to go splendidly in this creamy root vegetable soup recipe.
The half-and-half and all vegetable boxes include another healthy dose of organic Brussels sprouts this week. Felicity M., a member of the Boston Organics Community, recently shared this recipe for Brussels Sprout Hash with us and we’re excited to give it a try! If you test it out, remember to snap a photo and use the hashtag #BostonOrganics when you post it to Twitter or Instagram.
New Add-ons
Whether you’re snowed in or facing off against mother nature’s latest cold snap, we have four new organic grocery items to brighten your day!
Tuscan Pizza Company makes delicious pizza dough using all organic ingredients and we’re now offering both their original recipe and their whole wheat organic dough as an add-on. You can make a meal in minutes—just grab some Appalachian Naturals Organic Tomato Puree and Neighborly Farms Organic Cheese and you’ve got the fixings for a fancy homemade pizza using all local and organic ingredients.
If you prefer a white pizza, you might want to make this Savoy Cabbage and Sunchoke Pizza using fresh veggies from this week’s boxes!
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
Another week, another winter storm. The mayor and the City of Boston have again advised us to stay off the roads and we have been forced to adjust our delivery schedule for the week. Safety continues to be our top priority and we remain dedicated to bringing you farm-fresh organic produce as conveniently as possible.
Please read our Important Weather Update to see when you can expect your delivery and continue to check your email for updates.
Farm-Fresh Produce
With all this snow on the ground, it can be hard to feel connected to your food. Fortunately, we work with a broad network of organic farmers who are doing an incredible job making sure the Boston Organics Community has plenty of delicious food to eat.
Michael Docter at Winter Moon Farms is bringing us some carrots, beets and radishes that he harvested after the first frost, but before these historic snow storms began. He stores his root vegetables in a custom-designed barn in Hadley, MA with solar powered temperature controls to make sure that everything retains its flavors and nutrients through the winter months.
Michael personally delivered the roots to us this week because he didn’t want to send anyone else out onto the road in these conditions.
Meanwhile, Deep Root Organic Coop and Dwight Miller and Son Orchards are bringing us parsnips, turnips, rutabagas and Empire Apples—a great combination of veggies to make the Locavore Recipe of the Week.
We also have beautiful organic Brussels sprouts, kale and green bell peppers going out in boxes this week, and we’ve got a great collection of featured recipes for you to try. Lundberg Organic Short Grain Brown Rice is on sale this week, making it the perfect time to try this recipe for Turkey, Kale and Brown Rice Soup.
Valentine’s Day Specials
Equal Exchange’s Organic Love Buzz Coffee is on sale this week in preparation for Valentine’s Day. A cozy cup of fair trade coffee is the best way to start your mornings whether you’re on your way to work or enjoying a snow day.
We also have limited edition chocolates from Equal Exchange and Taza Chocolate. Raspberry and chocolate are the perfect pair in Taza’s Raspberry Nib Crunch. It’s hard to imagine a sweeter Valentine’s Day treat.