Food in Boston

First, a warning to any vegetarians - you might want to skip this post.

Time to blow my cover: I know next to nothing about buying or cooking meat. What I do know is that I like eating locally produced meat grown on small farms. Happily enough, Stillman’s farm has started bringing lamb and pork to their JP farmer’s market, and I’ve finally had a chance to try some. The lamb chops in question, straight from the market:

Not having cooked much meat, my first task was to figure out what the right technique would be. After consulting The Joy of Cooking I was convinced that broiling was the way to go, but I wasn’t wild about the preparations they discuss. A little web surfing produced a marinade recipe from the CIA that I was able to approximate with ingredients on hand: soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and pepper.

Half an hour of marinading later, and we were off to the broiler. After a few minutes, some of the confusion I’d experienced earlier about just what kind of cut I had was dispelled, when I realized that what I’d assumed was a big chunk of lamb was actually four smaller cuts frozen together. Oops. That would explain why the bones came in at those odd angles.

While I probably would have been able to cook the chops more evenly if I’d had half an idea what I was dealing with from the outset, erring a bit on the side of caution resulted in four chops that were safely cooked and totally delicious. Some credit goes to the CIA-inspired marinade, and some to the peace of mind that comes with knowing a bit about where my food was from, but I think most of my satisfaction was due to it being some plain tasty meat. (That’s one of four pieces pictured; one was in my stomach, and the other two were finishing under the broiler)

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Bozeman Community Food Co-op in Montana, and my understanding of what is possible in a co-op has been expanded. How do I love thee, Community Food Co-op? Let me count the ways:

Location

The co-op is right on Bozeman’s main drag, so it’s easy to get to and easy for new people to stumble upon. The building is very spacious, with plenty of room for a deli, coffee shop, inside and outside dining & lounging areas, an inviting membership desk, and of course, the food.

Selection

Everything I’d hope to see was in place: organic foods, local foods, whole grains, and an extensive bulk section. I saw very little of the unhealthy and unremarkable industrial food products that are commonly found in American grocers: if you were here for Spam, Corn Flakes and Pepsi, you were out of luck. The choice to focus shelf space on higher quality foods with greater appeal to the co-op’s core audience seemed to be working well.

I was in the store gathering food for a backpacking trip, and was happily surprised by how many good options were to be found, including a wide variety of bulk dehydrated goods and trail mixes, which makes sense given Bozeman’s proximity to so many good places to hike and camp.

Employee and Membership benefits

I chatted with a friendly cashier while checking out, and got a good impression of the co-op’s treatment of its employees. Workers are paid a living wage, and have decent benefits. According to the brochure I picked up at the membership desk, there are 18,000+ members, all of whom have the option to work in the store. Membership is a one-time $35 fee, which is refundable.

Transparency

Produce, meats, fish, and other foods, including the sandwiches and prepared foods in the deli, were all well-labeled with their origins and production standards. Information about the operation of the co-op itself was also available, including a wall section dedicated to the board and its meetings, as well as profiles of farmers whose products were available at the store.

The Community Food Co-op has been operating since 1979, and my conversation with the checkout clerk made it clear that it has taken consistent hard work throughout all 28 of those years to get the co-op to the state it’s in today. Living in Boston, it’s hard not to make comparisons with Boston’s own Harvest Co-op, which is a task I plan to tackle in the near future.

WBUR show Only a Game did a nice segment this week about Hub on Wheels’ recent tour of farms in and around Boston. Unfortunately, they may have missed some critical sporting information: unless I heard wrong, I believe that one of the people they interviewed was world four-square champion Dana Ostberg! More than just cycling to this story.
As if that wasn’t enough love, during one of the breaks we heard a teaser for upcoming Tour de Farms coverage on Here and Now Morning Edition (to be aired Monday, I believe).

Update: another account of the ride at the Bloggercycle. Bummed that I missed it, but it sounds like it went off well enough that it may be back next year.

The Food Project has been collecting pledges to buy local food in August, and at the moment they have $3,641 in pledges. This is all the more impressive when one considers that August is one of the top months for food production in people’s gardens and CSAs, as well as one of the top travel months. All three factors will be limiting my local food purchases: the garden is awash in greens, beans, and herbs; the CSA has been overflowing its box lately; I’m going to be out of town for a good chunk of the month. Still, I’m excited to try out some of the local goods that I couldn’t get from my garden or farm share. For example, at my local farmer’s market, Stillman’s Farm has started selling locally-raised meats, which I’ve been itching to try. Here’s to some good, local eating this month.