Today, Radio Boston tackles the topic of genetically modified salmon.  Haven’t heard about it?  Check out the story in today’s Washington Post.

Waltham-based AquaBounty Technologies has created a genetically modified salmon that will grow twice as fast.  The Atlantic salmon engineered by AquaBounty includes a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon that allows the fish to produce growth hormone all year long. As the Washington Post article  explains: “The engineers were able to keep the hormone active by using another gene from an eel-like fish, an ocean pout, that acts like an ‘on switch’ for the hormone, which conventional salmon produce only some of the time.” Continue reading →

Photo: Flickr/DerekGavey

Jessica Alpert

Clink! It’s the first annual Boston Wine Week.  Starting TODAY, participating restaurants (see the list HERE) will offer quality wines at discounted prices: $9.00/glass and $32.00/bottle.  The goal? To open diner’s eyes to the vast diversity and quality of wines available from around the globe.

And it goes beyond sipping…..you can learn a lot, too. The Second Glass’s Tyler Balliet will share his wisdom tonight at 6pm at Bina (free pizzette on offer!) and on Sept. 21, Richard Elia of the Quarterly Review of Wines will be at Bin 26 from 6-7 p.m., offering featured wines with paired cheeses. Continue reading →

Photo: bekkasaurus/Flickr

LOCAL BITES

Margarita Me
Today marks Mexico’s 200th year of independence, so celebrate with a festive drink or two from Masa’s new fall cocktail menu. They’ll also have celebratory specials throughout September. Bottoms up!

The Dog Days Are (Almost) Over
The end of summer doesn’t mean the ends of hot dogs. If you’re dedicated to dogs, head to Spectacle Island September 18th for a Hot Dog Eating Contest hosted by Summer Shack. It’s free to watch, but there’s a small fee to test your race pace eating abilities. Ferries leave regularly from Long Wharf.

Chocoholics, Don’t Forget
The New England Dessert Showcase is fast approaching. Find out where and when you can indulge in chocolates galore.

Folk and Food with the Fam
If you like feasting on home-cooked food and listening to folk music, visit the Soule Homestead Harvest Fair and Joe Davies Folk Festival September 18th and 19th in Middleborough. Who doesn’t love a good hay ride?

Calling All Wine-Os
Make it a point to dine out the week of September 20th, which marks the beginning of Boston’s First Annual Wine Week. You can enjoy handcrafted wines from across the globe at the city’s top restaurants. Some of the featured bottles normally run upwards of $90, but you can sip for only $9/glass or $32/bottle. To complement the celebration, there are a number of tastings around town with wine experts who can answer your vino queries. Click here for participating restaurants, events, and the complete wine list.

Have a Tryst at Tryst
To celebrate its sixth year of business, Tryst Restaurant in Arlington is offering $6 appetizers every Sunday for the month of September. Show up between 4:30 and 9pm to make an economical meal out of their small bites.

A History Lesson in Honey
Enjoy the luscious taste of honey every Saturday and Sunday of this month from 12-4:30pm at Historic Deerfield. It’s a chance for you and your family to learn about all things honey, from its importance in colonial America to the bees behind every batch. You can also make a beeswax candle to take home and, of course, sample the sweet stuff!

Say (Delicious Vermont) Cheese!
Sample to your heart’s (and stomach’s) content at the Plymouth Cheese and Harvest Festival in Plymouth, VT, on September 19th. Some of the day’s events include tastings, wagon rides, a cheese recipe contest, BBQ and guided tours of the Plymouth Cheese Factory.

Is the Next Bobby Flay in Boston?
The Food Network is coming to Boston September 26th to hold an open casting call for The Next Food Network Star. Think you can woo a live audience with your culinary talents and smile? Get the details here on where to go and what to bring.

NATIONAL TREATS

Chinatown Meets Little Italy
For the upcoming Feast of San Gennaro in NYC, chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi give the usual Italian street food an Asian twist. At their technicolored stand you’ll find wok-fried mozzarella sticks, a roast pork sandwich that has been carefully infused with Asian flavors, and custard cream puffs.

Summer Leftovers, Solved
Can ‘em, and Philadelphia blogger, Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars, will tell you how. After all, her blog is dedicated to canned foods. McClellan can show you just how to put that leftover watermelon to long-lasting use.

Come On America, Eat Your Fruits and Veggies!
Scott Hensley of NPR’s Health Blog reports that Americans are even worse now than they were in 2000 about eating the recommended two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day. Read more about why you should listen to your mother and eat your broccoli, and see which state has the highest fruit intake.

When was the last time someone told you to “Can it!” ??

Writer/teacher/chef Kathy Gunst, featured today on WBUR’s “Here & Now,” is shown HERE, using tomatoes from her garden to make a roasted sauce that she’ll enjoy all winter. This is Canning 101, tips about the process. You supply the ingredients.

Can it!

Kathy’s previous ‘appearances’ on PRK:
Look How her Garden Grows
Cookbooks for the Cooks on Your List
…And Now the Fixins’

 

There are lots of reasons to eat local. It boosts the economy in our neck of the woods. It yields fresher and tastier foods than what you can find in the supermarket fridge. And, it’s kind to Mother Earth.

Tammy Donroe gets all this, and she’s doing her part to promote local feasting through her witty and enlightening blog, Food on the Food, in which she playfully documents her adventures both inside and outside the kitchen. A freelance writer, mother of two and, most importantly for us, a food lover, Donroe doesn’t just advocate eating local for the obvious reasons. Continue reading →

Ilene Bezahler, Guest Contributor
Edible Boston

Who knew that Welch’s Grape Juice had its beginnings in Concord, MA?

In 1853, after some 22,000 experimental crosses from seed, Ephraim Bull
was happy with his new grape, named for the town he was living in –Concord.

Then Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a Methodist minister, tasted the grape.
He believed it would make a wonderful communion wine. His son Charles
saw more potential in the grape, and thus began the story of Welch’s Grape
Juice.

Read Elizabeth Gawthrop Riely’s article “He Sowed, Others Reaped: Ephraim Bull’s Concord Grape” to read more about the history of our native grape.

LOCAL BITES

Fair Trade Block Party
This is not your average block party. Boston has become the 20th city officially declared a Fair Trade Town. To celebrate, fair trade advocates Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s will be pumping the flesh at the Fair Trade Block Party TOMORROW, September 10th, 5-7 p.m., at the Prudential Center. A weekend-long, related conference also starts tomorrow, in Quincy. Get all your information at the Fair Trade Futures Conference site.

Somerville’s Local Roots
Come support Groundwork Somerville at the annual Local Roots Food and Music Festival on September 11th from 5pm-10pm at the Community Growing Center near Union Square. Redbones BBQ and Dave’s Fresh Pasta will be featured fare while you swing your hips and celebrate the goodness of community and sustainable living.

Who’s Your Food Hero?
Meet chef, author and food blogger Georgia Pellegrini for a talk, tasting and book-signing co-sponsored by the Culinary Guild of New England and Wasik’s Cheese Shop. Pellegrini’s talk is based on her new book, Food Heroes: Sixteen Culinary Artisans Preserving Tradition. September 18th, 2pm at Wellesley Booksmith.

No PB&J Here
There’s lots cookin’ at the Wayland Farmer’s Market held each Wednesday afternoon. Get school lunch ideas, get your knives and other house utensils sharpened, and give a little from your larder as well! Details HERE.

Mass Agri-Tourism
MDAR (Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources) recently announced the launch of an official website, Massgrown, dedicated to connecting residents and visitors of the Bay State to its rich agricultural offerings. You’ll find info on culinary- and agri-tourism events, ag fairs, crop availability and how to find and buy locally-grown products. Dig in.

Have Yourself ‘A Feast in A Field’
Les Dames d’Escoffier (Boston Chapter) is teaming up with Verrill Farm (Concord) on Sept. 19th at 5:30 in a Green Tables fundraiser called Feast in a Field. Proceeds will go towards The Food Project and Kids can Cook. Dinner will feature Verrill produce and meats from both Blood Farm and River Rock Farm. Live entertainment, too! (Listen to PRK’s own Susanna Bolle and her coverage of the Blood Farm folk HERE.)

Foodie Entrepreneurs Welcome
On Sept. 27th from 1-6pm, head to the Park Plaza Hotel for a Samuel Adams-sponsored, free event called “Brewing the American Dream,” designed for small food and beverage biz owners and start-ups. The founders of Sam Adams and Stacy’s Pita Chips will speak and offer tips on how to stay in the black during the tough economy. Registration required. (Read the Providence Journal‘s early coverage of the event HERE.)

NATIONAL TREAT

Hungry for Action
Did you know September is Hunger Action Month? To help, you can cook, shop, donate, attend, write, Tweet… you name it. Think, read and get involved.

Adam Simha has done a lot of interesting things in his life. He’s been a chef, a baker, a drummer, even a sound effects maker, but nothing ignited his imagination as intensely as when he first put fire to steel in a metalworking class at MassArt. Even the smell of the workshop intoxicated him. And what he could do there was more compelling still. He began by crafting sculptural items, and then designing and fabricating furniture pieces. What started as a hobby eventually evolved into a part- and then full-time gig, when he founded his own company, MKS Design.

His introduction to knifemaking happened almost by chance. Though he was already making furniture professionally–if you’ve been to Toscanini’s ice cream shop in Central Square, you’ve likely seen or sat on one of his sleekly modern chairs or sofas–he was still taking courses at MassArt, essentially to ensure access to the metal shop. The problem was that he was running out of classes to take. Then, a friend suggested he take a class with master bladesmith, J.D. Smith.

“He warned me,” Simha says of Smith. “He said, ‘This is a disease for which there is no cure, so consider carefully before you begin.’ He’s very dramatic. It’s wonderful; he has this way of bringing you into the experience of creating this tool and addressing the material, which I had been addressing a lot for years, but never in such an explicitly fine-grained way (pun-intended). You have to be so careful, and so attentive to detail, if you want to make a really sublime utensil.” Continue reading →

Sarah Kleinman is back.  Boston Eats’ hostess extraordinaire visits The Regal Beagle in Brookline.

• LISTEN to Sarah’s review of Chinatown’s Gourmet Dumpling House on Radio Boston.
• PRK interviews Sarah Kleinman about her series “Boston Eats”