Photo: NatalieMaynor/Flickr

LOCAL TREATS

Farmers Market Fun
This week is National Farmers Market Week! Celebrate the goodness of farming by attending the 37th annual Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) 2011 Summer Conference at UMass Amherst, Aug. 12th-14th. Show up and register on site for any one of the incredibly diverse, educational seminar offerings. Otherwise, use PRK’s handy farmers market map (look right!) to celebrate with local bounty at home.

Summer’s Bounty and a Gardening SOS
Fruits and vegetables are coming in fast at the Harvard Community Garden, including several award-winning forms of hybrid eggplant. They’ve also given a shout-out: have any ideas on how to repel rodents? They’re all ears! Email harvardgardeners@gmail.com with your clever suggestions, or free time. They’re in need of volunteers on Thursday afternoons.

One Man’s Trash…
On August 13th, 9am-1pm, Slow Food Boston and Green City Growers are joining together for a Cookbook and Utensil Swap at the Union Square Farmers Market in Somerville. Bring five dollars (to donate to Slow Food Boston), along with your old cookbooks and kitchen gadgets for barter.

Chocolate Times
Sunday, August 14th, Boston Food Bloggers is hosting a free tour of Taza Chocolate Factory for the first 18 bloggers to RSVP. Guests will be led on a guided tour of the factory in Somerville, sampling a few of Taza’s sweets along the way. After the tour, the gang from Boston Food Bloggers will explore the eateries in Inman Square, including Christina’s Ice Cream, Christina’s Spices and Trina’s Starlite Lounge. This segment of the tour is open to the public but also requires registration.

Read before you eat
Get better access to the dining experiences of Boston’s upcoming Restaurant Week at the new and improved RestaurantWeekBoston.com. This site (from the folks at Bostonchefs.com) features more advanced search functions and up-to-date information about directions, T-accessible restaurants and upcoming prix fixe menus; it’s also compatible with smart phones, which diners can use to take pictures of their meal thanks to a new program called RepeatReceipt. Click away and get up to 20% of the bill toward a future visit.

Kicking Off a Week of Good Eating
Head chef Matt Morello of Brasserie 28 was recently named North Shore Wine Week’s Culinary Chair. He will help kick-off the week with the VIP inaugural event being held at the Wine ConneXtion in North Andover on Saturday, August 20th, 12-5PM. Guests will sip wine and sample dishes to be featured on Wine Week menus. RSVP at VIP@northshorewineweek. This event marks the start of the First Annual North Shore Wine Week, August 21st-27th. For more details on special events, participating restaraunts and available wines, visit their website.

Older, Wiser, and Better Fed
Burtons Grill is celebrating National Senior Citizens Day, on Sunday, August 21st, by offering 50% off all food items to diners age 65 and older. The restaurant has locations in Boston, North Andover, Hingham, Peabody and Nashua, NH, and South Windsor, CT.

Celebrating Good Drink
August 5th was International Beer Day. If you missed the chance to celebrate, you can still sample some of the area’s best beer at the Fourth Annual Summer Brewfest at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA on August 27th. Guests can also look forward to BBQ treats and live music.

Boston’s Best Backyard Eats downtown
This week Grub Street published a list of “Big City Barbecues,” selecting several restaurants and eateries that make superior, serious BBQ in some of the country’s biggest metropolitan areas. Boston had its own standouts: Inman Square’s East Coast Grill, for its down-home Southern flavors; and Silk Road BBQ, for its praiseworthy Asian-inspired BBQ on wheels.

Make Summer Last
The folks from Berkshire Grown in Great Barrington, MA, are hosting the third year of Preserving the Bounty: Canning, Pickling and Keeping the Harvest. The event features demonstrations by local chefs and food purveyors, as well as a community canning food swap. In conjunction with Preserving the Bounty, a series of fun and educational food workshops have been coordinated with over a dozen local restaurants, businesses and farms from August to October. Be sure to register before you attend.

NATIONAL BITES

Tighter Tables
An article from this week’s Wall Street Journal describes how the recession has effected the restaurant business. The findings may surprise you.

Reproaching Eggplant with Help from the Times
This week the New York Times offers inspiration for struggling cooks interested in trying to cook with that occasionally perplexing purple vegetable, eggplant. If you’re in need of inspiration and tips, check out the recipes they offer, including Eggplant Parmesan Deconstructed.