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LOCAL TREATS
Start Your Holiday with a Brew (or 80)
The 2nd Annual Mass Brewers Fest is taking place this Friday evening, Sept. 2nd, at the Seaport Boston Hotel, 6-9:30p.m. More than 20 Mass brewers will be represented! More than 80 different brews for the tasting! And, live music. We say, skip Friday’s traffic and head out Saturday a.m….
Indian Summer
New England autumns can be sublime. Eat outside for as long as you can! The folks at boston.com have posted a valuable resource to help: a list of Boston-area restaurants offering outdoor dining for as long as the good weather lasts. Here’s to it.
Do Oysters
Next weekend marks the two-day Island Creek Oyster Festival being held at Duxbury Beach Park on Sept. 9th (6:30-11 p.m.) & Sept. 10th (3-11 p.m). Tickets can be purchased online. Guest chefs from Chicago (Brian Huston and Erling Wu-Bower of The Publican) and New York City (Josh Schwartz of John Dory Oyster Bar) will be joining this celebration of Duxbury’s native bi-valves.
Can It, Re-Mix It
Several of the Berkshire Grown workshops — offered as part of its “Preserving the Bounty” Fall series — have been re-scheduled due to Hurricane Irene. Two canning workshops will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10th, while “Preserving with Spirit(s) plus Cocktail Condiments,” will now be held on Sunday, Sept. 11th, 1-3pm. Let the spirit infuse you! Details through Berkshire Grown.
Volumes of Vineyards
The number of wineries in Massachusetts is growing by leaps and bounds. How many currently exist, would you guess? Try 36. The Patriot Ledger reports on the ‘why’ and ‘who’ behind this growth in local viniculture.
Got (Raw) Milk?
If you don’t, think “11 on the 11th,” since that number of Massachusetts dairies will be open for free tours and other activities the weekend of Sept. 11th (both on Saturday and Sunday). The tours are being offered as part of Raw Milk Dairy Days, organized by the NOFA/Massachusetts Raw Milk Network. Visitors at all participating farms will have the opportunity to meet the farmers, scratch the cows, and learn more about raw milk.
Here, Food Truck, Food Truck
BostonZest is committed to tracking the ever-expanding Food Truck scene in Boston. They recently covered the SOWA Market, tasting their way through and offering tips to the uninitiated, and then went fishing for the Go Fish Food Truck earlier in the week (they caught it). Readers’ comments and suggestions on whom to track down next are welcome.
NATIONAL BITES
Out of Africa, and on to D.C.
Sweet potato leaves and African eggplants (called “garden eggs”) may, just may, end of up at your local farmers market some day in the not-so-distant future if new farming trends in the D.C. area take root. Read and listen to April Fulton’s report, which aired yesterday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
The Kitchen as Stage
Theater critic Charles Isherwood of the NY Times has written a smart, thoughtful review not of a stage performance, but a culinary one — his dinner, prepared before his eyes and within his reach at Aldea in Manhatten. The kitchen is the stage, and the performance “lively, intriguing and satisfying.”
Back to School
Saveur was just trying to be helpful. And clever. And marketable. But their Lunch Box Favorites post may have flunked: it gets heated in the Comments section. Tuna at the lunch table is about as welcome as salmon in your cubicle. The idea of nuts seems worse (think: allergies). You, too, can weigh in.