Photo: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr
Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day. Remember, love our Mother Earth often and well — for food’s sake!!! To celebrate, join Picnic for the Planet – Boston on Boston Common, beginning at 11 am.
LOCAL BITES
The Health of New England’s Seafood
Next Sunday, April 29, is your best chance to learn about the health of our region’s fish stock and the health of our fishing industry. Let’s Talk About Food (LTAF) is again organizing a superb event, this time at Harvard University, with a line-up of seafood-related professionals from all walks of the industry. Tickets are $10 for the 1-5pm program; there is a free, related event Sunday evening at the Museum of Science. Read more and order tickets at the LTAF site.
Needham and Newton Unite
On Monday, April 30th, Spring Seasonings: Tastes of Our Neighborhoods is being held at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel, 5:30-8:00pm. Honorary Event chairman Roger Berkowitz of Legal Sea Foods has marshaled together 40 fellow restaurateurs and chefs from Newton and Needham to participate, including not only Legals, but also Spiga, B Street, Petit Robert Needham, Bokx 109, the Center Café and Tu y Yo. Chestnut Hill’s Urban Grape will be supplying beverages. Tickets run $30 apiece.
REMINDERS
A White (and Red) Riot
Wine Riot Boston is returning to the Hub tomorrow, April 20! Beginning at 7pm at the Park Plaza Hotel, you can work your way through 250 wines from all over the world — tasting, pairing, app’ing (is that a word?), getting educated and interacting in booths (no joke, that’s what they’re sayin’). Read more about this planned Riot, and buy tickets online.
Get Reel, Whole Foods
This month Whole Foods Market launches its “Do Something Reel” film festival — a series of “provocative” documentaries about food and environmental issues. First in line is “The Apple Pushers” (immigrant entrepreneurs / urban food deserts) which will be shown this Sunday, April 22 (Earth Day!) in various theaters around the US. A live panel discussion will stream afterwards from Austin, TX. Click here for info on the Boston screening.
A Quaffable Edible Meet-Up
Join Brooklyn Brewery and the staff of award-winning Edible Boston at Local 149 in Southie on Monday, April 23, from 6-8pm for the first of four “Quarterly Carousels” – a meet-up of beer lovers, local food producers and Edible Boston readers. RSVP to events@edibleboston.net.
Drumlin Farm and…Chocolate
Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln is hosting an “Evening of Chocolate” on Friday April 27, led by Drumlin Farm’s Tia Pinney and Walter Plante, co-founder of New Leaf Chocolates (and blogger behind Koko Buzz, featured here at PRK). Knowledgeable and passionate, Plante will share where cacao is grown, how chocolate is made, how to care for it and factors that influence its flavor and texture. Registration required.
NATIONAL TREATS
Food Stamps Offer Real Help
…Especially for children living in poverty. Nancy Shute of NPR analyzes a report recently issued by the USDA’s Economic Research Service quantifiying the positive impact food stamps can have on families living in poverty. The SNAP (food stamp) program gets federally funded vis a vis the Farm Bill, which is up for passage this year.
Cast-Iron Love
For sure it’s not just Southerners who cherish their cast-iron skillets. Nevertheless, a couple out of Atlanta, GA, has produced a new cookbook devoted to the skillet’s place in Southern households. “…Memories accrue over decades of cooking in it, of memorable meals and of loved ones now gone,” reports Bill Daley of the Chicago Tribune, reviewing the book.
Patriot’s Day, the Magna Carta and Food Rights
Yes, they’re connected. What the colonist ‘rebels’ fought for and won here in Massachusetts some 200 year ago has to do with just compensation for private property. The legal precedent for that can be traced back to a greedy king seizing food. NPR’s The Salt reports.