Photo: ubrayj02/Flickr
LOCAL BITES
A Savory Cycle
The 2nd Annual CYCLE Kids Breakaway Charity Ride — a fitness and food affair — will take place this Sunday morning, May 20, at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln. Participants can choose to ride 62, 36, or 5 miles for the benefit of Cambridge-based CYCLE Kids, which fights childhood obesity through a school-based program integrating riding bikes in P.E. with nutrition education, literacy and mentoring. The post-ride party includes a grilled gourmet lunch cooked by chef Paul O’Connell of Chez Henri, plus complimentary wine and locally-brewed Pretty Things beer, lawn games and live bluegrass music. (Food lovers can even choose to skip the ride and attend only the savory celebration!) Register here.
Seedlings for Sale
The Powisset Farm Spring Fest and Seedling Sale takes place this Saturday, May 19, 10-3pm at Powisset Farm, Dover (MA). There will be seedlings for sale, music, food, local vendors selling plants, jams, crafts, activities for kids, pigs, chickens and general “awesomeness,” per farm manager Meryl LaTronica. Free and open to all.
The Sound of Fish
People have claimed to hear sounds made by deep sea fish for 50 years, but no one has ever confirmed the underwater chatter until now. Rodney Rountree, a marine biologist at UMass Amherst, has recorded the sounds of fish living as deep as 2,000 feet below the surface. This technology could be used to help track fish before they’re caught – thereby improving sustainable fishing techniques. WBUR’s own Beenish Ahmed reports.
A Pretty Profile
Devra First of the Boston Globe has written up Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, telling the story of its co-founders Dann Paquette and Martha Holley-Paquette and the improbable beginnings of their non-business. If First’s profile goes down easy, try Annie Ropeik’s post featuring Pretty Things’ historical X-Ales here at PRK. (Who knows, perhaps their next project might include a foray into the reified sap beer of Vermont’s past…)
Too Sexy
Move over, Food Trucks? Boston Business Journal reports that fashion trucks might just be the next big thing to hit the streets of Boston besides the Hub’s “explosion in food trucks.” If a licensing plan is accepted, however, who’s to say whether fashion trucks will fare better with City Hall than food trucks currently have, as Colin Kingsbury of Boston Magazine recently questioned.
NATIONAL TREATS
Join the Revolution
This Saturday, May 19, is Food Revolution Day, a global effort on the part of Jamie Oliver to better the world’s food habits and better the education and information available about the foods we eat. There’s ample opportunity to get involved, get informed and donate.
Everything but the ‘Cluck’
Savage River Farms in Cumberland, MD, has taken a new technology to develop more a chicken-like, non-chicken alternative using soy meal and other vegan products. The end result looks and tastes like chicken but, unlike other meat-substitutes, costs the same as chicken, too. NPR’s Yuki Noguchi reports on how this company is trying to make a better market for meatless meat.
Weighing Heavy on Our Minds
Fresh Air’s Dave Davies led an interview earlier this week with psychologist Kelly Brownell of Yale University about the psychological (and physical and financial) effects of our nation’s obesity epidemic. Brownell is featured in the new HBO documentary series The Weight of the Nation, which aired on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
GLOBAL TASTINGS
Is Locavorism Too Limiting?
Yes, a new “food fight” has perhaps begun. In the feature article of this week’s Dining section of the NY Times, world-famous chefs Thomas Keller and Andoni Aduriz eschew a chef’s moral responsibility to protect the environment and local farmer in favor of brilliant, creative food. Taste, to them, trumps all.