Photo: cascade_lily/Flickr
LOCAL BITES
Follow That Truck!
There will be lots of them (parked) at UMass Boston this weekend as The Boston Food Truck Festival hits campus on Sunday, June 10. Tickets are $30/ea and allow you one serving from each of the participating food vendors (beverages not included). Heed their advice: “Come early, come hungry…”
Taste Cambridge
You’ll want to “come hungry” to this venue, too: the 10th Annual Taste of Cambridge, being held Tuesday, June 12, 5:30-8:30 pm. Over 90 Cambridge restaurants and drink purveyors will be featured; the site is new and bigger, too. Area Four, Cuisine en Locale, Four Burgers, Moksa and Park (among others) will be making a debut! More details here.
Waterside
Just get through this rainy week and you’ll be able to dine out by the water instead of drowning in it. Here’s a link to what eater.com is calling their Ultimate Guide to Waterfront Dining in Boston. Anyone from the North and South Shores want to chime in here?
Somerville Special
A new outdoor market called “Swirl and Spice” opens one week from today — Thursday, June 14, 5-8pm. Presented by Union Square Main Streets, it’s a specialty food market to be held at Union Square Plaza each Thursday evening through September, featuring Massachusetts wines, cheeses, breads, cured meats, jams, pickles and other specialty foods. Get the details.
Call Out: 6-9 Year Olds!
On Monday, June 18, 3:30-4:30 pm, kids will have the chance to work spoon to spoon with celebrity chef Rebecca Newell of The Beehive at the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE), making ham & cheeses and their own French crêpes. This is the BCAE’s Bean City Kids program. $45 Members/Non-Members, $15 Materials. You must register!
NATIONAL TREATS
Disney: A ‘Game Changer’
On Tuesday, The Walt Disney Co. announced it would ban ads for junk food on its television channels, radio stations and websites beginning in 2015, while also setting standards for the nutritional value of foods regularly marketed to children and sold in stores (“the Mickey Check”). Disney is the first major media company to take such a bold step, and the hope is that others will fall in line (or stay put, at their peril). The Wall Street Journal reports.
Eating Your Weeds
“Edibly inspiring” is what we think you’ll say after reading Finding Flavor in the Weeds from today’s Home section of the NY Times. Why pull them when you can eat them?
Food Stamps and Fresh Produce
Disproving critics of federally-subsidized Electronic Benefit Transfers (EBT) cards, which allow people using food stamps to buy fresh produce and other goods sold by local farmers, Sara Cardinale, director of the Abington Farmers Market in Abington, VA, says they’ve seen their sales rise dramatically since becoming the first market in the state to accept food stamps. And she says most food stamp users are buying fresh produce. WBUR’s own Here & Now reports.
Locally Raised, Locally Slaughtered
Beth Hoffman of NPR’s The Salt has authored a fascinating report on localized efforts across the country to bring cost-efficient means of slaughtering meat to their respective regions. Doing so would allow local farmers to sell their prized, pasture-raised meats at more competitive prices, and rural communities that prize being so could stay viable.
Spotlight on U.S. Meats
If the previous tidbit regarding the struggle to slaughter local beef locally doesn’t much interest you, today’s broadcast of WHYY’s Fresh Air might change your mind. Host Terri Gross interviews food journalist Tom Philpott of Mother Jones about the public’s concerns over the health of the U.S. meat industry.