Photo: Plat/Flickr
LOCAL BITES
Strawberry Fields
Local fields are yielding their fruit, and UpStairs on the Square will be offering strawberry-studded dinners, by reservation, through tomorrow night. A four-course, berry-infused menu, served in the Soirée Room, is $50 ($75 with wine pairings). “Local Buratta with Wild Baby Arugula, Pistachios, Strawberries and Saba” is just for starters.
In the Flesh
Ana Sortun, chef/owner of Sofra and Oleana will be holding cooking demonstrations and sampling her new Chef Sets at 1pm and 3pm this Saturday, June 23, at the Williams-Sonoma in Copley Place. It’s part of their new Artisans’ Markets series, in which local producers bring their wares directly to you to taste, see and experience first-hand. Join other Edible Boston readers there. Call 617.262.3080 for more info.
Tiki Time
The patio at The Hawthorne is open and on Sunday nights things are swizzling. Every Sunday, 6-10pm, The Hawthorne hosts “Swizzle Sundays” – an ode to island cocktails old and new. Tiki Master Scott Marshall works the blenders and hosts the shindig, weather permitting, with a rotating menu of cocktails, including: the Rusty Shackelford (rum, chartreuse, chocolate, coconut) and the Electric Boomerang Banana (crème de banana, rum, blue curacao, coconut).
Thinking Inside the Box
This is cool. BostonInno reports on a pretty clever use for empty shipping containers: hydroponic farming. These guys are thinking green while thinking inside the box with their concept of urban Freight Farms. Read on.
NATIONAL TREATS
Taxing Soda
Would you be for or against a tax on soda? Mother Jones reports.
Betting the Farm
This is worth a watch: the trailer for new film “Betting the Farm” about Maine dairy farmers creating their own company.
Waging Liver Wars
A California law that then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in 2004 is about to take effect in California on July 1, 2012: a ban on the force-feeding of birds and the sale of products derived from this process — i.e., foie gras. The Chicago Tribune reports on the vicissitudes of its city’s own foie gras legislative ‘wars,’ suggesting that California is not likely to go the way of the Windy City.
A Farm Bill Update
As the largest milk-producing state, California dairy farmers have a fair bit at stake in the farm bill currently being considered in the U.S. Senate. Most dairies agree the price supports for milk are broken, but they’re divided on how to fix it. From Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, Kathleen Masterson reports for NPR’s The Salt.