Spring!

France for eating fresh

I know it has been said over and again but the French really know how to eat fresh. Each lunch and dinner was fresh veggies and meat cooked lightly with spices. Of course it was accompanied by great freshly baked french bread and wine...they also spend over an hour eating and talking at lunch instead of wolfing down a burger on the run - leisurely lunches are much better for your digestion and your social life :)

Wellesley Farmer's Market Today 3-6pm

Today, Of The Earth Farm is bringing cress, swiss chard, tatsoi, chinese cabbage, sorrel, bok choi, arugula, spinach, lettuce heads. Start planning some incredible meals and invite friends. Warner Farm is bringing strawberries and chive blossoms (with recipes!) Plus, farm fresh eggs, local cheeses, lilies, herbs from the HERB FARMacy plus much, much more! Bring a bag and come enjoy the inspiration and fun every Thursday 2-6pm in the Wellesley Whole Foods Market parking lot from May until October! For more info check out www.WellesleyFarmersMarket.com or like Wellesley Farmers' Market on Facebook ;-)

New logo for chef

Newly designed logo for personal chef/nutritionist that supports using healthy, local, organic products in MA.

Farm to Table Dinner Wellesley Reads Together

A wonderful Farm to Table Harvest Dinner in conjunction with the Wellesley Reads Together Program. We created the logo as well.

Wellesley Reads Together Website

We designed this interactive site for a library reading program featuring two locavore books - one of which inspired me to create the Will Work For Food Project.

New website for Iowa farm

New name - New logo - New website for Iowa farm

Over the past year we have been working with a lovely family-run farm in Iowa that raises free-range cattle and offers antibiotic-free meats as well as produce. We worked with them on changing their name to better reflect their philosophy and offering and created a sweet new logo for them that features their pet cow "Jill". We also designed a dynamic new website that will launch in a couple of weeks.

Peapod meets CSA?

Cranky Consumer tests services that deliver organic and locally grown produce to your doorstep.

Secret World of Trader Joes

In Fortune, Beth Kowitt had an eye-popping piece called “Inside the Secret World of Trader Joe’s.” The funky, gourmet grocery chain is actually owned by the secretive Albrecht family from Germany. Many of the products are made by large corporations — the pita chips are made by a division of PepsiCo and the yogurt is actually made by Danone Stonyfield Farm.

The company has brilliantly seized on the growing sophistication of American food tastes. It offers a much more limited selection than its rivals, thus reducing the anxiety of choice. It has an efficient supply chain (the Tasty Bite Punjab Eggplant that sold for $3.39 at Whole Foods in Manhattan sold for more than a dollar less at the Trader Joe’s in Stamford, Conn.). It fosters community and makes shopping a form of belonging.

Abel Sanchez - the techie at 1000radishes.com

Walmart as the new champion of local farms? (The Atlantic

My last post of 2010 has a perhaps appropriate world turned upside down feel to it. Who knew that Walmart has a senior director of local and sustainable sourcing? Or that Walmart now sells locally grown foods? The author, Corby Kummer, is a champion of the Slow Food movement. What is the world coming to?

"The first thing I saw, McIntosh apples, came from the same local orchard whose apples I’d just seen in the same bags at Whole Foods. The bunched beets were from Muranaka Farm, whose beets I often buy at other markets—but these looked much fresher."

Tod Dimmick - Foodie of 1000radishes.com

How 'bout them (local) apples?

In years past, I used to buy apples from 2,000 miles away in December. But an increasing number of local orchards have invested in cool storage rooms which means apples are available for months after they are picked, sometimes right through the winter. One of my favorite locals is Dowse Orchards. This family owned farm in Sherborn, MA has been in business for 200 years, and in December if you walk past the Christmas Trees you'll find their own apples, several different kinds. I've been paying a weekly visit for Cortlands (baking) and Macs (crunching). If it's a cold day, they usually have hot cider, too. Buying apples at a place like this is infinitely more fun than buying jet lagged ones at the grocery store.

- Tod Dimmick - foodie at 1000radishes.com

Fresh Veggie Omelette

This is a great recipe for your CSA's fresh vegetables.
Ingredients:


* Tomatoes
* Sweet, warm, or hot peppers (we used a combination)
* Onions (choose your favorite)
* Chard (the star ingredient)
* Fresh farm eggs

Add your vegetables into your favorite skillet, add salt, and oil.

After a couple of minutes, add the eggs and cook to taste

Enjoy!

Abel - Techie at 1000radishes.com

One of our heros reminds us what is important

At Harvard last week, Team 1000Radishes took part in a seminar led by Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, and Corby Kummer, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. After hearing, in Italian with Kummer translating, about the principles of Slow Food, we were reminded that kindred spirits worldwide seek similar goal to our own.

Right now, busy consumers are forced to make food decisions based on speed, convenience and price, and most of those choices are bad in every sense, unhealthy for our bodies, environmentally destructive, and economically unsustainable. 1000Radishes technology aspires to support democratization of access to good food (define good as you like, few would argue against "local" being part of the definition). We seek to offer another choice by helping to make good food fast, convenient, and affordable by supplying real time information about Where (a choice vs McDonalds), What (visualize what to eat, and it doesn't have to be a Big Mac), and How (Recipes).

AKA What's In Season, Where to find it, What to do with it - the original Radish tagline. And that's just for starters.

This is a worthy goal, and worth talking about. Stay tuned.

By Tod Dimmick, cookbook author and "The Foodie" at 1000radishes

12 Famous Farmers' Markets

The season is winding down but here are some of the most famous farmer's markets.


Montpelier, VT, Montpelier Farmers Market

New York, NY, Union Square Green Market

Madison, WI, Dane County Farmers' Market

Des Moines, IA, Des Moines farmers market

Washington, D.C., Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market

San Francisco, CA, Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market

Portland, ME, Portland, ME Farmers' Market

Portland, OR, Portland, OR Farmers' Market

Saint Paul, MN, St. Paul Downtown Farmers' Market

Seattle, WA, University District Farmers' Market

Austin, TX, Barton Creek Farmers' Market

Santa Fe, NM, Santa Fe Farmers' Market