To Know a Territory, You Must Eat It

Italo Calvino, Italian journalist and writer of short stories, hit the nail on the head with this observation. Until you have eaten foods of the various regions of Italy, you might think that Italian food is all the same. The truth is that for many years, what we now call Italy was the foothold for several warring city-states. Each of these former regions has their own distinctive cultures and cuisines. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a Venetian dish in Florence and vice versa.

Local foods tell stories. Tuscan bread with its thick crust and notable absence of salt, for example, contains a small slice of Italian history. Legend has it that once upon a time, the republic of Pisa imposed a salt tax on its citizens. In response to the unpopular tax, the community began to bake its bread without salt—a practice that continues today.

In Tuscany, leftovers are often recycled, a practice from the lean days of World War II, when food was scarce even if you had your own garden. Ingredients from yesterday’s meals make their way into today’s menu. Fresh bread from breakfast is used to thicken the pappa al pomodoro or panzanella for lunch.

US regional tastes are varied and local to the extreme. North Carolina BBQ splits along geographical lines into Eastern and Piedmont traditions. From Hawaii’s love affair with spam to Texas chili to New Orleans po-boys up to Rhode Island’s clam “stuffies” the dishes are as unique and diverse as the country itself.

What, in your experience, are some of New England’s most prized specialties? Do you have a food story to share that sheds light on New England history? Please, be our guest. Pictures and recipes are more than welcome.

Lisa Leslie Henderson

More Books Like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

If you have enjoyed reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver's reminder that we are what we eat, try some of the following titles.


 
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Safran Foer explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits--from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth--and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.  His advice is to eat only locally grown food and animals.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.
Pollan takes a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, particularly the chemicals in our food.  He proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach.  His advice is "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."

 Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Schlosser charts the fast food industry's enormous impact on our health, landscape, economy, politics and culture as he transforms the way America thinks about what it eats, including the little-known world of chemically engineered flavorings, both natural and artificial that we put into our bodies.

Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
Urban and rural collide in this wry, inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm. This could be you!

SH

What’s Happening This Week?

Here we go! Wellesley Reads Together events officially begin this week.

Thursday, September 29th

Main Library Wakelin Room

Project Scarecrow Craft Workshop

Feeling creative? Drop into the Wakelin Room between 10 a.m. and noon or between 2- 4:00 p.m. and design a scarecrow to decorate the Children's Room in celebration of Wellesley Reads Together.

Saturday, October 1st

3 – 5 p.m. Main Library Wakelin Room

Meet Katie Smith Milway

Meet the author of The Good Garden!  Katie Smith Milway will read from her book and discuss the true story behind the story. Then visit the children's room for some 'down to earth' activities.

Sunday, October 2nd

1 - 2 p.m. Belkin Lookout Farm in Natick

Wellesley Reads Together at Belkin Family Look-out Farm, ‪89 Pleasant St. S. Natick

Wellesley author Katie Smith Milway will read her book The Good Garden.

Sunday, October 2nd

3:00—4:30 p.m. — Main Library Wakelin Room

Bees in Your Backyard!

What's the buzz about bees?   Tony Lulek, President of the Norfolk County Beekeepers' Association and Bee School Director, will talk about the impact bees have on our world and the changing impact our world is having on bees. Appropriate for all ages. Sponsored by the Friends of the Wellesley Free Libraries.

Monday, October 3rd

7:00 -- 8:00 p.m. —Main Library Arnold Room

Wellesley Free Library Book Group

Adults are welcome to discuss “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Wednesday, October 5th

10:30—11:15 a.m. Hills Branch Library, Jack Ramsden Children's Room

A special garden-themed story-time to celebrate Wellesley Reads Together for children ages 2-5 with their grownups.  

Thursday, October 6th

6 – 8 p.m. Wellesley College Club

Harvest Dinner

Come celebrate the harvest with a special meal at the beautiful Wellesley College Club. The dinner presents a wonderful opportunity for local producers to acquaint the Wellesley community with the fruits of their labor. The menu will feature ingredients from local sources including Land's Sake Farm, Volante Farms, Allandale Farms, Bully Boy Distillers, Mayflower Beer and more. Space is limited, and preregistration is required. This is an 18+ event. Want to come? Register Here

Make it Yourself: Ricotta Cheese

In my quest to eat local, fresh and healthy foods, I have learned to make more things at home and to buy fewer processed foods.  
Here is a delicious recipe for  ricotta cheese that can very easily be made at home to have on hand for eating and cooking.

HOMEMADE RICOTTA CHEESE

Ingredients:

1 quart milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice



Pour the milk in a glass or enamel saucepan (this is very important).  Stir in the lemon juice and heat the mixture gently to 200 degrees Fahrenheit or until it is just on the edge of a simmer.   Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit, partially covered, until the milk coagulates.  This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Sieve the milk through a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl.   Fold the cheesecloth over the cheese and let it drain for several hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.

Voila - homemade ricotta cheese!

A couple of tips:

I have an electric stove, so I put the pan on a bit under the half-way heating mark on the dial.  It takes about 30 minutes to reach the simmer stage.  Also, every time I  make ricotta, it only takes 30 minutes for the curds to separate from the whey once it is off the heat.

I often add some good olive oil, seasonings and a little salt to the mixture and serve it as an appetizer.

Janice Coduri, Director, Wellesley Free Library

This just in: Harvest Dinner registration has begun!

It's a community gathering!!
Come celebrate the harvest with a special meal on Thursday, October 6th at the beautiful Wellesley College Club.  Held in conjunction with Wellesley Free Library's Wellesley Reads Together program, the dinner presents a wonderful opportunity for local producers to acquaint the Wellesley community with the fruits of their labor. The menu will feature ingredients from local sources including Land's Sake Farm, Volante Farms, Allandale Farms, Bully Boy Distillers, Mayflower Beer and more.  Space is limited, and preregistration is required.  This is an 18+ event. Want to join us? Register Here

Hungry For Some Local Foods?

With all of this discussion of local foods on our blog it's a wonder if you're not hungry yet!  If you're not already familiar with some local markets, CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) or coops, we've got some great sites for you.

When we started looking for local foods in our neck of the woods, my wife & I found two great websites that steered us in the right direction.  For starters, the Massachusetts Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, an organization composed of farmers & consumers raising awareness of organic and minimal waste issues, has a list compiled of local CSA's on their website.  LocalHarvest.org, begun by a software engineer who was passionate about the local food movement, not only covers the local food on a nationwide scale but also provides a handy way to search specific to products--so whether you're looking for local wool for knitting or raw milk, this site's got you covered.

If you're wanting to move beyond fruits & veg, you can even find some great local CSA's that will provide meat and seafood options such as the 5 lb. or 10 lb. beef and pork shares from the Austin Brothers Valley Farm or the whole fish/fillet fish options from Cape Ann Fresh Catch.  While they're not delivered straight to your door there's plenty of pick up options available that may be convenient for you.

And for those of you who already enjoy a fruit, veg, or meat share please tell us--what is your favorite CSA or coop?

image courtesy flickr user aur2889

Do Something Locavore-ish this Week!

We, know, we know, it’s a busy time of year, but just in case you’re looking for something to do this week, here are a few suggestions:

• Visit a local farm stand for some just-picked food items.  Allandale Farms in Brookline has been “tilling the same soils for more than 250 years.”  Closer to home is Natick Community Organic Farm, whose first English owner, the Reverend Peabody, taught the local Native Americans to plant apple orchards and raise animals in the 1720s.
• Attend Eat Local Boutique’s 1-day Boston Local Market, Saturday, September 24, from 1-5 pm at Twelve Chairs in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.  They’re excited to showcase some of New England’s hidden food treasures. This market will be set up less like a farmer’s market and more like an intimate afternoon open house where you can mix and mingle with your favorite food makers and hear the stories behind the food. 
• Wondering what to do with all of those apples? Sign up for Land’s Sake’s Farm: Land’s Sake Farm:  Home Canning:  Apple Preserves, Saturday, September 26, at 1 pm.  Join Weston’s Afton Cotton, as she teaches you how to make and preserve your apples at home. Registration is limited to 12 participants so if you are interested, connect with them today. 

How the WRT Books Were Chosen

   A year ago, we formed a committee to plan the first ever "Wellesley Reads Together".  The thought of choosing a book seemed daunting, so we explored what other communities were reading and asked how they made the decision before we went forward.

    The committee members thought it would be particularly special to choose a local author. They also wanted to offer a book for children and one for adults.  Choosing a children's author was an easy task as we had all liked Wellesley resident Katie Smith Milway's first book, One Hen.  Then we began exploring adult books on the same topic.

    In the meantime, we discovered Katie's Good Garden book, and we all agreed that sustainability and eating local foods were really relevant topics.  We read many books and had lots of discussion.  My favorite (though a bit hard to read) was The Omnivore's Dilemma. We finally decided on Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. 

Since then, we have been busily planning the events portion of the Wellesley Reads Together program.  The committee members hope that many people will read both books, attend a program (or two or three)  and have a good time with us as we celebrate our first ever "Wellesley Reads Together".

Janice Coduri – Director, Wellesley Free Library

Go to the Library for More on Sustainabilty

Building a sustainable world involves big changes at the government level and the corporate level, but it also involves personal choices about how we live our lives. Many of us are already taking small steps to use less energy and other natural resources.  My family has converted to compact fluorescent light bulbs, reduced our use of household chemicals and gets ever-stingier with water. We insulated the house, recycle or reuse just about everything that can be reused or recycled and carpool whenever possible. Needless to say we (and I’ll bet, you) could do a whole lot more to lessen our impact on the earth.  And, also needless to say, the Library has a ton of books to help us. For all-purpose, all-spheres-of- life ideas, try browsing the non-fiction number 640. It used to be the place to find books on organizing your home and the Hints from Heloise books.  Nowadays you’ll also find Green Housekeeping, Real Simple: 869 New Uses for Old Things, Scaling Down, the Urban Homestead and dozens more on sustainable themes. These books (and many others) explain everything from composting and tree planting to bee-keeping and mattress-flipping. Elsewhere, for more specific areas of sustainable living, there are books on weatherizing your home, solar power, organic gardening, green building, green shopping, green investing, running your car on vegetable oil and motorizing your bicycle. Next time you’re at the Library, why not take some time to browse the shelves for creative ideas that fit your own life style and match your own level of commitment?

--RL

Fresh Fridays

Each Friday, we’ll focus on what foods are freshly available nearby and even throw in some suggestions for how to prepare them. Today’s entry is by Lisa Leslie Henderson, a local freelance writer, whose work regularly appears in Wellesley Weston Magazine and other local news outlets.

Of Gathering and Keeping Fruit
While sitting in the doctor's office this week, I happened upon a beautifully illustrated book: In and Out of the Garden by Sara Midda. Among the delightful drawings that capture details from the English gardens where Midda spent many a day in her childhood, I found the following advice from William Lawson:

Although it be an easier matter, when God shall send it to gather and keep fruit, yet are there certain things worthy your regard: you must gather your fruit when it is ripe and not before, else it will wither and be tough and sour. All fruits generally are ripe, when they begin to fall: For trees do as all other bearers do, when their young ones are ripe, they will warn them.


What's ripening this week? Apples—and lots of them: Cortlands, Golden Delicious, and Jonathans, which means shortly we'll have baked apples, apple sauce, pork chops and apples, and apple crisp, signs that fall is just around the corner. Somehow smelling the combination of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar, simmering together on the stove, eases us into September even as we savor the last few precious days of summer.

Here's a recipe for apple crisp that will have your kitchen smelling delicious:

EASY APPLE CRISP

1 cup sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. cinnamon
6 peeled and sliced large apples
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter

Combine 1/2 c. sugar, lemon juice, water and cinnamon in the bottom of small baking pan. Place peeled and sliced apples on top of the mixture. Blend the remaining 1/2 c. sugar, flour, salt and butter together until crumbly. Spread over apples and pat smooth.
Bake at 375°F. for 40-50 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is browned. Serve hot with ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

Have any good recipes for apples to share? Please do! And remember to check back here every Friday to see what's freshly available around town.

Something is Brewing!

In keeping with the agricultural theme of the inaugural Wellesley Reads Together program, here's where we’ll be serving up details of related events, as well as resources, readings, and activities.

In addition to this blog, we’ll be actively stirring the pot at Twitter, Facebook and on the Wellesley Reads Together webpage. We welcome your participation in all of these venues. Your pictures, stories, comments, questions, and recipes are more than welcome in this feast of ideas!