Monthly Archives: January 2010

Jan 31 2010

Polenta with Roasted Butternut Squash

Sometimes I’m not really sure why I have cookbooks.

More often than not, they bring out the rebel in me. I’ll read a recipe and, for some crazy reason, think I have a better idea. The precise measurements and instructions go against my nature–I guess I just don’t want to be told exactly how to cook something.

But, I really need to be told, once in a while.

Left to my own devices, I’d begin every dish by sautéing garlic and onions. I love the smell that fills the house when garlic and onions are on the stove. If I could arrange for myself the pleasure of arriving home while I was cooking, I’d especially love coming into the house from outside to be greeted by a meal just starting to sizzle on the stove. However, I’m aware that even the garlic and onions routine can get old.

Knowing a few other cooking techniques can be a good thing.

Tonight, I turned to my favorite cookbooks for inspiration. There are rare moments when I look to a cookbook for precise instructions, but today I knew I just wanted a little inspiration.

Image of My Three Favorite Cookbooks

I thought I’d be cooking a soup using the two buttercup squashes I picked up at yesterday’s farmers market, until I stumbled upon an interesting recipe for Polenta Torta with Roasted Squash in Anna Thomas’ The New Vegetarian Epicure. Lacking a couple of key ingredients (Marsala and goat cheese), and having some previously made polenta that needed to be used, I was off to my usual start. (That is, tossing the recipe aside.)

Following Anna’s instructions, I happily started by sautéing onions, this time with a good amount of chopped, fresh thyme.

Image of Thyme on Cutting Board

While the onions slowly caramelized on the stove in olive oil, I brushed big chunks of the butternut squash with olive oil and roasted them in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Image of Roasted Buttercup Squash

When it was soft and gooey, I scooped it into a pot and roughly pureed it with some homemade vegetable stock.

I cut chunks of polenta into the onion/thyme mixture and continued cooking it all together (sans Marsala). At this point, Anna Thomas would have had me take some other rather complicated steps, including cooling the polenta in a casserole dish and cutting it into wedges. At times, the extra steps in cookbooks can seem to be just extra steps. Tonight, I couldn’t really figure out what they would gain me other than a beautiful presentation, which  wasn’t a priority. Nor was following the recipe.

I took a shortcut to a dinner plate, and topped the polenta mixture with the pureed buttercup squash, and it was perfect. Goat cheese would have been perfect also, but there’s something to be said for using the ingredients at hand and being satisfied with the results.

Image of Polenta with Squash

Thank you, Anna Thomas for this Sunday inspiration and for filling my house with the wonderful smells of onions, thyme and roasted squash. I haven’t ruled out trying the real recipe, but I was quite satisfied with my rebel version.

Not one measuring cup or spoon was dirtied in the process!

Jan 30 2010

A Sunny Winter Farmers Market Warms Hundreds in Concord, NH

Let there be no doubt that Concord, New Hampshire can support at least one more local food venue. This crisp and sunny Saturday (only seven degrees this morning in Concord) created the perfect backdrop for Concord, New Hampshire’s first winter farmers market at the Cole Gardens greenhouse. The first in a series of three markets was held today, with the remaining two to be held on February 27 and March 27.

At least several hundred winter-weary people, all hungry for local food and community, bundled up and headed out to shop.

Photo of Concord Farmers Market Sign

More than twenty vendors participated, offering vegetables, baked goods, hot soups, body care products, honey, maple syrup, meats, dog treats, dog chews, apples and more. Vegetables, including cabbages, buttercup squash, beets, sprouts, shallots, garlic and potatoes, were popular at this market and mostly sold out early. Live music added to the festival atmosphere of the day.

Photo of Concord Farmers Market

Photo of Concord Farmers Market Musicians

By lunchtime, although plenty of shopping and socializing continued, things were quieting down enough to chat with a few of the vendors.

I was interested to hear a farmer’s perspective on this new venue, so I spoke with “my farmer,” Larry Pletcher from The Vegetable Ranch. Larry provides my Winter CSA and participates in the Local Harvest CSA and the Fall CSA, both of which have several participating farmers.

Photo of The Vegetable Ranch at Concord Winter Farmers Market

I wondered if he’d be planning and planting differently in the coming year, in anticipation of similar events in 2011. He told me The Vegetable Ranch planted ten acres last year and will plant 14 this year in response to the Concord area’s growing year-round demand for local vegetables.

He’s also upgrading his winter crop storage system. He currently uses the stone foundation of his old home for crop storage, but has built a new storage building with a refrigeration unit that can handle large crates of crops like potatoes. This represents a big improvement over his current system and will allow him to store more vegetables and handle them more efficiently. Good news for the 2011 winter farmers market and CSA season!

Larry recently visited Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, Vermont to learn new techniques for raising winter greenhouse greens. Pete Johnson is a 37-year old organic farmer bringing innovative, sustainable and organic farming techniques to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, while providing produce for 80 stores, 60 restaurants and a 250-member CSA. In the wintertime, he’s raising microgreens in 1.5 acres of greenhouses, some of which are unheated. Pete’s Greens’ winter CSA (called “Good Eats”) even provides frozen zucchini as part of its January shares (what a wonderful idea!). Concord can look forward to Larry Pletcher and The Vegetable Ranch putting some of these new techniques to work in the our own backyard next winter.

Many shoppers commented on how wonderful it was to have such an event in Concord. One woman I chatted with in the parking lot had heard about the market from an e-mail forwarded by a friend who knew that she enjoyed farmers markets. (Indeed, most publicity for the market was by e-mail, blogs, Twitter and Facebook.)

“It’s great to see all these people,” she said. “It just shows you how many people want to buy local.” The overflowing parking lot and cars lining both sides of the road supported that theory.

Those arriving close to the lunch hour enjoyed delicious hot soup from Curtis Gould, The Soup Guy, of Dover, New Hampshire. “Come back to soup, the original comfort food,” is the slogan for his soups, made with locally sourced, all-natural ingredients. I brought home some Black Bean and Vegetable Soup, Rio de Janeiro Style, for dinner tonight.

Photo of The Soup Guy at Concord Winter Farmers Market

Abigail’s Bakery offered several gluten-free options from their brown-rice, millet line of baked goods. I stocked up for my freezer because I’m still missing being able to buy Abigail’s bread at my local Coop. The Concord Cooperative Market stopped carrying Abigail’s bread several months ago, apparently because Abigail’s declined to use preservatives in their products. Abigail’s Bakery bakes the only truly all organic bread in New Hampshire.  A loss for Coop customers, but it’s still worth going out of the way for Abigail’s Bakery products, which are available at their shop in Weare, New Hampshire as well as at A Market Natural Foods in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A couple of farmers-market-loving dogs waited at home on this bitter cold day, eager to find out if this market, like most, featured goodies for canines. Dried chicken livers from Mrs. Beasley’s Gourmet Dog Treats of Weare were just the consolation prize for such patience and understanding.

Photo of Mrs. Beasley's Gourmet Dog Treats Dried Chicken Livers

All needs, wants and desires were met at the first-ever Concord Winter Farmers Market.

Jan 28 2010

It’s Raining Sprouts in January

When it rains, it really does pour. Especially where vegetables are concerned. In the dark of winter, when green, leafy vegetables are so hard to find, I find myself with heaps of fresh, crispy greens…tiny ones.

Today, I picked up the third installment of my winter CSA.

CSA Vegetables

This week’s share included a container of mixed sprouts, a container of alfalfa sprouts and one of pea sprouts. I’ve never tried pea sprouts, so I’m excited about those. They’re crunchy and very fibrous–they take forever to chew. They have a very slight licorice flavor and a subtle sweetness.

I made a simple pea sprout salad with goat cheese from Agape Homestead Farm in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire. I suppose a light dressing would have worked well, or a few toasted pine nuts, but tonight was a night for simple, unadorned flavors and no-stress preparation.

Pea Sprout Salad

And, of course, a winter meal of simple flavors (for me) must include roasted vegetables. Tonight, yellow fingerling potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, turnip, Brussels sprouts and garlic.

Photo of Roasted Vegetables

A delicious meal, for sure, but I’ve only made a tiny dent in my supply of fresh sprouts. While my CSA Farmer was busy sprouting away at the Vegetable Ranch in Weare, New Hampshire, I was doing the same in my kitchen, and my alfalfa sprout crop was ready for harvesting today.

Alfalfa Sprouts

In response to a steadily decreasing supply of fresh, local green vegetables in my fridge, I took matters into my own hands. I brought out my Bioset Kitchen Salad Garden from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine and sprouted alfalfa seeds. I’ve used a few different methods for making sprouts, but this method is foolproof because the seeds never sit in puddles of water. The sprouts are crispy and fresh every time, and never slimy the way they often were with the old jar method.

It’s such an easy thing to do, and kind of fun to grow a little something during the winter. Most seeds take only three or four days from start to finish, with just one water change daily. It’s well worth the trouble–but it can hardly be called trouble.

Alfalfa sprouts are packed with nutrition, with more chlorophyl than kale, spinach or parsley. They are four percent protein, higher than lettuce or spinach. Plant estrogens in alfalfa sprouts are supposed to help strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis. Alfalfa sprouts contain canavanine, an amino acid that may help prevent pancreatic and colon cancer as well as leukemia. They are also a good source of phosphorus and zinc.

All sprouts contain antioxidants that are beneficial to us in many ways, including protecting against the effects of aging.

All good news.

And, they can be grown in my kitchen, in January.

Jan 25 2010

You Are What You Eat? Considering Raw Food

I watched Food Matters last night, a thought-provoking documentary about healing our bodies and promoting health through good nutrition.

Among other things, this film makes the point that our doctors know very little about nutrition. Dr. Andrew Saul, therapeutic nutrition specialist, one of the films’ several experts, claims that we’re not only harming ourselves with poor nutrition and nutritionally depleted food, but that we could actually heal ourselves through good nutrition and vitamin therapy.

According to David Wolfe, the film’s raw food proponent, we’d all be better off with a mostly raw food diet, including the so-called superfoods like sprirulina and wheat grass. Spirulina contains 70 percent complete protein and is rich in several B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E; potassium and several other minerals that our bodies need. Wheat grass (sprouted wheat seed) normalizes the thyroid gland, stimulating metabolism and promoting weight loss.

Making the lifestyle changes that can make us healthy requires personal action, and we often would prefer to look to someone else to provide us with a cure. After all, we’ve been trained to believe that we don’t have the knowledge or skills to heal ourselves, and to turn to the medical system and pharmaceuticals to heal us when we’re sick. Really, good health is probably within reach for most of us if we’re willing to make a few changes.

“The biggest reason that people aren’t doing this is that it requires taking responsibility,” says Dr. Andrew Saul.

That’s for sure. The path of least resistance is a very real temptation for most of us, and it’s hard for most people to believe that eating a mostly organic, whole food diet could be a simple thing. In reality, I think it’s simpler than navigating the choices of the industrial food maze. Faced with in season fruits and vegetables, it’s just not that difficult to put together a good meal. It does, however, require thought and some advance preparation.

What about raw food? Strict raw vegans adhere to a diet consisting of food that is not heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Food Matters advises us to eat a mostly raw diet. I do tend to like much of my food cooked, but I’m open to change if change means better health. I find myself wondering if this is a change I could work toward.

As sometimes happens in life, something else was taking place on a parallel track, and it’s all coming together now around this question of raw food. I’ve been hearing stories for several weeks from a work friend of the amazingly delicious bright green smoothies he and his family have been enjoying since their recent acquisition of a Vitamix 5200 blender. I’ve been interested, but haven’t really seen a place in my life for a big, monster food machine.

Food Matters has me considering more thoughtfully the benefits of shifting the balance of my diet toward more raw vegetables. And, perhaps to begin investigating foods like spirulina and wheat grass (which I now know can be eaten even by those who are gluten intolerant, because the wheat seed loses its gluten upon sprouting).

As always, there’s so much to learn. And, as always, it’s so fascinating exploring all the ideas on yet another topic, bit by bit, and figuring out which pieces to embrace as my own.

I’m not sure if I’ll be giving up my routine of Sunday soups and stews in favor of juicing up brilliant green smoothies–at least, not quite yet. But I’ll definitely incorporate more raw food into my diet after seeing this film; there’s just no reason not to do it, and plenty of good reasons to do it.

In the mean time, bring on the veggies, and I’m sure to figure out something delicious to do with them.

Vegetables

Jan 24 2010

Hearty Squash, Kale and Bean Stew with Wild Rice

It was a perfect afternoon for a winter stew. So much of Sunday is about getting ready for the week ahead, and an important part of that routine is food. Cooking a nutritious, hearty stew that I can turn to a few times during a busy work week always works out well. If I cook more than enough for a few meals, I can always freeze a little or share some with a friend. Either way, Sunday cooking is a bit of a ritual for me, especially in the winter.

And, tomorrow is another Meatless Monday. I made a simple stew to start my week off right.

Much as I’d like to hoard them away for the rest of the winter, I’m working my way through my latest purchase of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans. Today, I opened a bag of Rosa de Castilla beans.

Rosa de Castilla Beans

Rosa de Castilla, an heirloom bean from Rancho Gordo New World Specialty Food, is a new bean to me, and to Rancho Gordo. It’s a small bean (about the size of a pinto bean) and cooked up beautifully in less than two hours with no soaking. Rosa de Castilla is pinkish in color and has a light, buttery flavor and a smooth, creamy texture. I cooked it in homemade vegetable broth with a few cloves of garlic. The resulting cooked beans would have been perfectly delicious on their own, but even better with a few other simple ingredients.

Kale and Squash

I roasted a diced acorn squash (skin on), tossed with black pepper, ground ginger, salt and olive oil in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes. While the squash was roasting, I cooked a mix of wild and brown rice. I chopped a full bunch of dark green, crisp organic Tuscan kale, a red onion and more garlic, and sautéed it together until the kale was just wilted.

That’s it. After combining all parts in one pot–roasted squash, beans (and their delicious cooking liquor), kale and onion mixture, and wild and brown rice blend–I just let the flavors meld together for a few minutes before eating.

It’s a rustic stew: chewy, with sweet, earthy flavors. Nothing delicate about it, but I expect it will be a welcome dinner again tomorrow night, especially with a wintry mix in tomorrow’s forecast.

Hearty Kale and Squash Stew

Jan 22 2010

Concord Winter Farmers Market Launches on January 30

Great news! Concord, New Hampshire will host its first winter farmers market on Saturday, January 30 at Cole Gardens.

Inspired by a winter farmers market held in Rollinsford, New Hampshire at Wentworth Greenhouses, local food organizer and worm composting expert Joan O’Connor pulled together Concord’s series of three markets around the same vision: plenty of good, local food in a beautiful (and hopefully, sunny) winter greenhouse.

The kick-off event on January 30 will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Cole Gardens’ greenhouse at 430 Loudon Road in Concord, New Hampshire. Two others are planned for this winter: February 27 and March 27.

Anyone eager for a taste of local food culture will find something at the Concord Winter Farmers Market. And, all are sure to enjoy basking in the sun throughout the greenhouse for a few hours on the last Saturday of this long, cold, snowy month.

The possible* list of vendors includes:

*Note: this list may change, but it’s sure to be a full slate of vendors and a lively event.

It’s exciting to welcome the first winter farmers market to Concord, and both Joan O’Connor and Jim Cole of Cole Gardens should be commended for taking the initiative to make it happen.

Spread the word!

Jan 20 2010

Garden Dreams: Heirloom Beans and Exotic Radishes

January is a long month.

Today, it seems that it might never stop snowing. I believe it’s been snowing now for four days. It’s a light, gentle snow, but it just keeps falling and falling, even during a few moments here and there when the sun manages to shine.

The garden is still and quiet, perhaps more patient than the gardener.

January is a perfect time to think about my little vegetable garden and what changes it needs in the coming year.

First and foremost, it needs more light. Several years ago, my neighbor planted a maple tree to the immediate south of my tiny raised bed garden. It’s producing so much shade now that my garden suffers badly in late summer. A move to the front yard is in order. This might be a big deal for most suburban gardeners, but especially for one who treasures the peace, quiet and privacy of her back yard garden. But, the front yard is where the sun is, so that’s where the garden will go.

I’ll reconsider the trellis system, perhaps in favor of something more vertical and shorter. I’m a fan of the square foot method of gardening, a neat and tidy way to manage a four by eight foot raised bed. The leaning trellis, along the back of the north side, was intended to shade some lettuce during the heat of summer. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The cucumbers, tomatoes and squash (the squash, unsuccessful because of the shade problem) climbing up the netting, sagged low enough to make the space underneath less usable than I anticipated. I therefore lost eight precious square feet, a full 25 percent of my garden. Somehow, the weeds managed to grow in that area anyway.

This year, I’d like to try some beans for drying, maybe the heirloom bean Jacob’s Cattle from Pinetree Garden Seeds in Maine. Or, Tongue of Fire beans from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, also in Maine.

Peas and spinach do really well in my garden, as do other greens of any kind. And, I love those exotic radishes that satisfy my need for almost instant (well, close) gratification. I can’t get enough cucumbers, so I’ll keep those, and I’d like to have a steady crop of tiny summer squashes and zucchini too. I yearn for homegrown Brussels sprouts, but they’re not a crop that’s well suited for square foot gardening, at least in a garden with only one bed.

In the end, I’ll order way more seeds than I’ll have room to use.

Ah, summer.

January may be a long month, but garden dreams make summer seem just a few weeks away.

Jan 18 2010

Shovel, Wovel, or Snowblower Fumes Forever?

Last night and today brought ten inches or more of heavy snow to my neck of the woods–another opportunity to consider aligning my personal values with my snow removal needs. Having owned a snowblower for only a year, I’ve struggled with this dilemma since the day I removed it from its giant box. I never really wanted one. It felt like more of a need than a want. After a few really big snowfall winters–the kind where there’s no place left to put the snow and the driveway looks like a tunnel–I thought I should have one, just in case. Let’s just say shoveling can take its toll on one’s body.

Some storms just aren’t easy to handle. In the case of this latest storm, although beautiful, the snow was heavy.

I started shoveling, focusing on the peace and quiet, the health benefits, and generally enjoying the task. My driveway isn’t long, but heavy snow makes for slow going. I also shovel various paths in the backyard: to the compost heap, here and there for the dogs, and to the gate.

Past experience has shown me that shoveling it all, under easy–six-inch or so–conditions, takes about the same amount of time as using the snowblower. After shoveling, I feel warm and well exercised. After snowblowing, I am cold, wet and smell like exhaust fumes. Hence, my goal to use the shovel whenever conditions are “easy.”

A few weeks ago, I learned about the wovel. This strange-looking, wheeled shovel, a hybrid of a shovel and a wheelbarrow, is supposed to clear snow faster and with less back strain than a shovel. Its fans claim that it works as well as a snowblower, without the noise, fumes and environmental impact. A friend took the leap and purchased one and has been waiting for a good storm to test it. If it’s as good as it sounds, it could be my ticket out of my dilemma.

Today, I needed more than the shovel to get the job done. At peace with the idea of starting up the snowblower, I uncovered the beast, picked the beginnings of another mouse nest out of the motor housing, filled it with gasoline and prepared to start it up.

Nothing.

I don’t get along very well with engines and machines. I repeated the magic sequence of steps and, still, nothing. Back to shoveling I went, but with a little less joy, now full of the frustration that only wrestling with a silent machine can bring.

I completed at least a third of the job with a shovel before finally getting the snowblower started.

Tired by now, I was grateful for the snowblower’s help and even ready to forgive its unrelenting noise and fumes. My dogs are grateful for the paths in the backyard, especially the one that provides speedy, unimpeded access to the compost heap. Although I didn’t intend to split the task in this way, I accomplished a good compromise: exercise and clean air, followed by a half hour of efficient (although noisy and smelly) snowblowing. Not as bad as it could have been.

I can’t wait to hear how JordanCornblog’s woveling went today. If the news is good, there could be a good as new snowblower for sale soon. Or, I suppose I could make a certain homeless mouse family very happy by tucking it away in my shed, just in case.

Jan 16 2010

New Hampshire Seacoast Alive with Local Food Activity

New Hampshire’s seacoast buzzes with small farm and local food production activity, I discovered at today’s farmers market in Newmarket. Hardly a space was available in the parking lot and there was actually a line to get into the market.

The Newmarket farmers market happens monthly during the winter, at the Stone Church, one of a few winter markets taking place throughout the seacoast. By 10 a.m. on this sunny, mild Saturday, the little church was packed with people. Vendors filled every available space and live folk music created a festival atmosphere.

Graduate student Renee Ciulla welcomed me and other shoppers at the door; she was recruiting shoppers to complete a questionnaire on their thoughts about the farmers market and local food issues in general. Ciulla, a New Hampshire native, is an Agroecology graduate candidate with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Aas, Norway. She has studied organic agriculture and food systems in Italy, Germany and Norway and is working on her thesis now on the feasibility of the creation of a local food system here in New Hampshire. As a teen, she worked on an organic farm in Weare, New Hampshire owned by one of the founding farmers of Concord’s Local Harvest CSA. Those early experiences really do shape values, don’t they?

I worked my way through the crowded market, picking up a few items as I weaved my way along. More socializing than shopping seemed to be taking place.

In contrast to last weekend’s Lyndonville, Vermont farmers market, Newmarket met nearly all my expectations, hard as I tried not to have them. I expected cheese and found at least three cheesemakers (all goat). I expected baked goods and found a couple of bakers. I expected soap and lotion and found beautiful goats milk products. I expected eggs and found plenty. I found a few crafts, a children’s area and, of course, the shrimp from the Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative. I did not expect fresh, locally grown flowers (it’s January!), but I found freesia from Blue Bell Greenhouse in Lee, New Hampshire.

Agape Homestead Farm offered an assortment of creamy, savory goat cheese blends. (I bought the garlic dill.)

I found one lonely vegetable farmer, selling lovely bok choi, swiss chard and mixed greens.

Although I didn’t need any specific vegetables, other than a few parsnips that I was wishing for, I was definitely hoping to find a couple of vegetable farmers. I would have loved to see some root vegetables, cabbages and perhaps a few squashes.

Looking around the room at the chatty, social crowd, I couldn’t help but wonder how the vendors make out at this event. Could it be that more chatting goes on than buying? Or, could it be that the vendors offering less perishable products like cheeses, or non-food items like soaps and lotions do better than vegetable vendors would, if they were there? Maybe winter farmers market customers already have their vegetables from other sources, or buying the stored crops farmers might have to sell in January just doesn’t have a lot of appeal.

On the other hand, if I weren’t the beneficiary of a winter CSA, and I’d come to the market hoping for vegetables, what would my other options be for locally raised vegetables today? Back at the Concord Cooperative Market, I’m finding produce that’s not so local right now. And, at the grocery store, it’s definitely not local right now.

Of course, I have more investigating to do on this question, but my preliminary hunch is that the vegetable farmers prefer the security and predictability of the CSA structure, perhaps along with some steady retail relationships. Carting produce off to a winter farmers market, risking that customers might pass by the potatoes and carrots in favor of cookies, soup and cheese, probably just isn’t worth the trouble.

My bok choi, sautéed with fall CSA onions and garlic, and served over polenta with a few crumbles of Hickory Nut Farm Terrene goat cheese, was delicious.

I look forward to my next winter food exploration, and I’m more grateful than ever for my winter CSA.

Jan 15 2010

Winter Food Explorations Continue: Local New Hampshire Shrimp?

Yesterday brought the second installment of my winter CSA from the Vegetable Ranch in Warner, New Hampshire.

This winter CSA routine is a quiet affair, as compared to the bustling, multi-farm, summer Local Harvest CSA. Beautiful vegetables, one chatty farmer, eager to opine about this week’s squash varieties, but just a trickle of people coming through for their pickups. Very civilized, indeed.

The vegetables are beautiful. This week’s bounty included:

  • crisp, mixed greens,
  • cabbage,
  • beets,
  • carrots,
  • potatoes,
  • squash (acorn or buttercup) and
  • bok choi.

Tomorrow, I’ll head to the Newmarket, New Hampshire farmers market to check out the scene there. After last weekend’s visit to a winter farmers market in Lyndonville, Vermont, I’m eager to see what Newmarket has to offer. I’m expecting to find (being careful to manage my expectations and keep an open mind) soap, meats (although I’m not a meat purchaser), goat cheese, garlic, vegetables and fish. I suspect there will even be live music at this market.

I’m eager to check out the Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative (YFC), which offers sustainably caught local fish, as well as shrimp caught within three miles off the coast of New Hampshire. Their shrimp are harvested using a technology that sorts and releases smaller shrimp, leaving them in the water to reproduce. The YFC even offers shrimp Community Supported Fisheries shares (CSF) during January and February, with pickup locations in a few spots in New Hampshire’s seacoast region. I’d love to find out more about their harvesting methods and check out what I learn against other information I’ve read about environmentally damaging shrimp harvesting practices in other places.

As I’ve said before, researching and understanding the topic of sustainable seafood, in general, in an effort to become an informed shopper, is no easy chore. The task can feel so complex and hopeless, that I’m inclined to avoid the issue completely by returning to my 98 percent vegetarian philosophy. It’s simpler!

I suspect I’ll find more overall variety in Newmarket than I did in Lyndonville, and it will be interesting to ponder the various factors that make the markets different. Exploring my region’s winter food offerings is an entertaining and thought-provoking January pastime. It’s keeping me out of both the grocery store and the food coop, and I’m learning a lot about my own backyard.

It’s all new, and it’s all good.