Homegrown

Harvest Extends Its Reach in JP

With a new Forest Hills location, Harvest Co-op continues its commitment to local products and community.

  Since its beginnings in 1991, Harvest Co-op has been investing in its members’ commitment to organic and local food, and putting savings back in their wallets. With a new location on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain—it’s been up-and-running since Dec. 12 and a grand opening celebration is scheduled for Jan. 16—that commitment continues to grow and membership at all three locations is nearing 4,000. This comes on the heels of a move for the store in Central Square, Cambridge. Chris Durkin, director of membership and community relations, took some time to talk about the expansion, why JP is such a good fit for Harvest, and the role of a co-op in a community. The following is a condensed and edited version of that conversation. Why did …

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Fall Fun Poll: What's Your Favorite Kind of Apple?

We're full on into apple-picking season, and we're wondering what's the favorite apple of Jamaica Plain residents.

Apple lovers of JP, unite! It's that time of the year when we leave the city behind and treck out to the state's farmlands and orchards in hunt of the freshest, most delicious apples of the year. (Or pick them up at the farmers' markets at the Bank of America Parking Lot Tuesdays or Saturdays or at the Loring-Greenough House on Thursdays. And just on the JP-Brookline line, Allandale Farm has yummy apples.) So to which apples do you make a beeline? Which ones are the best to use in pies, salads or other recipes? What are your favorite apple-based recipes? Gala: This apple originated in New Zealand as a hybrid of Golden Delicious and a Kidd's Orange Red back in the 1920s. It is sweet and perfect for an afternoon snack.  Golden Delicious: Yes…

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A Burger Bar, GrassFed, Opens in Jamaica Plain

The long-anticipated opening brought throngs out to the new burger bar.

On the first full day of opening for JP's new burger bar, GrassFed, customers had a pronounced tendency to walk in the door, look around and smile. I went for lunch with Mrs. JP Patch and noticed that dynamic on most of the folks who came in after we were seated on our window-facing counter stools. The much-anticipated restaurant drew a big crowd. And for a burger joint, the menu holds more variety than you might expect. For instance, JP's Ali Mahood enjoyed a ground chicken burger, the Italian Stallion, which comes with mozzarella and pesto. "You never find a ground chicken burger," said Mahood, who recommends the restaurant's smokey house-made "A10" sauce as "nectar of the gods." Her lunch companion was a vegetarian venturing into what …

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Growing Greener

Jamaica Plain is at the Forefront of the Community Supported Agriculture Movement

JP locavores buy shares in local farms and eat fresh and local produce all season long.

That spring a couple of years ago when we got all the rain, I was worried about the strawberry crop. Not strawberries I was growing myself, but the ones a particular farm was growing for my family and all the other part-owners in that farm’s harvest.  Back in March, we had put down money for a share of the farm’s annual harvest of fruit and vegetables, and rain or shine, we were in it along with our CSA farmer for the rest of the growing season. That’s the way it is in a CSA. Consumer Supported Agriculture is a system in which buyers give a farmer cash at the beginning of the growing season, and then for the rest of the season, they each get a share of the farm’s harvest. There are over 4,000 farms in the U.S. that operate CSAs. Jamaica …

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Community Servings Scraps Jamaica Plain Farmers' Market

The JP-based nonprofit said the market did not provide enough traffic to support the farmers and local food providers who sold their wares there.

There's a big change in the Boston farmers' market scene — Community Servings won't be opening its farmers' market this year. The market took place Wednesdays on Marbury Terrace near the Stony Brook T. The JP-based nonprofit announced the closure in an email, which is pasted below. The market did not attract enough traffic to support the farmers and local food producers who sold wares there, wrote David Waters, CEO of Community Servings. Waters encouraged residents to support other local farmers' markets, such as the ones in the Bank of America parking lot and at the Loring-Greenough House. The nonprofit's other programs, including their provision of healthy meals to the critically ill, will continue.   Dear Friends, Community Servings has…

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The Secret Chickens of Jamaica Plain

The Gazette gets the s-coop on folks who, against city rules, are harboring chicken. Activists say the tide is turning and backyard urban chickens will be made legal in Boston soon.