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Follow the Honey // Cambridge
Let’s not bring up the shiver-inducing qualms about buying honey from generic brands. Where is this from? Who made it? What did the bees actually pollenate? Sure guys, we definitely believe you and your marketing department of plastic bears.
This is a timely topic in the season of colds too—the healing properties of raw honey. Thus I bring you: a brief tour of Follow the Honey in Harvard Square!
Every time I visit the shop there seems to be a new young maven of health behind the counter. Where does one find these women of honey passion? They look at you with wise eyes, nod eagerly at your questions, offer you samples of nearly everything you might want to try, and bring up tendrils of conversation you never would have thought of. Beeswax as ear plugs? Sure. Try some honey made from killer bees? Why not! Beeswax candles ionize your air? Sounds delicious.
Here’s another thing about a shop like this: when you mull over your options, read labels, flip through books written by the beekeepers, examine expensive choices and cheap ones—-when you are deep in the heart of Honey Temple, whatever you bring home, whatever it is, you will cherish it. Friends will come over and you will peer in your cupboards and say, “oh, would you like some honey?” or you might try to trick them into tea instead of coffee so you can plop some inside the mug. It will be that prize possession in your pantry.
My favorite thing is the Honey on Tap. I am one of those who dreams about small Italian villages where we bring our tins to be filled with olive oil from the local barrel, or we recycle our our wine carafes and refill them weekly. Thus, the idea of an enormous keg of honey, changing seasonally and always local, is perfect. The first time you buy a pound of honey from them, it is $18.60. Bring the jar back, it’s $16.50. Relishing in between? Priceless.
On your next visit to Harvard Square, stop in! And if your schedule is a bit footloose definitely sign up for their newsletter, they’re always hosting fun activities.
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the align center style
I roasted a chicken for dinner, made stock from the bones the next day, made soup from the stock the day after. I AM THE COOK I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE. forever and ever, amen.
It’s Joe’s birthday so I made him german chocolate cake. German chocolate is Joe’s dad’s favorite, my dad’s favorite, and now it’s Joe’s favorite. Is there something man-attracting about this cake that I’m not noticing? Baker’s sure isn’t sweating it, you have to buy their German Chocolate and their sweetened coconut just to do the recipe properly.
But now that I’m the cook I can get rid of those pesky pecans that compose half the frosting in the original recipe. So much better. I wish I loved them, but I don’t. the end.
we’re only eating this cake by candlelight, by the way, because if Lux is awake to try it, her eyes will be opened to the sugar garden of good and evil and it would be only-cake-only cake-only-cake-please until every bite was gone.
mmm yes this is how I teach self-control at 15 months. Omission style.
I bought him Happy Socks for his birthday. Isn’t their logo just the greatest? I don’t know if you can see it, but they stitch their tag on with different colors depending on the sock. I bought them at Uniform in the South End, which is a men’s store I would like to buy from exclusively.
Warby Parker came to town so we went to try on glasses and see their cool schoolbus. The trouble with their glasses is that you’re like, “yes these look so cool! Wait, I don’t wear glasses…. how about I buy them anyway?”
(they’re probably coming to a city near you. Philadelphia is next)
Anyway, we walked away with a photo strip for the fridge, plus the one Lux munched for the photo above.
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Alice Waters’ Book for Children
I refer to Alice Waters The Art of Simple Cooking with an obsessive devotion. Her recipes are so simple, elegant, and delicious that I quickly became addicted and wanted to cook only as she said to do it.
So when I saw her book for children at the Boston Athenaeum, I scooped it up to take home with me.
It’s written from the perspective of Alice Waters’ daughter Fanny who grew up at Chez Panisse. Sort of Eloise-style, without the spoiled brat and the pug. (I love Eloise, but I think we can agreed she’s a bit of a brat.) I read it like an-easy-to-read memoir, thinking “what would it be like to be the daughter of a restaurant owner like Alice?”
This is what it would be like:
The illustrations are by Ann Arnold and they are so lovely you want them to fill your kitchen. The text is cheerful and all about food. Below, an illustration of composting:
She includes 46 recipes at the back, mostly really classic things like pizza dough, candied orange peel, and plain white rice. I was in the mood for a new bread recipe so I tried it. It’s a good one! A nice mix of whole wheat and white flour, hearty with salt and just a touch of milk. I recommend checking it out.
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A summer with Siena Farms CSA
This year we signed up for a CSA box because it had always been my one true dream to have a bunch of vegetables handed to me to deal with as I could muster. My friend offered to split a Siena Farms weekly box which was perfect because it took me two weeks to make my way through all of them every time.
Siena Farms must be the biggest, loveliest, and ritziest csa in the Boston area. They have over 500 members and their CSA program comprise 3/4 of their income. The rest is made up by their farmers market appearances and their year round retail space in the South End. Their vegetables are often the most beautiful at the market with colors, varieties, and tastes that you won’t see on other tables. Consequently their prices are higher, a 12 week csa box costs $550 or $46 a week.
(a sample box from September:)
And last week they held a thank-you party and tour of the farm for all their members.
My favorite part of the csa was the weekly emails that recapped the week at the farm, showed photos of the harvest, and recommended uses for all the vegetables in the box. Sometimes I really couldn’t believe the amount of work it had taken to get the vegetables to my table. The planting, the re-planting, the harvesting, the washing…it was amazing.
Visiting the farm was even cooler—to see the enormous fields of carrots, or long rows of mixed greens that I usually receive packed up neatly in bursting plastic bags.
The farmer’s wife is chef Ana who runs Oleana and Sofra, Cambridge middle eastern/Mediterranean inspired restaurant and cafe respectively, that specialize in warm atmosphere with flavors you’ve probably never encountered before. She writes remarks on the week’s vegetables and includes recipes in the email. I loved getting ideas straight from a wonderfully skilled chef like that.
Lux got a lot of “this little guy loves his carrot!” remarks. What can I say, most of the good warm stuff is “boy” themed! But it’s all hair length anyway, if she had longer hair peaking out under that cap everyone would find her adorable.
After touring the fields and grow house, we gathered back to have carrot soup with greek yogurt, hot dogs, and nibble on baguettes spread with Sofra toppings. A bonfire was started in one corner, and wine was abundant. There was a line of people waiting to sign-up for next year’s boxes.
If you are considering signing up for 2013, their prices are much better before November 1st. If you love to cook but don’t live close to the big farmers markets, or don’t have time to shop for produce during the week, I recommend it. The vegetables are so fresh that they keep easily for two weeks in your fridge. This year they are launching a full year share, 48 weeks of CSA! If you sign-up by November 1st, it’s $1600 instead of $2000.
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Gifts by Hand
In the eddies of internet mourning that came after David Rakoff died a couple months ago, I’ve been most amazed by the tumblr listing the gifts he made by hand, for his friends. Can you imagine if something like this could be created after you died from gifts you’d given? I especially like this one, which he slipped into a friend’s pocket, to surprise him later.
on the topic of making lovely things, I can’t stop looking at these little felt creatures on etsy. Tiny, and handsewn in wool felt:
Baby Honey Badger Plush $48, French Bulldog Puppy $48, Miniature Grey Squirrel $28, all from Mount Royal Mint.
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Animal Prints in the Hudson Valley
Last weekend we went to a tiny (50 people) wedding in the Hudson Valley. The Hudson Valley begins about an hour north of New York City, and lies about 4 hours west of Boston. We stayed at this cabin, found through airbnb. It was an tough decision to spend a little extra for the trip when we were booking the place (our airbnb hosts required a 2 night reservation) but once we arrived I was so grateful that we stayed somewhere relaxing and fun.
I don’t know how I managed to pack all the cheetah print things (2) Lux owns for one weekend, but there it is. It might explain why the chickens were terrified of her. Yes, the bangs are a situation right now. Product developers: I suggest looking into hairclip glue for toddlers.
There were literally kittens, KITTENS, frolicking in the yard. At the grocery store up the street, everyone casually bought a bag of cider donuts with their morning coffee. THESE ARE MY PEOPLE. I thought to myself.
I sat on the front porch and worked on an embroidery project–badges for the bride and groom to wear around to announce their new status to the world. Lately I am loving these types of projects, especially ones I can give away immediately. Joe sketches it for me and I stitch. Do you need a badge in your life? let me know.
I have not attended very many small weddings but this one was just perfection.
Everyone arrived in time for dinner the night before. It was held at a small inn, and as the evening progressed, toddlers and young children were lulled to sleep and tucked into bed in whatever rooms were available. There was a bowl of mint and many bottles of bulleit bourbon. The guest list was so small that the bride was able to introduce each person to the rest of the group, a real treat when you know you want to be friends with everyone in the room. We drew pictures of our hopes for the new couple. I roughly sketched Cuba (because that’s where they met!) accidentally using a purple crayon for the ocean, but while I put Lux to bed Joe rescued it.
At lunch the next day, we ate for almost five hours. Again toddlers were tucked away in rooms (I walked in on a little one sleeping while hunting for a bed for Lux!) and checked on now and then. Conversation and sunlight ebbed around the tables. Before dessert there was a brief pause to break two pinatas in the yard. Guests favors were little boxes of French macarons and French herbal tea.
Right before we left Boston, Noelle posted this breezy quiche that uses frozen spinach and pie crust. I made it for the trip and we ate it for breakfast every morning. If you’re traveling, I think something like this is perfect because it tastes good at all temperatures and doesn’t get that road-weary look that old sandwiches do. Frozen spinach is my favorite for how easy it is to work with.
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comments for the better!
I switched ED comments to the disqus platform (pronounced “discuss”) because I want them to take over the internet.
I like this whole commenting-on-websites-idea more if all the comments I make, ever, are accessible in one place to check back on, follow up, and deliver that last minute zinger before fleeing the scene. I also want my profile to be clearly connected to the social media of my choice, like my blog and my Twitter, in one place (though this is not so good for fleeing the scene).
And it seems like disqus is doing this best right now. I see it on company websites, I see it on tumblr, and I see it on wordpress. I don’t see it on blogger much, but it could be there, if you wanted it. United!
But I dooo apologize for the hassle of creating a new profile, if you haven’t worked with them yet.
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Sapphire Preferred
I promise I’m not getting paid to tell you this. but i should be. It’s about this credit card we’ve had for the past couple months. Chase Sapphire Preferred. We signed up because they have this promotion going: if you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months, they will give you 40,000 points. We’re not very good with frequent flyer miles, points, perks, gold star 4life programs and like, but we thought we’d give it a try.
So we got a card just in my name, put everything on it and lo: 40,000 bonus points appeared! Most of which I just used to buy flights home for Christmas that would have cost $400!
Now we’re going to get a card in Joe’s name and do the same thing. Besides the free airplane rides, I thought Chase’s online banking was easy to understand and their online flight booking operation was really nice, like, nicer than some of the airlines’.
So, if you’re in the market and not dangerously misled by balancing credit card balance and bank account balance (having never had credit cards in our marriage, I was not so good with that and became a little overwhelmed by the idea of owing money!) I recommend checking it out.
The photo above is a somewhat related, it’s Kate Bingaman Burt’s illustrated and letterpressed bill from her Chase credit card that she eventually payed off.
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Freshman Year English
if you want to find a great novel I don’t think you can go to a bookstore anymore. I think you need serious recommendations. My younger brother Wilson is in his freshman year of college, the territory of professors either directing you back towards the books you heard about in high school or directing your forward into the books culture is actually talking about. Fortunately his English professor is the
formerlatter (will those ever make sense??).When I saw the list, and recognized five books I’d read and loved, I knew I’d have to read them all. Meet my list for 2013, fresh from a text message from Wilson:
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Their Whole Life’s Been Blessed
The new song for the quarter month on the blog (you can play it on the sidebar, just to the right of this post) is Wishes and Stars by Harper Simon. I first heard it on GIRLS and really liked it. But the more I listen, the more I sing it to myself and as I sing bits of it I had the thought: this song is about Instagram. And the design section of the New York Times. And some blogs. It doesn’t make me sad to think that. And I love the song.
(click to listen to all his songs)
