Culinary Program

Overview

The main aim of our culinary program is to bridge the gap between the growing of healthy produce and the cooking of delicious food. It’s great to have very healthy vegetables in our garden, but it is more important to understand how to prepare them beautifully. For example, many of the vegetables we produce are very nutritious leafy greens, yet not the most exciting choices out there. How do we make these vegetables palatable and easily accessible? Through a series of online videos, digital recipes and in person cooking classes we give tips and instructions on how to make great produce taste delicious. These resources are made available for any home cook as well as the recipients of our food donations.

The Slow Food Ark of Taste Program

Every year we plant two to four varieties of heirloom plants highlighted in Slow Food's Ark of Taste, an online encyclopedia cataloguing traditional seeds, heritage breeds of animals and cultural foods that risk being lost in today’s fast paced and homogenized food system. We have planted King Philip Corn, Boston Marrow Squash and Jacob’s Cattle beans: all heritage varieties present in the Ark of Taste.

Not only do we distribute these varieties in our donations to the food pantries we serve, but we also produce cooking videos and recipes highlighting ways to prepare these rare vegetables.

Cooking with Perennials

Including more perennial vegetables in our diets is essential to bringing down our carbon footprint and lessen our reliance on annual crops. While tropical climates allow for the production of a cornucopia of delectable perennial fruits and vegetables, our climate in Central Massachusetts offers less variety, particularly when it comes to starchy plants, legumes and vegetables. Our fruit and berry production can be fantastic, but our perennial vegetables are limited to greens such as asparagus, turkish rocket, perennial sorrel and sea kale. Chestnuts, hazelnuts and jerusalem artichokes can offer important protein and starch inputs as well.

Our goal here is to find interesting ways to prepare and conserve these varieties of perennial fruits and vegetables, especially as they are increasingly included in our food donations. Please consult our blog, video and resource sections for more information on how to prepare perennial vegetables.