Spring 2021 Publisher’s Letter

Photo by Michael Piazza

I can’t help it.

I’m feeling…optimistic. (Is that what this is? It’s been so long.)

But if you’ve been here in Massachusetts in mid-March, you surely know what I’m getting at. A lot happened in the span of one week: We had a blitz of early spring weather, a long-awaited snow-melting thaw that on its own would give any New Englander hope. Then the American Recovery Act was signed into law, with a blast of funding set aside for our friends in the restaurant industry, extending augmented SNAP and unemployment benefits and delivering—almost overnight—much-needed financial relief to millions. The City of Boston announced that outdoor dining would resume on March 22nd; the state improved its vaccination program slightly after a somewhat disastrous few weeks of online sign-up debacles; and we rolled the clocks forward for that delicious extra hour of daylight that couldn’t come soon enough.

Then there was the collective sigh heard ‘round the Commonwealth: The children are going back to school. And while most exhausted parents are overjoyed at this news, another equally weary cohort is reasonably worried for their kids’ safety. Are administrators rushing to reopen buildings by a state-mandated deadline? Will it be safe? As in all things associated with this long and terrible pandemic—like whether to dine in or solely take away—there are strong opinions on both sides. My own teenagers are desperate to get back into school, full time. But they each have friends who’ll stay remote for the remainder of the year and that’s OK, too. Comfort levels on the “other side” will mean something different to everyone. We’ll need a whole new level of compassion as we get used to one another again.

While we’re still nowhere near the end of COVID, and umpteen challenges remain as we recover as a nation, the outlook is better today than it has been in a year—maybe longer. So optimism it is. I choose hope. A strange and wonderful sensation after a period of such intense uncertainty and upheaval.

Planning and producing this issue, like everything we do these days, was a formidable task. Writers had to pivot and shift to adapt their stories in real time to changing circumstances, just as the businesses and organizations they profiled were forced to do. We chose an eclectic array of subjects and diverse voices, from north to west and everywhere in between, showing off the resilience, ingenuity and innovation of the people of this state. They’re persevering, helping their communities, feeding their neighbors, teaching the next generation, homesteading in a very modern way and bringing others back to the land they love. Our spring-y recipes are a celebration of the season to share with your post-vaccine pod, including the first in a four-issue series of custom cocktail recipes created just for us by the inimitable Kyisha Davenport of Tanám and BarNoirBoston. Our Food Finds are a collection of new and old alike—artisan donuts and a Mediterranean marketplace in Worcester, fried chicken dinners in Stow, a much-adored Eastie Somali café, an up-and-coming Southeast Asian kitchen in Newburyport and a brand new wood-fired town-pub-tavern built in a historic Canton copper mill—all offering essential warmth and hospitality from behind a mask. Visit them all when you feel comfortable doing so, then go back again and again.

I hope you’ll take a quiet afternoon and read this beautiful issue cover to cover—and as always, I ask that you please support the advertising businesses in these pages. Their commitment to our mission is what makes it all possible. And thank YOU for reading, for subscribing, for reading our weekly newsletters, for your interest in our local food system. I look forward to seeing you again, out in the real world—on a patio, at a brewery, at the farmers market or volunteering together to help our neighbors.

We’re nearly there.

Peace,
Sarah Blackburn