Summer 2024 Publisher’s Letter

Photo by Michael Piazza

If you can believe it, I started planning this issue three years ago—at the end of August 2021—during a “golden hour” walk around the grounds of Brookline’s Allandale Farm. I was touring the fields while the wife-husband duo behind Thistle & Leek put finishing touches on their Outstanding In The Field dinner, and I must say, that meal was so utterly impressive—prepared entirely off the grid for dozens of people in a makeshift kitchen, using produce sourced from the farm and artisan foods made elsewhere in Greater Boston—that I practically begged Trevor and Kate to recreate a similar one for our Summer 2022 issue, which they did—with style. It’s still one of my favorite go-to menus for hot weather entertaining.

But back to that walk.

In the late afternoon light and the blasting August heat, dinner guests traipsed along shady pathways, through hedgerows and astride the pond, overlooking rows lush with crops and the one long table set for dinner below. Led by Allandale general manager Helen Glotzer herself, we were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the treasured farm—the only one of its kind in the city of Boston, its 100+ acres perched on the border of Jamaica Plain and Brookline—and something caught my eye.

I’d walked the farm’s fields before, having done so regularly when we lived nearby and my children were young. Allandale serves as so much more than a farmstand and garden shop; it’s also a community gathering place, where naturalists and families can experience a productive, working farm, right in the heart of the city. And early in my Edible Boston career I helped our founder, Ilene, throw a party there, considered by many to be the event of 2011: a fifth birthday fête for the magazine, attended by (and so generously supplied by) what seemed like the entirety of the local food community. I spent weeks “out back” in the fields, planning the tent’s location, the parking, where the pizza truck and bluegrass band should go. But until that gorgeous evening 10 years later in 2021, I’d somehow missed the clusters of hives tucked along the fields’ edges, buzzing away with bees, demonstrating the most important partnership a farm can forge: the one with its pollinators—and its beekeepers.

And so I promised myself I’d get that story written—the how and the why of the beehives at Allandale—and lo and behold, three years later we’ve got our first bee-themed issue in over a decade! This, like the one we produced in the Fall of 2013, isn’t made up entirely of honeybee stories; instead, honey trickles across all departments, from edible Food Finds to recipes and features, too, with a handful of other summer-y topics scattered throughout.

We’ve got the story of the Allandale hives, of course, plus profiles of two local honey producers who’ve devoted their lives and livelihoods to the care and feeding of bees; a slew of honey-based recipes for warm summer nights; and an intro to beekeeping for children from our friends at Barefoot Books. Then there’s the epitome of summer, America’s pastime, just a short drive west down the Pike—the Taste of Worcester at Polar Park. If you haven’t caught a WooSox game yet this season, take this as your cue: Tickets are reasonably priced, there’s parking nearby and the park boasts a concessions team devoted to bringing local food to the ballgame. Another of Worcester’s hometown heroes, Alexis Kelleher, is now in charge of a small empire of bakeries—if you live in the Woo, you know her. If you don’t, Crust and BirchTree are worth the drive alone. Read all about her evolution from reluctant baker to the city’s baking doyenne.

If going north to the seaside is on your docket this summer, make sure to bring along the final installment of our North Shore day trip series, devoted entirely to the city of Newburyport. Just an hour from Boston, this maritime city is a culinary destination for tourists and locals alike. Wherever you spend your summer—by the sea or in the city—chances are you’ll enjoy some fresh local seafood, and at least one plate of native oysters. Read about the Massachusetts Oyster Project, and then encourage Greater Boston restaurants (and your state legislators) to sign on to this innovative shell recycling system that’s already reaping huge ecological benefits on the Cape.

To round things out, we’ve got more profiles of interesting people doing remarkable things in local food and drink—a refrain I sing here often, but it’s true. This season: A food producer from Cameroon bringing the flavors of her homeland to a farmers market near you; a poker player-turned-shrub maker’s innovative infusion of tropical Caribbean flavors into a traditional colonial vinegar drink; a new bakery-café in the heart of Gloucester; and a community farm bringing year-round nourishment and experiences to a very lucky MetroWest town.

In the second installment of our collaboration with Mass Farmers Markets, we’ve got two straight-from-the-market salad recipes using the best of the best of New England produce: native sweet corn and juicy heirloom tomatoes. And lastly, in case you didn’t have enough recipes on hand for the harvest season to come, I put together a collection of my favorite simple summer salads for the fridge, making the hottest season feel just a little bit cooler at dinnertime.

Enjoy every second of this beautiful summer.

Peace,
Sarah