Winter 2026 Publisher’s Letter

Photo: Michael Piazza

2025, for some reason, has been a year marked by lots of significant milestones in the Bay State’s food community.

For instance, two pioneering female chefs are celebrating 25 years in their flagship businesses: Joanne Chang opened her first Flour Bakery in September, 2000 on Washington Street in the South End, and has since grown it to nearly a dozen locations across Boston and Cambridge, all while supporting and promoting No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength and other local philanthropic food organizations. Just a few months after Flour’s debut, Chef Ana Sortun and her partners opened Oleana on a quiet section of Hampshire Street in Cambridge, and along with Executive Pastry Chef Maura Kilpatrick she’s blended unique pan-Mediterranean flavors with the New England produce grown by Sortun’s husband, farmer Chris Kurth at Siena Farms (itself celebrating a second decade in business). Both teams have racked up umpteen awards, from the James Beard to multiple Best of Bostons.

It’s been 10 years since Linda Pizzuti Henry partnered with Recover Green Roofs to build a vegetable farm on an unused portion of the rooftop at Fenway Park, creating Fenway Farms; the nation’s first ballpark farm is maintained and managed by Green City Growers, who harvest thousands of pounds of produce each year for use in the park’s kitchen and reducing its overall carbon footprint. And it’s been 50 years since the inimitable George Howell, Boston’s best-known coffee roaster, started his roasting journey by opening the very first (late great) Coffee Connection in Harvard Square, and he continues to bring single-estate coffees to Greater Boston through his chain of eponymous cafés.

We’re profiling two other big birthdays in this issue—one, a silver celebration for Common Crow Natural Market, Cape Ann’s premier independent small grocer, women-owned and community-adored. And Louisa Kasdon is raising a 50th birthday toast to the Harvest restaurant, tucked away in a concrete alley off Brattle Street in Harvard Square, employing a Who’s Who of Boston’s greatest chefs, hosting intelligentsia, world leaders and literati for special occasions and working lunches since 1975. Lucky for us, Louisa’s story is accompanied by recipes from four famed Harvest chefs spanning the decades, so you can try a taste of its past—and present—at home.

We’re also celebrating a milestone of our own: As we enter 2026, this is our 80th issue and our 20th year in print, and we’re as committed as ever to bringing the creative, eclectic, community-based spirit of eastern MA’s food system to life. At the end of October we were honored at the Edible Communities annual publishers’ conference as the 2025 Publication of the Year for our work in 2024. I’m so proud of our team, of the touches and retouches that go into every issue to produce the best possible snapshot of our local food community. And you can see it reflected in the stories we’ve assembled here—it’s a holiday-timed issue, but not exactly a holiday-themed one.

Settle in to read and you’ll learn about a new Worcester oyster bar navigating its first winter in business; a city candy shop, a North Shore coffee roaster and a dedicated maker of chai; a farm setting its own tables in downtown Salem; a deep-dive into what makes the perfect baguette. Margaret LeRoux visits another indoor farm in Worcester, this time growing nutritious greens for UMASS Chan Medical Schools’ neighbors. Now that Massachusetts farmers markets can sell beer, Annie Sherman talks to both brewers and market managers to update us on how that’s going. And Cheryl Fenton brings us a profile of Chef Will Gilson and his small empire of Cambridge restaurants, how he got here and where he’s going next.

Laura Lee Imhoff returns this issue with more comforting, seasonal, veg-forward recipes (including the stunning pear tart on Edible Boston’s cover). Barefoot Books’ Edible For Kids section explores native farming practices with a recipe for Three Sisters Soup and an adorable planning guide for growing the ingredients come springtime. Cheesemonger Kimi Ceridon plots out a holiday-by-holiday winter cheese calendar, incorporating her favorite wheels in recipes from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. And back by popular demand, our Shop Local Winter Gift Guide is an easy way to support local small businesses for the holidays—and beyond.

But while there’s much to celebrate as this year draws to a close, it’s impossible to ignore that 2025 is also the year that USDA farm subsidies and SNAP benefits were disrupted for millions of people across the country, including over a million in MA alone. We’re fortunate to have state and city governments willing and able to fill the gap—along with robust food access agencies and nonprofits feeding everyone and anyone who needs it—but if the federal funding isn’t honored, there will be a serious, snowballing hunger issue. Our social feeds are overflowing with countless small businesses offering food aid to those affected, many of whom are hanging in by a thread themselves. It’s heartening to know we live in such a supportive place where neighbors help neighbors and mutual aid is alive and well, but it shouldn’t have to be like this.

So if you’re able this season, please donate to your local food pantry, either with your time, with non-perishable foodstuffs or with whatever funds you can spare, to help fill the void. As Mayor Michelle Wu says: “In Boston, everybody eats.”

I wish the best for you and yours this holiday season, and that we all can find some joy in community.

Peace,

Sarah