Humans of Market Shares, July 17th

Why do you do Market Shares?

"Because of the community. Many of the coordinators are students of mine and I like them. I like the idea that I am buying food that has a lower footprint. I like the idea that I am buying locally and in season. I do think 100% it tastes better. All of it tastes better. I like that I share it with my family, who are a bunch of old farts and it is liberating for them when they realize it’s a lot better. and it is fun for them when I come home with a bag of fun groceries."

Mid-Season Survey Response, Summer 2014

Fruit, Purchasing Process, and Program Impact

Thank you so much to those of you who filled out our mid-season survey! We spend a lot of time going through the responses as a team, and it is always a great opportunity for us to learn, and also to brainstorm how to make things better. We love hearing from YOU about this program, and appreciate the great ideas you share about what we can do to improve BMSP. In the feedback we got from you last week, there were a few key questions you had that we wanted to address.

The three main questions you had for us were:

1. Where is all the fruit?

2. How does our purchasing process work?
3. What has our impact been as a program?

The first and second we answer for you below, and the third we wanted to write about separately, so you can read about our program's impact HERE.

You will have another chance to share your feedback at the end of the summer season, and we would love to hear how you think we did in addressing your concerns over the next few weeks. We've also now put a feedback form at the bottom of the newsletter that will be there each week, where you can submit any suggestions you might have for us in the meantime.

Thanks so much for being a part of this season! If you still have any questions about the following points or anything else, please don't hesitate to talk to a coordinator at Market Day, or email us at info@brownmarketshares.com.

-Anna, Meg, Erin, and Taylor

Summer 2014 BMSP Program Impact

A third of the respondents from the Mid-Season Survey indicated that the aspect of the program they know the least about is our overall impact as a program. As a team, we wanted to highlight this season’s impact and share some of our favorite types of numbers.

This summer we have 240 shareholders. By the tenth week of the season, we will have filled 2,400 bags of groceries. To make this possible, shareholders invested $60,000 in BMSP for the entire summer! And by the end of the summer we will have spent 94% of that directly in the local food economy ($56,400). Crossroads Resources Center estimates that local food spending in agricultural communities has 2.6 times the impact of the original purchase. This is because spending within a local food system means your dollars are recycling through the community more times than if we were investing in far away companies. Local farmers tend to buy supplies and equipment locally and employ local people as labor. By this estimate, our impact on the RI Food System for the summer is $135,840!

Humans of Market Shares, July 10th

Humans of Market Shares (aka HOMS) is a new project that attempts to showcase the vibrant community built around Market Shares. Sometimes it's easy to arrive on Thursday, pack your share, and leave without much more interaction (we know you're eager to get home and munch on your veggies). The maybe ten minutes that process takes doesn't come close to representing the full BMSP experience. Brown Market Shares Program is a collaboration between so many different kinds of people - Brown undergrads, grad student, faculty, and staff from all over the world in Providence to do so many cool things. With this in mind, and inspired by Humans of New York, HOMS will continually spotlight shareholders, volunteers, coordinators, and farmers as a means to share the pride we have for our community. Take a look at HOMS and learn more about your fellow BMSP-ers!

Summer Week 6: Recipes for Fresh Herbs

Still have some of your fresh herbs from Thursday? Here are the links to the recipes that our Program Development Intern Maddy Rotman suggests for each herb, as well as the flavor buddy suggestions from The Flavor Bible that were in the newsletter.

PURPLE BASIL goes well with garlic, Italian cheeses such as mozzarella, Parmesan, or ricotta, tomatoes, blueberries, lemon, bell peppers, and in pesto.

Purple Basil Lemonade

Raspberry Purple Basil Ice Pops

Spotlight: Fava Beans

About

"If all you know about fava beans is that Hannibal Lecter favored them with a nice Chianti, it’s time to get better acquainted (with favas, that is). They're an ancient member of the pea family and have a nutty taste and buttery texture all their own." [source] A sweet treat, fava beans often carry a bad reputation because many American recipes require extra peeling that can make it can be hard to prepare them. But never fear! Favas are a delicious staple of many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, and there are many different, enticing ways to prepare them.

"Fava beans are a staple of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. Young favas can be used unpeeled, but as they mature, their tough outer skins need to be removed. It's well worth the effort—their rich flavor is wonderful in everything from light salads to hearty stews." [source]

Some Tips for Storing Your Share

During the first week of the summer share, I will admit; I let my radishes go soft and squishy. Then I realized “I need to take care of my veggies!” Each week, we receive a plethora of fresh vegetables, which will inevitably have a shorter lifespan than canned or frozen veggies, so we should store our shares correctly in order to get the most time and best tastes out of the share.

Some common mistakes:

• Make sure you are cutting the greens off of your carrots, beets, turnips, etc. The greens will suck the nutrients out of the root vegetable and they will wilt faster. 
• Take off the rubber bands that keep your produce together. Let your veggies breathe!

Be sure to look out for the little signs on the veggie boxes during each week’s pickup that remind you how to best store each item. But, if you ever forget, feel free to look at this infographic we posted a while back.

If you have a bread share, you’ll want to seal your bread in a paper or plastic bag in order to keep it fresh, if it makes it past Thursday. If you’re feeling fancy Food52 sells these snazzy bread bags/wraps:

Linen Bread Bags

Bee's Baguette Wrap

Happy eating!

Maddy Rotman

Program Development Intern

Coordinator Reflections: Lemme See Your Grill(z)

Perhaps nothing says summer more than trying to get my relatively unstable charcoal grill to catch fire. Stability and safety aside, I absolutely love grilling. I grill pretty much all things and would never discriminate based on food group - meats, veggies, fruits, breads, and cheeses all have a spot on my grill. This weekend I’ll be hanging out with my grill (and hopefully some friends) figuring out creative ways to grill this week's share.

First, I'll start by mixing olive oil, vinegar, thyme, and honey in a small bowl. Next I'll chop the tops off the sugar snap peas and snow peas from Freedom Food Farm and toss them in the mix with some salt and pepper. Then the fun part. Turn on the grill and massage the Red Russian kale with some olive oil and throw it on the grill once its hot! Keep the stems on because it will be easier to manage and you can remove them once it's done if you like. Flip it just once, after it is crispy and charred, about two minutes.

Once the kale is off the grill and cool, I'll rip it into smaller pieces and top with the sugar snap pea and snow pea mix. If you are feeling adventurous this whole dish is amazing over a 'schmear' of ricotta. And you can always add thinly sliced cucumber to the cold salad.
A previous BMSP coordinator used to call this a Hot-N-Cold salad and that is still what I call it today (Hey Leah!).

Make sure you have your summer shady/mojito/ice tea of choice in hand, as grilling is a hot adventure, and you will absolutely want something refreshing. Please share your grill successes and failures with the BMSP community - we want to know what's tasty when it's charred!

Taylor Lanzet

Program Development Coordinator

Community Post

Pat's Kitchen

We received an awesome idea from shareholder Patricia Falcon for a quick, easy Carrot Mushroom Soup with Rice recipe she invented. You can make it in an office kitchen, and it uses the mixed carrots we've been receiving from Four Town Farm the past few weeks. Thank you so much for sending this to us, Patricia - it looks great! We hope that you and anyone else reading this will continue to share your BMSP-inspired culinary adventures with us.

Here is the description Pat sent us, along with a photo of her creation!