How to Store Your Share 2

Every season we get lots of questions about how to store certain items, and hear from shareholders that items are going bad quickly because they weren't stored properly. Never fear! We are here to intervene early on in the season.

Four Tips for All Items:

1. Do not store anything in direct sunlight or in overly hot places. It will ripen and start to rot very quickly.

2. Do not store items loose on fridge shelves. Put everything in plastic bags, or it will wilt very quickly.

3. Keep different types of items separate from each other (fruits and vegetables, onions and potatoes). The hormones they release will have different effects on the others, causing accelerated ripening, fiber decay, etc.

4. TAKE THE TIME TO STORE YOUR ITEMS! I certainly have been known to give in to the urge to shove my whole tote bag in the fridge after carrying home my share, but believe me, investing the time in doing it right early on will keep a lot of items from going to waste.

Spotlight: Husk Cherries

About

Husk cherries go by many names - ground cherries, golden strawberries, Chinese lanterns, and in French as the very charming Amour-en-Cage, or ‘caged love’, just to name a few. [source] We on the BMSP team were divided about whether they more resemble cherries or cherry tomatoes. They are often overlooked because of their parchment-like outer coating, despite their sweet and versatile flavor. "These little gems are in the same genus as tomatillos - hence the similar papery husk - and the same family as tomatoes. Ground cherries taste slightly sweet and tropical, with a texture that's somewhere between a tomato and a grape." [source]

"What tastes like a cherry tomato injected with mango and pineapple juice, and looks like an orange pearl encased in a miniature paper lantern? No, I'm not just trying to cram as many fruit references into one sentence as possible. It's a real plant: Physalis pruinosa, aka the 'ground cherry'." [source]

Community Post

Clara's Kitchen

Check out these two amazing recipes that shareholder Annalisse Daly made with her daughter Clara (the toddler many of you have admired at Market Day the past few seasons). Annalisse also shared two of her own great cooking tricks!

We hope you'll all be inspired by the beauty, deliciousness, adorableness, and handy tips that follow, and continue to send us your favorite recipes and photos of the dishes you make with your share at info@brownmarketshares.com.

Thank you so much Annalisse! Read what she has to say about each of the recipes below.

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

"I really truly did try to get a picture of just the food, but my chef-in-training decided she couldn't wait to taste test the results. All the other pictures have a suspicious-looking dimpled hand slyly pulling the pie plate off the table.

This recipe uses the last of the market share potatoes and green onions from a couple weeks ago and the yellow summer squash from last week."

Humans of Market Shares, July 24th

What is your favorite thing you have done with your share?

"We made really amazing beet pancakes one time. They were gluten free and bright beet red!"

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!