Boston Public Market

People are changing the food systems in Boston through activism, especially in the non-profit sector. Boston Public Market is one of these places. As an added bonus, it hits my foodie girl buttons in all the right ways.

About Boston Public Market

While most of our food advocacy to date has focused on ensuring everyone has access to healthy food, this program focuses on businesses. Do you want to start a food business but can’t afford commercial rent in Boston? Come here to see if there is an option for you!

Thirty booths surround the space. Each focuses on seasonal, locally sourced food from Massachusetts and New England. The mission statement is to “nurture local entrepreneurs who have barriers to fully participating in the Market, educate our visitors on the importance of a resilient and equitable food system, celebrate the bounty of all of New England, and cultivate a diverse community around food.”

Here are some of my favorite booths:

George Howell Coffee

The Starbucks Connection

You should have known I was going to start with coffee! This booth has a pretty amazing history of its own. Obviously, the owner is George Howell, and while his name might not sound familiar to you, a lot of what he has done for the industry will.

After being educated at Yale University, Howell moved to Boston from Berkeley in 1974. At this point, Peets Coffee was growing in that area, but there wasn’t coffee quite like that on the East Coast yet. He fixed the problem by starting The Coffee Connection, a coffee shop that grew into twenty-three more within nineteen years.

During this time, he went to Seattle on a tour of coffee places, including a stop at Starbucks. This wasn’t what got him, though; the granita machine was making frozen coffee beverages of just coffee, milk, and sugar. He and his business partner, Frank, went home and started working on the recipe immediately. Frank came up with the name Frappuccino.

This took its toll, though—he wanted to spend less time marketing, more time with his family, and more time pursuing great coffee. He sold his company to Starbucks, who took the name with them. Naturally, he wasn’t allowed to use the name anymore, so when he opened his new coffee shop, he dubbed that frosty drink “the original.”

Cup of Excellence

After Starbucks bought his company, he became a coffee consultant to farmers throughout South America and eventually helped create the Cup of Excellence with the United Nations and the International Coffee Organization. The organization aims to help break the coffee commodity prices and provide a critical vehicle for aspiring farmers to find funding and technical aid.

In 2004, he and his daughter Jenny started George Howell Coffee, which has three locations throughout Boston. Their main focus is to provide people with a great cup of coffee and the knowledge that they are helping farmers provide a living wage for their families.

My experience

I got the maple latte, with the syrup being sourced from Harlow’s Vermont Farmstand. It was warm and had the perfect balance of smoothness and frothiness. A solid cup of coffee that was not too sweet- always a bonus in my book.

One of my fellow grad students got the original and let me try a sip. It was, you guessed it, like an unflavored frappuccino with fairly ground ice chunks, so there were no chunks. On a hot day, it would be a perfect afternoon coffee.

The baristas were also polite. This is a great addition to your day if you’re going to Boston Public Market for breakfast or to walk around for a while.

Stillman’s Farm

Stillman’s Farm is a family-owned farm in Central Massachusetts that offers a CSA program and several booths at farmers’ markets throughout Boston. You can visit their website to see what’s in season and find recipes.

Their stand was well laid out but is tucked into a back corner, so seek it out. If you do the scavenger hunt, it’s on your list.

The workers at their stand were super sweet. I had to laugh because one of my fellow gastronomy students ate a strawberry with the stem on, which freaked the employee out. He was still talking to her as she was checking out, and I explained that she was a chef. His response? “Oh, I can’t mess with her then.”

I tried eating one of the strawberries with the stem on it because it’s something I have never done. Here is the verdict: it tastes about the same, but the texture did not work for me. The strawberry itself was one of the best I have ever eaten. I bought a container and ate it while in Boston and in NYC.

I also bought fiddleheads, which is something I had not heard about until a few years ago when I started teaching regional cuisines of the US. They are weird-looking little buggers that taste like an earthy green bean.

Bon Appetit Creperie

Bostonians love their pastries in the morning. I credit this to the fact that they live in a cold area, which helps warm them up somehow. I was very quickly getting queasy at the idea of another croissant or anything with too much flour in it.

I had been craving a savory crepe and, more importantly, a crepe. The Bon Appetit Creperie did not disappoint. I chose to get the Morning Star crepe, which comes with Mozzarella Cheese, Egg, Turkey Bacon, and Bechamel Sauce; you could opt for maple syrup instead of bechamel sauce if you so wish.

If I were going with a sweet tooth, I would have gotten Nana’s pie, which has cooked apples with cinnamon almonds and brown sugar topped with caramel and whipped cream.

One fun thing about this restaurant is that it has a viewing area, so you can watch the chefs whip up their magic. The littles at the market found this fascinating and even asked the chef questions like, “Have you ever burnt yourself?” There seemed to be a bit of a language barrier so I helped translate between them.

Chocolate

Honestly, I cannot find the name of the chocolate company from which I bought my little chocolate. It must be fairly new, but it is so cute, and the hazelnut chocolate I got was delicious. I love it when the outside gives you a crunch, and there is a softer inside.

Naturally, my professor, who is the first resident fellow for the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute, told me, “I know the owners”. I love that they are so in the know!

Boston Beer Alley

This area contains craft beers from Massachusetts and New England, as well as hand-crafted liquor/spirits and cider. The class bought a bottle for Professor Lopez and Catie, who helped coordinate the weekend. One really neat feature for me was seeing the bottle of drinks that my fellow students used to make over at Mad River Distillers.

Wrapping it up

I love that we went to so many different places on this trip because it accommodated our different tastes regarding food and activism. This was my favorite place because they help people start restaurants for a fraction of the cost. Plus, there are so many great places to try!