It is the last week of June.  The warm weather and persistent rains have paid off.  Look at this week’s luscious local box!  Your boxes are filled with every shade of green.  You’ll be happy eaters knowing how full of nutrients these tasty items are.

Fennel is a true gift of the season.  This licorice-flavored bulb makes for elegant dishes.   Slice it into thin strips or shred it with a mandolin for a more delicate bite.   Try using fennel with tomatoes and seafood or put it in a cous cous salad.  Use the long, vibrant fronds as garnish.  If you have a yummy fennel recipe that you would like to share feel free to post it on our Facebook page or tweet it to us @BostonOrganics!

This week’s Dogma Box includes:

• Fennel   –    Enterprise Farm (Deerfield, MA)
• Shelling Peas  -   Lakeside Organics (Hadley, MA)
• Chives  -  Happy Valley Organics (Whately, MA)
• Zucchini  -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Pickling Cucumbers -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Red Lead Lettuce   -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Chard  -   Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Kale -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Calaloo   –   Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Bok Choy - Picadilly Farm (Winchester, NH)

Here are some recipes we recommend for this week’s Dogma Box.  These utilize many of the produce items that you’re receiving!

 Cucumber Fennel Salad

Shrimp with Fennel, Dill, and Feta

Braised Lettuce with Peas

Boston Organics’ summer sweepstakes is in full bloom.  From now until the middle of August, customers can earn points for each delivery received during the Sweepstakes time period and for participating in our Weekly Promotion for bonus points.  Why accrue points?  So you, Loyal Customers, can win prizes!

If you have 5 or more points at the end of the Sweepstakes, you will be eligible to win one of our amazing prizes like a Taza Chocolate Gift Box and Apron.

A Taste of Taza is the ultimate Taza Chocolate gift.  This brimming box lets serious chocolate lovers experience the full range of intense flavors and bold textures of Taza Stone Ground Chocolate.  The gift box features fresh Roasted Cacao Nibs, a variety of Stone Ground Chocolate Bars and Taza’s unique Chocolate Mexicanos rounds.  While preparing sweet creations in your kitchen, wrap yourself in a Taza Chocolate Apron.  Not coincidentally, this American-made cloth is a beautiful deep brown, the color of chocolate.

The Taza Chocolate Factory is in Somerville, MA.  Using the highest quality cacao possible, Taza Chocolate is made from Fair Trade beans, reflecting a dedication to exceptional chocolate, economic sustainability and socially responsible business practices.  Visit www.tazachocolate.com  more information or to plan your visit.

For a bonus point this week, send us an email to let us know why you eat organic! Email marketing@bostonorganics.com and finish the statement “I eat organic because….” and we’ll award you a bonus point!

For more information on our Summer Sweepstakes, read about it on our blog!

This week we have blueberry add-on pints from Georgia, shelling peas from Lakeside Organics, fennel from Enterprise Farm, and lots of great veggies and cooking greens from Atlas Farm. Check out the newsletter!

Happy Summer Solstice. Celebrate the longest, and possibly hottest, day of the year with locally grown veggies!  Beat the heat with the help of these cool and refreshing greens.

Not sure what to do with all these leafy greens?  They really are quite versatile.  Leafy vegetables can be prepared together for a variety of cold salads.  Try making a Kale Caesar Salad or, if you want something warm, wilt turnip greens like you might spinach.

This week’s Dogma Box includes:

• Garlic Scapes   –   Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield, MA)
• Green Leaf Lettuce  -   Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield, MA)
• Collard Greens  -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Dandelion Greens  -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Kale  -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Zucchini   -  Atlas Farm (S. Deerfield,  MA)
• Oregano  -  Happy Valley Organics (Whately, MA)
• Hakurei Turnips - Enterprise Farm (Deerfield, MA)
• Salad Tomatoes   –   Deep Root Organic Coop (Johnson, VT)

Here are some recipes we recommend for this week’s Dogma Box.  These utilize many of the produce items that you’re receiving!

Collard Green Cole Slaw

Happy eating from your friends at Boston Organics!

The 4th of July is coming up!

We will be closed on Wednesday July 4th so we’re operating on a compressed delivery schedule that week. This delivery schedule will only affect customers who normally receive their deliveries on Wednesdays.

If you are set for a delivery the week of July 4th and you normally have a Wednesday delivery, please find your zip code below to see when you will receive your delivery that week.

• Customers who live in zip codes 02113, 02114, and 02108 will receive delivery on Tuesday 7/03/2012. (The deadline for order changes & cancellations will be Monday before 12 noon)
• Customers who live in zip codes 01890, 02138, 02139, 02140, 02141, 02142, 02474, and 02476 will receive delivery on Friday 7/06/2012.

We know many folks take vacations around the holiday, so if you think you won’t be able to use your produce delivery the week of July 4th, please submit a delivery cancellation request through our website as soon as you can!

Getting this info from you early really helps us plan our produce purchasing and delivery routes for these next two weeks.

Thank you for your support and please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions!

Have a great and safe holiday!

The Boston Organics Crew

Boston Organics’ summer sweepstakes has taken flight.  From now until the middle of August, customers can earn points for each delivery received during the Sweepstakes time period and for participating in our Weekly Promotion for bonus points.  Why accrue points? So you, Loyal Customers, can win prizes!

If you have 5 or more points at the end of the Sweepstakes, you will be eligible to win  2 tickets to a Boston Foodie Tour.

“Stroll. Sample. Savor. Repeat.” Boston Foodie Tours showcases Boston’s most “recognized” best eats from James Beard Award winning restaurants to farmers markets and food truck stops.  BFT conducts four flagship tours around the city’s most delicious neighborhoods:  Beacon Hill & Back Bay, North End & Faneuil Hall, Harvard Square, and Boston’s newest post-Big Dig waterfront attraction, the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway.  For more information on a Boston Food excursion, visit http://bostonfoodietours.com/.  

It’s not too late to start getting points for the Summer Sweepstakes.  You’ll get a bonus point this week if you refer a friend or business! They’d have to sign up this week in order for you to get credit. Make sure they put your first and last name in the “How did you hear about us” section of the sign-up process. Thank you for your referrals!

For more information on our Summer Sweepstakes, read about it on our blog!

Lots of delicious local produce this week! We’ve got garlic scapes, green leaf lettuce, collard greens, kale, and zucchini from Atlas Farm. We also have bunched beets and bunched Hakurai turnips for you this week, complete with the greens attached!

We’ll have a different delivery schedule for Wednesday customers during the week of July 4th, so get the scoop on that along with delicious summer recipes in this week’s newsletter!

Boston Organics’ Summer Sweepstakes kicked off last week!  From now until the middle of August, customers can earn points for each delivery received during the Sweepstakes time period and for participating in our Weekly Promotion for bonus points.  Why accrue points? So you, Loyal Customers, can win prizes!

If you have 5 or more points at the end of the Sweepstakes, you will be eligible to win one of our amazing prizes.  10 or more points will put you in the running for our grand prizes like a 1 year subscription to America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School!

America’s Test Kitchen’s new Cooking School offers live, interactive courses to help home cooks feel as if they are part of the Test Kitchen.  The virtual school provides cooking instruction and culinary reasoning to help users identify proper cooking techniques and troubleshoot challenges in the kitchen.  Over 100 comprehensive lessons look into core cooking techniques and specific recipes.  Step-by-step cooking tutorials allow you to cook in real time with personalized instructions right in your home.  The ATK Cooking School is a valuable resource for product and ingredient reviews as well!  For more information visit their website.

It’s not too late to start getting points for the Summer Sweepstakes.  For this week’s bonus point, share a recipe for some of the produce you’re receiving in this week’s box on our Facebook wall or Twitter page.

For more information on our Summer Sweepstakes, read about it on our blog!

We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary with a big party here at our warehouse in Charlestown! Despite a rainy Saturday, we transformed the inside of our warehouse into a farmers market with hay bales, flowers, music, incredible food, and lots of smiling faces! It was such a pleasure to share this occasion with our customers, friends, family, farmers, and community members.

We feasted upon the food prepared by the wonderful folks of Cuisine en Locale, a Somerville-based sustainable catering company led by local food rock star JJ Gonson. The food was prepared from an array of local and organic produce provided by our network of farmers.

Among the delectable offerings were asparagus quiche, wheat berry pilaf with garbanzo beans and kale, salad with apple cider & maple vinaigrette, grilled veggie skewers, yogurt feta dip, black bean dip, grilled maple peaches, and homemade oatcakes. We topped it off with a carrot and apple spice cake, made with organic apples from Vermont.

We started the event off with wonderful entertainment from The Vegetable Circus. Little L showed us how to juggle, stretch, and hoola-hoop while talking about healthy eating and healthy relaxation. The rest of the day was filled with kids activities, from Veggie Twister to more hoola-hooping with Little L.

Local band Melodeego played their awesome music for the crowd, while friends and family helped generate electricity by pedaling their bike-powered PA.

Nashoba Brook Bakery, Taza Chocolate, and Paino Organics provided samples of their delicious treats for everyone to taste. Some of the best local breads, chocolates, and tortilla chips were enjoyed by all.

Boston Organics Founder & President Jeff Barry (a.k.a. “Kale to the Chief”) gave a speech, thanking everyone in the community for their support. We even had the pleasure of shmoozing with Gideon from Atlas Farm, Michael Docter from Winter Moon Farm, and Read Miller from Dwight Miller Orchards. At the end of the event, we had the “world premiere” of our brand new company video made by Igor Kharitonenkov.

The event was our way to recognize and thank everyone responsible for Boston Organics’ success including our customers, growers, staff and business partners. It is only through our collective efforts that we’ve been able to thrive. We are truly thankful and grateful for the support we have received over the years and look forward to continuing to serve and provide access to healthy foods to the communities we serve. Thank you!!!

Check out some of these photos from the event, taken by Adriane Dean. If you see yourself in any of these pictures and would like them removed, just let us know and we’ll take care of it for you!

Local garlic scapes are here!!! We love their mild garlic flavor and we’re excited to have them as an add-on this week! We’re also getting local Romaine lettuce, chard, kale, mustard greens, and zucchini from Atlas Farm, so get ready for a week of seriously delicious greens. Basil is the herb of the week, and pluots are back in season! Check out the newsletter!