Headliners: FINDING LOCAL

Beautiful Sugar Pumpkins, no? They were grown at Brooksby Farm in Peabody, not 5 miles from the spot where they're halved and roasted for Pumpkin Cornmeal Hearth Bread and Pumpkin Brown Butter Cakes. The milk in your latte and the heavy cream in your scones came from cows that grazed in fields 8 miles away, at Richardson Farms in Middleton. Organic eggs from Hubbardston, MA, organic cornmeal, corn flour, and rye flour from Morgan's Mills, in Maine (further afield, but the best milled products we're ever seen), and currently, cranberries from Carver, MA...when the seasons change, so do items on our menu, depending on what looks good in those big crates at the farm.

We do this for a number of reasons:

1. We like the way food tastes. It's why we became cooks in the first place; before we were cooks, we were eaters, and voracious ones at that. And although my love affair with the aisles of supermarkets still persists to this day, the musty, sweet smell of the Farmer's Wife in Oquossoc, ME or the neighbor's corn we snuck out out of the fields in Westport, MA somehow seemed more real, closer to the earth than the local SuperMart. And before this dissolves into obnoxious nostalgic reverie, here's a cold calculation for you:

Local Food = Fresher Food

Fresher Food = Better Taste

Thus, according to the Transitive Property: Local Food = Better Taste.

Need we say more?

2. Farmer's Markets Are Fun.Why open a business that revolves around something you love if you can't continue to do what you love? We like picking up apples and smelling them, we like petting the goats at the farm, we like driving to points unknown to taste the corn that will go on the Sweet Corn and Cherry Tomato Flatbread. Many farms offer heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits that you won't get to taste anywhere else. They're worth the drive!

3. Support, support, support: We love that when you buy an apple tart from us, it allows us to go back to the farm and get another crate, and that our money stays within the region, state, or 10-mile radius. Check out the fantastic website www.foodroutes.org for a ton of great information on eating locally!

4. Credit where Credit is Deserved: We make a point of displaying where all of our local products come from, so we can give farms the credit they deserve for doing such hard work. Check out the "What's Local Today"board to see where we're shopping that week!

But here's the deal. We don't expect everyone and their mother to start only shopping at farms, or farmer's markets, or Whole Foods, or whatever. Convenience is a major factor, as is price. We shop at Crosby's and Stop and Shop, too. But if everyone makes a bit of an effort to do, say, 10% of their shopping from local sources, that makes an enormous difference. We're not looking to change lives here, just establish a few fun traditions.

Heck, you agree, because you're nice enough to subscribe to our little newsletter here. So thanks for your support! We couldn't do any of this without you!

Provided here is a list of all the products we use that are made, grown, or packed and processed in either Massachusetts or New England.

Country Hen Organic Eggs Hubbardston, Ma

Milk products Richardson's Farm, Inc. Middleton, Ma

Apples, pumpkins, and Cider: Brooksby Farm Peabody, Ma (In season)

Tomatoes, Basil, Blueberries, Raspberries, Peaches, Rhubarb, and Stawberries Cider Hill Farm Amesbury, Ma (In season)

Cranberries: Carver, Ma (In season)

Calabro Ricotta Cheese Hand made in Connecticut using milk from Vermont cows

King Arthur Flour: Vermont

Whole wheat flour: Bay State Milling in Massachusetts

Organic Cornmeal and Flour grown and milled by Morgan's Mills in Maine

Organic Rye grown and milled by Morgan's Mills in Maine

Coffee by Design roasted in Portland, Maine