An Important Message from The Amazing Folks at The Backyard Growers Program

I don't usually do one-off posts but this is important and needs to get out now so we can support and grow this great program that's helping our town get greener and healthier and more empowered to live more sustainable lives through a terrific agricultural education at the home-garden level. 

I encourage you to learn about and support their programs. Most of my friends and family now have raised vegetable beds in their yards because of this group's efforts. Read on, view the video and please make a donation - help this program "Grow".

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hello Folks,
School gardens! Kids eating fresh veggies that they grew themselves!

We need your support to make it happen!

Please consider donating to our fundraising campaign to put a FoodCorps Service Member to work in our community.

Watch our super-fun fundraising video--it's guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Thank you!
Lara

http://igg.me/at/backyard-growers/x/2913139

Backyard Growers is Growing!

Hungry and Artsy - a List of Todo's Supporting Causes with Soup, Chocolate and Beer

I love my community. You know that, right? And I love anything that brings us all together to fill the halls of our local cultural havens. I like em better if there's good food. Tis' the season for a whole lot of hip local shenanigans and this weekend and beyond it's hot soup and student art, chocolate eating for bombing victims and celebrations of kind beer and sustainable business. 

Gloucester City Wide Arts Festival is happening Saturday and don't forget tonight's Open Door Empty Bowl Dinner. I've also found a list of Boston restaurants holding foodie fetes to raise funds for the One Fund for Boston Marathon Bombing victims and some other hip brew and grub events like a hyper-local craft beer festival and the annual Taste of the North End. If your mom is anything like mine, I'd score tickets to one of these events and bring her out for mother's day with a double (triple) mission - show her your love, show your community some love, and EAT.

Empty Bowl Dinner to Benefit the Open Door
Thursday, May 4pm @ Cruiseport, Gloucester
The meal is simple—soup, bread and a cookie. Guests can choose and keep a soup bowl handcrafted for this community event. The bowl goes home as an unspoken reminder that somewhere someone’s bowl is empty. Soup is provided by the many local restaurants who support the Open Door's mission. Bowl were made by community members young and old in workshops held this winter.
The Cape Ann Open Door serves tens of thousands of Cape Ann residents with hot meals, healthy groceries, a mobile market, education, clothing and more. They are a very important resource in our community.  Proceeds from this event will benefit the Summer Lunch and Mobile Market programs.
Tickets available at the door. $15 for adults and $10 for children under ten.

Gloucester Citywide Arts Festival 

Saturday May 11^th  10am - 3pm

Featuring artwork and performances by 

Gloucester Elementary, Middle School and High School Students! Opening Ceremony 10am in the City Hall Auditorium

 Locations include:City Hall, Sawyer Free Library, Cape Ann Museum, and The Hive

Activities and Events include:

Artwork, Claywork, Photography, Ballroom Dance Demonstration, Robotics, Culinary Displays, Poetry Reading, Drama and Musical Performances…..and more!! For more information check the schedule or call your local school!

2oth Annual Taste of the North End

May 10, 2013 
North End, Boston

Master of Ceremonies Billy Costa, Host of TV Diner with Billy Costa

The Taste of the North End was founded by Donato and Nancy Frattaroli in 1993 as a benefit for Casa Monte Cassino. The Frattarolis became aware of Casa Monte Cassino when a family from Italy came into their North End restaurant. 

The family was staying at the CMC while their four daughters received medical attention at Boston's Children's Hospital Boston. The Frattarolis were touched by their story and inspired by the mission of the Casa; to provide a place to stay for impoverished families from around the world while their children receive serious medical attention in Boston.The Taste of the North End currently features over fourty five restaurants, bakeries and distributors. Since its inception, the Taste of the North End has raised over $450,000 for Casa Monte Cassino and other local North End charities.

http://www.tasteofthenorthend.org/

Strega Waterfront One Fund Benefit 

with Rob Gronkowski and Matt Light
Monday, May 13 6:00p to 8:00p
http://www.stregawaterfront.com
Matt Light and Rob Gronkowski will serve as celebrity bartenders. 100% of the proceed benefit the One Fund, aiding victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy. Admission is $50 per ticket. Price of ticket includes three drink tickets and an assortment of complimentary passed appetizers. 

One Fund Events Statewide

Here's a great list of organizations and businesses that are hosting fundraising events to support the ONE FUND for victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing. 

 http://www.boston/ chefs.com/news/2013/5/8/one-fund-fundraising-continues/

Looking Ahead
Boston Strong Back Bay Chocolate Tour 

Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 12:15PM

Hotel Chocolat, 141A Newbury Street http://www.bostonchocolatetours.com/
The walk itself is less than a mile and it ends nearby. You’ll pick up plenty of samples as you go, plus tips on tasting, buying and storing fine chocolate. Also special private tours will learn how to pair chocolate with wines! This exclusive 2.5 hour Boston Strong Back Bay Chocolate Tour will highlight the best of Back Bay and celebrate much of what makes Boston great, as it takes you by such locations as Copley Square, the Prudential Center, and the Public Library. 

All proceeds from the tour will be donated on behalf of the One Fund.

Advance tickets required – tour size limited to 16. Reserve your space today!

Hyper-Local Craft Brewfest 

June 14-15 The Armory, Sommerville, MA

http://bostonlocalfood.com/our-events/hyper-local-craft-brewfest/

is an annual event presented by Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts (SBN) that highlights and promotes local brewers of beer, cider & mead, artisan beverage makers, home brewers, and food vendors. It is also a major annual fundraiser for SBN’s Boston Local Food Programs. The goal of SBN’s Boston Local Food Program is to transform the local food system by raising awareness about the abundance of wonderful locally grown and produced products in Massachusetts and New England and by encouraging individual consumers, food and beverage producers, and vendors to Think Local First.

That's all I have time for now. Got to go get my soup on. Chow!

Kentucky Derby Party at Castle Manor starts in 30 minutes!

The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports - All Afternoon!
The Best Kentucky Derby Party up at the Castle Manor Inn Today!
Celebrate the 139th Kentucky Derby at the Castle Manor Inn today! The party starts at 1:30. Enjoy succulent Southern snacks created by talented chef; Dawson Frock; a Lord and Taylor Fashion Show; Mint Juleps and other creative cocktails from Ryan & Wood Distillery, games, fun and live horses brought in from New England Equine Rescue for you to meet.
The Castle Manor Inn is just 1⁄2 mile up Route 133 from Gloucester Harbor on at 141 Essex Avenue. See it Castle at the turn of a small hill. From Route 128 take Exit 13 to Gloucester.
At this point best to call for reservations! 978-515-7386. $25 covers Food, games and all events1
Get your Southern Bell on and wear your Derby best hat. It might win cocktails for two!
Top this fabulous weekend Sunday with the Bananas Fashion Show at City Hall -2 pm.
You can keep your hat on.

What Do Vintage Fashion, Haute Cuisine, Pottery and Army Garb Have in Common?

They are all the source of some VERY HIP fundraisers in the Boston area.

Readers know I dig on food. A lot. They also know I am a hippy-raised, eco-conscious, community-lovin' girl and a major cheerleader for people doing good work for other people. I especially like discovering cool food events, theater, music festivals and fashion that support good causes. Double win.

I've got a wicked list of some such events coming up in the near future and I want to share them.  Keep in mind that this post was important enough to me that it actually beat out the 500 story lines I've brought back from my recent Caribbean travels. Legit. You'll see those later this week. For now - go do something fun, for somebody who needs a hand.

Here are some very worthwhile causes hosting some super worth-the-trip events in the next few weeks.

16th Annual Cooking Matters Fundraiser
 Tremont 647 , Boston, MA 

TONIGHT@ 6pm
Chef-owner Andy Husbands gets a few of his fellow chefs together to fight childhood hunger at his annual Cooking Matters fundraiser. Rub shoulders with culinary superstars including Josh Ziskin of La Morra, Jay Silva of Bambara, Seth and Angela Raynor of Pearl, Boarding House, Corazon del Mar, Raymond Ost of Sandrine’s and Olivier Maillard of Boston Chops. The fun starts with a St. Germain cocktail reception followed by five succulent courses (one from each cooker or set of cookers) each paired with a French wine. Proceeds from tickets, priced at $150 each, benefit Share Our Strength, the nation's leading hunger relief organization. Reservations are required so call 617.266.4600 if you want one.

Stepping Out for City Hall
Saturday, May 4th 7pm  and Sunday, May 5th 2 pm 

The friends of City Hall are delighted to announce our upcoming gala benefit :"Stepping Up for City Hall". On Saturday evening May, 4th Richard Leonard and his Bananarettes will perform acts and wear unique collections of fashions collected over the years. City Hall will be grand. Champagne, desserts and an auction of unique items will add to the event. Sunday, May 5th will see a matinee run of the Fashion Show, with light refreshments and general seating accommodating a larger crowd. 

Saturday pm $75.00 per ticket - limited to 200 tickets only! Sunday event $35.00 per ticket at Bananas! 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bananas/142405702473037

Spring Celebrity Series Presents Chef Kristen Kish

Winner of Top Chef Seattle: Season 10 & Chef de Cuisine at Barbara Lynch's Stir

Wednesday, May 8, 2013 6:15-9:15

Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College 

North Andover, MA 01845

Benefits Emmaus which provides permanent affordable housing, emergency shelter, transitional housing, housing search and stabilization services, adult education and job training, and compassionate support services to more than 3,000 people annually.

Details and tickets here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=qhn7a5bab&oeidk=a07e75rp7b7ce51c258




Empty Bowl Dinner to Benefit the Open Door
Thursday, May 4pm @ Cruiseport, Gloucester
The meal is simple—soup, bread and a cookie. Guests can choose and keep a soup bowl handcrafted for this community event. The bowl goes home as an unspoken reminder that somewhere someone’s bowl is empty. Soup is provided by the many local restaurants who support the Open Door's mission. Bowl were made by community members young and old in workshops held this winter.
The Cape Ann Open Door serves tens of thousands of Cape Ann residents with hot meals, healthy groceries, a mobile market, education, clothing and more. They are a very important resource in our community.  Proceeds from this event will benefit the Summer Lunch and Mobile Market programs.
Tickets available at the door. $15 for adults and $10 for children under ten.
http://www.foodpantry.org/01_About_Us/empty_bowl.html

ONGOING - 

Sword and Plough Bags - Goods for the Good Featured Product

Sword & Plough bridges veteran empowerment, sustainable design, and classic fashion all in one product. We are a quadruple bottom line (people, purpose, planet, profit) bag company that works with American veterans to re-purpose military surplus fabric into durable and stylish bags.

Sword & Plough products are...

Made in USA - You can’t find a more American bag
Repurposed - Upcycling thousands of pounds of surplus military materials, reducing our energy consumption up to 95%
Rugged and Refined - Our products can stand alone on style, durability, and the soulful legacy of their fabric
Socially Relevant - Our brand aims to improve veteran unemployment and bolster civilian-military interaction.

http://www.swordandplough.com/

That ought to give you all something to do while I organize my thoughts on eating, drinking and adventuring in the French West Indies to share this week. Plus the funniest blogger I ever read. Wait for it..........

Don't forget to send me your events, ideas, book recommendations, invitations to review your restaurant and the names and emails of small business owners you know who need digital marketing and content services. I do have a day job you know.

April Vacation is Here - things to do while I'm soaking up the Caribbean sun

T minus 22 hours till I ascend into the blue en route to St Martin, French West Indies, gastronomic capital of the Caribbean. Sorry, no, you can't come with me.

I will report on what I ate, where I danced, fish I chased, boats I sailed, neighboring islands I visited,French wine I purchased and didn't bring home and how I made out with my yoga practice working around my rusty French and my limited handle on Yoga Pose terminology. That ought to be a hoot.


Until then, I wish my readers a wonderful, fun, warm, springy April vacation week. I also hope you aren't worn thin with the never-ending drone of , "I'm bored" that is the soundtrack of school vacation. To that end, I'll leave you with some leads on things to do to keep the funwreckers busy.

See you soon, or as they say on French St Martin, "A bientot!"

Eco Scavenger Hunt

Cape Ann Timebanks Eco Scavenger Hunt
Solve verbal & visual puzzles like mazes & word searches to learn what eight downtown Gloucester businesses are doing to reduce their carbon footprints. Find out who's recycling or using energy-saving lighting. Play on a team or on your own. Win prizes from local merchants & enjoy refreshments at the after party at 2:30 p.m. at Latitude 43. Walk, learn, shop, & socialize at this Cape Ann TimeBank fundraiser.

*It's $10 before 4/13 to play solo or in teams. After 4/13 it's $15.
*Register Early & Learn more from our Frequently Asked Questions at: www.capeanntimebanks.org

Walk in the Woods, Learn about Nature

Trustees of Organizations has a packed schedule of activities at their properties across the state. Take a hike! http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/

Get Cultured

Here's a list of free and cheap museums and cultural activities in Boston this week. http://ow.ly/jZfic

Good reads 

Here's my lasted blogpost from Home News Here, the food section with lots of great spring recipe you can make together with ingredients form you local farmstand, plus a few videos on gardening (also a great activity for the family), and how to pair drinks with food, for when the entertaining of monsters is complete. You've earned it.
http://hnhfood.blogspot.com/2013/04/gardening-tips-spring-dinners-and.html

Customer's Always Right Family Tradition Edition

I just love the folks at Guiseppe's in Gloucester. Memory and Joe are great, fun family people with a great little concept in their casual Italian venue - mixing up piano bar and theme nights in a way that's really family friendly and fun. This "game show" night is always well attended - I'd make reservations. https://www.facebook.com/events/510412359000967/

Sign up for Spring Sports at the Cape Ann YMCA. 

Get out and get moving and help support our amazing local YMCA. Program booklet here. http://www.northshoreymca.org/locations/cape-ann/programs/download-program-booklet/

Do the Harbor Walk

Harbor Walkin
Here's a local walkabout that is pretty and cultural, local and leaves you in the middle of a whole lot of good eateries no matter how you approach it.

Pirates' Tour and Sailors' Path

I made this post card  in my days doing restaurant pr. Although it's clearly a tool to brand the restaurants - it's a cool map of kid friendly stuff downtown. Ignore the prompts to the eateries and just do the tour, hit the museums, read the markers and get to know our town.

Ok, so I gotta go. The family is glaring at me to wrap it up.  House/dog sitter to settle. Bags to load, i's to dot, t's to cross. Time's up.

Have a great week.  I know I will. 

I Heart Research or What I've Been Doing While Not Working on My Blog

Has it really been nearly a month since I've written a blog post?

Well, no, actually it hasn't, not really, just not here. See, I've been writing client blogs (and newsletters and facebook posts and tweets).  And given that most of my clients run very cool businesses, I've been writing some very cool content. I work with some very hip folks and I find the content creation easy, because I believe in the product. I really couldn't fake it, which I guess limits me in terms of the "who" I'm working with, but it guarantees I won't ever look at a project as, like, a project. So writing for their viewers is as enjoyable as writing for mine, some of whom are probably the same people.



My favorite part of writing for clients is that it requires research.  Extrovert though I might be, I'd be perfectly happy holed up in a vault digging through legal records and immigration papers. I spent a great deal of my undergraduate years this way. I was very happy there. And some of it even made it into academic publications, that are probably a lot less interesting than food blogs.

, But the research I'm doing for the freelance clients is more hands-on.  In fact, it's even a bit of hand-stands-on. I'm quite busy attending yoga classes and learning to move my body in the most amazing ways as part of my yoga client deal.And I have been learning the language and teachings of Yoga and collecting inspirational quotes from Deepak Chopra and the Dalai Lama.  The engagement you get from a cool Buddhist saying that goes out with the day's yoga schedule is more impressive than what you get from a food photo. And, it, too, makes people pretty happy.

I have been gathering data on cool, cheap and free stuff for kids to do in the Boston area, part of my pro bono work for my mom's 25 years and going strong preschool and I've been studying the crop harvest calendar to better understand CSAs because anyone promoting food or fitness knows that farms are in and factories are out.

I'm also booked up with wine dinners and tastings, menu redesigns, grand reopenings, charity events and beer samplings. I've been gathering articles on new trends in the food world and learning the who's who of California chefs. I've been getting up to speed on cultural celebrations and the food and music that come with them and studying the etymology of modern culinary terms.



And I've been watching food videos. Also, I've been ghost writing the social media pages of some of the coolest businesses in our community, because I know our community, and I know their businesses. Lots to learn, lots to write and, yum, lots to eat and drink. Thank goodness for all that yoga.

So it's hard, sometimes, to put my focus back on updating my own blog. I admit, I'm totally slacking on my 90 Seconds and Velvet following to build the following of my client's blogs.  But I'm not selling out. Writing for clients supports me writing for you, both because I get great content from doing all this yoga and eating and drinking and cultural hooplah, and also because it finances me going out and doing these things on my own, and reporting back to you.  Everybody wins.

Here's the plug part - I'm always open to new clients. Chances are, readers of this blog fall into the "categories of consideration" I like to call my parameters in seeking new business. I probably couldn't handle social media for a Pro Life group or a big box store, but give me a pilates studio, a summer lobster shack, a caterer, a budding theater, a private school, a tourist attraction or a day spa, and we are cooking with gas.

 If you know anybody who isn't doing social media for their small business or who is doing it all wrong (you know, the restaurant that posts only about themselves and does it 18 times a day or the salon that mixes personal politics with business posts, the shelter that doesn't add pictures of puppies), send them my way. There's a very specific art to this kind of marketing, based on tons and tons of research that could either result in major increases in business, or in being de-friended or un-followed, yikes.

OK, thanks for indulging me that bit of self promotion.  I love this stuff, I'm good at this stuff and I'm hungry to do more of this stuff. That is all.

MY PROMISE: My next post will be totally free of business or seriousness. In fact, it might be total nonsense just to balance the scales. Be sure to check soon. I've missed ya'll.

Getting My Yoga On - hard core training without the hardcore injuries

Tax season is here.  Which means vacation season is near.  Why, because all those receipts add up to plane tickets if I play my cards right, the beauty of the 1099 life.

This year it's a return trip to St Martin, the "Culinary Capital of the Caribbean".  Our annual family trip has not come together this year due to a merger at my dad's company (rendering them unable to commit to a trip till the dust has settled), my older sister's 40th birthday getaway to Mexico with her bestest childhood friends and little sister's construction dreams as her little fun wreckers outgrow their shared bedroom.

So we are doing a solo trio trip back to our beloved French Caribbean to catch up with friends who also make the pilgrimage for food and sun on the innumerable beaches of the shared French/Dutch island outpost.

Here's the catch. Our friends are marathon runners, bike racers and Iron men.  So on top of the regular emergency drive to shed winter pounds to prep for the pre-season swimsuit, now I've got that whole "don't be the fat girl in the picture" pressure that comes with traveling with older friends in better shape (oh who also have more kids than me). And also, it's a European Island, which means miles and miles of gorgeous, lean, topless French and Italian women who somehow live on bread and wine but do not look like I do in a swimsuit. UGH!

So booking my trip now means scheduling serious hardcore exercise starting NOW. 

I love exercise as much as I love food, which has always worked in a balancing-things sort of way.  But aging has presented a new set of problems - a slower metabolism and a whole host of injuries from years of psychotic exercise activities means it's harder than ever to get in bikini shape in the short term. Pushing myself to shed pounds fast without committing to that awful diet thing now means risking complete immobilization. I've got to get creative.

Know what burns fat, lengthens and sculpts muscles, creates inner peace AND doesn't require pounding, jumping or other dangerous impact on knees, hip and backs? Yoga.

Gloucester has a wonderful, beautiful yoga studio with first class teachers, classes for all levels and ages and great workshops for beginners and children.   The offerings are broad, detailed and very comprehensive, from one-on-one training to beginners workshops to kid's classes and a very intense heated vinyasa class with very wide schedule of times, there's literally something for everyone.

The studio is on Parker Street, with lots of parking, which is a huge plus when so many studios are hindered by limited spots on Main Street - I know, I owned my own place in several locations for years and it was ALWAYS an issue for classes happening anytime after dawn.

I started at Treetop this week, with a vinyasa class taught by Kat Mansfield. I haven't practiced in far too long, something made painfully obvious when we went over Chaturanga in acute detail.  My form improved immensely with the neurosurgeon-like attention of a very connected teacher, and my soul lifted as we really focused on those chakras that we are failing to serve, but my triceps and my abs, well, they were screaming when I left.  But not from injury, from attention. And it was the first time in a long time that I really worked out the physical and emotional kinks, and did so without creating new pain.  I'm an over-exerciser, I mentioned this, and to put in 1.5 hrs of intense work without hurting myself, that's mesmerizing, gratifying and sustainable.

I'll be heading back tonight for a heated Vinyasa class with Elizabeth, and am already nagging my thin but travel-tightened business dude husband to put yoga on his radar as part of our "new us" approach to 2013.  He studied with one of the owners before, when she taught in my studio, and was addicted.  And it's easier than P90X, that monstrous 12 week body sculpting program we attempted together last summer, till an old snowboard injury hobbled him. And I heard about THAT for weeks. See, yoga IS better.


I'll keep posting about my progress, and in all likelihood, my pain and (TRY) to start sharing some recipes and dietary tips I've collected along the way.  Meantime, read this list of yoga terms so you'll be a little less befuddled than I was when the teacher cued the next move (insert confused embarrassed expression here):
http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yoga-dictionary.asp

Then get yourself a mat, a reusable water bottle and some, ahem, "containing shorts", and join me at Treetop let your soul free while you keep your parts covered. I'll be the one falling out of crow, over and over and over, till I get it.

And I WILL get it.
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NEW to yoga?  Treetop Yoga Studio offers a Beginner Basics Class going on now.

Raw Beginner Basics with Kat Mansfield

Want to start yoga but feel a little nervous and worried? Been practicing for awhile but have some some
basic questions you might be too embarrassed to ask in class? Have we got a class for you! Come spend a
few winter Sundays with senior instructor Kat Mansfield and get your practice started -- safely and in a fun, relaxed environment.
We'll cover the basics of alignment and breathing, meditation and stress reduction and get you started.
"Practice and all is coming," said the famous yoga teacher, Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois . Start your practice in 2013 and become
your healthiest, most flexible, most relaxed self.

3 Week Series
Sundays, 12pm-1pm
2/24, 3/3, 3/10
$40 for the series, $15 drop-in
Full Schedule of Classes and Workshops Here: http://www.treetopyoga.com/index.html