Showing posts with label backyard farms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label backyard farms. Show all posts

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Backyard Farms Tomato Lunch at Nebo (Boston, MA)

I recently had the opportunity to try out Nebo at a lunch with Backyard Farms. Backyard Farms is a tomato farm in Central Maine. Their 42 acres grow 4 tomato varieties that supple Whole Foods and some restaurants in the area. It's one of the few farms in New England that grow year round (most are just in winter - not something I thought about much while in California) and they recently won Best Products Supplier in North Atlantic Region from Whole Foods.

They're launching a new varietal called Somerset Pink that has been in the making for 2 years. It's tough to grow tomatoes! The somerset pink is like a beefsteak tomato so the texture is robust for salads and sandwiches, but it has a higher sugar content than most other beefsteak tomatoes.

Our lunch at Nebo started with a plate of Backyard Farms Somerset Pink tomato with burrata, saba, EVOO

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So, saba is the must that results from the first pressing of wine grapes, that is then cooked and concentrated to a syrupy consistency. It has a strong, balsamic-vinegar like flavor that goes really nicely with the fresh tomatoes and creamy burrata.

The restaurant is started by 2 Italian sisters who hail from Boston's North End. Before opening the restaurant, they were running a hair salon. But one day, one of them decided she wants to open a restaurant serving their mother's style of cooking. They have some great stories about the North End to tell!
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Did you know that North End is still separated into regions of Italy? The people living on Endicott and Prince Sts are from Naples while those on Waterfront are Sicilian! Italians are known to be very loyal and they still buy from same purveyors in North End that their grandmother used. That also means they have great relationships and can call them in the middle of the night should emergency arise.

Another example is the story of this bread.
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