Choosing Healthy Foods

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy local produce because of the sheer variety of fruits and vegetables that are available. I’ve waited all winter for ripe berries, juicy tomatoes and sweet stone fruit. We get a few months of this bounty and when the season is over, we wait patiently for summer to come again so we can enjoy our favorites. Connecting and eating with the seasons can be rewarding but also a tough challenge as many of us now rely on grocery stores to provide year-round produce. FUN FACT Did you know that the average food item has traveled 1,500 miles to get to your plate? Seeking out local food, understanding how it was grown and learning more about the people who grew it can be an empowering experience. Not everyone has the opportunity to shake hands with the person that grew their food but for those that do, it carries more weight than a certification. Download lagu WAIT, THERE’S MORE Did you also know that how we eat can have as big an impact on climate change as transp...

with campus executive chef Tom Barton As you may have seen – or already tasted! – we are now featuring an awesome, delicious, and locally sourced apple sauce. The sauce is made with apples grown in local Massachusetts orchards. And if that wasn't enough, there is only one ingredient: apples. That's right, just apples. No sweeteners or additives, just 100% locally sourced apples. Currently, it is being made with Macintosh apples but changes with the seasonal offerings. The sauce is made by Karl Dias – commonly referred to in our kitchens as "the apple sauce guy." Karl reports that he has a steady supply of various varieties of apples and will continue to make sauce throughout the winter. Karl sent me a note over the weekend letting me know that he just finished a batch using macoun apples and thought it just might top his current batch of Macintosh sauce! Because of the outstanding flavor, clean label, and local regionality of the product, we wanted to feature it as q...

with Northeastern campus executive chef Tom Barton I would like to welcome everyone back to campus. Hope everyone had a great summer and hope everyone is settling in. We have received a few questions about some of our local products that we serve so I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a little more about the products that we do purchase locally. Right now is a GREAT time to buying local. What we buy changes from week to week based on our menus and what items the farmers feel is in peak condition to send to us. The past few weeks have been filled with potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, kale, chard, lettuces, squashes of all sorts, tomatoes, corn, and, of course, apples. Keep an eye out at Stetson for Chef Sam's fresh corn station – if you like Mexican street corn you'll love this! Many of the items listed above fit perfectly into our "root to tip" vegetable program. In short, we use as much of the vegetable as possible – including the peel and the tops. Many...

It is great to see everyone back on campus! It was an exciting summer for us and we have many great programs and events planned for this semester. Here are a couple highlights of what's happening on campus. Local Products I hope you have been enjoying some of the local harvest in our dining halls. We are featuring fresh French Fries using potatoes from Sampson Farms in Westport, MA; Macintosh apples from Lanni Orchards in Lunenburg, MA; fresh butternut squash from Noquochoke Farms in Westport; and carrots from Czajkowski Farms in Hadley, MA. We have partnered with FoodEx, a local company that is our direct connection to the farmers. FoodEx will be on campus next week as part of our Fall Food Fest. Fall Food Fest From 11:30 to 1:30 on Wednesday, September 26, we'll be outside Stetson East with some of our food vendors for our annual Fall Food Fest. This always popular free event offers you the chance to try samples of our vendors' newest products and interact directly with t...