What: An Exploration of Local Heirloom Tomatoes & Corn with Chef John Lawrence

 When:  Thursday, September 27th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

 Where: Clark Culinary Center, 393 Fortune Boulevard, Milford, MA 01757

 Price: $85.00

In case you missed the August 15th event at the Mass Horticultural Society, there will be an opportunity to experience another, tomato-focused tasting event at Clarke Culinary in Milford on Thursday, September 27th.

This educational tasting event will feature a discussion lead by Chef Danny and Chef John about tomato varieties and ways in which you can incorporate fresh, local heirloom tomatoes into cuisine in exciting and unique ways. This menu, prepared on the exquisite high-end kitchen appliances sold in-house at Clarke, will expand upon the heirloom tomato menu served last month at Mass Hort. In addition to a tomato sampler plate, participants will be served a crisp nasturtium fritter with a poblano mint salsa, accompanying fresh grilled striped bass-direct from the waters off of Cape Cod. The bass with be napped with a local sweet corn crema and sweet corn ice cream for dessert. Yum!

To register for this event, click here. 

On August 15^th, Chefs Danny Morgan and John Lawrence will pack up their pots and pans and hit the road to give a cooking demonstration at Elm Bank, home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (Mass Hort), as part of their “Garden to Table” program series.

The Garden to Table program was developed to offer the public an opportunity to join together in the beautiful setting of the Mass Hort gardens at Elm Bank to learn about growing, cooking, and preserving healthy food. About 40 percent of the produce grown in the garden at Mass Hort will go directly to the Wellesley Food Pantry, the Natick Food Pantry, and A Place to Turn, food pantries that service families and individuals living in MetroWest.

This educational tasting event will feature a discussion lead by Chef Danny and Chef John about tomato varieties and ways in which you can incorporate fresh, local heirloom tomatoes into cuisine in exciting and unique ways. 

The menu will feature fresh, local produce with a focus on heirloom tomatoes and mouth-watering corn, including: tomato mousse with basil reduction and balsamic vinaigrette, a tomato sampler plate, chilled Cape Cod lobster salad with tomato-tarragon vinaigrette, and sweet corn ice cream with gingersnap tulles.

• To Register: Call 617-933-4943 or order online here
• Cost: $65 for Mass. Hort. members, $75 for non-members
• Where: Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street (Rt.16), Wellesley, MA 02482
• When: Wednesday August 15, 2012 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Susan and I are proud to announce that we have recently been named the recipients of the “Inspire by Example” Outstanding Volunteer award from the United Way of Central Massachusetts.

The “Inspire by Example” award is given to local volunteers by the United Way of Central Mass. each year during National Volunteer Week. Recipients are chosen for their exceptional community commitment and for going above and beyond to help those in need.  Recipients of the award represent those who choose to lead by example and “encourage and motivate those around them to do the same.”

Over the years, Susan and I have made sure that Pepper’s is involved with charitable organizations in our community. Our volunteer work has included outreach to organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Rachel’s Table, the Special Olympics and Worcester County Food Bank, among others.

For the past thirteen years, we have been deeply involved with Veterans, Inc., a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization serving to provide supportive, transitional and permanent housing, food bank, hot meals program, case management, employment services and job training to veterans and their families.

As part of our (and Pepper’s) volunteer service, we’ve provided culinary classes to veterans and given cooking demonstrations on preparing healthy meals. For the past ten years, Pepper’s has served as caterer for Veterans, Inc.’s biennial Military Ball Gala.

We are thrilled to receive such a wonderful distinction from the United Way and we share this honor with all those great organizations we have worked with and grown to know over the years.

Thank you, United Way of Central Mass.!

Pepper's Fine Catering was recently awarded the “Houley Award” at the 2012 Taste of the Nation-Boston, a culinary fundraising event that took place on April 19.  

The annual Houley Award recognizes an individual in the food industry who has made “outstanding charitable contributions” to the community.  This award is given in honor of Barbara Houley, who is a contributing food columnist/writer for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Worcester Living Magazine.

Taste of the Nation is a fundraising event to end childhood hunger that is held in multiple communities across the U.S. through the Share Our Strength Foundation.  Over 70 local caterers, restaurants and wineries participated in Boston’s Taste of the Nation this year. All ticket sale proceeds go directly to organizations working to help end childhood hunger in both the Boston community and nationwide.

To read more about the charitable organizations supported by Pepper’s, click here. 

photo credit: Taste of a Nation

Flowers are more than just a pretty sight—they’re tasty, too. Pepper’s Fine Catering is featured in an article about edible flowers in the summer 2012 issue of Worcester Living Magazine. The article explores different types of edible flowers and ideas for incorporating them into a dish, complete with photos and recipes.

John and Susan are no strangers to edible blossoms. John recently used flowers in a cooking demonstration at the 2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show, and many of the edible flowers used came fresh from one of John and Susan’s ten garden beds—grown right on the Pepper’s property.

To find out more about edible flowers, read the online version of the article here. 

photo credit: Tom Rettig, Worcester Living

Fresh caught Fish for dinner?

Grow my own vegetables? 

Not so much ?  Not a problem.

Thankfully here in Massachusetts, we have a number of terrific options for shopping locally available foodstuffs produced, grown or caught that couldn’t be fresher. For Peppers Chefs, it doesn't get any better than bringing in the bounty that is available from local farms during our brief growing season. As an added bonus, procuring these enticing offerings have a very low carbon footprint, are more nutritious & tasteful than products trucked in a week from harvest out West and participating, supports our growing local farmers who grow sustainable food.

Farmers markets are available on a daily basis seemingly within 10-15 minutes drive of nearly everyone and the offerings vary from vegetables, locally produced jams, farmstead cheeses, salsas, artisan breads, honey, beeswax, soaps, chutneys and so much more, depending on the popularity of the location.

Finding a local farmers market is easily available from a simple Google search or visiting the www.massfarmersmarkets.org website. 

One other idea that is catching interest on in the world of special events is choosing a local farm for the location of a Green Wedding or a Garden Wedding.

Our sources for local chevre cheese has expressed that her pasture would be available to host a catered affair. If you love the idea of viewing playful goats

during the cocktail hour, this may be perfect and unique.

A great way to get the freshest produce to your family table and support local farmers is to buy shares in a Community Supported Agriculture ( CSA ) program that allows a participant buys shares in a farm and receives a certain amount of fresh, locally grown food every week. There are over 60 farms in Massachusetts that are offering such an enticing program, helping sustain local farmers with a guaranteed income to sustain their expenses and bridging the gap from producer to your table.

A most exciting &  innovative CSA program that has been started by the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association is the Cape Ann Fresh Catch. Now this is cool.

Were talking about the fresh & locally sustainable seafood available from our north shore. Starting on Sept. 6, and running for 10 weeks, you can purchase shares and receive fresh caught local fish, delivered to a local drop. It’s the catch of the day.

Currently nearly 18 stops are in the plans and an area could put together 80 members, a weekly new site may be established (40 members for a bi-weekly delivery.

10 Minutes from Peppers Catering’ kitchen is Heirloom Harvest Community Farm where we’ll be seen picking up our fish for personal use. While from week to week we’ll not be sure what the catch will bring, for those with a knife skill challenge, they offer a filet of fish option. Whole fish has the advantage of giving you the frame (skeleton) in which to make a delicious broth to be used in your favorite fish sauce or stew.

See the www.capeannfreshcatch.org for addition information and a location for pick up near you.

A few months ago Chef John Lawrence took on the challenge of beekeeping.

Peppers is thrilled to announce that their two hives have survived their "newbee" beginning to official beekeeping! Now that the cooler weather is here the hives are partially wrapped to protect them from harsh winter winds from the north.

Success!

Despite barely knowing what they were doing, the Peppers hives produced over 28 pounds of the most wonderful and dark honey any of them had ever put to their lips. The honey had a very low moisture count of under 11% which is excellent. No doubt Chef Paul Wilson and Linda LaBarge will come up with a creative catering use for this liquid gold!

Another great surprise was a visit from The Massachusetts Bee Inspector, Ken Warchol, who gave Chef John a “thumbs up” for the health of the hive and their production. Ken was a wealth of information and helpful tips, very informed and passionate when the talk is about bees.

Did you know…

• Bees fly at about 20 miles per hour
• Bees have been around for 30 million years
  
• Bees have 5 eyes
  
• The average bee makes 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in a lifetime
  
• Bees can be used to detect land mines with tiny radio devices attached (who thinks of these things?)
  
• A queen bee lays up to 1500 eggs a day
  
• 30% of all plant pollination is done by bees

All of Chef John's bee training comes from the local Worcester County Beekeepers Association

Over the past twelve years, Pepper's Fine Foods has been volunteering to cater the Gala Military Ball fundraiser to benefit Veterans Inc. in Worcester, MA.

This year's event was held on Saturday night, Nov. 13, 2010 in the Massachusetts National Guard Military Museum & Archives on Salisbury Street, and was the most successful one yet! The whole evening is dedicated to giving back to our vets with 100% of the proceeds goes right to Veteran's Inc.

Peppers served 350 people delicious entrees such as Braised Boneless Short Ribs with Roasted Shallot Bourdelaise Sauce or Herb Crusted Free Bird Statler Chicken Breast with Tarragon Dijon Veloute. Donations were collected from vendors, and all their chefs and wait staff, including ROTC students from Montachusett Regional Technical School volunteered their time for the evening. Pepper's would like to sincerely thank everyone who helped out in making this endeavor such a success!

Veterans Inc., on  69 Grove Street, is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving veterans and their families with support services including housing, hot meals program, food bank and employment training. Each year, there are more and more veterans, and decreasing funds get spread thinner and thinner, making it difficult to keep this good thing going.

If you'd like learn more about how you can help, visit Veterans Inc's Make a Donation page.