Allandale Farm

I went to the graduation party of one of my math buddies on Friday. It was good times. Besides a tour of the beautiful grounds and endless maze of a house, and firing off a potato cannon, there was amazing food. As it turns out, they found a farm that would cater their party. Billed as "Boston's last working farm," Allandale farms is located in Brookline and has been around for 250 years.

http://www.allandalefarm.com/

The food was simple, which you can do with great ingredients. They had quartered radishes with an herb dip, and the radishes seemed to magically have only the good part of the radish taste, without any of the bitterness. One of the first things I grew when I was a kid was a row of radishes. They grow to harvest in 21 days, great for impatient children, but then you pick them and they have this bitter taste. I ate them anyway, because I grew them. I can't tell if this farm used a better brand of seeds, or watered and fed them better than I did when I was 7.

At the party, a friend of mine stared at his salad in disbelief. It was pretty much just lettuce and dressing, but the lettuce was crisp, sweet, amazing. He asked if that was what lettuce really tasted like. I said, yep, that's why I have a farm share. My food tastes a lot better. The lettuce last spring was better than this year because we had more rain, but it's still better than the grocery store.

They also had a beautiful pasta with quartered steamed potatoes and herbs. You've never had a potato melt in your mouth like this...you don't even need butter. And there was a simple pea soup, steamed asparagus, and a quiche-like item.

At the end there was rhubarb crumble. Simple, sweet, again showcasing just the good part of the rhubarb without any of the bad.

I wonder if they are tax-exempt. I know that my friend's wife is considering raising cattle on their land to cut down on the taxes. I can imagine that would be one way to keep a 100-acre farm going. (I can't find it on their website, but I asked one of the caterers about the acreage.)

The farm has a retail store, but they also sell to Whole Foods. I need to check if there's a way to see the source of vegetables at Whole Foods. Their actual retail store is here:
259 Allandale Road
Brookline, MA 02467
and open 9-6 on weekends.