If the long-range forecast is to be believed, it appears we’re in for a chilly start to spring. You’d think I’d be used to that by now, living in a climate that routinely delivers blizzards in April, blanketing budding tulips and daffs with snow and confusing fruit trees already in bloom. Nevertheless, I’m still surprised when it happens— downright shocked(!) that the warmth I so crave hasn’t arrived right on schedule with the equinox, and that what we call “spring” in these parts is really just late winter languishing, tediously, until suddenly one morning, it’s May.

So often in our pages, “spring” recipes calling for locally grown ingredients are useful only once we get to May or June, photographed in winter with ingredients sourced from very far away. Since New England’s spring harvest doesn’t truly begin until Memorial Day, when green garlic, tender spinach and tiny red radishes appear in farm stands and markets, we just have to fudge it, relying on strawberries from New Jersey and favas from California for a taste of of the season, well before local veg is even planted. My spring holiday menus feature minted peas and asparagus hollandaise, but they’re never locally grown—that would be impossible. Early spring in New England is largely aspirational; at least for the first few months, it’s more of a feeling than a reality, produce-wise.

But what if we embraced the chill of March and April and kept on eating the warm, comforting foods of winter, like meaty stews and hearty grain soups? In this issue, Andrew Janjigian, expert bread baker and whole grain evangelist, brings us three delightful porridges made from bulgur, barley and farro. His wheat-based take on congee/jook is mirrored a few pages prior by the winner of our Readers' Recipe Contest; Hannah Cai’s traditional rice version, based on one she learned from her Chinese grandpa, so perfectly answered our call for family heirloom recipes that we had to include it despite the similarity. We’ve got dueling jooks, folks, and I promise you’ll want to make them both.

If goat strikes your fancy, and you’re up for the challenge to find some, don’t let Tamika R. Francis’ story pass you by. Francis, founder of Food & Folklore, an organization devoted to “travel, nostalgia, belonging, identity, the POC and immigrant experience,” writes an evocative narrative of her childhood in rural Jamaica, of goat slaughter and cooking and what eating goat—and finding goat dishes here in Boston—means to her. Full of rich, warming spices and plentiful Scotch bonnet chili, both your belly and heart will be warmed right through.

As we put the rest of this issue together a pair of themes developed naturally: traditional farming practices and new ways of doing old things. Rachel Caldwell brings us two Edible Food Finds this season, both in Worcester County. Read about a young couple, “proud, queer Jewish farmers,” who have taken over Robinson’s dairy in Hardwick and found a community ready to embrace them and their new style of cheesemaking. And at a cidery in West Brookfield, a father-daughter team are innovating and reinventing a traditional beverage using winemaking techniques—and winning awards along the way.

Jolivia Barros went back to school—well, to the student center, anyway—and brought us behind the scenes of MIT’s exciting new collaboration with CommonWealth Kitchen. The Launchpad supports CK’s diverse start-up food businesses by giving them a platform on an institutional level, bringing culturally relevant, healthy fresh food to students while helping the businesses thrive in a whole new way. And Jackie Cain reintroduces us to restaurateur Garrett Harker and his partners in a wholesale/e-commerce venture making pretzels and waffles alongside the same staff who once delighted diners at the dearly departed Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks. A reinvention like no other.

As part of her ongoing series on the evolution of family farms in eastern and central MA, Margaret LeRoux takes us to Walnut Lane Farm, a meat-and-dairy farm in Dudley making it work in a challenging environment through regenerative practices. Mike Floreak profiles NH-based Walden Mutual, a fledgling, first-in-a-generation mutual bank founded by the folks behind Walden Local Meat to finance sustainable farms and food businesses across New England and NY. And Lisa Zwirn takes us inside the transformation of Land’s Sake Farm from an off-the-grid collection of knocked-together structures into a community-funded, permanent year-round farmstand complete with demo kitchen and modern greenhouse, right in the heart of Weston.

Seen a lot of fancy cheese boards online lately? They’re all the rage and Xana Turner-Owens shows us why via three women-owned outfits arranging salumi and cheese into big local business. In “Food at the Hyve,” Andrea Pyenson profiles veteran wife-and-husband chef team Ruth-Anne Adams and Tom Fosnot and their new prepared-food delivery venture. The Twin Tastes (Kara and Marni Powers) return with another installment in their series of North Shore day trips, this time to Beverly for a bunch of brews— both beer and coffee—stopping in at a few delightful places to eat along the way.

On the wonkier side of things, our op-ed writer Winton Pitcoff of the MA Food System Collaborative shows us how policy developments can help curb food waste. And Edible Communities partnered with FoodTank’s Elena Seeley and Danielle Nierenberg for this season’s Signature Section, a deep dive into food labels, certifications and standards, an important topic in an ever-changing food system.

I hope this issue finds you happy and healthy and ready for whatever the next few months will bring. In an unstable and uncertain world, at least one thing is for sure: The seasons will change, the snow will melt and time will move on. There are better days ahead.

#StandWithUkraine

Peace,

Sarah