Local growers Fred and Stacia Monahan of Stone Gardens farm will be kicking off this year’s growing season with a unique twist —- one that has them partnering with Liquid Lunch, a restaurant passionate about connecting consumers with local sources of food.
Restaurant owners Fred and Michele Bialek, owners of the four Liquid Lunch locations in Shelton, Milford and Fairfield, began incorporating vegetables grown at Stone Gardens Farm into their soups and sandwiches last year when the restaurant purchased three weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares from Stone Gardens.
This year, they decided to take their partnership a step further by offering a series of cooking classes entitled “Prepare your Share” that will educate other CSA members and the public on how to prepare some of the more unfamiliar seasonal vegetables grown at Stone Gardens.
“Anyone’s biggest challenge in getting the CSA box is what to do with the odd, unfamiliar vegetables, like kohlrabi,” said Fred Bialek, who will be teaching the cooking series along with his wife Michele. “If they are not your everyday veggies you don’t know what to do with them.”
Both the Monahans and the Bialeks are committed to educating the larger community on creative ways to prepare locally sourced foods, and feel the cooking series will be a great way to bridge the gap between local growers and consumers.
“We are very excited to start the cooking series with the staff at Liquid Lunch,” said Stacia Monahan, who was recently appointed to the steering committee for the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference for 2013. “It’s a great way for our customers to really get to know how to prepare seasonal, locally grown vegetables.”
The seven-class cooking series will begin June 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Liquid Lunch’s commercial kitchen at 6 Research Drive. Anyone interested in the classes may contact Stacia Monahan at stonegds@comcast.net.
The farm stand at Stone Gardens is open for the season, currently offering leaf lettuces, radishes, scallions, kale, kohlrabi, bok choy, swiss chard and beets. Soon-to-be harvested veggies include greenhouse cucumbers, sugar snap peas and garlic scapes by mid-June. July will see broccoli, cabbage, beans and summer squash, as well as several varieties of tomatoes and the farm’s well-loved sweet corn.
The farm stand is located at 83 Saw Mill City Road in Shelton and will be open daily until Thanksgiving from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Stone Gardens Farm also sells farm-raised poultry, beef and pork. Shares are still available for the 2012 CSA program. For more information on Stone Gardens Farm, go to www.stonegardensfarm.com or call 203 – 929-2003.