City Fresh Foods

Everything has a story including the food we eat and the places where we live and work.  Although we miss Dorchester, City Fresh Foods is glad to be back in Roxbury.  Last night at the Haley House I had the privilege of hearing Representative and Historian Byron Rushing lecture on the History of Roxbury.  By the way – if you get a chance GO check out the Haley House Cafe- which is a great meeting place in Roxbury – with healthy and tasty food and numerous interesting and artful venues.  There I was reacquainted  with the fact that 1/2 of Roxbury’s history was primarily the Puritan experience from 1630 all the way to the  early 1800’s.  The Puritans left England and came to our shores with the objective to set up a “New” England, 17 ships in tow including cattle.   They were not the first European, to come visiting our shores, in fact decades earlier Europeans fished our northern Atlantic coast,  mostly for cod,  and they had set up camps along the shore, intermingled with the Natives unintentionally exposing the locals to their infectious diseases.  In this wake,  the Puritans came, set up shop, worked hard building ships, practicing trade and working the land.  They prospered.   Two of the Puritans most profitable crops were pears and apples, the apples being processed into cider.  Try not to smile.

It was over a century later, when the Irish, then Jews and Blacks moved into Roxbury.  Just before the time I was born,  Jews were moving out to the Suburban enclaves while the blacks became concentrated in Roxbury, North Dorchester and Mattapan bringing our culture and foods.

One of those foods at the center of our culture is collard greens.  Although the Romans cooked many types of greens including collards, and the history of the cousin of cabbage goes back to prehistoric times,  it was the African American slaves who brought collard greens to a new art form.   Unlike slaves in the caribbean, African American Slaves were allowed to grow food for themselves.  Like our new Alabaman born Chef Lee says- soul food comes from a history of fresh food, fresh from the small garden plots of our ancestors.  What used to be ham hocks or smoked turkey neck or other left overs from the main house used to season the collards, we have slightly modernized our approach, so the vegetarians of the world can enjoy the results.  Here at City Fresh its some onion, salt and pepper and some special seasoning- and you will be singing.   At catered events throughout Boston during this special month I hope you will get a try-  as the greens melt in your mouth- you’ll have a better knowledge of their history.

-Glynn

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