25 May, 2017: In the 1970’s David Oien’s family was told to grow soy and corn and wheat by the Nixon dept. of agriculture. He said “I’m going to grow lentils instead.” Back then this was a revolutionary act. Lentils make their own fertilizer, so farmers don’t have to spray. They are incredible cover crops, so they actually revitalize the… Read More
24 May, 2017: A new Clover. Technically this is number 11. And it’s exhilarating. I stepped back after ordering the first coffee (I was the first customer). Lynn (who has been the General Manager of our restaurant in Harvard Square for a few years now) is running the show and her team is amazing. Harvard is renovating the Science Center. The… Read More
19 May, 2017: We’re booking out the Clover pop-up space at Clover Financial District (160 Federal St) and CloverHUB (1075 Cambridge St) Do you have an idea you want to test on real customers? A product you want to sell? We want to help you make it real by offering you a tiny space with big visibility. Previous tenants have included… Read More
10 September, 2008: A friend turned me on to Henny Penny fryers. They make normal fryers, but specialize in “pressure fryers.” These were developed primarily for fried chicken, and supposedly they do wonders for that. But they have other qualities that caught my interest: 30% lower fuel consumption 10-20% less grease on food More moisture and flavor retained in the… Read More
16 May, 2017: This kindly woman (whose name I forget) may hold the record for pulling the most garlic mustard of anyone in New England. This time of year, garlic mustard appears on roadsides, in backyards, and most dangerously, on farms. It was brought here as a culinary herb, but has quickly became an invasive species. Trees normally communicate beneath the soil, and… Read More
8 May, 2017: For the past month or so we’ve trailed our Monte Carlos coffee at a lower price point ($2.80 vs. $3.28). We were hoping that lower price point would encourage trial, improve coffee sales, and improve breakfast sales. Good news is that sales went up for coffee and breakfast. But they went up at ALL locations, those with… Read More
7 May, 2017: Join us Friday to meet the folks responsible for these Backyard Farms tomatoes and taste them in our newest seasonal sandwich (the Maine Winter Tomato!) Backyard Farms tomatoes grow high in the sky in a greenhouse the size of a football field in Maine. They don’t need dirt to grow, they’re magic, and they’re farmed by individual farmers. The… Read More
5 May, 2017: I was speaking at an event called the Future of Food at the Museum of Science. This was a collection of really interesting food folks. People who do food on TV. Michael Davis from James Beard who did the America Pavilion at the World’s Fair. A woman (I can’t remember her name) who ran product development for Starbucks. Farmers. A… Read More
29 September, 2008: Josh has been hard at work. Find more examples after the break. I’m liking some of these. All are sketches, but I think the direction is interesting. That said, the flask isn’t everyone’s favorite (see last post). And I have ringing in the back of my head Erik’s encouragement to keep the logo as simple as possible. Read More
4 May, 2017: Jane here, unless you go to CloverDTX on School Street, you probably don’t know me. I’m a communications lead (SCL) at DTX and an event planner at Clover. Ayr posted recently about a customer sharing his home-roasted coffee with him. Then I got sampled too! Steven, a regular at DTX, brought me a jar of his homemade overnight oats. First of… Read More
3 May, 2017: We recently served a Thai coffee roasted by Barismo. Maybe you saw my poster or heard from one of us that the Doi Pangkhon was the result of young farmers moving from opium production to coffee production. We had a coffee tasting, Jane sent out an email to our mailing list about the tasting, and we were all shocked and… Read More
1 May, 2017: George Howell himself will be at Clover this Thursday for coffee and donuts events. If you’ve been loving that volcanic Monte Carlos coffee, you do not want to miss this. Sign up ahead of time (www.cloverfoodlab.com/events) or just mark your calendar. George will be at CloverLMA between 8am-9am and CloverFIN between 10am-11am this Thursday May 4. George is the… Read More
30 April, 2017: Want to eat better this summer and support local farmers? One of the tastiest things you can do is to join a farmshare. Here’s how it works. You pay money up front to a farmer at the beginning of the season. They use that money to buy seeds, hire farmers, and grow food. And you become a shareholder in… Read More
29 April, 2017: The meeting room in the basement of CloverHUB had been transformed into a poker den, complete with clamp lights over the tables and steel cases full of poker chips. Andrew, Clover’s training manager, had turned this week’s GM meeting into a poker match, an activity that most of the GMs were unfamiliar with. This sort of thing happens… Read More
