Boston's raucous open-air produce and fish market, Haymarket, is a colorful part of the Boston landscape. Fifty or so temporary wooden stalls are set up for business on Fridays and Saturdays from dawn to dusk, year-round on Blackstone Street, behind Quincy Market.
Between 1630 and 1890, Boston tripled its physical size by land reclamation, specifically by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. The historian Walter Muir Whitehill called this process "cutting down the hills to fill the coves." The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 1800s. Beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 hectacre) mill pond that later became Haymarket Square. The present-day Massachusetts State House sits atop this shortened Beacon Hill.
The Haymarket vendors are feeling pressure from new development in the area. The luxury Millennium Bostonian Hotel, which sits on Blackstone and North streets, would like to see improvements to the vendor stands: stands that are more permanent, attractive, and sanitary. Historically the vendor operations have been low-budget. "We're a luxury hotel, and there is a definite divergence of opinion" among hotel guests, General Manager Patrice Worcester says. "Haymarket is quaint in some people's eyes, but if you ever walked in front of our hotel on a Saturday, there's rotten vegetables on the street, even though the city does do a good job cleaning up. . . . You have to be good neighbors and coexist, but it's difficult."
Part of the attraction of the market for repeat visitors are the variety of items offered and the relatively low prices. The vendors purchase their produce from the wholesalers at reduced prices. It is the end of the week and the wholesalers are liquidating their inventory. Smart shoppers know this and naturally would like to poke, prod, squeeze and sniff every melon and tomato. Pokers and sniffers may receive a curse or worse from an angry vendor. If you are a poker, go on Saturday afternoon. Bargains and more tolerant vendors can be found. Arrive wearing a coat of humble pie. As I was making my way through the market Friday afternoon a customer was being taken to task. Apparently he had disturbed a vendor while he was counting out some cash. I'm paraphrasing but what I heard was: "Are you just ignorant? What do you want me to do? Stop counting my cash? Is that what you want me to do?" You will not see any signs that say: "The customer is always right" at this market!
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Whether they are made of pork, as is most often the case, or of beef, veal, buck, goat, chamois, venison, sheep, wild boar, or horse, cured meats (salumi in Italian) were born of a need to conserve meat for months after the slaughter of the animal. Salting, smoking, and air-drying are the three processes by which fresh meat is transformed into a long-keeping staple.
While all meats are salted, some are smoked, and others are simply air-dried. Italians have been making an amazing array of cured meats for thousands of years using both noble and humble parts of the animals they raise. The ancient Romans prized the spicy pork sausages crafted in the southern region of Basilicata (called Lucania then, and giving rise to sausages named Lucaniche still eaten today). And, fond of intensely tasty foods, they smoked or salted whole pig thighs, yielding savory Prosciutti not unlike those still made in mountain villages across Italy.
Two thousand years later, pork remains Italy's favorite meat for curing. Pigs are especially prevalent in areas where there is a notable cheesemaking tradition: after all, wherever there is cheese, there is excess whey, which, combined with bran and corn, becomes perfect feed for pigs.
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