New magazine looks for the local angle

Ilene Bezahler thinks you should know the dairy farmer whose goats' milk is used to make the cheese you buy. And the grower who cultivates the prize-winning heirloom tomatoes that are in season right now at farmers' markets.

If you don't know them, Bezahler would like to introduce you to them. She also wants to let you know what's in season in New England, from apples to oysters.

Bezahler, 50, is the editor and publisher of the new quarterly magazine Edible Boston. Unlike other food-focused publications, Bezahler says, the role of Edible Boston ``is not to review. I want people to get to know who is making their food. I want someone to read the article [in the premiere issue] about Tricia Smith and her goats and want to meet her."

Edible Boston is the latest addition to the loose confederation of Edible magazines (14 so far) founded in California and locally financed and published in places such as Cape Cod, Maine, the Hamptons and Long Fork on Long Island, Brooklyn, and San Francisco. The magazines are free and given out at farmers' markets and shops. All the publications share certain goals and philosophies: To find artisanal producers, many of whom are doing things the old way -- unusual bakers, wine growers, and shellfish harvesters.

The Boston version of the magazine, says its editor, will make consumers aware of the effect weather and seasons have on their tables, and foster an appreciation of the importance of local farmers. The first issue, with a cover graced by pastel blue eggs from naturally raised chickens, includes articles about the local Azuluna brand of humanely raised veal, where the stripers are running, summer berries, tomato festivals in the area, and recipes such as striped bass in a clam and garlic sauce.

Bezahler isn't new to the agriculture scene. Her appreciation of local farmers grew out of her years as head of wholesale marketing at Allandale Farm. It was during her time at the Brookline farm that she met many of the people she would later ask to become contributors to Edible, including chef Paul Sussman, who wrote the veal story.

Sussman, former chef and owner of Daddy-O's and Macondo in Cambridge, and more recently chef at the Fireplace in Brookline, has always been a supporter of locally produced food. ``It seems like everything in our society is becoming pasteurized. A McDonald's is a McDonald's is a McDonald's," says Sussman, who is about to open a new restaurant, Z Square in Harvard Square. Edible Boston's goal of putting the spotlight on the bounty of local foods is in tune with Sussman's own beliefs. ``I think that's what brings variety to our lives," he says.

Bezahler was inspired to start Edible Boston when, on a visit to relatives on Long Island last summer, she ``fell madly in love with Edible East End," the Hamptons magazine.

The project took a year to launch, but her goal has remained the same. ``Collectively," writes Bezahler in her editor's letter in Edible Boston's first issue, ``our mission helps to `transform the way communities shop for, cook, eat, and appreciate the food that is grown in their local region.' "

That may mean getting to know the goats whose milk is in your cheese.

Edible Boston is free at local farmers' markets and specialty stores, or by subscription at www.edibleboston.net.

CALLING ALL ARTISANS If you ran Edible Boston, what places would you feature? Tell us at boston.com/ae/food.