Last night Herb and I went to a church downtown to hear about the upcoming offerings of CSA farmers in our area. It was a meeting of potential customers and hopeful growers, all intent on connecting to buy locally grown, hopefully certified organic, fresh and wholesome food by the farm supporting "subscription" method.
The manager of the Flint Farmer's Market, Dick Ramsdell, should be thanked for arranging the meeting. A few of the growers are actual vendors at the market, but he offers us all the market as a central meeting place to drop off and pick up our shares. It is wholly a thing that he thinks should be done, to introduce urban consumers who have lost contact with their food source to the actual people who make their living by producing our food, and he arranged this meeting on that principle, with or without the profit motive for the market.
He did mention that the fresh local idea is growing so well he is hearing about more vendors building hoop houses so that we can have fresh local greens in the winter soon.
I took plenty of notes, but didn't really need to, as I planned to re-subscribe to Whetham Farms' CSA considering our good experience last year. Three of my gardening friends, Mel and Bonnie and her husband Chuck, are joining, too.
There is a lot of information out there if you still need to be convinced. Some of the handouts were straight from the web:
Local Harvest has a lot of information on CSAs.
What is a CSA? is from this site in Lebanon!
Five Reasons to Buy Local is from Community Alliance With Family Farmers a good site with lots of links...
And Mr. Ramsdell recommended one of my favorite sites for loads of reading (that this city girl only discovered last year): ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
Here is a list of the goods that growers were offering, just to show a bit of what we can buy fresh, and local, and (hopefully) organically grown or at least grown with as sustainable practices as possible:
vegetables, greens, pumpkins and squash, potatoes, heritage tomatoes and cucumbers
fruit, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, apples (heritage), pears, peaches, plums, grapes soon, sweet and tart cherries
flowers, gourds
honey
maple syrup
chickens, range and tractored
eggs
turkeys, heritage varieties
grassfed beef
milk soon
lambs
pork
One grower said they raise 90 varieties of vegetables.
One grower said she raises 30 to 40 varieties of heritage tomatoes.
One farmer's antique apple trees are coming into production.
One grower is offering a monthly workshop.
One grower said they have two festivals during the season.
We heard terms like sustainable, heritage, hormone free, pastured.
We heard plans and dreams and goals, some of them realized.
One farmer's land has been in the family for 5 generations!
One farmer's daughter is taking the organic farming program at Michigan State University!
There was a lot of hope for the future in that room last night.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label local food. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label local food. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 06 Februari 2008
Rabu, 30 Januari 2008
Genesee County: put the CSA introductory meeting on your calendar
The manager of the Flint Farmer's Market, Dick Ramsdell has been a key supporter and promoter of Community Supported Agriculture here in Genesee County. There is a great article on the front page of Monday's (Jan. 28) Flint Journal by Elizabeth Shaw entitled "Green Thumbs - Urban Agriculture in Full Bloom Here" (link) that discusses some of what is going on here in our area.
Want to learn about Community Supported Agriculture or how to join a CSA group with local farms? There's a free public meeting coming up:
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 5
Where: First Presbyterian Church, 746 S. Saginaw St., Flint.
Details: (810) 938-4246 or chsramsdell@hotmail.com
A few interesting local food factoids from the article
(Source: Food Bank Council of Michigan):
If every Michigan family bought just $10 per week of Michigan produce, it would keep $37 million a week or $1.9 billion a year from leaving the state.
Food now travels an average of 1,500 miles to get onto Michigan tables. (Think of the fuel burned!) 50 percent of trucks on interstate highways carry food.
A Michigan Land Use Institute study reports local buying could generate almost 2,000 new jobs and increase farm income as much as 16 percent.
Want to learn about Community Supported Agriculture or how to join a CSA group with local farms? There's a free public meeting coming up:
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 5
Where: First Presbyterian Church, 746 S. Saginaw St., Flint.
Details: (810) 938-4246 or chsramsdell@hotmail.com
A few interesting local food factoids from the article
(Source: Food Bank Council of Michigan):
If every Michigan family bought just $10 per week of Michigan produce, it would keep $37 million a week or $1.9 billion a year from leaving the state.
Food now travels an average of 1,500 miles to get onto Michigan tables. (Think of the fuel burned!) 50 percent of trucks on interstate highways carry food.
A Michigan Land Use Institute study reports local buying could generate almost 2,000 new jobs and increase farm income as much as 16 percent.
Two updates
First, the organic CSA farmer I have written of who is offering the monthly hands on workshops on organic vegetable growing, Pat Wetham, has got a new phone number:
# 810-867-4435.
I hope you'll sign up for her workshops! With the trend toward fresh, organic and local food, what could be more valuable than knowing how to grow your own veggies in your own yard? Nothing is more local, and there is nothing like knowing how your food was really grown, because you've done it!
Also, this morning the League of Conservation Voters sent out their online voter guide to the 2008 presidential candidates(link). It's pretty interesting reading. The LCV sent a questionnaire to each of the candidates and then researched what they said (their public statements), what they promised (their platforms), and most importantly their track record, what they did (how they have voted.)
It won't surprise you on the Republican side.
That joke Giuliani did not extend the courtesy to respond and has no federal voting record. But his opinions are simply not environmentally responsible.
The flip-flopping Michigan Mitt did not have the manners to reply either and has no federal voting record. He says he loves coal and drilling.
'Mac' McCain must not have grandchildren he cares about, he has a 26 voting record.
The Democratic candidates did surprise me a bit.
Billary has a 90 percent voting record. If I liked her I'd say Yay.
Obama voted a 96! Yay!
But I must comment Hill and Obama have not been Senators long enough to test their true mettle...
Edwards voted a 59, which is hard to understand considering his spearheading of the defense of the Clean Air Act. Maybe he is cleaning up his act? I need to do some further reading.
Of course my man Dennis K. with a 92 beat Hillary but didn't come in as well as Obama. But he left to work on retaining his congressional seat again.
You can spend a lot of time reading up on the issues, and the LCV has done most of the footwork for us! We know where they stand (non-partisan) and what they stand for (the future of the planet!)
They have a richly informational website that really educates. For instance, if you can stomach it you can study what the present despoilers are doing and what they have accomplished here.
Isn't it about time we voters let the powerful know we won't support them if they don't take care of our planet?
Clean air, beautiful public spaces where nature can live, and safe water are the commons that belong to us all. Why should the profit of a few take those things we share away from us!
# 810-867-4435.
I hope you'll sign up for her workshops! With the trend toward fresh, organic and local food, what could be more valuable than knowing how to grow your own veggies in your own yard? Nothing is more local, and there is nothing like knowing how your food was really grown, because you've done it!
Also, this morning the League of Conservation Voters sent out their online voter guide to the 2008 presidential candidates(link). It's pretty interesting reading. The LCV sent a questionnaire to each of the candidates and then researched what they said (their public statements), what they promised (their platforms), and most importantly their track record, what they did (how they have voted.)
It won't surprise you on the Republican side.
That joke Giuliani did not extend the courtesy to respond and has no federal voting record. But his opinions are simply not environmentally responsible.
The flip-flopping Michigan Mitt did not have the manners to reply either and has no federal voting record. He says he loves coal and drilling.
'Mac' McCain must not have grandchildren he cares about, he has a 26 voting record.
The Democratic candidates did surprise me a bit.
Billary has a 90 percent voting record. If I liked her I'd say Yay.
Obama voted a 96! Yay!
But I must comment Hill and Obama have not been Senators long enough to test their true mettle...
Edwards voted a 59, which is hard to understand considering his spearheading of the defense of the Clean Air Act. Maybe he is cleaning up his act? I need to do some further reading.
Of course my man Dennis K. with a 92 beat Hillary but didn't come in as well as Obama. But he left to work on retaining his congressional seat again.
You can spend a lot of time reading up on the issues, and the LCV has done most of the footwork for us! We know where they stand (non-partisan) and what they stand for (the future of the planet!)
They have a richly informational website that really educates. For instance, if you can stomach it you can study what the present despoilers are doing and what they have accomplished here.
Isn't it about time we voters let the powerful know we won't support them if they don't take care of our planet?
Clean air, beautiful public spaces where nature can live, and safe water are the commons that belong to us all. Why should the profit of a few take those things we share away from us!
Senin, 28 Januari 2008
Join a CSA in Genesee County!
This is how we got into a CSA last year! Believe me, it's a good thing.
“Genesee County - do you want to know who is growing your food?”
Flint, MI - The Flint Farmers’ Market will sponsor a second annual Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) informational meeting designed to connect local farmers with urban residents who are concerned about the types of MEAT, POULTRY, EGGS, FRUITS and VEGETABLES they consume. The CSA INFORMATIONAL MEETING will be held Tuesday, February 5, at 7:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church on Saginaw Street, downtown Flint. (Parking is in the rear of the church. Enter from 4th Street.) This is the only CSA meeting the Market will sponsor before next summer, so those interested are strongly encouraged to attend. For more information please contact Dick Ramsdell, Market Manager, 810.938.4246 or chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com .
The meeting will introduce the community to the concept of a CSA, and offer those interested, the opportunity to contract directly with a local farmer this summer. More than one dozen local produce farmers and meat producers, both traditional and organic will be at the meeting to answer questions. The Flint Farmers’ Market will serve as the delivery point for farmers and the pick up point for customers, either on a Tuesday or a Thursday market day during this summer’s growing season.
A CSA links urban customers directly with the farmers who grow their food. Once established, consumers contract with a local farmer or meat producer for a specified amount of product over the growing season. This way the consumers know the person who grows their food and where it is grown. Consumers pay for the product at the beginning of the season (money which the farmer can count on, thereby planning production accordingly). The farmer provides the contracted amount and variety of produce or meat during the summer season. Last year, over 100 citizens met with local farmers at the winter meeting, with many following through on contracts during the summer of 2007. The Flint Farmers’ Market is pleased to provide this service to the community; it encourages urban residents to eat healthy local food during the Michigan growing season, and it supports local farmers with income and a predetermined customer base.
For more information please contact Dick Ramsdell, Market Manager, 810.938.4246 or chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com .
Contact: Karianne Martus, Creative Communications Company (810) 487-1626
“Genesee County - do you want to know who is growing your food?”
Flint, MI - The Flint Farmers’ Market will sponsor a second annual Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) informational meeting designed to connect local farmers with urban residents who are concerned about the types of MEAT, POULTRY, EGGS, FRUITS and VEGETABLES they consume. The CSA INFORMATIONAL MEETING will be held Tuesday, February 5, at 7:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church on Saginaw Street, downtown Flint. (Parking is in the rear of the church. Enter from 4th Street.) This is the only CSA meeting the Market will sponsor before next summer, so those interested are strongly encouraged to attend. For more information please contact Dick Ramsdell, Market Manager, 810.938.4246 or chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com .
The meeting will introduce the community to the concept of a CSA, and offer those interested, the opportunity to contract directly with a local farmer this summer. More than one dozen local produce farmers and meat producers, both traditional and organic will be at the meeting to answer questions. The Flint Farmers’ Market will serve as the delivery point for farmers and the pick up point for customers, either on a Tuesday or a Thursday market day during this summer’s growing season.
A CSA links urban customers directly with the farmers who grow their food. Once established, consumers contract with a local farmer or meat producer for a specified amount of product over the growing season. This way the consumers know the person who grows their food and where it is grown. Consumers pay for the product at the beginning of the season (money which the farmer can count on, thereby planning production accordingly). The farmer provides the contracted amount and variety of produce or meat during the summer season. Last year, over 100 citizens met with local farmers at the winter meeting, with many following through on contracts during the summer of 2007. The Flint Farmers’ Market is pleased to provide this service to the community; it encourages urban residents to eat healthy local food during the Michigan growing season, and it supports local farmers with income and a predetermined customer base.
For more information please contact Dick Ramsdell, Market Manager, 810.938.4246 or chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com .
Contact: Karianne Martus, Creative Communications Company (810) 487-1626
Jumat, 25 Januari 2008
Winter is the time for gardeners to grow
No, I don't mean our waistlines from all the sitting around reading and writing and planning. Or growing plants indoors though many of us do. I'm talking about learning more about our preoccupation. We read books, magazines, newsletters and the internet, we attend workshops and conferences, and we take time to organize, digest and internalize what we learn.
Today I sent in my five dollars to reserve a place in a beekeeping workshop at the Genesee Conservation District. It sounds fun! I'd like to keep bees, although Herb is to say the least circumspect. He keeps saying things like, bees sting people.
Well, I probably won't get a hive this year, what with the economy and being on a budget and all. But it will be fun to learn. And speaking of budgeting, the CSA organic gardening workshops I posted about a few days ago are a great deal - if I plan to help out, as a CSA subscriber I can attend for free! HOW COOL IS THAT! I though Pat's organic vegetables and greens were first rate last year, and we had more than we could use (so I froze some and gave away some). Now I get to combine the pleasure of being around like minded people, learning good skills, and I can bring my veggies home the same day! Yipee!
Today I sent in my five dollars to reserve a place in a beekeeping workshop at the Genesee Conservation District. It sounds fun! I'd like to keep bees, although Herb is to say the least circumspect. He keeps saying things like, bees sting people.
Well, I probably won't get a hive this year, what with the economy and being on a budget and all. But it will be fun to learn. And speaking of budgeting, the CSA organic gardening workshops I posted about a few days ago are a great deal - if I plan to help out, as a CSA subscriber I can attend for free! HOW COOL IS THAT! I though Pat's organic vegetables and greens were first rate last year, and we had more than we could use (so I froze some and gave away some). Now I get to combine the pleasure of being around like minded people, learning good skills, and I can bring my veggies home the same day! Yipee!
Selasa, 15 Januari 2008
Learn from an expert
I'm planning on taking this series of workshops:
Learn as You Grow:
A Practical Experience in Organic Gardening
Continuing Hands-On Workshops throughout the Growing Season
at Whetham Organic Farm
Gardening is a rewarding hobby for many people throughout the country. It relaxes us, brings us closer to nature, improves our health in many ways. Vegetable gardening also allows us to eat the freshest food possible - from garden to table as it has been done for millenia by people all around the world. But not everyone is confident in their ability to bring real food to their table or to do it in a way that is environmentally beneficial as well as healthful to them. Gardening organically is proven to be ecologically sustainable and to provide food that is more nutritious.
This series of workshops on our farm is designed to teach the philosophy and principles of organic growing to beginning gardeners and those who want to convert to organic practices. These classes will begin in late winter and continue through the season. In spring and summer the sessions will take place in the hoophouse and the garden, providing the hands-on experience needed for practical application of the information.
Participants will learn how to choose varieties and seeds; the importance of soil tests and the minerals needed to increase the fertility of your garden; how to start transplants (in seeds flats and plugs and in soil blocks) and how to transplant. All will be able to take home vegetable plants for your garden. Later in the season participants will actually work in the gardens on our farm, learning when and how to plant seeds and transplants, how to choose cover crops for summer and fall and how to compost.
Workshops will begin in late winter (February) and will continue through October. Ten sessions are planned with each session 2 to 3 hours in length. The cost to attend the entire series is $150. Individual workshops will be $25. Space is limited .
Pat Whetham has 30+ years experience with organic vegetable gardening, including 19 years on a certified organic farm.
This series of workshops focuses entirely on vegetables and herbs and will not cover flowers or ornamentals except as the same techniques apply. Fruit trees will not be covered at all but some of the information can be applied to small fruits such as strawberries.
Contact Pat at Whetham Organic Farm for details: miorganic@aol.com or 810-659-8414 or reserve your spot in the workshops by sending in the form below with a $25 deposit. Send to Pat Whetham, Whetham Organic Farm, 11230 W. Mt. Morris Rd, Flushing MI 48433.
Learn as You Grow:
A Practical Experience in Organic Gardening
Continuing Hands-On Workshops throughout the Growing Season
at Whetham Organic Farm
Gardening is a rewarding hobby for many people throughout the country. It relaxes us, brings us closer to nature, improves our health in many ways. Vegetable gardening also allows us to eat the freshest food possible - from garden to table as it has been done for millenia by people all around the world. But not everyone is confident in their ability to bring real food to their table or to do it in a way that is environmentally beneficial as well as healthful to them. Gardening organically is proven to be ecologically sustainable and to provide food that is more nutritious.
This series of workshops on our farm is designed to teach the philosophy and principles of organic growing to beginning gardeners and those who want to convert to organic practices. These classes will begin in late winter and continue through the season. In spring and summer the sessions will take place in the hoophouse and the garden, providing the hands-on experience needed for practical application of the information.
Participants will learn how to choose varieties and seeds; the importance of soil tests and the minerals needed to increase the fertility of your garden; how to start transplants (in seeds flats and plugs and in soil blocks) and how to transplant. All will be able to take home vegetable plants for your garden. Later in the season participants will actually work in the gardens on our farm, learning when and how to plant seeds and transplants, how to choose cover crops for summer and fall and how to compost.
Workshops will begin in late winter (February) and will continue through October. Ten sessions are planned with each session 2 to 3 hours in length. The cost to attend the entire series is $150. Individual workshops will be $25. Space is limited .
Pat Whetham has 30+ years experience with organic vegetable gardening, including 19 years on a certified organic farm.
This series of workshops focuses entirely on vegetables and herbs and will not cover flowers or ornamentals except as the same techniques apply. Fruit trees will not be covered at all but some of the information can be applied to small fruits such as strawberries.
Contact Pat at Whetham Organic Farm for details: miorganic@aol.com or 810-659-8414 or reserve your spot in the workshops by sending in the form below with a $25 deposit. Send to Pat Whetham, Whetham Organic Farm, 11230 W. Mt. Morris Rd, Flushing MI 48433.
Minggu, 16 Desember 2007
Yipee! Herbie wins a Silver!
Our favorite local apple orchard makes the best cider in the world, and we just happen to have a wine-maker in the family. Put the two together, and I get some lovely homemade apple wine. I knew Herbie's wine was good, but a silver medal on his first entry in the Great Lakes Olde World Syder Competition (GLOWS) is a well-deserved Attaboy.
The tale begins thirty something years ago when we were tent camping at Sleeper State Park in Caseville, Michigan. Late in the day, some folks pulled into the lot next to us just as it was beginning to sprinkle raindrops (our usual camping weather). They had a new fangled tent that they hadn't tried out yet and Herb helped them put it up, and later at the picnic table we shared a bottle of their homemade apple wine.
A few months later, a letter came in the mail from Bob Graham, of Brisco Brokers distributor of baking ingredients, with the detailed recipe for Herb to make his own delicious spiced apple cider wine. I won't share the recipe here, it is lengthy and wine making is an art I haven't explored. I have a winemaker in the family, after all!
I will reveal the recipe calls for local cider and cinnamon, cloves and mace. Herb's Porter's Cider Wine is surprisingly clear but subtly flavored with the spice, and the quality of the apple cider is a key to the quality of the flavor. Over the years, Herb has learned to taste the cider as it develops over the season (from Porter's Orchard in Goodrich, Michigan) (because the apple varieties change from week to week) and judge when it has reached the perfect tree-ripened apple-y flavor, late in the season.
Anyway, last month Herb was reading The Michigan Beer Guide (it encompasses all craft brewing and we began reading it after our son re-introduced Herb to craft beer brewing which is very popular among some serious young men) and he mentioned a competition.
Lightbulbs appeared over our heads, why not enter a bottle of his spiced apple cider wine? The rest is history...
Herb is listed as a Silver medal winner in the non-commercial division under Other Specialty Cider/Perry. The weather was threatening to make the drive to Grand Rapids difficult, so we stayed home the day of the competition, but next year you may see us there, tasting, enjoying the event, and learning more.
I've posted a few photos of Herb bottling his wine last winter... one bottle left! It's time to make another batch, and Porter's cider tastes great right NOW!
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