The Coventry WinterFresh Farmers' Market

Coventry WinterFresh Market Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday, two of our staff members, myself included, went to table at the Coventry WinterFresh Farmers' Market in Coventry, CT, out by Tolland and the University of Connecticut.  The event was wonderful - as someone who had never been to the Coventry Market before, I was thoroughly impressed by both the turnout of attendees and the selection of goods for sale.  It may be the end of winter - that tricky time of year when stored produce from the fall starts to run out while it's still too early to begin planting many summertime favorites - but that doesn't mean you can't find a variety of delicious options from local producers.  In this respect the Coventry Market is a real winner.  The locally grown and produced goods really cover all bases, from seafood to greenhouse and storage produce, to diary, meat, baked goods, and even hot sauce!  Not to mention the stands selling inedible items like beeswax candles, clothing, and cutting boards.  This market is a great example of what CT NOFA is trying to promote with its Winter Food Project: increased access to safe, healthy, local food throughout the year.  The first step in that process is to get the word out about what is available year-round in the state, so tell your friends about this and other winter markets listed on our website.

Here is a brief description of the Winter Market, as provided by the Coventry Market's website:

A photo of me next to CT NOFA's table and display board

Coventry WinterFresh Farmers’ Market brings you more than 30 local farmers and specialty food producers, from 11-2, Sundays, at Coventry High School, 78 Ripley Hill Rd. in Coventry, Connecticut. Running from November 20 through the end of February, our WinterFresh Market makes it easier to eat seasonally and locally through the depths of winter. We offer the freshest, tastiest food grown and produced in the state every Sunday, in a warm, indoor setting with good parking and easy access. We’ve lured the best farmers and food producers in Connecticut! We think you’ll be impressed! 

This was a great event for us to table at because it not only served as an easy informal way to reach audiences that didn't previously know about CT NOFA and our programs, but also was a wonderful opportunity to do a little grocery shopping!  If you'd like to come table for CT NOFA at a farmers market this spring, send me an email.  We have many volunteer opportunities coming up at markets and outreach events across the state, especially as Earth Day in April draws closer.  Volunteering for us is fun, educational, and often delicious!

Have a great afternoon!
-Melissa

Why Seed Catalogs are Great Tools

Our newest edition of Gleanings eNews features organic seed catalogs as this month's favorite tools. Since new organic seed catalogs have just come out for the 2012 season, now is a good time to note how informative and useful seed catalogs can be when starting out your garden or farm for the year.  Really knowing what kinds of seed grow best in a particular soil and climate and when it's best to plant them can mean the difference between a successful harvest and a loss.  Seed catalogs (and the people working behind the scenes to compile them) provide more than just an indexed list of products for sale.  They represent a wealth of knowledge from decades of experience working with seeds.  If you are a farmer or gardener, taking every opportunity to soak up this kind of accumulated know-how can really put you ahead in terms of your production, regardless of whether you are growing for personal or commercial use.

A recent interview by A Way to Garden highlights one individual in the vast well of organic seed producers.  C.R. Lawn, the voice behind Fedco Seeds, is not only an expert on organic seed and production, but also was a keynote speaker at one of our past winter conferences, a co-author of the NOFA Handbook on saving seeds, and his business is a co-plaintiff in our suit against Monsanto.  In the interview, C.R. dicusses a host of topics ranging from his heroes, to the Monsanto lawsuit, to giving advice about the best lettuces, peas, and potatoes.  The following segment was particularly interesting:

Q. I have a famous garden friend who despite his expertise (and Italian heritage) lamented he could never ripen a proper crop of figs. Has any plant escaped your attempts at cultivation, or otherwise exasperated you?

A. I have never done well with peppers or eggplant. With peppers I think it is mostly that I have farmed in two windy locations and I have observed that peppers hate wind. They did much better when I built them little cages with row covers over.

I think plants know when you don’t like to eat them and they won’t grow for you. The eggplant falls in that category. Though a good chef can make an eggplant dish that I would eat, I lack that ability. The plants seem to know that and never grow for me. It doesn’t help that they prefer a great deal of heat (Maine sure was not warm enough for them most years), and they seem to be a favorite target for the Colorado Potato Beetle, which in my experience will decimate them must faster than it will potatoes.

C.R. makes a good point in this section that it's important to grow what you enjoy cooking and eating.  If you love what you grow you will have a vested interest in its success, and all that hard work will be all the more delicious come harvest time!

Have a great afternoon!

Create a Slow Food Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving only 3 days away, cooking and celebrating is on everyone's mind, and for those of us who are spearheading the cooking this year, the task may seem a bit overwhelming.  But fear not, holiday kitchen crusaders, for there are resources you can use to make your holiday run smoother and be more eco-friendly.  The folks at Slow Food have developed a guide complete with recipes, information, and helpful tips that will help you have a more delicious, less time consuming, and more sustainable Thanksgiving.  Check out these tips for saving time and money while boosting the nutritional content, flavor, and appearance of your cooking.  And the list of recipes is very comprehensive, taking into account both vegetarian needs and what to do with the leftovers after the big day.  The guide also delves into the history behind the holiday, avoiding the sugar coated story often taught to us through advertising and the school system. 

A couple weeks ago, I posted about the advantages in buying a local, organic, sustainable, or heritage turkey.  Slow Food's guide also has information and resources about sustainable and heritage turkeys, and in my opinion elegantly describes why it's ultimately in your best interest as a consumer to go this route.

Thanksgiving is, as a modern holiday, a time to celebrate the bounty and joy of life with family and friends.  We live in a fast-paced technologically advanced society, but that doesn't need to overwhelm us this holiday season.  Finding the time to relax and enjoy your local harvest is not only good for the economy and the environment, but good for you as well.

Wishing you the best of luck in your pre-holiday preparation,
-Melissa

How to Buy a Delicious and Ecologically Sustainable Turkey

Photo: Brandon Siedel/ Shutterstock

With Thanksgiving only a few weeks away, the time has come for many Americans to start searching for the perfect bird.  If it's your turn to cook this year, and you want to make sure you can compete with Aunt Janice the chef and Uncle John who's been cooking turkeys for 30 years, consider choosing a sustainably raised turkey from a farm near you.  You'll be boosting your local economy, helping the environment, and your turkey will taste better than its factory farm-bred cousins.  The Mother Nature Network lists a few tips on getting a bird that will wow your guests and promote sustainable healthy living:

If you're part of the majority of Americans who don't shoot their own turkey, be aware of where the bird you're buying comes from.  If you get your poultry from a farm, farmer's market, or CSA, talk to the farmer and find out how the bird was raised.  If you're buying from a grocery store, talk to the butcher or store manager, or carefully read the labels on the bird's packaging.  Some labels are more reliable than others, so make sure you're informed.  For instance, a label claiming a bird was "free range" realistically means almost nothing since an animal that's only been allowed outside for five minutes a day can be considered free range, and even that rule is not enforced by any organization other than the manufacturer.  A great resource to check the reliability of labels for all kinds of foods can be found here.

If you are looking for superior flavor, buy either a heritage, organic, or sustainably produced turkey. Sustainable agriculture isn't just good for the environment and for livestock; it's also good for your taste buds.  Ninety-nine percent of all turkeys raised in the United States are Broadbreasted White, a variety that has been bread to have abnormally large amounts of breast meat.  This means that the birds can't walk or breed properly, and, according to the UN, without artificial insemination by humans the entire species would go extinct within one generation.  Raised in confinement in extremely crowded conditions, they are fed a steady diet of grain and antibiotics rather than the grubs, bugs and grasses they should eat and could eat if they were allowed outdoors.  It's no wonder that in blind taste tests, factory-farmed Broadbreasted White turkey proved to be inferior in flavor to sustainably produced, organic, and heritage breeds of turkey, but conventional wisdom still dictates the false notion that Broadbreasted White turkeys raised on large factory farms taste the best.  Heritage turkeys are breeds that were around before Broadbreasted White existed, and many of them originated in America.  Organic birds are raised without growth enhancers or antibiotics, and eat organic feed.  Sustainable is a term that's a bit harder to pin down, but basically refers to farmers who treat their land, animals, and workers with respect, so that the farm will remain sustainable for generations to come, hence the name.  Although sustainable has no legal regulations like Certified Organic, sustainable farms often exceed USDA Organic guidelines.

In the end, the key is to buy local.  The best way to know for sure how your turkey was raised is to buy it from a local source, where you can literally see the conditions that the birds are living in.  Buying local is good for your regional economy and it's easier than you think.  Local Harvest and the Eat Well Guide are both great resources to search for a farm near you.

Happy Hunting!

-Melissa

National Geographic on Heirloom Varieties

The July Issue National Geographic includes a feature article titled “Food Ark” about the role of seed diversity in being able to feed a growing population.  The article discusses the value of heirloom vegetables as more than a trend among gardeners, specialized farmers and boutique grocery stores. While many people say they prefer supermarkets because of the variety of foods available, the truth is that the agriculture industry threatens the world’s crop diversity.  Mono cropping reduces genetic diversity of plants and then also spreads disease between plants.  Heirloom varieties, on the other hand, are passed down from year to year, often through families.  Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated (which means that the seeds can be saved) and maintain a distinctive genetic makeup.  With so many varieties of the same kind of produce, certain distinct varieties can be grown almost anywhere: some might be drought or flood resistant, some are immune to certain plant diseases or better for shade.

Reporter Charles Siebert writes:  “. . . The movement to preserve heirloom varieties goes way beyond America's renewed romance with tasty, locally grown food and countless varieties of tomatoes. It's also a campaign to protect the world's future food supply.” You can read the article here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/siebert-text but check out the accompanying articles about food scarcity and growing your own heirloom varieties: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/growing-heirlooms.  One of the heirloom seed providers mentioned in the article is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds which owns the Comstock, Ferre & Co Store in Wethersfield Connecticut http://comstockferre.com/.  Also check out the photo galleries of uncommon chickens, rare cattle, and seeds.  

Here is a graphic from the article showing the reduction in seed varieties from a century ago.

Graph Credit: National Geographic 2011 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/food-variety-graphic