March 12, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Over on the Yellow House website, Joe Marquette has written up step by step and stage by stage information on starting your own heritage flock of birds.

They also expanded their “chicken husbandry 101″ series to have more dates/times available, but if you still can’t make it, make sure to read up - and even though I have no immediate plans of starting my own heritage flock at my apartment, I found it immensely interesting and engaging to read about the process of raising and maintaining a flock of this nature for the long term -

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March 11, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Ted McCormack will offer the following cooking classes at the Flag Hill Winery in Lee. Chef McCormack sources significant quantities of ingredients locally, both in the cooking classes and the dinners that are served.

Friday, April 10th 2009:  ”Eggs-ellent”
Omelets
Poached
Meringue
Custard

Friday, May 15th 2009: “Pot Luck Sides”    
Portable Potatoes
Sausage, Beans, and Rice
Vegetable Salads

Friday,  June 19th 2009 :  ”Campfire Cooking”
Grilling meat and fish over a live fire
Vegetables with and without wrappers
Roasted Apples & Dutch oven cobbler

Planning, preparing and eating seasonally with local meals, poultry and cheese.
Enjoy dining on the fruits of your labor in our rustic 18th century barn.

Classes are Friday nights 6-8pm at Flag Hill Winery & Distillery in Lee, NH.

Classes are a “hands on” activity designed to demonstrate how to prepare a seasonal meal using local farmers’ meats, cheeses and vegetables.  All ages can get involved, we have had children and teenagers on up to grandparents.  We will sit in the dining room and eat our meal together afterwards.  Wine will be available for purchase.

Email ted@flaghill.com, call 603-659-2949, or sign up in our gift store for a fun time learning about preparing a seasonal meal.  Classes are limited to 12 and are $40 per person and payable in cash or check.

more information about Flag Hill Winery >

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March 10, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm Annual Open House
March 28th & 29th - 9:00 - 3:00

www.sugarmommasmaple.com

- Learn how Maple Syrup is made
- Free tours of the sugar house
- Enjoy samples of freshly made maple products

213 Ridge Rd, Northwood NH

View Larger Map

For more information: 942-7005 or debranwcr@aol.com

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March 10, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

UNH’s Child  Study and Development Center will be offering a workshop on May 2, 2009

Details and registration (.pdf)

This conference brings together educators, biologists, and gardening experts to explore the many ways gardening can be shared with young children.

How can gardening year round with young children support…

• Meaningful curriculum in and out of the classroom?
• Relationships with adults outside the school setting?
• Active engagement with plant science and the natural environment?

Sessions include:

• Maintaining outdoor classrooms through Sustainable Practices
•  Early Sprouts: Gardening & Nutrition Experiences for the Young Child
• Early Sprouts: Engaging children’s curiosity through cooking
• Integrating academic subjects through School Yard Gardening

Bo Hoppin will share how schoolyard and neighborhood gardening offers teachers and students a locally accessible tool to explore a range of social justice issues. Opening remarks are from Tom Kelly, Chief Sustainability Officer at the University of New Hampshire. Information will be presented  about a new nutrition project, practical tips from gardening experts, and have an opportunity to tour the innovative natural playground and the Learning Garden. Participants will leave inspired to incorporate gardening into your school community year round.

registration and details (.pdf)

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March 10, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

On SeacoastOnline.com >

You are what you eat…so eat well

New Cooking & Wellness Classes Focus on Nutrition and the Benefits of Eating Local and Organic Food

The majority of Americans eat too many processed foods and not enough fruit and vegetables. Reversing this equation doesn’t happen overnight. Many Americans need to learn how to eat healthy again. A new series of cooking and wellness classes will help participants focus on what to eat, and how to prepare it, with an emphasis on the benefits of eating local and organic foods.

Tracey Miller, a health and wellness counselor and Kate Donald, an organic vegetable farmer, are joining forces to teach a series of three two-hour classes in Brentwood, New Hampshire starting March 23, 2009. Miller and Donald believe that many of the best food choices come from local sustainable farms where food is grown with fewer pesticides and herbicides than on industrial farms.

read the rest of the article for more details about the classes, registration information, dates and times >

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March 9, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Mark Winne: Closing the Food Gap. April 1, MUB Theater II, 4:00 PM. Free and open to the public.

Though a land of opportunity and great fortune for some, we have never been a nation able to fully confront, let alone resolve, our social and economic inequalities and disparities. Food, like air and water, is a basic necessity, but stands as a glaring example of how the gap between this country’s “haves” and “have-nots” remains deep and wide. Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, is the former Executive Director of the Hartford Food System and a co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups, including the national Community Food Security Coalition. This program is co-sponsored by the UNH Office of Sustainability, the Discovery Program, and the Dual Major in EcoGastronomy.

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March 8, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

There are a lot of CSA shares local to the seacoast area still available, but for those of you who live or work in Massachusetts, The World Peas CSA may turn out to be a fantastic and convenient option.

The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, which is cooperatively running the World Peas CSA, is a fantastic program to help us build greater capacity for local food production through creating more farmers - frequently, helping recent immigrants become farmers.

In addition to being able to pick up shares at the farm in Dracut, this year they are also offering “cluster” pick up locations in Lowell, Andover, Medford (Tufts), East Boston, Chinatown (Tufts) as well as Chelmsford, Winchester and Lexington

View the brochure (.pdf) for more information, or email  mhimmel@comteam.org

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March 3, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Farnum Hill Ciders and the Portsmouth Brewery will hold their second annual Cider Social on Thursday, March 12, 7 p.m. at The Brewery, 56 Market Street in Portsmouth.  Tickets are available now for this event.

Join Farnum Hill Cidermakers Steve Wood and Brian Goodwin plus Portsmouth’s own Master Brewer Tod Mott for a tasting menu highlighting Farnum Hill’s ciders and hearty food pairings.  The Brewery Executive Chef Robert Martin’s four-course menu will showcase recipes developed for a new book about New Hampshire’s winemaking tradition, Wine & Dine in New Hampshire, available this spring.

Learn how cider is made and experience the great food and atmosphere at the Brewery, and hear about the ongoing partnership between two renowned New Hampshire beverage producers.

The Cider Social is $30 per person and includes a four-course tasting menu with ciders, complimentary Portsmouth Brewery beer goblets with “Cider Bucks,” and special giveaways from Farnum Hill; reservations are limited.  Please contact the Brewery at 603 431-1115 or Corrie Martin at 603 252-0737 to make your reservation.

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March 2, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

From  Tracey Miller, certified health and wellness counselor and Kate Donald, organic farmer, comes news of a series of cooking classes focused on using whole, local foods:

“Nourishing Your Family From the Inside Out:  Earth-Friendly Cooking and Wellness Classes”

March 23, April 20 & May 18, 7:00 - 9:00pm.

These classes will help participants plan for healthy meals, cook with whole ingredients, learn how farming practices impact the quality of food and health, and shift food choices toward more nutritious, locally-grown foods.

Are You too Refined? (Monday, March 23)
The standard American diet is filled with highly processed foods. Let’s face it, we all love our sweets and breads. But are you addicted to carbs? Come and learn about the effect of sugar and highly processed food on your body. You’ll also learn new recipes for healthy, but tasty snacks, how to prepare whole grains, nuts and beans to make them more digestible, and tips for stocking your pantry and freezer to save bountiful summer foods for the winter.

Slow Foods, Fast Dinner (Monday, April 20)
Want to make healthy dinners but don’t have the time? Learn how to prepare some quick and easy nutrient-dense meals and soups using homemade stocks. You’ll also learn how grassfed meats from local farms provide more nutrients than “supermarket” meats, and how to find local sources of high quality meat and poultry.

Super Nourishing Spring Greens! (Monday, May 18)
Leafy green vegetables such as arugula, spinach and kale help cleanse and detox the body after a long winter. Come learn about the health advantages of fresh organic spring greens and how to choose and prepare them. Confused about local farming techniques and what “certified organic” means? We’ll talk about the national
organic standards, other farming practices, and what questions to ask your local farmers so you know what you’re buying. You’ll learn some simple ways to prepare spring greens as well as healthy homemade dressings.

Instructors:
Tracey Miller is a certified health & wellness counselor from Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She helps individuals and families eat healthier through personal coaching, nutrition education and cooking classes.
Kate Donald is an organic vegetable farmer, and advocate for local, sustainable agriculture. She works with Seacoast
Eat Local to help consumers connect with local farmers and locally produced foods.

Location: 8 Wendell Drive, Brentwood, NH 03833
(Just outside Exeter, and only a few minutes from Route 125)
Fee: $40 per class, or $100 for all three if you pay up front.
RSVP to tosbornemiller@yahoo.com, 603-380-1080 or katedonaldnh@gmail.com, 603-580-5364

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March 1, 2009 by Sara Zoe.

Michael Pollan is a man who really understands the complexities and importance of the vast undertaking we are working on in our small way in our small corner of the world here - a complete redo of the industrial food system for the sake of our health, the health of our communities, and the health of the world. Every time I get to read some of his writing or an interview with him, it is time well spent to garner some of his thoughtfulness, insight, and understanding of how all the pieces might fit together as we build a new food system.

Here’s a piece of an interview with Michael Pollan from the February 2009 Mother Jones:

MJ: The food activism community is criticized as being elitist, blind to the issues of cost. How do we democratize better quality?

MP: It is the important question. One of the problems is that the government supports unhealthy food and does very little to support healthy food. I mean, we subsidize high fructose corn syrup. We subsidize hydrogenated corn oil. We do not subsidize organic food. We subsidize four crops that are the building blocks of fast food. And you also have to work on access. We have food deserts in our cities. We know that the distance you live from a supplier of fresh produce is one of the best predictors of your health. And in the inner city, people don’t have grocery stores. So we have to figure out a way of getting supermarkets and farmers markets into the inner cities.

MJ: By mandates?

MP: When we give people on the wic [Women, Infants, and Children] program or food stamps farmers market vouchers, lo and behold, the farmers markets show up in those neighborhoods. That said, one of the best things that Obama could do would be build 12-month farmers markets, especially in inner cities, those beautiful glass buildings you see in Barcelona or Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. It would drive economic development and local agriculture.

The other way that you democratize the food movement is pay enough for the school lunch system to buy local food, fresh food, because right now it’s all frozen and processed. You will improve the health of the students and the local economy. Supposedly it would take about a dollar per student per day.

 Read the full article here and don’t forget to visit our own almost-year-round-but-not-yet-in-a-beautiful-glass-building winter market on Saturday, March 7th from 10am-2pm at the Stratham Town Hall. More information here>

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