Seacoast Eat Local

This Saturday there will be two winter farmers’ markets happening. Both Rye and Newmarket will be hosting markets.

Rye’s market will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Rye Junior High School, 501 Washington Road. There will be many vendors participating, as you can see by looking at the vendor list, with lots of great things ranging from NH- and ME-made gourmet chocolates and sweets to fresh cut flowers, and all kinds of meats and veggies. This will be Rye’s last winter market. Visit their website for more information.

Newmarket’s market will be from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Stone Church, 5 Granite Street. This market will also have a lot available. From artisan breads and pastries to gourmet mushrooms, as well as the trusty meats and veggies, there’s sure to be something for you. Newmarket has recently added two more markets to its schedule.

Look here to find the remaining winter farmers’ markets before it’s time to kick off the summer schedule.

This Thursday, March 18, at 8:00 p.m. on New Hampshire Public Television, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, and Vermont Public Television, Making Sense New England will be airing a segment on Community Supported Fisheries. Featured in the story are Bob Campbell, manager of Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative, and David Goethel, a Hampton, NH, fisherman.

For information on the show visit the NH Public Television website.

For information on local seafood visit our Learning About Seafood section, take a look at our list of CSA and CSFs, or visit New Hampshire Seafood.

Tucked into the Spring 2010 issue of the magazine Vermont’s Local Banquet is a short piece on a local-ish seed company, Solstice Seeds. What began with neighbors sharing with neighbors through the Clay Hill Collective CSA, is now being made available to a wider community circle. Add Solstice Seeds to the growing list of regionally-produced seeds:

New Seed Catalogue Offers Locally Grown Varieties

Vermont gardeners face particular challenges—a short growing season and increasingly wet summers are just two examples. But a gardener’s chances for success are greatly increased if they plant varieties that have been grown out right here in Vermont for several years, a process that allows the seed to adapt to Vermont’s unique conditions. Locally grown seed allows gardeners to preserve varieties that might otherwise disappear from commercial sources, as well as varieties that have personal, cultural, or historic meaning. This seed also tends to have more vigor and a better germination rate than seed grown in distant places. And it produces vegetables that are more resistant to disease and store well in root cellars, helping us extend the growing season.

With these benefits in mind, Hartland seed saver Sylvia Davatz recently started a small seed company aimed at offering a selection of local vegetable seeds to gardeners. The Solstice Seed Catalogue, now in its second year, includes roughly 80 open-pollinated varieties of everything from amaranth to watermelon. Originally collected from both near and distant sources, all have been grown and trialed in Hartland. Each variety is grown organically and evaluated according to several criteria, and the seed is stored under ideal conditions. Seed packets are sized for the home gardener.

For more information or a .pdf of the 2010 catalogue,  email Sylvia Davatz at sdav@valley.net. Thank-you to Hanover Community Gardens for making the catalog available online.