May 23, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

From the New England Field 2 Fork Project:

May 29th and 30th Chef Sebastian Carosi, founder of The New England Farm 2 Fork Project will bring you an eco-gastronomic tasting tour of what some of the earlier ‘local’ inhabitants may have dined on throughout the year, while utilizing some of Maine’s premier sustainably raised farm products.

The 8 course feast will reflect the influence of an early farming society that supplemented with hunting and gathering. The evening’s menu will feature:
Maine rasied red deer . Perkins Cove juniper berries . heirloom Apappaloosa beans . American snapping turtle . forage wild greens . steelhead . wild ramps . red alder smoked Maine sea salt . Ossipee mountian cherrywood . mountain trout . black bear . sinzibukwud cured duck . suppawn . heirloom crane-berries . pickled sunflower seeds . swamp cabbage . rhubarb . fry bread . corn smut ( cuitlacoche ) . wildflower honey . misickquatash . Abenaki indian pudding . organic greenthread tea . Bond Mountain spring water

$45 p/p    ( plus tax & gratuity )

Call the field phone direct for reservations- 207-459-4271.  Seating is limited to 30 people per night. Dinner will be held at Raven Hill Orchard, 255 Ossipee Hill Road, East Waterboro, ME 04043

Inquiries, questions and comments for The New England Farm 2 Fork Project should be directed to:  info@thenewenglandfarm2forkproject.com

Brought to you by The New England Farm 2 Fork Project, an organization bent on raising local food supply awareness and reviving old world foodways and the traditions and histories that surround the American table. The New England Farm 2 Fork Project is a roving rural eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage food-ways and the pleasures that surround the American table and kitchen. Chef Sebastian Carosi and his band of ‘Roving Rural Culinary Visionaries’ present a series of ‘on farm’ dinners, brunches, and culinary educational events that are planned throughout the season. These events will be held in the barns, fields, and pastures of several small organic farms, micro-creamery’s, cattle ranches, heirloom apple orchards and dairies that dot our bountiful landscape. The New England Farm 2 Fork Project is working closely with these farmers and producers to raise local food supply awareness and to support sustainable agriculture and economic development throughout our little corner of America.

To view our schedule of up-coming events go to:  www.thenewenglandfarm2forkproject.com

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May 22, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

Soils are becoming an increasingly visible piece of the carbon challenges we’re facing - particularly utilizing soil’s ability to sequester the carbon. Farmers are participating, and so can home gardeners. From the Union of Concerned Scientists comes this handy guide!

Seventy percent of American households engage in some level of gardening or lawn care every year. Some do it for beautiful flowers, lush grass, or fresh fruits and vegetables; some for the peace and quiet or the connection to nature. But there is another reason to grow plants in your yard: certain gardening practices can help combat global warming. This guide will show you how. First, we explain the science linking soil, plants, and climate change; then we provide practical tips for a more climate-friendly garden, and links to resources that will help you adapt these tips to your own needs.

View the full .pdf

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May 22, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

“Join us at Nature’s Wonders as we learn about Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit. Your child will get to read Peter Rabbit and other books, explore in the garden, and write stories about their own favorite animals.” Call  436-6756 or email natureswonders@gmail.com if you have any questions.

3 weekly sessions, sign up for all or just one.  Each session will allow for some time for spontaneous play–digging for worms, playing hide and seek in the woods, building fairy houses or just laying in the grass watching the clouds.  Parents will get many ideas of how to incorporate reading and writing outside in fun ways.

June 3rd from 3:30 to 5:00: Read Peter Rabbit and learn about Rabbits
June 10 at 3:30 to 5:00: Plant miniature gardens, screen compost, and learn how to build your own compost pile
June 17 from 3:30 to 5:00: Write our own stories about animals and begin to illustrate them.

This class is offered after school so children of all ages are welcome.
$25/class or $60 for all 3 sessions. Space is limited so reserve now.

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May 21, 2010 by Heather.

The York County Farmers’ Networkwill be meeting on Tuesday, May 25, 2010, at 5:30 p.m. at Tibbetts  Family Farm, 765 Clarks Wood Road, Lyman, ME, to learn about Composting on a Small Diversified Farm.

John and Elaine Tibbetts have established a commercial composting operation to supplement their diversified farm which also includes vegetables, bedding plants, and pork production. The Tibbetts haul manure from over 60 farms and incorporate local sources of waste nitrogen such as food waste as ingredients for their composting operation.

The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a potluck dinner and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m.

See the flyer, Composting on a Small Diversified Farm, for more information.

Don’t forget to also visit the York County Farmers’ Network website, www.ycfn.org.

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May 21, 2010 by Debra.

Learn more about cows and the part they play in the rural culture of New Hampshire at this upcoming presentation by Steve Taylor, the former NH Agriculture Commissioner:

Cows and Communities: How the lowly bovine has nurtured New Hampshire through four centuries

A presentation by Steve Taylor, former NH Agriculture Commissioner

Tuesday, May 25, 7:00 PM

The Chesley Library at the corner of Routes 4 and 43 in Northwood, NH

Cattle were essential to the survival of the earliest New Hampshire settlements and their contributions have been central to the life and culture of the state ever since. From providing dietary sustenance to basic motive power, bovines have had a deep and enduring bond with their keepers, one that lingers today and is a vital part of the iconography of rural New Hampshire. Where are New Hampshire’s cows today? What are they doing for us now? Some answers will surprise you. The program will be presented by Steve Taylor: independent scholar, farmer, journalist, and longtime public official. Taylor operates a dairy and maple farm in Meriden Village, New Hampshire, and served a quarter century as NH’s Commissioner of Agriculture. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor. He was also the first Executive Director of the NH Humanities Council and is a lifelong student the state’s rural culture.

Co-sponsored by Chesley Library, the NH Humanities Council, The Blaisdell Memorial Library in Nottingham and the Philbrick-James Library in Deerfield.

The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Donna Bunker at (603) 942-5472.

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May 20, 2010 by Heather.

The USDA is seeking applications from farmers, agricultural producers, and owners of rural small businesses to purchase renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements. The funding is provided through USDA Rural Development’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The deadline is June 30, 2010, for nation-wide applications, however, states have also been given funding for in-state competition. Applicants wishing to be considered for the in-state funding must submit applications no later than close of business (4:30 p.m.), Friday, May 21, 2010. A second round of applications will be accepted for in-state funding and must be received by 4:30 p.m., Friday, June 4, 2010.For more information you can read the full USDA press release: REAP Application Deadline release.

And more information on how to apply for funding is available in the April 26, 2010, Federal Register: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-9580.pdf.

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May 20, 2010 by Heather.

On Saturday, June 5, 2010, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Dover Cassily Community Garden will kick off its new Children’s Summer Activity Series with a morning of planting seeds and seedlings at the garden. Children of all ages are encouraged to come and participate. The series will be twice a month and programs will focus on New England’s growing cycles, caring for and eating locally grown food, community interaction, and fun.

The June 5th event is limited to 15 children. Please e-mail Traci McMath-Hlavac at the.mogget@yahoo.com to sign up or with any questions.

Here’s a flyer about the event for more information as well. DCCG Children’s Summer Activity Series

Posted in author: Heather, events | Print | No Comments »

May 19, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

From the SGA email newsletter:

Start Your Garden Days
Special Events
at Exeter and Portsmouth
** This week only! **

• “Ask the Farmer” booth
• Transplanting demonstration
• Gardening information booth with NH Cooperative Extension
• Organic seeds for sale from High Mowing Seeds
  
• Organic compost for sale from Seacoast Farms Compost
  

PORTSMOUTH
Saturday May 22

• “Ask the Farmer” booth with Stout Oak Farm’s Kate Donald and Ellen Mitchell from Wit’s End Growers
• Transplanting demonstration
• Organic seeds for sale from High Mowing Seeds
• Slow Food Seacoast will guest host the Market Info Booth

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May 18, 2010 by Debra.

In a recent essay, “Farm Ec: What our customers teach us,” a Canadian farmer explores the transaction between farmer and customer, and shows that it’s not just a matter of simple economics:

I have just hung up the phone after talking with the owner of a Thai restaurant in a neighboring city. He wanted to order 100 pounds of locally produced boneless and skinless chicken breasts. Every week.

I had to break the news to him that we can only raise 300 of our outdoor birds each year. We sell them to our list of loyal customers who happily snap them up whole, frozen, right from our farm freezers.

Lover’s Creek Farm is a small farm, rather than a butcher shop. Besides, if we sold all our chicken breasts, we would be left with wings, drumsticks, and a whole lot of soup bones.

Farmer Mark Hall explains further:

In a time when so much coverage about local food and local farms focuses on glitzy restaurant meals, celebrity chefs, and flashy magazine spreads, we find our faithful customers are the ones who know the most about local food and how best to enjoy it.

Many of them have large families and like the savings and convenience of buying their beef and pork by the side. A number of them are homeschoolers and incorporate food — and where it comes from — into their own homegrown curriculums. And they can be geniuses when it comes to stretching the meat for their families…

For more on why Hall’s customers get more than boneless, skinless chicken breasts when they come to his farm, visit Culinate.

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May 18, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

Great Island Garden Club Plant Sale

Saturday, May 22, 2010
8:30 - 1pm

Indoors in the Recreation Building  at the Great Island Common - plenty of parking, Route 1B - New Castle, NH

Master Gardeners available on site.

Locally grown Vegetable and Herb Plants for sale!!

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