Seacoast Eat Local

UNH Cooperative Extension, Rockingham County, will be holding a workshop for you to learn about using edible flowers from your garden on Monday, July 19, 2010. Here is more information about their class:

Edible Flowers, a free 30-minute presentation by UNH Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Dot Cole, will be held on Monday, July 19, at 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the Demonstration and Instruction Garden, across from the Rockingham County Complex at 113 North Road in Brentwood. Come learn which flowers are safe for consumption before experimenting with blossoms in your own garden. Cole will share some of her favorite recipes and demonstrate what blooms can be included in recipes and used as garnishes.

The Demonstration and Instruction Garden is a multi-acre site sponsored by the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program. Its mission is to promote environmental awareness through education, demonstration, conservation, and research. The gardens include a children’s garden, butterfly garden, trial garden, and many other theme gardens. All are welcome to join the Master Gardeners as they plan, plant, weed, and tend trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables in the display and test gardens on Mondays from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The garden is located in the meadow, at the bottom of the hill, behind the Rockingham County Complex maintenance buildings. Please park in the lot directly across from the complex at 113 North Road and walk down the dirt road to the garden.

UNH Cooperative Extension provides New Hampshire citizens with research-based education and information, enhancing their ability to make informed decisions that strengthen youth, families and communities, sustain natural resources, and improve the economy. For more information about the Master Gardener Program, or to learn about educational programs in Rockingham County, call (603) 679-5616 or visit http://bit.ly/rockingham. 

Maine’s Own Organic Milk or M.O.O. Milk is the result of an unusual partnership — the milk is produced on Maine farms, and trucked, processed and distributed through a strong network of family-owned businesses, all in Maine. And integral to this partnership is you, the consumer. From Marada Cook of Crown O’ Maine Organic Cooperative:

I usually like to start off easy, but we need to have a hard talk.  M.O.O. Milk needs your help.

 

MOO Milk is the one milk company in the state that stands a chance of offering farmers an independent outlet for organic milk, at a price that makes organic dairy farming commercially viable in Maine.

 

That means, the visitors that love green fields need to drink M.O.O. Milk.

The residents who like their cows to eat hay in the winter instead of a heavy grain diet need to drink M.O.O. Milk.

The moms who care what their kids will look like in 5 or 10 years (never mind themselves) need to drink M.O.O. Milk.

The folks that want farms to thrive in Maine and think that agricultural subsidies are ruining this country need to drink M.O.O. Milk.

The economists who wring their hands over the collapse of the medium scale ag infrastructure in this state need to drink M.O.O. Milk.

Anyone who thinks M.O.O. Milk is too expensive needs to drink M.O.O. Milk.

 

The only way to bring the price of M.O.O. Milk into line with people’s milk expectations is to convey to them that the state minimum pricing for milk is a smokescreen hiding farm decay and false economics. M.O.O. Milk (and any small raw dairy, for that matter) are offering milk at the only price that is ‘affordable’ to our industry. The difference between a small raw dairy and M.O.O. is that M.O.O. Milk works for organic dairy farmers across the state, not just one individual farm. It is the Crown O’Maine of Milk.

 

Without high price benchmarks, we cannot keep farm bankruptcy at bay. Without a company that works for farmers, such as M.O.O. Milk, there is no one to wave a flag when the pricing of milk no longer reflects the costs to produce it.

 

We need M.O.O. Milk to survive so it can grow as a model for other commodity products in Maine.   The state minimum is not enough to help local agriculture thrive. And now is the time for you to take a stand.

 

Six weeks. That is how much time M.O.O. Milk Company has to grow its customer base by 3000 gallons a week.

 

That’s how long I want you to put M.O.O. into every cup of coffee at your store or restaurant. Every scoop of gelato. Every glass your toddler downs. Every Vichyssoise. Every cat dish. I mean that.

 

You don’t even have to buy it from me, but if you want this company to succeed, you have to buy it now.

 

Marada

 

PS: Did I mention it tastes great?

For more information on M.O.O. Milk and where it can be purchased locally >