September 1, 2010 by Debra.

Via our friends at Slow Food Seacoast, the latest news on the current financial state of Maine Organic Milk, also known as MOOMilk:

A grand agricultural experiment — a Maine farmer-owned milk company — is close to folding and will suspend milk production this week as its principles scramble to find investment funding.

 

MOOMilk, which stands for Maine’s Own Organic Milk, processed milk Wednesday but will suspend production on Sunday, as a variety of reasons have combined to force the business toward closure. Only skim and one percent milk are still being processed since the company’s cash flow is so low that it cannot purchase two percent and whole milk car-tons.

 

“We are out of money,” David Bright, MOOMilk’s secretary and one of its founders, said this week.

 

Although the company began with 10 member farmers from Washington, Aroostook and Kennebec counties, that number has fallen to six, threatening the company’s ability to produce enough milk to remain sustainable.

 

Two farmers retired; another sold his herd; and a fourth opted to switch to conventional milk from organic.

Distributed reached more than 49 stores in Maine and New Hampshire. Currently, the company is seeking additional investment funding. Maybe some Slow Money to the rescue?  To read entire article >

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September 1, 2010 by Debra.

With what is sure to become an annual event, UNH Slow Food is sponsoring their first Seacoast Community Eat-in:

Join UNH Slow Food on Sunday, September 12 at 5:30pm for the first annual Seacoast Community Eat-In. This event is free and open to the public and will be held on the UNH campus behind Demeritt Hall, just off Main Street in Durham. This is a potluck event — bring a favorite dish to share with your friends and neighbors.

 

WHY AN EAT-IN?

Let’s face it. We lead busy lives. Often we’re too busy to share a meal with friends and neighbors, much less take the time to meet new ones. The Seacoast Community Eat-In is an opportunity for the community to take a break collectively and enjoy the company of others over a homemade meal.

 

GETTING THERE

If you are unfamiliar with the UNH campus, please click here for a map. The Eat-In will take place just behind Demeritt Hall, shown towards the center of the map. Parking is available along Main Street, next to Thompson Hall, and in various lots across campus. There is no charge for parking on Sundays.

 

Many thanks to Gordon Jenkins at Slow Food USA for use of his classic “fist and fork” logo.

For more information >

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August 31, 2010 by Debra.

Next up in Rye’s Honor Your Home Speaker Series is John Carroll, scheduled to speak on the topic “Local Foods, Farming & Sustainable Practices”:

Save Saturday, September 11th to hear Professor John Carroll, advocate for local foods and sustainable farming

 

Seacoast Science Center, 10:30–11:30 AM

 

Hope to see you there!

 

John will talk about his latest book, The Real Dirt: Toward Food Sufficiency and Farm Sustainability in New England and about his book Pastures of Plenty: The Future of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation in New England.

 

John Carroll is Professor of Environmental Conservation at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author and editor of The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food, Sustainability and Spirituality, The Greening of Faith, Ecology and Religion, Environmental Diplomacy, and International Environmental Diplomacy. He is a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow.   

 

NOT TO BE MISSED!  If you have any questions please contact Mimi White at 603-964-6586

For more information >

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

Notices for Fall events are starting to come in, including these two from Brookford Farm in Rollinsford:

Our Next Hayride is on September 11

 

Bring the kids out to the farm for a hayride on Saturday, September 11th, at 4 p.m. They’ll get the grand tour of the fields and animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens — and maybe they’ll even get to see some newborn calves. It’s totally free and no reservations are required.

 

 

October Quark Festival

 

This October 10, 2010, from 11 – 4, Brookford Farm will be hosting an event in celebration of real food & local culture with a harvest festival we are calling the Quark Festival, in honor of one of our favorite cheeses. Local artisans will be there, as well as chefs from celebrated local restaurants, and we’ve invited local musicians and farmers as well. Sample our delicious artisinal cheeses as well as other dishes made with our pasture-raised beef and pork, organic vegetables, and renowned dairy products. There will also be workshops on traditional crafts like beekeeping and food preservation, pumpkin-carving, a straw labyrinth, and of course a hayride through beautiful countryside. For kids, there will be crafts, games, activities, and more!

 

For more information, you can check out our farm website and blog at www.brookfordfarm.com and www.brookfordfarm.blogspot.com.

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

The fourth annual Kneading Conference has just ended. This yearly gathering takes place in Skowhegan, Maine, and has been a growing influence in providing our regional food system with locally-produced grains. If you haven’t had the chance to attend, a New York Times article by Marian Burros covers this year’s conference and the Artisan Bread Fair that accompanies it:

Their Daily Bread Is a Local Call Away

 

THE 250 farmers, bakers, millers, scientists and just plain eaters, all of them fanatics about the kind of bread that is so good it doesn’t need butter or jam, gathered here last month for the fourth annual Kneading Conference. They spent two days at the fairgrounds talking about locally grown, mostly organic grains — and how, after 100 years of neglect, breads made from them are beginning to pop up, in limited quantities, nationwide.

 

There were plenty of freshly baked loaves, hot out of an assortment of portable bread ovens, to persuade the uninitiated that nothing tastes as good as bread made from richly flavored varieties of grain.

 

The Kneading Conference is part of a quiet revolution whose center is Skowhegan, a town in central Maine that produced enough grain in the 1830s to feed 100,000 people. As interest in local food has risen, federal and state agriculture departments are underwriting experiments to find the best varieties of wheat, and artisanal bakers are eagerly trying the flours they produce. But it is the conference that has helped turn the scattered movement into the next new thing for locavores, and the practical topics discussed this year — building more gristmills, making old farm manuals available — reveal its progress from infancy to adolescence.

 

To read article, including mentions of Borealis Breads and Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School >

 

The above photo is from this year’s conference. To see more photos of the 2010 Kneading Conference and Bread Fair >

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

The final NOFA-NH Farm Tour of 2010 will be at Tuckaway Farm in Lee on Tuesday, August 31. If you are interested in organic, no-till techniques, small grain and oilseed production and processing, and/or production and use of biodiesel, this is a farm tour you won’t want to miss!

Organic No-Till Farm Tour

NOFA-NH 2010 Summer Organic Garden & Farm Tours

Tuckaway Farm, 59 Randall Rd, Lee, NH

Tuesday, August 31, 5:30 PM

 

This tour will be focused on organic no till equipment and limited/no till establishment of covercrops to build soil organic matter. Small grain and oilseed on-farm variety selection as well as harvesting and on-farm processing of grains and oilseeds for feed and fuel will also be discussed. On-farm biodiesel production and use will be briefly covered as well.

 

Dorn Cox has been growing organic grains and oilseeds for 7 years and researching varieties, cultivation and harvest practices. He helped found the Great Bay Grain Cooperative with nine other farms. They have helped build a local knowledge base around local grain and oil seed production and processing. Dorn is currently enrolled in the Natural Resources & Earth Systems Science PhD program at UNH focusing on carbon policy and soil based carbon sequestration. Four generations of his family currently live on two farms, Tuckaway Farm and Sheltering Rock Farm. Tuckaway Farm is a diversified mixed power (draft horse and tractor) family farm with hay, timber, small fruits and berries and a market garden with direct sales.

 

Directions:  From Concord: take US-4 E to the Rt-155 N ramp toward Durham/Dover. Turn Left onto NH-155 / Turtle Pond Rd. Stay on NH-155 for 0.8 miles, then turn left onto Randall Rd.

 

Workshop is $10 for NOFA members, $15 for non-members (children under 18 no charge). To pre-register, or if you have questions or financial need, please contact Barbara Sullivan, Business Manager NOFA-NH (Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH) 4 Park Street, Suite 208 Concord, NH 03301 Ph: 603-224-5022 Fax: 603-228-6492 Email: barbara@nofanh.org.

 

Details at: http://www.nofanh.org/node/140. Tours are held rain or shine (extreme weather will cancel).

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August 24, 2010 by Debra.

In celebration of this summer’s abundance of tomatoes, Tracey Miller will be featuring recipes for this versatile fruit on her Wellness blog — a new one every day for the last 10 days of August. The recipes will include using raw tomatoes as well as cooked, with the series starting off with one for Fresh Pasta Sauce, followed by another for Cherry Tomato Chewies. Tips on preserving will also be offered along the way. Make sure to check Tracey’s blog daily to see what’s new!

Many local farmers are offering bulk orders of tomatoes and the option of pick-your-own.  Warren Farm (weekdays 9–6, weekends 9–4) and Brookford Farm (daily except Sunday, 9:30–1 and 2:30–6) are both offering  pick-your-own tomatoes, wilth Brookford Farm also offering special pricing for bulk orders of tomato seconds. Many other farms are also taking bulk orders on tomatoes, such as Stout Oak Farm and Pickpocket Farm, or ask at your local farmers’ market. It’s a perfect time to get canning!

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August 24, 2010 by Debra.

The Greater Seacoast Permaculture Group has just announced a new meet-up featuring a workshop on season extension and hoop house construction. This hands-on workshop should prove to be popular!

Season Extension and Hoop House Construction Workshop

Greater Seacoast Permaculture Group

Dover, NH

Sunday, September 19, 10 a.m.

 

Imagine harvesting your own healthy salads right through the winter. What if you could move beyond the traditional New England growing season to “start earlier” and “harvest later?” Join us in learning the process of growing herbs and veggies beyond the standard growing season with cold tolerant / hardy plantings and using season extension structures.

 

Keeping with our Permaculture Permaculture Principle #2 to Catch and Store Energy (using the cold frame to extend the harvest), Principle #3 Obtain a yield (extended veggies!) and #9 Use Small and Slow Solutions (a simple, easily built structure)…

 

Please join David Homa, owner of Post Carbon Solutions and Kzeloumsen Permaculture Gardens, for a workshop on options for Season Extension and Hoop House construction. This session will focus on the what, why and how of season extension for the Seacoast gardener. We will discuss the suitable crops, planting strategies/schedules and types of structures that can help you with season extension. David has recently opened Urban Farm Fermentory in Portland, a place of demonstration and teaching about permaculture. You can read more about it here

 

Furthermore, we will have some hands-on experience in building a standard season-extension hoophouse for backyard/garden use that David has developed. The model we’re building is scalable and we will have hand-outs giving the directions for this size and suggested variations that you might want to consider if you build one yourself later (and teach your friends and neighbors). We can also discuss the option of starting a “hoop house raising” series of events, where we can help construct these for each other.

 

We’ll start with some background on season extension and plant selection, followed by a briefing on the hoophouse design and construction. Bring appropriate work clothes/shoes/gloves. Some power tools will be in use so please bring eye protection if you are comfortable using a saw, drill, etc.

 

After we are done, we can also take a look at what else Mary and Brock have done in their suburban setting, including sheet mulched gardens, fruit tree guilds, perennial plants, rain barrels, and more!

 

We are charging for this on a sliding scale of $5-20. Please bring an item for the potluck after we are done.

 

RSVP to this Meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/GreaterSeacoastPermaculture/calendar/14523017/

 

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August 23, 2010 by Debra.

As part of NOFA-NH’s 2010 Summer Organic Garden & Farm Tours, a workshop on bread baking in an outdoor clay oven will be offered on Saturday, August 28: 

Bread Baking in an Outdoor Clay Oven Workshop

Bible Hill Farm, Bradford, NH

Saturday, August 28, 11 a.m.

 

This will be a great opportunity to participate in the process of baking organic bread in an outdoor wood-fired “Quebec” oven made of clay and brick. Tom Dunne of Bible Hill Farm got into outdoor bread baking after he saw a clay oven built by master builder Dale Hissler. Tom then learned about the process of baking bread in this kind of oven from a breadmaker/cheesmaker in Norwich, VT, who continues to bake bread under the sky using a community clay oven. Participants will shape up to 50 small loaves, and baking will occur in three separate batches. Everyone will take home a loaf of their making. Flavors on the list will include cheddar-serrano (chile), walnut, raisin-cinnamon, French and garlic herb breads. Participants can bring other ingredients to incorporate into their dough.

 

Tom said if you want to learn how to do the process from start, you can arrive at the farm at 6 AM when he will fire up the oven and mix the dough. Tom Dunne has been raising certified organic fruits and vegetables for 9 years, and has been baking bread for 3 years. If it rains, there is plenty of porch space and an awning to continue this workshop.

 

Directions: From South, take I 89 N. Take exit 9 for NH-103 toward Warner/Bradford. Turn right at NH-103 W. Turn left at Melvin Mills Rd. Take the 2nd left onto Melvin Rd. Continue onto Bible Hill Rd. Destination will be on the right.

 

Workshop is $10 for NOFA members, $15 for non-members (children under 18 no charge). To pre-register, or if you have questions or financial need, please contact Barbara Sullivan, Business Manager NOFA-NH (Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH) 4 Park Street, Suite 208 Concord, NH 03301 Ph: 603-224-5022 Fax: 603-228-6492 Email: barbara@nofanh.org.

 

Details at http://www.nofanh.org/node/140. Tours are held rain or shine (extreme weather will cancel).

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August 21, 2010 by Debra.

Come and learn more about how to can foods properly — the UNH Cooperative Extension is holding another canning demonstration and program on Wednesday, August 25, at the Rockingham County Complex in Brentwood. This program is free and open to the public, with 60 people attending the most recent workshop there!

Yes You Can! Food Preservation Program

Wednesday, August 25, 6:30 – 8 p.m.

Location: Hilton Auditorium, Rockingham County Nursing Home, 117 North Road, Brentwood, NH, 03833

 

Drop by for a FREE Canning Demonstration and Program by Claudia Boozer-Blasco, UNH Cooperative Extension Educator

 

Learn about…

• Use of proper canning equipment

• Techniques for canning acidic fruits and vegetables safely in a water-bath canner

• Using up-to-date canning recipes

 

Open to the public and handicap accessible

 

Click here to view flyer

 

Also, an additional workshop is scheduled for Thursday, September 2, at Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH. To register or for more information, call Lynn Harrison at (603) 679-5616 or email lynn.harrison@unh.edu.

Posted in author: Debra, learning, putting food by | Print | 1 Comment »