April 5, 2011 by Debra.

It’s no secret that school food, more often than not, is simply awful. The first season of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution made an indelible impression, and exposed some of the seemingly insurmountable constraints facing school cafeterias. Next, Jamie takes on the Los Angeles school district, with the second season scheduled to premiere on April 12th:

“It is easier to get a gun, crack, or a prostitute in a lot of areas in Los Angeles before you can get a tomato.”

 

— L.A. school administrator, from preview of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, via Eater.com

However, there are those who are taking on the task of nourishing healthy children and, with passion and commitment, are making real changes. Doris Demers, the Director of School Nutrition for York and Kittery, is just one of the many here on the Seacoast:

“It doesn’t matter to me if a tomato or a pepper isn’t perfect to look at. We’ll just dice it up and use it in the lunches,” says Doris. “The more local a fruit or vegetable, the fresher it is because it doesn’t have to travel across the country.”

 

— from “The Challenge of School Lunch,” The York Independent

 ”Beef is one of those things that really concerned me,” she said. “You see so many recalls and food borne illnesses; it’s a director’s nightmare.” Grass fed beef comes at a cost for consumers, and for the school. Demers is paying 70 cents a patty for grass fed beef, compared to paying only the cost of shipping for the USDA commodity beef, a price of about a nickel a patty. The 70-cent cost does not include the whole wheat bun, or any toppings from the salad bar. Added together, each burger she serves, costs the school $1, double the price of the typical cafeteria meal. ”It’s just something I felt was really worthwhile,” she said.

 

 — from “Kittery, York Schools move to grass fed beef,” SeacoastOnline.com

A little further north, children had their own say with Slow Food Portland’s inaugural Young Food Writers Competition. Zoe Popovic, a fourth grader in Westbrook, ME, wrote about what school lunch means to her in her winning essay, “The Season in my stomach”:

I usually bring my own lunch to school. Sometimes the kids that buy lunch tease me. It used to bother me, but it doesn’t anymore. I know where my food comes from. I have seen it in the fields; I’ve dug my own potatoes. My food is always changing. I can tell the season by what is in my lunch box. Starting the year with the summer harvest and the green taste of basil on my juicy tomato and mozzarella sandwich. Before I know it I have a thermos filled with butternut squash ravioli with sweet apples just picked over the weekend. In winter the staples from our farm share – rice and beans. I know summer vacation is on its way when my lunch turns green again with veggie wraps filled with baby greens. I also see yogurt mixed with the preserves from last summer’s days spent picking blueberries and I know that soon I will be back in those fields…

 

— from “Soup to nuts: eat, write, say,” The Portland Press Herald

And now it’s your turn — the Child Nutrition Act was passed in 2010 and, as the USDA figures out how to move from legislation to implementation, they are seeking input. The comment period is open until April 13th, coincidentally the day after Jamie returns. Help urge the USDA to:

• encourage schools to offer local, seasonal fruits and vegetables wherever possible.

• provide training and technical assistance on how to purchase locally grown products.

• partner with the Department of Education to help build food and nutrition education in the schools.

• work with other agencies and Congress to restore equipment funding as an essential line item within school meals programming.

 

— from “Tell USDA how you feel about school lunch,” Slow Food USA

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March 11, 2011 by Debra.

In honor of International Women’s Day, this week’s round-up of choice bits features an article on women farmers, including two from New Hampshire; why women farmers can solve world hunger; and how the ranks of women brewers and butchers are growing.

Three Cheers for Women

Amanda cites not only the community at large but a community among women farmers in Southwestern New Hampshire as an important resource. “Women farmers in this area have a strong bond with each other, we are connected in a powerful way. We go for months without speaking to each other, but whenever we need anything we can turn to one another. It’s a great supportive network.” In fact, Amanda told me that farmer Tracie was a huge inspiration to her when she was first considering changing her career to farming. “I thought, if she could do it, so could I,” says Amanda.

 

— Real Time Farms

Closing the gender gap in agriculture

Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, the report said. But this is not because women are worse farmers than men. They simply do not have the same access to inputs. If they did, their yields would go up, they would produce more and overall agricultural production would increase, the report said.

 

“The report makes a powerful business case for promoting gender equality in agriculture,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. “Gender equality is not just a lofty ideal, it is also crucial for agricultural development and food security. We must promote gender equality and empower women in agriculture to win, sustainably, the fight against hunger and extreme poverty,” he added.

 

— Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Shattering Beer’s Glass Ceiling: the Rise of Women Brewers

What’s changing? Partly it’s a matter of the numbers reaching a critical mass. “More women are starting to realize there’s a place in the industry for them,” Parisi said. But it’s also part of the changing place of beer in American culture. “More women are drinking beer on their own, and that’s led to greater awareness. I see it at the bar. I was here at our bar doing a tasting, and there were three women with a tower of beer. It was a great sight.”

 

— The Atlantic

In Heels and Backwards — Women Butchers Break Bones and Barriers

 

Butchery is understanding the anatomy and using muscle, gravity, and knife skills. It’s tearing something at the seams, finding that space between the muscles and joints. These are not gender-specific skills. In fact, she finds women are often better at these skills than men. Using the rock-climbing example she says “a man might simply muscle his way up a rock wall, while a woman might use more finesse to work their way up. Both will get there.”

 

— Good Eater Collaborative

Lindy & Grundy: Female butchers with a sustainable philosophy

“I don’t think it’s shocking that people would be intimidated by someone who’s wielding a knife and splattered in blood,” Dawson says. “But they have an approachable female face … it’s more accessible. Many of the butchers around are not people the younger generation would look at as peers. I think they’re filling a much-needed niche.”

 

— LA Times

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March 4, 2011 by Debra.

This week’s selection of must-read choice bits keeps closer to home as writer Rachel Forrest hits a triple with articles on three hometown supporters of local food:  on the nomination of Black Trumpet Bistro’s Evan Mallet’s for a James Beard Award, an announcement on the latest development of  3S Artspace’s farm-to-table restaurant, and how Chef Evan Hennessey is introducing UNH students to molecular gastronomy based on local ingredients.

Mallett named semi-finalist for best chef award

A week ago, one of chef Evan Mallett’s specialty microgreens suppliers told him he had been named a semifinalist for a James Beard Award in the category of Best Chef Northeast.

 

“After that, I checked e-mail, and there were e-mails from anyone I’d ever known in this business,” Mallett said.

 

Mallett, who previously was the chef at Lindbergh’s Crossing, bought the 29 Ceres St. restaurant with wife Denise in 2007. Now chef for his own restaurant, Black Trumpet Bistro, Mallett said the chance to receive one of his field’s most coveted honors came out of the blue.

 

“My initial reaction was one of disbelief. I feel I have yet to get to the point to where I think I deserve it,” he said. “That led to a weeklong period of reflection. There are so many chefs who are deserving of this. And there are chefs out there on the covers of magazines for whom that is validating and affirming in ways I don’t seek.”

 

Read more >

3S Artspace partners with firm on “farm-to-table” restaurant

When 3S Artspace opens in mid-2012, just about all of the creative arts will be represented — music, dance, literary and theater in the performance space, visual arts in the gallery and the tastiest creative genre — culinary arts in a full service, farm-to-table restaurant called “Gather.”

 

3S Artspace, New Hampshire’s first nonprofit contemporary arts space, announced on Monday its partnership with Manchester-based E&C Hospitality Consulting Services, which is working with 3S to design and implement a sustainable restaurant model that fulfills the organization’s broader mission. The Artspace will be built in the former Frank Jones fermentation center off Islington Street.

 

“The name Gather embodies the essence of our restaurant concept in at least two ways,” said MJ Blanchette, 3S board member. “One of our key objectives is that the restaurant will serve as a community gathering space — a place where people will come together to discuss and exchange ideas over creative, nurturing food and drink. Gather also actively communicates the restaurant’s farm-to-table philosophy of sourcing and serving local food whenever possible.”

 

Read more >

Inspirations from Earth, Water, Wind at gourmet dinner

Air into flavor, fiery heat, earthy aromas and cool water are the inspirations behind the next round of Gourmet Dinners put on by the hospitality management students at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

 

On March 4 and 5, guests can take a journey through the essential elements in the whimsical multi-course Savor the Elements meal with Chef Evan Hennessey of Flavor Concepts, his catering company. The chef is well known for his finesse at the culinary wizardry and innovation known as Molecular Gastronomy and his work with the students, he says, has been a terrific experience.

 

“These techniques were very new to them,” says Hennessey. “It was like I was someone who popped off the ‘Top Chef’ show. They’d never seen it before in their work. They were very receptive. Foams, froths, air — it was a ‘wow’ for them. They’re excited to see all the stuff that looks easy on TV, thanks to (’Top Chef’ contestant) Richard Blaze, but it’s not easy. You have to have an understanding of food to do this. You can’t just jump right to the molecular fun.”

 

Read more >

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March 3, 2011 by Debra.

The White House ventures further into eating locally with their homebrewed White House Honey Ale, made with honey from the White House beehive. Growing their own hops might be next! Obama Foodarama, which covers White House food initiatives, reports:

The Obamas Make History With Homebrewed White House Honey Ale

 

White House beermaking is a milestone in American culinary history that will continue; there might even be Hops planted in the Kitchen Garden.

 

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made culinary history when they served homebrewed White House Honey Ale, made with a pound of honey from the White House Beehive, to guests at last month’s Super Bowl party. They are the first presidential couple to ever charge their chefs with the ancient–and now wildly popular–art of homebrewing, according to White House Curator Bill Allman.

 

Allman is the very busy historian who oversees every extraordinary aspect of the most famous 132-room museum/residence in America, from the priceless antiques and art to the decades of records about domestic practices and sometimes curious presidential habits. The Obamas’ White House homebreweing has no precedent: Allman did a thorough check of his sources, beginning with the days when the White House was first occupied more than 200 years ago.

 

“We have no record of beer brewing at the White House,” Allman said.

 

Read more >

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January 17, 2011 by Debra.

A Portland couple chronicled their year of eating locally, with a diet made up almost exclusively of food from Maine. As the couple reached their one-year anniversary, The Portland Press Herald reports on the challenges they faced as well as the rewards:

Two Portlanders chronicle their year of eating locally

 

In foodie culture, eating local is all the rage. But few go as far as Luke Fuller and Cassi Madison. The recently engaged couple reached their one-year anniversary this week of eating a diet made up almost exclusively of Maine food.

“It’s been a long year,” Fuller said from the couple’s cozy apartment kitchen in Portland’s West End, where a chili composed of Maine beans, tomatoes and tempeh simmered on the stovetop and stuffed squash baked in the oven.

“We started out being really strict,” said Fuller, produce manager at Lois’ Natural Marketplace in Scarborough.

 

But they relaxed a bit as the year progressed, allowing for the occasional coffee or restaurant meal. Fuller estimates they ended the year eating a diet made up of 90 percent local food.

 

On the first day of the local eating adventure, Fuller and Madison showed this isn’t a deprivation diet. Their meals that day included a kale, onion, Gouda and goat cheese omelet with home fries for breakfast and a dinner of boiled lobster, roasted red beets and parsnips complemented by a wheat berry salad with delicata squash.

 

The recent popularity of eating local food has caused some to complain that only the rich can afford to eat local food. Madison is quick to bust that myth.

 

“The thing for us is, we don’t have a lot of money,” said Madison, a waitress at the Pepperclub Restaurant in Portland. “So we’re doing the most we can with the money we have. We’ve also gone times without health insurance. The food we’re putting into us is making up for it.”

 

As with all aspects of life, higher quality generally comes with a higher cost, and the world of food is no different. Madison, who does the shopping while Fuller does the cooking, notes that a rooftop garden and a community garden plot helped stretch their food budget.

 

“We home-cook all our food,” Madison said. “It’s expensive when we buy scallops or lobster. It also gets expensive because we buy in bulk, but then we have local beans for months.”

 

In addition, the couple has found creative ways to make their food dollars go farther.

 

“I traded a painting for a CSA share at Freedom Farm this year,” said Fuller, who is also an artist.

 

The idea for embarking on a year of locavore eating grew out of an art show Fuller mounted in 2009 at the Arm Factory in Portland. The show was called “Local Rootz,” and for 30 days in advance of its opening, Fuller ate an all-local diet.

 

He found the meals and the challenge of tracking down Maine products to be so satisfying, he decided to try it for a full year. Madison was game, so together they set about revamping their pantry and menus…

Read more at www.pressherald.com, or visit their blog, LocalrootZ Project >

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January 10, 2011 by Debra.

A recent survey shows that awareness of where and how New Hampshire residents can obtain locally produced foods and farm products has increased significantly. Lorraine Merrill, New Hampshire’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets and Food, summarizes the results for an article appearing in Lancaster Farming. The following excerpt reports on New Hampshire’s strength in direct-to-consumer sales of farm products:

“Buy Local” Campaign Bears Fruit

… “The majority of New Hampshire farms are close to large population centers allowing the owner-operators to directly market products to consumers through different venues,” notes the report. “Sales of New Hampshire agricultural products are influenced by consumers’ desire to purchase local goods, their ability to locate those goods, and their understanding of food sources.”

That close proximity of farms to consumer populations makes farming more difficult and expensive — but provides ready markets. New Hampshire ranks at or near the top nationally when it comes to direct-to-consumer sales of farm products.

According to the 2007 Ag Census, market value of direct sales of food products grew more than 50 percent from 2002, to $16 million. Given the continuing strong growth in farmers markets and other direct marketing channels from farms to consumers, we might expect continued strong growth when the 2012 Ag Census is conducted.

In 2007, direct sales accounted for 8 percent of total agricultural sales, the third highest percentage in the U.S., after Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New Hampshire ranked first in the nation in percentage of all farms reporting direct-to-consumer sales, and fifth for average direct sales per farm, at $15,541. All 10 counties can count significant direct marketing activity, but our two most urban — Hillsborough and Rockingham — ranked 37th and 38th among all U.S. counties for total direct farm sales.

Direct-to-consumer marketing is vital to farm viability in New England and New Hampshire, given the high costs of land and inputs, including labor. In 2007, 55 percent of all respondents described themselves as very or somewhat knowledgeable about the availability of local farm products. Just two years later, 72 percent said they were very or somewhat knowledgeable — a 31 percent increase. The segment describing themselves as not very or not at all knowledgeable shrunk from 45 percent in 2007 to just 28 percent in 2009.

Respondents were identified by five regions of the state: northern, western, central and lakes region, Hillsborough County and seacoast. The western and northern regions reported the highest percentages as very or somewhat knowledgeable in 2009, with the western part of the state showing the greatest increase of all regions in the very knowledgeable category. The seacoast population made significant awareness gains, especially to the somewhat knowledgeable level.

To read article online: http://lancasterfarming.com/news/northeedition/-Buy-Local–Campaign-Bears-Fruit

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December 12, 2010 by Debra.

It wasn’t too long ago that the only thing local about making an apple tart were the apples. WIth flour, butter, and even salt now available from within our foodshed, the tart I made this week took on a whole new dimension — it had a wonderfully harmonious flavor, capturing that ethereal taste of place.

Chef Sam Hayward of Fore Street in Portland, Maine, has been pursuing taste of place for nearly 30 years, working closely with local farmers, foragers, and fisherpeople. In a recent interview with Polly Shyka for MOFGA, Chef Hayward discusses the challenges of sourcing local foods for his restaurant and some possible solutions:

PS: What are some of the hardest to find, local ingredients? What would you like to see more of?

 

SH: I always have an active wish list for things that I would like to find. Scorzonera, which some people refer to as “black salsify” even though it is not really a salsify at all, is one of the root vegetables that I really love. We get it after the first thaw in the springtime from one farmer who overwinters it to give it extra sweetness and texture. So he brings me in one big batch of scorzonera and we use it over the course of 10 days, and then it’s gone. I would love to see a little more of that.

 

Game birds are something I think about a lot. I would love to be able get pheasants, chucker partridges, guineas and a couple of different kinds of quail. The fact that I have to get them in from Vermont … feels like a bit of a betrayal. I would really much rather be giving that business locally.

 

Ducks. Problematic to process, because they … require a different method of plucking [than chickens], but there are certainly duck varieties that would do well here if we could get over the hurdle of processing.

 

‘Gilfeather’ turnips. Another one of those great root brassicas that I just can’t get enough of. We really don’t see them very often. They are plentiful in Vermont, so I know they would probably do well in parts of Maine. It’s a great root.

 

I would love to see more cultivated mushrooms. Some of the so-called “exotics” like shiitake and different oyster mushrooms. One of my foragers, Rick Tibbetts, is also doing cultivated exotics in the wintertime.

 

I am still having trouble getting the kind of livestock products that we want. We are not there yet with grassfed meat to the extent that its fat content, and therefore flavor carrying capacity and tenderness and aging potential [are inconsistent]. We have worked with a number of farmers who are doing primarily grassfed. I know that there is a lot of effort being put into breed and feed and we are going to get there. I am going to keep pushing to see if we can get the cuts that are appropriate and have the right fat content for this restaurant. Most restaurants would have a hard time taking a 600-pound steer carcass. Producers have to figure out how to sell in ratio, every muscle, every cut from every steer and cow they produce. Some years back I was buying the middles: the shortloins and rib racks of beef from a farmer that were beautiful, but he was ending up with freezers full of shoulders and legs that he didn’t have a market for. Likewise, I would have the same problem if I were to bring in the whole animals. I would have to figure out how to use that entire animal, in ratio, in the restaurant … or find a way to freeze or otherwise process to extend shelf life of those meats. So that gets into the infrastructure problem. We don’t have a lot of interstate outlets for Maine raised beef, and that has to do with abattoirs, slaughterhouses and packing facilities being very spread out, not having great capacity; and, with all due respect to the cutters that I know and love, the skills, broadly speaking, needed for really accurate, precise cutting are not abundant in Maine. Eventually, I would love to go to [a] 100 percent grassfed meat program for the restaurant.

 

Butter. The Maine-made butters don’t really have the terroir that I am looking for, the taste of place that Maine dairy products, at their best, often have. We use 70 or more pounds per week.

 

PS: That is a lot of cows, and a lot of skim milk.

 

SH: I did have a conversation with the marketing fellow at MOO Milk. I would love to do something with them. It is sensational milk.

 

We would like to keep supporting Maine cheesemakers. We have the potential to be as exciting a cheese realm as Vermont has become. Half the cheesemakers won’t return my phone calls because they can sell everything they produce at farmers’ markets at full retail, and I want full rounds at a slightly reduced price. We are end consumers that can influence the public’s view of Maine produced food.

 

The last thing that we need is chicken. We go through as many as 60 3-pound broilers per week, which we brine and do on the turnspit. And they are fantastic. That was the third meat item that was always going to be on the menu [that] people could sort of “hang their hats on” when they come into Fore Street if nothing else appeals to them. We have had a couple of Maine farmers grow for us in the past, but we are looking for a Maine producer who could give us that number in that size at a price that is reasonable for us and the farmer. Right now, we are bringing them in from Quebec province.

 

PS: There are quite a few wonderful Maine restaurants that have a farm “under the umbrella” of the restaurant. Have you and your business partner thought of doing that?

 

SH: Yes. We are all keeping our eyes open for the right piece of land. We are thinking about some dairy for the restaurant … processing our own. We have thought about doing some staple crops that we all use, including leeks, onions and potatoes. We have thought about setting all that up with a farm manager. It’s interesting how these cooks that work here are all interested in farming and many of them have gone out to the farms that supply to do little bits of work. We have actually had people who have come from farms to the kitchen here. One of the best chefs in Maine, in my opinion, is now a farmer at Fishbowl Farm. She [Gallit Sammon] is an amazing cook and now she is a farmer. That is pretty cool.

To read article online, click here or visit www.mofga.org.

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November 28, 2010 by Debra.

A delegation of 4 members from the Seacoast food community participated in Terra Madre last month, the bi-annual conference hosted by Slow Food. This year, the international gathering included Jean Pauly-Jennings from Meadows Mirth Farm in Stratham, John Forti, curator of HIstoric Landscapes at Strawbery Banke, Chef Evan Mallett from Black Trumpet Bistro, and Sara Hartley, a student in the Eco-Gastronomy program at UNH. Rachel Forrest at Seacoastonline.com spoke with them about their experiences:

Slow Food delegates bring back ideas, values from conference in Italy

A farmer, a chef, a horticultural curator and a student flew to Torino, Italy, last month to be a part of Terra Madre, a bi-annual conference held from Oct. 21 to Oct. 25 that began in 2004, a conference that brings more than 5,000 representatives from 160 countries together to discuss and introduce innovative concepts in the field of food, gastronomy, globalization and economics.

 

Naturally, they also tasted plenty of food.

 

The discussion also included their reflections on the question, “What did they bring back to the community?”:

Jean: I brought some beans back to try to grow some new varieties to see what happens. What was the most compelling thing for me was these beans are three different varieties from three different villages and they’re all white beans that took on a character all their own because of where they grew. There was always the same question there — How do we make local food viable and affordable for everyone? It’s on everyone’s radar and it’s not going to get solved right away. Our food needs to be “Good, Clean, Fair and Ethical.” That’s a good foundation for moving forward.

 

John: We need to create the list of things that grow from our region and bring it back and help people grow the food in their back yard. The variety of things going on in people’s back yards from so many cultures. There are kumquats growing in yards in Italy, they just pull it out of their yards. We can do that. Maybe not kumquats but so many things.

 

Evan: One of the things I got out of it was looking at sustainable fisheries worldwide. Bringing in diversity is important to me as a chef. I want to play with as many kinds of food as possible but there are some fish I should not be playing with because they’re endangered. Fish native to Europe are going to Japan and there’s none left locally. In some places, 100 percent of the catch is going thousands of miles away and in these small European towns, they get packaged fish from Alaska to eat. There are thousands of species of edible fish in the Mediterranean Sea and only eight of them are consumed as staples in Italy.

 

As a chef, my approach to my menu now is that I’d like to prepare fish that people are afraid to eat and help them eat it, get people into the habit of eating it and help increase the biodiversity. If I say, “Sorry we don’t have cod today,” the customer needs to be able to say, “We get that” and try something new, whatever nature deals you.

 

To read article at Seacoastonline.com >

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November 18, 2010 by Debra.

Over at Seacoastonline.com, Rachel Forrest has written a guide to shopping at the Winter Farmers’ Market for your Thanksgiving dinner. The article comes complete with delicious ideas for planning your holiday dinner using the many vegetables to be found there, and includes basic instructions. We may not be able to wait until Thanksgiving to try them out!

 

I’ve checked out the long list of vendors and what they are bringing to the first Winter Farmers Market on Nov. 20 and I think that if I planned it just right, I could buy almost everything I need for an entire Thanksgiving dinner at that one market.

 

The only thing I’d be worried about is the turkey because you’d likely have to have already ordered your turkey by now, but check the Seacoast Eat Local website and Facebook page because they will be updating us on who is bringing turkeys to the market. FYI — Seacoast Eat Local’s fourth annual Holiday Farmers Market is Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. indoors at the Wentworth Greenhouses, 141 Rollins Road, a mile past Red’s Shoe Barn of Dover. The Winter Markets continue until April in both the Rollinsford location and at Exeter High School.

 

For that first market, there will be 50 farmers and food vendors participating with cheese, wine and apple cider, pie pumpkins, apples and cream for dessert. Potatoes, carrots, winter squash, onions, beets, leeks, broccoli, parsnips, turnips, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and salad greens will be in abundance, along with eggs, honey, and maple syrup. There will even be wheat flour and dried chili peppers.

 

A wide variety of beef, pork, poultry and seafood will also be for sale. Dinner rolls, pre-baked pies from locally grown fruit, bread for stuffing, and area food producers have pledged to a high standard of localism this year and will be offering ready to eat meals, soups and stews, jams and jellies that all contain locally grown ingredients.

 

I’ll be volunteering on Thanksgiving and after that, unknown. Teen Daughter Avalon will be away so taking time to work on various writing projects will be on the agenda for the long weekend as well as lazing around watching movies, reading books, exercising and perhaps some mayhem. However, if I were to make Thanksgiving dinner, which I still might, my ideal dinner is set out below — the simple version — and I think I can do it all from the winter market. I will often try at least one dish from a fancy food magazine but for the most part, it’s simple and basic.

 

For my Thanksgiving meal you will need about three pounds of butter. Just warning you. Oh, and IPA, which you cannot get at the farmers market. You can buy wine, however, and plenty of it.

 

Heritage Breed Turkey. Or at least organic or all-natural. Get Heritage turkey from Yellow House Farm (but they’re probably gone), organic from Philbrick’s, Carl’s Meat Market, and even Market Basket has all-natural. Check out www.localharvest.org for more ideas as well as the aforementioned Seacoast Eat Local sites. My turkey involves putting a cheese cloth soaked in butter on top for a period of time. No bags, no deep frying and I rarely brine, although I taste the difference in brining and like it.

 

Stuffing. Bread, sweet sausage, celery, onions, walnuts, apples, thyme or sage. All but the bread sauteed in butter. A great deal of butter is consumed in my Thanksgiving dinner. The bread should be a baguette cut into large cubes and left overnight to “stale.” Toss the ingredients with the bread and a little stock. Stuff the turkey. It looks like the only thing I can’t get at the winter market is celery and nuts.

Go to Seacoastonline.com to read the rest of Rachel’s article >

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November 15, 2010 by Debra.

The new season of winter farmers’ markets is set to begin, and Deborah Mcdermott reports on York’s addition to this vibrant scene. From Seacoastonline.com:

Earth Matters: Farmers market grows in York — Winter season won’t end local events

 

There are a lot of things to love about living on the Seacoast. One of them, at least for me, is the fact that so many people understand the importance of eating locally-grown food. Not only does it taste better, it is also better for you, and it isn’t trucked long distances from some foreign clime, adding to aggregate carbon emissions.

 

During the summer, it’s easy to find sources of fresh, local foods. During the winter, until recent years, not so much.

 

That changed four years ago, when Seacoast Eat Local began sponsoring winter farmers markets. Initially just a smattering of markets before the holidays, it has grown into a twice-monthly extravaganza of dozens of vendors who gather at one of their two locations, Exeter High School and Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford.

 

The Rye Energy Committee holds markets at the junior high once a month, as well.

 

Those folks who live across the river in southern York County, Maine, though, haven’t had a winter market in their neck of the woods — until now. The very popular Gateway Farmers Market in York is opening its first winter market this month.

 

The summer market, formed by the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce on its grounds on Route 1, has grown in size and popularity since it started eight years ago. And people didn’t want it all to end with the first stirrings of fall, said Stephanie Oeser of the chamber.

 

“A lot of customers and vendors were going to the Seacoast Eat Local market at Wentworth, and people kept coming up to us and saying they wished there was something like that in York,” Oeser said.

 

She said the chamber has been looking for the last 18 months for a location big enough and with enough parking available in the winter. They finally found it at Foster’s Clambake on Axholme Road in York.

 

Oeser said they’re planning on between 20 and 30 vendors each time. Interestingly, she said, most of the farmers who have booths at the summer market are not set for winter production; the vegetable vendors will likely come from a little further afield. She also said she tried to choose dates that wouldn’t conflict with Seacoast Eat Local’s markets.

 

According to Sara Zoe Patterson of Seacoast Eat Local, it’s not surprising that many area farmers haven’t made the investment into winter production. She said she found that was the case initially with their farmers.

 

“It takes a leap to go into winter production. There’s a lot that small farmers have to take into consideration,” she said. But this winter, more than 60 farms will be participating in their markets, including a number of new farms that have expanded into winter produce. And there’s a waiting list of 10 farms.

 

“It offers an opportunity for farmers who need a reliable source of income in the winter,” Patterson said.

 

That’s why she couldn’t be happier to hear that York is opening a market, because it offers a wider opportunity for small local farmers and for the consuming public.

 

“This is exactly what we could have hoped for,” Patterson said. Between Newburyport, Mass., and Concord, and all points in between, “there’s really not a single weekend between November and the end of April that there’s not a farmers market.”

 

Oeser said there’s real excitement from vendors and customers alike about the winter market. The cost of heat and electricity is being underwritten by Savings Bank of Maine.

 

And the first one is this coming Saturday, Nov. 20. So to all those Maine readers of this column: Mark your calendar.

Article available online at Seacoastonline.com. For more information and a list of winter farmers’ markets in the Seacoast >

Posted in author: Debra, Holiday Farmers' Markets, eating locally in the media | Print | No Comments »