April 27, 2008 by Sara Zoe.

I took these pictures about a month ago in the greenhouse where the farmers of Willow Pond Community Farm and Meadow’s Mirth start their seedlings and early crops.

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April 2, 2008 by Sara Zoe.

I was googling something rather unrelated when I came across this Youtube video of our own local farmer Shawn Stimpson, who, along with his partner Sarah Anderson, farm at Nelsons Organics and use a used-veggie oil radiant heat system to have fresh organic greens almost all year round. Nelsons Organics will be one of the farmers at the April 19th Sustainability Fair in Portsmouth (10am - 4pm, Parrot Avenue near the middle school and library), selling their fresh and sustainably grown greens:

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January 14, 2008 by Sara Zoe.

An Invitation to a Women’s Retreat

at Lasting Legacy Farm, Barrington, NH

Saturday, January 26th ~ From 10 am to 4 pm

~ Give a gift to yourself and spend some time in an intimate setting with women in your community

~ The day will include workshops presented by four local women and a scrumptious lunch

~Workshops~

The Sugar Blues - Alison Kober Dean from Inside Out Nutrition, Holistic Health Counselor

Better Foods, Better Environment, Better You – Wendy Berry from Lasting Legacy Farm, Provides Naturally Raised Meats to the Community

Nurture Yourself in Nature - Debra Marcotte, Graduate from Institute of Natural Learning, Vermont

Positive and Powerful Intentions – Sue Stibler from Inner Peace Healing Arts, Intregates mind, body, emotion, and spiritual healing, to her clients

Please register early as enrollment is limited to ten women

You may pre-register by e-mailing Wendy at wberry AT llfarm.net

Cost is $25, to be paid in full upon registering

Presenter Bios

Alison Kober Dean is a holistic health counselor who strives to be a personal advocate for her clients. What began as a personal journey has become a business - Inside Out Nutrition. Her goal is to help people to make healthy, nourishing decisions about their diets that will enable them to live a more balanced, energetic and fulfilling life. At this retreat, she will be speaking about the Sugar Blues and why women are so prone to them.

Sue Stibler is a licensed independent clinical social worker and Inter-nationally registered yoga teacher. She assists her clients to integrate mind, body, emotional and spiritual healing through her business - Inner Peace Healing Arts. She will be presenting a workshop on creating Positive and Powerful Intentions for our lives.

Wendy Berry and her husband Jon began Lasting Legacy Farm because they wanted to provide quality food for their children. Their family project has evolved into a full time business, providing naturally grown meats for their customers. Their venture is ever-expanding to provide more local products for the community. Wendy will be speaking at this retreat about the foods for our own health as well as our planet.

Debra Marcotte is a recent graduate of the Community Nature Awareness Program at the Institute for Natural Learning in Vermont.Her focus is to help children and adults develop a renewed sense of place by employing the core routines of nature awareness in daily life. At this retreat, she will be speaking about those core routines and their benefits for our physical and mental well being.

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October 21, 2007 by Sara Zoe.

Heron Pond Farm, one of the larger small farms in our area, is a major participant in the new and growing “Get Smart, Eat Local” Farm to School program facilitated by the University of New Hampshire. The article in the Boston Globe provides some interesting details about how it works and how it is benefiting the farm and schools.

some choice quotes:

“It’s maximizing the time money stays in one place,” Andre Cantelmo, owner of Heron Pond Farm said of buying local, a dirtied white baseball hat shielding his eyes as he stood in Heron Pond’s dusty parking lot. ” ‘Cause once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Also, buying from area farmers keeps land undeveloped, and the food is similarly fresher “and frankly, tastes better,” he asserted. Once people eat fresh produce, he said, they’ll be turned off from grocery store food.

—

“People like New Hampshire the way it is: a rural state. But if we don’t support our local businesses, it’s not going to stay that way,” Duclos, program director said. “If we can replace even 10 percent of [school cafeteria food] with local food, it would make a big difference.”

It already has for Cantelmo. Farm to School accounted for about 20 percent, or roughly $25,000, of his business this year, he said.

The program has provided him with a more solid backing, he said, and has enabled him to grow extra crops. Lettuce, for example, has never been a huge money producer for him - he hasn’t been able to sell it at a competitive price that would also make money - but next year, he plans to grow significantly more of it because several schools are requesting the leafy salad staple.

I love reading evidence that the focus on buying local is changing the landscape of agriculture in our area for the better. The concept of buying quality food for our children is an important one, and one that I know could significantly improve our chances at addressing children’s illnesses brought on by too many calories and too little nutrition. Kids know just as well as anybody else - fresh food tastes better, and food that is bred to be consumed in the here and now tastes better than food that underwent too much travel.

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September 21, 2007 by Sara Zoe.

A recent email from a (new to me) farm tells us about another source for milk, eggs, honey, turkey, chicken, pork, and lamb. This farm will also be vending at our Holiday Farmers’ Markets - the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday before Christmas at the Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover!

“I’m in Epsom, in Merrimack County, but I’m a half-mile from the Rockingham County line!  Our farm is McClary Hill Farm.  We raise Jersey cows for milk (and occasionally beef), and we also have chickens (for meat and eggs), turkeys, pigs, sheep (Icelandic), and bees.  All our animals are pasture-raised, and any grain we give is certified organic.  Our farm is not, however, U.S.D.A. certified.  We probably won’t jump through those hoops.  During the winter, we feed the animals hay from local fields.  We’re working on creating our own hay fields right now so that we’ll have complete control over the food supply by the following winter.  If you’d like to see more information, you can look at www.mcclaryhillfarm.com.”

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August 7, 2007 by Sara Zoe.

Sunday, August 19th, 2007 is Lee Farm Day, a day when 14 of Lee’s farms open their barns and fields for us. The day is organized and sponsored by the Lee Agricultural Committee and Friends of Lee Open Space.
More information is available on the Flag Hill website.
The Lee Farm Day 2007 brochure (.pdf) includes a map, addresses and highlights of each farm, and suggested route.

The Lee Agricultural Committee is an amazing exemplar of how agricultural committees can affect positive change - the town of Lee is now known for being farmer friendly, thanks to the work of the Ag committee.

Creating an Agricultural Commission in Your Hometown (.pdf), a publication of the NH Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture has more about the history and projects of the Lee Agricultural Committee.

Visit Seacoast Eat Local’s calendar of local food events for more fun.

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August 4, 2007 by Sara Zoe.

I had heard rumors, and when you are a popcorn fiend like me, staring your third Eat Local Challenge in the face, trying to prepare and trying to remember that snacks can be an issue, rumors are enough to go on.

The rumors turned out to be true. Parsell’s Farm, 589 Pickering Road in Rochester (just over the border from Dover if you drive out 6th street), has popcorn that they grow themselves. And it is delicious. Parsell’s has a wonderful assortment of vegetables, making a trip to stock up worthwhile. (thanks to Karen of Seacoast Local for the hook-up.)

I’ve got some Maine Sea Salt (61 miles, but at the price, very very dear), and could gild the lily with local melted butter for an extra treat. The only thing I’m missing is proper popcorn popping medium. Anybody growing canola?

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July 17, 2007 by Sara Zoe.

The Wire’s excellent feature article this week is about our two uber-local wineries, Flag Hill and Jewell Towne. While you can buy both companies’ products at the NH State Liquor stores, a lot of grocery stores, and even the farmers’ markets in the case of Jewell Towne, what you can’t do there is see just how beautiful a farm of vineyards is, and taste the wines to choose your favorites. Flag Hill Winery also offers local foods based cooking classes and dinners, as well as vodka and liquors made from local ingredients. The article mentions a soon to be released Apple Brandy as well - which for me means I’ll be making totally local sangria to savor during the September Eat Local Challenge.

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