I spend a lot of time in my garden and at the local public market. I have gotten to know quite a few of the local farmers and have enjoyed talking to them. Many of them are farm smaller pieces of land and even one has an area that is wild so he can forage his dandelion greens and wild leeks.
I always make a point of buying something from the smaller farms, and also ask them if they have any seconds. That is one thing that I know these guys do is keep the best looking on top because they know that is what sells. Unfortunately it also means that the 2nds don't sell and get taken home or tossed. I would rather pay them for the food (yes, they'll discount it but that's not my point) than see them toss it away. They worked too hard for that. And the waste...I should have been lived in the 1930's on a farm. I don't believe in throwing away perfectly good food that can be cooked into sauce and stews.
Check out this video on someone doing this on a bigger scale.
Man in the Maze
girl2
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
books, gardens, vegetables, and more: Farmers, Wineries, Farm to Table-A Way to Keep the...
books, gardens, vegetables, and more: Farmers. Wineries, Farm to Table-A Way to Keep the...: What a wonderful idea-farmers starting farm to table cafes. Whether its for 1 night a week, or several nights a week, this is a wonderful w...
Farmers. Wineries, Farm to Table-A Way to Keep the Family Farm in Business While Promoting Local Sustainability
What a wonderful idea-farmers starting farm to table cafes. Whether its for 1 night a week, or several nights a week, this is a wonderful way to get local food to people who want to know where there food is coming from.
This is an exceptional idea that works on many levels:
1. Consumers know where the food is coming from
2. People get to support not only a local business, but a local farmer AND get a night out.
3. Farmers make money
4. Farmers get their name and product out there so that local grocers and local chefs learn who they are
5. Local farms stay in business
6. and many more!
NPR recently had published and article about family farms starting up "pizza night" to attract more costumers.
The basic point was that many farmers are struggling to make ends meet and are being more and more creative to make ends meet. Farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa are offering these "pizza nights" through the growing season and using farm fresh vegetables and farm raised meat as staples.
In my local area, Wayne County, NY, Lagoner Farms started the CSAs (consumer supported agriculture) about 3 years ago for both a spring/summer package and a fall/winter package. This summer they started a café with food from their own farm and the local sustainable farming community. This is also apple country, so local hard cider is soon to come. Lagoner's is one of New York State's Century farms and it is now being run by the 5th generation of Lagoners. With the bakery, ice cream shop, FTD florist, CSAs and now the Café, I am hopeful they will continue for many more years.
Monroe and Wayne Counties in NYS are also on the western edge of what we "upstaters" call the Finger Lakes Region.
The big tourist attractions are the lakes, camping, and the wineries. Even some of the wineries have their own cafes, offering local dishes as well as their own wines.
I'm going to repeat myself-what a wonderful idea. I love the day trip option that is going to increase tourism, bring quality, local food to more people, AND keep another family farm in business.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/19/427432403/family-farms-turn-to-pizza-to-connect-with-new-customers
http://www.lagonerfarmscsa.com/cafe/
http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/listings/veraisons-restaurant-at-the-inn-at-glenora/470/
http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/listings/the-blue-heron-caf%c3%a9-at-heron-hill/1422/
This is an exceptional idea that works on many levels:
1. Consumers know where the food is coming from
2. People get to support not only a local business, but a local farmer AND get a night out.
3. Farmers make money
4. Farmers get their name and product out there so that local grocers and local chefs learn who they are
5. Local farms stay in business
6. and many more!
NPR recently had published and article about family farms starting up "pizza night" to attract more costumers.
The basic point was that many farmers are struggling to make ends meet and are being more and more creative to make ends meet. Farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa are offering these "pizza nights" through the growing season and using farm fresh vegetables and farm raised meat as staples.
In my local area, Wayne County, NY, Lagoner Farms started the CSAs (consumer supported agriculture) about 3 years ago for both a spring/summer package and a fall/winter package. This summer they started a café with food from their own farm and the local sustainable farming community. This is also apple country, so local hard cider is soon to come. Lagoner's is one of New York State's Century farms and it is now being run by the 5th generation of Lagoners. With the bakery, ice cream shop, FTD florist, CSAs and now the Café, I am hopeful they will continue for many more years.
Monroe and Wayne Counties in NYS are also on the western edge of what we "upstaters" call the Finger Lakes Region.
The big tourist attractions are the lakes, camping, and the wineries. Even some of the wineries have their own cafes, offering local dishes as well as their own wines.
I'm going to repeat myself-what a wonderful idea. I love the day trip option that is going to increase tourism, bring quality, local food to more people, AND keep another family farm in business.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/19/427432403/family-farms-turn-to-pizza-to-connect-with-new-customers
http://www.lagonerfarmscsa.com/cafe/
http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/listings/veraisons-restaurant-at-the-inn-at-glenora/470/
http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/listings/the-blue-heron-caf%c3%a9-at-heron-hill/1422/
Saturday, August 8, 2015
How One Grassroots Group Is Changing Local Eating-One Vegetable at a Time
Rochester
and Monroe County, NY has always been adapting in various ways to get
food to low income or homeless people. There is a backpack program
through the local Foodlink where a mobile pantry goes to local
schools and passes out backpacks with food in them to needy students.
The mobile pantries also go to different areas where there is no
pantry close by. Summer Meals are also provided during the summer at
certain locations for students who would normally receive a free
lunch during
the school year. And there is more. So it's not unheard of that
someone like Khoury Humphrey would be thinking about how he could
help.
Khoury
Humphrey of Rochester, NY has a philosophy-to ignore a problem is to
condone it. When at Rochester's Public Market, Khoury had noticed the
amount of wasted food that was still available at the end of a
typical Saturday that the vendors/farmers have to either cart back to
the farm or toss out if it's not considered sellable. What's not
“sellable?” A piece of fruit or a vegetable with a scar or
blemish on it. Khoury decided to do something about all that excess,
especially considering the number of poor and homeless living in
Rochester and it's surrounding areas. Over $600,000 in food stamps
were spent at the market in 2014 alone, so low income people are
definitely looking for fresh fruit and vegetables. Khoury's concept
of asking the farmers and other vendors for donations for the area's
food pantries and food kitchens is a wonderful concept.
In
the early part of 2015, Khoury started out as a solo act. Now, with
the help of volunteers, Flower City Pickers has been collecting
upwards of 4000 pounds a week of healthier food for various shelters,
food pantries, and food kitchens. That is totalling close to 50,000
pounds so far for Flower City Pickers. Each week, the Pickers rotate
where the deliveries go. Potatoes, barbque sauces, fruit, vegetables
and more are donated by vendors, farmers, and even shoppers. One
vendor, Seven Bridges Farms, donates the only meat-all natural beef.
One other incredible thing about Flower City Pickers: anything that
is deemed not suitable for humans to eat, is donated to small farmers
who compost or who could use the product as animal feed. So nothing
is wasted.
With
the early success of this group, and the support of the farmers and
the Public Market community, Flower City Pickers has even started to
look into a commercial space to eventually open a food pantry and a
collaborative community free space.
Khoury
Humphrey is always looking for good, committed volunteers to help
collect, sort, deliver or even to help in planning stages for the
commercial space.
(photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/groups/FlowerCityPickers/photos/)
info for Flower City Pickers:
Market
Matters Newsletter, July/August 2015
guest blog post on Dissident Potato Blog
I'm exited! I've appeared as a guest post.
http://www.dissidentpotato.com/2/post/2015/08/how-one-grassroots-group-is-changing-local-eating-one-vegetable-at-a-time.html
http://www.dissidentpotato.com/2/post/2015/08/how-one-grassroots-group-is-changing-local-eating-one-vegetable-at-a-time.html
Friday, August 7, 2015
Kids and Gardens-When It's Fun to Get Dirty...
I remember looking forward to spring in school when we planted bean seeds, tulip bulbs and sunflower seeds. Then I brought them home to plant. And of course, strawberry season came and we ate as many as we picked and packed into the quart boxes.
One of my biggest memories, though, was when my mom would yell out the window to my dad to not let us eat all the green beans we picked because she needed them for dinner. She eventually stopped yelling-we were eating a vegetable. Who yells at a kid to stop eating his or her green vegetables?
Peach and apple picking, carving pumpkins, eventually learning to cook and can the food. I was in heaven and returned to heaven later when my sister had 2 kids. My nephew initially would only eat raspberries if he picked them himself off my plants (smart boy-know where your farmer and food is from!). My niece ate her first green bean off one of Grandpa's plants. She now will only eat raw green beans because "that's what you do when you grow your own, Aunt Bobo!"
My nephew, now, will supervise everything. What we need to grow, where to put it, and come on-we have to check the cuke plants. My niece is a little garden fairy from April to June, then something happens where she turns into a rabbit. Pick out the flowers, help dig, water everything-she did so well last year, she graduated to her own pots of tomatoes and beans for the deck this year. And SUCCESS!
I babysit for a boy who loves fruit but hates his veggies. But he was willing to plant green beans in his mom's planters. "Grandma likes them." He has remembered to water 3 to 4 times a week and shows them off to me all the time.
My niece, at age 3 (she's now 8), called me up, and said, " the picture on the pack says carrots, but they're growing like grass. You bought the wrong seeds-carrots are orange." I tried not to laugh, but she was right with what made sense to her. A teachable moment for sure.
It's amazing what a child will learn from science, counting and spacing, to different insects that help or not help in the garden. Bees become less scary. Running around and being allowed to be dirty becomes fun again.
Maybe that's why I still like to garden. I can become a kid again and can allow myself to be amazed at what this good earth can give us.
Resources available for those interested"
www.kidsgardening.org/
http://grants.kidsgardening.org/
http://grants.kidsgardening.org/http://assoc.garden.org/
http://www.nybg.org/edu/kids-teens/gardening-program.php
And don't forget your local library!
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
New Beginnings
Hi to everyone out there!
I am starting something new-my own blog. In the past, I have written reviews for books that I have read and posted them on several of the book social sites such as Booklikes. But since I am big on gardening, I get a kick out of taking pictures of my
successes and failures and sharing them.
The idea of spending time in the great outdoors and seeing all the wonder that comes from growing my own food is amazing to me. Unfortunately, I cannot grow as much as I want, nor can I preserve everything I would need to never have to go into a grocery store again. But I do what I can and preserve what makes most sense for what I grow and eat throughout the year-like tomatoes, herbs, applesauce.
I grew up and still live in the Rochester, NY area which is the north-western most part of New York State's Finger Lakes. This area is home to dairy farms and many apple orchards, including at least one farm/orchard that has been run for over one hundred years by the same family. Approximately 25% of Monroe County is still farm land. I would love to see it remain this way as well as try to encourage people to by local and grow what they can. Eating a tomato, a green bean, or a strawberry right off the plant still brings strong memories of when I was a kid helping my dad in the backyard.
So, there it is. my first blog. Hopefully many more and at least a few that are interesting to others!
I am starting something new-my own blog. In the past, I have written reviews for books that I have read and posted them on several of the book social sites such as Booklikes. But since I am big on gardening, I get a kick out of taking pictures of my
successes and failures and sharing them.
The idea of spending time in the great outdoors and seeing all the wonder that comes from growing my own food is amazing to me. Unfortunately, I cannot grow as much as I want, nor can I preserve everything I would need to never have to go into a grocery store again. But I do what I can and preserve what makes most sense for what I grow and eat throughout the year-like tomatoes, herbs, applesauce.
I grew up and still live in the Rochester, NY area which is the north-western most part of New York State's Finger Lakes. This area is home to dairy farms and many apple orchards, including at least one farm/orchard that has been run for over one hundred years by the same family. Approximately 25% of Monroe County is still farm land. I would love to see it remain this way as well as try to encourage people to by local and grow what they can. Eating a tomato, a green bean, or a strawberry right off the plant still brings strong memories of when I was a kid helping my dad in the backyard.
So, there it is. my first blog. Hopefully many more and at least a few that are interesting to others!
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