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CISA Researches Mobile Unit for Freezing
Fruits and Vegetables
CISA has received funding from the Department of Agricultural Resources and the USDA's Federal State Marketing Improvement Program to investigate options for building a mobile quick-freeze unit that can be used on farms to freeze fruits or vegetables for sale at farmstands, retailers, and other locations. Our investigation will include:
Help CISA bring Winter Fare to
Northampton!
The first annual Northampton Winter Fare will be held January 9th, and CISA needs help organizing this midwinter farmers market and celebration of local food. There are a variety of tasks that need doing, and chances for people with a range of skills and time availability to get involved. A meeting on the Northampton Winter Fare is scheduled for 6 pm on Wednesday, November 11, at the Solidago Foundation (located on the third floor of Thornes Marketplace in Northampton). If you're interested in being on the volunteer planning committee, learning more about how you can help, or just want to stay in the loop on the planning, contact Claire Morenon, Program Coordinator, at 413-665-7100. Want to help out with Winter Fare in Greenfield? An established committee there is seeking new volunteers. Contact Claire if you're interested in supporting that effort as well. Send us your recipes
Last month we invited you to submit winter squash recipes for the new recipe page on our web site and Valley residents responded with many, many soups, a pretty amazing cake, and a few other ideas. Check them out and get inspired! This winter, we're focusing on the oddball root vegetables. It's easy to store root veggies like rutabaga, turnips, radishes, and celeriac for the winter, but many of us need a little help cooking these less well-known storage crops. Email us your favorite recipe to us and we might highlight it on our recipe page. Poetry or song featuring your favorite root vegetable also gladly accepted; for inspiration, see Aaron Falbel's Ode to Celeriac, originally published in the Greenfield Recorder and reprinted in The Kitchen Garden newsletter (scroll down). Book Reviews
We're including the occasional book review in our enews and on our web site. Jennifer Williams, Office Manager, reviews Just Food by James E. McWilliams, for us this month. If you'd like to review a book, please let us know. Garlic and Arts ad designs
Thank you to everyone who visited CISA's booth at the Garlic and Arts Festival on October 3 and 4. We appreciated all the hard work that people put into designing an advertisement in support of locally grown foods. Stock photo.
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Local Hero members featured on WGBY
Making It Here and On the Menu, two locally produced WGBY public television programs, have featured several Local Hero farms and businesses in the past few weeks. Swartz Family Farm, hydroponic vegetable growers from Amherst, will be the focus of the November 16th episode of Making It Here (airs at 7:30 pm). Note, too, the Swartz' new winter CSA option! Real Pickles in Greenfield, creators of naturally fermented and raw pickles, sauerkrauts and more from local and organic vegetables, was also highlighted in a recent episode. On the Menu, WGBY's restaurant and cooking show, had chef Deborah Snow of Blue Heron Restaurant on its October 22nd episode. Chef Snow made leg of lamb using meat from Leyden Glen Farm. The "On the Road" portion of the show visited Chicoine Farm, grass-fed beef producers in Easthampton. Local Hero member Teddy Smiarowski Farm was featured in "On the Road" during the October 8th episode, and Fairweather Farm plugged edible flowers in a four minute segment on October 15th. To view the episodes of On The Menu, you'll need Itunes software. Still looking for your local holiday
turkey
We've called around to our Local Hero farms and have learned that many of the birds have flown the coop! A few birds can still be found roosting in the area. But be quick because the coops empty quickly! Looking for sweet potatoes and other veggies to accompany your meal? Finding them is easy. Simply enter your search term in the "Find it Locally" button on our web site and hit "go." Enterprise farm has openings in winter
shares
Enterprise Farm still has a few spots remaining in their winter/spring farm share program. The Enterprise share is a bit different from most, in that they work with organic farmers up and down the East Coast (a regional "foodshed") to supply their members with fresh-picked fruits and veggies throughout the winter. Carolina sweet potatoes and Georgia strawberries, Florida avocados, citrus, peppers, zucchini, and cooking greens: the Enterprise winter share allows members to eat warm-season crops all winter, and forgo the California produce. It's their way of changing the food distribution system, reducing food miles and sustaining local and regional farmers. For more info, call 413.665.8608 or email farmshare@enterpriseproduce.com. Changes at the Food Bank Farm
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has decided to close its long-running CSA at the Food Bank Farm after this year's harvest season and transfer CSA operations to Ben Perrault and Liz Adler, owners of Mountain View Farm, who will continue to farm the Food Bank Farm land as they have been for the last two years. Ben and Liz will also continue to contribute a sizeable portion of the harvest to The Food Bank in lieu of rent. Current Food Bank Farm CSA members have been invited to join Mountain View Farm's CSA in Easthampton, or to join a new CSA, temporarily called the "Next Barn Over" and managed by Food Bank Farm founder Michael Doctor and Ray Young, a former Food Bank Farm manager. The Food Bank believes that everyone has a right to fresh, naturally-grown local produce, and will continue to source produce and other products (including eggs from Diemand Farm and milk from Our Family Farms from local farms and the MassGrown program of the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program. The Food Bank distributes more than 800,000 pounds a year in fresh produce from these sources combined. We have a list of Local Hero-member CSAs on our web site. The Next Barn Over can be contacted at ryoung@nextbarnover.com, and Mountain View Farm can be reached at mountainviewfarmer@hotmail.com. Other Local Heroes in the news
Find out more about what is happening with our Local Hero farm and business members on our web site. We are tracking their appearances in the local and national media for you. CISA staff photo.
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Students vote with their forks at
Hampshire Regional
Fertile Ground, a grassroots farm to school program in Williamsburg, and Hampshire Regional High School are working together to improve the health and appeal of school lunches. During the first week of November, Hampshire Regional food service staff prepared new dishes made with fresh, local ingredients such as cucumber-apple salad, roasted local potatoes, and confetti-rice salad. Students were encouraged to vote with their forks! As part of the effort, Fertile Ground has been teaching 7th and 9th grade health students about the importance of eating fresh, healthy and local foods with Healthy Communities grant support from Cooley Dickinson Hospital. "Fertile Ground's work at our school complements the efforts of a school Wellness Committee to improve the nutritional value of school lunches and get students to eat healthier foods served," says Patricia Clem, Principal at Hampshire Regional High School. Stock photo
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Below are a few upcoming farm and
farm-related events of interest. Additional
events, in November and beyond, can be found
on the events page on our web site.
You'll be thankful (hint, hint) that you did.
Be sure to check out
CISA's events page for updates and additions
throughout the month.
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Please do not take images or content to use
on your
own site or project without CISA's explicit
permission. Please feel free to link to our
newsletter.
Archives can be found at
www.buylocalfood.org.
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Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture
is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
E-mail:
communications@buylocalfood.org
Phone:
(413) 665-7100
Website:
http://www.buylocalfood.org
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