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Thanksgiving is a true harvest celebration! And thinking local for Thanksgiving is a natural fit: mashed potatoes, turkey, roasted brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and apple pie - these are all traditional Thanksgiving foods that are made from seasonal ingredients, widely available from local farms throughout the fall.  The butter and milk in your mashed potatoes, the eggs in your squash pie, the cheese on your broccoli - all simple to swap out for super fresh and delicious local products. You can also find local flour to use in your pie crusts and bread.

 

If you're ready to delve deeper into cooking up a local meal, think about creative substitutions you can make for products that are not available locally. Maple syrup and honey can stand in for sugar in your pie, and for marshmallows on your sweet potatoes. Serve local wine, mead, or hard cider with your meal. If you usually serve green beans, try broccoli or kale or one of the other green veggies that are available this time of year.

 

We have built a special Thanksgiving page on our website to provide inspiration for bringing the local harvest to your Thanksgiving table with recipes, tips, and info on where to pick up locally grown ingredients. We have up-to-date lists of farms that sell Thanksgiving turkeys, plus winter CSAs, winter farmers' markets, and winter farmstands. Some summer farmers' markets are running later into the fall, too, so check our database to find out if your local market is open into November.

 

Have fun with this meal! For me, preparing the Thanksgiving meal with the fruits of my friends' and neighbors' labor is a way to celebrate and honor my connection to this community and land, which is something I'm thankful for every day.

 

Claire Morenon

Program Coordinator 

 

 


Local Hero Yarn! CISA yarn 

Local Hero farmer and CISA Board Member Diane Roeder, of Sojourner Design, has donated forty skeins of yarn to benefit the work of CISA! From beginning to end, it's a product of local talent, with fleece from Diane's sheep and gorgeous color donated by Gail Callahan, The Kangaroo Dyer. This one-time limited supply of yarn is available at WEBS in Northampton. Priced at $22.95 per skein, get it while it lasts!

 

Scaling Up Local Food: Recently Released Report from CISA

CISA's new report, Scaling Up Local Food: Investing in Farm & Food Infrastructure for the Pioneer Valley, provides real-life, local examples of the successes, challenges and opportunities in the Pioneer Valley food system today. Ready to deepen your understanding of what's required to ensure that more of the food we eat comes from right here? Consumers, farmers, businesspeople, investors, planners, and policy-makers will find suggestions for action to help create a local food system that provides more local food to more residents of our region.

 

Upcoming Opportunities for Farm and Food Businesses

CISA's Fall Meet and Greet is Monday, November 14th, 6-8:30 pm, at Eighty Jarvis (80 Jarvis Avenue, Holyoke). Meet and Greets are an opportunity for growers and buyers to meet each other, and they are open to Local Hero member farmers and to food buyers: restaurants, retailers, institutional buyers, food processors, and distributors. Please RSVP to Devon at 413 665-7100 or devon@buylocalfood.org.

 

Farmer's Market Management Workshop

Lawyers Dennis Egan and Will Flanders, along with CPA Bill Reichelt, will discuss the pros and cons of different options for legal incorporation for farmers' markets. There will be plenty of time for discussion among market managers, vendors, and board members as well. If there is interest among participants in having regular market manager meetings, CISA's Devon Whitney-Deal and the Franklin County CDC's Amy Shapiro will provide support. Workshop will be Wednesday, November 16th, 6:00-9:00pm at the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development, Room KC203, 303 Homestead Ave, Holyoke. $5 suggested donation for light dinner; RSVP to Devon at 413 665-7100 or devon@buylocalfood.org.

 

CISA's Emergency Farm Loan Fund - Now Reviewing Applications

CISA's new loan fund is now assisting western Mass farmers who suffered agricultural loss due to Hurricane Irene in August 2011. While funds are still being raised to reach the $100K goal, applications for loans are now being accepted! The farm loans will be at zero-interest loans and range from $5,000 to $10,000. Donate here, and farmers can apply here. If you missed WGBY's coverage of the fund with farmers Chip Williams of Williams Farm and Dave Jackson of Enterprise Farm along with Phil Korman of CISA, you can watch it here. 

 

Are you a CISA member?  

Yes? Thank you so much! Your support helps the local economy and ensures healthy farms, healthy food and healthy families in the Pioneer Valley!  

No? What are you waiting for? Join CISA today. It's easy to join, it feels good to support our local farms and farmland, and we have a membership level to fit every budget. We can't grow without you.  

PS. CISA Members, be on the lookout for a discount coupon in your mailbox for a few of our Local Hero U-Cut Christmas Tree farmers!

 


Recent news stories describe Crimson and Clover Farm's first season in Northampton , Czajkowski Farm's successful sales to Boston institutions, and Real Pickles' new solar installation and an escaping pig. Visit CISA's Local Hero Press Page for more.       

 

CISA logo and tagLocal Hero Profile: Goldthread Herbal Apothecary

As we enter the season of coughs and sniffles, it's a good time to learn about locally grown options for healing. Says Bill Siff, the owner of Goldthread Herbal Apothecary,  "Herbal medicine reflects empowerment and self-sufficiency. Our main focus is on empowerment of people and communities to use herbal medicine as a health care system." Read all about it... 


How Does Local Food Relate to Occupy Wall Street?

One of the main messages from Occupy Wall Street has been the concentration of wealth and its impact on all of us. Next month we will share our thoughts on how this consolidation affects local agriculture. In the meantime, we share the thoughts of others. In his new blog, Ferment, Real Pickles' Dan Rosenberg asks how making local pickles relates to the Occupy movement. "At first glance," Dan notes,  


What happens here at Real Pickles appears to be merely ordinary business activity. Just a small enterprise trying to yield a reasonable profit by producing food for people. An observer not so familiar with the workings of contemporary America might be tempted to think it normal, as well, that we source our vegetables from a small organic farm down the road, generate our own power, sell our pickles in raw and fermented form, and only distribute within our own region. But of course, in 2011 here in the United States, there is nothing ordinary at all about such practices.  

 

Dan's not alone in making connections between his work making local pickles for a local market and the protests on Wall Street and around the nation. Several local farms and processors have donated food to feed Occupy Wall Street protesters, and local permaculture activists built a greywater system for the kitchen in Zuccotti Park. National food-and-politics writer Tom Philpott calls the food industry our pre-eminent example of consolidation of power and wealth, arguing that "Big Food makes Big Finance look like amateurs" in a recent Mother Jones article. "As of 2007," Philpott observes, "six companies owned 75 percent of the global pesticide market, and four companies sold half of the globe's seeds... Three of them-- Monsanto, Syngenta, and Dupont-- are on both lists." Plainfield farmer Ed Stockman brings Philpott's example home in a Gazette op-ed piece contending that his neighbor's decision to plant Monsanto's genetically modified soybeans makes it impossible for him to grow organic soy or edamame on his farm.  

 

Farm Credit Provides Donations for farm families hurt by Hurricanes Irene and Lee

Farm Credit East, CoBank, Yankee Farm Credit and United Way will provide donations of up to $500 to assist farm families hurt by Hurricanes Irene and Lee during the holiday season. Applications can be submitted until November 26 online or at a Farm Credit office. To be eligible a farm must have had $10,000 in damage or crop losses.


Visit CISA's events calendar for a full listing of festivals as well as workshops, forums, films, and more. Here is just a small sample of what you'll find on our website.   

 

  1.  Alpaca Open Farm and Farm Store, Saturday and Sunday, November 26-27 and December 3-4, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM,  Craigieburn Farm Alpacas, Shutesbury. Hot cider, holiday shopping, and visits with the alpacas. Call 413-253-4485 for details.    
  2. 2nd Annual Zydeco Dance Party Fundraiser for Seeds of Solidarity's Youth Garden Programs, December 3rd, Orange Town Hall, Orange. The spiciest Get Down, Do Good event of the year! $20 advance ticket (kids/youth under 18, $10) Cajun style chili and salad, a Zydeco dance lesson, and a night of music and dancing with one of New England's hottest Zydeco bands: Slippery Sneakers! Click here to buy tickets.
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Email:communications@buylocalfood.org 

Phone: (413) 665-7100  

Website: http://www.buylocalfood.org       

 

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