September 2, 2010 by Heather.

Here is a class from UNH Cooperative Extension that most of us can benefit from. Learn cooking skills to prepare your fresh, local foods. Check it out:

Have fun while learning and sharing food together! Join a hands-on cooking class and learn how to make healthy meals that can be prepared quickly with food enthusiast Peggy Evans, creator of ABC Foods website. Terri Schoppmeyer, educational program coordinator at UNH Cooperative Extension, and Diane Giese, director of the Seacoast Family Food Pantry, will join Evans in covering class topics such as cooking for one or two, comfort foods revisited, and trying something new. The four-class series will meet on Wednesdays, September 8, 15, 22, and 29, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church, 129 Miller Avenue in Portsmouth.

Class preregistration is required. Contact Diane Giese, Seacoast Family Food Pantry, 603.436.6161 to register.

Healthy Weight Cooking Group is cosponsored by Seacoast Family Food Pantry, UNH Cooperative Extension, and Nutrition Connections.

Click here to download the Healthy Weight Cooking Class flyer.

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September 2, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

See below for some great and pretty inexpensive online course offerings on soil health, financial record-keeping and business planning from folks who know what they are talking about!:

Need some guidance on the development or expansion of a farm enterprise? Can’t find any trainings near you? If you’re comfortable enough with a computer to consider learning online, you’ll be glad to know that the Cornell Small Farms Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension are expanding offerings of their popular online courses for beginning farmers with two new online courses this Fall, in addition to our usual beginners Fall course, BF 101. Join experienced CCE and farmer instructors and 25 of your farmer peers in a dynamic learning experience that incorporates both self-paced readings and real-time virtual meetings with discussion forums, homework activities, guest presenters, and developing a customized plan for your next steps in farming.
The Cornell Small Farms Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) present:
BF 110: Soil Health Basics: Investing in the Vitality of Your Farm
The health and productivity of our soils are the basis for a farm’s success and profitability, as well as its ecological sustainability. Farmers need a holistic approach to preserving and building soil health and fertility. Stewardship of the soil is arguably the most important job of any farmer or gardener.

NOTE: This course will incorporate a face-to-face field day hosted by the Northeast Organic Farming Association at instructor David Belding’s Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island, NY, 4pm-7pm Oct 18th. This will be an amazing opportunity to meet your fellow coursemates and see firsthand how David has improved the soils on his farm over the past 5 years. The field day fee is covered by the course registration cost. Instructors: David Belding – Cross Island Farms, Wellesley Island, NY, and Dan Welch – CCE Cayuga

BF 104: Financial Record-keeping: A Cornerstone of Farm Profitability
To succeed in business, you need to understand financial management. The foundation of a sound financial management program for a farm is a good record keeping system. It does not matter what you produce, the service you provide, or how effective you are in marketing; the revenue you earn will disappear if you do not understand how to collect, monitor, save, spend, or invest that revenue. Current financial records from a good record keeping system are critical for making business decisions. This 6-week course will provide you with insight, understanding and the technological know-how to produce financial records and a beginning knowledge of analyzing financial statements. Instructors: Bonnie Collins – CCE Oneida County and Steve Hadcock - CCE Columbia County

BF 101: Taking Stock: Evaluating Your Land and Resources and Choosing an Enterprise
Evaluating what you want to do and what you have to work with are key elements to a successful new farm enterprise. This course will help you take the first steps toward setting goals, assessing the resources you have available for farming (physical, financial, and personal), and deciding what enterprises are the best fit for you and your land. NOTE: You will get the most out of this course if you already have access to land. Each participant will be gathering information about their own enterprise and will begin to create a Farm Plan. Instructors: Laura Biasillo - CCE Broome County and Dianne Olsen – CCE Putnam County

COURSE DATES: Thurs. Oct 14, 2010 to Wed. Nov 24, 2010. All courses incorporate live webinars featuring farmers, agency staff, and University faculty. See link below for webinar dates and details.

COST is $150 per course, except the Soil Health course, which is $165

TO REGISTER, or for more information on course format and requirements, please visit http://www.nybeginningfarmers.org/index.php?page=onlinecourse

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September 1, 2010 by Debra.

Via our friends at Slow Food Seacoast, the latest news on the current financial state of Maine Organic Milk, also known as MOOMilk:

A grand agricultural experiment — a Maine farmer-owned milk company — is close to folding and will suspend milk production this week as its principles scramble to find investment funding.

 

MOOMilk, which stands for Maine’s Own Organic Milk, processed milk Wednesday but will suspend production on Sunday, as a variety of reasons have combined to force the business toward closure. Only skim and one percent milk are still being processed since the company’s cash flow is so low that it cannot purchase two percent and whole milk car-tons.

 

“We are out of money,” David Bright, MOOMilk’s secretary and one of its founders, said this week.

 

Although the company began with 10 member farmers from Washington, Aroostook and Kennebec counties, that number has fallen to six, threatening the company’s ability to produce enough milk to remain sustainable.

 

Two farmers retired; another sold his herd; and a fourth opted to switch to conventional milk from organic.

Distributed reached more than 49 stores in Maine and New Hampshire. Currently, the company is seeking additional investment funding. Maybe some Slow Money to the rescue?  To read entire article >

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September 1, 2010 by Debra.

With what is sure to become an annual event, UNH Slow Food is sponsoring their first Seacoast Community Eat-in:

Join UNH Slow Food on Sunday, September 12 at 5:30pm for the first annual Seacoast Community Eat-In. This event is free and open to the public and will be held on the UNH campus behind Demeritt Hall, just off Main Street in Durham. This is a potluck event — bring a favorite dish to share with your friends and neighbors.

 

WHY AN EAT-IN?

Let’s face it. We lead busy lives. Often we’re too busy to share a meal with friends and neighbors, much less take the time to meet new ones. The Seacoast Community Eat-In is an opportunity for the community to take a break collectively and enjoy the company of others over a homemade meal.

 

GETTING THERE

If you are unfamiliar with the UNH campus, please click here for a map. The Eat-In will take place just behind Demeritt Hall, shown towards the center of the map. Parking is available along Main Street, next to Thompson Hall, and in various lots across campus. There is no charge for parking on Sundays.

 

Many thanks to Gordon Jenkins at Slow Food USA for use of his classic “fist and fork” logo.

For more information >

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August 31, 2010 by Debra.

Next up in Rye’s Honor Your Home Speaker Series is John Carroll, scheduled to speak on the topic “Local Foods, Farming & Sustainable Practices”:

Save Saturday, September 11th to hear Professor John Carroll, advocate for local foods and sustainable farming

 

Seacoast Science Center, 10:30–11:30 AM

 

Hope to see you there!

 

John will talk about his latest book, The Real Dirt: Toward Food Sufficiency and Farm Sustainability in New England and about his book Pastures of Plenty: The Future of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation in New England.

 

John Carroll is Professor of Environmental Conservation at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author and editor of The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food, Sustainability and Spirituality, The Greening of Faith, Ecology and Religion, Environmental Diplomacy, and International Environmental Diplomacy. He is a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow.   

 

NOT TO BE MISSED!  If you have any questions please contact Mimi White at 603-964-6586

For more information >

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August 30, 2010 by Sara Zoe.

Seacoast Eat Local is now accepting applications from farmers and fishermen for the 2010-2011 Winter Farmers’ Markets. The winter market season will run from late November 2010 through April 2011. All markets will be held on Saturdays from 10:00am to 2:00pm, alternating between two indoor locations in Rollinsford (Wentworth Greenhouses) and Exeter (Exeter High School). To request an application packet, please email Winter Farmers’ Market Coordinator Kate Donald at kate@seacoasteatlocal.org. The application deadline is September 15, 2010.

In keeping with Seacoast Eat Local’s mission of connecting consumers with sources of locally grown foods, we aim to organize markets that emphasize farmers, fishermen, and their products. In order to allow sufficient space for farmers and fishermen, we have designated a small number of spaces for prepared food vendors this year. The 2010-11 markets will feature prepared food vendors who are going to extra mile to offer products made from ingredients sourced directly from local farmers and fishermen. We are not accepting unsolicited applications from prepared food vendors at this time. If you would like to recommend a potential food vendor for the markets, please fill out Seacoast Eat Local’s “Recommendations of Vendors” form.

For more information about Seacoast Eat Local’s Winter Farmers’ Markets, and other winter farmers’ markets in the area, visit our website. Check back often as we add market vendor and event information.

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

Notices for Fall events are starting to come in, including these two from Brookford Farm in Rollinsford:

Our Next Hayride is on September 11

 

Bring the kids out to the farm for a hayride on Saturday, September 11th, at 4 p.m. They’ll get the grand tour of the fields and animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens — and maybe they’ll even get to see some newborn calves. It’s totally free and no reservations are required.

 

 

October Quark Festival

 

This October 10, 2010, from 11 – 4, Brookford Farm will be hosting an event in celebration of real food & local culture with a harvest festival we are calling the Quark Festival, in honor of one of our favorite cheeses. Local artisans will be there, as well as chefs from celebrated local restaurants, and we’ve invited local musicians and farmers as well. Sample our delicious artisinal cheeses as well as other dishes made with our pasture-raised beef and pork, organic vegetables, and renowned dairy products. There will also be workshops on traditional crafts like beekeeping and food preservation, pumpkin-carving, a straw labyrinth, and of course a hayride through beautiful countryside. For kids, there will be crafts, games, activities, and more!

 

For more information, you can check out our farm website and blog at www.brookfordfarm.com and www.brookfordfarm.blogspot.com.

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

The fourth annual Kneading Conference has just ended. This yearly gathering takes place in Skowhegan, Maine, and has been a growing influence in providing our regional food system with locally-produced grains. If you haven’t had the chance to attend, a New York Times article by Marian Burros covers this year’s conference and the Artisan Bread Fair that accompanies it:

Their Daily Bread Is a Local Call Away

 

THE 250 farmers, bakers, millers, scientists and just plain eaters, all of them fanatics about the kind of bread that is so good it doesn’t need butter or jam, gathered here last month for the fourth annual Kneading Conference. They spent two days at the fairgrounds talking about locally grown, mostly organic grains — and how, after 100 years of neglect, breads made from them are beginning to pop up, in limited quantities, nationwide.

 

There were plenty of freshly baked loaves, hot out of an assortment of portable bread ovens, to persuade the uninitiated that nothing tastes as good as bread made from richly flavored varieties of grain.

 

The Kneading Conference is part of a quiet revolution whose center is Skowhegan, a town in central Maine that produced enough grain in the 1830s to feed 100,000 people. As interest in local food has risen, federal and state agriculture departments are underwriting experiments to find the best varieties of wheat, and artisanal bakers are eagerly trying the flours they produce. But it is the conference that has helped turn the scattered movement into the next new thing for locavores, and the practical topics discussed this year — building more gristmills, making old farm manuals available — reveal its progress from infancy to adolescence.

 

To read article, including mentions of Borealis Breads and Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School >

 

The above photo is from this year’s conference. To see more photos of the 2010 Kneading Conference and Bread Fair >

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August 25, 2010 by Debra.

The final NOFA-NH Farm Tour of 2010 will be at Tuckaway Farm in Lee on Tuesday, August 31. If you are interested in organic, no-till techniques, small grain and oilseed production and processing, and/or production and use of biodiesel, this is a farm tour you won’t want to miss!

Organic No-Till Farm Tour

NOFA-NH 2010 Summer Organic Garden & Farm Tours

Tuckaway Farm, 59 Randall Rd, Lee, NH

Tuesday, August 31, 5:30 PM

 

This tour will be focused on organic no till equipment and limited/no till establishment of covercrops to build soil organic matter. Small grain and oilseed on-farm variety selection as well as harvesting and on-farm processing of grains and oilseeds for feed and fuel will also be discussed. On-farm biodiesel production and use will be briefly covered as well.

 

Dorn Cox has been growing organic grains and oilseeds for 7 years and researching varieties, cultivation and harvest practices. He helped found the Great Bay Grain Cooperative with nine other farms. They have helped build a local knowledge base around local grain and oil seed production and processing. Dorn is currently enrolled in the Natural Resources & Earth Systems Science PhD program at UNH focusing on carbon policy and soil based carbon sequestration. Four generations of his family currently live on two farms, Tuckaway Farm and Sheltering Rock Farm. Tuckaway Farm is a diversified mixed power (draft horse and tractor) family farm with hay, timber, small fruits and berries and a market garden with direct sales.

 

Directions:  From Concord: take US-4 E to the Rt-155 N ramp toward Durham/Dover. Turn Left onto NH-155 / Turtle Pond Rd. Stay on NH-155 for 0.8 miles, then turn left onto Randall Rd.

 

Workshop is $10 for NOFA members, $15 for non-members (children under 18 no charge). To pre-register, or if you have questions or financial need, please contact Barbara Sullivan, Business Manager NOFA-NH (Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH) 4 Park Street, Suite 208 Concord, NH 03301 Ph: 603-224-5022 Fax: 603-228-6492 Email: barbara@nofanh.org.

 

Details at: http://www.nofanh.org/node/140. Tours are held rain or shine (extreme weather will cancel).

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August 24, 2010 by Debra.

In celebration of this summer’s abundance of tomatoes, Tracey Miller will be featuring recipes for this versatile fruit on her Wellness blog — a new one every day for the last 10 days of August. The recipes will include using raw tomatoes as well as cooked, with the series starting off with one for Fresh Pasta Sauce, followed by another for Cherry Tomato Chewies. Tips on preserving will also be offered along the way. Make sure to check Tracey’s blog daily to see what’s new!

Many local farmers are offering bulk orders of tomatoes and the option of pick-your-own.  Warren Farm (weekdays 9–6, weekends 9–4) and Brookford Farm (daily except Sunday, 9:30–1 and 2:30–6) are both offering  pick-your-own tomatoes, wilth Brookford Farm also offering special pricing for bulk orders of tomato seconds. Many other farms are also taking bulk orders on tomatoes, such as Stout Oak Farm and Pickpocket Farm, or ask at your local farmers’ market. It’s a perfect time to get canning!

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