On a sunny yet crisp winter’s day at Audubon Greenwich last Saturday, over 100 guests gathered to attend a screening of the documentary food film FRESH.  This film is the perfect excuse to invite members of the local-sustainable food movement to serve on the guest panel and share their passions with the public. A complete list of all the panelists and exhibitors appears below, along with a photo gallery from the event.

Thoughtful audience questions during the panel discussion clearly demonstrate an ongoing need for continued dialog on this topic. Please read “How to Eat FRESH this Winter” to learn ways you can join or increase your participation in the local-sustainable food movement.  Please sign up for the e-newsletter and follow me on Facebook and Twitter so we can stay connected.

I’m delighted to have received very positive emails from a number of guests, one of whom posted a fantastic review of the event on his blog. He’s become a fan of the Fairfield Green Food Guide and Audubon Greenwich and is looking forward to more events like FRESH. As a reminder, Jeff Cordulack at Audubon has planned  two more screenings that are worth the trip: ‘A Chemical Reaction’ on Sunday, March 28 from 3:30-5 pm and ‘Tapped’: A Movie About Bottled Water on Friday, April 23 from 7-9 pm.

Remember Russ Kremer? He’s the hog farmer from FRESH who’s also the poster boy for how sick superbugs passed from animals to humans can make us. Well an excellent op-ed piece in Sunday’s NYT by Nicholas Kristof opens our eyes to the disturbing fact that “70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.” Russ was lucky they could save him with a new generation antibiotic, but the article suggests that increasingly, we might not be so lucky. And so, the FRESH story continues.

Panelists:

Moderator: Analiese Paik, Founder of the Fairfield Green Food Guide

Dan Levinson, Co-founder and Chairman of Westport Green Village Initiative (GVI)

Dan is Founder and Chairman of Westport Green Village Initiative(GVI); and Founder/Chairman of Main Street Resources

www.westportgvi.org;  www.mainstreetresources.com

Deb Marsden, Founder, CT Farm Fresh Express

Deb Marsden is the founder of CT Farm Fresh Express, a farm-to-consumer company that sells exclusively CT grown and made food. Deb has been featured in article in the New York Times, the Faith Middleton Show on NPR, and NBC 30 News. www.ctffe.com

Amy Kalafa, co-producer school lunch documentary 2 Angry Moms, and a better school food advocate

Rachel Khanna, an organic chef and Certified Health Counselor

Melina Brown, a chicken expert and founder of the Southern CT/Westchester Backyard Poultry Meetup

Exhibitors:

Analiese Paik, Founder, Fairfield Green Food Guide, LLC

Analiese is a local-sustainable food advocate who helps consumers source local and sustainable food via her web site, blog, live events and regular guest appearances on News Ch. 8’s Good Morning CT Weekend. www.fairfieldgreenfoodguide.com

Deb Marsden, Founder, CT Farm Fresh Express

Deb Marsden is the founder of CT Farm Fresh Express, a farm-to-consumer company that sells exclusively CT grown and made food. Consumers place their custom order online once-a-week home delivery that Friday. Deb has been featured in article in the New York Times, the Faith Middleton Show on NPR, and NBC 30 News. www.ctffe.com

Amy Kalafa, a better school food advocate and co-producer of the school lunch documentary, 2 Angry Moms

Rachel Khanna, an organic chef and Certified Health Counselor

Melina Brown, a chicken expert and founder of the Southern CT/Westchester Backyard Poultry Meetup

Nick Mancini, Master Gardener, Founder Organic Gardening Simplfied

Nick is a Certified Master Gardener from the Cooperative Extension System of the University of Connecticut, and past head Master Gardener of Vegetables, Brambles and Fruit Frees at Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford, CT. He is a lecturer, educator and consultant that specializes in vegetables, brambles and espaliered fruit trees. Nick is a member of CT NOFA. www.organicgardeningsimplified.com

Fairfield Bread Company - a new artisan bakery making the bread served at the event, The Flaxette. Michael Mordecai can be reached via http://fairfieldbread.blogspot.com/

Artscape Organic Care LLC - Owner Mike Pappa is a CT NOFA Certified organic landcare specialist serving Fairfield County.

I’m so grateful for the support and generosity of Audubon Greenwich.  Special thanks go to Deb Marsden of CT Farm Fresh Express for arranging the cheese donations from the followingfarmers listed below and to Fairfield Bread Company for donating their “Flaxette” loaf to the event and Glenville Wines for the organic wines they donated to accompany the cheese tasting.

Connecticut cheeses served during the FRESH reception/exhibition:

Cato Corner Farm, Colchester (all cow’s milk)

Hooligan

Brigid’s Abbey

Aged Dutch Farmstead

Beltane Farm, Lebanon (all goat’s milk)

Feta

Dill chevre

Chive chevre

Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm, Lyme

Pleasant Cow (cow’s milk)

Sun (cow’s milk)

Pleasant Valley (sheep’s milk)

M&K Dairy, Lebanon (all cow’s milk)

Black Pepper Queso Fresco

Chive Queso Fresco

Meadowstone Farm, Brooklyn (cow’s milk)

Cheddar

All these cheeses are available for online ordering and home delivery from CT Farm Fresh Express. See you at the movies!

The documentary food film FRESH was shown to a packed house at Audubon Greenwich yesterday and nearly everyone attended the guest panel discussion! In honor of the movie and all the local heroes who make farm-fresh food available to consumers, I’ve created a list of ways you can easily eat fresh this winter. Enjoy the winter season and all the interesting and delicious local food it brings: Organic Adironack Blue potatoes, organic tatsoi, organic maitake mushrooms, sweet, wild Maine shrimp-what are your favorites?

1)      Shop at a winter farmers’ market and stock up for the week. Both Fairfield and Norwalk have indoor winter farmers’ markets that run on Saturdays from 10-2 and offer a wide variety of CT Grown produce, cheese, yogurt, eggs, meat, bread, and artisan made foods. Fairfield’s is held inside the Fairfield Theater Company on Sanford Street and Norwalk’s is held at 61-65 Wall St., near the Garden Cinemas.

2)      Buy CT Grown foods online for home delivery. Order online from CT Farm Fresh Express (CTFFE) by noon Tuesday for a Friday home delivery. You pick what and how much CT-grown food you want from their online store and they deliver it to your door. No minimums, no membership fees and no ongoing commitment. Leave a cooler with ice packs on your doorstep if you won’t be home to receive the delivery. New: Order your CSA from CTFFE for home delivery.

3)      Buy from local, family-owned specialty or independent grocers that make it a point to carry locally grown and produced food. Palmer’s Market in Darien, The Village Market of Wilton Fairfield Cheese Company and The Pantry in Fairfield, and Walter Stewart’s Market in New Canaan carry a selection of local fruits, vegetables, breads, cheeses, honey, and artisanal foods.

4)      Buy from national retailers that are committed to selling locally grown and other sustainably grown and harvested foods. Whole Foods Markets in Greenwich and Westport proudly feature produce from local farms, artisan products from local producers, and a wide range of organic and Fair Trade Certified foods like coffee, tea and chocolate.

5)      Dine at restaurants that source local and organic ingredients. Farm-to-Chef restaurants in the county include: The Boxcar Cantina in Greenwich uses local and sustainably grown food and is Fairfield County’s first restaurant to receive a Green Restaurant Certification from the Green Restaurant Association. Health in a Hurry and Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe in Fairfield, The Dressing Room and the newly minted Le Farm in Westport, Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Cobbs Mill Inn in Weston, David’s Catering and Napa & Co. in Stamford, and Woodway Country Club in Darien all cook with the seasons using fresh, local ingredients. Look for The Filling Station to open soon in New Canaan; it will feature grass-fed burgers, nitrate-free hot dogs, organic French fries and antibiotic and hormone-free milk shakes.

6)      Buy some Connecticut wine directly from a winery or buy organic and biodynamic wines from a wine shop like Glenville Wine & Spirits in Greenwich and Harry’s Wines & Spirits in Southport. Some standouts from the Connecticut Wine Festival were Sharpe Hill Vineyard’s Ballet of Angels, the award-winning wines of Hopkins Vineyards, Miranda Vineyard’s Seyval Blanc and Woodridge White, Land of Nod’s Bianca, Taylor Brooke’s Traminette and Connecticut Valley Winery’s Chianti and port-style Black Bear.

7) Join a spring, summer or winter 2010 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program).  Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a means for consumers to buy a share in a farm’s seasonal production directly from the farmer. Consumers benefit from buying local, farm fresh, high quality produce at an attractive price and farmers benefit from pre-selling the harvest. Click here for a complete Guide to Fairfield County 2010 CSAs.

Hidden Brook Gardens is offering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this spring, with CTFFE delivering shares to participating families!

What’s a CSA?

CSAs are partnerships between an individual farm and a community of supporters, providing a direct link between the production and consumption of food. CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower.

How Does It Work?

For this CSA with Hidden Brook Gardens, the 2010 season will run for 15 weeks beginning on Friday, June 18th and ending Friday, September 24th. CTFFE will deliver your share directly to your door each week! The weekly pick-up fee will be $5.00 and the delivery fee will be based on the proximity of your home to our distribution center in East Haddam. To determine your specific delivery fee, please contact CTFFE at 860-873-8760. The pick up and delivery fees will be paid directly to CTFFE each week when we deliver your share.

Why the CSA Model?

CSA members help to cover a farm’s yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season’s harvest. Members help pay for seeds, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season.

What Will I Get?

So far Hidden Brook Gardens is planning crops ranging from beans, beets, and broccoli to carrots, collards,  and cucumbers and on to squash, scallions and strawberries! For a full list of planned produce, click here and follow to request the farm’s CSA brochure. Full Shares (15 weeks) are priced at $450, and Half Shares (15 weeks) are $225. A great deal, a great way to support a local farm, and great farm-fresh produce for your table. How cool is that?!

The pick-up and delivery fees will be paid directly to CTFFE each week when they deliver your share.  You can order any other products from their website to compliment that week’s CSA offering, which helps to offset the price of delivery.

Please visit the farm’s site to request a CSA brochure.

Stoneledge Farm Certified Organic CSA has drop/pick up locations in Stamford, Wilton/Norwalk and Southport. As of today there are a few CSA shares available in each location.

The shares from this 90 acre, NOFA-NY certified organic farm located in South Cairo, New York are varied and generous. I particularly liked all the herbs last summer because I learned to use more of them in my cooking. I didn’t expect to love summer savory, but I do. If you don’t pick your own fruit during the summer, I suggest signing up for a fruit share too. The plums, cherries and other tree fruit were gorgeous and I saw varieties that were new to me.

Stamford pick up is at Zion Lutheran Church, 132 Glenbrook Road on Wednesdays, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Visit the site for a brochure describing the program or just keep reading below. 

Wilton/Norwalk pick up is at 345 Belden Hill Road on Wednesdays, from 4:15 - 6:30 pm.

Thanks to the dedication and passion for local, organic food of Sarah Bollman and Leann Weaver of Fairfield, a CSA location was added last year at Trinity Southport Church, 651 Pequot Avenue on Wednesdays, from 4:30-6:30 pm.

The cost is $490 for 24 weeks, June through November. That’s $20.42 a week for an abundance of fresh, local, organic produce! Fruit shares are available to vegetable share members for $225 and run for 20 weeks. Berries are grown at Stoneledge Farm and orchard fruit is grown by Stoneledge Farm’s neighbors, who take a light approach in protecting their crops.

Visit their web site to register online by credit card or check. Click here to sign up online. The farmer keeps members very involved, emailing about crop yields and what’s included in the current week’s share. Every week at least one or two herbs are included in the share. Any unclaimed shares will be donated to programs including Operation Hope and the Connecticut Food Bank. Members share recipes and the Fairfield Green Food Guide will post them too because I renewed my share!

Visit the web site to learn more, register for a share or join the waiting list.

Web Site: http://www.stoneledgefarmny.org/locations/

CT NOFA’s 28th Annual Winter Conference

Celebrate Local Organic Farming, Gardening, Landscaping and Sustainable Lifestyles

Co-sponsored with Manchester Community College’s Team Green

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Manchester Community College
Manchester, CT
8:30 am to 4:45 pm

Join us in celebration of local organic farming, gardening, landscaping and sustainable lifestyles. This event will feature 30 plus workshops, a vendor and exhibit area, keynote speech, delicious potluck lunch, children’s program, and a series of hands-on cooking demonstrations.

KEYNOTE~ REGISTRATION~ WORKSHOPS~ SPONSORS~VENDORS

Keynote

Featuring Michael Shuman, author of The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition. Author and entrepreneur, Mr. Schuman has written nearly one hundred articles for such periodicals as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Parade, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. His books and articles have explored people, practices, and policies in the fields of technology, national security, citizen diplomacy, municipal foreign policy, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and business development. To view Michael’s blog, click here.

Michael co-authored a recent report, “Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in a Global Marketplace,” spotlighting 24 ventures around the world that are pioneering models for local food.

Registration

	Before 2/19	After 2/19
NOFA Members:	$40	$45
Non-Members:	$50	$55
Students/Seniors:	$25	$30

Volunteer for 2 hours and receive $10 off the registration price!

Children 12 and under are free.
Free daycare will be available for children ages 3 to 12 with preregistration only.

Online registration is now available. Details>

For a printer-friendly form to mail in, click here.

Workshops

PERMACULTURE DESIGN FOR PRODUCTIVE CONSERVATION:  GROW FOOD, REBUILD THE ENVIRONMENT - Keith Zaltzberg, Regenerative Design Group www.regenerativedesigngroup.com

GROWING CUT FLOWERS - Alan Gorkin, Growing sustainable cut flower crops for to increase market diversity.

MAKING FOOLPROOF COUNTRY WINE - Jack Kittredge, Many Hands Organic Farm.  www.mhof.net

BUILDING A CSA - Dina Brewster, The Hickories Farm www.thehickories.org

HOW WE GROW GARLIC AT WAYNE’S ORGANIC GARDEN - Wayne Hansen, Wayne’s Organic Garden www.waynesorganicgarden.com

FIRST LESSONS IN BEEKEEPING - C. Marina Marchese, Red Bee Apiary   www.redbee.com

THE AMATEUR ARTISAN BAKER - Jiff Martin, Serious & not-so-serious home bakers learn new techniques and share old favorites.  Taste tests & take home live starter.

WORM COMPOSTING - Nick Mancini,   www.OrganicGardeningSimplified.com

SEEDY BUSINESS:  THE HISTORY, POLITICS, & FUTURE OF SEEDS - Ken Greene,  Hudson Valley Seed Library  www.seedlibrary.org

RAW MILK AND FOOD RIGHTS - David E. Gumpert, www.davidgumpert.com

“LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, YOUR AGRICULTURE COMMISION IS THERE” - John Weedon,  How to start a commission w/no money down.  What a Town Agriculture Commission can do to help farmers.  How to work effectively with a commission.

THREATS TO THE HEALTH OF HONEY BEES AND WILD BEES - Dr Kimberly Stoner, Vegetable Entomologist at the CT Agriculture Experiment Station, New Haven.  www.ct.gov/caes

FARM TAXES SHOULDN’T BE TAXING - Ron Capozzi, “Class will be limited to those who think they can spend their money wiser than the government.”

GETTING INTO RAW FOODS - Rawdawg Rory  www.rawdawgrory.com

RAISING DAIRY GOATS & MAKING CHEESE - Paul Trubey, Beltane Farm.  www.beltanefarm.com

NATURAL NIBBLES, AN INTRODUCTION TO WILD PLANT FORAGING - Bryan Connolly, Massachusetts State Botanist, PhD student - Native Plant Horticulture.

WEED ECOLOGY & ORGANIC WEED CONTROL - Robert Durgy, Farm Manager CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Griswold Research Center.

THE 10 LEAST WANTED: VEGETABLE INSECTS PESTS & WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM - Robert Durgy, Farm Manager CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Griswold Research Center.

EXTENDING THE GROWING SEASON AND COLDWEATHER CROPS - Bettylou Sandy, Bettylou’s Gardening.  Learn tricks to extend the growing season at both ends. Harvest April thru November.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY - Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave Foundation www.wholesomewave.org

HOOP TUNNELS,  LOW & HIGH - Bryan O’Hara, Tobacco Road Farm.  Use, construction, costs, and appropriate crops for the extended season production of vegetable crops.

BACKYARD BARNYARD - Peter & Judith Rothenberg, Northfordy Farm.  Sustainable farm animal husbandry.

GREENHOUSE/NURSERY ENERGY CONSERVATION - IDEAS THAT SAVE MONEY - John W. Bartok Jr. Extension Agricultural Engineer - Emeritus Univ of CT  Materials, tools, and techniques for reducing fuel  & electricity  use in small to medium size propagation & production structures.  Basics of wood, corn, waste oil, geothermal & solar systems.

REFORM OF THE “SUPPLY CHAIN”: INSTITUTIONAL FOOD SERVICE - Marydale DeBor, Plow to Plate/New Milford Hospital  www.plowtoplate.org

HILLS AND VALLEYS - RAISED BED GARDENING - James Roby, Roby’s Organic Farm.  Raised bed, ridge till and trench planting methods.  Managing walkways, mulching, and cultivation.

SO  YOU WANT TO START A  FARMERS MARKET? - Winter Caplanson    www.CoventryFarmersMarket.com Basics of starting a market; defining a niche for your farmers market, state requirements, location, management, vendor recruitment, rules/regulation & marketing.

EXPERT PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

BACK (AND FORTH) TO OUR ” ROOTS” - Dr. Lisa Gengo, PA, ND, CNS, Chef  John Turenne, President & Founder of Sustainable Food Systems  &  Farmer Wayne Hansen  discuss & demonstrate uses and nutritional benefits of familiar and the less-well known winter vegetables.

Additional details and workshops still to come.

Sponsors

Gold Level Sponsors - Stonyfield Fam and Whole Foods Market

Silver Level Sponsors - Farmer’s Cow and Global Environmental Services

Supporting Sponsors - Sunlight Solar Energy, Farm Credit East, New England Seed and Steven A. Rose Agency

Vendor - Exhibitors

If you’d like to reserve a space, please call the office at 203-888-5146.

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POTLUCK DETAILS

Please bring a dish to share with everyone-it need not be local food or even organic-do what you can. A family-sized serving is fine, along with the recipe or ingredient listing. Drinks are always welcome if you are unable to cook.

Our impressive staff of kitchen volunteers will be on hand to pull it all together for us and make sure hot dishes are hot and salads are dressed.

To help us conserve, please bring your own place setting, napkin, and utensils. Questions? Call 203-888-5146.

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The Farmer’s Cow is holding an Ice Cream Naming Contest for their 10 new flavors starting February 1 so start thinking of names! The Farmer’s Cow is a cooperative of six family-owned farms that supplies milk to retailers throughout Connecticut and parts of New York and Massachusetts. Combined, they milk 2,300 cows on nearly 7,000 acres of land. Their collaboration has been so successful that they’ve branched out into other products like eggs, half and half, heavy cream, and cider. Read more about the company in a previous article on this site.

Contest Rules:

You may enter up to 10 names, one per flavor, making sure that the names reflect something about farming and the benefits of local agriculture. Entries will be accepted online from 12:01 a.m. February 1, 2010. through midnight on February 14, 2010. Click here to enter the contest!

Their farmers and marketing team will review all the names submitted.
A winner will be drawn at random from all of the entries received.

One lucky entrant will receive a summer’s supply of ice cream from Memorial Day 2010 until Labor Day 2010. The winner will be announced at the end of February 2010. All names become property of The Farmer’s Cow. Click here to enter the contest!
Please direct any questions to farmers@thefarmerscow.com

I recently became a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Advocate and this story spotlights the program’s growing influence. Citing its desire to be a “responsible steward of the environment, Target Stores has eliminated all farmed salmon from their stores and has replaced it with sustainable wild- caught salmon, a Seafood Watch “best choice” rated source. The impact of this decision is enormous. Not only is this a thunderous no vote for farmed salmon, but it’s also a huge step in the right direction for shifting the burden of making sustainable seafood choices off the consumer and onto the retailer. Kudos to Target.

Target Eliminates Farmed Salmon From All Target Stores — MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –

Good thing Westport GVI never settled on a commercial space suitable for distributing the CSA from Shelton-based Stone Gardens Farm they started last year for Westport residents. As fortune would have it, the Wakeman Farm and house on Cross Highway became available for lease from the town for $1 per year last spring and Westport GVI’s team jumped at the chance to lease the property. The town embraced their proposal for a  Town Farm on the site and GVI recently announced the signing of a five-year lease and plans to once again farm the 2.2 acre property.

Westport GVI is a group with clarity of vision and the people and resources to see it realized. The house is being spruced up so the future residents can move in by June. May this be a happy home to Mike Aitkenhead, Staples HS Environmental Teacher and 2009 Westport Teacher of the Year, who will take up residence at and oversee the Town Farm along with his wife, Carrie, and their one year old son, Ethan.

Don’t mind the dumpster; there’s no gutting going on in this historic house. You can see from the above photo that there’s no insulation in the walls and the plaster was cracking so badly in some places that it had to be removed. Think of how beautiful this spacious house is going to look with some new wall board, paint, appliances and fixtures.

The aged red barn is being renovated from the inside out in preparation for CSA season. This is where you will come to pick up your Stone Gardens Farm CSA share each week from Carrie. Don’t have a share yet? Sign up now! Future plans include the addition of CSA shares from other area farms and add ons  like local eggs, cheese, poultry, meat, flowers and honey to make the CSA more full service. These will come after appropriate food service licenses have been obtained and the Town Health Department has given its blessing.

Planting of organic vegetables will begin in the spring at Wakeman Farm, but don’t expect enough production for their own CSA. A farm stand is more likely. The intention was never to grow enough food for the whole town, but rather serve as a model of environmentally sustainable agriculture and an educational facility.

Town Farm Director Becky Howe cited a book, The Backyard Homestead, as the foundation of their message to the public, “You can grow all the food you need on a quarter acre. Anybody can do this. We’re going to be a model of how to do it and provide continuing education to the community in everything from composting to organic gardening to beekeeping so they can get comfortable doing these things on their own.” Andrew (from Andrew’s Local Honey) is going to drop off one of his hives here and Westport GVI board member Sherri Brooks Vinton will give canning and preserving workshops. Get excited but be patient, be supportive, and visit often. It’s going to take the whole community to make this work, and there’s not doubt that it will.

Last year Westport Green Village Initiative (GVI) began offering summer CSA shares supplied by Stone Gardens Farm in Shelton as part of their mission to “create a new food model - a relationship between local farmers and consumers- that offers local/healthy food to people at reasonable prices.” The program has been so successful that the farm is greatly expanding their CSA program this year.

The Westport pickup location is NO LONGER the Unitarian Church, it will be at the Wakeman Farm on 134 Cross Highway, Westport. Westport GVI Town Farm, Inc. has leased the historic Wakeman Farm from the Town of Westport to create a sustainable community farm. More on that in my next post!

If you are interested in learning more about or signing up for the summer CSA share offered by Stone Gardens for pickup at the farm in Shelton or at Wakeman Farm in Westport, please visit the farm’s  site.