The fourth Annual Green Coast Award winners were announced Wednesday, November 16, at the fourth Annual Fairfield County Green Faire at Grand Restaurant and Lounge in Stamford, Connecticut. Fairfield Green Food Guide is proud to be named a 2011 Green Coast Award winner and we thank all our readers for your votes! Four green food businesses we love – Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, Health in a Hurry, Port Coffeehouse and the Westport Farmers’ Market – are among the 2011 award winners and we congratulate them. Please find a complete list of all 28 winners below and we welcome you to join us on Dec. 6 as we accept our award.

Twenty-eight businesses, organizations and individuals were honored this year and are recognized at both the Green Faire in Stamford and also Green Drinks, December 6 at The Shack Hometown Grille, in Fairfield, Connecticut from 6:00pm-8:00pm. Voting for the Green Coast Awards was completed online at GreenCoastAwards.com from January 1st-November 10th. All winners were reviewed for their contribution to sustainability and approved by Matt Turek, Director of the Green Coast Awards, as well as approved by the Green Coast Award advisory committee. “This year’s 28 Green Coast Award winners represent all areas of sustainability, and demonstrate that Connecticut is on its way to building a more sustainable infrastructure,“ said Mr. Turek.

Patrice Gillespie, of Clean Air – Cool Planet received the Green Coast Award for Leader in Sustainability at the Stamford reception. Patrice thanked the GCA voters and the advisory council by saying, “We are all learning about environmental stewardship from one another, and almost every day I have a ‘V-8′ forehead-smacking moment when an urgently needed idea about sustainability is revealed to me. By now, there are hundreds of innovators whom I know personally and who are contributing greatly to the collective ‘Green Intel’ just in this region. I salute them all and hope that together we effect tremendous progress in 2012.”

Town of Fairfield won the Town category and newly elected First Selectman Mike Tetreau will be in attendance at the December 6^th Green Drinks gathering, which features Green Coast Award winners including Fairfield Green Food Guide. When given the good news about Fairfield’s award, First Selectman Tetreau said, “The Town of Fairfield is honored to receive this award and to be recognized in this manner. It’s a testament to our on-going commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability for the well being of all of our citizens. Thank you.”

A long-time friend of environmental efforts and a strong supporter of local green initiatives, Mayor Bill Finch won the Green Coast Awards for Mayor. The City of Bridgeport recently celebrated the Third Annual Green Market Exposition at City Hall Annex, a celebration of Connecticut’s green infrastructure. In an interview with GreenTowns, at the GME, Mayor Finch talked about the many green projects and initiatives that are going on in Bridgeport.

For a complete list of all winners, please visit the Green Coast Awards Initiative page on GreenTowns.

Recognizing a growing interest among local residents and businesses for protecting the environment, Daphne Dixon founded the Green Coast Awards, an initiative of Conscious Decisions, in 2007, to support and promote local sustainability, eco-friendly living practices and the celebrate the people behind these efforts. A native Californian and a resident of Fairfield, she has over twenty years of public relations, community organization and event planning experience. Daphne has been working closely with local leaders, businesses and residents to raise awareness and to engage people in green living practices. “By making smart choices, individuals can and do make a difference,” said Dixon.

Voting for the 2012 Green Coast Awards begins January 1, 2012 at www.greencoastawards.com

Please join Fairfield Green Food Guide’s founder, Analiese Paik, on Dec. 6 at Green Drinks Fairfield at The Shack Hometown Grille in Fairfield, Connecticut from 6:00pm-8:00pm to celebrate the awards and network with members and guests including First Selectman Mike Tetreau and Slow Food Metro North. Click here to RSVP. Attendance is free.

Anna Lappe, sustainable food advocate and author of Diet for a Hot Planet

The Fairfield Green Food Guide and Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm have teamed up to screen Nourish the film at libraries and other community and environmental organizations in Fairfield County. Hosted and narrated by Cameron Diaz, Nourish features interviews with best-selling author Michael Pollan, sustainable food advocate Anna Lappe, eco-chef Bryant Terry, pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke, and organic farmer Nigel Walker. With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish traces our relationship to food from a global perspective to personal action steps. Nourish the film was created by WorldLink, an Emmy Award-winning media group with twenty years’ experience in designing education and outreach programs, in order to deepen our national dialog about our food.

“Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well.”
— Michael Pollan from Nourish the film

Click here to see a trailer.

On Wednesday, November 17, Wilton Library will host the Fairfield County premiere of Nourish the movie. Immediately after the 30-minute film screening, a special panel of influential members of the local sustainable food community will discuss their work and take audience questions during an hour-long, moderated panel discussion.

Guest Panelists:

• Master Farm Annie Farrell of Millstone Farm,
• Award-winning chef/owner of the Schoolhouse at Cannondale restaurant Tim LaBant,
• Biology and AP Environmental Science teacher and founder of the Wilton High School edible school garden Jim Hunter,
• Moderator: Analiese Paik, Founder & Editor, Fairfield Green Food Guide

Food, Wine & Networking:

Guests are welcome to stay to enjoy small bites from the Schoolhouse at Cannondale and organic wine while networking with the panelists, exhibitors and other guests.

This is a free, family-appropriate event, but registration is required. Please contact the Wilton Library at 203-762-3950 ext. 213 to register.

Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT.

Mercy Learning Center student tasting the salad made by UCONN nutritionists Heather Harrington and Tina Dugdale

If you take a student to the farm stand, she will learn that fresh, local food is not only affordable and convenient, but nutritious and delicious. That’s the lesson learned today by a group of seventeen Mercy Learning Center students thanks to a Health Eating program cooked up by the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County.

Sharon Sanford, Student Enrichment Coordinator, prepares Mercy Learning Center students for a field trip to Park City Harvest's Marina Village Farmers' Market with Jennie Julio and Susan Zaveruha of the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County

The Junior League volunteers and I met with Sharon Sanford and her students at Mercy Learning Center and took a quick walk to the Marina Village farm stand where we were met with open arms by chef and food policy advocate Michel Nischan, who is Wholesome Wave’s president and CEO. As one of Wholesome Wave Foundation’s

A Mercy Learning Center student shops for green beans

core “Nourishing Neighborhoods” programs, the Neighborhood Farm Stand Program brings Park City Harvest farm stands deep within neighborhoods of under-served Bridgeport, Connecticut where shoppers can purchase CT grown fruit and produce using SNAP-EBT cards and Senior/WIC FMNP checks. Until last month shoppers were able to redeem their cards and checks for double their value in farm stand tokens. Wholesome Wave is working to secure funding to reinstate this Double Value Coupon program.

Jennie Julio and Susan Zaveruha from the Junior League, Michel Nischan of Wholesome Wave and Susan Sanford of Mercy Learning Center

Heather Harrington, MS RD and Tina Dugdale, MS RN RD, both Extension Instructors from UCONN’s Department of AlliedHealth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, discussed the produce and fruit available at the farm stand and how to prepare it. My favorite part of this was hearing from the students themselves and how they used the vegetables in their native dishes. My mouth began to water thinking about the chile rellenos that

Michel Nischan teaching the students how to prepare zucchini for use in fresh salsas

one student was going to make with the Poblano peppers. Another was planning to make fresh salsa using tomatoes, and jalapenos from the farm stand. Michel Nischan lent some great culinary advice: “Zucchini is great in salsa. Just sprinkle squash and zucchini with salt. Let it sit for 15 minutes to soften it up a bit. You can add it to salsa and it’s delicious! Pour it over pasta for a quick dinner.” The zucchini sold out today!

Mercy Learning Center students clearly enjoyed visiting the market

The students were clearly enjoying themselves and made quick work of shopping. One declared “I’m going to eat so delicious tonight!” as she stuffed her bags with zucchini, tomatoes, apples, corn, green beans, and chile peppers. When it was time to check out, each student was given a reusable shopping bag, courtesy of Wholesome Wave, a paper bag donated by Trader Joe’s of Fairfield, and $20 in tokens provided through funding from the Junior League.

"Who likes spicy food?" garnered a few laughs and a show of hands

I’m looking forward to returning to Mercy in November to work directly with the students in their teaching kitchen. They’re gathering their favorite home recipes for me to tweak with some healthier ingredients or cooking methods. They don’t know it, but I’m looking forward to learning

It was all smiles as the students waited on line to pay with their tokens. Many will be returning to a Park City Harvest farm stand to use their leftover tokens before the end of the month.

how to make dishes from their native countries, which span the globe and include Haiti and Peru, as much as I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with them.

When I asked the students to rate their experience at the market, the votes were unanimous. It’s a 10! I think we’ve got a winner.

by Eileen Weber

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. Photo courtesy Ripple Effect Productions, producer of FRESH

Joel Salatin is a religious man. He is a believer that nature should be left to nature. But above all else, he is a farmer. Going against the tide of industrialism where hormones and antibiotics are fed to livestock, he lets his chickens have their “chicken-ness” and his pigs have their “pig-ness”. They roam free to peck and forage as they please across Salatin’s rolling hills of Polyface Farms in Swoope, Va. By some, he is considered a lunatic. For others, he is a genius.

Will Allen of Growing Power Inc., a recipient of the 2008 MacArthur Genius Award. Photo courtesty Ripple Effects Productions, producer of FRESH

Mr. Salatin is not alone. There are others who have the same core values he does. Will Allen, a former basketball player and subsequent marketing manager, is an urban farmer in Milwaukee, Wis. growing vegetables without any chemicals or fertilizers on only three acres of land. His secret is compost and he’s not shy about grabbing a fistful to make his point. After being gored by one of his hogs with the resulting infection resistant to scores of medication, Russ Kremer, a farmer in Frankenstein, Mo., is now a proud and sought after hog farmer. He took the extreme measure of exterminating his herd to begin anew, swearing off antibiotics and hormones.

Russ Kremer, founding member of the Heritage Acres Pork Cooperative which raises “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” hogs. Photo courtesy Ripple Effect Productions, producer of FRESH.

We can see these farmers in their fight against an industrialized food system in the highly acclaimed film FRESH. Last night, the Pequot Library in Southport held a viewing of the movie, a film produced and directed by Ana Sofia Joanes. There was a panel discussion afterward and close to a dozen local exhibitors displayed their wares in the library’s adjacent Reading Room.

The event was the brainchild of Analiese Paik, Founder of Fairfield Green Food Guide. With the idea and her enthusiasm, she approached Dan Snydacker, Executive Director of the Pequot Library. The efforts of six tireless weeks of work paid off. There was a huge turnout. While the seating could only accommodate 200 people, there was a wait list for the event and some were turned away at the door. What a clear indication of how important an issue food is to this community.

The film’s subtitle says it all: “New thinking about what we’re eating.” But is it really new? The film celebrates the environmentally aware farmers, Salatin, Allen and Kremer being prime examples. But what each of these men has achieved is not a novel concept. Letting nature be nature without the use of chemicals is an age-old farming technique. Let the grass grow. Let the cows and chickens roam free. Let their manure fertilize the grass so it can grow some more. The cycle of life continues.

“We’re farming grass,” said Salatin of how he sees its role in farming animals. “If we take care of the grass, it will take care of us.”

Michael Pollan, author of such agriculturally provocative titles as The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, inserted his own commentary in the film. “Industrialized food is cheaper but nutritionally deficient,” he said as scenes of well-known brands in a supermarket’s freezer aisle flicked across the screen. “The more processed it is, the less nutritious.”

But many people, especially those in urban areas considered a “food desert” because local produce is not available, will buy the cheap food. In a tough economy, having any food on the table is better than having none. So many kids grow up eating little if any vegetables that don’t come with a colorful box top and a plastic toy.

Karen Parker, Co-Director, Growing Power Inc. Photo courtesy Growing Power, Inc.

That was the case for Karen Parker, Co-Director of Growing Power, Inc., the organization founded by Will Allen in urban Milwaukee. She admitted that she and her kids ate whatever came from the closest drive-thru without ever buying much in the way of fresh produce. After working with Allen, she has changed her tune.

“I used to say, ‘That’s too fresh! My food don’t have a name!’ But now it does,” she said of Allen’s first attempts to get her to eat the different varieties of vegetables he grows.

Too many Americans buy processed food on a weekly basis and eat at fast food chains. As a result, there is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in this country. Slowly but surely, that trend is starting to shift. But that shift begins within each community.

Sue Cadwell, Chef/Owner of Health in a Hurry with Analiese Paik, Founder of Fairfield Green Food Guide

“We are the local food movement,” said Sue Caldwell, owner of Fairfield’s Health In A Hurry restaurant and one of last night’s panelists. “The biggest message in Fresh was showing the labels with that long list of ingredients. They kept talking about food, food, food. But that’s not food.”

“We don’t need to teach kids how to read labels,” said panelist Amie Guyette

Amie Hall, Holistic Health Counselor and Cooking Coach, and founder of Fairfield's middle school Square Foot Gardens

Hall, Holistic Health Counselor and Cooking Coach working with the Fairfield district middle schools, “because there are no labels to read when you grow your own food.”

So grow your own vegetables. Have pots of herbs. Plant flowers and let the butterflies come. Eat locally and eat fresh. As Analiese Paik said of the resources available in Connecticut, “There’s no excuse for not eating locally.”

Indeed. No excuse.

In celebration of National Farmers’ Market Week, August 2-8, Connecticut’s Commissioner of Agriculture has challenged state residents to eat one locally grown food a day during the week. If you’re already a dedicated local-sustainable foodie like me, it’s a pretty low bar and I think we can easily rise to a double challenge – say two local foods a day or one food plus some local wine. But for those of us just beginning to appreciate the sheer joys of eating a farm-fresh tomato or local peach so juicy it runs down our chin, a few ideas about what to buy, where to buy it and how to serve it are in order.

1)  Pick from your own backyard. Do you have some tomatoes, fresh herbs or lettuces growing? Add them to any meal to make it a CT Grown feast.

2)  Go foraging for free food! Raspberries and blueberries are in season and you can find them in your neighbor’s backyard (ask first) or along the roadside. Just look for cars parked at weird angles on the side of the road and people hunched over with containers. Be sure to wash well before eating if picking from the roadside. Fresh blueberries and raspberries are great in cereal or added to yogurt. Beltane Farm’s goats’ milk yogurt is as good as it gets and is available at the Westport, Greenwich, and Milford farmers’ markets.

3) Visit your local farmers’ market or farm stand and buy some veggies, fruits, eggs, dairy products, meats, seafood, bread, cheese, herbs, honey and baked goods so you’re stocked for the week. Peaches and plums are in season and can be sliced in half, lightly brushed with honey or maple syrup and grilled until warm and caramelized for a delicious but casual dessert which easily doubles as a topping for ice cream or frozen yogurt. Visit the Fairfield Green Food Guide’s Buying Guide to search for farmers’ market and farm stand locations and hours in your town.

4) Visit Sherwood Farm on Sport Hill Road in Easton because it is conveniently open seven days a week and offers over 80 varieties of organic and conventionally grown vegetables and flowers, many of which are heirloom, plus fruits, eggs and honey . Tomatoes, beans, garlic, cucumbers, onions, squash, potatoes, lettuce, corn and cabbage are among the current crops being harvested fresh daily from this nearly 300-year-old farm. To make Insalate Caprese sandwiches, buy some local bread, top it with a slice of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced tomato and fresh basil, then drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper.

5) Go to a farm to pick your own. The CT State Dept. of Agriculture and pickyourown.org both offer extensive lists of pick your own farms in the state and it’s really a fun family outing. Crops available for picking right now include blueberries, corn, peaches and tomatoes.

6)  Buy from a local specialty or independent grocer that makes it a point to carry locally grown food. Palmer’s Market in Darien and the Pantry in Fairfield carry some local fruits, vegetables, breads and prepared foods. Whole Foods carries local honey, tofu, seafood and artisanal foods. Fairfield Cheese Company carries Beltane Farms and Cato Corner cheeses plus local honey and artisanal foods. Walter Stewart’s Market in New Canaan carries local farmstead cheeses, artisan made breads, jams, sauces and chocolates and educates their customers on the unique characteristics of each food item.

7) Eat at a restaurant that sources local ingredients. Health in a Hurry in Fairfield buys locally and grows some of their own food, Fairfield’s Café Lola serves fantastic burgers made from Ox Hollow Farm’s grass-fed beef, and The Dressing Room in Westport counts Ox Hollow Farm, Riverbank Farm and Beltane Farm among their purveyors. Other restaurants sourcing ingredients locally include Bloodroot Vegetarian Restaurant in Bridgeport, Cobbs Mill Inn Restaurant in Weston, David’s Catering in Stamford, Napa & Co. in Stamford, and Woodway Country Club in Darien.

8) Order online from CT Farm Fresh Express by midnight 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. Even if you can find vegetables and fruits locally, this is a great place to find scallops, flounder, tofu and specialty vegetables like Maitake, Shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Just leave a cooler with ice packs on your doorstep if you won’t be home to receive the order.

9) Take a drive to Stonington to buy some scallops, shrimp or fish right off the fishing boats or at Stonington Seafood Harvesters on 5 High Street in Stonington, which is open Monday through Friday from 8-5 and Saturday form 9-12. Ask for the prized Bomster scallops – you can’t get fresher or more delicious scallops because they’re flash frozen on the boat within hours of being shucked. Bring your cooler.

10)  Buy some Connecticut wine directly from a winery or wine shop that carries local wine. I just attended the Connecticut Wine Festival and some standouts were Sharpe Hill Vineyard’s Ballet of Angels, which is the number one selling white wine in New England and perfect for summer; the award-winning wines of Hopkins Vineyards; Miranda Vineyard’s Seyval Blanc and Woodridge White; Land of Nod’s Bianca; and Taylor Brooke’s Traminette. Connecticut Valley Winery won the award for Best Small Winery 2009 in the Big E Wine Competition and after tasting their Chianti and port-style Black Bear, I can see why. Chances are your wine shop only carries a small sampling of Connecticut wines, so visiting a winery to do some tasting is a great way to sample the full line and choose what you like.

Are you taking the Challenge? Come back and comment on what you’re eating and how you’re enjoying it.