Park City Harvest Farm Stand locations in Bridgeport will soon reopen for the season and Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program for SNAP/EBT and WIC recipients is once again being offered. Under this program, $10 in benefits equals $20 in fresh, CT-grown,  fruits and vegetables! The markets also accept seniors farmers market checks and cash.

Summer 2011 locations:

• Tuesdays, 11:30 – 3:00 at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, 2800 Main Street, opens June 28
• Wednesdays, 10:00 – 2:00: Bridgeport Health Department, 752 East Main Street, begins July 6
• Tuesdays, 10 am-2 pm, Bank Street at McLevy Green, opens July 5

Park City Harvest is a project of Wholesome Wave  and the Healthy Bridgeport Alliance. There is free parking in both locations, and the farm stands will be open rain or shine. The 2011 farm stand season marks the third year that Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program will be available at Bridgeport markets.

For more information call (203)576-8046 or visit parkcityharvest.org.

By Analiese Paik

Well, it’s about time. How many years have we watched the site adjacent to Home Depot that once was home to the Handy & Harman metals-processing factory being remediated and negotiated over in preparation for the construction of a Whole Foods Market? I think my son was in the toddler truck phase because we’d park and watch the huge vacuums on the back of hazardous waste management trucks suck up the contaminated ground water to clean it up off site. He’s now reading The Hardy Boys.

Don't miss these cooking demos with James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and social entrepreneur Michel Nischan, who is the founder & CEO of Wholesome Wave.

Let’s shake off the wait with a party. Pack your $10 coupon flyer and head over on Friday, June 3, for the opening day festivities which begin at 8:30 am with a bread breaking ceremony. Be sure to make your way to the Cooking Fairfield department located smack in the middle of the bulk aisle at 11:30 or 5:00 for cooking demos with James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and  founder and CEO of Wholesome Wave, Michel Nischan. At both 1:00 and 6:15 Nischan will be signing his latest cookbook, Sustainably Delicious, which includes seasonal recipes from and inspired by his restaurant, the Dressing Room, in Westport.

Today I was treated, along with many others from the local media, to lunch from the Whole Foods food truck and an insider’s tour of the store. There are many wonderful surprises here that will delight you. I call them my Top 10 Reasons to Love Whole Foods Market Fairfield. Here they are:

1) 5% of opening day sales benefit Michel’s Nischan’s Wholesome Wave foundation, an organization succeeding in making fresh fruit and vegetables both accessible and affordable to underserved populations throughout the nation. This is a fantastic opportunity to give generously which costs you nothing.

2) Three full-time food educators dedicated to teaching shoppers about healthy eating: Cooking Coach Michelle Ryan, located in the bulk aisle at the Cooking Fairfield in-store cooking department, the first of its kind in the area; Healthy Eating Specialist Jill McKinnesss located across from Cooking Fairfield in the bulk aisle, who is dedicated to helping guide shoppers with special dietary needs to appropriate products; and Culinary Demo Specialist Jeffrey Sherman who will be stationed throughout the store demonstrating a wide variety of products and holding adult and children’s cooking classes.

Cooking Fairfield is an educational cooking department located in the bulk aisle where you will find Cooking Coach Michelle Ryan between 11 am and 7 pm 5 days a week.

Cooking Coach Michelle Ryan and Team Leader Nate Beaudry, who is coming over from the Milford store.

3) The first Whole Foods Market in the Northeast to have partnered with Amanda Hesser’s social media food hub, Food 52, to “create online resources for people to get back in the kitchen cooking” according to Hesser. Hesser spoke at today’s event about the rich online experience available to registered users on the Food 52 site her team built for the Whole Foods Market Fairifeld community, http://fairfield.wholefoodsmarketcooking.com, which goes live on Friday morning. Users will be able to continue to interact with Cooking Coach Michelle Ryan, but they’ll also have the opportunity to dialog and share recipes and food intelligence with others. Every two weeks Whole Foods Market Fairfield will hold a recipe contest on the site, and winners will receive gift certificates or win store merchandise.

4) More bulk items than any other store (think varieties of rice and beans you’ve never heard of, but taste great).

5) Fresh mozzarella made in-store from Hudson Valley milk curd each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

6) Farmstand Fishery, an outdoor fish market that cuts your seafood to order.

Meat carries a 5 Step Animal Welfare Rating seal from the Global Animal Partnership

Local meat is sourced from family farms within a 100 mile radius.

7) Local (tri-state area) and sustainably raised meat, poultry, and seafood. Meat carries a 5 Step Animal Welfare Rating seal from the Global Animal Partnership and wild seafood carries a green, yellow or red sustainability rating created by partners Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium.

8) The Whole Foods Market food truck which will be making regular and pop-up stops in town, including the Greenfield Hill farmers’ market, where they will demo recipes made with food from farm vendors.

9) An upcoming farm-to-table prepared foods program (details TBA).

10) Did I mention the free adult and kids’ cooking classes? Okay, how about the vegan salad bar?

Big Bonus: All 365 Everyday Value products are GMO free and many other products carry the Non-GMO Project Verified seal, the sole organization providing independent verification of testing of GM contamination in products in the U.S. and Canada.

Follow our Tweets (@GreenFoodGal) for the Whole Foods Market food truck's daily location around town, including the Greenfield Hill Farmers' Market on Hillside Road.

The Whole Foods Market food truck, to my knowledge the first food truck in Fairfield County, will be offering tastings and vending in Fairfield until mid-June, then will make its way to other Whole Foods Markets and the neighborhoods they serve in Fairfield County. Follow our Tweets for  the food truck’s daily locations (@GreenFoodGal) around town, including the Greenfield Hill Farmers’ Market on Hillside Road.

Amanda Hesser will hold a signing of her latest book, The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century, on June 11 while Cooking Coach Michelle Ryan demonstrates a recipe from the cookbook. Be sure to pick up June and July in-store event calendars on opening day so you can mark your calendar.

Whole Foods Market Fairfield will open its doors to the community on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 8:30 am. Located at 350 Grasmere Avenue, this will be the grocer’s 8^th store in Connecticut. To celebrate opening day, Whole Foods Market will offer storewide tastings, vendor sampling, special sale items, cooking demonstrations, gift bags and more. Read the full press release.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET® PREPARES TO OPEN ITS DOORS IN FAIRFIELD, CT ON JUNE 3

Wholesome Wave selected as opening day charitable partner; Founder and Celebrity Chef Michel Nischan Joins Opening Day Festivities, Offering Cooking Demonstrations and Book Signings

(Fairfield, CT– May 12, 2011) – Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM), the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket and America’s first nationally certified organic grocer, will open the doors to its Fairfield, Conn. store on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 8:30 am. Located at 350 Grasmere Avenue, this will be the grocer’s 8^th store in Connecticut. To celebrate opening day, Whole Foods Market will offer storewide tastings, vendor sampling, special sale items, cooking demonstrations, gift bags and more.

Five percent of the total sales for June 3 will be donated to Wholesome Wave, a local non-profit organization whose mission is to nourish neighborhoods across the U.S. through creating access to healthy, fresh, affordable locally-grown food to underinvested communities and working on agriculture and food policy change. Wholesome Wave‘s founder and CEO, Chef Michel Nischan of Fairfield, Conn., will lead cooking demos in the store’s Cooking Fairfield department throughout the day. The chef will sign copies of his latest book, Sustainably Delicious, which includes recipes from and inspired by his restaurant, Dressing Room, in nearby Westport, Conn.

“Whole Foods Market is the perfect partner for Wholesome Wave as we continue our journey towards bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to every American’s kitchen table,” said Nischan. “What we are doing in farmer’s markets across the U.S., Whole Foods Market is doing in their stores: bringing fresh, local, organic and affordable foods to shoppers every day. The 5 percent donation from Whole Foods Market will further our shared mission of feeding families healthful food.”

The new, 45,000-square-foot store will offer a variety of locally sourced foods and showcase venues and products consistent with the Whole Foods Market promise of offering the highest-quality natural and organic products, while addressing the needs of the Fairfield community. Whole Foods Market Fairfield will be the first store in the area to feature an in-store Cooking department.

The Cooking Fairfield program and in-store department combines designated workspaces, cookbooks, cooking tools, demonstrations, and themed, seasonal menus to engage, inspire and educate shoppers about the joy of cooking. The Cooking area features butcher block workspace, and on-site tablet kiosks with specially developed content, recipes and information compiled in partnership with the online social media food hub, Food52, started by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. The website featured in-store at Cooking Fairfield, will also launch for shoppers home use on June 3. The department also features the Cooking Coach— a Whole Foods Market team member with in-depth culinary knowledge — available to help shoppers bring the passion back into cooking seasonal meals at home.

“We’re so proud to be opening our doors in Fairfield in a way that helps to bring the community together to support a great cause like Wholesome Wave,” said Christina Minardi, Whole Foods Market’s northeast Regional President. “In addition to providing the wide selection of delicious, all-natural, organic foods our shoppers have come to expect from Whole Foods Market, we’re thrilled to be the first in the area to introduce our Cooking Fairfield department, which will inspire shoppers to cook seasonal foods in their own kitchens.”

Also featured at Whole Foods Market Fairfield is a Healthy Eating Center, a part of Whole Foods Market’s companywide Health Starts Here™ program.  The Center will include a healthy eating specialist who will host a variety of classes, demos and educational program to help shoppers make healthier eating choices.

On June 3, the community is invited to join in the bread-breaking opening day ceremony and all the day’s festivities. Additional updates and information is available now by following @WFMFairfield on Twitter or liking Whole Foods Market Fairfield on Facebook.

# # #

About Whole Foods Market®

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (wholefoodsmarket.com, NASDAQ: WFM) is the leading natural and organic food retailer. As America’s first national certified organic grocer, Whole Foods Market was named “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” by Health magazine. The company’s motto “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet”™ captures its mission to ensure customer satisfaction and health, Team Member excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to the company’s nearly 60,000 Team Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America by FORTUNE magazine for 14 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2010, the company had sales of more than $9 billion and currently has more than 300 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

About Wholesome Wave

The mission of the Wholesome Wave (www.wholesomewave.org) is to nourish neighborhoods by supporting increased production and access to healthy, fresh, and affordable locally grown food for the well-being of all. Wholesome Wave Foundation achieves success through partnership-based programs that serve food deserts of historically excluded urban and rural communities. By creating connections between these neighborhoods while providing diversified market support for small and midsized farmers, Wholesome Wave’s “Nourishing Neighborhoods” programs succeed in raising visibility of existing Federal, State and local governmental agency programs.  By leveraging limited private funds with public funds, Wholesome Wave builds synergistic relationships that help nourish the neighborhoods of communities, farmers, farms and the people of America.  Its core Double Value Coupon Program, which launched in 2008 in farmers markets in Fairfield County, Connecticut; San Diego, California; Boston and Holyoke, Massachusetts, with the help of more than 45 partner organizations, has expanded to more than 170 markets in 26 states.

Look for CTC&G at the usual drop sites and enjoy Sustainable Connecticut magazine starting on page 49. Sustainable Connecticut cover photo of Sustainable Farmer Annie Farrell of Millstone Farm by Doreen Birdsell of Doreen Birdsell Studios Photography and Video.

A beautiful new magazine called Sustainable Connecticut has launched. This  special preview in the April issue of Connecticut Cottages & Gardens magazine (CTC&G) profiles local leaders of the sustainable food movement who are inspiring all of us to change. They are creating a wonderful ripple effect that can be felt throughout the state, and beyond. Perhaps you know some of them or they have touched your lives, or maybe even the food you eat.

Video from WTNH’s Good Morning Connecticut show introducing Sustainable Connecticut magazine on Saturday April 2 with Analiese Paik, Founder & Editor of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, and WTNH’s Steve Villanueva.

Sustainable Farmer Sustainable Connecticut magazine begins on page 49 of CTC&G with a beautiful photo of Master Farmer Annie Farrell of Millstone Farm in Wilton with one of their heritage breed hens.  Annie Farrell, the subject of the magazine’s cover story, has spent her life establishing sustainable farms and sharing her knowledge with others as a consultant. Millstone Farm was founded by Betsy and Jesse Fink and they hired Farrell to help them build “a sustainable farm whose mission it is to build a healthy local food system that enhances the natural and social environment” according to the article.

Betsy is an environmentalist and philanthropist and runs the 75-acre farm which has a small CSA and supplies the highest quality fresh produce to top farm-to-table restaurants including the Dressing Room and Le Farm in Westport, Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton, the Boathouse at Saugatuck, and the Barcelona restaurant group. Millstone Farm regularly hosts teachers, students and educational events at the farm where participants can learn directly from Master Farmer Annie Farrell. If you’re a beginning gardener, don’t miss Millstone’s Backyard Workshop on April 16.

From left to right: Bill Taibe, Ryan Fibiger and seated, Alex Gunuey

Farm-to-Table Chefs & Whole Animal Butcher In the Locavore column “Staying Hungry”, I interviewed a few chefs who are leaders in the farm-to-table movement to share their latest news with readers. James Beard award-winning chef and sustainable food pioneer Michel Nischan presented at TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” and was recently elected to Ashoka’s global fellowship of leading social entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries in recognition of his work at Wholesome Wave.

Bill Taibe, chef/owner of LeFarm restaurant in Westport and a James Beard Foundation award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast is finalizing his restaurant’s green certification process and is planning a second restaurant. Alex Gunuey caters farm-to-school meals at the Friends School in Wilton and started Bone A Part to provide discerning canines with gourmet, locavore dog food.

Fairfield County is welcoming two new sustainable food businesses – Mario Batali’s  Tarry Lodge Enoteca Pizzeria is due to open early summer in Westport and Ryan Fibiger, a graduate of Fleischer’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, NY, will be opening a sustainable butcher shop specializing in whole animal (aka nose-to-tail) butchery soon in either Westport or Fairfield. Naturally chef Gunuey will be buying trimmings from Fibiger for his dog food, thereby ensuring that no part of the animal goes to waste.

Lettuce is an excellent early spring crop and easy to care for, just avoid too much sun in high summer advises author Bill Duesing.

In “Spring Lettuce” author and farmer Bill Duesing encourages us to plant some lettuce soon since it’s an excellent early spring crop that likes cool weather. Duesing is Executive Director of the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) and recommends planting every 2-3 weeks so gardeners can enjoy lettuce through October. CT-NOFA is not just for farmers (I’m a member!) so please take a look at their upcoming workshops and events-one might be just right for you.

John Turenne, Founder & President of Sustainable Food Systems worked behind the scenes in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and is a founding member of Michelle Obama's "Chefs move to Schools" initiative, part of her "Let's Move" campaign to combat childhood obesity.

“The Great School Food Makeover” spotlights the success of The Unquowa School in Fairfield in making over their lunch menu to feature locally sourced foods from sustainable family farms. John Turenne, who helped create Yale’s sustainable dining program, left the university to found Sustainable Food Systems and took on the school as his first client. The Unquowa School has embraced Alice Waters’ edible schoolyard philosophy by not only putting in a school garden, but also by partnering with Sport Hill Farm in Easton to offer a summer farm camp that teach kids from early on where their food comes from and how to plant, cultivate and harvest it. Campers prepare a farm fresh lunch with school chef Peter Gorman on Fridays from food they picked that morning.

Pick up the magazine at the usual drop sites for CTC&G or visit the web site for a digital copy at sustainablethemagazine.com.

Enjoy the hard work of our farmers by seeking out the bounty of Connecticut Grown this spring. Foods that are special to the season like Spring parsnips, early lettuces, and fresh goat’s milk cheeses are a treat.

Displayed on the Ch. 8 set are the following CT Grown foods purchased on closing day of the Westport Winter Farmers’ Market:

• Fresh Spring goat’s milk cheese (chevre) and yogurt from Beltane Farm
• Soft ripened goat’s milk cheese from Beltane Farm called Danse de la Lune
• Cow’s milk and yogurt from Ladies of Levita Road dairy farm
• Certified Organic kale, mesclun greens (mixed salad greens), and flowering tarragon from 2 Guys from Woodbridge farm
• Certified Organic Spring parsnips, carrots, heirloom tomato sauce and bread and butter pickles from Riverbank Farm
• Certified Organic mixed baby greens and spinach from Star Light Gardens farm
• Loin lamb chops and lamb Bolognese sauce from Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm

Please come back and let us know how you like Sustainable Connecticut magazine and what spring foods you’re enjoying now. Planting a garden? Share your garden photos with us on Facebook.

Kaiser Permanente Employees Raise $600,000 for Healthy Eating Programs in Underserved Communities

Wholesome Wave will expand farmers’ market programs to eight new locations nationwide.

Bridgeport, Conn. – Wholesome Wave, a Connecticut-based, national nonprofit organization dedicated to nourishing neighborhoods across America by increasing access to and affordability of healthy, fresh locally grown food, announced today that it has received a $600,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente.  The funding will be used primarily to support its Double Value Coupon Program (DVCP), which provides fresh food incentives to encourage low-income consumers to increase their purchase of nutritious produce through local farmers markets.

Wholesome Wave plans to initially expand the DVCP to a minimum of four new states nationwide. The program enables households that use federally funded Food Stamp or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) coupons to double the value of their grocery coupons when purchasing fresh produce at a farmers market. The Wholesome Wave program is in place at 160 farmers markets in 20 states nationwide.

Funding for the grant is a result of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente’s employee wellness program, Healthy Workforce, through which the nonprofit organization contributed $50 for each employee who took a health risk assessment. Almost 23,000 Kaiser Permanente employees participated in the program. The organization raised $1.2 million overall, which is being distributed to Wholesome Wave and the Washington D.C.-based National Assembly for School-Based Health Care.

“We at Wholesome Wave are so grateful for Kaiser Permanente’s support, which is allowing us to take these next, vitally important steps towards increasing the accessibility of nutritious foods throughout America’s food-insecure communities,” said Michel Nischan, president and founder, Wholesome Wave. “Wholesome Wave and Kaiser Permanente have a shared mission of building a healthier future, and this generous partnership will allow Wholesome Wave to nourish neighborhoods across America.”

The grant also will enable Wholesome Wave to plan for an expansion of its Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program (FVRx).  This program aims to bridge the gap between physicians providing advice in the clinical setting and changing individual behavior by providing “prescription coupons” that can be redeemed at the patient’s local farmers market.

“Access to healthy food is powerful prevention, and that’s what Wholesome Wave is all about” said Loel Solomon, Ph.D., vice president for community health, Kaiser Permanente. “This partnership makes so much sense because we have such closely aligned values and aspirations.  We both believe that everyone deserves access to healthy, affordable and sustainably grown food and we both know how important that is for people’s health, and the health of our planet.”

Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation’s leading health care organizations, with 36 hospitals and 8.7 million members nationwide. Through Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating/Active Living initiative, the organization works to bring healthy food to the communities it serves, with a particular focus on underserved communities with health disparities. These efforts include working with community groups and store owners to bring healthy food into corner stores, and partnering with schools, city parks and other organizations to offer healthier foods to young people and their families. The first health care organization to hold farmers markets at its hospitals, Kaiser Permanente now hosts 40 markets at facilities in four states.

Wholesome Wave’s programming generated more than $1 million in sales at farmers markets through their incentives in 2010, which directly impacted income of more than 1,700 local farmers and more than 700 local product makers throughout the United States.

About Wholesome Wave

The mission of Wholesome Wave is to empower communities to make better food choices. By creating partnership-based programs in historically excluded urban and rural communities, Wholesome Wave increases access to and affordability of fresh, locally grown food to nourish neighborhoods across America. These initiatives, such as the Double Value Coupon Program (DVCP) and the Fruit & Veggie Prescription Program (FVRx), demonstrate and support the viability of healthy food commerce and its ability to rebuild our nation’s food system. Wholesome Wave leverages private and public funds, as well as existing Federal, State and local government programs, to foster collaborative efforts through a national network of strategically targeted program partners.  This network of partners works in concert to transform current realities in the American food system. Visit  www.wholesomewave.org to learn more. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

Fuel for Learning Partnership (FFLP), a PTA Council Standing Committee, will sponsor the second annual Food for Thought Expo with this year’s theme ‘Make Every Meal Count.’ Scheduled for Saturday, March 26^th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, the expo will take place at Fairfield Warde High School, in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Michel Nischan, Founder & CEO of Wholesome Wave and a James Beard Award-Winning Chef/Author

The expo is free and open to the public and will feature cooking demonstrations, including an appearance at 11 am by Michel Nischan, owner and founder of Westport’s Dressing Room restaurant, President and CEO of Wholesome Wave Foundation, and author of the bestselling cookbooks Sustainably Delicious and Homegrown: Pure and Simple, as well as a wide variety of vendors ready to help area residents make the best possible choices in local produce, meats, groceries, and ready-made foods.

Cooking Demonstrations:

11 am  Michel Nischan, James Beard award-winning chef and author, presents  Nourishing Families

12 noon  Amie Guyette Hall,  cooking coach and owner of From Your Inside Out presents Super Simple, Family Friendly

1 pm  Sue Cadwell,  chef/owner Health in a Hurry presents Easy, Health Supportive Cuisine

2 pm  Phoebe Lapine and Cara Eisenpress from Big Girls, Small Kitchen present  Take-Out at Home

3 pm  Linda Soper Kolton,  chef/owner of GreenGourmettoGo, presents Make Desserts Count, Too!

Over thirty exhibitors will showcase their products and services that will help visitors make “every meal count.”  Events to be held throughout the day include movies, children’s activities, and cooking demonstrations using whole foods by Phoebe Lapine and Cara Eisenpress from Big Girls, Small Kitchen; Linda Soper-Kolton from Green Gourmet to Go; Sue Cadwell of Health in a Hurry; and Amie Hall, CHHC, AADP, of From Your Inside Out.  Participating businesses and organizations include Black Rock Farmstand, Borders Books, Fairfield Cheese Company, Fairfield Public Library, Farmer’s Cow, Sport Hill Farm, Stone Gardens Farm, CT Farm Fresh Express, Southport CSA, Project Hope Garden, Robek’s Juice, Wave Hill Breads, Jeff Borofsky’s Portable Pizza Oven, and the Fairfield Green Food Guide.

Guests will be treated to samples from Fairfield's award-winning organic, vegetarian restaurant, Health in a Hurry and other area restaurants that support healthy eating.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming back exhibitors from last year, as well as introducing visitors to new businesses” said Michelle McCabe, Chairperson of the Fuel for Learning Partnership. “This year’s theme, ‘Make Every Meal Count’, is inspired by the belief that every meal counts, either as a source of energy to contribute to a productive day at school or work, or a contribution to good health, or a way to support the environment, or way to support local farms, or a way to connect with family members.”

Beekeepers are farmers too and they provide a critical service by ensuring that our bee populations thrive. Without them, we'd have to hand pollinate. Marina Marchese of Red Bee Honey in Weston will be sharing her bee wisdom and tastes of her single nectar source honeys along with signing her book, Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper. Marchese is President of the Back Yard Beekeepers Association.

The FFLP encourages Fairfield County parents, students, teachers, food service staff, and Board of Education members to jointly pursue the common goal of serving safe, high quality, nutritional meals to the students of Fairfield.  FFLP seeks to affect positive change in how we eat by coming together as a community to broadly educate and change eating habits through the endorsement of sustainable eating practices.

The FFLP is hosting the  Food for Thought Expo: ‘Make Every Meal Count’ as part of an on-going effort to help educate people about how their approach to eating can overcome many of the health challenges our community faces today.  “We’re all on a journey toward changing the way we eat,” Ms. McCabe said.  “That comes with a learning curve, and our focus is to help people take ownership of their health, and the health of their children.”

On February 12, 2011, Chef Michel Nischan, CEO, President & Founder of Wholesome Wave,  will speak at TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” in New York City.   This one-day TEDx event aims to explore the US food system — from what happened, to where we are, to what we are doing to change to a more sustainable way of eating and farming.  In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.  The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming is the lead sponsor for “Changing the Way We Eat.”

“It is possible to create real change in our nation’s food system by establishing healthy food commerce where ‘food deserts’ now exist,” says James Beard Award-winning chef and author Nischan, whose nonprofit’s mission is to empower historically excluded urban and rural communities to make better food choices by increasing access to and affordability of fresh, locally grown food.

The day includes a world-class line-up of inspiring speakers from all disciplines of the sustainable food world, including:

• Lucas Knowles, USDA Coordinator of “Know Your Farmer Know Your Food”
• Laurie David, Environmental Author and Activist
• Professor Frederick Kaufman, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
• Curt Ellis, Filmmaker and star of the Peabody Award-winning film King Corn, co-Founder FoodCorps
• Josh Viertel, President of Slow Food USA
• Cheryl Rogowski, Small Family Farmer & the first US farmer awarded a MacArthur Genius Award
• Kenneth Cook, President of the Environmental Working Group
• Dr. William Li, President of the Angiogenesis Foundation
• Karen Hudson, President of the Dairy Education Alliance
• Britta Riley, Windowfarms creator and artist
• Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End, publisher of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan, senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute and Co-Director of the Nourishing the Planet project
• Barbara Askins, President of the 125^th St Business Improvement District [Harlem
• Ian Cheney, founding Board member of Food Corps, filmmaker [Truck Farm, The Greening of Southie, King Corn], urban truck farmer
• Michael Conard, Asst Director at the Urban Design Lab & Adjunct Assoc Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University.
• John Fraser, Chef/Proprietor of Dovetail restaurant and What Happens When, NYC
• Kathy Lawrence, Program Director of the national collaborative School Food FOCUS
• Elizabeth Ü, Executive Director of Finance for Food, a solutions-oriented innovator at the intersection of sustainable food systems and social finance
• Entertainment by ETHEL

Please click here for a complete WebCast schedule.

In an effort to have as many people as possible participate in TEDxManhattan, the day will be webcast live, with over 60 ‘viewing parties’ already confirmed around the world.  To find out if there is a viewing party near you, visit www.TEDxManhattan.org/viewing-parties.  And there’s still time to organize an event in your area – details can be found on the website.

You can also watch the event live from your home on February 12^th from 10:30am – 6:00pm EST at www.livestream.com/tedx.  Nischan is scheduled to speak at 5:30pm EST.

For more information about TEDxManhattan, visit www.TEDxManhattan.org ; media can contact geralyn@resourcescommunications.com, telephone 281.980.6643.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like* experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to organize local, independent TED-like events around the world; and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

Find a Viewing Party in your Area to Listen to the Live Webcast

TEDx is encouraging everyone to set up viewing parties or attend one in your area. Visit the TEDxManhattan MeetUp Everywhere page to register your event and to see events around you. If you are planning an event, please email TEDxManhattan@gmail.com to have our event registered on the site.

If you find you can’t attend a local viewing party, you can watch TEDxManhattan live on your computer at http://livestream.com/tedx.

How to Host a Viewing Party

Please adhere to the following rules:

• Viewing parties must be held in a non-commercial venue. This means in a home, office, school, library, nonprofit organization, or community center. You cannot hold a TEDx in a commercial venue such as a restaurant or coffee shop.
• TEDx viewing parties must be free of charge to all attendees.
• Events cannot hold more than 100 people without prior approval. Please email TEDxManhattan@gmail.com if you think your event will exceed 100 people.
• You cannot attach any type of advertising or sponsor messages to the webcast.

By Elizabeth Keyser
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Tony Award winning actress Christine Baranski and James Beard Award-winning Chef Michel Nischan

It’s a triumvirate. Farmers, artisans and chefs. A holy trinity, like onions, celery and carrots. They, and those who worship them, came together at Laurel Ridge Farm Sunday, Sept. 12, for the 10^th Annual Celebration of Connecticut Farms.  The fundraiser for CT Farmland Trust, which works to protect the state’s diminishing farmland, brought out two giant tents full of restaurateurs and artisan food producers offering tastes of their goods — grass fed beef, sustainably caught seafood, local organic vegetables, raw milk cheeses, wines, spirits, and ales.

“This is the foodie event of the year,” said someone I never expected to run into. Musician Tim Stone was playing keyboards with the band.  “I hope [the band] invites me back every year,” he said between bites.

Jacque Pépin , honorary chairman, summed it up in his short speech, “When I came to this country, a chef was very low on the social scale,” he said. He applauded the spotlight on the people who farm and those who “make the cheese, make the wine. We are nothing without the artisan.”

The event was held at Laurel Ridge Farm in Litchfield.  I spoke to John Morosani, who left a career on Wall Street to raise grass-fed beef and pigs. (I bought pork belly from John last year and had my first run-in with boar bristles that weren’t on a hairbrush.)

Chef Jacques Pepin reaching for a grilled cheese sandwich from the Caseus truck.

I was trying the Caseus Cheese Truck’s grilled cheese sandwich (made with Cato Corner Bridgid’s Abbey cheese and sourdough bread), when Jaques Pépin  enthusiastically reached in and grabbed a sandwich.  I asked if I could get a picture.  “Oh, with this guy?” Jacques said, pointing to Jason Sobocinski, Caseus’s owner. Jason picked up a grilled sandwich with a pair of tongs and Jacques mimicked diving into the sandwich teeth first, growling greedily. The delay in my camera resulted in a shot showing Jacques ‘s immediate devilish, “how’d you like that?” smile. Like Julia Child, Jacques is a ham.

Connecticut Public Radio’s Faith Middleton said in her speech, “I love this man for his humility, his intelligence and his humor.”  Faith also spoke of her pleasure in taking around honorary chair and Tony-award winning actress Christine Baranski, and telling her  “This is the best this and this is the best this.”

The Copper Beech Inn's Executive Chef, Tyler Anderson, puts the finishing touches on his dish.

Who else was there?  Who wasn’t?  Tyler Anderson, who will be filming an episode of Chopped Champions Oct. 25, told me that the Copper Beech Inn and Brasserie Pip in Ivoryton are being recreated as one restaurant. He said it will have a modern flair, but still use French technique. Think snails gratin. And Duck Rossini. “But with a lower price point,” he said.

The folks at The Mill at 2T were offering their take on the BLT – roasted pork belly on ripe heirloom tomato dressed with 25 year-old-balsamic, sea salt and freshly ground pepper and radish sprouts from Keeds Farm in Woodbury.

The best thing I tried all day (and I went back and ate a second one), was Le Farm’s caramelized Stonington  scallops, barely cooked inside, and resting on summer squash salad with pine nuts, and  topped with marinated beets.  Every flavor component was spot on.

Peter Gorman, the chef at The Unquowa School, was offering a taste of gazpacho made from Sport Hill Farm tomatoes. He pointed out the quart of tomato sauce he’s made, one of the many jars he’s canned — 25 gallons so far made from “seconds.”  He hopes to put up 80 gallons, enough to get Unquowa through the whole school year.

Chef Tyler Anderson will be filming an episode of Chopped Champions Oct. 25.

The best way to end the day’s indulgences was at the booth of Westford Hill Distillers, where Margaret Chatey offered tastes of Eau-de-Vies – brandies made from Connecticut stone fruit. The flavor of the pears from Lyman’s Orchard  came through in the fiery Pear Williams. And hearing about the five varieties of apples that go into their 12-year aged apple brandy, distilled in a still designed and built by Holstein of Bavaria, made me put their Oct. 2 open house and tour on my calendar.

Elizabeth Keyser is an award-winning freelance writer based in Fairfield, CT whose work has been published in GQ, American Photo, The New York Times, The New York Post, Connecticut Magazine, Edible Nutmeg, the Yankee Brew News and newspapers in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

LiveGreenCT! is a fun-filled, family festival that celebrates eco-friendly living, caring for the environment and protecting our natural resources. LiveGreenCT! is being held at Taylor Farm Park in Norwalk on Sept. 18-19 with over 125 exhibitors in all areas of sustainable living and features many free events and activities including a free screening of the documentary film Vanishing of the Bees.

This free event runs from 10-4 on Saturday and 11-4 on Sunday and the $5 parking fee benefits SoundWaters & Norwalk Seaport Association. Come for a delicious lunch or snack  made with local and sustainably grown foods and bring your reusable bags to shop the Westport farmers’ market.

One of the easiest ways to live green is to choose local and sustainably grown food because they require fewer food miles (less fossil fuels), less packaging, less storage, and are fresher and more delicious and nutritious. The following special guest speakers will wow you with their knowledge and inspire you to eat green.

• 

  Special guest speakers Michel Nischan and Marina Marchese will also be signing their wonderful books for guests at LiveGreenCT!

  Michel Nischan, James Beard award-winning chef and author, local food advocate, and founder & CEO of Wholesome Wave will be a guest speaker on Sat., September 18, at 1:00 pm. Michel was just named Best Locavore Chef 2010 by CT Magazine and nominated by Huffington Post as a Game Changer in Food and fans have until the end of September to vote him in as the #1 Ultimate Game Changer in Food. Michel’s new cookbook, “Sustainably Delicious: Making the World A Better Place, One Recipe at a Time”, will be available for sale and signing after his talk on Saturday. Wholesome Wave is an organization committed to bringing fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to residents of inner cities, including Bridgeport CT, through its innovative Double Value Coupon program.

• Marina Marchese, founder of Red Bee Honey, will be leading a honeybee and honey discussion immediately following the 1:00 pm screening of the documentary film Vanishing of the Bees on Sunday, September 19. Brush up on your honeybee and honey facts because 20 lucky audience members who correctly answer Marina’s trivia questions each will win a bottle of her honey courtesy of Whole Foods Market Westport. Marina will also be selling her single-source honeys and holding a book sale and signing of her book “Honeybee: Lessons from An Accidental Beekeeper”, which made the Washington Post’s 2009 Books We Love list.

Free Screening of Vanishing of the Bees at 1:00 on Sunday

About Vanishing of the Bees:

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capitol Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.

For more information about LiveGreenCT!, please visit the event web site.

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Video from WTNH’s Good Morning CT segment with Annie Rourke on Saturday, September 1.

Bountiful late summer and early fall harvests of vegetables and fruits from CT farms will be transformed by chefs across the state at more than 80 restaurants, schools and caterers into special menus during the first ever Farm-to-Chef Harvest Celebration Week.

Running from September 26 through October 2 this celebration of fresh and healthy, locally grown food and wine is a new event conceived and organized by the CT Dept. of Agriculture and falls on the 375^th birthday of our state. We still have working family farms that were established in the 1600s!

leFarm in Westport and Sugar & Olives in Norwalk are two Farm-to-Chef Harvest Celebration Week participants that are dedicated to regularly sourcing local and sustainably grown food.

Vegans, vegetarians, and meat lovers all have wonderful choices for a relaxed sit down meal or a casual lunch or dinner to go. The diversity of options, from burgers and pizza to heirloom tomato soup and grass-fed filet of beef, makes it easy for diners to find something that suits them.

There is a fantastic diversity of high-quality food grown and made here in CT. In addition to vegetables and fruit, our farms provide us with beef, lamb, pork , poultry, fish, cheese, eggs, yogurt, honey, maple syrup, and wine. Some participating restaurants have announced mouth watering yet affordable, multi-course prix fixe dinner menus for Farm-to-Chef Harvest Celebration Week. Please make your reservations early. Click here for a complete list of participants, menus and special events.

Many participating schools and restaurants are members of the CT Department of Agriculture’s Farm-to-Chef Program, a program that since 2006 has helped connect farmers with chefs dedicated to regularly sourcing CT Grown foods.

Lunch and Dinner at the Farm!

• Sport Hill Farm in Easton is hosting mobile, wood-fired brick oven caterer Skinny Pines for a pizza lunch on Oct. 1 featuring toppings fresh from the field. Click here for more information.  Reservations should be emailed to farmer Patti Popp at farmgal596@yahoo.com.
• Chefs a l’Orange Caterers is holding a farm to table dinner at Treat Farm in Orange on Oct. 2. The seasonal menu will showcase Treat Farm’s vegetables and other locally sourced foods.   For more information, or to purchase tickets, please contact Heather Bucknam at 860-658-4253.

Visit www.CTGrown.gov and www.CTFarmToChefNetwork.typepad.com for more information including a list of participants, menus and special events.

LiveGreenCT! is a fun-filled, family festival that celebrates eco-friendly living, caring for the environment and protecting our natural resources. This two day event is being held at Taylor Farm Park in Norwalk on Sept. 18-19 with over 125 exhibitors in all areas of sustainable living and features many free events and activities.

This free event runs from 10-4 on Saturday and 11-4 on Sunday and the $5 parking fee benefits SoundWaters & Norwalk Seaport Association. Come for a delicious lunch or snack  made with local and sustainably grown foods and bring your reusable shopping bags to shop the Westport farmers’ market. You will find these Westport farmers’ market vendors at LiveGreenCT!:

• Sugar & Olives (lunch vendor)
• Bake Local (fresh baked goods featuring local ingredients)
• Skinny Pines (lunch vendor)
• Boxed Goodes
• Moorefield Herb Farm (organic her plants)
• El’s Kitchen
• Arogya
• Izzi B Cupcakes (allergen-free cupcakes)
• Raus Coffee
• The Little Chocolate Company
• Ladies of Levita (fresh cheese and yogurt)
• Boxcar Cantina (lunch vendor)
• Sport Hill Farm (organic vegetables)
• Nothing But (premium, handmade granola bars)

One of the easiest ways to live green is to choose local and sustainably grown food because they require fewer food miles (less fossil fuels), less packaging, less storage, and are fresher and more delicious and nutritious. The following special guest speakers will wow you with their knowledge and inspire you to eat green.

• 

  Special guest speakers Michel Nischan and Marina Marchese will also be signing their wonderful books for guests at LiveGreenCT!

  Michel Nischan, James Beard award-winning chef and author, local food advocate, and founder & CEO of Wholesome Wave will be a guest speaker on Sat. at 1:00. Michel was just named Best Locavore Chef 2010 by CT Magazine and his new cookbook, “Sustainably Delicious”, will be available for sale and signing. Wholesome Wave is an organization committed to bringing fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to residents of inner cities, including Bridgeport CT, through its innovative Double Value Coupon program;

• Marina Marchese, founder of Red Bee Honey, will be leading a honeybee and honey discussion immediately following the 1:00 screening of the documentary film Vanishing of the Bees. Brush up on your honeybee and honey facts because 20 lucky audience members who correctly answer Marina’s trivia questions each will win a bottle of her honey courtesy of Whole Foods Market Westport. Marina will also be selling her single-source honeys and holding a book sale and signing of her book “Honeybee: Lessons from An Accidental Beekeeper”, which made the Washington Post’s 2009 Books We Love list.

Free Screening of Vanishing of the Bees at 1:00 on Sunday

About Vanishing of the Bees:

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capitol Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.

For more information about LiveGreenCT!, please visit the event web site.