Category: Farming

Selecting a CSA

| Posted in Farming

Vrai-lean-uh has posted some advice on what to look for when selecting a CSA.

The other point is that there are many types of farms and CSAs**, and which (or if) one works best for you depends on a number of things. When I was first choosing a CSA, I made a spreadsheet. I am the kind of person who encounters a situation with many options and variables and makes a spreadsheet. You could make a list? Or mentally compare? I just don’t want you to lay down $500 and be unhappy.

Here are some things to consider…

Union Bagel, Farmers Market and 2012 Maple Season

| Posted in General News, Farming

This week’s Forecaster includes articles about Union Bagel,

On the 18th day, the Kickstarter crowd spoke, and the word was “bagels.”

Paul Farrell, a burly boat-builder turned labor organizer turned bagel baker and the driving force behind the upstart Union Bagel Co., couldn’t be happier.

an effort by farmers to gain more direct control over the management of the Farmers Market,

Market coordinator Dan Price asked the city to give the Farmers Market Association the power to determine membership, enforce association rules, and collect fees from participating farmers, according to a memo from the city’s associate corporation counsel, Anne Freeman.

and the 2012 maple syrup season.

“It won’t be a banner year,” Gorham resident Lyle Merrifield said. “This may be a about half to three-quarters crop.”

Double Your Money

| Posted in Farming

This week’s Forecaster includes a report on a Cultivating Community program that doubles the purchasing power of shoppers at the farmers market who use food stamps.

Washington was confused, until Czifrik explained that the market doubles the amount of any Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) spending up to $20. Hence, the pile of tokens that filled the plastic sandwich bag in Washington’s hands.

Gorgeous Gelato in the Park & SoPo Winter Market

| Posted in Under Construction, Farming

This week’s issue of the Forecaster reports that Gorgeous Gelato will be join Bite into Maine and 2 other vendors in running food carts in Fort Williams Park.

Giovine said he opened his Portland business on Fore Street about a week before Christmas in 2010, giving him plenty of time to create a smooth operation before the spring and summer tourist seasons. He said he is importing a cart from Italy to sell gelato at Fort Williams, and prefers to be closer to Portland Head Light because it has more foot traffic than Cove Beach.

Also in this week’s issue is an article on the challenges faced by the South Portland Winter Farmers Market.

Six month after holding its inaugural bazaar, the city’s first weekly farmers market is still struggling for customers.

If traffic doesn’t improve, organizers say the market may not survive.

Winter Produce

| Posted in Farming

This week’s Portland Phoenix includes an article on winter farmers markets and CSAs that are opening up new options for sourcing local foods during this time of the year.

Even with Maine’s short growing season, farmers all over the state are working to accommodate the needs of their customers who want to eat locally year-round. There are more winter farmers’ markets and winter Community Supported Agriculture opportunities, and farmers are taking extra steps to get their products to the customer no matter the season.

Raw Milk and Hard Cider at the Market

| Posted in Farming

The Forecaster has published an update on the effort to allow the sale of raw milk and hard cider at the Farmers Market.

Customers at the city’s farmers markets may soon be able to buy unpasteurized local milk, hard cider, beer and wine to go with their fresh vegetables, meats and baked goods.

City Councilors John Anton and Cheryl Leeman are sponsoring an amendment to the city’s rules that would allow licensed market vendors to add fermented beverages, raw milk and raw milk products, such as cheese, to their wares.

Sebago Farms Hydroponic Greenhouse

| Posted in Farming

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram reports on the 37-acre hydroponic greenhouse/aquaculture operation being planned in Windham.

One of three huge hydroponic greenhouses would stretch 2,000 feet from this spot — a distance longer than two Eiffel Towers laid end to end. There are plans for fish ponds and unique renewable energy elements that will make it extremely efficient.

By 2013, Sebago Farms should be selling hydroponic vegetables and coldwater fish throughout the Northeast.

Down East: Miyake, Bootleggers and Farming

| Posted in Reviews, Farming

The January issue of Down East magazine includes a review of Miyake,

What impresses most about Miyake’s creations is his mastery of a wide range of techniques and the quality of the ingredients. This isn’t your standard fish. It glistens. The spicy tuna roll combines tender tuna with creamy avocado slices, topped with seared yellowtail, toasted almonds, plum paste, and radish sprouts. The combination of color, texture, and flavors makes you rethink sushi.

as well as articles about bootleggers,

Mark’s applejack — that’s what distilled hard cider becomes — is the best I’ve ever tasted. Better than apple brandy that’s been aged twelve years. Better than imported Calvados at forty bucks a bottle. It’s dry, robust, and carries spicy hints of the fruit it was made from as well as the smoky flavors of the autumn harvest. When I first tried it a couple of years ago after a leisurely lunch at a mutual friend’s house, I thought it was paradise in a bottle.

and Farming in Maine.

What’s in the middle? Not all that much, actually. Rare are the midsized producers who can send a steady supply of crops to even a handful of grocery stores. If Mainers are to follow through on their demonstrated interest in eating locally — as well as making progress on existing efforts to further develop the state’s food system — we’re going to need some of those little farms to grow a bit bigger, while keeping the bigger guys healthy and strong.

Farmers Market: Raw Milk & Hard Cider Sales

| Posted in Farming

According to reports from the Press Herald and Portland Daily Sun, the Recreation and Health Subcommittee has endorsed a change that allow the sale of raw milk and hard cider at the Portland Farmers Market. The issue now must be approved by the City Council to take effect.

Raw milk and certain locally-sourced alcoholic beverages could soon be found at the Portland Farmer’s Market alongside local beets, honey and other produce.

The city council’s Health and Recreation Committee yesterday endorsed a proposal to allow fermented beverages such as beer, mead and hard cider to be sold at the twice-weekly farmer’s markets as long as they meet existing standards.

The committee also endorsed a separate measure allowing unpasteurized milk to be sold there.

 

SoPo Farmers Market Location Issues

| Posted in Farming

The Forecaster reports on the South Portland Farmers Market and interest in moving it to a more visible and high traffic location.

Vendors say that business at the market at Thomas Knight Park, which opened for the first time on July 14, limped along after a relatively successful first month.

Rainy weather on many Thursdays hasn’t helped, they said. But according to Caitlin Jordan, business manager of Alewive’s Brook Farm in Cape Elizabeth and head of the South Portland Farmers Market Association, the less-than-stellar turnout has one root cause.

“Like any business,” she said, “it’s location, location, location.”