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By Emily, June 17, 2010 9:09 pm

Last night I had the exciting opportunity to listen to farmer and author Ben Hewitt speak.  Ben is the author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food. After all the press the book’s been getting (see below), I was surprised he was coming to the Berkshires.  I was also thrilled.  The turn out was really great, as it has been at all the northern Berkshire food events I’ve attended.

Ben’s book, which I haven’t actually read yet, is about Hardwick, Vermont.  Hardwick, down on it’s luck, is undergoing a bit of a rejuvenation centered around the creation and growth of “agri-preneurial” businesses (as in, agriculturally based entrepreneurial).   I sat there like a dork, taking notes.  Something about being in the presence of a published author always brings out the nerd in me.  Ben read 2 passages from his book, then fielded questions from the audience.

Ben noted (reading from the book and quoting one of the characters), that “We can export a lot of things but I think our main gift will be inspiration”. The goal of the book is not to serve as a blueprint for other communities, but to inspire them to create their own healthy food system that works for them.  Hardwick isn’t perfect and still has a long way to go, but jobs have been created and the downtown area is coming back to life.

The discussion that followed the reading made clear one of Ben’s points: the local food movement (and food movements in general) are tricky things; “its easy to get caught up in the excitement about what’s happening, but some people feel threatened by it”.  Farms are businesses and it’s difficult to maintain the line between good business practices, helping the community and making a good profit.  I often oversimplify the issues (“it’d be great if we all ate local!”) and forget the many aspects of food systems.  It was so good to be in a room full of people who, regardless of their individual ideals, want to improve things.  I was reminded, once again, of how strange it is that the products we are most price sensitive to are the things that we need most (food, milk, gasoline); why is it that I’m still so willing to buy cheap food when I know what the real cost is?

Final thought of encouragement from Ben: the closer we can bring people to the soil, the more resilient and sustainable our food system will be.  Clearly, the system we have now has a lot of issues.  It was so good to be reminded again that we all vote with our dollars and have the ability to cause change.  The event organizers promised that the discussion of how local food could change the Berkshires will continue and I’m very much looking forward to it.

I’m also looking forward to school being out for the summer tomorrow so I can read the book.

The Town that Food Saved coverage:

Serious Reads: The Town That Food Saved, by Ben Hewitt (Serious Eats)

Podcast: A close look at the “town that food saved” (Grist)

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By Emily, June 8, 2010 8:49 pm

So, mostly I’m ambivalent about summer.  I know, I know…it’s summer and I’m a teacher, so I should be super excited to have the summer off.  Except, and apparently only people who teach are aware of this, I don’t really have the summer off.  Granted, I signed up for everything I’ll be doing and I’m pretty excited about all of them, but let’s abolish the notion that teachers spend the summer with their feet up watching TV.  Plus there’s the heat, as I complained about on Saturday.  I just don’t like summer heat.  I don’t like being sweaty.  I like good nights of sleep.  I’d much, much rather wear pants than shorts.  If I had to choose, it would be fall (like, late September), all year round.

Nevertheless, there are 2 things (besides all my work-related jobs) that I’m really excited about this summer.

1) Our (temporary) CSA membership

Brian and I are really lucky.  A couple of our friends are traveling for the first part of the summer and letting us make use of their CSA share, which means we get a bag full of whatever’s being harvested every week.  We went to the farm a couple weeks ago for orientation and I didn’t want to leave.  It’s beautiful and there’s a ton of variety.  Today was the first distribution day.  Of course, I left my camera in the car (my brain has ceased functioning this week), but there will be pictures of distribution next week, perhaps.  This week’s take included:

Bok choy, rhubarb, radishes, mixed greens (I can’t remember all the names) and a big head of lettuce (not pictured).  I didn’t want to take more than I thought we might consume, though I also felt like we should take as much as possible and worry about what to do with it later.  The farm also has “you pick” herbs and berries, which we may head back for later in the week.  The rhubarb is definitely turning in to a pie this weekend.  I’m hoping as the season progresses that there are more non-leafy vegetables, because I’m not usually a lettuce fan, but at the same time I’m looking forward to loving lettuce more and finding things to do with it.  Yay for fresh, organic, local vegetables.

2) My (itty bitty) container garden

I have been talking about creating a container garden on our balcony/deck (what is the difference?) since the winter and I finally got around to doing something about it last weekend.  I went to the garden center, alone, and got completely overwhelmed.  Purchased a couple plants, then headed to Walmart.  Surprisingly, Walmart seemed to have a lot more individual plants (as opposed to packs of 6), plus easily accessible potting soil and pots.  In the end, I ended up with an herb garden (dill, basil, oregano and chives) and a pair of pepper plants, bell and jalapeno.  Sometime, maybe soon, I’ll start the tomato seeds I bought a month or so ago…

I’m really excited about my little garden (and pleased that I haven’t killed it yet), but I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing.  But you can’t win if you don’t play…if all goes well this year, who knows what I’ll have outside next summer.

What are you excited about this summer?

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By Emily, March 21, 2010 8:12 am

I am so incredibly excited that it’s now officially spring.  I was so excited yesterday I that forgot to even finish this post!  Fear not, the weekly highlights from the web are here!

I really can’t complain.  I was a little concerned about how bad winter in the Berkshires was going to be (I know…I’m from Maine…but I still hate winter), but this winter really wasn’t bad.  Still, this week’s beautiful weather has allowed me to start walking into town again, stop turning on the heat in our apartment, open the windows and eat dinner outside.  It’s wonderful.

Anyway, on to the links.

Highlights for March 14-20: Hooray for Spring!

In addition to the warm, sunny weather, one of the best things about spring is the availability of local produce.  Local Harvest is a great site which allows you to find local sources of sustainably grown food.  Yesterday I ventured out to Cricket Creek Farm to check out their local, fresh products.  It was the perfect place to be on a spring day (who knew I’d be so into farms?).

If you’re interested in knowing where your food comes from, Where is My Milk From is definitely interesting.  Now I know what those codes on milk cartons are for!

Serious Eats has a mouth-watering discussion thread: What spring foods are you looking forward to? Asparagus? Strawberries? Rhubarb?  Yes, please.

If you don’t know what to do with all the exciting spring food, Food & Wine has over 100 recipes that use fresh spring produce.

It’s also springtime for chefs-what are chefs looking forward to cooking this spring?

Erin at $5 Dinners is awakening her garden.  Brian and I (well, mostly I) are planning to do a little container garden on our balcony this year.  I’m really excited!

Oh look, the Simple Dollar has something on container gardening! What timing!

Happy Spring!

spring chickens at Cricket Creek

Every Saturday, I choose a theme and highlight blog posts, websites and news articles from my Google Reader which I found interesting (and hope you do too!)  If you want more reading, check out “What I’m Reading” on my sidebar.

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By Emily, February 9, 2010 8:19 pm

Last night Brian and I headed to a local “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” event.  I was really glad we checked it out and it got some good press in the local paper too.  The event ran from 5-7 pm and we got there a bit after 5.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that tons of other people were there too!  Sometimes it seems like the people I talk to aren’t aware of the issues surrounding food production, but it was clear last night that there’s plenty of interest in local farming around here.

There were a good number of tables which represented many CSAs and farms.  And there were lots of food samples.  Brian and I made slowly made the rounds (they really need a bigger venue next time!), picking up business cards and seeing what different farms have to offer. 

Its really cool to talk to different farmers and hear about what they’re doing.  Plus it reminded me about the approach of summer-I can’t wait to have easy access to local, fresh food again.  And I’m definitely checking out some of these farms.  Yay for knowing where your food comes from!  It’ll be fun (for me, at least, I’m not so sure about Brian) to comparison shop the farms and really get to “know our farmer”.

Want to find a Farmer’s Market near you?  Check out this Farmers Market Search site from the USDA or PickYourOwn.org

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By Emily, May 13, 2009 5:49 pm

On Saturday, I finally made my way to the Bath Farmer’s Market.  It was a beautiful day and I had a wonderful time (as only a food geek like I would).  There were about twenty vendors to peruse with an excellent selection which included mushrooms, cheese, eggs, flowers, honey, maple syrup, beef, pork, baked goods and lots of vegetables. Since it was my first visit and I wanted to see was available, I only purchased some baby red potatoes and basil.

I have also come to the conclusion that everyone is happy at a farmer’s market.  I can’t imagine not being happy at a farmer’s market.  It’s sunny, its warm, there’s fresh organic local produce everwhere you look, children  and dogs are running around.  It’s just a happy place.

I felt a little badly about taking so long to post this, but my procrastination was rewarded with “13 Strategies for Shopping a Farmers Market” from the Chicago Tribune.  There are some good tips there, especially if you’re inexperienced with farmer’s markets.