Category: Farming

Strawberries Squared & Kids Gone Raw

| Posted in Profiles, Cooking, Farming

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald has an article on strawberries which includes recipes from 3 Portland chefs, a guide to farms where you can pick your own strawberries, details strawberry dishes on the menu at local restaurants, a calendar of strawberry festivals in Maine and info on a strawberry jam making class taught by Kate McCarty.

“My advice to people is to get out a little earlier this year to get what you want, and certainly call the farmer ahead of time to see how things are going,” David Handley, a small-fruit specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said in an interview after last week’s stretch of hot weather. “I’ve been out in the fields for the last couple of days, and I’ve been amazed how two days of temperatures approaching the 90s will ripen strawberries so quickly.”

The season started a little early as well, anywhere from a week ahead of schedule to just a day or two, depending on the location of the farm.

Also in today’s paper is an article about Kids Gone Raw,

Sensing an opportunity, Knowles quickly contacted her friend Elizabeth Fraser, who runs the Girl Gone Raw cooking school in Portland. Over lunch at Local Sprouts Cooperative Cafe, the two came up with the idea of a raw foods cookbook filled with kid-friendly recipes.

The book is now written and the pair is in the process of determining which publisher they want to work with…In the meantime, the two are busy creating a line of raw vegan foods for children, making appearances at events and teaching classes.

MOOMilk

| Posted in Profiles, Farming

NPR’s food blog, The Salt, has published an article about MOOMilk.

Now, things are looking up, albeit modestly. MOOMilk has been picked up by Whole Foods and Hannaford’s, as well as by a swath of small purveyors across northern New England. Even with demand for organic milk booming, though, the cooperative is struggling to push past 5,000 gallons in weekly sales.

Phoenix Proposal for Farmers Market

| Posted in Farming

The Portland Phoenix has proposed a system for ranking applicants for open slots at the farmers market.

The idea would be that, upon the opening of a slot at one of the markets, every applicant would be scored according to this chart (or whatever this chart is revised into). The highest-scoring vendor would be first admitted. If there were more than one slot available, then the slots would be assigned based on score.

Farmers Market Participation

| Posted in Farming

About Town has examined the current process and potential changes to the way new vendors are selected for the Portland Farmers Market.

The present system is a quasi-informal one governed jointly by the city clerk’s office and the Portland Farmers’ Market Association, in which the city individually licenses vendors to sell their items, but with the number of vendors and the diversity of their products determined internally by the association – including voting on who gets to join the market when spaces become available.

Carmen at the Danforth, Maine Organic Seed Industry

| Posted in Under Construction, Farming

The Food & Dining section in today’s paper includes an article about chef Carmen Gonzalez and the new restaurant she’s opening this Spring at the Danforth Inn,

“Carmen at The Danforth,” scheduled to open in mid- to late May, will be something really different for Portland – a small, 40-seat boutique restaurant inside an historic inn that has a celebrity chef in command of the kitchen full-time.

The summer menu has just been completed, and is heavy on Maine seafood served with a Latin twist.

and an article about the Maine organic seed industry.

Maine is home to five certified organic seed companies, and some are seeing signs of economic recovery in this season’s sales.

“I think people were more comfortable economically this year,” said Gene Frey, who works at Fedco Seeds in Clinton.

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.