Hudson River Food Corridor Media Alert

WHO: United States Department of Agriculture

Mission Area Natural Resources and Environment

Under Secretary Harris Sherman

WHAT: Come take photos or video at Union Square Greenmarket and hear USDA Under Secretary, Harris Sherman discuss USDA’s commitment to a healthy environment and local food supply. The Hudson River Food Corridor initiative will help implement a sustainable, energy efficient, resource conserving regional food system. Using the Hudson River as Marine Highway will provide fresh food, grown in New York’s rural communities, to the urban communities of New York City.

WHEN: Friday, November 5, 2010 – 10:30-11:30

WHERE: Union Square Greenmarket

174 5th Avenue, New York, 10010

15 St. to 17 St at Park South

WHY: The waterway food corridor transport system supports local farms and seeks to build necessary infrastructure to create an earth friendly local foods system. Use of our rivers and coastal routes is an innovative way to relieve many natural resource concerns such as congestion on roads, climate change, and fossil fuel dependency. The project is using partnerships at every level of government and private industry to create jobs in the city and the countryside. Come join us to see how you can get involved, because we all need and consume foods provided by the farmers of the world.

From Hodgson's Farm Website

There’s no better place than the Hudson Valley to Find and Eat Your Colors.

From sun-ripened peaches and autumn berries to heirloom beans and tomatoes, the Hudson Valley’s fruit and veggie harvest peaks this month. Find your nearest farm stand, farmers market, or community garden and put these local delights on your must-do list before the growing season draws to a close. Call before you go to find out what’s available for picking that day.

Kick off your local food exploration September 11-12 at the  Hudson Valley Food & Wine Festival, held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck. The event features a Gourmet Food Showcase, as well as live music and food/wine tastings.

From Hudson Valley Food & Wine Festival

Buy a dozen freestone peaches and bake a cobbler or pie. Smith Farms in Hudson grows Flame Prince (large yellow) and White Lady (white) peaches on dwarf trees for $1/pound, as well as Red Gold and Fantasia nectarines and Fuji, Honey Crisp, and Gala apples for $0.70/pound (200 White Birch Rd, Hudson, 518-828-1228, www.smithfarmshudson.com). Next year, visit earlier in the summer to pick sweet Skeena cherries and Autumn Britten or Polana raspberries for eating, making jam, or freezing.

Taste the difference between morning- and afternoon-picked white sweet corn. Visit Dykeman Farm, which offers an honor system after hours. A full menu of veggies are available in the family’s farm market (West Dover Road, Pawling,845-832-6068, www.dykemanfarm.com).

From Hudson Valley Garlic Festival

Learn about hardneck garlic at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. Head to Saugerties on September 25-26 for a day of creative food, demonstrations, and crafts. Visit the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival event site for details.

In business since 1916, Mead Orchards grows berries, apples, peaches, pumpkins, and vegetables on 185 acres. Pick your own peaches and apples this month (15 Scism Road, Tivoli, 845-756-5641, www.meadorchards.com).

Flavor a soup with Pine Island onions. Nearly 30 percent of all onions sold in the United States are grown here. The Rogowski Farm plants yellow, spring, and red onions, plus 250 kinds of produce, from kohlrabi and okra to fingerling potatoes and sugar snap peas. (327-329 Glenwood Road, Pine Island, 845-258-4574, www.rogowskifarm.com) Learn more about the historic Black Dirt Region at the Pine Island Onion Festival, which takes place at the Pavilion in Pine Island on September 5.

Stew a flat of Roma tomatoes to make your own tomato sauce. Hodgson’s Farm & Garden Center sells its own tomatoes, peppers and eggplants but it is also a full-service garden center where you can pick up new plants, herbs, or even a kit to build a pond (2290 Albany Post Road, Walden, 845-778-1432).

Pick antique apples by the bushel and simmer a pot of applesauce on the stove. Dozens of varieties of tree-ripe peaches, plums, and apples will be ready soon at Love Apple Farms (1421 Route 9H, Ghent, 518-828-5048, www.loveapplefarm.com). Homemade pies, donuts and preserves are an added treat.

Fishkill Farms started picking its Paulareds and Jonamacs in August, about two weeks ahead of schedule, due to the unusually warm spring weather. Sign up for the farm’s Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and enjoy fresh veggies all summer long. (9 Fishkill Farms Road, Hopewell Junction, 845-897-4377, www.fishkillfarms.com).

In Orange County, Apple Ridge Orchards is open for picking September–November with Mutsu, Honeycrisp, and Winesap apples among its 16 varities. Bring the kids for pony rides and a petting zoo. (101 Jessup Road, Warwick, 845-987-7717, www.appleridgeorchards.com).

Take the kids to a pumpkin patch. V&R Saulpaugh & Sons (2329 Route 9, Livingston, 518-537-6494) lets you pick your own from mid-September to mid-October.

Make strawberry shortcake (next year). The fifth-generation of the Thompson-Finch Farm claims the area’s largest (4.5 acres) pick-your-own organic strawberry farm. The season closed in July, but raspberries are ripening now for picking in September and October. Veggies and apples are for sale at the farm stand June–October. (750 Wiltsie Bridge Road, Ancram, 518-329-7578, www.thompsonfinch.com).

Save the date in 2011 for Cheery Weekend with the extended Brown family at Cherry Ridge Farms. Pick black sour cherries while they last. (4150 Route 23, Hudson, 518-828-7018, www.facebook.com/pages/Hudson-NY/Cherry-Ridge-Farms/72500819118).

Check your local market year-round for simple treats made close to home: maple syrup, honey, cheese, yogurt, wine, bread, and ice cream. Then wait for asparagus, fiddleheads, wild mushrooms, and peas to arrive in spring—and the cycle begins once again.

Nikki Goth Itoi is the author of Moon: Hudson River Valley, a travel guidebook covering must-see sights from Westchester County to Saratoga Springs. A Poughkeepsie native, she enjoys making maple syrup in the Catskills and eating fresh, local foods. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Budget Travel Online, and other publications.

The Hudson River Food Corridor Initiative is eligible for funding as Part of America’s Marine Highway Program. Click here to read more about this initiative that will evaluate the feasibility of an alternate means of transporting fresh produce from agricultural regions in North-Central New York near the Hudson River and Long Island to the New York-Newark Metropolitan Area via water.

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Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture nurtures children, home chefs, and the farmers of tomorrow

Credit: Stone Barns Center

Does pork taste better when pigs are free to roam the forest? Are heirloom vegetables better for the environment? The farmer-scientists who operate the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture think so. And it seems they are on to something.

In less than a decade, this non-profit farm and educational center set on 80 acres has redefined what it means to eat local. What began as an effort to restore and preserve the historic stone barns built by the Rockefeller family in the early 1930s has evolved into a community-oriented classroom and forward-thinking food lab. Stone Barns Center brings the Hudson Valley’s agricultural heritage together with the latest breakthroughs in sustainable farming to produce organic eggs, grass-fed baby lamb, and heritage turkeys. And these pioneering efforts promise to change the way we eat and think about our food.

More than 100,000 visitors visit Stone Barns Center each year, from the TriState Area, across the country and even from overseas. All through the growing season, school buses roll down the long Stone Barns drive, delivering kids of all ages (6,625 of them in 2009). They pick vegetables, collect eggs, and care for animals in programs that are designed to teach them about the sources of their food. The center’s summer Farm Camp sells out well before sessions begin, and it hosted 550 campers in 2009.

Meanwhile, young farmers attend workshops to learn about seed breeding, beekeeping, and new methods for raising geese. If Stone Barns is able to achieve the vision of its Growing Farmers Initiative, a new generation of family farmers soon will be able to make a sustainable living from the land. Approximately 170 young and beginning farmers attended the annual Young Farmers Conference in 2008 (its first year) and attendance grew to 200 farmers in 2009.

Whether you want to start your own organic garden or help drive sweeping change in our food supply, the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture will encourage and inspire. Here are some ways to get involved:

• Take a 90-minute Insider’s Tour on Fridays and Saturdays at 11 a.m. (adults $15, children 12 and older $9).
• Visit the farm market to buy fresh vegetables in season, as well as plants, flowers, meats, eggs, and honey (Fri., Sat., Sun. from 1 p.m. starting May 1).
• Save time for lunch at the casual Blue Hill Café or plan ahead for a gourmet dinner inside the farm’s outstanding restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
• Browse the gift shop on the premises for farm-themed goodies such as beeswax candles, gardening gifts, and books about growing green.
• Attend a special, family-friendly event including Egg Collecting, Livestock Tour, Vegetable Tour, and more.

Contact Info:

630 Bedford Hills Rd.

Pocantico Hills

Tel. 914/366-6200,

www.stonebarnscenter.org

* Nikki Goth Itoi is the author of “Moon: Hudson River Valley“

In my last posting, I suggested that people should pay greater attention to food labels, focusing on the product’s origin. While I believe such observance and conscious is important in understanding the structure of our food system, it alone is inadequate in the broad attempt to localize our production and consumption. The fact remains that consumer options to buy local and fresh produce often remain limited within chain supermarkets, as it is in these companies interest to buy from few agribusinesses and in large volume in order to maximize profit. It is for this reason that residents must seek “alternative sources” for local organic produce.

For a couple of decades now, an initiative known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has taken root and grown momentum in many towns across the United States, yet much of the population still knows little as to what it is or how it works. A CSA is composed of a community of individuals who pledge to support a farm’s operation. Members of a CSA are often referred to as “share-holders,” as they share both the risks and benefits of operating the farm. Members typically pay a fee in advance (often at the beginning of a season), which collectively covers the farms anticipated operating costs. In return, members receive portions of the harvest throughout the growing season. Since members also share the risks, in the event of poor weather, pests or other unfavorable conditions, each participant as a result will earn a smaller share.

The majority of CSAs offer an array of fruits, vegetables and herbs, but can also include a variety of animal products such as eggs, milk, cheese and meat among others. There is no standard mold for a CSA, as they range in size, varieties of produce, fees, and membership involvement.

The following quote was written by Trauger M. Groh and Steven S.H. McFadden in their book Farms of Tomorrow. Community Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities (1990.)

“Since our existence is primarily dependent on farming, we cannot entrust this essential activity solely to the farming population–just 2% of Americans. As farming becomes more and more remote from the life of the average person, it becomes less and less able to provide us with clean, healthy, lifegiving food or a clean, healthy, lifegiving environment. A small minority of farmers, laden with debt and overburdened with responsibility, cannot possibly meet the needs of all the people. More and more people are coming to recognize this, and they are becoming ready to share agricultural responsibilities with the active farmers.”

Before judging whether or not joining a CSA would be convenient, cost-efficient or beneficial, I urge you to contact one of your local CSA farms and learn more about the details of their program and their individual fee. If it does not sound right for you, visit a local farmer’s market, food coop or farm stand. Independent small farms are a huge resource, use them!

I am proud to say that OurHudson has two new members who have CSA programs of their own, the Denison Farm and Kilpatrick farm!

For more information on the benefits of CSAs and to locate the one nearest you please visit:
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

At Basis™ we’re serious about our mission of good food for all.

Basis Farm to Chef™: We are committed to helping farmers we work with find a market for all the good food they produce. We provide delivery, storage, and marketing services for farmers interested in selling their products directly to wholesale customers, including the 20,000+ restaurants and good food retailers in New York City.

Basis Good Food Market™: We are opening a new chain of small-format retail stores, starting in New York City, that will only sell good food. No toilet paper. No twinkies. Just good food at affordable prices.

Good food we deliver™

Basis Farm to Chef is not a typical distributor. We are a service provider that helps to bring together small and mid-size farmers with the growing number of wholesale customers (including chefs, retailers, and institutions) who want to buy the traditional, localized and 100% traceable food that they produce.

Wholesale customers place orders through us for good food from participating small and mid-size farmers. Our role is to take care of getting good food from the farm gate to the wholesale customer as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible: one order, one delivery, and one bill.

Working with Basis Farm to Chef is simple, easy, and efficient for both farmers and wholesale customers:

1. Participating farmers let us know what products they have available each week.

2. Wholesale customers place orders with us online, over the phone, or via fax.

3. Basis Farm to Chef picks up from farmers and delivers directly to wholesale customers.

It’s an ironic truth: the food produced closest to you can often be the hardest to get your hands on. Basis Farm to Chef aims to change that by concentrating our sourcing efforts within our region and providing a convenient and affordable solution for small and mid size farmers wishing to expand their market. As a result, we can offer wholesale customers top quality products, direct from the farm, at a fair price.

* Great Products: We provide you with easy access to farm-fresh products delivered directly from family farms and artisanal producers, many of which are not available from any other distributor or store.

* Great Value: We offer competitive prices on superior products with exceptional service. The Basis Farm to Chef service fees are much lower than the markups charged by most distributors.

* Convenience: One-stop shopping and consolidated billing for farm-fresh products delivered directly from participating small and mid-size farmers.

* Transparency: Everything Basis Farm to Chef sells is 100% traceable – you always know which producer you are ordering from, and are encouraged to speak directly with the farmer if you have questions or special requests.

* Full-Service: We offer opportunities to visit our farms and meet the producers, and we work with farmers and chefs to organize special events, customize product offerings, and expedite ordering and delivery.