Mad River Valley Localvore Project

Numen film at Green Mountain Film Festival

Showing at the 2010 Green Mountain Film Festival is the new film Numen next Sunday, March 28th at 8:00pm.

Numen:The Nature of Plants, is a documentary film exploring the healing power of plants. Featuring interviews with herbalists, ethnobotanists and doctors from around the country and beautiful footage of plants, the film calls for a re-awakening of traditional knowledge about plants and their uses. Our hope is that the film can help educate individuals and communities across the country about the incredible medicine just outside their door. More information about the film and a short preview can be seen at: http://www.numenfilm.com/

More information on the festival and on purchasing tickets can be found on their site:
http://www.greenmountainfilmfestival.org/2010-films-events/numen-the-hidden-life-of-plants

VT Edition: Growing VT Grains

Listen in to Vermont Edition on VPR this Tuesday, 08/18/09 Noon and 7pm for a discussion on

Vermont Grains

with Jane Lindholm

AP/T. Kienzle

Vermont once had the distinction of being the region's "bread basket," but that changed as Midwestern farms grew.  But now a handful of Vermont farmers are again planting grains like wheat, oats, and barley.  We learn more about why these farmers are trying to bring back Vermont grown grains, what challenges they face, and how these crops add to the state's agricultural diversity.  Our guests include Heather Darby, a crops specialist with UVM Extension, and grain farmers Jack Lazor, who runs Butterworks Farm, and Ben Gleason, who runs Gleason's Grains.

Would you buy Vermont grown grains?  Are you interested in growing grains yourself?  Send your questions or thoughts to vermontedition@vpr.net

Root Cellar Design/Build class

Dear MRV localvores,

This is the time of year to start thinking about how to store all that produce that's coming out of the garden, and Yestermorrow is offering a 5-day Root Cellar Design/Build course coming up in September that I want you to know about.

The class will be led by local Vermonter Chris Chaisson of Whole Farm Services, which employs ecological and regenerative principles to guide the design and craft of sustainable farms and the tools, infrastructure, machinery and practices necessary for them.

The class will work together to design and build a large root cellar in Moretown village, retrofitting in the lower level of an old barn with ferrocement, insulation and ventilation.  The owner hopes to make the root cellar available to his friends and neighbors to use.

In the five-day course participants will learn elements of designing for passive cooling and humidity control, and apply them to the construction of a root cellar from the ground up. Students will participate in the hands-on construction of a subterranean ferro-cement root cellar with a complete dry food storage area. Designs for free-standing root cellars will also be covered. Participants will learn about site selection, passive cooling, thermal mass, ice batteries, raw food considerations, planning crops for food storage, design considerations for different applications, and retrofit opportunities and methodologies. The class is open to students of all levels.

The class starts on the evening of Sunday, September 6th and runs through Friday, September 11th.  Tuition is only $638 with our 15% Vermonter discount!  Scholarships and work trade opportunities are also available to make the class affordable for anyone who’s interested.

You can see the whole schedule for the week on the course syllabus.

Call Yestermorrow at 496-5545 to register or with any questions and please help us spread the word about this exciting new class.

Thanks,

Kate Stephenson

Executive Director, Yestermorrow Design/Build School

Locally grown grain, obstacles and demand

There was at article in the Burlington Free Press yesterday on locally grown grains. 

 

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090816/NEWS05/90814011/1001

 

Good article other than the comment that I made comparing baked goods made with local wheat flour to hockey pucks. 

 

UGH, I read the article Sunday morning and then slinked into my garden knowing that someone would pick up on that comment - someone who is a far more skilled baker than I.  I should have said that *I* usually end up making hockey pucks when *I* bake with only whole wheat.  When I think of the delicious baked goods that friends have made using all local whole wheat (scallion biscuits and whole wheat cranberry cake immediately come to mind) I feel really bad that I made that comment.

 

So, now that you are completely intrigued with what the heck that I said, please read the article. :-)  I am going to go back to chewing on my foot!

 

Robin McDermott

A message from Rural Vermont about legalizing hemp in the US

CONGRESSIONAL HEMP BILL PENDING!

 

Over the last couple of years, your activism and support has enabled Rural Vermont to successfully advocate in 2008 for a hemp farming bill and in 2009 for a hemp resolution urging Congress to legalize hemp in Vermont and throughout the US. We are getting closer to this reality with the currently pending Congressional bill HR 1866, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009! You can read HR 1866 here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1866. If this bill becomes the law of the land, it would allow American farmers to once again grow hemp to the extent that it is allowed under state laws. Because Vermont legalized hemp in 2008, this means that our state could be among the first to take advantage of this valuable and versatile agricultural crop! Having a strong and solid list of cosponsors will move this bill one step closer to success, and Vermont's Congressional Representative Peter Welch is not yet among them.

 

TAKE ACTION: Please CALL Representative Peter Welch at his DC office on a weekday between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm. The phone number is 202-225-4115. Leave a message saying "please sponsor HR 1866, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009" with your name and number.

 

Three New Books for Vermont Localvores

Last night I coordinated the book signing at the Vermont Fresh Network Annual Forum.  Three books that were recently published are of particular interest to me and I thought that other Localvores would want to know about them.  They are:

 

In a Cheesemaker's Kitchen by Allison Hooper

Cooking Close to Home:  A Year of Seasonal Recipes by Diane Imrie and Richard Jarmusz

Lifting the Yoke:  Local Solutions to America's Farm and Food Crisis by Ron Krupp

 

I will post a separate report about each of the books over the next day or so.  We are also working on getting all three of the authors here in the valley in the next couple of months.

 

 

 

 

Buy It, Cook It, Film It

Buy It, Cook It, Film It: The Farmers’ Market Film Challenge
Sponsored by NOFA Vermont
Summertime means swimming, playing horseshoes, lying around outside, and . . . The Farmers' Market Film Contest! From Aug. 2-8 (officially National Farmers’ Market Week) show us why you love your local farmers’ market. Head to your market, pick up some produce, make a meal, and film the process while being as creative as you want: film a fake cooking show while impersonating a celebrity, perform a rap about farmers' markets, or interview farmers about their favorite vegetables. Videos uploaded to YouTube by 5pm on August 10th will be entered into the competition. Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee and NOFA Vermont Executive Directory Enid Wonnacott will act as judges and prizes include cookbooks, gift certificates, and a subscription to EatingWell magazine. For a full prize list and rules please visit http://www.nofavt.org/market-organic-food/farmers-markets/129

Swine School - Saturday, August 22nd, 10:00-3:30

Ag Day Commish
Livestock Field School Series
SWINE SCHOOL
pigs on pasture
Swine School -
Farrowing and Finishing Swine for Optimal Production and Profit
DATE:  Saturday, August 22nd
TIME: 10:00 am  - 3:30 pm
LOCATION: Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
        200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA.  Meet at the Farm Machinery Shop (#34 on campus map - second building on Left on Nickerson Road).
MORE: $ 35 registration fee includes lunch and resource materials. 

Pre-register before August 14th by completing a registration form.  Please make checks for $35 payable to: Community Teamwork, Inc. and return completed registration form to: New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, 9 Central Street, Suite 402, Lowell, MA 01852. You may also email completed registration form to: nesfp@tufts.edu

  This training is targeted to farmers who wish to commercially raise and sell hogs - as feeders, breeders, or as meat.  We wil cover swine production and marketing topics based on the interests of participants. 
For more on the Livestock Field School Series,
visit New Entry's website

Black Mangalitsa Pig

Practical Skills Training (10:00 - noon) Includes:

  • biosecurity and swine / piggery regulations
  • confinement systems versus pasture-raising
  • breed selection
  • swine behavior
  • reproduction and breeding (including artificial insemination)
  • overall swine management
Working Lunch / Presentations (noon-1:30) includes:
  • feeding & nutrition
  • preventive health care & disease management
  • basic pasture management and rotational grazing
  • direct marketing pork
Practical Skills Training (1:30 - 3:30 pm) Includes:
  • assessing market weight
  • evaluating animal health
  • castration & tail docking
  • administering vaccinations
  • electric fencing & pasture management
For questions about this training, please contact Jennifer Hashley, 617-636-3793 or by email at:  jennifer.hashley@tufts.edu

Training Partners include:  New Entry Sustainable Farming Project,Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine & Mass Grass

This Livestock Field School Series is funded through a grant from the Northeast Center for Risk Management Education and USDA CSREES

NECRME logo  Ag Day Commish    

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New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
9 Central Street, Suite 402
Lowell, Massachusetts 01852
978-654-6745
Visit us on the web at:  www.nesfp.org
Email:  nesfp@tufts.edu