Fiore’s Bakery, Boston

This wonderful little bakery and coffee shop is on South St. in JP, a neighborhood of Boston

In January 2008 I had a chance to sit down with Charlie Fiore, Denise his manager and Helen to talk to them about their new enterprise: vegan baking. They were so much fun and so much apart of the community, that I could see why folks like working for them.

CV: In December 2007, I visited your store to attend a Boston Vegetarian Society www.bvs.org holiday gathering and I was very surprised to find a marvelous array of vegan baked goods along with the regular baked goods one expects to see in an Italian bakery. I was also surprised that I loved your one-bite brownies; they were the best I’ve ever had. So I wondered how vegan part of the bakery came about.

CF: Since the 1990s I was interested in opening a coffee shop cum bakery although I have no background in this area. Than in early 2000 I looked around and saw that there was no place in JP where folks could hang out, so we decided to open up a North End style bakery. We opened in December 2004 and just about around the same time three other bakeries opened which was a bit of a shock. So it required us to pretty quickly diversify and make ourselves different. We did this by deciding to be ‘old fashioned” and create a place where everyone would feel comfortable, from the seniors across the road in senior housing, to young folks, to young families with children. For this reason we (my partner and I) decided to keep prices affordable and not to have WiFi.

We were doing quite well for ourselves and than just over three months ago, Matt one of our employees suggested that we talk to a vegan baker that he knew. So we were introduced to Helen and liked what she did and thought it was something different. We invited her to work in the store for 12 hours a week. We had absolutely no idea that the enterprise would take off the way it has; the community has really embraced the idea and today our vegan products, which includes pizza as well as baked goods, accounts for 25% of our total sales. In the summer we will be adding vegan ice cream to the list of products.

We find that folks are coming quite a distance to buy our goods. Parents have started to call with special requests for their kids who suffer from particular allergies. Helen will produce a cake and/or cupcakes that might be gluten free, soy free, or whatever is needed based on some specific questions that she asks the parent. So because of demand, we now have two bakers working 30 hours a week and we have just added an assistant to do the shopping for them. So I am thankful to Matt that he recognized the demand way before I did.

CV: Do you buy your produce locally. For example do you get your apples and blueberries from local farmers?

CF: We use Taza Chocolate for our baked goods and our hot chocolate. We serve Irie Tea out of Somerville and Jim’s organic coffee out of West Wareham. In the summer we buy our fruit, vegetables and brown eggs from the farmers’ market in JP, a small amount of produce from Allendale Farms, and we use our own tomatoes and herbs from our back garden. In the winter we buy our produce from retails stores. For our vegan goods we buy soy butter spread, tofu, soy milk, unrefined sugars, gluten free flour and brown eggs from Harvest Coop. which is next door. The end product is more expensive because of the higher cost of ingredients but we keep the retail price the same as for our regular baked goods.

CV: There are many coffee and tea companies around why did you select Jim’s Organics and Irie Teas?

CF: As we were getting ready to open, Chris Hill stopped by and spent two days with us lettings us sample all of their products. He was very knowledgeable and likeable and sells a socially responsible product. The company works directly with farms from where they buy the coffee and they also support their communities. All their coffee is fair-traded even though it does not have the logo and it is ethically sourced. They give 10% of the profits from the Christmas Blend directly back to the farms where the coffee originated. We picked Irie Teas because they too were local the teas are organic and fair trade. They support organic farming and that is important to us.

CV: When I was here in December, one of your employees Matt actually, was raving about the bakery and how nice it was to work for you because of all the organizations you support. I wondered if you might speak to this.
CF: We donate money to Spontaneous Celebrations http://www.spontaneouscelebrations.org/ who help create and sustain a community cultural life in JP and Roxbury. They run the Wake up the Earth festival on the first Saturday in May as well as the annual Lantern Parade on the last Sunday of October which brings thousands of folks into JP. The organization also serves Boston youth and they are very successful in what they do. We also support Search for a Cure which is an AIDS research group, we support some very small organizations that many people have probably never heard of, the local schools, and KidsArts www.jpkidsarts.org which is a group that provides affordable arts programs for children in art, puppet making, creative writing, dance as well as cultural field trips. They actually did the display in our window.

CV: One thing that particular stood out when I visited in December was how happy and enthusiastic your employees were. What’s the secret?

CF: We are a laid back and casual organization while still being professional. We listen to our employees and are very flexible so that we can support our employees who go to school, play in a band, or volunteer with the many organizations that we support. Helen, our vegan baker teaches a course at KidsArts and the Boston Adult Education Center. In February she will be holding classes for members of the Boston Vegetarian Society. We allow and encourage our employees to explore their interests and ideas and let them run with them.

This article is pending publciation in EdibleBoston

California Propositon NO 2 - PASSED

Thank you CALIFORNIA!!!! Now it is time for other states to follow their lead

read the story at www.farmsanctuary.org

Picture of a battery crate that chickens are stuffed into. This is no secret. I have known about such cages for the past 50 years so why are they still here and why do most people pretend they don't know. This is just plain ignorance.

Proposition 2, the proposed Standards for Confining Farm Animals initiative statute[1], is a California ballot proposition in that state's general election on November 4, 2008. The proposition would prohibit the confinement of certain farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs. The measure would deal with three types of confinement: veal crates, battery cages, and sow gestation crates. If approved by the voters, the statute would become operative on January 1, 2015. Farming operations would have until that date to implement the new space requirements for their animals, and the measure would prevent animals in California from being confined in these ways in the future.

Picture of pig gestation creates

What a shame! Pigs are the most intelligent of our farm animals. They are as intelligent as our dogs that we lavish all sorts of love and care on. What did they ever do to deserve this kind of treatment. Next time you bite in your pork chop think about where your pig came from and what sort of life it had. You need to be buying your meat from local farms. If this is not possible purchase a CSA (community supported agriculature) share which includes meat. Lastly, if none of this is possible look for a local butcher. Always ask where your meat comes from and how it was treated. It is your moral obligation. This is that a well looked after pig looks like. Vote YES on Proposition No 2 for the East Coast usually follows suit shortly thereafter.

Urban Farmer Wins $500k "Genius" Award

Now this is what I like to hear.

Many of the awards fell into the science or arts category but a couple did't fit into either. One of these was the non-profit Growing Power, Inc. http://www.growingpower.org/
It was started 15 years go by Will Allen a farmer in Millwarke who saw teens without work and a farm that needed help. What I think was creative is how he fashioned this partnership. Some would have just used the kids as cheap labor but not Will. He had vision.

Will's offer to Growing Power was that the teens would work at his store and renovate the greenhouses to grow food for their community. This simple idea has 15 years later, blossomed into a national and global commitment to sustainable food systems.

Since its inception, Growing Power has served as a ”living museum” or “idea factory” for the young, the elderly, farmers, producers, and other professionals ranging from USDA personnel to urban planners. Training areas include the following: acid-digestion, anaerobic digestion for food waste, bio-phyto remediation and soil health, aquaculture closed-loop systems, vermiculture, small and large scale composting, urban agriculture, perma-culture, food distribution, marketing, value-added product development, youth development, community engagement, participatory leadership development, and project planning. Here is picture of their headquarters


In 2005 Will Allen won a Leadership For A Changing World award from the Ford Foundation see what they had to say about his efforts at the website http://www.leadershipforchange.org/awardees/awardee.php3?ID=303
Their farms in urban Chicago

Congratulations to Will and all the folks at Growing Power, this is what it is all about.




Visit the MacArthur Foundaton http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.855229/k.CC2B/Home.htm

Flats Mentor Farm, Lancaster, MA, USA

The roots of the Flats Mentor Farm program run long and deep with its beginnings going back to the mid 80s, when Maria Moreira, an immigrant from Portugal, befriended a group of Hmong in the Fitchburg area. She was approached by a Hmong woman from the group who asked if she could start a small garden on an unused corner of her dairy farm. Maria was astonished at the yield of vegetables that were produced from the small plot: cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. This encouraged her to rent other parcels of land to others in the group who were now eager to try their hand at growing vegetables too. She watched the farmers’ from a distance as she raised her family and ran her cheese business but realized that without funds the Hmong would not be able to progress far.

As a working farmer Maria had access to many government programs available to farmers as well as connections within the agricultural community. It was through these connections that various government agencies approached Maria to help the farmers working on her land but none of them provided much culturally appropriate expertise to the Hmong farmers. Maria decided to take over the helm herself in 2005. By this time Maria had rented out most of her land to immigrant farmers. She told me that she has never turned anyone away who wants to learn to farm but “I tell them it is hard work, you have to have motivation, and you have to take care of your weeds. If you don’t take care of your weeds, you can’t stay on the land.”
In 2005, the program was formally organized under the name Flats Mentor Farm and filed for 501c3 status with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Extension acting as their fiscal agent. Heifer International, U.S. Department of Agricultural, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) and the University of Massachusetts Extension teamed up to provide financial support for the program. This allowed Maria to hire four (two part-time) Hmong employees including a full time farm manager.

Maria told me that the goal of the program is “to mainstream immigrant farmers” and with this in mind she has devised a hands-on training program that is sensitive to the various cultures that she works with. The University of Massachusetts is providing training and technical assistance to the group on pest and weed management; farmers have attended conferences, and attended courses at the New England Vegetable and Fruit Growers Association, New England Sustainable Small Farm Project and various others.

In 2007, there were 50 families in the mentoring program and in 2008 they have already exceeded that number with five Kenyans joining them in June. Twelve farmers have moved through the program and are now independent commercial farmers farming on land that constitutes the FMF. Maria told me that based on the goals of the program “success has been achieved when either the farmer starts a farming enterprise at the Flats Mentor Farm or anywhere else and is making most of his/her income from farming. If s/he decides to stay that s/he passes on to another novice farmer what s/he learned. Maria’s family has owned the farm since 1980 but rent parcels of land out to anyone who wishes to take up farming.

In 2008, the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture donated a new tractor to the farm and this year they had the money to lay pipes to drain water from the very flat land. Equipment such as the tractor, two washing sheds, and the irrigation system are shared by all. The results of this funding are easy to see as in 2005 they attended only six farmers’ markets, in 2007, twenty three (23) and planned for 2008 will be 32.

The farmers grow traditional ethnic crops such as: melons, Mustard greens, red and green Amaranth squash, Asian cucumbers, arrugula, mustard, and Broccoli. Bitter melon, baby boc choi, Shanghi boc choi, water spinach, greens and herbs. In their homeland they farmed these vegetables among rice, maize, and poppy plants. It is generally agreed that vegetables planted among poppies are the most delicious. However, at FMF they do not grow rice, maize or poppies! All of these vegetables are particularly popular with Asian and Hmong customers. However others are largely unfamiliar with these vegetables and they won’t buy them in any kind of quantity. To combat this problem they have spent the spring working on a recipe booklet that will be available in the summer at all the farmers’ market that they will be attending. Most of the vegetables just need to be stir fried, for example water spinach, yam leaves, bitter melons, and angled luffas (also called sinqua).
Making the Connections

The Hmong market their produce through Russo’s, Whole Foods (Fresh Pond, Woburn, Newton, and Newtonville and at 32 farmers markets in the Greater Boston area. Because the customer base at each farmers’ market is not that large for Asian vegetables the group meets as a whole to decide on what farmer will go to which market. The farmers are then responsible for building relationships with their customers and knowing what vegetables they will buy. For the wholesale side of the operation all the farmers pool their produce but each farmer knows exactly what he has sent.

New York Greenmarkets

Check out my story on the Greenmarkets in New York City in the latest Farmers' Market Today magazine.
www.farmersmarkettoday.com

Hum! since the link is not live yet. Here is a preview of the article

Food is nourishment for our soul, our body, and our mind that starts from the moment we pick or select our vegetables at the market. Food is life and it doesn’t come out of a box but from the earth. It is for this reason that while I was in New York recently I went in search of a farmers’ market. Once you have shopped at one you really don’t want to shop in a supermarket ever again. So off I went to Union Sq. Farmers Market on of about 30 markets in the city run by Greenmarkets.

When Greenmarket first started operating they had problems with farmers’ buying their produce at the wholesalers in the City and reselling it at the market. Today Greenmarket has a paid farm inspector who visits the farms on a regular basis and checks that what the farmer is selling is what he is growing producing.

At the end of the day all unsold produce is bagged up and put on City Harvest vans by their volunteers under the supervision of the market manager(s). Last year Union Sq. Market sent 275,000 pounds of food to City Harvest. This is a significant contribution as food in the food banks in NYC has dropped by 40% due in one reason to the stalled Farm Bill in the Senate.

Greenmarket is pretty much self-funded with an operating budget upwards of $1.5 million. This money is used to manage the entire market operation; which includes new initiatives such as the New Farmer Development Project (NFDP).

The NFDP project was created in 2000 as a partnership between Greenmarket and the Cornell Cooperative Extension's NYC Program. The project is based in New York City and supports new farmers within the city, New York's Hudson Valley & Catskill Regions, New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania. The NFDP identifies, educates, and supports immigrants with agricultural experience by helping them become local farmers and establish small farms in the region. Their focus at the moment is on farmers’ from Latin American.

In 2002, Nestor Tello from Mexico and Hector Tejada (pictured on left)
from the Dominican Republic were the first two farmers to come through the program and start selling at the Greenmarkets. By 2007, the project had assisted 17 immigrant farmers’. Because of the cost of insurance the farmers are covered under the NFDP.

The market is continually evolving as funds become available. Currently, Union Square plays host to over 100 public and private schools each year who receive Market Tours and learn about the value of a local food system.

The farms involved vary in acreage from one to 650 acres with 250 acres leased rather than owned. Some of the farmers’ rely entirely on the markets for their income, some have CSAs’ and some are thinking of starting one. For the immigrant farmers however, only 25% are full-time farmers while the rest have winter jobs. The non-immigrant farmers make about 70-100% of their income from the farmers’ market and the rest through selling directly to restaurants and CSAs. Almost all the farmers’ attend more than one market around the city.

Farmer Profiles
Cato Corner Farm, Colchester, CT
They are popular for the raw milk hormone free cheeses. They told me that the market provides them with 70% of their income. Apart from the market sales they also sell directly to restaurants and some specialty shops and wholesale through Artisan Made – Northeast LLC. They have no distributor.

Evolutionary Organic Farms
Kira has been growing and selling in Greenmarket for 12 years. She got a spot at the market the very first year she applied. She derives 90% of her income from the Greenmarkets and the other 10% from a small CSA at her farm. She told me that she “hasn’t seen a change in what customers want but rather a change in what they are willing to try”. Kira grows vegetables that she likes such as raddichio, asian greens, and different varieties of summer and winter squashes. For many years she said “I brought these vegetables to the market only to put them back on the van to take home again. Now I find that customers are trying them and finding that they like them even though they don’t look like they expect”.

Lynnhaven Goat Farm, Pine Bush, New York
She has been with the Saturday market for two years and the Wednesday market for seven months. Lynn told me “that she did not think that she would get a spot before she died” but luck was on her side when Coach Farms Gold Creamery sold their creamery to a big company making them ineligible to stay in the market and she was given their spot. Her operation is tiny 70 goats but the market had made a huge difference in her life and the income she makes at the market supports herself, her son, and her goats. Since she has been at the market she has contracted with local chefs who come to the market and pick up the cheese. She is 100% dependent upon the market income.

Pafftenroth Gardens, Warwick, New York

They have been at the market for 18 years. They grow their produce traditionally and are perhaps the most highly rated produce farmer at the market. They have been listed in Zagats for the past five years whose participants rated the vegetables as “superior root vegetables” and “fabulous.” He has been praised by the likes of Alice Waters, and pursued by local celebrity chefs. Alex told me that his produce is the least expensive in the market and of the highest quality. He grows difference produce, and new things that the customer has not seen before. He has signs up on most of his vegetables telling customers’ what it is and what to do with it. When he comes to the markets on Wednesday and Saturday he starts his day at 3:15 a.m. when he raises and gets home at 8:30 pm. He gets 100% of his income from the market. He is a very friendly farmer indeed.

Stokes Farms. Old Tappan, New Jersey
They have been with the market for 31 years. They have a farm stand too and 17 greenhouses where they grow flowers and herbs. They told me that the flowers and herbs out of six of the greenhouses come to the Union Sq. market. They are known for the excellent fresh produce and their big beautiful herb plants. They also have a nice mix of heirloom tomatoes. The major changes that they have seen in their 31 years at the market are that customers are much more aware of local produce and what it means then when they first started. They said that quality seemed to be the first issue with customers and then price.

Tellos Green Farm, Red Hook, New York


They have been at the market six years. Nestor Tello and his wife Alejandra raise 4,000 chickens on four acres of pasture. Being the skeptical person I am I asked Nestor if they really went out side. He said“Yes, they do. At noon I go and let them out of their barn and at dusk they all come back again. If you don’t believe me you can ask the farm manager because we are inspected.” I asked him what he fed them and he said “they eat what they can outside and then I also give them corn.”

He started at the Union Sq. Market where he met chefs who were coming to the markets to buy produce for their restaurants. Then, as chefs or other restaurant staff members moved to new restaurants or started their own restaurants, he maintained the connection and was able to develop new buyers through his old relationships. As the chefs changed restaurants they made arrangements for him to deliver to their restaurants. These restaurants pay $3.00 a dozen for his eggs which is a premium price for buying in bulk. At the market he sells his large eggs for $3.25. Nestor also has a CSA in the Brooklyn market and either he or his wife is at one of ten markets during the week. Nestor’s plans are for a totally biodynamic farm. The majority of his hens are Rhode Island Reds but he also has Araucana.

It was just by chance that during the week I stopped into an organic restaurant in SOHO for lunch and the waitress told me that their egg dishes were very popular and that a farmer delivered eggs to them weekly along with honey. It turned out that this farmer was Nestor.

The most repeated question I heard from customers while I was talking to market managers in the smaller markets was “how do the prices compare.” Compare to what I thought! The market managers merely said that there were a variety of prices and they should shop around but they would not be the same as from somewhere that could buy in bulk. According to the market managers price was the most often asked question and it came from people at all socioeconomic levels. They said that most of their customers were either middle class or those using WIC food coupons. They felt the WIC program was a wonderful situation for both the customer and the farmer. The farmers; I talked to all said that they had seen a surge in requests for organic produce and I noticed that when customers were told that there were farmers who had organic produce the question of price seemed to disappear in their eyes and body language.

What Makes A Farmers' Market Successful?

For the past few years, I have been a customer at several different farmers’ markets in Boston where Kimball Fruit Farm sells produce. I couldn’t help noticing there were always a lot of customers around their stalls. Often there would be a line of waiting customers, while other nearby businesses would have only a few customers. Yet, the vegetables all looked similar.

What, I wondered, made Kimball’s stand so popular? Something had to be different, and I wanted to know what it was.

The only way to find out was to ask, so that is what I did. I interviewed Marie Hills, who with her husband Carl, owns and operates Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, Mass.

Marie knows the business side of the farm’s operation. She attributes its success to good farming practices, good help, good business practices and personal qualities of both the family and their employees.

To see the full interview go to
http://www.edibleboston.net
To see the full story go to
http://www.www.farmersmarketstoday.com/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=48

Notthinghill (London) Sat. Farmers' Market

While I was in London in April, 2008 I visited the Nottinghill Gate farmers’ market a small neighborhood market with wonderful vendors. All of these vendors, in addition to the markets they attended had a box scheme for customers as well as a farm shop which made up 100% of their income. They were very friendly and happy to discuss their operations while at the same time serving their customers.

A few vendors that stood out for me was Shabden Park Farm from Surrey who farm on 420 acres of land and have a wonderful and very informative website.


Since they were so transparent in theie operations at the market I am not surprised to see the wealth of information on their website. So do check it out at www.shabdenparkfarm.com. Their lambs are bred from Suffolk cross ewes using a Charollais ram, and from North Country Mules using a Suffolk ram and are reared on grasses, herbs and wildflowers free from chemical fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides. They employ traditional, extensive sheep farming methods.

Another vendor that I liked was Twelve Acres.

Dan Green is a fifth generation farmer whose expertise is in organic pig farming. He raises Tamworth, Large Black and Middle White all traditional breeds on 12 acres of land.
His is a much smaller operation so their website is rather basic. www.12greenacres.co.uk

Olive Farm in Somerton has 140 Guernsey cows (my favorite along with Jersey’s) on 300 acres. In 2007 they won the prestigious Taste of The West Awards for the Best of Dairy with their untreated Guernsey Cream. They were doing a very brisk business at the market selling raw milk and cream.

Clare’s Organics was run by a young couple, Paul and Clare Sykes who are tenant farmers on the border of Wiltshire/Oxfordshire. They raise 2,000 Hubbard chickens on 7 acres of land and rotate the birds on a three month cycle. The birds are outside three quarters of the time (required to be certified organic) and they are killed at a local (4 miles away) organic slaughterhouse every Wednesday. At the Saturday market they sell around 80 birds. Check out their website at www.claresorganics.co.uk

There was wonderful buffalo cheese being sold by ALHAM WOOD FARM, along with raw milk and yoghurt with live bacteria. When I last checked their website was not interactive but here is the link. www.buffalo-organics.co.uk

And last but not last a farm whose name I might have spelt wrong since I cannot find a link to them at all and that is Roakedy Farm in West Sussex.

They had 20,000 laying chickens on 60 acres of organic land along with another 17 acres that they lease. There chickens are Colombia, Black Feather and Gold Line (all hybrids)

Recent Visit to London Farmers' Markets

If I have been quiet for a while it is because I was in the UK. I went to visit family and while I was there decided to check out the food scene. What a surprise! First I went to visit two farmers' markets; Nottinghill Gate and Marylebone. The latter was much the larger but what they all had in common was TRANSPARENCY. Every farmer was more than willing to talk to me and tell me all about the food that they raised or produced. Some had details written on chalk boards that were pinned to their stall. Just as in the U.S. most of the farmers' made 100% of their income from the markets combined with either their farm stall, box shemes or contracts with local restaurants. The latter was not used by a lot of farmers though. Finding slaughterhouses that would deal with small farmers was an issue both sides of the Atlantic.

The UK farmers said they had no problem with farm labor because of the recent addition of the East European countries into the EU. However the number of Eastern and Central European workers registering for work in the UK fell last year and is expecteed to fall further this year because of increased opportunities back home. too bad for UK farmers because these folks worked very hard for extremly low wages and kept the industry ticking. IF the US would have such a union with Mexico and Canada we would have no problems either, for the short term anyway, but we do. I wonder why the NAFTA agreement only included goods and not the movement of people!

The big difference however was that the food movement is much more intergrated than here in the Boston area (all I can talk about really). It goes from the farmers willingness to be transparent, to organizations such as the Soil Assocation, to journalists who write daily/weekly food columns supporting local food, to very outspoken chefs/cookbook authors, to restaurants and pubs printing on their menues where the food came from and two supermarkets who are actively supporting the movement (Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencers).

While I was at the markets I listened to customers interacting with producers and asking questions about the produce. However, never once did I hear customers saying the produce or meat was too expensive and that they could buy it cheaper in some supermarket; a refrain that I often hear at farmers' markets' in the Boston area. When I asked farmers' about this they said "customers are buying taste and they know this." In restaurants it was the same.

But what is actually the price difference? I visited Waitrose in the center of London (I have convered pounds to dollars and kilos to pounds).
- Not free range (which means they are kept in cages like most of our chickens) $3 per lb.
- Free range and corn fed - $5 per lb.
- Organic, free range from a specific named farm and certified by the Soil Assocation - $7.50 per lb.

Eggs were similarly priced although I forgot to look at the caged birds eggs.
- Columbian Black tail Hens,free range but not organic - $3 for six eggs
- as above but organic - $5 for six eggs.

It was obvious to me that this entire movement has been consumer driven. There were far more organic farmers in these markets then I see where I live BUT this was because there were many more meat, milk, and cheese vendors than at our markets in Massachusetts. Farmers' have to contain with rigid rules that means that eggs, cheese, meat and milk have to be kept in coolers.

It was wonderful to see printed at the top of most menues in pubs NO GM FOOD SERVED HERE. What a treat.

Some important labels (again completely transparent) were:
The Soil Association - is the main UK certification body for organic products. Its kitemark appears on 80 per cent of all organic products sold in the UK. Meat with this stamp means the animals have been outside for three-quarters of their life. Poultry must be in an environment where they can graze, ground-peck, and dust bath themselves. Very clar I must say.

Red Tractor - the Assured Food Standards labelling scheme that guarantees food has been produced, processed and packaged in the UK and complies with independent inspection standards regarding food safety, animal welfare, and responsible management of pesticides and waste.

Freedom Food - is a scheme run by the Royal Society for the PRevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) to improve farm animal welfare. Their inspectors annualy check approved farms to see if they comply with their welfare standards. These include freedom from hunger, discomfort, pain and distress.
The first two were most apparent in the supermarkets. Since much of our meat is now coming from Asia and South America I only want to buy local meat so i found the Freedrom Food very good.

I will write more in detail later this week. Meanwhile check out some cookbooks whose writers are 100% behind the food movement.
Photo: Rose Prince

Rose Prince - The New English Kitchen, any Nigel Slater cookbook, British Reginonal Cooking by Mark Hix, any book by the late Jane Grigson but in particular English Food, Skye Gyngell's A Year in My Kitchen, and Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories to name just a few. And remember food out of a tin or a packet is not food at all and it definately is not cooking. I will include more later.

Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room - NYT Blog

Grazing in the Rumpus Room - Allison Arieff - By Design - Opinion - New York Times Blog

I know why the caged hen squawks

Many people think that buying "organic" is the be all and end of all of all they need to know about purchasing their food. This is not true. It says nothing about how the animals are kept or treated. It is just common sense that if you stuff thousands of hens together you will get disease. Perhaps it is the hens revenge on us for treating them so badly. We should pay attention. It doesn't have to be this way.

Reprinted from the Grist website
www.gristmill.grist.org
The case for sustainable grown food as a healthier and safer alternative to industrial dreck is gaining force. Here's the latest, from Natural Choices UK:
www.naturalchoices.co.uk/

A recent U.K.government survey shows that organic laying hen farms have a significantly lower level of Salmonella. Salmonella is a bacterium that causes one of the commonest forms of food poisoning worldwide. The study showed that 23.4 per cent of farms with caged hens tested positive for salmonella compared to 4.4 per cent in organic flocks and 6.5 per cent in free-range flocks.

U.K. organic standards are run by an NGO called the Soil Association, which creates rules with consumers and smallish farmers in mind, not industrial giants. "The Soil Association insists on higher welfare standards for organic poultry than most other organic certifiers," the group declares in its organic-egg standards. The Association insists that hens be "truly free range," "looked after in small flocks," and have ample access to "fresh grass and air."
www.soilassociation.org

Our own USDA organic standards are much more concerned about how giant operations can cash in on the organic craze. So all we get on animal standards is that "All organically raised animals must have access to the outdoors" -- a stipulation that has been subject to much, well, chicanery. Michael Pollan found "organic" hens stuffed into pens for his Omnivore's Dilemma research, their "access to outdoors" amounting to an unutilized concrete patch. www.ams.usda.gov/nop/FactSheets/ProdHandE.html

And the Cornucopia Foundation has documented that large-scale "organic" dairies for years stuffed cows into confinements and feed them (organic) corn. www.commondreams.org/news2007/0607-11.htm/

As for salmonella and eggs, the issue seems to be about whether the hens are wallowing in their own feces. So if a large portion of U.S. organic layers are doing just that, it seems doubtful that our own supermarket organic eggs can offer the same benefit as those in the U.K. The egg study comes on the heels of a peer-reviewed U.K. study showing that organic milk cuts "the incidence of eczema in infants fed on organic dairy products, and whose mothers also consumed organic dairy products," by 36 percent.

Biggest recall of frozen beef in U.S. history

By now most folks have seen the video on UTube that was released by the Humane Society of the U.S. It shows workers at the Hallmark/Westland Meet Packing Co. kicking cows and using electric prods and forklifts to make them move. People who saw the video say it was sickening. I don't need to look, I know, and this is why i don't buy commercial lot meat.

Whle these acts are violations of a 2003 prohibition on downer cattle from entering the food supply as a precaution against mad-cow disease. The real reason for the recall should be INHUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS.

According to public records, the privately held company was founded in 1985 in what is known as the Chino milkshed. The company has 200 employees and sells beef to institutional vendors such as the USDA's school lunch program and fast-food restaurants, including Southern California icons In-N-Out Burger and Jack in the Box.

Last year, the federal government purchased nearly $39 million of ground beef from Westland/Hallmark at an average price of $1.42 a pound. That represented about 40% of the company's roughly $100 million in annual sales, according to industry sources. There are very few inspectors at the USDA to check out plants. By reducing their budget the government is ensuring that this type of behavior continues so that they can buy cheap beef. Don't support it!!!

The heart of the matter is that meat can only be cheap if you fatten up animals quickly, polluate the water and land, speed up the lines to the degree that workers and animals suffer grave injuries and then you can have your cheap meat. But even then, it comes at as price which most folks are unwilling to think about and that is your long term health in eating this kind of meat.

While two staff members have been charged with animal cruelty all the owners of Hallmark need to be tried. Companies follow the lead of the CEO and the Executive Committee. Do NOT SUPPORT THIS COMPANY instead support the efforts of the Humane Society of America.

The list of products to avoid now and in the future is very long. However look at meat packages for the words WESTLAND MEAT CO or PACKED FOR: KING MEAT CO. Alternatively buy your meat from reputable sources...they do exist.

Immigrant Farmers: Resources and Accessibility

There are over twenty established and developing immigrant farming projects in the U.S. that provide resources to farmers. Many of the organizations work together in such a manner that they are not recreating the wheel but creating total new initiates or improving existing ones. Individual programs or organizations can be found under umbrella organizations listed at the end of this article so be sure to check them out. In this article I focus on the NFDP program.

New Farmer Development Program
The New Farmer Development Program (NFDP) under the City Council on the Environment of New York City has been instrumental in helping farmers from Latin America (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay) get started. This program was created in 2000 as a partnership between Greenmarket and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s NYC Program and is based in New York City. As such it supports farmers within the city, Hudson Valley, the Catskill Regions, New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania. The USDA Risk Management Agency made a large sum of money available to train immigrant farmers in 2000. After the 9/11/2001 attack some people wondered aloud about the security of our major highways as it related to food transportation. If one or two of our major highways in the northeast was put out of commission our access to food would be severely impacted. Thus preserving local farmland and strengthening our regional food security is really important and now with the cost of oil an economic issue too.

La Nueva Siembra (“a New Season”) is the NFDP’s comprehensive spring training course consisting of twelve three-hour classes offered weekly from June through August. The course introduces participants to regional farming conditions, sustainable agricultural practices, local marketing opportunities, land, equipment, and federal and state agricultural support programs for new and socially disadvantaged farmers. In addition to La Nueva Siembra, the NFDP offers workshops each year at local farms where project participants gain hands-on technical experience on topics identified by the farmers themselves.

Over the past five years, NFDP have been able to focus their training curriculum on the topics that are most critical to new immigrant farmers, such as local production schedules and techniques, basic equipment and machinery for new farmers, integrated pest management and organic standards, and direct marketing standards.

When new participants graduate from La Nueva Siembra, training farms in the city and neighboring counties provide an intermediate step as they move toward independent farming. The NFDP also facilitates mentorship’s for project participants with established local farmers. A mentorship provides participants with an opportunity to partner with an experienced local farmer and benefit from their expertise. Once they are ready to start their own farm business, NFDP helps them identify appropriate farmland for lease or sale through their broad partner base, introduce them to local farmers markets, provide access to NFDP participant-managed microcredit funds, and offer intensive technical support.

Funding sources to support this effort come from the USDA Risk Management Agency, the USDA Cooperative State Research, Extension, and Education Service; Heifer International, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Foundation, Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, and The City of New York

The NFDP has graduated 130 members since its inception and 17 individuals and their families have started their own farming businesses. These farmers come from countries such as Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Mexico. Out of the 130 people that have graduated 30% have gone on to farm in some way on project training sites, established local farms with mentor farmers, or their own independent farms. The remaining 70% have gone on to work with community gardening organizations or have started their own gardens, while others have simply decided that farming or gardening was not the right decision for them.

Once farmers graduate and begin farming they tend to raise traditional ethnic produce in addition to the more usual fruits and vegetables. Mexican specialty crops such as papalo, pipicha, alache, epazote, huazontle, and squash blossoms are particularly popular with farmers and their customers. However, as these products are largely unfamiliar to most customers they won’t buy them in any kind of quantity, and thus farmers tend to only sell these products in neighborhoods with a large Mexican community.

Even though the farmers’ were taught basic book keeping and finance it is felt that very few of them actually keep records. For those that don’t, they learn very quickly through their own experience and the experience of other farmers what sells and what doesn’t. Also, as farmers build a steady and loyal clientele, customers will ask for specific products that they can’t find anywhere else.

For the immigrant farmers’ in this program only about 25% of them manage to make 100%of their income from farming and the rest hold down winter jobs. This is most likely because they have to rent land from other farmers. All the farmers own and operate their own, independent farm business, so they invest their own money, labor, and time into building that business. The NFDP simply provides access to information and resources, and serves as an advocate for the farmer when necessary. Since the inception of the program, one NFDP farmer has been able to purchase his land, and two more are hoping to do so in 2008.


Tello’s Green Farm
Walking around the village looking for somewhere not crowded to eat lunch I came up a Quartino, an organic and vegetarian restaurant on Bleecker Street that had a statement on the window menu that all their egg dishes where made from local eggs. This looked like a very promising sign of a good restaurant so I walked in and indeed I was not disappointed. I asked the waitress where the eggs came from and she said Tello’s green Farm, another plus for the resturant; the staff knew the sources of the produce. After lunch, I procedured to Greenmarket to interview folks for this piece and low and behold there was Tello’s farm stand at the market.

Nestor Tello was part of the first batch of farmers to graduate from the program in 2001. In Columbia he had worked with relatives on farms before he decided to become a veterinarian. Then in 1992 he moved to Brooklyn, NY. In 2000 he had the good fortune to read about the NFDP farming program in a Spanish-language newspaper El Diario and applied.

Nestor and Alejandra started off with 400 hens on land that was several hours away from where they lived in Brooklyn. So each day they had to travel from their home in Brooklyn to the farm where they were trying to get established and juggle full-time jobs. By the second year however, they were able to move to a closer farm site in the Hudson Valley and quit their jobs and take on farming full-time. Nestor rents his land but does have an advantage of a long term agreement with his landlord. In 2002, their chicken coop collapsed under the weight of heavy winter snows and they lost everything. They were devastated after so much hard work and things looked very bleak. However, the NFDP had been working with its participants to create a small loan program for its farmers based on the Heifer “Passing on the Gift” model. The Tellos’ received a “loan” of 2,000 laying hens.

Today they have 4,000 which are raised on 5-acres of land with another two acres reserved for growing vegetables. The hens are raised the way nature intended; on pasture. Every noontime they are let out of their chicken house until dusk and peck around eating grass and whatever else they can find on the ground along with corn. When I met Nestor at the Union Sq. market he told me that, “When I have my hens free, I don’t need to give them extra vitamins, antibiotics or hormones because they already have that support naturally.” Most of Nestor’s flock is Rhode Island Reds with some Araucana which are very popular because of their blue egg shells. He manages his farm with his wife and two Central American workers.

Making the connections
Connections were initially made when Nestor met chefs who were coming to the farmers markets (especially Union Square) to buy produce for their restaurants. He got started with a few chefs this way. Then, as chefs or other restaurant staff members moved to new restaurants or started their own restaurants, he maintained the connection and was able to develop new buyers through his old relationships. .

Resources
USDA Risk Management Agency –
rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/agreements/
USDA Cooperative State Research, Extension, and Education Service; - csrees.usda.gov/fo/funding.cfm
Heifer International –
heifer.org/site/c.ededJRKQNiFiG/b.485969
Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation –
noyes.org
J.M. Kaplan Foundation –
jmkfund.org

Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation,
The City of New York

Integrated Pest Management

According to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Food and Agriculture, Jay Healy “a great majority of Massachusetts growers are strong proponents and users of IMP.” Since its adoption by our state’s farmers the use of pesticides has decreased by 50% from historic levels. IPM is the process of monitoring crops, the pests, and the weather and spraying only when conditions dictate.

IPM is a combination of four different techniques to prevent pest damage. The first two methods have been used since time immemorial. These techniques are:
- modifying pest habitat
- protecting natural enemies
- monitoring
- pesticides

When farmers rotate their plant crops from field to field so they are not planting the same crops in the same fields each season they are using a method of habitat modification. Keeping pests away from their basic needs of feed, shelter and water is another. This is done by closing doors and keeping window screens in good repair and cleaning up spills and crumbs which all limits their access to food and water.

Protecting natural enemies by using natural predators such as ladybird beetles in greenhouses for protecting the widely used ornamental exotic species of plants known as euonymus. These beetles have a voracious appetite for Euonymus scale, a pest that destroys these plants. Other examples are wasps that reduce silverleaf whiteflies on our favorite Christmas plants: poinsettias, and bacteria-based pesticides.

Monitoring pest populations allows practitioners to avoid unnecessary treatments. Various sticky traps are used on trees by many farmers. Soil sampling is done on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) and plant leaves are checked for disease. When disease reaches a certain level then pesticides come into play.

Chemicals or pesticides are only used when needed and other methods will not work. Under the IPM system the least hazardous pesticide and the lowest effective amount should be used.

Partners with Nature label serves to encourage growers to use IPM and educate consumers about it. While this is a Massachusetts label there are hopes in the future for a national label.

Before you completely rule out food grown using this method, take a minute to consider how much pesticide and chemicals you use on your kitchen counters, in your bathroom, and on your lawn.

The River Cottage Meat Cook

by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Ok! So I promise I did not buy the book I just looked at it out of interest. This is a heavy coffee table book weighing in at 543 pages. Over half of the pages are dedicated to FW’s philosophy on animal rearing, slaughtering and eating. The book is profusely illustrated from slaughtering a cow, to roasting a whole pig, to preparing the cuts of meat, and the step by step process of making a pork pie. There is a page of photographs showing the death of a cow; the first photograph shows a gun between the steers of a cow, then the dead animal with blood, it being hung, and then cut up into pieces, etc. With good reason these photographs are placed at the beginning of the book. FW is making his point right up front and the text supports those feelings. So you will either stop right there and put the book back on the shelf or not. I also think that many readers might not be happy to see a hare in a plastic shopping bag all in one piece with its head and paws. Actually to me it looks alive except of course it would not be sitting calmly in a plastic bag waiting to be dinner for someone.

FW puts forward issues that I agree with and those I don't. But at least he is talking about the issues and has very definate opinions. I particularly agree with the fact that meat should not be cheap. When we pay a lot of money for something than indeed we all ask questions about the why and the wherefore; what was the animal fed on, how did it live, and how did it die. If we are happy with the answers we pay more for the product and this is how it should be. And to answer the question "what about people with little money" just eat less and eat the cheaper cuts that most Americans don't even look at.

The book brings to the forefront yet again whether I should be eating meat. In actual fact, after looking at these pictures I have to ask myself if taking the life of a perfectly healthy and happy animal to feed me, when I could eat plenty of other things is morally correct. If we were all closer to the meat that we eat I think many more people would question what they eat. So as you can see, I am completely torn in two on the issue and when it will be solved I have no idea.

Many of the recipes in the book are for 6-10 people and while it is easy to cut some recipes into a quarter, others it is not. Additionally, the meat items that he lists as cheap are not so in America. For example there is a picture showing the cost of locally farmed Lamb Shanks at three English pounds a pound (about six dollars at the current exchange rate). I pay 50-100% more depending on the farmer I buy it from. He also lists wild rabbit under cheap and pig trotters. Now the former is very expensive and the latter is impossible to find as I do not know of any butcher in or around Boston. To clarify: a butcher is a person who has the whole animal in his store/refrigerator and will cut the pieces that you want to order. I do know that I could find everything at Blood Farms in Groton, MA because it is a small family slaughterhouse.

If you want to know how to cure meats, and make sausages, pates and terrines there is a whole chapter dedicated to just that. In fact, this book is excellent for the folks who want to know how to cut up various animals and fowl and what to do with all the pieces.

Under meals that are kid friendly he has Lamb braised with stuffed vine leaves, Indian-spiced Lamb Skewers, Flying Toad in the Hole, and Souvlaki to name a few. This brought back memories of the time I invited my neighbors and their two kids to dinner. I served roast lamb, roast potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. They eat half a potato. They had never had lamb, where not sure what the potatoes were (they were roasted in the fat of the lamb until they were crisp on the outside) and obviously didn’t eat vegetables. They were much relieved when I served Apple Pie with ice cream and said “thank goodness an American dessert.” However, their smile didn’t last long as I put a dollop of ice cream on each slice of pie and then put the ice cream back in the refrigerator. Apparently they though they were going to eat the entire pint of ice cream which I planned on lasting me the month.

There are some classic British recipes that I recall as a kid. I disagree with using beef kidneys for the steak and kidney pie because I feel that they are too strong and that veal kidneys provide a much better flavor. I was happy to see Lancashire Hot Pot in the book, a dish I have fond memories of as a child. My grandmother made this for me frequently and I still remember the brown pot it was made in and how the small the kitchen was that she cooked.

What Have They Done to My Bread?

All you need to make bread is yeast, water, and flour. Therefore, what makes sliced bread so light and fluffy and last so long? Looking at the ingredients on the plastic wrap I found a whole pile of ingredients that I had no clue what they were. My philosophy in buying food is that if you don’t know what the ingredients are you don’t buy it or eat it.

After some investigation, I found that in the late 1950s the U.S. discovered a way to avoid the centuries’ old process of making bread that required 2-3 hours of fermentation. They did this by incorporating air and water into dough and mixing it with intense energy in high speed mechanical mixers. This process however required the quantity of yeast to be doubled to make it rise; chemical oxidants to get the gas in; and hardened fat to provide the structure – without the fat, the bread collapsed in early experiments – but the process removed the intensive labor, reduced costs and provided much higher yields of bread from each sack of flour as the dough absorbed so much more water.

Chemical oxidants were incorporated into a premix of additives with soya flour as the carrier for the chemical ingredients. The improver or ‘flour treatment agent’ was the logical way to add the fats needed into the bread. Hydrogenated fat is used because of its high melting point that gives the bread the structure it needs; Hydrogenated fat contains trans-fat.

As the “process” involved it was found that emulsifiers provided a similar function to the fat. They plug the gaps, enabling the dough to retain more air while also slowing down the staling of the bread. The most commonly used group of emulsifiers in bread is the data esters, relatively novel and complex compounds, made from petrochemicals. Salt goes into the bread to add flavor, up to 0.5g per 100g for white sliced, making it a high-salt food.

In the late 1990s, many western governments banned the use of chlorine to bleach white bread which led manufacturers to find alternatives such as enzymes and other novel ingredients. Enzymes have been used for centuries in food preparation but today many of them used in baking today are produced by genetically modified organisms. It is the microorganisms that produce the enzymes however, rather than the enzymes themselves, that have been modified. As enzymes are destroyed in the baking process it does not needed to be listed on the label, because they are not there!. The bread is then finished off by spraying it with either potassium sorbate or calcium propionate – both antifungal agents which inhabit the growth of moulds. Potassium sorbate is a poly unsaturated fatty acid salt. Do you really want to eat this kind of bread?

So this is what goes into the packaged, sliced white loaf of bread but what’s taken out?

The whole grain consists of an outer fibrous layer of bran; the germ and the inner white endosperm. The bran contains the fibre, some protein, fats and minerals. The germ contains most of the oils, some protein and the highest concentration of vitamins and minerals. The endosperm is mostly carbohydrate and some protein. The oil of the whole grain has traditionally been one of the most important sources in the diet of essential fats, which are vital for a healthy brain and nervous tissue function, but when whole wheat is milled to white flour, the most nutritious part of the grain is taken away. During the milling of white flour, over twenty vitamins and minerals present in the original wheat grain are reduced by half or more.

When you stone-grind flour the grain goes in at the top and comes out the side twenty seconds later. You know you have the whole lot. Also white flour can be matured by careful storage and does not need additives and enzymes. For thousands of years grain was milled this way. It’s a relative gentle process that leaves most of the nutrients intact. But a pair of stones can only grind 250 kilos of flour an hour which is why commercial bakeries have abandoned the process. While you can get excellent bread made from scratch from local independent bakeries, most purchase their flour from the big agribusinesses such as General Mills. Make sure you know what kind of flour was used in your bread.

Don’t forget too that there is extensive use of Pesticides and Fertilizers on wheat. Some of the main chemicals (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) used on commercial wheat crops are disulfoton (Di-syston), methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, diamba and glyphosate. Although all these chemicals are approved for use and considered safe, consumers are wise to reduce their exposure as much as possible. Besides contributing to the overall toxic load in our bodies, these chemicals increase our susceptibility to neuro toxic diseases as well as to conditions like cancer. Many of these pesticides function as xenoestrogens, foreign estrogen that can reap havoc with our hormone balance and may be a contributing factor to a number of health conditions. For example, researchers speculate these estrogen-mimicking chemicals are one of the contributing factors to boys and girls entering puberty at earlier and earlier ages. They have also been linked to abnormalities and hormone-related cancers including fibrocystic breast disease, breast cancer and endometriosis.

Much of this article was rewritten or excepted from Not On The Label by Felicity Lawrence; chapter four

Sources

http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/26/avoid_wheat.htmf
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/food/labelling/not_on_the_label.htm
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11712
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3675/is_199606/ai_n8747244#continue
http://www.arrowheadmills.com/products/category.php?cat_id=63
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/felicity_lawrence/profile.html

Saturday Morning Market - St. Petersburg, FL

Recently on a trip to St. Petersburg, Florida I was told about a greenmarket that was held in the town center every Saturday during the winter months. So off I went to check it out as I love fresh food and the camaraderie of farmers’ markets I paid it a visit. My first impression was::
- There were few produce vendors and even less local produce vendors
- It was not a farmers’ market
- It was very crowded, lively and fun
- There were tons of dogs of every description and size with their owners




Now this is my sort of market.

I completely forgot that I really came to buy food.

I walked around the market and came upon the market manager’s booth and introduced myself to Mark Johnson, who turned out to be one of the founders of the market. He spent some time with describing the goal of the market and how it came into being.


The market is not a farmers’ market per se. Its actual name is the Saturday Morning Market which is aptly named. Mark told me that from the beginning they knew they wanted the market to speak to the community, a place where people would feel connected and where creativity and friendships could be fostered.

The market opened in November 2002 with 10 vendors and by the end of their first season they had 45 vendors. They are able to keep the vendor fees low because there is only one paid employee while the three founders work for free; a 10x10 foot space costs $35 for the day. This year they had over 150 vendors for a 110 space market and so they rotate.

Produce and plant vendors account for 19% while the rest of the spaces are taken up by arts and crafts, prepared foods, value-added food vendors, and community organizations. In 2004, the market established a community kitchen to enable fledging vendors to meet health code requirements by cooking in a certified kitchen. All the products have to be grown, cooked or made by the vendor with the exception of environmental products or organizations such as Its Our Nature which sells organic products, the Sierra Club and the Pyrenees Rescue club, to name just a few. The craft vendors are all juried before they are accepted into the market.

Local farmers were very few even though they can try out the market for four Saturday’s at no charge, i.e. no risk to them. Small farmers are few in Florida but they do exist. Mark said that they do not understand the value of direct retail marketing. Also, they are reluctant to change their growing patterns and seem content to sell through the wholesalers in Tampa even though they could make more money at the market. Mark told me that he is trying to sell the concept of farmers’ markets to the farmers but it is difficult. He is trying to advertise in the Hillsborough County Agriculture Extension Agency’s newsletter.

I spoke to Linda from D.G. Diehl Farms

who was helping out her son; the owner of the farm. She told me that they have been selling their blueberries at the market since late 2005. They always sell everything they bring to the market. I asked Linda if her customers are price sensitive and she said “Yes, I have customers who will tell me that they can buy two cartons of blueberries from Argentina for $5 against her $4 for one carton.” Linda said that she always told them that “her blueberries are fuller, the carton is fuller, and they were picked yesterday, so that there was no comparison.”

Linda told me that they were not dependent on the market solely for their income because contracts with the cruise lines and the Ritz Carlton hotels. Their farm is in Ruskin, Florida where they own 100 acres of land.

The market has no problem from the shop vendors as the food related vendors have a stall at the Saturday market also.

When I visited the market it was extremely busy. People came to browse or buy and then stay awhile to sit and eat some food from the many food vendors and listen to music. One family – Leslie and Pamela Best and their two children Bethia and Bryoe relocated from Long Island, NY in June 2007 to Tampa and they visited the market every Saturday. Leslie said “we come to buy flowers, and food, and stuff for our new home, and then we buy the turkey legs from Mr. I Got em and sit here and listen to the music.”





The market operates from October through May from 9:00 – 2:00 pm every Saturday.

Vegetarian Cookbook Recommendation

As a wannabe vegetarian, 2008 presents another year, another try. The key seems to be a good, everyday general cookbook; a vegetarian Joy of Cooking so to speak and perhaps one that doesn’t scream Vegetarian. To me vegetarians seem to fall into three categories: health reasons, animal rights, and religious purposes. Home cooked meals that I eat with western vegetarians are often much too high in cream, cheese, and eggs for me. As an animal lover, I have for many years bought my meat from local farms where I knew how the animal was treated and killed and I have no religious restrictions.

In the past, cookbooks have been bought, a dish or two tried, and then the book(s) collected dust on the shelf until they were given away as Christmas presents. If I invited a friend for dinner and they said they were vegetarian, alarm bells would go off in my head, my brain would freeze, I would go hot and cold; we would eat out!

I knew that my problem was how to compile a meal that was not centered on meat. For someone who loves to cook my vegetarian reportaire is awful: pasta with a sauce, Macaroni with Three Cheeses, fish cakes and baked beans and Seafood Lasagna. Later I learned that vegartarains don’t eat fish either.

In Early December, a friend suggested I attend the Boston Vegetarian Society's Holiday Vegan Dessert Party at Fiore's Bakery in JP. I then remembered what a friendly organization they were and I joined.


This was a positive step in the right direction. Then I went looking, yet again for a cookbook but one this time, that I would actually use. I first checked the “best of “ lists for vegetarian books. The most oft repeated was Mark Bitman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Veganomicon: the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, and a couple of books by Deborah Madison. Armed with this information I went to a bookstore and started browsing.

Cookbooks are a very personal thing. It is the feel of the book, the layout of the recipes, the connection that you make to the book even before you start looking for recipes. I ended up comparing Bitman’s book to Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I thought that Mark Bitman’s book felt too large, to overwhelming for me and I had the sense that I would not use it. However, I checked the Mole recipe in both books and immediately decided on Deborah Madison’s book as the list of ingredients was smaller. I also liked the feel of the book but I did not want another book just sitting on the shelf so I left it where it was.

A week later, I looked through it again and some days later yet again. Finally I bought it. Some of the aspects that “sold” this book to me was that Madison explained how to compile a vegetarian meal (a problem previously mentioned), and what wines went with what type of vegetarian food. In addition, every recipe I read where I was not sure what she meant, such as what was ricotta salata in the Beet Salad with Olives and Ricotta Salata recipe (p150); or what was roll-cut carrots for the Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry (p.274), were located in the index. Other questions answered were “what type of breadcrumbs should I be using, fresh or dried? Madison clearly specifies which. The side bar notes giving additional tips on the dish being cooked are very useful. Lastly, there is are terrific chapters on sandwiches and soups.

The dishes range geographically across the world without you ever realizing that you just left the geographic area that you were most comfortable in. I highly recommend this book which is so much simpler than her Greens cookbook which I purchased in 1988 …oh my! The soups in that book would take half a day to make.

I am very pleased with the book as I never think "Oh! today I am being vegetarian, I just think what good, interesting food I'm eating." Now to me that is success. It is also extra special to me as it was Deborah Madison who first encouraged me to join the Slow Food organization and who also encouraged me to work with others in my town to get a farmers’ market started. Thank You Deborah!

Photographs courtsey of Randall Collura, a BVS member. His work can be seen at http://www.allrandall.com/

www.slowfoodboston.com
www.bostonveg.com

A Conversation with Marie HIlls of Kimball Fruit Farm

What Makes a Farmer’s Market Stall Successful?

For the past two years I go two or three times a week to farmers’ markets in our area. Each time I would visit a market where Kimball Fruit Farm was, I noticed that they always had a lot of customers. As I paid more attention I noticed that not only were they busier than other stands but they would often have a line of customers while some stands only had a few, and one had almost no customers. The vegetables at each stand were all similar, so therefore something had to be different at Kimball’s and I wanted to know what it was. The only way to find out was to ask and this is what I did.

Marie Hills and I spoke one evening and it became apparent from our conversation that their success was due to:
1. Good farming practices
2. Good help
3. Personal qualities of both the family and their employees
4. Good business practices

The farm has been fortunate to have been around since the 1920s when Allen & Foster Kimball took over a burned down dairy farm and planted 80 acres of apple and peach trees. They had a small farm stand and a wholesale packing house. At this time they were 80% wholesale and 20% retail. They ran the operation this way until 1969 when Allen Kimball passed away. The land was than sold to developers and they in turn leased the land to Allen Kimball’s brother-in-law Harold Hills who had been working on the farm since 1939. In 1990, Harold sold the business to his son Carl. This was right at the time that the New England apple industry went into decline due to imports from the west coast and other locations around the world. Many apple farms closed and the Hills’ knew that their biggest threat was yet to come from China. With this in mind they decided to rip out half their apple trees and plant strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, plums, melons and a full array of vegetables with the idea that if one crop failed others would come through. At the same time they turned their business on its head by going 80% retail and 20% wholesale.

The Kimball’s have one large and one small greenhouse to get the crops started (primarily lettuce and radishes). When they are ready to transplant the produce they lay plastic down on the soil to heat it up and lay a hoop house over it. It is very labor intensive but this allows them to get their produce to market early when they can get a better price for it. If they were to do everything from seed it would delay the availability of produce, and the name of the game at farmers’ markets is having produce available both early in the season and late.

They have also been blessed with excellent soil. I am just one of many customers who tell them that their arugula is incredible but so too are their tomatoes that have been voted the best in the area for past two years in a row and their apples are fast approaching the same status.

Kimball’s is an IPM farm and customers accept this process because they know that some things are just plain difficult to grow in New England. Kimball’s is very responsive to their customers’ requests and their low spray farm policy is just one case in point. Kimball’s puts up a sign at the market reminding their customers that they asked for low spray and so the corn may have worms in it and their customers’ don’t seem to mind because it always sells out. It was their customers who asked them for arugula and mesclun mix before they knew what it was. Later Carl Hills started reading about heirloom tomatoes and they have now been growing them successfully for over twelve years.

Based on customer demand for a certain kind of vegetable or fruit they will spend lots of time in the winter doing research. Carl Hills is currently starting to graft antique apples. They are playing around with them, not in big quantities yet because they have to feel out which ones are going to yield, which will taste good, and which are worth doing because they are always looking for that niche.

New England has been suffering from a lot less rain and more heat lately as a result of global warming. For Kimball’s this has been a double edged sword, as this year their peaches were wonderful because of the lack of rain but lack of rain stresses the trees. So they are spending more time and money moving the irrigation around to keep the trees growing. This year their corn tips were dry too. They put up signs for their customers explaining that there had been no rain for 45 days so the tips were dry but the corn was wonderful. They did this so their customers would understand that it was not old corn. They are always educating their customers.

Marie Hills feel that many things are important at a market but in particular the display and the personnel. People today are looking for that personal connection and this is what they get at a farmers’ market. All of Kimball’s staff is friendly and helpful and recognize their regular customers. Many customers will ask them how to cook so and so vegetable and Marie feels that if you say “gee, I don’t know” that will turn them off but if you say “gee, we have just started growing it so I don’t know that much about it but I tried it cooked this way and it was great, customers will really appreciate that.” More than once Marie Kimball told me that they were not just selling a product but that they believed in their products. They are passionate in what they do and take great pride in it and they believe that this comes across when they are communicating with their customers. They also put a tremendous amount of time into training their help. Marie told me that ‘when they start working for us they may not know what banana fingerlings are, or heirloom tomatoes, or what IPM is but by the time I have finished training them they do. I give them brochures to read and learn and then they have things they have to answer appropriately before I let them go to a farmers market.”

Learning the best way to display their products was a process of trail and error. Today Marie Hills says that she will watch someone at a new stand and say “gosh, if only they would display their products this way or that they would do much better”.

Here in Massachusetts the Dept. of Agriculture runs three coupon programs for women with children, elders, and low income. It is a federal program that trickles down to the states. The farmers’ love these programs because it brings people to the markets’ that would not normally come, it encourages them to eat fresh produce, it doesn’t cost them anything, and it gives the farmers’ new customers. A lot of ethnic groups are use to fresh produce in their home country so when the come to the markets with their coupons they are hooked and will come back again even when their coupons are gone.

Kimball’s have an incredibly loyal customer base and they see the same customers at two or three farmers’ markets including myself.

They hand out brochures to their customers telling them to come and visit them at the farm. They let them know that they have mountain views, lots of beautiful orchards, no animals and that they can come and bring a picnic and watch the beautiful sunsets. Through this connection they have gained a lot of additional pick your own customers.

Although they always had a farm stand it was not doing well and for this reason they concentrated most of their efforts on the farmers’ markets which accounts for 60% of their income. Once they felt secure with this side of the business they again looked at the farm stand and wondered how to promote it. They did a business plan and weighed out options on how to increase their business. Last winter they decided to invest half a million dollars to gut their old stand and rebuild in the same location.

They knew that customers had been coming into the stand and finding little to buy in the wintertime. So from the moment they opened that had a full array of everything not just their produce which meant they had to install milk coolers. Because they have a lot of customers that want their produce they labeled everything accordingly.

Marie told me that they knew they needed a bigger back room to wash and process all the produce that goes to market. With their new stand the pickups back up to the sliding door, off load the produce into the stainless steel sinks were it is washed and then it goes out right into the trucks and off to the markets’

Marie feels that with all the recalls on hamburger, lettuce, and spinach, etc. there will be stricter regulations coming down the pike which is why they built a stainless steel room. They hope that when this time comes, they will be ahead of the game and not behind. She believes there will be stricter regulations on how you pick and bag and everything. Although she believes the government will start out with the big farms in California she says it will trickle down to the smaller guy too. Marie said that “small growers always have their ears open to what is going on with the big growers in case it trickles down to us”. The farm stand accounts for 20% of their income.

In Boston they have both a tomato and an apple broker. Over the years they have developed a small niche for their heirloom tomatoes and so they are shipped out in boxes with their name emblazoned on the outside. If they have an over abundance of apples or tomatoes it is a good place to send them but they will not get the same price for it as they do at the farmers’ markets but it saves it going to waste. The wholesale business accounts for 20% of their income.

One continual problem is the shortage of labor. Marie says that Americans just don’t want to work on a farm or do any manual labor at all. For the past twenty odd years she has used the same Jamaican labor force. Without them she would be doomed.

They use QuickBooks for their accounting and they keep records of production from one block to another. A lot of that is for insurance purposes in case of a disaster. They also keep track of what they sell at each market by counting manually what goes on the truck and what comes back. This way they know what to grow and what to put on the truck for any particular month.

A happy ending or a happy beginning! In 2000, they bought all 178 acres of the family farm land from the developers. To make sure the land is never developed in the future they sold the development rights to the State of Massachusetts through the agricultural preservation program.