The chart above shows EBT (aka Food Stamps aka SNAP) sales at our farmers markets for every month of the year between 2007, 2008 and 2009. Not counted in the graph is an additional $11,000 in 2009 from the Bonus Bucks program described below, bringing the 2009 total to over $32,000.

Fresh for All is the theme of this year’s Local Food Forum. At a time when our local farms are growing and the local food economy is enjoying great success, we are taking this day to examine how to make sure every Rhode Islander is able to participate in our (Rhode Is)land of plenty.

If we look back, one of the reasons why agriculture stagnated for so many decades is because farms and fresh food became increasingly irrelevant to people’s lives. So, going forward, how can we ensure that RI agriculture reaches every Rhode Islander? How can we ensure that every Rhode Islander feels invested in our farms and our food, and likewise that Rhode Island farmers have a stake in our cities and towns?

Farmers markets are one way that rural and urban Rhode Island can connect. By running farmers markets in Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket, Farm Fresh RI provides ways for city folks to participate in local agriculture, and for local agriculture to play a role in the city. These markets provide an important source of fresh fruits and vegetables in many neighborhoods and a key source of income for many farms. This win-win is helped by innovative programs that make these foods even more affordable at a time when a record number of Rhode Islanders are using SNAP, the new name for Food Stamps.

In 2007, we began accepting SNAP at our farmers markets and in summer 2009, we partnered with the Wholesome Wave Foundation to offer Bonus Bucks to SNAP customers at our markets. Every SNAP customer could receive up to $10 extra to shop at the market per day. The Bonus Bucks program allows people to stretch their food budgets farther and still provide healthy foods for their family. The Bonus Bucks program also increases the buying power of communities that may be otherwise be perceived by farmers as less lucrative. Farmers, after all, have to make a buck too.

Bonus Bucks was a runaway success, so much so that SNAP customer participation in the 2009 markets increased seven-fold vs. 2008. We’re excited to announce that we’re able to extend the program to the 2010 Wintertime Farmers Market thanks to generous funding from The Rhode Island Foundation. (If you’d like to help get the word out, there’s a double-sided flier you can print out and pass around.)

The keynote speaker at this year’s Local Food Forum is Gus Schumacher, chairman of the Wholesome Wave Foundation. Before tackling Bonus Bucks for SNAP, Gus pioneered the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which is a federal program providing low-income mothers and children with $15 coupons each year for farmers market produce. The program has brought fresh foods within reach for hundreds of thousands and has provided millions of dollars for thousands of family farms. Now Bonus Bucks, which is operating as a pilot in over a dozen cities across the country, has the potential to do the same for thousands more in Rhode Island, and millions of Americans.

What other Fresh for All ideas are out there? Among them, the incredible farm-to-school work of KidsFirst; our Healthy Foods, Healthy Families nutrition education program at neighborhood farmers markets and similar programs from URI and Johnson & Wales; CSAs and farmers markets that accept SNAP; the community gardens of Southside Community Land Trust; the school gardens of the Children’s Garden Network; school trips to orchards and working farms; and in 2010, the WIC program will expand to offer mothers monthly coupons for fruits and veggies.

We look forward to continuing the conversation at the Local Food Forum!

Even though RI grows a lot of tomatoes, how many farms at your farmers market sell tomato sauce? True enough, practically no one cooks their RI tomatoes into a sauce to sell. That’s despite the fields of tomatoes that all turn ripe at the same moment, often creating an overharvest that overwhelms even those who think there’s no such thing as too many tomatoes. So, producing more local tomato sauce is win-win: it’s simple and healthy and widely eaten. It’s a product that can be sold year-round, enhance farmers’ income and make use of the overharvest. But there are so few local processors that work with farmers and so few kitchens available to rent.

So for the past few years we’ve been working on increasing processing infrastructure (i.e. commercial kitchens) for locally grown foods. The broad initiative is our Open Kitchen Project, and it identifies and matches underutilized certified kitchens with farmers and new food entrepreneurs. Yet sometimes a farmer doesn’t have time to do the processing themselves. They would love to work with others who will do the cooking for them, co-pack their raw ingredients into a finished products. That got the wheels in our head turning and are pretty thrilled to announce our next big step…

Next week Farm Fresh RI will launch the Harvest Kitchen in partnership with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The Harvest Kitchen is a 15 week culinary training program that will create a line of high-quality preserved foods using ingredients from local farms and prepared by youth within the Division of Juvenile Corrections at a certified kitchen in Providence. These products will be sold at local stores, farmers markets, and to area schools, hospitals and similar institutions.

The Harvest Kitchen’s first product will be applesauce. (Local apples are available year-round!)
From Hill Orchards to a culinary class in Providence to your table.

The benefits of the Harvest Kitchen will be:

• Practical, hands-on job training for at-risk girls and boys (ages 16-19)
• Increased sales for local farmers
• Affordable, healthy option for consumers, restaurants and institutional food service buyers
• Sustaining income for the RI Harvest Kitchen through food sales

Chef Jennifer Stott will run the culinary skills training program. Contact Christie for more information.

Reminder: The market will be closed on December 26. See you on January 2!

Buy local food & share!  The 50 producers of the Wintertime Farmers Market have delicious goodies – coffee, jam, potted herbs, chocolate, soaps, roasted nuts, dog treats, Fresh Bucks gift coins – that will bring a big smile to anyone on your gift list, and incredible ingredients – fish, cranberries, potatoes, salad greens, cheeses, meats, apple cider, ice cream – for your holiday meal. And since everything is locally made, it makes your holiday even more meaningful.

Living here in the Ocean State, you’d think our markets would be teeming with food from the ocean. But that’s not been the case, as industry structure and food safety laws make it difficult for fishermen to market directly to consumers. So we’ve been working for a few years to help make sustainably harvested local/regional seafood more available. Well, when it rains, it pours. This week will see a big increase in regional seafood options at the Wintertime Farmer Market:

• Matunuck Oyster Farm will now have fresh cod filets from RI fishermen and soon their own clam chowder, in addition to the littleneck clams, oysters, mussels, crab and lobster that are already market favorites. Try roasted cod with winter veggies or seared cod with roasted squash. Matunuck littleneck clams are lovely with linguine or stuffed with herbs and bread crumbs. Mussels are often traditionally served so pick up a pound for some Trinity IPA-steamed mussels or mussels with spaghetti, white wine and parsley.
• Bomster scallops shine in simple dishes, try them baked or pan-fried. Plus, taste them wrapped in bacon in this week’s cooking demo by Chef Sophie of My Little French Cottage.
• She Sells Seaweed harvests kelp, wakame, dulse and soup mixes every August off the pristine coastline of Maine. Great for broths or a fun salty snack. Find it at the Farm Fresh & Co table at the front of the market.
• New this week! Dave’s Cape Cod Smokehouse will be bringing locally caught and smoked cod + bluefish and also fish bluefish pates and cod cakes. Dave buys the fresh catch off the boats of Cape fishermen, then slowly smokes the fish over a hickory wood fire. No artificial additives or preservatives – as Dave says, the flavor and freshness are why he does it. This fish is so tasty it’s great with crackers or sliced baguette, or in a hearty salad with winter greens.
• Starting January 9! Sign up for a Sustainable Shrimp CSF (Community Supported Fishery). The fishermen of Port Clyde, Maine have developed the Port Clyde Fresh Catch brand to preserve the resources they depend on and provide consumers with shrimp harvested using environmentally sustainable fishing methods. They’ll be bringing monthly shares of shrimp to RI starting in January!
  • Subscribers receive six deliveries of 5 lbs of peeled, uncooked Maine shrimp, vacuum sealed and frozen in 1 lb packages.
  • Subscribers will receive a total of 30 lbs of shrimp over the 6 month subscription period; each share costs $216.
  • Shares will be available for pickup outside the Wintertime Farmers Market from 12:00-2:00pm one Saturday a month from January- May.
  • Sign up before January 7 to be on the first drop-off

  What makes the Port Clyde fishery “sustainable”?
  Shrimp trawling is known for having one of the highest bycatch rates, but the Port Clyde Fresh Catch (PCFC) uses a fish excluder, or Nordmore Grate, to reduce bycatch. This is the same device that is used in the Oregon Pink Shrimp Fishery, which was the world’s first shrimp fishery to earn a sustainable certification. The Port Clyde Fishery also uses new sorting grids with a partition that separates smaller shrimp out as well so they will live to be adult shrimp. The addition of this device got the PCFC bycatch rate down around 1%. This information is available for review at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. They are experimenting with a new topless net design that further reduces bycatch to close to zero.

See you Saturday 11-2 for all the fixings (and edible gifts) for your holiday. And since there will be no market on December 26, don’t forget to stock up for the next two weeks!

Stock up: this Saturday 12/19 is the last Wintertime Farmers Market until January 2nd!

Good food is a great gift. Perhaps we’re biased, working every day with people who make their living producing food here in Rhode Island. But you really can’t undervalue a gift that can be such a source of pleasure and also be so meaningful to the place we live. Recent case studies have again found that every dollar spent on local food generates an additional 50 cents or even $1 more in local economic activity. The benefits to the community add up quickly, and of course taste great.

With that in mind, here are a few edible gift ideas, all produced locally, available at the Wintertime Farmers Market:

• Cook a meal with someone special: an afternoon at the market followed by a winter stroll and then a delicious dinner together. The vegetables, meats, seafood, breads and cheeses at the market set the stage for a meaningful gift.
• Farmacy Herbs Tea Sampler: a collection of organic tea blends to help you relax, fight colds, and warm up this winter. Add a jar of local honey for an extra sweet gift!
• Deluxcious Foods gluten-free chocolates, cookies and confections are hand made using farm fresh local ingredients. They make perfect stocking stuffers!
• Spoil someone with succulent scallops and herb butter from Bomster Scallops.
• Narragansett Creamery cheese baskets feature heavenly cheese made in small batches in Providence, RI. Give it to someone who’ll share.
• Or ask Farmstead Cheese to help you put together a collection of exquisite cheeses from across Southern New England.
• Coffee-lovers will be pleased with a pound of New Harvest Coffee Roasters “El Alto” fair-trade coffee (have you seen their new bags!) plus maybe illustrated tee shirt.
• Jacks Snack’s handmade dog biscuits are made from human-grade ingredients, local and organic when possible. Dogs love ‘em!
• From hot pepper jelly to salsa to apple butter, there is a spread for anyone on your list. Pick out your favorite flavors made from ingredients grown in RI.
• Sweet or spicy roasted pecans from Purple Pear of Providence make a great gift for a food-lover. Once you try them you’ll want to keep them for yourself!
• Assemble your own gift basket: help someone de-stress with Earth Essence Herbals lavender aromatherapy spray, an herb plant from Allen Farms, and ache-away salve from Farmacy Herbs.

Fresh Bucks, gift coins for the farmers’ market, can be purchased at the Farm Fresh info table or online. They can be used at any vendor, never expire and always bring a smile!

Back this summer, when Genie Trevor let us know that the Winter issue of Edible Rhody would be all about dairy, we knew there was a important story to be told. However, it was bigger and timelier than anyone could have expected.

Just weeks later, the US Department of Justice launched an inquiry into alleged monopolistic practices by Dean Foods, the national conglomerate that owns Garelick Farms, Horizon, Silk Soymilk and 50 other regional milk brands. The Department of Justice’s concern: Dean now controls 70% of the milk processing in the Northeast (and as much as 85% in places like Michigan) and its profits are rising just as the price paid to farmers is plunging. Even though the consumer price of milk at the grocery store hasn’t changed much, dairy farmers are getting squeezed on price. In fact, the money farmers get is now below the cost of production.

The lack of competition presents a number of issues:

• It’s hard for individual farmers looking to get a fair price for their milk when one company controls so much of the processing.
• Such high concentration of food processing has been a central concern in recent food safety crises for tomatoes, peanuts, cilantro and beef.
• The control that large conglomerates hold over processing often also extends to control over the shelves in your local supermarket. Dean Foods and other large food conglomerates essentially own the shelves in the grocery store by paying supermarket chains what are called “slotting fees” that keep out competition and especially disadvantage smaller producers.

So where does that leave the farms of the Rhody Fresh dairy coop or the two farms that process the milk of their own herd – Arruda in Tiverton and Wright’s in North Smithfield?

• These independent milk producers have worked hard to develop strong relationships with Rhode Island customers. By taking their milk directly to customers, they’ve been able to maintain more control over pricing.
• Sure, as a dairy farmer you get up hours before dawn every day and work ’til the cows come home, but one of the hardest parts is surviving the price swings. One of the most significant things that the Rhody Fresh coop does for its members is to stabilize prices. No matter the market price, Rhody Fresh coop tries to buffer the farmers so they always get a price that at least meets their production costs. (The go-it-alone alternative has been disastrous for many dairies, especially in Vermont, where many family dairy farms have been lost in recent months.) Rhody Fresh just turned 5 and it’s working: the coop grew from 5 to 9 farms and its milk is now available in many new stores, schools and restaurants.
• Supporting our local dairies is as important as ever. It’s only because Rhode Islanders relentlessly asked store managers “Where’s the Rhody Fresh?” that the milk is now on the shelves in stores like Stop and Shop. (By the way, where’s the Rhody Fresh at URI and RIC? Providence College, Brown, RISD, Salve Regina, and Roger Williams all proudly serve Rhody Fresh. The Governor and Lt. Governor have both spoken out that our public colleges should serve RI milk. What’s the hold up?!)

Local dairy farms are priceless: we’re talking about our milk, our cheese, our yogurt, our butter. How much dairy do we eat everyday? Over your next bowl of cereal, think about the happy cows, the early-rising farmers, the pastoral landscape of Southern New England and how good it all tastes.

The Dairy Issue of Edible Rhody is now out at the Wintertime Farmers Market and your favorite food spot. The stories do an incredible job of capturing and contextualizing this moment of challenge and hope for dairy in Rhode Island: from family dairy farmers to milk processors and from cows to cheesemakers to cheesemongers. It’s an excellent read and provides a 360 degree view of what’s at stake.

Pete Fratantuono of Moosup River Farm, a familiar face at so many of our farmers markets, passed away this weekend. He always made it a priority that the fruits and vegetables he grew be within reach for low-income families in Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket. Without his commitment, many of our neighborhood markets would simply not have happened. It was just this Saturday that we last saw Pete, full of cheer at the Wintertime Farmers Market and so it’s all so hard to believe. Our hearts are with Ingrid and the Fratantuono family.

It’s the time of year to reflect on all that we are lucky to have in our lives. The speedy pace of the first ten-and-a-half months of the year allows us to perhaps forget many of the simple things that matter most.

At Farm Fresh we try to take a moment this time of year to offer gratitude to the dozens of incredible individuals and families we work with. The people who grow our food, roast our coffee, stretch our mozzarella, can our jams, cook us inspiring meals. We’re so lucky to have such talented, dedicated folks as a part of the Rhode Island community. They nourish us every day of the year.

And we’re so lucky to have so many Rhode Islanders who appreciate and support our local food producers. Together we are all helping to grow a healthy, sustainable and flavorful food system here in Rhode Island, and that’s something to be inspired by.

In that spirit, we want to share two simple soup recipes that Chef Sophie of My Little French Cottage cooked this past week at the Wintertime Farmers Market. They capture this moment in the season and provide calm reflection on the simple, shared pleasures of the year gone by.

Winter Squash Silky Soup (with ginger)

Ingredients

• 1 Wishing Stone Farm butternut squash, peeled
• 2 large Schartner Farms carrots
• Wishing Stone Farm ginger
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Pezza Farm onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup Christiansen’s Dairy heavy cream
• vegetable stock (or just water)

Directions

1. Cut squash and carrots into 1-inch chunks.
2. In large pot melt butter.
3. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes.
4. Add squash and carrots and stock or water to just cover the vegetables.
5. Bring to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender.
6. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot.
7. Or, use an immersion blender and blend directly in the pot
8. Season with grated ginger, salt, and pepper.
9. Add a quarter cup of heavy cream, stir and serve.

Autumn Gardner’s Soup (Carrot Leek and Potato Soup)

Ingredients

• 2 Schartner Farms carrots
• 2 medium Schartner Farms potatoes
• 2 medium Simmons Farm leeks
• 1 large Pezza Farm onion
• 1 Pezza Farm garlic clove
• salt and pepper to taste
• A little butter to fry off the vegetables
• some fresh Pezza Farm parsley to garnish

Directions

1. Dice all of the vegetables into smallish pieces.
2. Put into a large pot and let sweat gently in a little butter for 3 or 4 minutes.
3. Add 3 pints of water.
4. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down low and let simmer for 30 - 40 minutes.
5. When the vegetables are a bit mushy add either the veggie stock or the salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve garnished with chopped parsley.
7. For a smoother finish you can give the soup a quick whizz with an immersion blender.

At the market, we served each soup with a dollop of Narragansett Creamery angelito cheese. Enjoy and cheers to the simple things we too often take for granted.

The Wintertime Farmers Market continues on Saturday 11-2. Chef Sophie will be sampling a pork apple stew and a cabbage apple salad.

After a rough start to the season – tomatoes and potatoes got blight, strawberries rotted in the rain – a mild November is producing a bounty of late fall veggies. Slightly frost-kissed, their flavor is rich and crisp and perfect for a celebration of the harvest. It’s a fitting turnaround for the place that Thanksgiving calls home. Ah, autumn in New England.

Make your Thanksgiving dinner a 50-mile meal, focused on seasonal ingredients from our local farmers. They’ve endured a tough 2009 to grow our food and finally have the crops to show for it.

At the Wintertime Farmers Market in Pawtucket every Saturday 11-2, you’ll find a variety of veggies, fruit, eggs, meat, seafood, cider, flowers from 30 different farms and cheese, bread, pastries, coffee, jams from 20 other local producers. Plus, live music and a cooking demo by Chef Sophie of My Little French Cottage with butternut ginger soup and carrot leek potato soup to taste. It’s our state’s largest farmers market, with 50 local producers all under one roof and the widest variety of local foods available for your everyday meals and your holiday dinner. Some highlights at the Wintertime Market:

• Cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm
• Beef and Pork from Aquidneck Farms, Hill Farm, Stoney Hill Cattle
• Chicken from Pat’s Pastured
• Apples and Cider from Hill Orchards, Barden Orchards
• Jams and Sauces from many farms and producers
• Local Cranberry Ice Cream from Kafe Lila for your hot apple pie
• Broccoli, Sugar Pumpkins, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, and so many more veggies from a whole lot of farms!
• If you’re looking for a turkey, they’ll likely sell quickly at the market. You may want to contact a farm directly to inquire.

Including the Wintertime Market, there are 5 markets open this Saturday. Bring a friend and support local farmers!

• Providence / Pawtucket: 11am-2pm inside Hope Artiste Village
• Pawtuxet Village: 9am-12pm at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet
• Middletown: 9am-2pm at Newport Vineyards
• North Kingstown: 10am-2pm at Lafayette Mills
• South Kingstown: 10am-2pm at Peacedale Mill

There’s such great abundance right now of incredible food grown on farms right here in our own communities. Honest, fresh and bursting with flavor. It’s something to be truly grateful for.

Our 2nd Perfect Pickle Contest drew a enthusiastic audience on the opening day of the Wintertime Farmers Market. On Saturday, November 7 at noon, twenty-four entries were sampled. By 1pm we knew the Perfect Pickles of 2009:

1. Best Traditional Brine: Liz’s Luscious Spicy Garlicky Cukes (Pippin Orchards)
2. Best Alterna-Brine: Angela’s Amazing Pickled Pumpkin (Wishing Stone Farm)
3. Best Ferment: Barbara’s Best Sauerkraut (homegrown)
4. Best in Show: Erika’s Exclamatory Pickled Ramps (foraged)

Angela kindly e-mailed us the recipe for her stunning Pickled Pumpkin:

2.5 pounds of fresh pumpkin, pared and cut into cubes of desired size. I did 1 inch cubes.
1 quart vinegar
2 pounds sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon each whole cloves and whole allspice
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 red pepper pod, broken (I used crushed red pepper flakes, I think a teaspoon or two)
rind of one orange (I cut the orange in half, juiced it, and threw the halves in)

Put the pumpkin cubes in a large kettle. In a large saucepan combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices. Place over medium heat and boil for 5 minutes (once the sugar was melted I added the orange rind). Pour the hot syrup over the pumpkin and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook slowly until the pumpkin is clear (translucent) and tender. Lift out the pumpkin and pack into hot sterilized jars. Pour over hot syrup to fill the jars. Seal immediately. Process in hot water bath for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let jars sit for 5 minutes before you remove them from the water.

I would let the jars sit for at least a week (two is better) before you open them. It makes a huge difference!

Thanks to our judges: Mayor Doyle, Genie of Edible Rhody, Mikayla of Slow Food RI and Farm Fresh staffer Sarah. Thanks also to all of the local producers at the Wintertime Market who donated prizes, which included Barden Family Orchard apples, Cupcakerie cupcakes, Deluxcious chocolates, Hickory Hill pickles (!), Hill Orchards cider, Moosup River Farm relish and Simmons Farm eggs.

And so many thanks to the stars of day: all of our picklers. See you on Saturdays at the Wintertime Farmers Market and next year at the 2010 Perfect Pickle Contest!

Somehow we fit in 30 farms and almost 20 other Rhode Island artisan food producers! It adds up to a delicious bounty of local food inside where it’s warm, all winter long. See you tomorrow and every Saturday 11-2 for the ever full-of-flavor Wintertime Farmers’ Market:

SATURDAY 11-2.
Wintertime Farmers’ Market. 47 local farmers and producers inside Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main St., Pawtucket. Incredible flavors await… we’ve been waiting all summer for this. We’ll post a map of the market later today!

Come to opening day of the market to find:

Veggies: beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, fingerlings, garlic, lettuce, onions, pea greens, pumpkins, radishes, spinach, sweet potatoes, winter squash…

Apples, cider, applesauce, apple butter.

Chicken, grass-fed beef, lamb, pork.

Clams, mussels, oysters, scallops.

Eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt.

Breads, cupcakes, pies, baked goods.

Salsas, sauces, jams, jellies, pesto.

Herbal tea, honey, salves, natural bath care.

Chocolates and ice cream and vegan sorbet.

Locally roasted coffee.

Lunch time! Curries, salads, grilled cheese, veggie patties and more.

SUNDAY.
Apple picking. We just found out from always-wonderful Heather at URI Cooperative Extension that there are many RI orchards still brimming with apples in the trees. It seems that the rainy October kept Pick Your Own crowds away. But since we’re in for a nice dose of sun this weekend — Sunday will be in the 60s! — sounds like a fun last chance for Pick Your Own apples (and the pies and crisps that are sure to follow). Here are the orchards that will be open:

• Barden Family Orchard - North Scituate
• Dame Farm - Johnston
• Harley Farm - Glocester
• Harmony Farm - North Scituate
• Hazard Bros. - Hope
• Hill Orchard - Johnston
• Jaswell Farm (but not too many apples left - be sure to call ahead) - Smithfield
• Narrow Lane Orchard - North Kingstown
• Pippin Orchard - Cranston
• Old Stone Orchard - Little Compton
• Rocky Brook Farm - Middletown
• Steere Orchard - Greenville
• Sunset Orchard - North Scituate
• Sweet Berry Farm - Middletown
• White Oak Farm - Scituate
• Young Family Farm - Little Compton

IN THE EVENINGS.
It’s Restaurant Week in Newport (see who’s putting local food on the menu) and we’re also celebrating two re-openings of local-loving Providence restaurants:

• Congrats to Chefs Bruce and Beau and the New Rivers crew on their newly renovated venue. Slightly bigger but still intimate and with the same incredible ingredients straight from the farm.
• Kudos to Chef Guy and the folks at AS220. We’re excited to taste what you cooked up with all the fresh stuff in your Market Mobile order. The menu looks great!