We’re calling them RI Royals
Whether you prefer your potatoes, mashed, fried or scalloped, RI Royal potatoes are up to the task! The RI Royal potato is a creamy, white flesh potato. These potatoes are a favorite of local chefs and consumers alike.

Not too long ago, the fields of Aquidneck and Sakonnet bustled with potatoes that fed New England and beyond. The Ocean State’s coastal climate and soils still are fertile ground for spuds. Our participating farmers have hundreds of years of family farming experience between them.

Where can you find RI Royals?
Look for the purple bags with the Narragansett label in the produce aisle at:

• Belmont Grocery
• Dave’s Marketplace
• Eastside Marketplace
• Ruggieri’s Market

More local groceries coming! E-mail Jen for more info about these superior spuds.

Read all about the RI Royal potato growers

• Ferolbink Farms in Tiverton (circa 1870; 275 acres)
• Lacerda Farm in Portsmouth (circa 1923; 120 acres)
• Quonset View Farm in Portsmouth (circa 1915; 140 acres)
• Sampson Farms in Westport (circa 1850; 75 acres)
• Young Family Farm in Little Compton (circa 1997; 180 acres)

“Just as successful cooperatives like Rhody Fresh Milk and Rhody Warm Blankets, local potato growers have teamed up to cooperatively market fresh local potatoes that are just days from harvest. Buying local keeps family farms viable and ensures a fresh product, and saves on the energy costs farmers would need for storage.  It is good for the economy and environment, and the taste of locally raised spuds can’t be matched”
– Ken Ayars, Chief, RI DEM Division of Agriculture

“We think revitalized farm-to-grocer connections will be a foundation for more secure farms and more secure food that will benefit Rhode Island’s farmers and eaters for generations to come.”
– Noah Fulmer, Executive Director, Farm Fresh Rhode Island

Read more about the RI Royal effort in our previous blog post.

In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most- productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

If you’re hungry, come early for a delicious $15 dinner buffet at 6pm. The movie will be followed by a trailer for the Greenhorns, a forthcoming documentary about young American farmers and what inspires them to grow food for our country.

Lindsay is our food systems intern and she’s been analyzing the distribution of food as it travels from local farms to eaters. Her project has also highlighed the food waste in local vs. industrial food systems. There’s a lot of waste in both, but local food systems present an opportunity for people to put extra food to good use while it’s still super fresh.

Volunteer! At this time of year there’s plenty to be gleaned at most farms, but most farmers don’t have the time to harvest and drive to the Food Bank themselves. Gather some friends, family and a truck for a gleaning day on a farm, and help make a farm-to-food-bank connection that will address local hunger! Local farms are an important resource in making sure everyone can enjoy the seasonal bounty. E-mail Lindsay for some leads or talk to your favorite farmer.

Also, consider that now is a great time to can, freeze and pickle! It won’t be summer forever. So take advantage of the wealth of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cukes and corn we’re currently amidst!

• Ferolbink Farms in Tiverton
• Lacerda Farm in Portsmouth
• Quonset View Farm in Portsmouth
• Sampson Farms in Westport
• Young Family Farm in Little Compton

Check back for a list of participating grocers in the next few weeks, but first the back story:

Wines aren’t the only reds and whites that flourish along the RI coast. Not too long ago, the fields of Aquidneck and Sakonnet bustled with potatoes that fed New England and beyond. Our RI variety is ideal for making baked potatoes and also potato chips. So much so that Cape Cod Potato Chips began with potatoes from Maplewood Farm in Portsmouth!

The Ocean State’s coastal climate and soils still are fertile ground for spuds. But for years potato prices have stagnated and Idaho potatoes have flooded the marketplace. Local connections and farmer-grocer relationships were lost, and RI potato growers increasingly had to turn to out of state wholesalers – or else grow turf or houses. The farms that still grow food have come out wiser, and nowadays many potato farmers are diversified and grow many other veggies, too. The proliferation of farmers’ markets and recent successes in the RI farm-to-school program have also been key to securing the future of the farmland and our food supply. But RI can produce a lot more potatoes than can be sold at farmers’ markets, and yet there are a lot of Rhode Islanders getting their potatoes from Idaho because supermarkets are buying from national wholesalers. That doesn’t make sense, and it’s not good for farmers or RI.

We think revitalized farm-to-grocer connections will be a foundation for more secure farms and more secure food that will benefit Rhode Island’s farmers and eaters for generations to come. If this fall’s pilot collaboration for selling RI potatoes under the purple Narragansett label works, next year may even be the start of a RI potato growers coop (with a new logo) – not unlike what Rhody Fresh is doing for local dairies and hopefully with all the same success!

Between wines, Local Food Fest guests enjoyed a selection of local brews, from rich and fierce to smooth and sweet, care of RI favorites Newport Storm, Narragansett Beer and Trinity Brewhouse.

Other standouts at the Local Food Fest:

• Goat cheese in a cone (!) from Blackstone Caterers
• Ice cream with peaches from DeWolf Tavern
• Squid salad fresh off Point Judith from Castle Hill
• The Matunuck Oyster raw bar
• Narragansett Creamery’s cheese auction

The work that we’re doing at Farm Fresh to connect local farms with chefs and eaters is all the more important given the news out that RI still is at the top of the nation for farmland prices. (Actually, we’re number two this year. $12K/acre -vs- $12.2K in Mass.) The chefs at the Local Food Fest are committed to RI farmers. We hope that the colorful bounty and seasonal, fresh flavors inspired all of us to appreciate that eating closer to home is both good for our taste buds and good for Rhode Island.

Online ticket sales will continue until 1:15pm and then we expect to have some available for sale at the door at Castle Hill. Bring an umbrella just in case and prepare your palate for warm summery flavors, care of these talented local farms and food producers:

• Aquidneck Farms Portsmouth
• Baby Greens Exeter
• Bally Machree Middletown
• Blue State Coffee Providence
• Canterbury Farm Kingston
• City Farm Providence
• Cory’s Kitchen Middletown
• Four Town Farm Barrington
• Greenvale Vineyards Portsmouth
• Ledge Ends Produce East Greenwich
• Lydon Family Tomatoes Tiverton
• Matunuck Oyster Farm Matunuck
• Narragansett Brewing Co Providence
• Narragansett Creamery Providence
• New Harvest Coffee Pawtucket
• Newport Storm Middletown
• Newport Vineyards Middletown
• Olga’s Cup and Saucer Providence
• Rhody Fresh Milk Foster
• Robin Hollow Farm Saunderstown
• Sakonnet Vineyards Little Compton
• Seven Stars Bakery Pawtucket
• Sweet Berry Farm Middletown
• Trinity Brewhouse Providence

But right here in Rhode Island we have the will and the ways to address these challenges. We have some incredibly generous “elder” farmers and incredibly fertile land in RI. We have pride in our state and are hungry for food grown in our Little Rhody. What we need is to support new farmers with structures for generational transfer of land and knowledge and also with business models for their young farms… the farms that will grow to feed us tomorrow.

With that in mind, Rabbit’s Dance Farm in Cumberland and Farm Fresh partnered to offer an apprenticeship program for aspiring farmers and food activists. This summer, thanks to funding from the RI Foundation, Goldberg Foundation and Starr Foundation, three interns are dividing their time between organic farming with Kristin at Rabbit’s Dance and food systems work with Farm Fresh to create a context for how farms and food are interwoven with cities and community.

• Laura got farmers on board and then spread the word about the bustling new Woonsocket Farmers’ Market. She’s also co-running a weekly nutrition outreach program at the Armory Farmers’ Market with Heidi, a Food Stamps nutrition educator and Farm Fresh board member. (In her spare time, Laura’s the food forager for Local 121.)
• Lindsay has been interviewing farmers all over the state to assess needs for a planned commercial-grade processing kitchen (think local tomato sauce!) and for more efficient farm-to-city delivery models. You can also find her selling Hill Orchards apples and peaches at the Hope High Farmers’ Market.
• Hannah is the smiling face behind the Market CSA at the Armory and Downtown Providence markets. Each week she coordinates with farmers and then sorts together a well-rounded bag of RI produce, eggs and bread for our 50 member families. In its first season, the market CSA program will bring $20,000 in income to RI farmers. Hannah also volunteers with the harvest at City Farm.

More bright spots for new RI farmers: Farm Fresh is also collaborating with SEMAP on their Farms Forever program that currently runs in Southeastern Massachusetts. And the newly passed Farm Bill provides more loan programs and many target new farmers who lack significant financial resources. RI has a lot of first-generation farmers and so Farm Fresh is excited about opportunities in the impressive new Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program.

On a related note, two weekends ago Rhode Island was visited by a film crew from the Greenhorns, an upcoming movie that examines how young people are changing the food system. The filmmakers stopped to speak with Katie of Scratch Farm and Louella of Narragansett Creamery, and then meandered through the Broad Street and Hope High markets in Providence. They’ll be back next week to cover more farms and our Local Food Fest.

So it will be a delicious occasion on August 6 when ten talented chefs gather at the Local Food Fest to benefit Farm Fresh RI. Each paired with a local farmer, they’ll offer a guided tour for the tongue that celebrates the harvest of the fields and waters of the Ocean State:

• Castle Hill – Jonathan Cambra
• Newport Restaurant Group – Casey Riley
• Blackstone Caterers – Derek Jolie
• Chez Pascal – Matt Gennuso
• DeWolf Tavern – Sai Viswanath
• Gracie’s – Joe Hefner
• La Laiterie – Matt Jennings
• Local 121 – Dave Johnson
• New Rivers – Bruce Tillinghast
• Nick’s on Broadway – Derek Wagner

Buy your ticket online for a flavorful evening at Castle Hill in Newport. Taste the bounty and wide-ranging flavors of summer in Rhode Island.

One more note: the Local Food Fest was the brainchild of Chef Casey Riley, once the Executive Chef at Castle Hill and now Culinary Arts Director for the Newport Restaurant Group. Casey pioneered many of Castle Hill’s relationships with local farmers and we’re excited to have him back as a chef at the Local Food Fest in its second year.

We’re at a great point in the season: the return of crisp apples, fleshy peaches, juicy ears of sweet corn, aromatic basil, and the first outdoors heirloom tomatoes – so many summery flavors to savor. And don’t forget about blueberries; there’s nothing like a picking a fresh blueberry warm from the sun.

Based on the forecast it looks like we’re in for some rain this week. But it may be better not to leave anything to chance. Time for a rain dance, in between blueberries!

Join us for a taste of 11 chefs’ visions of the season (including a very friendly cook-off in the VIP hour) inspired by the harvest of a dozen local farmers and food artisans, and accompanied by wines, beers and a raw bar. Here’s what else is special about this year’s Local Food Fest:

• 100% compostable evening. Thanks to Blue State Coffee and Whole Foods, all dinnerware and food waste will go back into healthy RI soils.
• Back-of-the-house tours led by the roasters of New Harvest Coffee, the bakers of Seven Stars, local farmers and fishermen. And many more opportunities for flavorful outings at the auction.
• Superchief Trio. These local favorites know how to jazz up a party.
• Sunset at Castle Hill. The ocean view is not to be missed.

Buy your Local Food Fest ticket online now!