Volunteer Researchers Needed for Next Eat Local Resource Guide

Seacoast Eat Local sends this announcement about our collaboration on this great local-foods resource:

Our 2007 local foods resource guide, a collaborative project with Slow Food Seacoast, was a big hit - in just 3 short months we put together a resource that helped 800 people find more local foods, farmers markets, csa's and more -

This year, we have bigger and bigger goals, and we need some help achieving them. Again along with Slow Food Seacoast, we'll be verifying information to ensure that it is the most up to date, most accurate, most inclusive resource for finding and buying local foods on the Seacoast.

It's fun, it's easy, it's important, and all you need in a computer (and sometimes a phone):

Volunteer researcher:
Will contact farmers to verify their information for accurate up-to-date inclusion in the 2008 guide.
Time Commitment: Average 30 minutes a week from February 1 to May 1.
What you'll need: Consistent access to internet
Willingness to call and/or email farmers

To volunteer, please contact project coordinator Jeff at foodguide@seacoasteatlocal.org

Portsmouth Restaurant Week is Coming!

What better excuse to take yourself out to dine at some of Portsmouth's best and Slowest (in the good way) restaurants? This new event brings a week full of prix fixe lunches and dinners to Pesce Blue, Radici, The Dunaway, Black Trumpet, Rudi's, The Harbor's Edge, Gas Light, and The Page. A few of the restaurants have already posted their menus for the events here, and they look fantastic.

Restaurant Week
March 2nd - 9th, 2008

The 1st Annual Portsmouth Restaurant Week is hosted by Drinkwater Productions, a local event and promotions company, whose goal is to spotlight the city as a premier dining destination. For one week, Sunday-to-Sunday, all participating restaurants will offer a special menu of three course fixed prix meals. Each restaurant will offer a unique menu selection.

Lunch: $16.95
Dinner for $ 26.95

The price special does not include taxes, beverages and gratuity.

View the participating restaurants and their special restaurant week menu offering. Make your dining reservations by calling the restaurant of your choice. There are no passes to buy, coupons to carry or cards to punch.

Help Plan The Seacoast Sustainability Fair

Jenny I. sends this announcement about an exciting event in the works. Now's the time to get in on the planning stages of a great new event and help represent Slow Food and the Slow Life as a sustainably way of being.
__________
Interested in helping with the First Annual Sustainability Celebration that we are putting together for April 19, 2008? We will be having an organizational meeting on Thursday, January 31 at 7PM at the Portsmouth High School Library.

We are looking for ideas on how we can promote sustainability in our community. The Natural Steps Framework will serve as the standard for what we do and how we do it. Here are some of the ideas that have been suggested for the event:

Community-wide Flea Market: Flea markets and rummage sales of one of America's oldest forms of recycling. We will likely set up in one of the parking lots and sell spaces to vendors. One suggestion is to also invite PHS booster clubs or community organizations to take some space and offer to go pick up stuff that people want to get rid of.

Specialty Recycling: I was surprised to learn that cell phones are 100% recyclable. SASS collects and recycles cell phones to a vendor that pays them for each phone. So, SASSwill be "our cell phone recycler" du jour. There might be other things like ink cartridges that other groups might want to be the recycler for. Maybe we can raise awareness of other recyclable items such as computers or batteries. Overall, hopefully we can work with the City to enhance the community's awareness and use of our top-rate recycling center at DPW.

Sustainability Vendor/Trade Fair: How about a fair for businesses to exhibit their eco-friendly products or systems, such as a geothermal heating/air conditioning contractor illustarting the systems he sells or other energy efficient products or services? It could include "buy local" vendors.

Sustainability "Food Court": There is a wide range of local eco-friendly food products that not evryone is aware of. They can be displayed and sold to raise awareness of the availability.

Sustainability Science Fair: We could host a "sustainbaility" science fair competition for area students schools and youth organizations. Hopefully we can raise some money to create financial awards. The projects would be judged on compliace with the four conditions of the Natural Step Framework.

Sustainability Art Show: I think this involves art created from all recycled materials. It could also be judged on the four conditions and hopefully we could raise money for for awards.

Sustainability Education/Information Forum: PSI has a forum scheduled for that day that could be held at the same location.

We will need to form an admin team to take care of logistics, and additional teams for each item like the flea market, Science Fair, etc. Hope to see you Thursday evening at the PHS Library at 7PM.

Thanks,
Fair Coordinator Jim Noucas

Greenhouse Bedding Plant Production Workshop

Are you looking in getting into greenhouse bedding plants production? Or how to schedule your plant production? Are you concerned about the growing media and its nutrients or about the insects and diseases that affect greenhouse crops ? To answer those questions, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension is offering an all day Greenhouse Bedding Plant Production workshop on Tuesday, February 12, 2008. Our feature guest speakers are UNH Cooperative Extension Specialists and from UNH Thompson School of Applied Science. The workshop will be held from 8:30 am till 3:30 pm at the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH. Advanced registration is required and space is limited. Registration cost ($30) covers lunch, refreshments and education materials.Also the workshop was awarded three pesticide re-certification credits. For registration call Gail Ramsey at 679-5616. Workshop details are also available on the UNH Cooperative Extension Website calendar at www.extension.unh.edu. The facility is handicap accessible.

Get some green in the middle of winter

Despite what the groundhogs say, we're going to have to wait a while for spring and although there's no green in the garden, there will be plenty of green this weekend in Boston. Going Green Magazine is the sponsor of a “Going Green” Energy & Living Exposition February 2nd and 3rd at the Bayside Expo Center. The expo is a place to learn how we can make the transition to a more conscientious consumerism and a better future for ourselves and our planet. Features of the expo include:

The Green Kids Zone
Eco-Fashion Show
Green Bookstore
Green Careers and Degrees
Eco-Tourism
Green Food Court

PLUS exhibitors from all green sectors and numerous free workshops focused on helping you green up your lifestyle!

More information at http://www.goinggreenexpos.com/ and be sure to travel green - take the train or carpool with a friend.

A Farmer's New Year's Resolutions for Supporting Local Food

Jeff D. sends this great link from the magazine of the American Farmland Trust. This excerpt is just one on a list of great resolutions for supporting farmers and farmland.


Help save farmland—and keep it in farming and ranching.

Write a letter to the editor in support of local efforts to conserve farmland.

Volunteer to serve on—or start—a local open space or land conservation committee.

?Join your local land trust and renew your membership in American Farmland Trust.

Support (or spearhead) local efforts to fund land conservation in your community.

Call or write your representatives in state and federal government when funding for agriculture and land conservation is at stake.

Support efforts to keep agriculture as the primary objective on locally conserved or public-owned lands.

Support “current use” and other forms of property-tax relief for farmland and forest owners.

Educate yourself about our food supply. Choose healthy, nutritious foods but avoid panic over every scary sound-bite and marketing ploy.

Flag Hill, Wintery?

No, it's not a typo. Chef Ted McCormack will offer a series of Winter Cooking Classes at Flag Hill Winery, many featuring local ingredients and all sounding delicious and hearty. Classes are a "hands on" activity designed to demonstrate how to prepare a seasonal meal using local farmers' meats, cheeses and vegetables. Classes are structured around great themes like "Fondue Fun," "Cooking for One," and more.

Email ted@flaghill.com, call 603-659-2949, or sign up in our gift store for a fun time learning about preparing a seasonal meal.

For more details and class menus:
http://www.flaghillwinery.com/ferguson-davis/schedule.php?sched=ckngclss2007

More Markets!

On the heels of two wonderful Holiday Farmers' Markets comes another winter market to add to the calendar.

Please come to the Winter Mini-Farmers' Market in Exeter!
Saturday February 9th, 10 am - 2 pm at the Congregational Church (21 Front St.)
Sponsored by the Congregational Church of Exeter and Seacoast Eat Local.
For more info. contact willowpondfarmer@yahoo.com

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Funding School Gardens via the Farm Bill

This alert just in from Kidsgardening.org, a branch of the National Gardening Association:

"Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has included an amendment in the Farm Bill to authorize $10,000,000 to establish a pilot program for community school gardens. The Farm Bill passed the Senate by a vote of 79 to 14 on December 14 with the school garden amendment intact. The Farm Bill is now headed to conference committee where the Senate and House will determine the final version of the bill which goes to the President. Your letters, e-mails, and phone calls to your representatives in the House can help ensure that the school garden amendment is included in the final version of the Farm Bill."

More information on the actual amendment can be found on the KidsGardening Website

Representatives can be reached by calling the general Congressional switchboard number (202) 224-3121

Michael Pollan Sticks up for Food on NPR

Here's a great interview in which Michael Pollan talks about what he calls 'nutritionism,' our tendency to focus on the chemical proprties of foods rather than their wholeness. He makes great points about the 'Western diet' and its hazards and is funny and engaging.