Book Party at Beach Pea Bakery

Those of you who have fallen in love with the rosemary fougasse, lavender shortbread, cowgirl cookies, and other delectable breads and pastries will want to join Thomas and Mariah Roberts, Brian Smestad, and James Haller for the opening reception of their new book Artisan Breads, Pastries, Cookies, and Desserts: Techniques and Recipes from the Beach Pea Baking Co., published by Blue Tree. The event is Saturday, August 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Beach Pea Baking Co.—located at 53 State Road, Rt. 1, Kittery, Maine. Here's a recent story about the book from The Wire. Beach Pea is also a local leader in sustainable practices for businesses and a member of Seacoast Local. We wish them every success with the book!

Slow Food Seacoast at Green Drinks

Join us tomorrow night, Thursday August 21st, for a refreshing drink after work! Slow Food Seacoast is the guest for Portsmouth Green Drinks, a casual conversation group dedicated to meeting people and sharing information about ways to live well on the earth. By all accounts it's a fun, relaxed, and social thing to do! Green Drinks is from 6:00-9:00. There will be a brief talk on Slow Food Seacoast, followed by a fun cocktail hour. The location is the new 2 Ceres Street bar, just beneath Izzy's Ice Cream at the corner of Ceres and Bow Streets in Portsmouth. Hope to see you there!

NH Farm History at the Farm Museum Saturday

"Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn"~ A lecture on the connected farm buildings of Northern New England by architectural historian, Professor Thomas Hubka will be held at the NH Farm Museum Saturday August 16, 4 pm in the Big Yellow Barn as part of the Museum's Old Time Farm Days celebration. Included in Museum admission of $6 adult, free to museum members. NH Farm Museum is open Wed-Sunday 10 am to 4pm.

"Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn"~this nineteenth-century children's rhyme describes the connected farm buildings so prevalent throughout much of New Hampshire and Southern Maine. The New Hampshire Farm Museum's Jones and Plummer farmsteads are two of the best New Hampshire examples of this agricultural architecture. Thomas Hubka, Professor of Architecture at University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and author of the classic book on the subject: Big House, House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England will speak at the NH Farm Museum in Milton on Saturday August 16th at 4 pm as part of Old Time Farm Days events. Guests are invited to particpate in the days events and tour the Jones Farmhouse at 3 pm before the talk. Tour and Talk included with Museum admission: $6 adult, free to museum members.

Fresh Chicken Delayed...but on the way!

From Seacoast Eat Local:

Due to the inclement weather on Wednesday, the mobile poultry processing unit was unable to be at Kellie Brook Farm on Wednesday, but will come on Friday. Fresh Chickens will be available at Kellie Brook Farm Saturday, August 9, Sunday, August 10, and Monday, August 11, any time of day at the farm stand in Greenland.

To the many who came to Exeter Market today for fresh chickens - you are great and we are sorry you were disappointed! It was very gratifying to see so much interest in this fantastic product. I hope the trip was worth your while as the Exeter Farmers' Market has a lot to offer, and my apologies that we weren't able to spread the word about the delay sooner - these are the challenges small farmers face and your support despite the setbacks and obstacles means a lot in terms of keeping small farms in business, ensuring our access to a healthy, safe, and available food supply in years to come. And the chicken will be worth it as it amazingly delicious!

Feel free to call ahead to check specific product availability, (603) 702-0342

spread the word!

Natural Resource Business institute

UNH Cooperative Extension Launches Natural Resource Business Institute
13-week course will help natural resource entrepreneurs plan for success

Perhaps you’ve thought of putting your open fields to better use by raising beef cattle for the local market. Or, for some extra summer income, adding Pick-Your Own raspberries to your Christmas tree operation. Maybe you’ve wondered about the feasibility of producing shitake mushrooms on your woodlot, boarding horses or starting a campground. Should you diversify a multi-generation dairy operation to increase income opportunities that will encourage your children to keep farming after you retire?

People who earn all or part of their living from agricultural, horticultural, or forest-based enterprises have unique needs for information and support. To meet those needs, an interdisciplinary team of UNH Cooperative Extension staff has teamed with outside experts to offer a 13-week Natural Resource Business Institute (NRBI) this Fall at UNH Thompson School of Applied Sciences in Durham.

This first-of-its-kind course will provide individuals and families who want to start or expand a natural resource-based business with the essential information and preparation they need to be successful.

“New Hampshire has been the fastest growing state in New England for the last four decades,” says Extension agricultural business management specialist Mike Sciabarrasi. “One major consequence of this growth is that the state is losing approximately 20,000 acres of open space to development every year. These agricultural and forest lands being lost to other land uses provide essential ecological services such as clean water and air, groundwater recharge, and wildlife habitat. They provide the scenic backdrop that draws people here to live and visit.”

“Sustainable profitable farms and forestry enterprises” working landscapes” are essential for preserving these natural resources for future generations,” says Sciabarrasi. “We believe outreach education is the best way to strengthen the economic viability of the state’s natural resource businesses.”

NRBI participants will develop an operating plan for a farming or forestry business as they learn about biological systems, soils, and natural resource inventories, product and service marketing, enterprise profitability and legal matters particular to natural resource businesses. They’ll explore the human dynamics of running a family business (e.g., defining roles and responsibilities, handling conflict, managing time, and hiring outside labor). NRBI participants will also learn how government agencies and financial institutions work with farm and forestry ventures, and they’ll leave well-connected to a wide variety of advisors and technical experts. They’ll receive valuable feedback from a peer support network of other natural-resources entrepreneurs.

“From decades of advising people who make their living from the land, Cooperative Extension educators understand the importance of helping natural resources entrepreneurs evaluate their business ideas carefully and learn to identify both opportunities and potential pitfalls,” says Sciabarrasi. “Participants will end up with a realistic operating plan, saving themselves money, time and anguish by discovering fatal flaws in their original ideas.”

Target audiences include individuals and families starting or planning a natural-resource business, current land-based business owners considering changes or expansions to their operations, families looking for ways to pass viable operations on to the next generation, high school and college students exploring career options, and landowners looking to earn retirement income from their land.

The course meets all USDA Farm Service Agency borrower certification requirements. Participants can also earn 4 continuing education credits through the UNH Professional Development and Training program.

Natural Resources Business Institute

Dates and times: Wednesday evenings, September 10 through December 10, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: UNH Thompson School, Durham, NH
For more information or to register call UNH Cooperative Extension Nada Haddad at 603-679-5616 or Geoffrey Njue 603-749-4445.
The web address for online registration is:
https://www.events.unh.edu/register.shtml?event_id=4780
Also visit our website at www.extension.unh.edu

Edible Garden Tour August 10

Slow Food Seacoast and the Piscataqua Garden Club invite you to explore and discover some of the Seacoast's surprising and beautiful edible landscapes. The Edible Garden Tour will connect home and community vegetable gardeners; share ideas for sustaining ourselves through growing good food and; and encourage good gardening practices.

The Edible Garden tour idea grew out of the desire to learn more about the tips and tricks that gardeners use in their home gardens. We live in an area with numerous small farms and farmers' markets, but the idea of growing at the scale of a farm is overwhelming to a new gardener. Thus the desire to visit gardens to inspire you with ideas that can be easily put into practice. Read more about the gardens we have on the tour this year or find out how the tour works.

The Edible Garden Tour begins at Strawbery Banke Museum and highlights locations throughout the Portsmouth area. Ticket sales open at 9:30; gardens open at 10:00. Purchase a ticket for $5.00 and receive a guidebook and map with driving directions to each garden.

* Enjoy a self-guided tour of home and community gardens.
* Learn tips and tricks you can use in your own garden.
* Enjoy seasonal samplings of fresh veggies and herbal teas.

Check the Gardens page for details about each garden featured on the tour.

Slow Food Seacoast gratefully acknowledges the Piscataqua Garden Club for support of the Edible Garden Tour.

Fresh Chicken

Seacoast Eat Local sends word:

If you've been following the all-of-a-sudden-and-for-no-good-reason-we-can't-have-chicken-at-the-Portsmouth-Farmers'-Market story, you know that Kellie Brook Farm among other farms has been put in a rough spot due to the lack of warning that this outlet for their products would no longer be available for them. While we continue to fight the good fight to get chicken back to the market, the chickens are already on farm, already growing, and once a month a mobile processing unit comes and the chickens meet their end, filling up the freezers of Kellie Brook Farm. For the chickens, the mobile unit is a very good way to go - no travel means less stress. For the farmer, it is a clean, well-run operation. For the consumer, it means for a few days each month, we get to buy fresh, never frozen, free-range, local chicken! The frozen ones are just fine by me, but the fresh ones are a real treat, a very special, very delicious and somewhat rare product.

And this is the week! Kellie Brook Farm will have fresh chickens for sale from Thursday, August 7 to Saturday, August 9 at the farm at 1024 Portsmouth Avenue (Rte 33), in Greenland, NH. Fresh chickens will also be for sale at the Exeter Farmers' Market on Thursday, August 7 from 2:15-6pm, in Swazey Parkway in Exeter.

Directions to Kellie Brook Farm (.pdf)

Portsmouth Herald article on the chicken ban
Foster's Daily Democrat article on the chicken ban

Visit Kellie Brook Farm anytime of day this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday or the Exeter Farmers' Market on Thursday afternoon to buy your chickens. If you've been wondering what you can do to participate in NH Eat Local Week, this would be a great start!

Canning Classes Offered!

CANNING CLASSES AT ATLANTIC CULINARY
SILVER STREET DOVER, NH with CHEF HUNN

Monday August 18th
6pm ~ 9pm
$45
Canning safety techniques with High Acid Fruits
In this class each person will have hands on experience of how to freeze and can High Acid Fruits and vegetables
Each Person will leave the class with a high acid vegetable frozen and canned, a fruit frozen and canned, and a chutney plus a Ball Blue Book on Canning Techniques and Recipes


Monday August 25th
6pm ~ 9pm
$45
Canning safety techniques with Low Acid
Vegetables, Pickling and Fruits
In this class each person will have hands on experience of how to freeze and can Low Acid Vegetables, Pickling techniques and freezing Whole Berries
Each Person will leave the class with a low acid
vegetable frozen and canned, a fruit frozen and canned, and a jar of pickles, frozen fruit plus a Ball Blue Book on Canning Techniques and Recipes

Classes are limited to 25 attendees and must be pre paid.
Please register at WBERRY@LLFARM.net
and send enrollment fee to ~
Lasting Legacy Farm, 148 Second Crown Point Road,
Barrington, NH 03825
If any questions please call 332-6328. We Look Forward to Seeing you!

Ideas for NH Eat Local Week

At tonight's potluck we went around the table hearing some ideas you can try to celebrate New Hampshire Eat Local Week:

Visit a farm! Lee Farm Day is Saturday, August 9 - tour farms in Lee, watch demos, meet animals, taste fresh foods and ice cream

Stop by Kellie Brook Farm's farmstand in Greenland on Thursday, Friday or Saturday to get yourself a never-frozen, fresh local free-range chicken. This special sale only runs while the farm has fresh chicken. Or pick up a fresh chicken from their booth at the Exeter Farmer's Market, Thursday August 7, 2:15-6 PM, Swazey Parkway.

Cook more simply, so as not to be overwhelmed with the idea of finding local foods to incorporate into a huge elaborate meal

Call on friends or neighbors to join with you in a bulk purchase of local foods or next year's CSA

Visit a farmer's market or specialty food store you haven't yet been to

Visit a weekday farmer's market

Choose a locally grown food you've never tried cooking before, and try it out

Challenge your co-workers - assign a different person each day to bring in a local-food dish to share at lunch or for coffee break

Take an inventory of your fridge, pantry, garden and freezer to see what you already have that's local (you might be surprised!)

At restaurants, begin by asking your server whether there are any items on the menu using locally produced food

Ask your grocer if there are any local products available

Check Seacoast Eat Local for a list of restaurants who buy from local farms, and visit one of them

Make this week your excuse for a splurge purchase that will pay for itself - like a chest freezer, a whole animal, or a food dehydrator

Shift a small amount of your regular food budget toward local purchasing

Switch your source for one product to a local supplier: milk, yogurt, eggs, meat, ice cream, produce...

Be mindful: think about everything you eat, respect the life it represents.

Pat yourself on the back for eating a healthy and delicious diet all week - local, fresh food is not only more nutritious, it's tastier too

Put an Eat Local Week flyer on a community bulletin board - download and print from here

Process or freeze some fresh food now to enjoy later in the year

Get a friend to go with you to a farmer's market or farmstand

Sign up for a canning class: Classes are being held at Atlantic Culinary Academy on Monday August 18th (high acid foods) and Monday August 25th (low acid foods). Classes run 6-9 PM and cost $45. Register at wberry@llfarm.net

Show someone else how to make a simple local dish, start a garden, or how you find local food sources

Post your own idea in the "Comments" section!

Seacoast Farmers Share Their Bounty With Cross Roads House Transitional and Emergency Housing Shelter

The rising cost of food impacts everyone, but can fall hardest on those whose needs are greatest. In response, Seacoast area farmers have come together to help ensure that even in these times of high prices and tight budgets, residents of Cross Roads House, the largest emergency and transitional shelter in New Hampshire, will have an increased supply of healthy, fresh, locally grown food.

Each Saturday at the Portsmouth Farmers' Market, volunteers from several area organizations gather food donations from farmers who have something abundant to share. The practice, called "gleaning," makes use of fresh produce that farmers and growers have in excess one week, but would probably not remain fresh for the next week's market. Rather than see the food go to waste, or store it beyond the peak of freshness, these farmers are happy to see their food served and enjoyed while still at the height of quality, while also helping to relieve the food budget of an important local nonprofit.

The donations to Cross Roads House fit into an ongoing pattern of farmers supporting local food charities, as many also donate to soup kitchens and food pantries throughout the area. In fact, gleaning appears in farmers' traditions going back to the ancient world, when religious texts instructed farmers not to harvest their fields all the way to the edges, but to leave a few rows of produce for those in need.

Cross Roads House Volunteer Coordinator Diane Bundow explains that the donations are having a significant and varied impact on the residents, "saving us money at the grocery store and feeding our residents better than ever, even introducing them to foods they have not had – the pea shoots were really a brand new salad treat for every one. I can't wait to see what comes each week. Thanks so much to all the farmers."

Farmers' market shoppers can assist the effort and increase the amount of fresh vegetables being delivered each week by making donations of food themselves. Volunteers can receive donations of food at the informational tent near the front of the market during Portsmouth Farmers' Market hours, 8am to 1pm each Saturday in the City Hall Parking lot on Junkins Avenue.

The initiative is a joint effort of Seacoast Local, Slow Food Seacoast, Seacoast Eat Local, and the Seacoast Growers' Association, which hosts the Portsmouth Farmers' Market each Saturday.

Potluck

Just a reminder that Slow Food's next Public Potluck is this Sunday, August 3. We will be meeting at Strawbery Banke Museum, in Stoodley's Tavern at 17 Hancock Street. Meeting time is 5:30. If this is your first time joining us, please read "About Our Potlucks".

Sunday is the first day of NH Eat Local Week, and we're going to focus the meeting on eating locally. Pease bring a potluck dish featuring at least one locally grown or made ingredient, and plan to share with the group one idea you have for incorporating local foods into your diet this week. We'll collect and share these ideas.