News & Events Mid-November 2011
Berkshire Grown online
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TONIGHT at 7 pm: "Feeding the World"
Nov 16th 7 pm
The Lecture Center, Bard College of Simon's Rock
 Videotape of Raj Patel, a writer, activist and academic.
He has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world. He's currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.
His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.
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JOIN US SAT / SUN!
Great Barrington - Saturday/ Williamstown - Sunday
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Saturday at the Great Barrington farmers' market  vendors include Allium Restaurant + Bar, Asia Luna, Berkshire Co-op Market, Berkshire Grown, Berkshire Mountain Bakery, Berkshire Wildflower Honey, BlueQ, BOLA Granola, Broody Hill Cookies, Bug Hill Farm, Castle Street Cafe, Cedar Farm, Community Cooperative Farms, Consider Bardwell Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, Farm Country Soup, Farm Girl Farm, Foggy River Farm, Indian Line Farm, Justamere Tree Farm, Klara's Gourmet Cookies, Kripalu, Leahey Farm, Markristo Farm, Mayflower Farm, Maynard Farms, Moore Fine Food, Mystical Rose Herbals, North Plain Farm, Ooma Tesoro's, Project Sprout, Shaker Mountain Canning Co., Sweet Brook Farm, The Meat Market, Tortured Orchard, Your Spice of Life and Zehr & Sons Mushroom Farm. Photo by Jonathan Hankin
Delicious details here
Sunday at the Williamstown market vendors include 3-Corner Field Farm, Babycakes, Berkshire Grown, Berle Farm, Black Queen Angus Farm, BlueQ, Bug Hill Farm, Cedar Farm, Community Cooperative Farms, Cricket Creek Farm, East Mountain Farm, Farm Country Soup, Farm Girl Farm, Gammelgarden Creamery, Holiday Brook Farm, Ioka Valley Farm, Jaeschke's Orchard, Klara's Gourmet Cookies, Mezze Catering, Mighty Food Farm, Nichols Poultry Farm, Ooma Tesoro's, Peace Valley Farm, Shaker Mountain Canning Co., Sweet Brook Farm, The Berry Patch, Tortured Orchard, West River Creamery, Wild Oats Market and Williams College Sustainable Food & Agriculture Program and The Zilkha Center.
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Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Greg Asbed, Lucas Benitez
Agriculture & Social Justice: Is clean, fair food a right for all or an elitist concept?
Wednesday November 30th - 7 PM
 Good food is expensive. How do concepts of elitism interact with good food?
What implications does the price of food have on America at large? How do labor practices in the food system affect us?
 Berkshire Grown presents the eighth in a nine-week series on the rise and future of the food movement -- see schedule of speakers below and description of the full series here.
 A taped lecture at the Lecture Center at Simon's Rock College. More information here. Map of Bard College at Simon's Rock here. Thanks to our generous sponsor: Iredale Mineral Cosmetics!
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More information here
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ALICE WATERS:
"What is an edible education?"
on tape Wednesday - December 7 at 7 pm Join us!
The Lecture Center at Bard College at Simon's Rock
 Alice Waters, chef, author, and the proprietor of Chez Panisse, is an American pioneer of a culinary philosophy that maintains that cooking should be based on the finest and freshest seasonal ingredients that are produced sustainably and locally. She is a passionate advocate for a food economy that is "good, clean, and fair."
Over the course of forty years, Chez Panisse has helped create a community of local farmers and ranchers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures the restaurant a steady supply of fresh ingredients. In 1996, Waters' commitment to education led to the creation of The Edible Schoolyard at Berkeley's Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School: a one-acre garden, and adjacent kitchen-classroom at a public middle school.
Alice established the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996 to support the Edible Schoolyard and encourage similar programs that use food traditions to teach, nurture, and empower youth. Waters is Vice President of Slow Food International and the author of nine books, including The Art of Simple Food: Notes and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution.
Edible Education series here
A taped lecture at the Lecture Center at Simon's Rock College.
Thanks to our generous sponsor: Iredale Mineral Cosmetics!
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What We're Reading
The Secret Farm Bill
by Mark Bittman in the NYTIMES
"The Republican-manufactured budget crisis of this past summer - remember? - resulted  in a "solution" that's hijacking what little representative democratic process we have left. Equally sad is that the so-called supercommittee - charged with creating an outline for reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years - may preclude full discussion of the farm bill.
"It's the farm bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and - though much of it finances good programs - ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment.
"The farm bill is written every five years. Although the current one doesn't expire until  September, the next one may be all but wrapped up by your first bite of turkey, because the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees - a group of four, representing Oklahoma, Michigan, Minnesota and Kansas (do you see a pattern here?) - are working feverishly to draw up a proposal in time to submit it to the supercommittee before the Nov. 23 deadline. Read more here
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The Local Food Economy in 2 Charts
-By Tom Philpott
from Mother Jones
 "First, the happy chart. The USDA recently released a report (PDF) that crunches numbers on recent developments in local/regional food economies. Sales are booming-and more farms are growing food for their surrounding communities, not global commodity markets. Click here to see the chart
..."Now the scary chart. The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC), which represents the new guard of farmers rising to grow for local markets, has conducted an interesting study of the challenges and opportunities facing young growers. As the following chart from the report shows, their problems are everyone's-the nation's farmers are aging rapidly. Click here to see the chart. photo by Chris Blair
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Farm Pick-Up Winter CSA
 Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown is excited to announce a 2011-2012 Farm Pick-Up Winter CSA. Building on their first cheese CSA this summer, they are offering the full range of products- cheese, raw milk, meat, eggs, and bread.
Each share starts with a base of cheese. From there you can mix and match any of the additional products. So you could create a share that consists of cheese, bread, and raw milk, or cheese, eggs, and meat cuts.
They offer two share sizes. The Regular and Family.
Details on the what is included can be found here.
Additionally, for the first time, they will have glass milk bottles, available only to CSA members. Please note that their milk is raw (unpasteurized).
Click here for more information and to sign up.
Cricket Creek Farm, 1255 Oblong Rd.
Williamstown, MA 01267 413-458-5888
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Quick Bites
DISCOVER THE:
Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Market
a 24 hour Farmers' Market!
 Berkshire Grown has created a Facebook page
called Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Marketplace - a central place for Berkshire Grown members to congregate and talk supply and demand.
Self-propelled by Berkshire Grown members, the page will benefit those of you who choose to participate in it. Farmers and food producers can post what they have available, and chefs and community members can comment or contact suppliers directly with requests for product or more information.
Thanks for the photo to Nicole Calero, taken at Hawthorne Valley Farm
Berkshire Grown offers this as a networking service and bears no responsibility for transactions.
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MASSACHUSETTS GROWN...and FRESHER!
If you are traveling through Massachusetts check out this map, support our local farmers throughout the state!
CHECK OUT MAP-O-LICIOUS FOR FRESH
LOCAL EGGS, CHEESE, MEAT & MORE
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 Stay In touch!
Berkshire Grown's e-newsletter comes out monthly. Please send information to barbara@berkshiregrown.org, thanks! Join Berkshire Grown here.
Barbara Zheutlin, Director
Sheryl Lechner, Outreach Coordinator
413-528-0041 |
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