News & Events July 2012
Make a difference -- support local farms! Join Berkshire Grown online
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Celebrate Share the Bounty!meet farmers, taste the summer bounty & learn about "Climate Change and Local Agriculture"  SATURDAY JULY 21st, 2 PM Stonover Farm 169 Undermountain Road, Lenox, MA
suggested donation $10
Berkshire Grown is celebrating our project Share the Bounty's 10th year. In 2002, Jonathan Hankin had a brainstorm: let's raise money to buy shares in local CSA farms and give the fresh vegetables to local food pantries. Since 2002 Share the Bounty, a project of Berkshire Grown, has bought over $104,000 worth of fresh vegetables from CSA farms and provided the food to food pantries, kitchens and WIC participants. Support Share the Bounty, a project of Berkshire Grown, here! 
Thank you to the Food Bank of Western MA for helping Share the Bounty expand into Pittsfield, see details below. Watercolors by Stephanie Anderson
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Share the Bounty 2012
Helping farmers + helping hungry families = the goal of Share the Bounty.
 Every dollar you donate to Share the Bounty works two ways.
- It helps purchase fresh food from local farms
- The fresh food goes to a local food pantry or kitchen which distributes the food to some of our hungry neighbors.
Watch the story of Share the Bounty a project of Berkshire Grown, on Berkshire Food Journal!
2012 Share the Bounty Farm-to-Pantry partnerships:
Caretaker Farm and the Berkshire Food Project in North Adams
Community Cooperative Farm and participants in WIC in Southern Berkshires
Cricket Creek Farm* and the Berkshire Food Project
Farm Girl Farm and participants in WIC
Farm at Miller's Crossing and the Valatie Food Pantry
Gould Farm* and participants in WIC
Hancock Shaker Village* and the Christian Center*, Pittsfield
Holiday Brook Farm: and the First United Methodist Church* Pittsfield
Indian Line Farm and the People's Pantry in Great Barrington
Ridgway Farm and OWL's Kitchen in Salisbury, CT
Square Roots Farm and Hoosac Harvest
Three Maples Market Garden* and participants in WIC
Wolfe Spring Farm and the Sheffield Food Pantry
Woven Roots Farm* and participants in WIC
*New participant 2012
Support Share the Bounty, a project of Berkshire Grown, now!
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THANK YOU
FOOD BANK OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS!
We are grateful each day for the Food Bank, because the Food Bank provides the food our hungry neighbors depend upon.
 And this year, the Food Bank has given Berkshire Grown's Share the Bounty project $1,525 to purchase two shares in Hancock Shaker Village's CSA farm to partner with the Christian Center in Pittsfield and one share in Holiday Brook Farm CSA in Dalton, partnering with theFirst United Methodist Church in Pittsfield.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts is the umbrella organization for the emergency food network in our region, bringing nutritious food to hundreds of local front-line food assistance providers that serve people in need. They distribute nearly 7 million pounds of food each year - enough for about 5 million meals that help nourish families, children, elders, and adults who are experiencing severe hunger or chronic food insecurity.
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Local Foods on the Grill,Local Ice Cream & Toppings
to Benefit the Berkshire Food Project
at Wild Oats Market, 320 Main St, Williamstown
Friday, July 13, 5-8 pm
 Local Foods BBQ and a Make-Your-Own Sundae Social, using local ice creams and toppings generously donated by Bart's Homemade Ice Cream of Greenfield; Blue Moon Sorbet of Quechee, Vermont; Maple Valley Creamery of Hadley; SoCo Creamery of Great Barrington; and Tierra Farm of Valatie, New York.
All profits from the BBQ and social benefit the Berkshire Food Project that provides free lunches to all in need, Monday through Friday at the First Congregational Church in North Adams. Berkshire Food Project is also a partner in Share the Bounty.
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Bascom Lodge, Sunday, July 15, 6 pm
Stories from the food front:
cheese, chocolate, wine and more
 Event is free and open to the public.
A prix fixe dinner after the talk at 7 pm requires reservations. Call: 413-743-1591, or email: mail@bascomlodge.net.
Directions here Bascom Lodge
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 July 18th at 7 pm,
The Triplex Cinema,
Great Barrington, MA
"Fixing the Future: Building Local Jobs, Income & Sustainability"
Cosponsors: New Economics Institute, Berkshire Grown, The Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires, BerkShares, Project Native, Railroad Street Youth Project, Greenagers, and the Great Barrington Land Conservancy will join dozens of other organizations across the country in a one-night-only event to celebrate local, sustainable economies.
Tickets are $9 for adults and $6.50 for children and seniors and are available at the door or online at the Triplex's website.
The documentary will be followed by an exclusive onscreen discussion panel.
In Fixing the Future, host David Brancaccio (of public radio's Marketplace and NOW on PBS) visits locations across America where people are attempting a revolution: the reinvention of the American economy. By featuring communities using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, Fixing the Future inspires hope and renewal across a country overwhelmed by an economic collapse. Fixing the Future was produced by JumpStart Productions.
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Farmers Markets are open!
Hurray!!!!!!!!!! Support your local farmer
Tuesdays (except Third Thursdays): * Pittsfield Farmers' Market on North Street
Wednesdays: * Berkshire Area Farmers' Market at Lanesborough
Thursdays:
* West Stockbridge Farmers' Market
* Farmers' Market at CHP in Great Barrington
* Third Thursday Pittsfield Farmers Market
Fridays:
* Lenox Farmers' Market
* The Sheffield Farmers' Market
Saturdays:
* Berkshire Area Farmers Market at Lanesborough
* Berkshire Community Market opens June 16 at Berkshire South
* Great Barrington Farmers' Market
* Otis Farmers Market
* Pittsfield Farmers' Market, Park Square
* Norfolk Farmers' Market
* Williamstown Farmers' Market
Thanks to Nichole Calero for the photo.
FIND FARMERS' MARKETS on MAP-O-LICIOUS
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Berkshire Grown is proud to announce the publication of our 2012
Buyer's Guide to Locally Grown Food, Flowers and Plants!
The Guide has up-to-date information about regional farmers' markets and Berkshire Grown member farms. Listings are by town and include contact information, websites and hours.
Places with free Farm Guides listed here
Photo of rooster at Second Hand Farm, Great Barrington, by Jonathan Hankin.
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| What We're Reading
To Tackle an Invasive Weed, Bringing In the Hooved Pros
By LISA W. FODERARO
 "On a sweltering afternoon on Staten Island, the New York City parks department unveiled its latest weapon in the war on phragmites, an invasive weed that chokes the shoreline: goats. Twenty Anglo-Nubians, to be exact. With names like Mozart, Haydn and Van Goat, and with floppy ears and plaintive bleats, they did not seem fearsome. But on Thursday they were already munching inexorably through the long pale leaves in the first phase of a wetland restoration at what will soon be Freshkills Park.
" Known for their unending, indiscriminate appetites, the goats are being rented by the city for the next six weeks from a farmer in the Hudson Valley. Parks officials are counting on the goats to clear the phragmites across two acres of wetlands that will eventually be cultivated with native grasses like spartina and black needle rush. The hope is that the goats will weaken the phragmites, setting the stage for another series of assaults on their stubborn rhizomes - applying herbicide, scarifying the earth and laying down sand.
"But the farm animals are also being tested for their lawn-mowing prowess, especially at Freshkills Park, which is in transition from its former life as the world's largest landfill to its future one - as the largest park to be developed in New York City in more than a century.
How farm animals are helping manage vegetation in the NYTIMES here
Photo by Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Photo of Larry Cihanek, his daughter Lauren, and some of the goats they have leased to the city to clear a stubborn kind of weed in what will soon be Freshkills Park.
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What We're Reading Marion Nestle on the Farm Bill "The Senate Passes its version of the Farm Bill, now what?" read here  "It's difficult to know what to say about a 1010-page bill that affects literally hundreds of programs, some big, some small, at such astronomical cost-an expected $97 billion per year. The bill is so big and so complex that it is unreasonable to expect legislators to understand it well enough to vote on it intelligently. Think of it as a prime example of special interests in action.
"I've been collecting e-mailed responses from various groups. From these, it's seems that the food movement scored a few wins along with plenty of losses. First the wins. The United Fresh produce association is happy that the bill provides for: - Specialty Crop Block Grants funded at $70 million per year
- Specialty Crop Research Initiative funded at $25 million in FY13; $30 million in FY14-15; $65 million in FY16; $50 million in FY17
- Plant Pest and Disease Program funded at $60 million in FY13-16 and $65 million in FY17
- Market Access Program and Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops fully funded at 2008 Farm Bill levels
- Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program fully funded at 2008 Farm Bill levels
- Hunger-Free Communities Grant Program for fruit and vegetable SNAP incentives
- Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program
- Section 32 specialty crop purchases funded at 2008 Farm Bill levels
- DoD Fresh program fully funded at $50 million per year consistent with 2008 levels
* It converts the 2008 pilot program to study the effectiveness of purchasing food aid locally and regionally to a full program funded at $40 million per year. * It tries to reduce dumping of food aid on developing country markets.
Everyone else is mixed or skeptical:
* From Food and Water Watch: "Today, the U.S. Senate passed a farm bill that left the largest agribusiness and food processing companies firmly in control of America's food system."
* From the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: "While the bill includes historic commodity payment limit reforms and renewed investments in a variety of sustainable farm and food programs...[it] would benefit greatly from more agriculture reform, a greater local and regional food focus, and a much greater commitment to economic development and jobs...We are also disappointed with the $3.7 billion cut to conservation programs on working farms and ranches."
* From the Environmental Working Group: "While we do not support this bill, we applaud the provisions that require farmers who receive crop insurance subsidies to carry out basic environmental protections on their farms and to reduce insurance subsidies for the largest and most successful agribusinesses."
Originally appeared on Nestle's site "Food Politics" |
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Quick Bites
DISCOVER THE:
Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Market
a 24 hour Farmers' Market!
Berkshire Grown created a Facebook page called Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Marketplace - a central place for Berkshire Grown members to congregate and talk supply and demand.
Thanks for the photo to Christopher Blair
Self-propelled by Berkshire Grown members, the page benefits 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.
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 will come out twice a month, around the 1st & 15th, during the growing season. 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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Meet farmers from: