We are pleased to confirm that the farmers market will take place on the town common. The Board of Selectmen, Sustainable Winchester, and downtown merchants worked together to make this location possible. Thank you to everyone who showed support by attending the recent public hearing or otherwise expressing an opinion.
 
Please try to ride your bike or walk to the market if possible, or park your car in the Aberjona or Shore Road lot to leave parking spaces surrounding the common open for short-term parking near downtown businesses.. Just as the downtown businesses have supported the farmers market, let's make a special effort to support them on farmers market days and during the rest of the week.

At the beginning of the market in June, most farmers are at the beginning of their growing season, and much less produce will be available than there will be later in the year. Some of the vendors will not start coming to the market until early July, when more of their produce is ready. In our weekly newsletter, we will tell you what's in season and available at the farmers market each week. You will get another newsletter just before opening day with an update about the farmers and other vendors who will be at the market on June 14 and the products they will have available.
 
Featured entertainment on opening day includes the adult jazz ensemble "It Don't Mean a Thing" (9:30-11:30) and the Winchester High School a capella group the Octets (12:00-12:30).

June 14
9:30am-11:30am
Adult Jazz Ensemble  "It Don't Mean a Thing"
Consists of mostly Winchester residents who met at the Winchester Community Music School. They play jazz: ballads, standards, swing, be-bop, and more.
 
12:00pm - 12:30pm
Octets
Winchester High School A capella group
Twenty rotating students from grades 10-12 perform pop a cappella music, which they arrange themselves. They release a CD each year and will be recording their next CD the week of June 16. This ensemble was formed over 20 years ago by Mrs. Lynne Rahmeier, former Director of Music in Winchester.
 
June 21
Official Opening Ceremonies (schedule to come)
10:00am-12:30pm
Children's Musical Activities
Winchester Community Music School
Adriana Ausch-Simmel and Eiko Ishizuka
Children will be able to participate in playful songs, chants, and movement games.
 
June 28
Brian Goodell
Jazz band

You may have attended farmers markets before, or the farmers market might be a new experience. At a farmers market, the farmers who grow produce or raise animals for meat, eggs, or milk sell directly to customers. You can select from an exciting array of seasonal fruit, vegetables, herbs, and potted plants, as well as eggs, meat, seafood, cheese, honey, maple syrup, baked goods, and other foods produced locally. You will meet the people who are actually growing or producing the food you eat. Most farmers enjoy answering questions about their produce and about farming in general.
 
In addition to all of the food available for purchase, a farmers market is a community event that is enjoyable in its own right. You will see your friends and neighbors, and meet people who live in Winchester and neighboring communities. Local music and theater performers will perform each week, and eventually we hope that local craftspeople will demonstrate traditional, local crafts.

By shopping at a farmers market, you benefit your family and community, support local farmers and the local economy, and take action to preserve the environment.
 
You and your family will be eating produce that is at its peak of freshness, which means that it is at its most flavorful and nutritious. Most grocery store produce (even organic produce) is picked before peak ripeness and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to be sold. When crops are picked before the optimal time, they are not as flavorful and they lose nutritional value from the time they are picked while waiting to be shipped, stocked, and sold. At a farmers market, you will learn and think more about how your food is produced and become more in tune with the seasons. As a community event, a farmers market enhances a community by providing an opportunity for customers, farmers, performers, and craftspeople to gather and share their experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm in a fun, festive environment.
 
Local farmers depend upon the sale of their produce for their livelihood. By shopping at a farmers market, you are part of what makes it possible for local farmers to stay in business. When farmers can sell directly to customers, instead of through a chain of distributors, they can retain more of their profit. Many farmers who participate in farmers markets work on family farms that have been operating for generations and depend on local customers to survive. Local farms usually employ local workers and are an important part of a thriving local economy.
 
Shopping at a farmers market is a way to promote environmental sustainability. Local farms play an important role in preserving open space and healthy ecosystems. Because local farmers have a personal and economic investment in the land they farm, they follow organic and/or sustainable* practices to protect and enrich their farmland and to produce the most nutritious, safe, and flavorful produce possible. Local farms usually grow many different crops, and crop biodiversity is important for healthy natural ecosystems.
 
* Because the organic certification process is quite complex, some farmers who use organic methods do not get certified but still follow organic and sustainable methods.

 

The following chart shows the times of year that seasonal produce is available in Massachusetts.

 

 

The most important way that you can support the farmers market is to attend and buy from the participating farmers.
 
Sustainable Winchester is a nonprofit organization that relies on grants, donations, and volunteers. The launching of the Winchester Farmers Market has been an entirely volunteer effort supported by a small grant from the New England Wind Fund. The Winchester Farmers Market gratefully accepts donations to support the many costs of successfully launching and running the market. Donate here. You are also welcome to participate in the various planning and weekly activities necessary for running the market. Email us if you are interested.

Two months ago, Sustainable Winchester asked Winchester residents to make a donation to support clean energy wind turbine projects in New England. If 150 residents made a donation, Winchester would win a free solar panel. The Solar Challenge has been an overwhelming success! The response has been astounding. To date, 240 families have made donations! The deadline has been extended, and if another 60 families make donations, for a total of 300, Winchester will receive two solar arrays instead of one.
 
Thanks to everyone who has given so far; we are guaranteed one solar panel. Help us get another. Here's how: If 60 more Winchester families make a tax-deductible contribution to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's New England Wind Fund by June 30, the Fund will provide and install two 2-kilowat photovoltaic solar panels (a total value of $50,000) on the roof of the high school. They come with software that will create an excellent teaching tool and learning opportunity for students in all of our schools.
 
The New England Wind Fund supports renewable wind power in Massachusetts by buying renewable energy certificates from wind power projects in New England. It's also helping to build a wind farm in Princeton, Mass, where the town voted 74 percent in favor of the project. Please note that the Solar Challenge is not connected with Cape Wind on Cape Cod.
 
To make your donation go to www.newenglandwind.org and click "Community Solar Challenge." Or, call Mass Energy Consumers Alliance at 617-524-3950. Do it soon! We need to get the 300 donations by no later than June 30 to qualify for the second solar panel.
 
Thanks for supporting lower-cost, sustainable energy in Winchester!

The Winchester Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Winchester Home and Garden Club is sponsoring Winchester Gardens on Tour on Friday, June 13, 2008, from 10 am to 4 pm. Tickers are available at Book Ends in Winchester center. $20 in advance, $25 day of tour.