The April 20th deadline is fast approaching!  New and renewing members of the buy local campaign for regional restaurant, food, farm and retail businesses can register easily online...TODAY!

New this year: regional wood products businesses are invited to join Pure Catskills too. Membership benefits include a listing in the print Guide to Local Products (50,000 copies to be distributed in May) and group promotions like the Pure Catskills Holiday Gift Guide, rack cards, and feature articles like the one mentioned below. Point of purchase materials, a dedicated web page at BuyPureCatskills.com, and sales opportunities through PureCatskillsMarketplace.com are all perks of becoming a Pure Catskills member!

Get in the Guide TODAY and upgrade your listing with a display ad. For advertising information, contact Tia Blaber of ColorPage Publishing (800) 836-7581. For membership information, contact Farm to Market Manager Sonia Janiszewski, (607) 865-7090, ext. 217.   

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A CSA line-up: Berry Brook Farm at Stony Creek Farm

Local farmers are putting the "C" back in Community by offering more than a box of produce each week. In the April 2013 Catskill Mountain Region Guide, 15 Pure Catskill members offering CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, are featured in "This Ain't Your Grandma's CSA" on page 8. Circle back each month to read our monthly column, Fresh From the Catskills.

Craving more love? Read this Pure Catskills blog post "Sharing the Love Through CSA" and print off  the 2013 Pure Catskills CSA brochure to share with a friend.   

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Love shovels and dirty fingernails? Gain a sense of accomplishment by joining the the Croton Watershed chapter of Trees for Tribs. They regularly spearhead volunteer days planting trees, shrubs and bushes as streambank fortifiers. Riparian buffers are also an integral part of the clean drinking water equation. Check out the video at left of volunteers planting at Angle Fly Preserve, Somers, in October 2012. To learn more about Trees for Tribs, contact Watershed Forester Brendan Murphy.  

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Over the last three months, we've added a few staff members ready to help you with conservation easements, whole farm plans and other water quality business at your farm or woodland property. Be on the lookout for:

 

Rob Birdsall, Small Farms Coordinator

Eleanor Blakeslee-Drain, Catskills FarmLink Coordinator

Derrick Kelly, Engineering Technician 

Patti Shulman, East of Hudson Program Assistant

John Van BenSchoten, Easement Stewardship Specialist

Mackenzie Waro, Easement Stewardship Specialist

 

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Our goal is to raise $10,000 this year. With your donation to the Council's Conservation Easement Stewardship Endowment Fund, you can help us protect over 23,000 acres of watershed farmland -- Donate Now!    

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Kudos to...Board member Sally Fairbairn for sharing her perspective on the Farm to Market Connection as a guest blogger
Article: Farmstand Favorites Cookbook (Page 10, Catskill Mountain Region Guide March 2013)
Website: Farm Hack (Young Farmers)
Grant: Fund-a-Farmer Project due May 1 (Food Animal Concerns Trust)
Blog: Beef Cattle Management (Cornell)
Webinar: Farm Finances: Organizing and Understanding Your Numbers (ATTRA)
Funding: Microloans up to $35,000 (USDA) Guide:  Guide to Urban Farming in NYS (Cornell Small Farms Program)
Website: Clean Water Network

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