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We're back! For all our die-hard Local Mix subscribers, we've finally come out of our winter hibernation, with a new look for a new year. For those of you on the Edible Chesapeake email list, you will now hear from us regularly too, with our "mix" of news, seasonal food ideas, interviews, and observations pulled from our travels within the local food community of our region. In case you didn't see our announcement last week, we'll just mention again that we decided to merge the Local Mix newsletter with the newsletter of Edible Chesapeake magazine, because we both work on them both! It just makes more sense! While we'll now be sending the newsletter monthly, instead of bi-weekly, we'll be including the same kind of fun, timely tid-bits about local food. Please read on!
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Eating With Farmers  Besides soaking their aching feet and planning their crops for the spring, farmers who practice sustainable agriculture across the mid-Atlantic get together in winter to share best practices, learn new techniques and just have a good time. Best of all, no boring hotel food when you hang out with these farmers.
The conference of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming this weekend in Richmond is the last chance this season to hang out and eat with local farmers. Here's some of what we've enjoyed about the conference season so far. At the Future Harvest - CASA conference in January, all the meals for the day-and-a-half long meeting were made up primarily of ingredients sourced from dozens of local suppliers, including eggs like these beauties from Whitmore Farm in Taneytown. Food consultant Liz Wheeler worked with the chefs at the Four Points Sheraton in Hagerstown to ensure that all the great local meats, cheeses, produce, eggs and even ice cream were presented simply and deliciously.
In February, bounty from more than 50 regional farms and producers anchored three days of eating at the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Chefs Ken Stout and Mike Ditchfield at the Penn Stater Hotel served thousands during this three-day confab in State College, Pennsylvania.
But Renee was particularly impressed to open the room service menu at the Hilton Garden Inn where she stayed and see the words "Locally Grown - Organic." Harrison's Wine Grill is an independent chef-owned and operated restaurant that subscribes to a restaurant share from the Tait Farm CSA a few miles down the road. We look forward to the day when this will be the norm. |
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Winter Bounty Still Satisfies
If you weren't able to snag a copy of the winter Edible Chesapeake from your favorite distribution location, our regular feature Cooking Fresh is online so you can be sure you know what's in season now. There's also a list of year-round farmers markets throughout the area. And thanks to the local foodie who wrote to let us know that Leesburg also has a year-round market, which was inadvertently left off the list. |
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Maryland Hospitals Serving Local Food
As part of an overall effort to "green" their systems, some area hospitals are starting to serve more local foods, according to Louise Mitchell, the sustainable foods coordinator of the Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (MD H2E) program.
 "Hospitals are on board with this," said Mitchell, also a physical therapist, at the annual meeting of the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association in January. "It's really an easy sell."
Various hospitals are already purchasing local food and taking other steps like composting or hosting farmers markets, said Mitchell, who launched the program just last year. For example, Sinai Hospital, Carroll Hospital Center and Anne Arundel Medical Center, all in Maryland, signed the "Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge" in 2007, expressing their commitment to purchase local and sustainable foods, she said. Carroll Hospital Center also purchased produce from a farmer just 20 minutes away, as well as local beef, she said. Just two months after instituting some changes in purchasing decisions, another hospital was able to source half its produce from local and regional sources, she added.
The aim of her program -- which is grant-funded and operates through the University of Maryland School of Nursing -- is to improve "ecological health," she said. That includes improving the general well-being of communities, farm workers, farmers, patients, employees and visitors in hospitals. "It's really taking responsibility for a much broader definition of health food" than might be typically expected, she said. For more information, go to www.nofarm.org/us/food/issue, www.h2e.org or contact Mitchell at LMitc001@son.umaryland.edu.
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Sign Up for CSAs Now!  Don't forget to sign up for a community supported agriculture (CSA) program now, if you'd like to get local veggies and other farm products each week from one particular farm. Some drop off a box of farm goodies. Others allow, or even prefer, you to pick up. Some also sell chickens, eggs, flowers or all kinds of other farm products. For more information, go to our website on practical tips for finding, preparing and eating local food at www.realpeopleeatlocal.com, or click here. |
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The Art of Farming
 Maryland Artist Christina Allen
Folks interested in local food won't want to miss the artwork of Christina Allen. The painter doesn't just live off the land, raise sheep and poultry, and sell her food products to lucky locals. She also paints scenes depicting farmland, farms and the shoreline in southern Maryland.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association in Annapolis in January, Allen told about her experience homesteading, organic gardening and integrating art with farming near Lexington Park, MD. She and her husband Frank, originally a physicist, attempt to make or grow everything they need themselves. Along with their garden and orchard, they tend sheep, chickens and rare heritage Jersey Buff turkeys. Allen, who spins, dyes, weaves and knits her own wool, also sells wool products.
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Sincerely,
Renee and Kristi
Local Mix |
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Edible Chesapeake magazine celebrates the bounty of each season. Subscribe online for home delivery!
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We Want Your Photos!
We are looking for great photos from readers of farmers markets around Maryland, DC and Virginia for a new feature in Edible Chesapeake. Email your high resolution digital pics that show cool local food or interesting local people at your market to info@
ediblechesapeake.com.
Be sure to include the name and location of the market and the vendor or shoppers pictured, as well as your telephone and mail contact info. Can't wait to see what's happening in your neck of the woods! |
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