Local Food Columbus » Uncategorized
Local Foods Week Starts Sept. 30th
Want to eat healthier, support the local economy, meet some new friends? Check out the festivities for Local Foods Week. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Meetings & Events, New Farmers, Uncategorized, Urban Farming
Food Safety Listening Session for Produce Growers
Ohio producers of fresh fruits and vegetables have an opportunity to attend a Listening Session to hear about the various groups who are working to address the proposed changes to how local food is produced in Ohio. This listening session provides the opportunity for growers to hear from experts in the food safety arena. Speaker will include researchers for Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center (OARDC), The Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association (OPGMA), and Dr. Karl Kolb, Chief Science Officer, The High Sierra Group. Participants will hear from these experts information about current regulations and the proposed changes to these regulations. Information will also be shared about what Ohio is doing to ensure the sustainability of Ohio’s produce growers. The Listening Session will be held on Oct. 19, 2009 … Read entire article »
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September thoughts on Harvest
It’s been a while since I posted. Lots happening here in Columbus. 4 Seasons City Farm is deep in the midst of planning the Fall Harvest Festival. Sept 26 at Mound and Carpenter (the Olde Town East part of Columbus), Then a few days later will be a canning workshop on tues the 29th at Central Community House at Main and Champion. Limited group for hands on learning with Susan Shockey from Cooperative Extension. If interested call Karen to sign up for this or other TBA workshops. MORPC is being asked to find funding for more experts such as Susan to teach both water bath and pressure canning techniques. Did you know that you can even can a turkey this way? … Read entire article »
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Defining Local Food
What does “local food” mean to you? As Bear wrote in SlowFood Columbus recently. As big food industry scrambles to redefine their products as “local”, we must keep in mind the values we embrace as we support local food. The locavore movement arose at a time when “local” meant not just “from nearby” but also “made by our neighbors,” “sustainable” and “not industrial.” As concepts go, it was the perfect storm of progressive foodie goodness: in one word it connoted fresh taste, a low carbon footprint and good farming practices, and appealing social values. - Bear, Slow Food Columbus, What is Local Food? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Local Food & Recipes, National, Uncategorized
Farmland Preservation Conference
I’m a Postin’ Fool today. There was so much to share that concerns local food in my emails. I’ve had good visits with the Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Brian Williams and a number of other movers and shakers. Many of whom will be at this event. Check it out. SAVE THE DATE – 10th Annual Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit – 11/5/9 http://cffpi.osu.edu/summit09.htm On November 5, 2009, the tenth annual Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit will take place at the new Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on the Ohio State University campus. For this landmark anniversary, we offer exciting and information-packed breakout sessions to inform and invigorate. There will also be exhibition space and a fresh produce market in the afternoon. To help us celebrate a decade of … Read entire article »
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Community Gardens are spreading. It’s a Gardenmonium
Community garden is seeing it’s renaissance this year. I recently attended the ACGA national conference and was really impressed with their mission and the quality of the lectures that were presented. I joined officially and have decided to host a dinner party at Cafe Bella as a way to show my support. Stay tuned for details. Drop me a line if you would be interested in attending. Got this from OEFFA. Hope you find it useful. *Community Garden Publication Now Available * AERO has released a new publication on community gardening. Building Community Gardens in Montana (PDF/10.5MB) contains tools, examples, resources and strategies for developing, funding and leading a community garden project in Montana. Based on the experience of Helena VISTA Volunteer organizers – this manual … Read entire article »
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OEFFA announcement
Here’s the latest news from OEFFA. This event has always been a fun and layed back event when held at Flying J Farm in Johnstown. Lots of good lectures. This is their first year at the new location. Enjoy. There was also a burst of chat on OEFFAdirect concerning coolers and refrigeration of meat and dairy at farm markets. Stay tuned for updates concerning these discussions. OEFFA is looking for volunteers for all or part of the day at our booth at the Ohio Green Living Fayre in Zanesville, Ohio on September 7 from 11a.m.-6 p.m. No skills or expertise required, just a willingness to have fun and talk with people interested in sustainable agriculture. Information about the event follows–there’s lots going on and it’s going to … Read entire article »
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Garden space available and a couple tips.
You can start planting your fall garden now. Learn what you can about cover cropping. Mixes of winter rye and hairy vetch can feed your soil and keep it from getting waterlogged and hard packed over a long cold winter. Mulch heavy. Better yet. plant cole and dark leafy greens crops that like cool weather and can be covered by plastic or glass for an extended harvest. Rule of thumb is to never have exposed dirt to the elements. The worms like a warm, yummy bed for the winter, too. Words to plant by. One note is that harvesting spinach later in the day, when cloudy and overcast reduces some toxic build up that happens when there are low light levels. … Read entire article »
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Bringing food to the Table! Your local politician’s table too!
Brian Williams sent this in for posting. He’s the new food policy representative at MORPC. His background is in farmland preservation. We still have between 500 and 800 farms each in Franklin County and the surrounding counties that could use all the help they can get to transition to produce and organic techniques. The ACGA would also like to see more funding for the growing urban farm movement as well. If you have food ideas for the mayor, city council, county commissioners, he’s the guy who could run them up the pole. Looking forward to any public forums and discussion groups this could spawn. Don’t forget to list your ideas, complaints here, too. There’s safety in numbers. I want to see our … Read entire article »
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Sunday in the Park with Karen Part 2
Me again. So it was a really good convention that kept me occupied the whole time. There are so many points of light to talk about. And I couldn’t find the time to do the twittering. But here’s the lowdown. It was a great experience. These people are really passionate about what gardening is and could be doing for everyone. They stressed the importance of having garden related questions included with the next census. Mapping gardens and having a true count of the yields could affect some very large amounts of money that would go towards programing such as Parks and Recreation activities, WIC programs that create food for those going to food pantries, programs such as the Cooperative Extension Master Garden’s program … Read entire article »
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