Happy Winter!
On what just might be the coldest and snowiest of winter days, we thought it was high time to check in and send some warm FarmShare greetings your way.
We're using the quiet months of winter to get organized and plan for our upcoming 2011 season. We received wonderful feedback from our 2010 subscribers (thank you to all who completed the survey!). We're hard at work on improvements that will streamline FarmShare ordering and deliveries and make the FarmShare experience even more fun.
This weekend, we're headed to State College, PA for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference. We're looking forward to wonderful and informative workshops on topics such as "Innovation in Local Food System Development", "Getting the Most Nutrition from Your Harvest", and "Save our Seeds (SOS): Strategies to Curb Corporate Control & Promote Local Control" which will be led by Andrew Kimbrell of The Center for Food Safety. We'll pick up loads of new ideas and reconnect with farmer friends from throughout the region. In a couple weeks, we'll be doing more farmer networking and learning at the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Conference. And in between, we're meeting with farmers and planning the 2011 harvest.
Sadly, we won't be offering winter FarmShare deliveries this year. Relentless winter weather as well as the necessary winter planning we need to do here has hampered our delivery plans. But we will have exciting news about our 2011 season and subscription information available in early April. If you'd like to receive updates, please consider joining our mailing list.
While you might think that fresh produce is somewhat limited during the winter months -- think again. Local farmers have a variety of root vegetables, greens, garlic and other tasty produce available. In addition, winter is a great time to go local with your meat and dairy purchases or try local grains like corn meal or oatmeal (a staple winter breakfast in the FarmShare kitchen). Locally produced jams, honey and maple syrup are also plentiful. We encourage you to support the thriving winter farmers' market scene in Northeast Ohio. Several Saturday markets have sprouted up where you can find all these goodies and more. A couple of our favorites are listed below.
Countryside Winter Farmers' Markets at Old Trail School
Saturdays, twice a month, from 9am-noon
February 5 & 19; March 12 & 26; April 9 & 23
Old Trail School, 2315 Ira Road, Akron
Winter Market at Lucky Penny Creamery
Saturdays, 9am-noon
Lucky Penny Creamery, 632 Temple Ave., Kent
So, it may be cold and (very) snowy outside but we're looking forward to a fresh and fruitful 2011! Stay warm and we'll see you soon.