Tasty treats like fava beans at early farmers markets
Yes, we’re still getting occasional snow flurries in Mt. Shasta in late May, but farmers market season it on it’s way! (Sorry, so excited that I rhymed.) I just got an email that the Mt. Shasta Monday farmers market is set to open on June 7th. The market is held on the north end of downtown on Mondays from 3:30-6:00pm. Growers will be coming from the Shasta Valley and Orleans on the Klamath River with early season crops – think garlic and greens. There will also be plant starts for those of you who want to plant your own gardens. It’s not the only market that will soon be starting, I’ve posted the market schedule for all of Siskiyou County below.
And a reminder to folks, the Egg Buyers Club is midway through its 6-week trial period. This week there are everbearing strawberry starts and next week they’ll have organic veggie and flower starts from Healthy Gardens for sale at the pick up location (see the post below). The eggs at the buying club come from two farms in the Shasta Valley, and members of the club can read about those farms and their practices when they buy eggs. This is project that will only continue if it gets solid, consistent support. I know a lot of people are looking to fresh, local eggs – this is your chance! So get down to the drop point at 630 N Mt. Shasta Blvd anytime between 10AM-4PM, Monday thru Friday.
Siskiyou County Farmers Markets
Dunsmuir market – Certified market
Saturdays 9:30-12:30 in Children’s Park on Dunsmuir Ave
Starts 1st weekend in July through last weekend in Sept.
Mt. Shasta – Certified markets
Mondays 3:30-6pm on Mt. Shasta Blvd
Thursday 3:30-6pm on Mt. Shasta Blvd
Monday starts 2nd week of June thru mid October
Thursday starts week after 4th of July thru mid October
Montague Market
Saturdays 9am-noon at Railroad Park
Starts first weekend in June
McCloud Market – Non-certified market
Saturdays 10am-1pm at General Store parking lot
Fort Jones Market – Non-certified market
Tuesdays starts 5:30pm at Ray’s parking lot
Starts in July
Yreka Market – Certified market
Wednesdays 11am-2pm in parking on Main Street just south of Olberlin Road (1209 S. Main St)
Starts June 9th thru mid October
Big Springs Market
Tuesdays 2:30-6pm at Mayten Store
Lake Shastina Market
Thursdays 2:30-6pm, location TBA
by Renee on May 13, 2010
Farm fresh eggs in a convenient spot in Mt. Shasta – great news for folks looking for local food! This has been circulating for a few days now as our first local egg buyers club is set to start on May 17th. This is another brilliant idea from the folks at Kid Creek Farm – many, many thanks to Shawna and Jacob. They’ve set up a location in downtown Mt. Shasta where farmers can drop off their eggs and shoppers can drop by Mon-Fri to pick up eggs. They did this in part to help out a farmer in the Shasta Valley who has way too many chickens to be selling one dozen at a time, but can’t sell through retail outlets because of that whole USDA-regulation thing. So here we have a wonderful, local-food based option in the egg buyers club. You’ll have to join the club (for a $1 lifetime membership) so you can legally buy eggs – it’s another one of those loophole tactics. If you want to learn more about why local food is so highly regulated, visit the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund site. I’m not going to climb up on my local food soap box just now, really I just want to spread the word about this fabulous opportunity. Go get some eggs!
Here is Shawna’s explanation of the club:
In effort to meet our community’s desire for locally produced eggs, you are invited to participate in an experimental model for connecting farmers and backyard egg producers with local consumers.
For the next 6 weeks we shall learn if this model is viable and desired in this community! Your participation, or lack thereof, will determine whether or not there is a demand on the part of consumers for locally produced eggs, whether the model will continue.
Here’s how it works:
1. Beginning Monday May 17th, come by 630 N Mt. Shasta Blvd. (Ridgecrest Mortgage), anytime Mon-Fri, 10AM-4PM.
2. The first time you come, sign up to become an “Egg Buyers Club Member” by providing your name, email address and/or phone number, and a $1 lifetime membership fee. (The eggs will not be sold “retail” but rather this model is for the private sale of eggs directly from farms to buyers club members.)
3. Choose your eggs from the designated egg refrigerator.
4. Leave your payment in cash, with the correct change. (At this time, only cash will be accepted. In time, other means of payment will be possible.)
A few questions you may have:
1. How much do the eggs cost?
Buyers club eggs cost $5 per dozen. This price fairly compensates the producer, and covers the cost of the administration and commercial space required to provide the convenience of a downtown pickup location. It also produces a tiny profit than can then serve as capital for more infrastructure (another refrigerator, larger location, etc) should this model grow. Purchasing eggs this way allows you to invest in this project!
2. How many eggs will be available through the buyers club?
During the trial phase, we will attempt to distribute 40 dozen locally produced eggs per week. As demand grows, we will continue to add more producers to meet the demand.
3. How will I know where my eggs come from, and how they are produced?
Each participating producer will affix a label to their cartons, and will fill out a “Producer Information Sheet” detailing their growing practices and providing contact information. Information Sheets will be posted on site for the buyers to access.
4. How fresh will the eggs be?
Producers may only drop off eggs that are no older than one week.
A note about the shelf-life of eggs: Eggs kept under refrigeration have a very long shelf life of six months or more. On average, grocery store eggs are over one month old by the time they hit the shelves. Additionally, unwashed eggs wll remain fresh for 3 weeks or more unrefrigerated due to a special coating that is left on the shell with the egg is laid. Unwashed eggs have an extraordinarily long shelf-life.
5. Will there be other local food products available?
This is certainly possible in the future if this model proves viable. We would love to see this project be the embryonic stage of a local food distribution system.
by Renee on April 27, 2010
I came across the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture today on Facebook and loved reading it. What really struck me is that some one or a group of people took the time and energy to sit down and formulate this. I’ve been thinking, writing and talking about local food systems, but not to this degree. I found the scope of the work inspiring. View the Declaration at http://fooddeclaration.org/ and sign it if you like it. Enjoy:
We, the undersigned, believe that a healthy food system is necessary to meet the urgent challenges of our time. Behind us stands a half-century of industrial food production, underwritten by cheap fossil fuels, abundant land and water resources, and a drive to maximize the global harvest of cheap calories. Ahead lie rising energy and food costs, a changing climate, declining water supplies, a growing population, and the paradox of widespread hunger and obesity.
These realities call for a radically different approach to food and agriculture. We believe that the food system must be reorganized on a foundation of health: for our communities, for people, for animals, and for the natural world. The quality of food, and not just its quantity, ought to guide our agriculture. The ways we grow, distribute, and prepare food should celebrate our various cultures and our shared humanity, providing not only sustenance, but justice, beauty and pleasure.
Governments have a duty to protect people from malnutrition, unsafe food, and exploitation, and to protect the land and water on which we depend from degradation. Individuals, producers, and organizations have a duty to create regional systems that can provide healthy food for their communities. We all have a duty to respect and honor the laborers of the land without whom we could not survive. The changes we call for here have begun, but the time has come to accelerate the transformation of our food and agriculture and make its benefits available to all.
We believe that the following twelve principles should frame food and agriculture policy, to ensure that it will contribute to the health and wealth of the nation and the world. A healthy food and agriculture policy:
1. Forms the foundation of secure and prosperous societies, healthy communities, and healthy people.
2. Provides access to affordable, nutritious food to everyone.
3. Prevents the exploitation of farmers, workers, and natural resources; the domination of genomes and markets; and the cruel treatment of animals, by any nation, corporation or individual.
4.Upholds the dignity, safety, and quality of life for all who work to feed us.
5.Commits resources to teach children the skills and knowledge essential to food production, preparation, nutrition, and enjoyment.
6. Protects the finite resources of productive soils, fresh water, and biological diversity.
7. Strives to remove fossil fuel from every link in the food chain and replace it with renewable resources and energy.
8. Originates from a biological rather than an industrial framework.
9. Fosters diversity in all its relevant forms: diversity of domestic and wild species; diversity of foods, flavors and traditions; diversity of ownership.
10. Requires a national dialog concerning technologies used in production, and allows regions to adopt their own respective guidelines on such matters.
11. Enforces transparency so that citizens know how their food is produced, where it comes from, and what it contains.
12. Promotes economic structures and supports programs to nurture the development of just and sustainable regional farm and food networks.
Our pursuit of healthy food and agriculture unites us as people and as communities, across geographic boundaries, and social and economic lines. We pledge our votes, our purchases, our creativity, and our energies to this urgent cause.
by Renee on March 27, 2010
I hold in my hand my farm share owner receipt from Kidd Creek Farm – today was sign up and orientation day for our local goat milk and cheese herd share. This morning 25 to 30 people stood in the chilly barn sampling goat cheese from the farm and sipping tea as Shawna and Leslie explained the ins and outs of herd share. Some of the folks were new, some returning from last year. The goat milk shares (14 or 17, I forget which) sold out in under 72 hours, so there were also some folks there hoping to find someone who would split their share with them. The basics of the herd share are this: you buy a portion of ownership in a goat, you pay a portion of its boarding fees for a whole year, and then you pay your weekly labor fee for milk or cheese (or both!). I believe it was $17 for goat ownership and $50 for boarding fees, if you didn’t already purchase ownership in an animal last year. Then it’s $10/week labor fee for a gallon of milk. Yeah, $10 a gallon, plus the $67 you pay up front. It’s totally worth it.
I had never had goat milk until I heard about the herd share last year. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it because my mom and dad both said they didn’t like it at all. Well, after one taste I was hooked. When I tasted it early last summer it put me in mind of spring grass and flowers bathed in sunshine (perhaps that’s the writer in me). Plus, herd share owners get to go to the farm to pick up our milk. That alone is a major draw for me. Kidd Creek has 11 acres of grass – well it’s not all grass. There is a huge garden that keeps getting bigger, a couple of barns and pond. But there is also grass: beautiful pastures with content cows and goats grazing in this mellow, unhurried way that acts as a balm to a day full of rushing around with work and chores. Time moves differently on a farm, and I get to experience that every time I go pick up my milk.
When there is extra cheese or farm fresh eggs, herd share owners can buy those things too. It was “just lovely” (to use Leslie’s phrase) to hang out in a barn watching people sample fresh milk, listen avidly to Shawna and Leslie and crowding into a stall to watch Buttercup the goat get milked. Leslie went through the whole process of milking so we would all know exactly what happens with our food source. They talked about what the animals eat, how they are cared for if they become injured or ill and where their food comes from (goats and cows want to eat locally too!). It was really a good, solid introduction into what it means to take part in a herd share. As they put it, entering into this agreement is similar to a CSA share: you take the risk with the farmer, and you are entitled to know how things work on the farm.
Shawna and Leslie also talked a little bit about why a herd share is necessary and why they can’t become a licensed dairy (they don’t have a spare $1 million lying around to meet regulations). The farm became a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which promotes herd shares as a means for local farms to legally sell their milk. They also mentioned that if you’re not used to raw milk, you should do some research to find out about the difference between raw and pasteurized milk – the Weston A. Price Foundation is a good source for this info.
So that’s the skinny on the herd share. Sounds like we’ll be waiting a few weeks for the milk to start. One of the ladies is expecting, and she’ll need a few weeks to nurse the little one before the milk goes to humans. If you know someone who has goats, cows or sheep and wants to sell the milk, the herd share is one option (if they want to be legal). The model at Kidd Creek Farm is the kind of thing we need to replicate all over the county and the nation so we can get milk from local sources. Shawna and Leslie are working to create something that can be recreated on other farms, so if you want to talk with them just let me know.
