CSAs: Why they are good for both consumers and farmers!
Winter’s just about here. Long cold days and early nights give us time to reflect on many things, including our relationship with our food and where it comes from. Before the 2012 growing season starts, learn more about community supported agriculture and how it may just make our communities more healthy, economically secure and preserve the Ag Reserve to boot.
Make friends with a Reserve farmer. It’s a relationship that could last a long lifetime!
Satellite Image: The Reserve’s Success Story
If you ask yourself whether the creation of the Ag Reserve 30 years ago really made a difference, you need look no further than the satellite view of Montgomery County, MD and Loudon County, VA. The mighty Potomac bisects this image and provides natural divide to one area preserved in forest, field and historic rural villages and the other now dense with pavement, rooftop right to the river’s edge and distant from growth centers with public transit. The one strip of green at River’s edge in Virginia? It is Donald Trump’s golf course which removed over 1 mile of tree line at the Potomac’s edge.
One jurisdiction looked for solutions to regional food, natural resource protection, infrastructure costs and recreational needs – the other- prudent planning not in evidence with sprawling subdivisions and commercial properties inaccessible by transit.
Take a moment to tour the MCA web site to learn more about the Reserve, its farms and our collective work to ensure their perpetual preservation!
MC Food Council: Now Taking Applications
News: The Montgomery County Food Council will launch in February. In case you haven’t heard, the Council aims to bring together a diverse representation of stakeholders in a public and private partnership to improve the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of Montgomery County through the creation of a robust, local, sustainable food system.
The first meeting will be held February 15th from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM (location to be determined). All meetings will be open to the public and community involvement is encouraged, so please consider joining us!
The Food Council will be comprised of 13 – 17 diverse stakeholders including individual members, professionals, private businesses, government officials, community organizations, and educational institutions that broadly represent the food system both substantively and geographically. Council Member applications are now being accepted through January 13th so please consider applying. Visit www.mocofoodcouncil.org to get more information and apply.
Food Day on October 24th: Announcement of New MC Food Council
FOOD COUNCIL FORMING … Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal (speaking) and County Executive Isiah Leggett (third from left) on Oct. 24 helped the County celebrate the first national “Food Day” by formally announcing that the County will soon have a ‘Food Council.” The Food Council will work toward Food Day’s mission of bringing together residents from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. Among those at the Food Day ceremonies at Farmland Elementary School in Rockville were, left to right: Jessica Weiss of growingSOUL; Woody Woodroof of the Red Wiggler Community Farm; Marla Caplon of the Montgomery County Public Schools food service program; Julie Greenstein of the Center for Science in the Public Interest; Claire Cummings, new coordinator of the Food Council; and Caroline Taylor of the Montgomery Countryside Alliance. Also present, though not pictured, Food Council Advisory Committee Member, Dolores Milmoe of Audubon Naturalist Society.
County Executive Announces Board Vacancies
The deadline for application is November 16, 2011.
County Executive Seeks Applicants for Agricultural Advisory Committee
County Executive Isiah Leggett is seeking applicants to fill seven vacancies on the Agricultural Advisory Committee. Four positions are for bona fide farmers selected to represent the total farm community, and three positions are to be filled by non-farmers.
The 15-member committee advises the County Executive and County Council on all matters affecting agriculture in the County. Membership includes farmers, non-farmers, and at least one farm economist and one conservationist.
Farmer representatives serve three-year terms and non-farmer members serve one-year terms. Members serve without compensation, but are eligible for reimbursement for travel and dependent care for meetings attended. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday evening of each month in Germantown.
Contact: Beth Gochrach, 240-777-2528
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Leggett Seeks Applicants for Rustic Roads Advisory Committee
County Executive Isiah Leggett is seeking applicants to fill three vacancies on the Rustic Roads Advisory Committee. The vacancies are for: a member of a civic association located outside the agricultural reserve; a person with knowledge of rural preservation techniques; and an owner/operator of commercial farmland in the County earning 50% or more of his/her income from farming. All members must beMontgomery County residents. The representative of the civic association and the person with knowledge of rural preservation are eligible to apply for reappointment.
The Rustic Roads Advisory Committee consists of seven voting members. Its duties include promoting public awareness of the Rustic Roads Program, reviewing and commenting on the classification of rustic roads, and reviewing and commenting on executive regulations and policies that may affect the program.
Members serve three-year terms without compensation, but are eligible for reimbursement for travel and dependent care for meetings attended. The committee meets at least six times per year; usually the fourth Tuesday evening of each month at 7:00 PM in the Executive Office Building in Rockville.
Contact: Beth Gochrach, 240-777-2528
Local Food Goes Digital
Monday, Nov. 7th, 6-8:30pm
Chef Tony’s Restaurant
4926 St. Elmo Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814
Drinks, Appetizers, Discussion and Networking
As part of D.C. Tech Week, join us for cocktails and appetizers at Chef Tony’s Restaurant that specializes in seasonal, fresh and locally-grown cuisine. Learn how Foodem.com, a web-based marketplace, is connecting local farmers, food distributors and specialty food manufacturers with restaurants, schools, hotels and grocers. By doing so, Foodem.com enables the sustainable food movement by satisfying the growing consumer and business demand for more local, sustainably-produced, and healthier food choices.
Cocktails and appetizers will be available at a discounted price and part of the sales will be donated to Montgomery Countryside Alliance, preserving and enhancing Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve.
Please RSVP by November 6th, click here.
Read more about Local Food Goes Digital here.
Sponsors and Speakers:
Cheryl Kollin, Principal, Full Plate Ventures, will discuss the local, sustainable food movement in our region and the barriers small-producers face in getting their products to market.
Kash Rahman, Founder and CEO, Foodem.com, will discuss how this online marketplace disrupts conventional supply chain and fills the gap between wholesale food buyers and sellers.
Tony Marciante, Chef and Owner, Chef Tony’s Restaurant, will discuss buying local and choosing the freshest ingredients as the basis of his daily menu and how he uses Foodem to buy more local food while streamlining his business.
Permanently Protect your Natural, Historic, and Scenic Resources!
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. – Native American Proverb
If you are a landowner in Maryland, particularly within the Agriculture Reserve, please familiarize yourself with the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET). Their mission is to provide landowners with the tools needed to preserve valuable landscapes, farmland, historic sites, etc. for all to appreciate, generations to come. MET is a statewide leader in land conservation. Consider placing an easement on your land not only for the economic benefits to you, but also to your family and the natural environment. Now is the time, consider leaving a legacy!
Learn more about the Maryland Environmental Trust.
8th Annual Small Farm Conference Coming Soon
Calling all farmers, landowners and supporters of agriculture! The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is hosting their 8th annual Small Farm Conference this November. Anyone interested in networking and learning about new strategies that promote farm profitability and sustainability is welcome.
Their 2011 conference theme ―Sustaining Small Farms – 360 Degrees, offers a holistic approach to helping farmers. From providing the latest technologies in production agriculture to offering new ideas on alternative ag-related ventures and by training farmers on how to become more business and marketing savvy to providing practical suggestions on how to improve their quality of life, the conference program will take farmers on a 360 degree journey to successful farm living. For more information or to Register click here.
Got Gourds? Reserve Farms Do!
It’s that lovely time of year! Take a few minutes to read the history of Jack-o-Lantern carving, find a pumpkin of your own, and make a masterpiece! See below for a list of farms that provide Fall goodies…
- photo courtesy Hilary Schwab
- photo courtesy Hilary Schwab
Check out these local farms with pumpkins and fun aplenty:
Kingbury’s Orchard
Good Life Farm
Comus Market
Lewis Orchard
Homestead Farm
Butler’s Orchard
Rockhill Orchard
Phillip’s Farm
Seneca Schoolhouse “Back to School Afternoon”
September 26, 2011
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We cordially invite you to a “Back to School Afternoon” on Saturday, October 15th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Seneca Schoolhouse Museum at 16800 River Road, Poolesville, Maryland. Take a “trip back in time” to experience a class session in a one-room 19th century schoolhouse, and help us celebrate our thirty-year association wit hthe Museum. Our honored guest speaker will be Knight Kiplinger, President, The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Also, Perry and Robert Kapsch will introduce their long-awaited “Standing Stones: A History of Seneca Maryland” which will be available for sale and signing by the authors. Wine and light refreshments will be served.
Built in 1866, the Seneca Schoolhouse is a primary resource in the Seneca Historic District as listed in the National Register of Historic Places. For the past thirty years, thousands of children from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have traveled back in time to attend a four-hour classroom session taught by a trained and period-costumed teacher. The program, coordinated around the local history curriculum taught in second through fifth grades, is loved by all the young “time travelers.” For more information on the history of the Schoolhouse, please visit our website atwww.historicmedley.org.
Because the years have taken their toll on the stone and wood building and the surrounding yard and parking area, the building is now in need of extensive repairs. We owe a huge “thank you” to Knight Kiplinger and the Kiplinger Foundation for their generous financial support for some of the current repairs and replacements. But, we would like to establish a fund to support these maintenance projects. We ask for your financial help to keep this living museum thriving for generations of children coming along. Children today live in a very technologically advanced world. HMD, through the Seneca Schoolhouse, would like them to experience a school day before computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, Kindles, and hundreds of other gadgets that all children now think they can’t live without.
R.S.V.P. to info@historicmedley.org or 301-972-8588 by October 12.
Maureen O’Connell Sharon Bauer Jean Findlay
