Local Food Northern Nevada

Locally grown Thanksgiving produce still available - sorry, no turkey for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:17:00 +0000

A few producers in the area grow traditional Thanksgiving fare and it’s not too late to buy some for your family. Briefly, here’s what I know.
The turkey farmers are sold out for the 2009 season (great news!), but now is a really good time to get your name on the list for 2010.

Shannon Gray and her family raise Broad Breasted Whites. This is the breed we're most familiar with because it is the type available in supermarkets. The difference is Shannon's are raised humanely. Contact her through email.

Mike and his family at Rise and Shine Farms raise heritage breed Royal Palms and will raise Broad Breasted Whites on request. Contact him through email.

If you can’t buy from a local farmer then Whole Foods is the next best alternative IMO. They carry both “organic” and “natural” turkeys. Organic and Natural seem like the same thing when printed on the label but they are not. As we heard last night at the Slow Food Reno get-together “organic” means pasture raised on organic pasture; “natural” means pasture raised, but fed grains and produce that is not necessarily organic so is more likely to be GMO. Neither type receives hormones or unnecessary antibiotics. Get your 2009 turkey at Whole Foods now, if you’re still in the market.
Great Basin Basket will have a Thanksgiving CSA basket again this year. Go to the website to find out how to get one for your family.
The Great Basin Community Food Coop will also carry some produce grown by local farmers. Call to see what’s available.

Lattin Farms and Custom Gardens are still growing this time of year. Contact them to see what’s in season, and then take the family for a trip to the farm. It’s beautiful this time of year.

Alternatively, Whole Foods also carries some Lattin Farm products. Ask for them when you go to buy your turkey.

Sustainable food films at The Wild and Scenic Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:11:00 +0000

The Nevada Wilderness Project is a local non-profit whose mission is to partner with others in Nevada to preserve precious pieces of the Nevada wilderness. On November 4th, NWP will host The Nevada Wilderness Project’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival at UNR’s Joe Crowley Student Union. Many of the films are of beautiful places that bring us peace and put us in touch with the natural world, but this festival will also include two films about sustainable food and its influence on individuals, families, and communities. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Nevadans who are passionate (or perhaps curious) about their local food and/or wilderness this is a really good opportunity to watch and mingle, and maybe win an excellent prize or two.

The Nevada Wilderness Project’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival is on Wednesday November 4th. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the show starts at 7:00. Purchase tickets online at http://www.wildnevada.org./

Hope to see you there!

Learn to extend the growing season on your (future?) Northern Nevada farm

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

I was reading something a few weeks ago (I didn’t save it so can’t site the source…bad librarian!) that said 108,000 new farms were developed last year. Not huge agribusiness farms but small 3 – 100 acre farms that grow real food. Woo hoo!

Hoop houses are just one season extension technique. This is a picture of Leslie Allen inside one of the Lattin Farms tomato hoop houses. Thanks to Ann Louhela for the picture!

Here’s a chance to learn techniques helpful to future small farmers in Northern Nevada. From my mailbox to you:

Small Farm Season Extension Workshop - Western Nevada College Workshop November 13-14

FALLON – Western Nevada College Specialty Crop Institute announces a two-day workshop that will teach farmers how to extend their growing and sales seasons.

“Extending the Season, Hoop Houses and Community Supported Agriculture" will meet Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13-14, at Lattin Farms, 1955 McLean Way, Fallon. Cost is $50 for both days or $35 for one day. There is a $10 late fee for registrations after November 6. Lunch is included.

The workshop will feature sessions on how to extend the growing and sales season beyond the traditional summer harvest months, in response to increased consumer demand for local food. Hoop houses and CSAs are increasingly popular, and farmers are looking for more training on these innovative methods.

Community Supported Agriculture and other sales opportunities will be discussed during Friday's workshop. Farmers will learn the business of CSA, how to recruit and retain customers, share type and pricing, production and plant varieties, recordkeeping and more.

Hoop house management will be featured in Saturday's workshop. Students will learn the different types of hoop houses, best crop varieties to plant, crop rotation, pest management and more.
Featured speakers Lynda Prim and Daniel Carmona, veteran farmers and educators from New Mexico, will bring extensive experience, knowledge, and a regional perspective to the workshop. Nevada and New Mexico share similar growing conditions and economic climates for small farm agriculture.

The WNC Specialty Crop Institute is an innovative education program for current and future small-scale farmers, as well as students and professionals. Participants learn alternative farming methods to diversify from low-value crops to high-value, direct-marketed specialty crops that can increase profitability. Workshops combine classroom and on-farm learning experiences. The Institute is made possible with funding from the Nevada Department of Agriculture and USDA/AMS through the Specialty Crop Block Grant.

To register, contact Ginny Dugan, 775-423-5186, or visit Western Nevada College website. For information regarding the Specialty Crop Institute and future workshops, contact Project Director Ann Louhela at 775-351-2551.

Organic ginger grown on a Northern Nevada farm and it's ready now

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

At Custom Gardens Organic Farm in Silver Springs we’re growing NEVADA/Hawaiian Yellow Ginger!
For a new treat (if you have never experienced truly fresh young ginger root).

Now, we are ready to share our end of October limited dig.
We will be looking at another harvest of more mature ginger mid-December for Christmas.

Order direct from OUR fall & winter hoop house. JUST GIVE US A CALL: 775-577-2069 We will dig fresh, and have your order ready for you to pick up at the farm! At $ 7.00 a pound for NV certified organic fresh (baby) young ginger – this is a good buy!

It started as a curiosity. Having read in Growing for Market, a long time subscription, at our farm; a producer in the North East was able to produce this spicy root in his hoop house – even though it takes 9 to 10 months to mature, we were energized.

We thought, will it grow in a NEVADA hoop house? So, unable to set the curiosity aside, Virginia sent for root pieces from a certified organic grower of ginger and turmeric, in Hawaii. It arrived in early April, and by the 13th, the “hands were cut into seed pieces and then tucked into a 45’ a trench in one of our hoop houses. Covering it slightly with soil, we watered it in and covered it with a blanket of Remay. The extra warmth in April is often a must, even for cold hardy vegetables - let alone a tropical plant like ginger. It took what seemed like forever to sprout, (or shoot) out of the soil, flimsy little green blades that looked like a wheat sprout. Soon the top growth was 2 ’+ tall and at least as wide, and we had to keep filling in the trench and finally hilling the bed/row. The Ginger seemed to like the companion crops of greens, beans and carrots …… which helped to hold humidity in the hot summer months.

With no problems from pests, the seed pieces and the new growth (now at 6 months stage) we “gingerly” teased out a few of the plants. We discovered bright healthy looking young ginger roots at what is called half growth. Beautiful and delicious, and we found – it was not at all tough or pithy, as are many of the “long stored” roots in supermarkets. A perfect cup of tea! Discovery - one can keep it fresh, if frozen, to be taken out of the freeze rand grating the still frozen root -- just what you need, into your food or cookie batch - returning the remaining ginger root to the freezer.

If you buy it Tim will come -- produce still available at the Saturday California farmers market

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:52:00 +0000

If you don't know it is still possible to get fresh produce at the farmers market on California. Tim from Boughton Amber Oaks says he'll set up his booth for as long as we pop by and purchase his produce. Look for him close to the House of Bread.

Tim sells great products this time of year….they’re all about fall. Yesterday Mark and I picked up some late-season summer crops like raspberries and tomatoes, and some longed-for cool weather food, specifically butternut squash, chestnuts, Hayashi persimmons and a bunch of unknown-apples. He calls them unknown because they come from a random tree planted before he was born; the variety is unknown but he says the apples are wonderful.

Next week we’ll be stopping buy to pick olives grown and cured on his farm and more persimmons (which I love). Maybe we’ll see you there!

Produce still available at the California Street farmers market - if you buy it Tim will come!

Really tasty simple recipe for that grass-finished rump roast!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

To all my colleagues who were drawn to the break room yesterday by the aroma of pot roast....here's the recipe for my lunch that day.

It's hard to find contemporary rump roast recipes...it's just not a sexy cut and gets no love in newer cookbooks. Thank goodness Epicurious includes older recipes. This one was published the year I was born! We made this basic pot roast a couple of days ago and it was fantastic! Didn't fiddle with it this time but will the next time around.

Annual Lattin Farm corn maze family event

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:37:00 +0000

From my mailbox to you...a little late 'cuz it got buried in my overflowing mailbox.

Lattin Farms in Fallon celebrates 100 years and five generations of farming with the opening of the Centennial Corn Maze.

The Centennial Maze is part of the Fall Festival at Lattin Farms and is open to the public every weekend in October, 5-8pm, Fridays, and 10am-8pm, Saturdays. For the full moon on the weekend of Oct. 2-3, it stays open an hour later for visitors to try their luck at getting through by moonlight.

This is the 11th year for the Maze which has a different design cut into the corn each year. To celebrate their centennial year, the family chose a design with a picture of Bill and Edna Lattin, the third generation of Lattins to farm in the Lahontan Valley. They are now retired and live a short distance from the working farm.

The Maze is a jungle of towering corn stalks, twisting and turning for more than a mile through three acres of corn. From inside, it’s hard to get a sense of the maze design. From the air, the image is striking and clear. It can take visitors from 30 minutes to more than an hour to find their way through the Maze where cornstalks peak at over 10 feet.

The Maze is cross-planted in late May with 38,000 kernels of corn, each 3 inches deep, over a 12-acre span. The rows are planted 30 inches apart, with another set of rows planted perpendicular. In late June, stakes are installed marking off three acres of corn into 15-foot squares that are used as guidelines for cutting the pre-designed trails. The corn is cut when it’s about knee high.

Lattin Farms is located at 1955 McLean Road in Fallon. For more information, call 1(866)638-6293 or visit www.lattinfarms.com.

Northern Nevada local farms offer winter produce

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:08:00 +0000

From my mailbox to you:

Consumer demand for local food continues to rise, and Nevada farmers are finding innovative ways to supply fresh produce year-round, after farmers markets have ended.

Local farmers will be selling during the winter with on-farm sales, buying programs and through retail outlets. Customers can buy produce such as potatoes, onions, garlic, winter squash and apples that can be stored safely for weeks or months in a cool garage or basement. Some summer crops such as tomatoes and peppers are still available to freeze or can for the winter.

Farmers now are using hoophouses that protect crops from the weather and allow them to grow greens and cool-weather crops all winter long. Beets, carrots, spinach and greens will be available for most of the winter.

Ray and Virginia Johnson, owners of Custom Gardens Organic Farm in Silver Springs, announced they will have on-farm sales throughout the winter. The certified organic farm has a variety of crops for sale, summer and winter varieties.

The Johnsons are known for growing crops not typically grown in Northern Nevada. Their sweet potatoes are a customer favorite, and they'll offer fresh ginger for the first time this winter. They have four hoophouses planted with winter produce.

"We encourage our customers to call and find out what's available," Ray Johnson said. "Winter weather makes harvest dates unpredictable compared to summer. We know it's growing, sometimes just faster or slower than we planned."

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is another option. Customers prepay the farmer for a season and receive a weekly box of locally-grown produce for a certain number of weeks.

The Great Basin Basket CSA offers a winter program with fresh produce through mid-December. Five Northern Nevada farmers grow for the CSA, ensuring a variety of produce.

Reno's only community-owned grocery store, the Great Basin Community Food Co-op, 542 1/2 Plumas St, is the most abundant retail source of local food during the winter. The Co-op offers local produce, bulk food, health and beauty items, and special orders.

More information on these and other sources of local food can be found at:

· Custom Gardens Organic Farm, (775) 577-2069
· Great Basin Basket CSA, (775)843-6402
· Great Basin Community Food Co-op, (775) 324-6133
· NevadaGrown, (775) 351-2551
· Local Harvest

Great Basin Community Food Co-op event

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Here’s a great opportunity to meet like minded people, and pick up some seedlings for your winter garden while you’re at it. In case you care, I won't be there because I work Sundays.

From my mailbox to you…

Fall has arrived and the Great Basin Communiyt Food Co-op + Transition Town Reno are kicking off the season with an event you don't want to miss, the first annual LOCAL FOOD AND FUN FEST!! -- Celebrating local farmers, our community, and our local future. The event will be held on October 4th from 9 am-4 pm at the Co-op on 542 1/2 Plumas Street. Featuring a winter seedling sale in the morning, the Hub's stellar with coffee, Great Basin Brewing starting at 11 am, music, free solar cooking demos, food, fun & good conversation about the future of our community!

Slow Food Reno September 14, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:32:00 +0000

We went to the fourth Slow Food Reno get-together on Monday, September 14th. This event was hosted by The Cheese Board, which as it turns out, is the very first restaurant I knew about that served local food. Here are the high points:

First the food – stupendous as usual. Every available space not reserved for sitting down to dinner was covered with food…twice; once for dinner, and again for dessert and coffee. Sorry, don’t have any feast pics because I was too busy meeting new people and catching up on what’s happening with my Slow Food Reno cohort.

Ann Louhela from Nevada Grown was the guest speaker. Nevada Grown's mission is to help local farmers promote their product and build a customer base through networking and relationships. You’ve seen their efforts when you visit the farmers markets or pick up your CSA. The next phase will bring the program recognition to local food restaurants. Look for this logo on the windows and tables of restaurants that serve local food.

Here’s the most important thing I learned from Ann this day…the farmers market season ends in late September or early October BUT THE FARMERS STILL HAVE PRODUCE. When the markets stop you can still buy local food at the Great Basin Community Food Co-op, through a fall-season CSA (it’s not too late to sign-up), or by visiting a farm and buying direct. Without consumers all this great food becomes compost pile fodder and lost income for local farmers.

Upcoming Slow Food Reno events:

Fresh, the Movie. If anyone needs posters to promote this free event, contact Andy.

Date: September 28th, 2009
Time: 6:30pm SHARP
Where: Joe Crowley Theater @ The University of Nevada, Reno
Parking: West Stadium Garage on North Virginia and 15th streets or in the open metered lots in front of the building
Cost: Free
Limited to 200 people max!

Questions: Call Joe at (775) 848-3525 or Vicki at (775) 771-8821

The movie will be followed by a panel discussion composed of the following individuals:
Natalie Sellers, 4th Street Bistro
Rick Lattin, Lattin Farms
Nicole Sallaberry, Great Basin Co-Op
Pauline Hamilton, Great Basin CSA
Nancy Horn, Dish Cafe & Catering

Nothing to It local food culinary classes:

Nevada Grown - Growers tour of Fallon
Pleasures of Slow Food

Slow Food at University of Nevada, Reno - Bob Blesse, a SFR board member, is also a member of a newly developed group focused on the food on campus, and...students at UNR have started their own Slow Food chapter advocating healthy, local food on campus. Check them out on Facebook.

Home Grown Revolution independent film about a family that has been growing a huge amount of food on their urban property for years – this short is one of three independent films showing at The Wild & Scenic Film Festival (WSFF), hosted by the Nevada Wilderness Project. These independent films are inspiring, positive stories about people around the world making a difference for conservation, green energy and their local communities. From cool to quirky to hilarious, shorts to longer features, this one-night film festival is appearing in 90 cities around the U.S. See the program information here.

Possible upcoming events:

Humane pork rib cook-off. There’s been some local and national interest in organizing a rib cook-off event sourced solely from humane producers. If you’d like to get involved and help set-up the event contact Joe.

Okay, back to the food. Even though I didn't get pictures of the SFR feast I did get pics of the dish we brought, in preparation for the rumor that SFR will put together a recipe book at some point. We made an Oven-Dried Tomato Crostata (really a tart). The local foods in this dish are the tomatoes, herbs, and eggs; Early Girl tomatoes from Lattin Farms, Wapsipinicon tomatoes and many of the herbs from our garden, and the eggs from Rise and Shine Farms. I oven dried the tomatoes a few weeks ago so when it was time for dinner prep took less time than the recipe implies.

If you haven't been to a Slow Food Reno meeting it's never too late. This is a membership group so we are always looking for new people. But you don't have to be a member to attend a potluck to see what we're all about. Members participate in a couple of ways. Some come to eat great food and socialize, then hopefully take that joy back home and do the same thing with their friends and family. Others eat, socialize and advocate on a community level. SFR current focus is on Food to Chef, Food to Table, and school gardens. There's room for everyone!

Mariposa Academy 5th grade Farmers Market

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Could this kind of program be what sparks the next generation of farmers? The Mariposa Academy Farmers Market is small but could be really powerful. Individuals and local agencies will donate locally grown produce for the kids to sell to parents and other members of the community.

It'll happen on Tuesday, September 22nd from 2:45 to 3:15 (yes, the time slot is teeny). Small bills would probably be helpful. The address is 3875 Glen Str. Reno, NV 89502. Here's a map.

New local farmer interview from Lahonton Valley News

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Here's some good news in more ways than one. Dawn Maxon represents hope for the future of local farms and food because she left a degreed job that made her unhappy to farm and create. Dawn is among a growing number of young professionals returning to the farm with their education, business savvy, and tech skills that helps navigate the tricky American agricultural system.

Dawn and I met a couple of years ago at a Small Farmers conference held at Western Nevada College in Fallon. It was easy to tell even then that she would be successful in the pursuit of her dream. She's passionate, smart, talented, and loves people.

Learn more about her in the Lahonton Valley News article below.

Discovering the inner peace from land
Community invited to taste grower's dreams

BY STEPHANIE CARROLL, LAHONTON VALLEY NEWS CORRESPONDENT

When you receive a weekly fall basket from Dawn's Dream Acres, you're not just enjoying fresh picked chemical-free produce — you're tasting a little bit of owner Dawn Maxson's dreams.
Maxson, a science teacher in South Sacramento, was stressed, got little sleep, often was sick and not financially secure. Yet, when Maxson lost her best friend to skin cancer, she realized “the grind” wasn't worth it.

“It just got me thinking, life can be so short,” Maxson said, then asking herself, “what brings peace into my life? I love being in my garden, having time to do my artwork and having my animals around me.”

Maxson chose an area near family, quit her job and, in 2003, moved to Fallon to start an organic farm.

“I wanted to have more control over my own destiny,” Maxson said.
The property she purchased needed some work, so she took a job with the Paiute Shoshone Tribe while she prepared the land.

Unfortunately, Maxson's dreams were blocked again by an emotionally abusive relationship. After a grueling experience, Maxson successfully ended it in 2007.
“Some of the delay in starting my farm was absolutely due to recovering after I left, and to having a real mess of a life during the year it took me to leave him,” Maxson said.
A year later, Maxson was finally ready to leave her job and start farming.
“Quitting that job and when I finally escaped from my abuser — those were the two scariest things I've ever done,” Maxson said.
Now that Maxson has her farm, she can start sharing it.
“They were incredible. The best radishes I had in my life,” said Steve Hernandez, Slanted Porch owner. “They were just snapping fresh. They were very very tasty. She picked them that morning — big difference.”

Maxson's subscription service provides a fall basket on a weekly basis for two months. he provides variety by working with local farmers like Rick Lattin, Anna Bateman and Erica Behimer.
Maxson offers subscriptions so she can know her customers.
“It's really more of a relationship,” Maxson said. “A lot of it is about the experience. It's not just going to the store and buying bananas. It's having a relationship with a local farmer.”
This way, Maxson can meet her customers' tastes.
“If there are special items they want or if they want extra, I'll deliver it,” Maxson said.

In addition to her farm, Maxson pursued her dreams of Sriesian horse breeding and art. She co-founded the local Sage Brush Sisters Artist Cooperative, which holds an annual show in December, and donates a portion of proceeds to domestic violence intervention.
Maxson struggled for her dreams and now that she is finally getting started; all she wants is to share them with the community.
“That's fun — to work hard growing these things, to hear them say — oh my gosh! These are so good!” Maxson said. “This is my dream. It's exactly what I thought of when my friend died, and I thought what can I do to have peace in my life?”

An eight-week subscription is $200 and a shared subscription is $100. For more information or to order contact Dawn Maxson at 426-8215, dmaxso@gmail.com, www.dreamacredesigns.etsy.com or on her Facebook page.

Goat Day at Lattin Farms

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:35:00 +0000

Hard to believe it's time for Goat Day already!

This event takes on a new meaning for Mark and I this year because this year we met a couple of people who keep goats, and we love them! The people and the goats!

Okay, so the bucks really are stinky and they exhibit some seriously socially unacceptable behaviors by human standards but the rest of the herd members are typically funny and friendly. BJ (pictured here) is a prime example of buck-dom. Excuse the blurry picture...the guy just wouldn't stand still.

Meet Annie (short for Annie Oakley because her coloring makes her look like she's wearing chaps). In this picture she's about four months old. She acts like a big puppy and actually likes to be held. We visited our friend Kat for about 1 1/2 hours this day and Annie was happy to snooze in Mark's arms most of the time while the other goats ate, played, frolicked, and insisted on some human attention. Yes, we played with the goats! They loved it and so did we!

You may not be able to have your own goats but here's an opportunity to experience the wonder of these little (or not so little) creatures up close. Take the kids...they just might love goats as much as we do!

Goat lovers and curiosity seekers are invited to the 3rd Annual Goat Day at Lattin Farms in Fallon on Saturday, September 26 for goat contests, pack goat demonstrations, and a “whole lot of family fun”.

Goat contests highlight the event, including contests for ugliest, prettiest, best-dressed and stinkiest goat. Local goat owners are encouraged to enter their goats in the contests. Gloria Montero, founder of the event and Fallon 4H Goats R Us club leader, describes how judges determine the winners.

“Our judges are all kids, members of the 4H club, and we let them decide the winners”, says Montero. “They know it’s all in fun. It’s interesting to watch them learn how to judge, trying to measure the longest horns or deciding what is the ugliest or stinkiest.” Montero said last year’s ugliest goat “had hair that was too rough”.

Other activities at the event include the Centennial Corn maze, Critterville, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, the cow train, a scarecrow factory, and pick-your-own produce.

Goat Day is fast becoming one of the most popular events at the farm according to Rick Lattin, owner of Lattin Farms and co-founder of Goat Day. Lattin keeps several goats along with rabbits and chickens in Critterville, an area of the farm where kids can get close to the animals and feed them.

“Goats are fun animals and they all have such different personalities”, says Lattin, “but watch out. They’ll eat anything!”

Lattin Farms is located at 1955 McLean Road in Fallon. For more information or to enter your goat in a contest, call 1(866)638-6293 or visit their website.

Walker River Paiute Tribe annual Pinenut Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:25:00 +0000

I've lived in Nevada my entire life and never knew about this event! From my mailbox to you....

"The Walker River Paiute Tribe extends an invitation to the public to join in festivities at the Annual Pinenut Festival from September 17-20, 2009.

The Tribe hosts the Annual Pine-nut Blessing on the third weekend in September of each year. The Blessing features the best singers and beautiful songs for the Pine-nut Blessing Ceremony. This is a time honored event when Tribal members come home and Indian people from many nations come to partake in the blessed event.

The Pinenut Festival begins September 17, 2009 with the Miss Walker River and the Lil' Miss Pinenut Festival Pageant. Opening Ceremonies will be held at the Walker River Paiute Tribes' Community Center.

For those who are traveling from other areas we have camping available and will be opening our Tribal Gymnasium for those who need showering facilities.

There is a full weekend of activities for everyone. The Festival will include a Talent Show, Pow Wow, Fun Run, Kid's Games, Indian Car Contest and Parade, Horseshoe Contests, Arm Wrestling, Stick Games, Cradleboard Contest, and an All Indian Rodeo. As a part of the weekend activities we are also including a Free BAR-B-QUE.

The Traditional Pinenut Blessing and Dance will be held on September 19, 2009 at 8:00 pm.

For a full list of events, visit the website at to download a flyer.

Slow Food Reno presents Fresh, the movie

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:36:00 +0000

This just in from Slow Food Reno.

Fresh, The Movie screening at UNR – September 28th, 6:00pm

September 10, 2009

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

You can watch the trailer and find out more information here.

Important details...
Date: September 28th, 2009

Time: 6:30pm SHARP

Where: Joe Crowley Theater @ The University of Nevada, Reno

Parking: West Stadium Garage on North Virginia and 15th streets or in the open metered lots in front of the building

Cost: FREE

Limited to 200 people max!

Questions: Call Joe at (775) 848-3525 or Vicki at (775) 771-8821

Yes! Even in Northern Nevada it is possible to eat fresh local food in November

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Until a couple of years ago I used to spend September getting ready to transition to the supermarket produce mind-set. Then I learned that it is possible to grow food even when it's cold outside. Now we get our fresh veggies from late season CSAs, and at least some of it from our own garden. Now you too can learn how to grow food during the cool season.

We started experimenting with growing in the cool season last year. Kale, chard, and bok choi were the most successful. The salsify and chicory grew but we don't call it a success because I didn't know what to do with it so it went into the compost pile. We planted the first round of the easy stuff (arugula, spinach, kale)a couple of weeks ago. It's coming up already....

This year we'll be expanding (hopefully) the season and the food variety using what we've learned from Eliot Coleman's new book The Winter Harvest Handbook.

I learn a lot just reading but sometimes it's nice to learn the community way...from an experienced instructor with a group of like-minded people (and perhaps a couple of skeptics) at a beautiful location with lots of real-life examples. The River School is offering it this way starting next week. Learn how to extend your own fresh local food beyond tomato season!

Cool Season Organic Gardening Series
All Classes on Saturdays from 10:00am-12:00pm
$12/per class

Sept. 12: Intro to Organic Gardening
Sept. 19: Composting & Worms
Sept. 26: Seed Starting for the Fall & Winter Garden
Oct. 3: Soil Analysis and Preparing Garden Beds
Oct. 10: Methods for Growing in Winter
Oct. 17: Planting, Seeding and Harvesting the Garden

Happy cool-weather gardening!

Food preserving workshop with Rachael Murphy

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:31:00 +0000

This just in....

Whenever the farmers markets are open and gardens are growing it's time to preserve food, but tomato season seems to bring on canning/preserving-fever like no other produce. If you'd like an opportunity to learn more about food preserving from an expert here's one of the last chances of 2009 in Northern Nevada.

Rachael Murphy, a Master Food Preserver, will be at the annual Green Living Festival in Gardnerville on Saturday, September 12. The festival will be in Lampe Park. Rachael's workshop will be in Tent 1 at 10:00. While you're there check out the other events.

If you're planning to preserve tomatos now is the perfect time

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Rick Lattin tells me that the Roma tomato season is about to peak so now is the perfect time to order a few lugs and spend some time preserving for those cold season meals. Contact them soon at 427-3750.

Mark and I spent some time in the kitchen last Friday improving our canning skills, listening to music, and doing what we love best...being together and working on a project.

Here's how our canning went:

We purchased 3 lugs (60 lbs) of Lattin's Roma tomatoes for $42, and two bottles of organic lemon juice for about $9. We used only a small portion of the second jar so I won't figure the full price of that bottle into the final cost.

This year we used the canning instructions from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

We also started brewing beer this year so we now have this very nifty, huge propane burner. We used it for water bathing, which allowed us to keep all the heat outdoors instead of in the kitchen. It was wonderful!

I really love working with my hands but my mind also needs something to do or I get twitchy. When Mark is with me in the kitchen we talk, dance and sing while peeling tomatoes, but when I'm by myself I listen to audio books. Last year the books were on CD....this year they on my iPod, downloaded from the library. If you have an iPod take a look at the Overdrive program. Apple just recently loosened up on the propriety rights and began allowing public libraries to offer downloadable audio books compatible with iPods...it's wonderful and it's free.

We weighed a sampling of filled jars and found that on average the full jars weighed about 2 lbs, 14 oz. The empty jars weigh about 15 oz so each jar contains about 31 oz (1lb, 15oz) of tomatoes.

Final result.......

18 quart-sized jars, 31 oz of tomatoes in each one, costing about $2.61 each.

This cost assumes you already have all the necessary equipment to water bath. Took us a couple of years to learn what we needed and get it into the kitchen. Here's a tip...buy the equipment when you see it 'cause it may not be there at the height of canning season when you need it. Some Raley's stores (call first) and Ace Hardware stores are good resources. If you happen to be in Truckee go to the Ace Hardware there. It's the best I've seen in the region.

Learning to preserve food is a subject that's catching on with the public so the expertise and equipment is in demand.

The Cooperative Extension reports they have been seriously busy answering preserving questions. They still don't have a Nevada Master Preserver program but perhaps if enough people ask for it they'll create one.
Woo hoo!

WNC Workshop - Expanding Nevada's Viticulture Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:27:00 +0000

FALLON – As harvest time approaches in the viticulture industry, Western Nevada College’s Specialty Crop Institute is hosting a wine grape harvest workshop for those interested in expanding Nevada’s viticulture and wine industry. The workshop will meet Thursday, September 10, 9 am-4 pm. It will combine classroom discussion at WNC Fallon campus, 160 Campus Way, and an on-farm tour at Churchill Vineyards in Fallon. Harvesting grapes and finding solutions to the challenges of cold hardiness will be the main topics of study.

Jack Watson, a viticulture expert from the state of Washington, will be the featured speaker. Watson has been active in the growth of Washington's viticulture & winemaking industry, and he is an expert on cold hardiness in grapes. An area extension horticulturist for more than 20 years, Watson specializes in viticulture and cherry production, farming 30 acres of grapes and cherries in eastern Washington. He has received several awards for contributions to the industry.

Participants will tour Churchill Vineyards and Winery where wine grapes will be at or near harvest. Instructors will discuss how growers can determine and maximize wine grape quality, and show students how to test for sugar content, an important component of premium wine grapes. Students will view the grape crushers and presses, along with an explanation of the winemaking process. Established in 2001, Churchill Vineyards is Churchill County’s first vineyard, harvesting ten varieties of fine wine grapes.

The workshop is the third viticulture session offered by WNC's Specialty Crop Institute, a result of increasing interest by Nevada farmers in expanding the state's viticulture and winemaking industry. Western Nevada’s climate and soil conditions are similar to other western regions growing and marketing premium wine grapes. Wine grapes are a specialty crop with a high monetary value and low water consumption compared to other crops. In 2001, several growers established the Churchill Grape Growers Association to further Nevada's viticulture industry, and it now includes more than 50 members.

"Growing wine grapes can be a boon for Nevada's economy," says Charlie Frey, a board member of the Grape Growers Association and owner of Churchill Vineyards. "When farmers grow premium wine grapes, it naturally leads to the creation of wineries. Look at other states to see how grapes and wineries create more tourism. That's what we can do for Nevada's economy."

The Western Nevada College Specialty Crop Institute is an innovative education program for current and future small-scale farmers, as well as students and professionals. Participants learn alternative farming methods to diversify from low-value crops to high-value, direct-marketed specialty crops that can increase profitability and conserve water. Workshops combine classroom and on-farm learning experiences. It is made possible with funding from the Nevada Department of Agriculture and USDA/AMS through the Specialty Crop Block Grant.

Cost for the workshop is $30, which includes lunch. Registrants receive a $5 discount if payment is made by September 7. To register, contact Ginny Dugan, 775-423-5186, or visit WNC’s web site, www.wnc.edu/sci. For information regarding the Specialty Crop Institute and future workshops, contact Project Coordinator Ann Louhela at 775-351-2551.

Ouch! Backyard gardeners, big-box stores, and tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:29:00 +0000

If you love tomatoes and grow your own here's something you might want to be aware of if you purchase plants rather than grow from seed.

The fresh and canned tomatoes we purchase at the supermarket this year are likely to be expensive due to a poor harvest. Interestingly enough it seems that backyard gardeners and big box stores may have contributed to the spread of the late blight that infected many tomato crops.

Read on to learn more.

You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster

By DAN BARBER
Published: August 8, 2009
Tarrytown, N.Y.

If the hardship of growing vegetables and fruits in the Northeast has made anything clear, it’s that the list of what can go wrong in the field is a very long one.

We wait all year for warmer weather and longer days. Once we get them, it seems new problems for farmers rise to the surface every week: overnight temperatures plunging close to freezing, early disease, aphid attacks. Another day, another problem.

The latest trouble is the explosion of late blight, a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days. (See the Irish potato famine, caused by a strain of the fungus.)

Most farmers in the Northeast, accustomed to variable conditions, have come to expect it in some form or another. Like a sunburn or a mosquito bite, you’ll probably be hit by late blight sooner or later, and while there are steps farmers can take to minimize its damage and even avoid it completely, the disease is almost always present, if not active.

But this year is turning out to be different — quite different, according to farmers and plant scientists. For one thing, the disease appeared much earlier than usual. Late blight usually comes, well, late in the growing season, as fungal spores spread from plant to plant. So its early arrival caught just about everyone off guard.

And then there’s the perniciousness of the 2009 blight. The pace of the disease (it covered the Northeast in just a few days) and its strength (topical copper sprays, a convenient organic preventive, have been much less effective than in past years) have shocked even hardened Hudson Valley farmers.

Jack Algiere, head vegetable farmer at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture (where I have a restaurant that purchases from the farm), lost more than half his field tomatoes in three days. Other organic farmers were forced to make a brutal choice: spray their tomato plants with fungicides, and lose organic certification, or watch the crop disappear. Even for farmers who routinely spray, or who reluctantly spray precautionary amounts, this year’s blight lowered yields. (Fungicides work only to suppress the disease, not cure it.) As one plant pathologist told me, “Farmers are out there praying and spraying.”

Of course, farmers aren’t the only ones affected. If you love eating flavorful organic field tomatoes, good luck — they’ll be as rare this summer as a week without rain. And those that survive will cost you; we’re already seeing price increases of 20 percent over last year.

So what’s going on here? Plant physiologists use the term “disease triangle” to describe the conditions necessary for a disease outbreak. You need the pathogen to be present (that’s the late blight), you need a host (in this case tomatoes and potatoes) and you need a favorable environment for the disease — for late blight that’s lots of rain, moderate temperatures and high humidity.

Does that last bit sound familiar? It has been the weather report for the Northeast this summer, especially in June. Where we saw precipitation fit for Noah’s Ark, late blight found something akin to a four-star hotel. Those soggy fields and backyard vegetable plots? Inviting, and all too easy to check into.

But weather alone doesn’t explain the early severity of the disease this year. We’ve had wet, cool summers in the past, but it’s never been this bad. Instead we have to look at two other factors: the origin of the tomato plants many of us cultivate, and the renewed interest in gardening.

According to plant pathologists, this killer round of blight began with a widespread infiltration of the disease in tomato starter plants. Large retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart bought starter plants from industrial breeding operations in the South and distributed them throughout the Northeast. (Fungal spores, which can travel up to 40 miles, may also have been dispersed in transit.) Once those infected starter plants arrived at the stores, they were purchased and planted, transferring their pathogens like tiny Trojan horses into backyard and community gardens. Perhaps this is why the Northeast was hit so viciously: instead of being spread through large farms, the blight sneaked through lots of little gardens, enabling it to escape the attention of the people who track plant diseases.

It’s important to note, too, that this year there have been many more hosts than in the past as more and more Americans have taken to gardening. Credit the recession or Michelle Obama or both, but there’s been an increased awareness of the benefits of growing your own food. According to the National Gardening Association, 43 million households planned a backyard garden or put a stake in a share of a community garden in 2009, up from 36 million in 2008. That’s quite a few home gardeners who — given the popularity of the humble tomato — probably planted a starter or two this summer.

Here’s the unhappy twist: the explosion of home gardeners — the very people most conscious of buying local food and opting out of the conventional food chain — has paradoxically set the stage for the worst local tomato harvest in memory.

So what do we do?

For starters, if you’re planning a garden (and not growing from seed — the preferable, if less convenient, choice), then buy starter plants from a local grower or nursery. A tomato plant that travels 2,000 miles is no different from a tomato that has traveled 2,000 miles to your plate. It’s an effective way to help local growers, who rely on sales of these plants before the harvest arrives. It’s also a way to protect agriculture. If late blight occurs in a small nursery it’s relatively easy to recognize, as straightforward as being able to see the plant, recognize its symptoms and isolate it before it has a chance to spread.

This is less of an option on a farm that’s spread out over dozens of acres, nor is it likely once the plant gets to a large retailer. A plant pathologist from Cornell told me she visited one such store and noticed the tomato plants were infected with blight. She immediately reported it to the manager, who said he couldn’t remove the plants without approval from his superiors (which would take time). The pathologist returned a week later to find that the plants were still there.

In fact, this late blight outbreak appears to be a classic example of what Charles Perrow, a sociologist, calls a “tightly coupled” accident. With tight coupling — lots of tomatoes grown in one place, say, or distributed by one large retailer — failures in one part of the system can quickly multiply. The damage cannot be as readily controlled. The recent spike in food-borne illnesses is another example of the problems associated with an overly consolidated food chain. E. coli’s been around for a long time; what’s new is how quickly and widely it spreads when there are only a few big meat producers.

There’s another lesson here for the home gardener. When you start a garden, no matter how small, you become part of an agricultural network that binds you to other farmers and gardeners. Airborne late blight spores are a perfect illustration of agriculture’s web-like connections. The tomato plant on the windowsill, the backyard garden and the industrial tomato farm are, to be a bit reductive about it, one very large farm. As we begin to grow more of our own food, we need to reacquaint ourselves with plant pathology and understand that what we grow, and how we grow it, affects everyone else. (Potato farmers in the Andes, for example, plant disease-prone varieties at high altitudes where the cold keeps pathogens in check — to protect themselves and their neighbors. They don’t get as big a harvest, but they decrease the risk of an epidemic.)

Government can help. For all the new growers out there, what’s missing is not the inspiration, it’s the expertise, the agricultural wisdom and technical knowledge passed on from generation to generation. Congress recognized the need for this kind of support almost 100 years ago when it passed the Smith-Lever Act, creating a network of cooperative extension services in partnership with land-grant universities. Agricultural extension agents were sent to farms to share the latest technological advances, introducing new varieties of vegetables and, yes, checking the fields for disease.

The cooperative extension service is still active, but budget cuts have left it ill equipped to deal with a new generation of farmers. The emphasis now is on reaching farmers through mass e-mail messages and Web-based dialogues, with less hands-on observation. That’s like getting a doctor’s check-up over the phone. More agents in the field during those critical weeks in June might well have resulted in swifter, more effective protection of the plants: early detection of any disease requires a number of trained eyes.

The food community has a role to play, too — by taking another look at plant-breeding programs, another major fixture of our nation’s land-grant universities, and their efforts to develop new varieties of fruits and vegetables. To many advocates of sustainability, science, when it’s applied to agriculture, is considered suspect, a violation of the slow food aesthetic. It’s a nostalgia I’m guilty of promoting as a chef when I celebrate only heirloom tomatoes on my menus. These venerable tomato varieties are indeed important to preserve, and they’re often more flavorful than conventional varieties. But in our feverish pursuit of what’s old, we can marginalize the development of what could be new.

That includes the development of plants with natural resistance to blight and other diseases — plants like the Mountain Magic tomato, an experimental variety from Cornell that the Stone Barns Center is testing in a field trial. So far there’s been no evidence of disease in these plants, while more than 70 percent of the heirloom varieties of tomatoes have succumbed to the pathogen.

Mountain Magic is an example of regionalized breeding. For years, this kind of breeding has fallen by the wayside — the result of a food movement wary of science and an industrialized food chain that eschews differentiation in favor of uniformity. (Why develop and sell 20 different tomato varieties for 20 different microclimates when you can simply sell one?)

Breeders in regions vulnerable to late blight should be encouraged to select for characteristics that are resistant to it, in the same way that they select for, say, lower water demands in the Southwest. While they’re at it, breeders could be selecting for flavor and not for uniformity, shipping size and shelf life. The result will mean not just tastier tomatoes; it will translate into a food system with greater variety and better regional adaptation.
Healthy, natural systems abhor uniformity — just as a healthy society does. We need, then, to look to a system of food and agriculture that values and mimics natural diversity. The five-acre monoculture of tomato plants next door might be local, but it’s really no different from the 200-acre one across the country: both have sacrificed the ecological insurance that comes with biodiversity.

What does the resilient farm of the future look like? I saw it the other day. The farmer was growing 30 or so different crops, with several varieties of the same vegetable. Some were heirloom varieties, many weren’t. He showed me where he had pulled out his late blight-infected tomato plants and replaced them with beans and an extra crop of Brussels sprouts for the fall. He won’t make the same profit as he would have from the tomato harvest, but he wasn’t complaining, either.

Sometimes giving in to nature can be the biggest victory of all.

Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

The Big Food "local" greenwashing begins!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:57:00 +0000

Have you heard the latest? Frito-Lay is trying to cash in on the local food interest by marketing their chips as locally grown. You may have already seen the campaign at your favorite supermarket.

Read this article for more info and then warn your friends...Lays Potato Chips are the same industrial food they've always been but now they come with a deceptive new label.

Lamb -- Oops!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:47:00 +0000

When I posted the info regarding local lamb I got the email address wrong. If you're interested you'll need to contact Wendy at modernpen@mac.com.

Not too late to get a local Northern Nevada turkey

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:11:00 +0000

Quickly....

Rise and Shine Farms still has a few turkeys that will be ready for Thanksgiving. Contact Mike soon to get one.

Want to help your friends and family better understand why local food is important? Take them to the movies!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:45:00 +0000

If you read this blog you're the choir and I'm preaching. You probably already know something about industrial food and big ag, you vote with your fork and follow this blog. But we all have friends and family who don't understand why we make the special effort to buy food from people we know. Lecturing, cajoling, begging, and preaching may not influence them but a movie might.

Food, Inc. is a documentary about the ugly, scary, and yes sometimes gruesome, condition of our food system. It also has an upside and that’s the part I hope everyone walks away with.

Many people I know have seen it; some of us went to experience a visual of what we already know. Others went out of curiosity and the experience changed their food world. And frankly, others I know refuse to see it because they just don't want to know.

Food, Inc. is playing at the Riverside Theater but won't be there for much longer. Grab the people you care about and take them to the movies. Make the evening “on you” if you can, buy them dinner, do whatever you can to get them there. It'll change someone's world.

River School teaches us how to preserve the bountiful harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:59:00 +0000

A great way to carry those fantastic summer flavors into the cold weather season is to preserve what you grow in your own backyard or purchase from local farmers. River School is offering food preserving workshops on canning, drying, and pickling. See here for more info.