Have a Peaceful Memorial Day – and let the Grilling Season Begin!

We are expecting another great summer weekend and the grilling season begins with this coming long weekend.  The Westminster Farmers’ Market has what you need to make an extra special barbeque with all the trimmings.  Our local cheeses can start your day of entertaining served on some toasted artisan bread.  While enjoying an all local salad, grilling begins with some Delmonico steak rubbed with some of Westminster’s finest spice mixes or a fresh ham steak with curry seasonings.  Carrots and asparagus round out the meal – as fresh as can be.  All topped off with a rhubarb meringue for dessert.

Get moving to work off a few extra calories for an extra large helping of dessert!  It’s planting weekend in New England.  This is the weekend that we can safely plant all our tender tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, summer squash, winter squash and pumpkins.  The Westminster Farmers’ Market is very well stocked with all the gourmet delights that you will want to be growing by your kitchen door!  Many varieties of interesting tomatoes and many summer vegetable plants are available.  Get out there, get some vitamin-D and get planting.

Healthy, Delicious and LOCAL

Regional gourmet specialty foods including locally raised grass-fed beef, pastured pork, farm-fresh eggs, award-winning goat and cow cheeses, a wide variety of artisan breads, jams and jellies, spice mixes, delicious desserts and pastries, pies and cookies.

The market will run from 3:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays.

Make a commitment to your health and to our local economy by preparing one local meal each week. Shop our local farmers' markets, farms, grocery stores and your own garden to procure ingredients to prepare a delicious, healthy, LOCAL meal for your family. Invite a friend for dinner and top it off with a local beer from Wachusett Brewery or Nashoba Winery (I bet Westminster Pharmacy can get what we need). Sign in here for this event ending on the first day of summer, June 20th. Record your menu here to help inspire us all!

It’s a Grilling Weekend! And Westminster Farmers’ Market Has What You Need!

Looks like a perfect grilling weekend and Westminster Farmers’ Market has everything you need for a delicious local meal.  Offering local burgers with award-winning melted cheese on the freshest homemade bread.  All served with fresh, lightly buttered asparagus and a green garden salad.

Healthy, Delicious and LOCAL.

Top it all off with a simple but tasty rhubarb crisp.

In addition, the Westminster Farmers Market now offers seasonal favorite vegetables and herbs including the season’s first carrots, radish, specialty greens (lettuce mixes, spinach, chard, cress, dandelion greens, and kale) and herbs (spring garlic, chives and cilantro).

Regional gourmet specialty foods including locally raised grass-fed beef, pastured pork, farm-fresh eggs, award-winning goat and cow cheeses, a wide variety of artisan breads, jams and jellies, spice mixes, delicious desserts and pastries, pies and cookies.

The market will run from 3:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays.

For more information visit www.WestminsterFarmersMarket.com or find us on facebook.

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              Local Food Has Arrived at the Westminster Farmers’ Market

Warmer days have arrived and the rhubarb and asparagus is overflowing at gardens and farms everywhere in the Wachusett Region -- and the Westminster Farmers’ Market has plenty of it to offer. 

Rhubarb is now abundant at the market and offers the first taste of spring for anyone that wants to take an extra 15 minutes to prepare a tasty recipe!  Providing a good source of calcium, Vitamin K and Vitamin C, potassium and manganese, rhubarb is a local plant that offers numerous health benefits.  It is flavorful and tart and useful in many recipes including rhubarb crisp (add a bit of ginger for extra flavor and health benefits) and makes a lovely sauce for pork when cooked with onions and herbs!  Rhubarb juice is easy to make (about as easy as making tea without a tea bag!) and is a delicious alternative to soft drinks.  If you wish to try your hand at home canning, rhubarb is an easy vegetable for a first attempt, whether you select a simple sauce recipe or put aside some juice for a hot summer day!  So take an extra 15 minutes this week to prepare a local favorite for your family.

Events scheduled for Friday at the Market:

            3:00 Buttonbox Shadow Puppet Theatre

            3:30 Gayle Craig

            5:30 Blacksmith Demonstration

In addition to rhubarb, the Westminster Farmers Market now offers seasonal favorite vegetables and herbs including asparagus, carrots, radish, specialty greens (lettuce mixes, spinach, chard, cress, dandelion greens, and kale) and herbs (spring garlic, chives and cilantro).

Regional gourmet specialty foods including locally raised grass-fed beef, pastured pork, farm-fresh eggs, award-winning goat and cow cheeses, a wide variety of artisan breads, jams and jellies, spice mixes, delicious desserts and pastries, pies and cookies.

In your tour through the market, you can also find potted plants, raspberry bushes, seedlings, perennials, shrubs and treats for your dog along with gift and craft items including beautiful cutting boards, hand-painted mailboxes, bird houses, jewelry and household items.

Come meet your local food producers and purchase the highest quality award winning foods available anywhere.  You can drive to your not-so-local farm fresh superstore and read a poster about your farm raised foods, or you can enjoy the short ride to Academy Hill in Westminster and find out about our local specialties by asking the people that produce them!

The market will run from 3:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays.

For more information visit www.WestminsterFarmersMarket.com

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If you would like more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with the Agricultural Commission or the Market Manager, please email at Hertel@MapleHeightsFarm.com

   The fog was thick at The Town Common on Academy Hill in Westminster Friday afternoon. In spite of the weather, we had a good turn-out by both vendors and customers at the first market of the season yesterday. People were pleased that Ann Patsis is back with her breads and jams. Ann also has mail boxes for sale, that she has toll-painted. A new vendor was there; Bob’s Red House Farm, from Winchendon,  along with our veteran members. As the season progresses we have several other new grower/members that plan on attending.

   On The Gazebo, Joe Reidy appeared at 3 p.m. and Keith McLinden at 5 p.m. They sounded great.Their performances were enhanced by our new audio system. Sue and Steve Nickerson did a great job shopping for, and picking out the new sound system for us. Thank you, Sue and Steve.

Here is a message from our Chair, M.L. Altobelli, to the venders, of The Westminster Farmers' Market:

Hello and Welcome to the 2012 season at the Westminster Farmers’ Market!

Opening day:

• This coming Friday, May 4th, 3:00pm ? 6:30pm
• Set up from 2:00pm on
• Market opens with the singing of the national anthem by Ann Patsis at 3:00pm

I know you know these next details ? but...

• If you are selling baked goods ? we need to have a copy of your current Board of Health approved kitchen permit attached to your paperwork in our files.
• If you are selling meat ? you need a Food Safety Inspection certificate and your meat must have USDA labeling on it.
• Keep frozen items frozen and cold items cold ? check with a thermometer ? our Board of Health will be!
• Household scales are not permitted ? any scale used must have a seal by an official state Sealer of Weights and Measures.

And a last note...
The Westminster farmers’

 Market is certified to accept coupons from the Farmer's Market Coupon Program,? we do not have an EBT machine.

If you have any questions ? let me know.

Here’s to a great year for all of us.....See you there!

M.L.
--
M.L. Altobelli
Westminster Agricultural Commission -chair

  I would like to add that you cannot set-up to sell, until your application has been approved by The Jury Committe. If you have not sent in your application yet, please do so ASAP.

  Our mail address is:

Town Hall

11 South St.

Westminster MA 01473

  Our email is forwarded to us through the "Local Harvest" email function on the listing page.

http://www.localharvest.org/postemail.jsp?id=24478

You Can Help Your Town's Farmers’ Market,

 Join the Friends  

A new group has been formed by Patty Hurd and Karen Sargent; “Friends of Westminster Farmers”. They will endeavor to form a cohesive group of volunteers, that will foster community awareness, and assist in promotion, of agriculture in Westminster (including The Westminster Farmers’ Market).

  They have a Facebook page at:

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Westminster-Farmers-Market/133750303302808#!/FriendsOfWestminsterFarmers

This is sure to be a dynamic group. If you would like to get in on the ground floor, contact either Patty or Karen.

You can email Patty. She gets email at AOL. Her handle is HURDEST.

Pay no attention to the frost on the ground this morning, or the snow and sleet that was falling yesterday. In just three short weeks Westminster Farmers' Market will be open for the season; the first of twenty-six weeks of food, friends, and fun.

  For your listening pleasure, Joe Reidy and Keith McLinden will be preforming at the gazebo.

                    3:00 - 4:30 Joe Reidy

                    5:00 - 6:30 Keith McLinden

From Our Website:

Market Opening!

May 4th, 2012

What to Expect in May...

Meat

Cheese

Eggs

Breads

Sweets

Garden Plants

Seedlings

Vegetables: rhubarb, greens, asparagus

In Season:

Meat: Free-range Chicken, Grass-fed Beef, Pastured Pork

Eggs: Free-range, Farm-fresh Eggs

Dairy: Goat Cheese

Vegetables: Asparagus, Rhubarb, Lettuce, Spring Garlic, Radish, Herbs

Breads:  Whole Grain Breads, Artisan Breads

Sweets: Cakes, Pies, Pastries

Garden plants: Potted plants and seedlings

Hours:

Fridays from 3:00 until 6:30 from May through October

Location:

Academy Hill

Academy Hill Road

Westminster, Massachusetts

Building our Community through Local Food

Don't forget to bring a bucket to get some free compost!

Westminster Farmers’ Market Vendor Training will take place at 6:00pm on Wednesday, April 6, in the Selectmen's Chambers at the Westminster Town Hall. 

This training is open to all current and potential vendors who wish to find out more about becoming a vendor at the Westminster Farmers’ Market for the coming 2011 season. 

Attendees will receive a discount off their annual market membership if their application is accepted by the Westminster Farmers’ Market Jury Committee.

Agenda for the evening of April 6th:

At 6:00pm, the Westminster Board of Health will present rules and regulations for selling products at the Westminster Farmers' Market.

At 7:00pm Rick Bonano will present information on GAP (Good Agricultural Practices).

At 7:30pm, Ann Patsis will discuss sales tax laws.

 Thank you to the local press for running pieces on our Holiday Market today.

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_16646500?IADID=Search-www.sentinelandenterprise.com-www.sentinelandenterprise.com

http://www.telegram.com/article/20101118/FLASH/11180319/1180/Westminster&TEMPLATE=TOWNPORTAL&WT_TOWN=Westminster&WT_CAME_FROM=MAIN_PAGE

 I got a request on "Local Harvest" for driving directions to the Holiday Market this Friday.  

 From Monty Tech, take a right on South Ashburnham Rd. Go (about) two and one half miles, you will pass two lakes on your left. When you pass the second lake, take a right on Barrel Hill Rd. Go less than a mile on Barrel Hill Rd. Take a left on Woods Rd. Wildwood Farm is at the end of Woods Rd.

  From the center of Westminster, take Bacon St. to North Common Rd. to Oakmont Av. At the end of Oakmont Av. take a left on South Ashburnham Rd. Go (about) one mile, take a right on Barrel Hill Rd. Go less than a mile on Barrel Hill Rd. Take a left on Woods Rd. Wildwood Farm is at the end of Woods Rd.

  From Ashburnham Center, take either Platts Rd., Cashman Hill Rd., or Westminster St., to South Ashburnham Rd., in Westminster. About one mile down, take a left on Barrel Hill Rd. Go less than a mile on Barrel Hill Rd. Take a left on Woods Rd. Wildwood Farm is at the end of Woods Rd.

                                         Save the date.

We are holding our Holiday Farmers' Market at Wildwood Farm next Friday, November 19,2010, from 3 to 6 PM. In Gretchen (Foster) Hildreth's riding arena.

More to follow.

Westminster Farmers’ Market Report from Maple Heights Farm

Come to the Pumpkin Festival

Pumpkin Festival

This Friday, The Westminster Farmers’ Market will hold its annual Pumpkin Festival.  All proceeds from this festival will support Mass Ag in the Classroom projects and provide scholarships to teachers that wish to attend the fall conference.  There will be the annual Pumpkin Art Contest with prizes awarded to children in grades k-2 and 3-5 ($5.00 fee for pumpkin and supplies).  Stop by to watch the children paint, enjoy a cup of hot chowder from the Old Mill Restaurant, sip some coffee, hot chocolate or cider, and enjoy the market.  There will also be a raffle for a giant pumpkin (tickets are 4 for $1 or 20 for $4)

Since we have made it to the last weeks of October without a widespread frost, many of our local farms are still producing all the vegetables you expect to see earlier in the year.  Many of our local gardens are planned in locations that are protected from wind and harsh weather and have not even seen the slightest nip of frost!  Though it’s certainly closing in on us!  We are expecting frost later in the week.  So take the opportunity to enjoy the last few vegetables of summer.

As usual, the market will also be stocked with gallons of milk, award-winning cheeses from Smith’s (in Templeton) and Capri (in Hubbardston), Beef, Pork, Free-Range Roasting Chickens, Fresh Artisan Breads, Fine Baked Goods, Jams, and everything you would expect at a great farmers’ market.

We hope to see you there!