The LocalHarvest Blog

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This is a story about trying to do something good, getting stuck, getting angry, leaning over the edge of gloominess, and then, finally, getting over myself. It is a story about the importance of saying yes.

First, a confession: sometimes I think if I hear one more person name 'recycling' as a substantive act of environmental protection, I will lose it. At the same time, I am as much of a ninny about radical change as the next guy. I am absolutely ready to move beyond "Ten Easy Things You Can Do to Save the Earth", but not quite ready to suspend all air travel, live in a tent, or eat squirrel.

What I thought I'd do was plant a few fruit trees. There's a large, empty lot near my house. It was destined to hold condos before the landowner's Ponzi scheme caught up with him. Thinking it might be a number of years before this land gets developed, some local food activists and I thought we'd plant half a dozen apple trees on the perimeter, where they might fit in with the eventual plans for the property. We called it a community orchard. We envisioned people walking by and picking a couple of apples to snack on during their walk: local health food, to go.

All was going well. The bank that owns the property initially agreed to the idea, provided the neighbors in the adjacent condo units were amenable. Meetings were held. Plans were made. People got excited. And then we hit a snag. The banker decided he needed a series of indemnification documents. Price tag: $600.

We can skip over the part of this story where I paced around my office waving my arms and yelling. There was no entity behind the orchard, mind you, just a group of like-minded people trying to implement what we thought was a good idea. The money for the project was being pooled from members of the group, our friends and neighbors. I could not bear to nearly double the project's budget just to ensure that the bank wouldn't get sued if an apple dropped on someone's head. I wanted to drop the whole thing. For a few days, things got bleak in my own head. This thought kept coming back to me: if we can't get a few trees planted on an empty lot, how are we ever going to take on the really big stuff?

Finally I was ready to stop wailing and gnashing my teeth and consider Plan B, offered by an inspired activist who proposed that we locate the orchard on public land, via a new community garden approval process she has been crafting with the City.

Between you and me, I had not wanted to work with a bureaucracy to get these trees planted. It felt too complicated. Trouble is, I still believe that a community orchard is a good idea. So, if making it happen involves getting over feeling lazy and too busy, inexperienced and shy, so be it. I'm trying to make an internal shift from, "That's too hard," to simply, "Okay, yes." Yes to overcoming inertia. Yes to complexity. Yes to not knowing what I'm doing. Yes to getting bigger inside.

As you have probably heard, this coming Saturday, October 24, people from nearly 170 countries are putting together over 4,000 events for the International Day of Climate Action. It is activism on an extraordinary scale, designed to send an unequivocal message to the United Nations Climate Change meeting in December. If you haven't yet visited the 350.org website, do. You will find events happening near you and see photos and descriptions of events already happening worldwide. Some are wildly creative, and many are surprisingly moving.

In my town, activists will be collecting pledge cards on Saturday, asking people to commit to whatever climate actions they choose. Essentially they are asking, "What is the biggest thing you can say yes to?" The International Day of Climate Action has the potential to move our national conversation beyond "Ten Easy Things...", but only if we are ready to acknowledge that significant change is often not at all easy. Shoot, just getting a few fruit trees planted may turn out to be a lot of pushing uphill. Even so, it's worth doing. So... what are the biggest things we can say yes to?

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

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Tensions ran high in at least five communities last Thursday, the final day of the "Love Your Farmers Market" contest, sponsored by LocalHarvest and Care2. After weeks of impressive campaigning, there was shuffling among the top placeholders even on the last day of the contest. When I spoke with manager of the Fernandina Beach market, Jan Smith, on Wednesday, her market was in third place. She had been campaigning all summer, but was not letting up the pressure. Meanwhile, up in Carrboro, NC, market manager Sarah Blacklin had just been on the radio, reminding would-be voters that the contest was about to end.

Winner of the $5,000 first prize was none other than Flint Farmers' Market in Flint, MI, with a strong showing of support at 6,083 votes. Congratulations to all top five vote getters, and to to the markets who won the weekly drawing prizes of $250!

• First Place: Flint Farmers’ Market, Flint, MI
• Second Place: Fernandina Farmers Market, Fernandina Beach, FL
• Third Place: Carrboro Farmers’ Market, Carrboro, NC
• Fourth Place: Midtown Farmers’ Market, Minneapolis, MN
• Fifth Place: Market Square Farmers’ Market, Knoxville, TN

The interesting thing about how this contest turned out is that the top three markets are each so different. Our contest winners page includes a description of each market, its strategies for winning this contest, and the community it serves. Read more about them!

All told, 98,147 people cast a vote in this contest, and with their vote nearly 65,000 people posted a short review of their favorite market on LocalHarvest. We would like to express our gratitude to Care2.com for partnering with us on this contest, and for putting together such a fantastic package of prizes.

Speaking of contests, this is the last month of our "Find the Missing CSAs" contest. We are soliciting readers' support in finding CSAs that are not yet listed in our database. The person who submits the most new (to us) CSAs will win a $100 gift certificate to the LocalHarvest catalog. Contest ends September 30. We appreciate your help in rounding out our national directory!

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Happy summer, everyone!

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter!

Ten years ago this month, a few pragmatic idealists set out to do something worthwhile, and ended up heading down the road that led to LocalHarvest. We feel so fortunate to do what we do, supporting family farmers and helping make connections between people looking for good food and those who grow it. This summer, the people at the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) asked us to write a long article about our company for their newsletter. It gave us an opportunity to look back at our history, and answer some common questions about LocalHarvest. We thought we'd share it with you. It's longer than our usual newsletter pieces, so we're calling it, "All about LocalHarvest." If we missed anything you are curious about, we'd be happy to answer your questions. Send them in!

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Today is an important day for supporters of good food to pick up the phone and put the democratic process into action. Votes are expected to take place today on two pieces of legislation, the Senate's Agricultural Appropriations Bill, and the House version of the Food Safety Enhancement Act.[Read More]

Happy summer, everyone!

Are you a fan of farmers markets? Like a good giveaway? If so, you are going to love this: LocalHarvest has partnered with Care2 to create a summer-long contest called, “Love Your Farmers Market.” Here’s how it works: everyone is invited to cast one vote for their favorite farmers market. Receiving a vote registers your farmers market for our weekly $250 prize drawings, and receiving a lot of votes will win one lucky market the top prize of $5,000. To encourage a “get out the vote” effort, there are also prizes for the top recruiters – people who ask their friends to vote. Fun, huh? We are delighted to be spending the summer doing a special promotion of farmers markets with Care2. For those who don’t know the site, Care2 is the largest online community for people interested in a healthy lifestyle and social activism.

When you vote – as thousands of people have since the contest launched last Friday – you may write a short review of your farmers market, which you can choose to have posted on LocalHarvest. There must be a thousand ways to love your farmers market. Here’s a sample of what people have told us so far:

• “Every week it's just a bit different ...like an adventure and a treasure hunt all rolled into one.”
• “Not only do I love the produce, but I always see folks I know.”
• “I love the fresh quality and the low prices!! Plus it's fun for the kids!”
• “It is the best thing to do on a Saturday morning.”

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

A year or so ago I heard a story that keeps coming back to me this spring. It was told by a cheesemaker who lives and farms a few miles out of town. He and his family make a number of beautiful sheep cheeses that are sold at select stores around the country. The story goes that this cheesemaker used to travel around, introducing his wares at new cheese shops. One day, he was offering samples at a store in Vermont, and talking with a customer who asked where he was from. “Minnesota,” he told her. They chatted for a minute more, and as she left she put a big piece of cheese in her cart, saying, “I just love to support local farmers!”

Steven had to shake his head for a minute. Vermont and Minnesota aren’t exactly in the same neighborhood. But he knew what the woman meant. She appreciates the real thing. She recognizes it when she sees it, and Steven and his cheeses were it.

For a while now, many of us have used the word ‘local’ as shorthand for food that meets a certain, somewhat ineffable quality standard. In this context, ‘local’ means something like this: This food is grown near here, on a human scale, by people who care deeply about the land and make thoughtful, conscientious choices for its stewardship. It is nutritionally intact and fantastic tasting. It thrives here, unpropped by excessive resources or technology. Its history is knowable and unsullied.

In other words, local goes way beyond geography. It is food we know in our bellies we can trust. Michael Pollan calls it “real food.” The LocalHarvest motto does too, by the way. “Real Food. Real Farmers. Real community.”

The day is coming when ‘local’ won’t be a reasonable shorthand for everything we mean when we say it. Already this month a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest multinational companies began marketing its conventionally grown and processed potato chips as "local". I suspect we’ll see more such imposters in the future. Where there’s money to be made, charlatans will gather.

Local is becoming too small a word, just as organic has. Probably any label will eventually be taken over or outgrown. Fortunately, words don’t mean as much as direct experience. When the guy behind the sample table hands you a chunk of blue cheese on a toothpick and says, “Here, try this. My wife and I made it from our sheep’s milk,” pay attention. If everything in you says, “Yes!” pick up a big hunk and take it home with you.

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

If you've read our April newsletter, you know that we are interested in the data from the recently published Agricultural Census. We'd love to hear your thoughts about the census. If you are a farmer, did you participate? Why or why not? What's your sense about the census finding 12,549 farmers who sold products through a CSA in '07? If you were in charge of the 2012 Census, what new questions would you include?

One of our LocalHarvest farmers wrote an extensive blog entry on the methodology used for the census. Check it out here.

[Read More]

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

We are often asked to estimate the total number of CSAs nationwide, and until now we have always said that no one knows, because the federal government does not track this number. Usually, we've gone on to guess that our database includes perhaps 70-80% of the country’s CSAs. We are proud of the CSA portion of the LocalHarvest database. As of today, it includes 2,727 CSAs.

Recently the feds took a crack at a national number, through a question on the Agricultural Census. And we were astounded by the results. It turns out that 12,549 farmers told the government that they marketed their products through a CSA in 2007.

Yes, 12,549.

There are many staggering numbers in today’s world, but most of them are too big for me to absorb in any real way. ($700 billion?) This number, though, is conceivable. It is a great number, actually. But its appearance prompted me to seek out a flat surface on which to lie down so that I could stare at the ceiling for some minutes. Could there really be another 9,829 established CSAs in the U.S.?

Emily Gilmore from the Robyn Van En Center pointed out that there was some ambiguity in the question. She makes a good point. The exact wording of question 32.1.j read, “At any time during 2007, did this operation market products through a community supported agriculture (CSA) arrangement?” Stated thusly, a farmer who sold, say, eggs through another farm’s produce CSA would have accurately marked ‘yes’. So what the census is counting, then, is the number of farmers involved in CSAs, rather than the number of CSAs.

12,549. It still seems high. High, schmigh. I want to find these farms. No matter how many CSAs there actually are, we want all of them to be part of LocalHarvest. If we had the resources for a huge marketing campaign, we’d do it. But we don’t. We have you.

Good enough, I say.

Not since 2000 have we directly invited farms to join LH. (The rest all found out about us by word of mouth.) It’s about time we sent out invitations again, but first we need a list. This is where the contest comes in.

We are offering a $100 prize to the person who sends us the most new CSAs between now and the end of September. Take a look at our list of CSAs. Know of any that are missing? If so, here is a little form, where you can tell us how to get in touch with them. Or, you can always go directly to the farmers yourself, and tell them about LocalHarvest. Be sure to mention that creating a farm listing on LH is free. In a few months, we’ll let you know how the project is coming. Meanwhile, please help us find the rest of the country’s CSAs!

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

p.s. If you have a comment on the Ag Census’s CSA number, post it in the comments section of our blog.

It's been a big month for people who love real food. As you've no doubt heard, the First Lady planted a garden. On Friday my email inbox was full of messages triumphantly singing out the news. We'd like to send our own congratulations and thanks to Kitchen Gardeners International, a small organization that worked on this idea tirelessly and with great creativity over the last 15 months. It's a good one, and we believe the nation will be better for it.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've also received a barage of emails about the "Food Safety Modernization Act", or HB 875. The tone of these was somewhere between concerned and hysterical. From what we have learned, HB 875 is not the horror story it has been made out to be. It would not, for example, result in "totalitarian control" or "the planned elimination of farmers" as one oft-forwarded email put it. It actually contains some sound ideas. But for some reason, myths and misinformation about this bill have taken root and spread like a noxious weed.

It got me to thinking. First, truth be told, it made my head spin. All this justifiable jubilance stuffed in next to that screeching panic felt downright disorienting. The administration could not publicly promote organic gardening, and then sign off on a bill that would "criminalize organic farming and outlaw home gardening." It's absurd.

But what does it mean, to have so much exuberance in the locavore community on the one hand, and so much fear and loathing on the other? I think it comes down to this: food, and the ability to grow it honestly, is fundamental to our well-being. We celebrate when we see the food we love, and the values behind it, being respected by influential people. And if we feel that our right to grow that food without undue interference is threatened, we react strongly.

That said, it seems to me that we need to take a breath and put both of our hands to work. We can, each of us, sow at least one seed this spring. If the First Lady thinks pulling a few weeds is a good activity for her family, it's probably good for ours too - and it is. We can, each of us, also follow the food safety bills as they make their way through Congress, writing to our representatives to tell them how important small scale, organic agriculture is to us and to our communities.

It turns out that HB 875 is unlikely to go anywhere. And that's not necessarily great news, given that it contained some ambitious, positive changes. Our friends at the Cornucopia Institute tell us that 875 has been passed over for another food safety bill, HB 759. They, and others like Food and Water Watch think that we will need to make our voices heard as HB 759 moves forward, to ensure that the bill that is eventually passed includes exemptions for small food processing facilities and the same kind of smart, risk-based inspection processes that are contained in HB 875. We'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the newsletter, take good care, and eat well.

Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest

Last week I was part of a panel at local farm conference, where my assignment was to talk about the "home economics" of eating locally. I spoke about what my family eats and why, and the time and money our diet requires. I learned a lot.

I was especially curious about the money part. It should be said that my husband and I put a high value on eating well. We also grow a lot of our own food. It’s our sustenance, both physical and spiritual. Turns out, the garden saves us a lot of money, too.

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Many times each month, people ask us exactly how they can begin to eat locally. The questioner invariably understands the ‘whys’ of the proposition, but is daunted by the ‘how.’ So this month we offer a short primer on eating local food, with emphasis on the notion of transition. Let’s start there. The first thing to remember is that eating locally is a continuum. If you allow yourself to get drawn into an all-or-nothing mindset, the proposition will seem impossible. You will get derailed by the list of the imported foods you think you can’t live without. Bananas. Coffee. Chocolate-covered yum-yums. Don’t start with those things. Don’t even put them on the table the first year. Eating locally is about doing what you can. It is about making the most of your region’s agricultural strengths. It is about beginning to pay attention.

Where should you start? Focus on whole foods first. Highly processed foods are made with many ingredients that are shipped from afar, processed, and shipped again. It is simpler, not to mention healthier, to put your efforts into simpler foods. Start with one or more of these food groups: produce, meat, dairy products and eggs. In many cases, you can buy these foods directly from farmers, which is often a highly satisfying experience in and of itself.

A few years ago, a friend whose family loves chow-mein hotdish and Cheez-its asked me what three things she could do to better her family’s diet without triggering a lot of grumbling. She was clear: she was not ready to take on the whole pantry, and neither was her family. Sound familiar? She knew that if she felt overwhelmed, the changes wouldn’t stick. But three things seemed reasonable to her.

After talking more about her food buying habits and priorities, we came up with this: Buy high quality chicken. Get organic milk. Shop at the farmers market when you can. Now, we live in Minnesota, where small-scale farmers make good meat and quality milk readily available, but the growing season is short. Other places in the country will have a different list of logical first steps. My LH colleagues, for example, live on the Central Coast of California, where gorgeous fresh veggies are available almost year round, but meat and dairy from small farms is a little harder to come by. For people there, just committing to shop at the farmers market or to join a CSA would bring local foods into their diets much of the year. Another regional difference concerns food preservation: neither my colleagues in California nor my friends in the South spend much time canning and freezing. Here in Minnesota, we do, because that is the way to enjoy local produce in the long winter. Getting to know what grows well in your state – and when – is a valuable part of your education as a locavore.

As you begin to dig more deeply into your region’s specialties, you will find that some of these cost more money than their anonymous counterparts at the supermarket. If you are one of the many Americans experiencing real financial distress, this may dissuade you from choosing them. But it is important to remember that there are ways to work around price if you have some flexibility in your food budget. For example, you might choose to buy high quality meat and cheese, but eat it less often, and instead eat more lower-cost whole foods like grains, beans, and in-season produce. Check out the LH blog for a close-up look at the home economics of my family’s local foods-based diet.

Finally, it pays to remember that for most human beings, change is difficult. Food is so fundamental to our sense of well-being that changes in that arena may be met with a lot of resistance. If that is the case in your house, go slowly and look for small windows of opportunity. For example, enjoy lots of local strawberries when they are in their glory. If you can, go out to the farm and have fun picking some of your own. Really pay attention to how good – and how different – they are. Acclimate your taste buds and over time your family may decide that the local ones are worth waiting for. You may even decide to throw a few bags of berries into the freezer for later. And you’re on your way…

In sum: Start with whole foods. Don’t make it too hard. Study your region’s agricultural strengths, and play up to them. Look for ways to be creative with your budget. Be gentle with your self and your family as you try out new habits. Do these things, and you will set yourself up for a highly satisfying adventure in local eating, and a deeper connection to your food.

Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest

Yesterday Guillermo and I were discussing the sorry state of this blog. We have both had the guilts about it all winter. One lousy entry in almost three months? That's not a blog, it's a wind-worn flier stapled to a telephone pole announcing a concert that's long since forgotten.

For whatever reason, we haven't been bitten by the bug. Yet. But we've committed to giving it another go to see if we can turn ourselves into bloggers. Because we have things to say. Really we do. If only we could dig ourselves out of our To Do list long enough to form sentences.

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Like the photo? It's a new day, and we're kicking up our heels! So is this beautiful heifer, Cali Rae, from 4B Ranch in Mesick, MI. What an athlete! Two weeks ago we asked our members to send in photos of their farms and markets and nearly 300 people sent some of the most gorgeous farm shots we've ever seen. We are so pleased! Look for their beautiful photos on the LocalHarvest site and here in the newsletter throughout 2009.

Knowing that many of our farmers are also outstanding cooks, we also asked them to submit some of their favorite farm recipes. What generous members we have! Over 350 people sent in recipes. Starting next month we will be giving them star billing in our newsletter and, later in 2009, in a searchable archive on LocalHarvest. This change will make this the last month that Lorna Sass' recipes will be included in the newsletter. We want to thank her for sharing her enthusiasm for cooking and her healthy recipes with us over the last two years.! Lorna is the author of several cookbooks, including a new one being published this month. We have three copies of Whole Grains for Busy People to give away to lucky LH newsletter readers.

As promised, we have the results from our first ever grassroots survey, "How Does Local Compare?" You may recall that last fall we drafted a price comparison survey for seasonal produce and asked interested readers to collect data at their local farmers markets and grocery stores. What a complex puzzle this has turned out to be! We are learning a lot from this pilot survey. We hope to take another run at this question in the early summer, with some outside help. Watch the newsletter for details if you would like to participate in the data collection. Meanwhile, we offer you the results of our pilot study, below.

Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

It's nearly Christmas, but instead of sugar plums, I have numbers dancing in my head. Membership and site traffic numbers, year-end and pricing survey numbers. I'm a words-over-formulas kind of girl, so believe me, this is a rare day. Still, these are interesting statistics. Some we feel proud of, some we are humbled by.

Here's a few that please us: LocalHarvest welcomed 3,675 new member listings so far in 2008. That's ten new members every day! Of these, 2,583 were farmers, 590 were farmers markets, and the remainder were restaurants, co-ops, and the like. The LocalHarvest database now offers information on nearly 18,000 farms and farmers markets (etc.) nationwide. As always, our marketing budget for 2008 was exactly $0, so we have all of you to thank for helping us spread the word about LocalHarvest. Mil gracias!

Over 3.8 million people found local food with LocalHarvest's help this year, a million more than in 2007. Our monthly newsletter goes out to 54,000 people like yourself, and 75,000 people get our weekly Keep Me Posted updates. Over 16,200 people bought products through our catalog this year. Numbers on two new LH projects look like this: to date, 831 farmers have added Ark of Taste products to their LocalHarvest listings since we launched our partnership with Slow Food in April. In the last two months, nearly 300 farms have started blogging with us, posting stories about life on the farm, recipes, photos, and videos.

We had really hoped to give you the results of our first LocalHarvest pricing project: "How Does Local Compare?" but, unfortunately, we don't have those numbers yet. This is the 'humbling' part I mentioned up top. It turns out that crunching the data in a meaningful way is an exceptionally complex proposition. We've been at it on and off for a week and are still slogging through the fine points. I promise we will keep at it, and I will have the results for you in our January newsletter.

As we approach the end of 2008 we would like to thank all of you for supporting your local farmers and LocalHarvest. In these uncertain economic times, it feels particularly important to spend our food dollars on fresh, nutritious food grown by people whose chosen work is to feed our communities. Real food for the people!

As always, take good care, and eat well.

See you in '09,

Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

It's not every day that we get to roll out a brand new feature in LocalHarvest. We look forward to such days because they are so long in the making. Today is onesuch. In a word: blogs.

You know us – we love family farms. We love them in general, from a distance, painted with a wide brush, so to speak. We like the idea of small farms. What they represent and stand for is important to us, so we spend a lot of time promoting them, mostly in the general.

With the blogs it is different. The blogs are about close up and particular. They are about the farmers' own stories and struggles, in their own words. We like that a lot too. In fact, hearing directly from our nation's farmers feels imperative. It allows us non-farmers to get a better sense of what that life is really like, in all its variation and complexity. So, as of last month, we added a personal blog for every farm that wants one.

Already, over 230 LocalHarvest members have created blogs. They are publishing recipes and stories, musings and photos, all well worth a look. We'd like to invite you to visit them, and to add your comments to those entries that inspire you to write. You can use our new blog map to find LocalHarvest member blogs in much of the US. Click on the orange icons to get to our members' blogs.

Last week we invited each of our bloggers to write a special entry on the theme of Thanksgiving, available here. With the holiday of gratitude quickly approaching, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all of you for your enthusiasm about LocalHarvest and your support of family farms. At a time of hardship for so many, we are thankful for the enduring blessings in our lives, most especially the non-material gifts that lie within reach: a grateful heart, a hopeful outlook, and a commitment to kindness.

May your tables be laden and your hearts and bellies full,

Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest