January 2006 Newsletter
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January 2006
Jan 25, 2006
Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter! If these long winter evenings are feeling a little too long, might we suggest spending a little time browsing through the LocalHarvest.org web site? We've gotten over 100 new member farms just since the new year, along with dozens of new catalog products, so there is always something new to see. The word on LH continues to spread among farmers and farm-based businesses, which is great news for all of us who care about buying local and supporting family farmers. In this edition of our newsletter you'll find not one but two interviews with LocalHarvest farmers, plus Valentine's Day gift ideas, a look at our top-selling seeds from 2005, and a few words on our business model. Enjoy! In This Issue
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Sharing Life with Rare Sheep, and Loving It 
How many of us could honestly say of our life work,
"I'm addicted to what I'm doing, so I'm going to
keep doing it no matter what." These are the
enthusiastic words of Lisa Westervelt, from
Cranberry Moon Farm in western Massachusetts.
Westervelt raises rare breeds of sheep, spins wool,
teaches classes, weaves, brokers wool for other
farmers - and is taken with it all.
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Seeds: Now's the Time 
If you're like us, the best thing about January is
the opportunity it affords to pore over seed
catalogs and dream big for the coming garden season.
Over the last three years, LocalHarvest.org has been
fortunate enough to attract over a dozen seed
growers who now sell their collections through our
catalog. Seeds have become one of our top-selling
items, largely because our farmers are offering such
treasured and hard to find varieties.
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Flax: The Surprise Top Seller of 2005 
It seems like every magazine we pick up these days
has an article about the health benefits of Omega-3
essential fatty acids. So perhaps we should not have
been surprised to look at LocalHarvest's year end
sales and find that flax seeds were one of our top
selling products. We called Carmen Fernholz,
LocalHarvest.org's flax seed provider, to find out
more about his experience growing flax seed.
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Valentine's Day: Just Three Weeks Away! 
Got a sweetie? Trying to woo one? The
LocalHarvest.org store has dozens of creative
options for gifts that will catch your beloved’s eye
this Valentine's Day. Check out some of our
gift suggestions, or browse through the catalog to get
your own ideas!
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Do you like LocalHarvest.org? Consider a Contribution We exist to support the growth of small scale farming and local markets. To that end, we charge our members as little as possible to participate in LocalHarvest.org. Joining the directory is free, and the fee for selling products through our catalog is nominal. While this policy serves our values very nicely, it creates a few stressors, mainly not having much of an advertising budget. We want to bring as much public attention as possible to our farmers, their products, and the issues they face. If you would like to make a financial contribution to help us promote LocalHarvest.org farmers, please click on the link below. And if you happen to have some marketing ideas you think we should try, please email Erin Barnett at erin@localharvest.org. Thanks so much for all your support! |
