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Meet the Local Foods Team: Lauren Olson

Tell us about your role on the local foods team. 

My role is working with food producers and food entrepreneurs to help with their marketing strategies. I started this position in April of 2021 and I am interested in learning what services I can offer to farmers and food producers that would be of most use to their business. Currently, I am working on educational materials that would be helpful to producers as they’re scaling up their business. In addition I promote consumer education surrounding local foods to help spread awareness of the delicious bounty we have here.

So you could meet one-on-one with a producer that’s trying to change something about their business, for example.  

Yes, I help educate farmers and food entrepreneurs about marketing tools. It could be anything from discussing E-commerce options for online stores, advising on websites and social media accounts, giving input on logos or accessing new markets.

I think the reason I like marketing is because it is about supporting your local network of consumers and producers and a lot of good can happen from that. Especially when it comes to food since we all need to eat and it’s a great way to invest in your community.

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Seed to Supper Gardening Course Comes to a Close

On Saturday, graduates of St. Lawrence County’s first Seed to Supper gardening course gathered at the Learning Farm to receive their garden kits and to watch Master Gardener Ken Kogut demonstrate how to build a raised bed with a hoop cover.

Seed to Supper is a 6-week comprehensive beginning course focused on low-budget strategies and partnership building for new gardeners. The curriculum was adapted by Cornell Garden-Based Learning from resources created by the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon State University Extension.

Throughout the spring, 15 participants met weekly on Zoom to learn from St. Lawrence County Master Gardeners about planning, planting and maintaining a food garden as well as using its bounty. Despite the limitations of teaching the course online this year, the instructors were able to convey a wealth of information and to break up the lessons with demonstrations on growing microgreens, effective watering, and comparing soil types. Early on in the course, Master Gardeners consulted with participants on their garden maps, prompting responses like this one from Wajira: “Thank you so much everyone for your time. I made changes to my garden map based on your valuable advice. I have already seeded okra seeds inside near the window. I am so happy to tell you some of them have germinated!” Read more Seed to Supper Gardening Course Comes to a Close

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Meet the Local Foods Team: Erica LaFountain

 

What is your role on the local foods team?

I’m the Community Horticulture Educator, so I help county residents with gardening questions and skill-building through programming. I also coordinate a dedicated group of Master Gardener Volunteers who amplify this work, and I teach classes to the public as well as BOCES Ag Studies Academy students, NorthWind after-school students, and 4H.

How did you come to be in the North Country?

I consider my dad both a local and a back-to-the-lander. He left after college and returned to the North Country with a young family. A generation later I followed that same trajectory. I left the area for college in 2000 and returned with my partner and first child in 2013 after some years pursuing farming, community gardening, and cooperative living in Ithaca and Boston. The land prices here are a real draw and enabled my family to start an orchard and garden and to pasture goats and chickens. Raising my kids in the same special place that formed me has been a real gift. I believe the North Country forges resilient, resourceful, appreciative people.

Read more Meet the Local Foods Team: Erica LaFountain