Local food – Page 2

September 22, 2022Flip

Digging in to Local Foods

Extension regularly reflects on ways to create meaningful connections between our northern NY producers and customers. Our first-ever Local Foods Weekend was in early September and farmers and food producers from across the region had unique offerings for the public to enjoy. Extension organized the event, and each producer had free reign to choose how they would participate. The result was a full events calendar across three days featuring over 40 farm and food businesses at 30 locations.

After the whirlwind of activity, we called each participating business to hear how the event was for them. As a complex web of activities across multiple locations and times, it was invaluable to hear their feedback on aspects that went smoothly and input for improvements.

Read on to learn more about the diversity of offerings paired with quotes from a half dozen producers. Check out the bonus gallery of images at the close of the post. The creativity and passion of the producers was evident everywhere we visited and community members were engaged and enjoying themselves at the various events.

For many farmers, the improvements to their farm are multi-year efforts. The Tuckers, of Tuckers Black Angus Ranch in North Lawrence have been working hard to expand their on-farm infrastructure and they planned the grand opening of their new farm store for Local Food Weekend. They offered tours of the farm, hosted the food truck Mac’s Mobile Diner and offered a full line of meat products and other artisan products.

Kelli and Justin of Tucker's Black Angus — “It was awesome, we had at least 300 people come that day. If this becomes an annual event, I’d love to participate and I’ll organize more staffing and signage.”

The Blue House in Madrid, specializes in seasonal rotating menus. During Local Foods Weekend they had a diverse offering that included Wood Fired Ruby Red Trout, Portuguese Sausage Kale Soup, Mexican Street Corn and much more. Sourcing for the menu featured ingredients from many local producers including Birchland Farm, Brandy View Farms, Cedar Hedge Farm, C&M Farm, Kent Family Growers, Martin’s Farmstand, M&M Farm, Meier’s Cheese, Squeak Creek Apiaries, Village Veggies, and Whitten Family Farm.

Josh of the Blue House — Co-owner and chef Josh Taillon shares, “I thought it was great. It was one of our busier weekends, for sure. People took fliers and went to other spots. The exposure was good, CCE did an awesome job getting the word out.”

Cedar Hedge Farm of Lowville traveled up to St. Lawrence County to be a day vendor at the Canton Farmers Market, selling their soft goat cheeses, breads and jams.

Jeff of Cedar Hedge Farm — Jeff was surprised at the great reception he got and said, “People came out of the woodwork expecting me to be there. It was about twice my normal farm market proceeds for one day. I sold all the cheese I brought with me and I could have sold more.”

First Ever Ag and Food Producers Academy: Complete!

On March 12th at the Learning Farm, we wrapped up the first ever Ag & Food Producers Academy. Over the course of 8 weeks Academy participants had the opportunity to attend a variety of business and marketing classes tailored to small scale food and farm businesses. Four courses were held online during weeknights for 3-4 weeks. Topics led by specialists and educators included, Social Media Management, Business and Financing, E-Commerce For Producers and Food Businesses and Making Food Products in New York State. As a fairly new Educator here at CCE, who works with food producers and farmers looking to boost their marketing, I found myself teaching and leading the social media course. It was a great opportunity to blend the online social media marketing world with the realities of running your own food and farm business. You can read more about the specific topics and instructors HERE. While the majority of the learning took place online, the closing event allowed us to meet each other in-person and share conversations over some delicious food.

Participants talking over some freshly brewed tea

We had a wide range of guest presenters and speakers such as Lissa Goldstien of Wild Work Farm talking about her ECommerce platform and Chrissy Claudio of Simply C Farm explaining how she organizes her finances. Participants were also able to watch an interview with Food And Ferment co-owner Carly Dougherty explaining how they’ve scale their value added food business and hear from Dillion Kleepetar of Farmstead catering talking about how to best approach a social media strategy, just to name a few. It was a pleasure to hear all of their insights and stories and allowed for some great questions and conversations, and proved to be some participants favorite part of the classes. One participant shared, “The guest speakers were very inspiring, and hearing how they incorporated different e-commerce platforms into their businesses was very informative.”

February 24, 2022Lauren Olson

Finding a home for the North Country’s Food Waste

We caught up with Alex French Clarkson University’s Sustainability Coordinator to ask about the recent food waste New York State mandate that went into effect on January 1st, 2022.

Can you share the backstory about the recent activities in NYS with Food waste diversion. How are ‘large generators of food waste’ defined?

Alex: The NYS Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law went into effect in January of 2022. It defines large generators of food waste as companies or institutions that generate 2 tons of food waste per week. These entities are now required to donate edible food rather than throwing it out. If there is a food recycling facility (composting or anaerobic digester) available within 25 miles then inedible food is required to be sent there.

Why tackle food waste on a community level?

Alex: Tackling this environmental and social issue at the community level will give us the economies of scale to make food recycling viable. I like how NYS has structured this new law to have the larger generators get everything off the ground.

How did Clarkson become involved with this food waste diversion initiative?

Alex: This project was originally discussed by the Potsdam Climate Smart Communities Task Force. After deciding that we wanted to look into community-scale food waste management the task force asked Clarkson to take the lead. This became a win-win scenario for us because we were able to engage many students in the process through internships.

Compost piles at Blue Line Compost in Saranac Lake

How much food waste does Clarkson generate on a weekly basis?

Alex: The DEC estimates that we generate 5 tons of food waste per week during the semester. We think this estimate is high. We are still trying to understand exactly how much food waste we generate. There are so many different sources of food waste on campus! We have good estimates of pre-consumer waste from kitchen prep work but we do not have a clear understanding of our post-consumer food waste from 2 of our 3 main dining areas nor for our residential areas. We hope to have a better understanding by the end of the semester. Read more Finding a home for the North Country’s Food Waste