Mother’s Day Saturday kicks off a “pre-season” at Hope High School, May 10 from 9:30am to 12:30pm. You’ll find a mix of your favorite Hope High School farmers with a few tasty selections from the Wintertime Farmers’ Market at AS220, now ended. Here’s who to expect this week:

• Hill Orchards apples, cider, applesauce, cider vinegar, potatoes
• Marcia’s Chutneys jams, chutneys
• Matunuck Oyster Farm oysters, littlenecks, steamers, lobster
  
• Narragansett Creamery cheese
• Robin Hollow Farm flowers
• Southside Community Land Trust seedlings, gift certificates for May 17-18 plant sale
• Wishing Stone Farm seedlings (update: due to winds will be here 5/17)
  

Special during the May pre-season only:

• Cutie Pies pies, tarts
• OceanState Chocolates truffles, chocolate bars, biscotti
• Simmons Farm eggs, meat, greens, asparagus (update: due to winds will be here 5/17)
• Whispering Elms Farm eggs

The pre-season market runs every Saturday until the Hope High School Farmers’ Market’s grand opening on June 7. We expect more and more farmers to join in the Saturdays leading up to the opening celebration.

Markets in state parks (Barrington, Bristol, Narragansett, Warwick), at URI, in Scituate and Wakefield are also open this early in May, with mostly plant starts. Other markets open later this month and throughout June and July. See our always-updated list of markets open in the coming week.

Not counting the summery days we’ve already had this year, the one true sign of the end of winter is the rise of the asparagus stalks across otherwise empty fields. Whether you’re an all-time fan or not, asparagus means rhubarb, radishes, lettuces, spinach, chives, parsley and peas can’t be far behind. And you’ve got to be a fan of that! (See who’s growing asparagus)

But back to asparagus. Besides the crowns and stalks, all of an asparagus plant is underground. At some point you’ve encountered white asparagus and perhaps wondered, so where’s the phchlorophyll on these albino asparagus? Well, you may have noticed that the bottom of many green asparagus stalks are light in color. It’s because stalks and crowns are white until they rise from the ground and sense sunlight. Some clever farmers pile up extra layers of dirt on their asparagus so they grow to full size before ever touching sunlight. That’s the story behind white asparagus, though we don’t know any growers in Rhode Island.

The green/purple asparagus from Four Town Farm in Seekonk sold out in 40 minutes at the Wintertime Farmers’ Market. We’ll bring much more next week, May 3, which is sadly the last week of the indoor market. After that, May 10-31, some farmers and artisans will be at Hope High School on the intervening Saturdays 9:30-12:30pm until the official market kick-off on June 7.

There’s not actually much “new” about the commitment of this crop of grocers and food retailers to Rhode Island’s farmers. Most have been sourcing local foods since they opened their doors. A zesty welcome to the Buy Local RI campaign!

• Alternative Food Coop in Wakefield. Rhode Island’s only cooperatively-run natural foods grocery has established ties with many nearby farms and even hosts a weekly CSA pick up during the summer months.
• The Market at Cutler Mills in Warren. A treasure of local and organic foods in a reenvisioned mill. You’ll find the produce section stocked with freshly cut greens and favorites like Rhody Fresh in the dairy aisle.
• The Green Grocer in Portsmouth. Not even a year old and already an institution on the island, filled with fresh foods from Aquidneck and Sakonnet farms and other nutritious eats.
• Munroe Dairy in East Providence. A retailer on the moo-ve. In addition to their own milk, Munroe offers a grocery’s selection of food made at local area businesses, and this year they’re expanding their selection to include local produce. Order online and a spotted cow truck delivers to your doorstep.
• Urban Greens Food Coop in Providence. RI’s second coop is scheduled to open this fall, and will occupy the first floor of a brand new green building on Westminster Street in the West End. They’re now taking members.
• Farmstead Downcity in Providence. Good things come in tiny spaces. Just like at the Wayland Square sibling shop, their love of cheese flows floor-to-ceiling and into the delicious prepared foods awaiting the downtown lunch crowd.

Between 1972 and 2003, the number of dairies in Rhode Island dropped from 90 to 22. (It was a couple hundred in the early twentieth century.)

Fast forward to 2005, when five dairy farmers pooled their milk into the first batches of Rhody Fresh. Their milk quickly found a place on the shelves of groceries big and small. That was no small feat given major grocers’ slotting fees, and due in large part to Rhode Islanders’ phone calls and letters. Now Rhoda the Rhody Fresh cow is a familiar face found gracing cartons of half & half, coffee milk and chocolate milk across the state. And a Rhody Fresh ice cream may not be so far away!

Here are a couple of small producers that are big in the world of Rhode Island dairy. We’re happy to say that all of these Rhode Island dairies’ milk are certified free of artificial growth hormones (rBST) and happily graze in the sunshine.

• Rhody Fresh. A cooperative of 5 RI dairy farms that shares processing and sales. Beyond the grocery aisle, RI colleges have been very receptive: Brown, Roger Williams and soon RISD.
• Arruda Dairy. Family-run farm since 1917 in Tiverton.
• Wright’s Dairy. Family-run farm since 1900 in North Smithfield.
• Munroe Dairy. You’ve probably seen their cow trucks delivering fresh milk. Family-run for four generations, Munroe buys its milk from local dairies. If you’ve enjoyed Bliss Ice Cream, you’ve tasted Munroe’s cream. We’re also thrilled to announce that Munroe is joining the Buy Local RI campaign. In the coming season, you’ll be able to buy local fruits and vegetables through their online ordering system and have it delivered by cow truck.

But wait, there’s more exciting news! Following on the heels of a renewal in artisan cheesemaking, 2008 will see 3 new RI dairies. There will be cows a’milking in Cranston, Foster and West Greenwich. Now that’s something to celebrate this Earth Day!

The 2008 season will be the first time ever that low-income Rhode Islanders can pay for a CSA (Community Support Agriculture) subscription with Food Stamps. The initiative builds upon the 2007 introduction of Fresh Bucks for Food Stamps at farmers’ markets, and so continues Farm Fresh’s efforts to make locally grown foods accessible to all Rhode Island eaters.

There are 3 CSA drop-off points around Providence where low-income lovers of farm fresh veggies and fruits can use their benefits:

• Mondays – Upper South Providence
• Thursdays – West End
• Fridays – Kennedy Plaza

Thanks to generous funders, we’ll also be able to partially subsidize some of these CSA shares. If you are interested in a subsidized share or in being a donor, contact Sundeep.

… along the sidewalk beside Burnside Park and Kennedy Plaza! It will open Friday, June 13 (scary!) just a few steps away from the old location, but a few steps can make all the difference. The new location will increase visibility and access for customers who work in the Financial District, bus riders and passersby. There will also be new benches, café tables, and chairs placed inside of Burnside Park so that market-goers have more green space to enjoy lunch or coffee.

Your survey responses favored a Kennedy Plaza location for the market, followed by the Financial District and RISD Market Square. Further discussions showed that vendor parking would be a nightmare by the Turk’s Head Plaza and that Market Square was considered a bit too far from Downtown. A walkthrough of Downtown last week with folks from Farm Fresh, the Providence Department of Art, Culture, & Tourism and the Providence Foundation revealed great potential for a market by Burnside Park.

The move is good timing, too. The City of Providence and downtown businesses have recently begun efforts to make Kennedy Plaza a more vibrant, exciting place. The city hosted a workshop with the Project for Public Spaces and invited several downtown businesses, city officials, and stakeholders to participate in re-envisioning Kennedy Plaza. Outdoor markets will be a top priority in efforts to make Kennedy Plaza a more pedestrian-friendly, community gathering space. In fact, the left lane of Washington Street adjacent to the market will be roped off for pedestrian use during the market, a transformation of the Plaza space in the spirit of New York’s Union Square.

One more thing: along with cooking demonstrations and music, this year Farm Fresh will host a new Market CSA at the Downtown Market. Sign up and you’ll have a box of fresh, local veggies waiting for you every week! To find out other ways to help the Downtown Market grow, contact Jessica.

Sign ups for the 2008 growing season have begun for Community Support Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions to the bounty of Rhode Island farms. Here’s how most work: in the spring, you pre-pay a farm when the farmers most need money for seeds and getting the land ready. Then June through October, you’ll pick up a box of fresh veggies and fruit each week. There are drop-off points all over RI.

This year, Farm Fresh is also introducing Market CSAs at the Armory Farmers’ Market on Thursday evenings and at the Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market on Friday afternoons. Think of it as a subscription to the market. The whole amount supports each market’s farmers and producers, which has the benefit of boosting the market itself. Only 20 spots available are at each market this year. So act fast!

Farm Fresh recently updated our listings of 2008 CSAs in RI and you can find a print version in the spring edition of Edible Rhody.

The market will still be Fridays 11-2, but we’re considering 4 potential locations for this summer’s Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market:

• Market Square / RISD
• Turk’s Head Plaza / Financial District
• Westminster Park
• City Hall Park (same as 2005 - 2007)

Help us choose! E-mail JessK@farmfreshri.org with your thoughts. There are a lot of considerations: walkability and foot traffic, farmer and customer parking, places to sit and picnic, the cityscape, etc.

You haven’t tasted ricotta until you’ve tried Narragansett Creamery’s. For a state with dairies as gorgeous as ours, Rhode Island deserves for its first cheeses to taste this good. If only we’d started making cheese years ago! Well, why haven’t RI dairy farms been producing artisan farmstead cheeses all these years like our New England neighbors?

A couple of reasons why RI lacks farmstead cheesemakers:

1. Cost: The startup equipment for a small dairy farm could be upwards of $70K.
2. Legalese: The interpretation of regulations and the process for farmers could be unclear and confusing. It was years since farms were selling cheese and so a new precedent is just now being established.
3. Community inertia: Farmers don’t have a community of other cheesemakers to share knowledge support with in RI.

This unfortunate situation makes you appreciate the mere existence of a RI ricotta all the more. It’s slightly sweet and made without salt, so this delicate cheese needs to be enjoyed quickly, and ideally shared. Its fluffy and creamy texture make it perfect for topping off Olga’s pizza dough, which we’ll have for the first time this week at the Wintertime Farmers’ Market.

And if you can’t make it to the Wintertime Farmers’ Market, you’ll find Narragansett Creamery’s hand-crafted, small-batch cheeses from made with milk from local dairies at Farmstead in Wayland Square and a few other retailers.

We’re thrilled to be among the supported causes now featured at the Blue State Coffee store on Thayer St in Providence. Every customer can vote for one of a rotating mix of local and political charities. And a whopping 10% of Blue State Coffee’s sales are then divied up proportional to these charities’ votes. So, fill up a mug with their custom blend of New Harvest fairly traded coffee and vote for Farm Fresh!

Despite being less than a year old, Blue State already has a long commitment to Rhode Island farmers and producers. The coffeeshop has been a member of the RI Fresh Network since the week we launched the Buy Local RI campaign. During summer months, Blue State Coffee managers could be found buying fruit and veggies for the café every Saturday at the Hope High School Farmers’ Market down the road. Over the next year, we’re also hoping to collaborate with Blue State to increase commercial and consumer composting across the city. Recycling food and other biodegradable waste into quality agricultural soils is a much tastier proposition than sending it to the Johnston landfill. Stay tuned!