Stock up for a deliciously local July 4th weekend:

• Zucchini and littlenecks for your BBQ grill
• Sandwiches with sliced tomatoes, lettuce (or spicier mustard greens) and some fresh bread
• Berrie apple pie with fresh ricotta for dessert

The Downtown Providence Market will be closed for July 4, but please visit the Armory Market on Thursday, Hope High Market on Saturday or one of the many other markets across the state.

Oh, and it’s almost last call for pick your own strawberries! The silver lining: raspberries.

Bitter: Last Thursday we sent out an e-mail alert to 1,800 farm and food loving Rhode Islanders that the state’s farmland preservation program was in danger. It’s the first time we’ve ever sent such an alert, and it was for good reason: one of the few programs RI has in place to ensure a sustainable future for our state’s food supply was about to be shut down. (RI also stood lose millions in federal matching funds every year.) Soon after our e-mail came the news that, without any debate, the RI State Assembly voted 31-37 against allowing a November vote on $5 million for farmland preservation. The decision has been made behind closed doors. (By the way, RI voters overwhelmingly support farmland preservation, by 70% to 30% in the 2004 election. Go figure!)

Please support Farm Fresh RI’s strategic work to create infrastructure for a vibrant, lasting local food system, that supports vibrant family farms and healthy communities across RI.

• Freeze ‘em
• Make jam
• Slice into a Strawberry, Sugar Snap Pea and Fresh Herb Salad
• Bake a Strawberry Shortcake
• Dip into Narragansett Creamery’s fresh ricotta
• … or are they already all eaten?

Here are a few scattered notes from the past few days:

• Congrats to Local 121 on a full year of menus crafted from food harvested from Rhode Island fields and waters. Here’s to the decades ahead!
• On June 7, Hope High School Farmers’ Market farmers pooled $180 for the school’s college scholarship fund. Congrats to the recent grads!
• The Projo video-profiled Young Family Farm at the Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market.

State business leaders like to point to our quality of life as a pillar of economic development. They understand that part of what will attract the high paying jobs and cutting edge industries they covet are those natural and historic assets that make us who we are.

Remember that.

The Rhode Island House Finance Committee has killed an important bond issue and we are about to run out of money to preserve farmland and open space. The budget deficit will be blamed but simply, some members of the assembly no longer believe that agriculture’s contribution to the State is enough to merit the investment.

Not enough?

(more…)

The Downtown Market is adjacent to Kennedy Plaza, a cross-roads of people from all walks of life in Rhode Island. After a successful pilot program last season, all Farm Fresh RI farmers’ markets will accept Food Stamps / EBT this year. So it makes sense for the Downtown Market at Kennedy Plaza to be the place to announce a new statewide campaign to address an issue that spans communities: access to affordable, healthful foods.

Eat Better Today is the theme of a new statewide campaign at the URI Hunger Center that simplifies the message of Food Stamp outreach and addresses rampant misperceptions that often cause families to not sign up. (For example, many people believe that if you sign up for Food Stamps, your participation will lower the amount of aid that other needier families will receive. That’s not true.) RI ranks 44th in the nation for participation by eligible households, meaning just half of those eligible actually participate, a scary statistic given soaring food costs. Come tomorrow to hear from elected officials and advocates in RI discuss hunger in our communities and the importance of the new Eat Better Today campaign:

• Maria Cimini, Manager, Food Stamp Outreach, URI Hunger Center
• Josh Miller, RI State Senator
• Grace Diaz, RI State Representative
• Seth Yurdin, Providence City Councilor
• Jessica Knapp, Development VISTA, Farm Fresh RI, and Food Stamp user
• Noah Fulmer, Executive Director, Farm Fresh RI
• With our favorite host, Jen Huntley-Corbin, Jen’s Dish, WNRI 1380AM

See you tomorrow at the Downtown Market!

Florida tomato industry in “complete collapse”

Supermarkets and restaurants nationwide have thrown away their fresh tomatoes after the FDA warned about potential salmonella contamination. Work has stopped across thousands of acres of tomato farms in Florida (just two weeks after the Coalition of Immokalee Workers reached a deal with Burger King to pay workers 1.5 cents more per pound). But did the rotten tomatoes originate in Florida? at a farm? or a processing plant? or none of the above? Unfortunately and as usual no one seems to know, “the FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoes originated”.

Our advice? We suggest going local for your tomatoes! Expect an early season crop this week from Moosup River Farm at the Armory on Thursday and from Wishing Stone Farm and Woodstock Farm at Hope High on Saturday. Direct from the farmer to you, it’s about flavor, community and food safety, too.

You’ll be able to tell who’s already been to the tents of Maplewood Farm and Moosup River Farm – their fingers will be stained red with strawberry juice! New Dawn Catering will have peppery Pakistani curries and samosas filled with market-fresh veggies. Also expect fresh eggs by the dozen or half-dozen from Whispering Elms Farm, a new farm at our markets. Michael and Helen’s brood of happy hens first made an impression at the Providence Wintertime Farmers’ Market. Now they’re back for the summer at the Armory and Downtown markets with eggs that will make your omelets taste like a million bucks.

Do some shopping, cook some dinner, set up your picnic blanket under a tree and enjoy an evening in the park beside the market. This Thursday at the Armory is the start to a flavorful summer!

This year, Arcadian Fields is back from sabbatical with a bounty of greens. Wishing Stone Farm will be there with garlic scapes, plants and a line around the block. Plus Hill Orchard, Woodstock Farms, City Farm, Robin Hollow Farm, Cooks Valley Farm, and Bettencourt Farm.

Grab a coffee from the New Harvest Coffee Roasters tent and a scone from the folks at Seven Stars Bakery. Sample cheese at from the experts at Farmstead, and pick up scallops from Bomster Scallops for dinner. My favorite lady Marcia of Marcia’s Chutneys will be sampling her Rhode Island made jams, jellies, and chutneys.

Also joining the regular roster is Narragansett Creamery, with feta, ricotta and sharper, harder flavors. Pat’s Pastured Poultry will have a selection of his organic, free range meats and Matunuck Oyster Farm is the go-to tent for Rhode Island’s best oysters, littlenecks, and lobster. Later in the season Barden Family Orchards will herald in their new crop of apples, peaches, plums, and raspberries.

Come tomorrow, come each week, and come late July we’ll be knee deep in Brandywines and Green Zebras!

You can be sure the Farm Fresh office is abuzz, but this year there’s some extra excitement. The season brings 3 new farmers and a cheesemaker to Hope High, and that means a bigger bounty of Rhode Island seafood, cheese, meats, veggies and fruit every Saturday morning!

Also opening this week:

• Middletown on Saturdays – Aquidneck Growers
• Westerly on Thursdays
• Monday (Providence), Tuesday (Cranston), Wednesday (Providence) markets at all 3 Whole Foods

Stay tuned: next week we’re kicking off the Armory and Downtown Providence markets and our first year of Market CSAs! The first half of the summer CSA at the Armory is now full, but there’s still a few spots left for the second half and for both halves of the summer CSA at Downtown. If you haven’t ever joined a CSA or make dinners for one or two, these $200 shares are a great way to try Community Support Agriculture out. You get a selection of fresh food from the market every week and all of the money goes to your farmers and producers.

• WIC
• Seniors’ Coupons
• EBT /Food Stamps
• Credit Cards

Learn about how to sign up for WIC (Woman, Infants, and Children) and EBT / Food Stamps in RI, and how to use EBT at RI farmers’ markets. Note that RIers cannot use their WIC coupons in MA, or vice versa, but EBT can be used across state borders.

We’re also excited to announce a new farmers’ market will open this Saturday, May 24 in Richmond. Western Rhode Island is one of the least food secure areas of our state, meaning that there are few groceries and not much public transportation to help people get to them. We hope this new market will put fresh foods within reach for more Rhode Islanders!