Monthly Report
by Sheryl Vaillette
Updated: Monday, February 22, 2010
It's time for Mass Local Food's first Annual Meeting! Be sure to put Sunday, Feb. 28, 4pm to 7pm on your calendars & don’t forget to RSVP !! (Snow date: Sunday, March 7, same time)
We are so pleased to have Hartman’s Herb Farm as our meeting location. Lynn, Peter & Carissa don’t normally host this kind of event but have kindly offered to do so because they believe in the mission of MLF & want to help our co-op. They have an absolutely gorgeous setting, off the beaten path in Barre, with a B & B, function room, gift shop, gardens & animals. It will be well worth the drive!
We are looking forward to a wonderful pot luck (hopefully including many MLF or other local products), a chance to meet & greet producers & customers from all our sites, and an interesting but not too long business meeting.
New Producers: We have eggs from Silvermine Farm and Johnson & Sons Poultry Farm.
Just Thinking:
Some MLF customers & producers went to see Super Size Me at Dr. Smith & Associates recently. The movie is mainly about one man’s experiment with eating 3 meals a day for a month at McDonald’s and the health effects he encountered. It also discusses junk food in schools, the school lunch program and the persistence/pervasiveness of fast food advertising.
Considering that 3 meals a day at McDonald's is not what most people (even those who love McDonald’s) would do, it was still eye-opening to discover the unforeseen problems Morgan Spurlock developed in such a short period of time. Most of us could anticipate a weight gain…approximately 20 lbs in the month, but we probably would not have imagined fatigue, shortness of breath, mood swings, addictive behavior, a 57 point increase in cholesterol level (from 168 to 225) and early stage liver disease!
Seeing the movie just made me glad that my family never really got into fast food and only rarely ate at McDonald’s. I'm also all the more grateful for the farms that are still left here in MA and the hard-working, creative, environmentally friendly farmers who try to squeeze a living out of them so that I can find & cook nutrient dense & good tasting food. It also confirmed that buying through the co-op and preparing meals from scratch is worth the effort. Although many people feel that they can feed their family more cheaply at a fast-food restaurant than at home, the potential for disastrous long-term health effects must be included in that cost!!
In addition, everyone at the movie came away horrified at the stuff that passes for food in many schools! You may want to have a few lunches with your children at the school cafeteria to see how your school system is doing. Finding a way to bring the Farm to School Project, a program of the MA Dept. of Agricultural Resources, to all area schools should be a priority for anyone who cares about the future of our children’s health!
Massachusetts Local Food Report
January 2010
Well, the holiday season has come and gone. Here at MLF we hope you had a wonderful time with family, friends & delicious local food! On behalf of all our producers, bakers, artisans and volunteers, Kelley, Kerrie & Sheryl want to thank you all for a record-breaking end to 2009!
Looking forward to 2010, we are excited to continue our search for wonderful, quality, local products. That is one of the reasons Kelley and Sheryl went to the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) Winter Conference on Jan. 15th. MLF was well received by everyone who visited our table, including the keynote speaker, Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm (featured in Food, Inc. and the Omnivore’s Dilemma as a “beyond organic” example of farming). It was inspiring to hear his talk about farming/distributing outside the world of agribusiness and to then have him come to us, praise the work of MLF and offer encouragement.
We talked to several small organic producers who expressed an interest in selling through the co-op and met many potential customers. We hope that sometime in the next year, all of you who have taken a chance on us during these past 8 months will be able to proudly say that you were a part of Mass Local Food “before it was so big/famous”!
Upcoming Events: Mass Local Food’s interim Board of Directors is planning our first annual meeting. As members of the coop, you are entitled to one vote per membership on each of the business items we discuss……you will be helping to shape MLF here in MA! The afternoon is not just about business though. It is an opportunity to meet those other members who are buying & selling through us, to share a delicious pot-luck, and to experience a bit of fun on a long winter’s day.
New Producers: The Fiddler’s Garden has joined us with homemade stepping stones. They will also have produce as time goes on.
Just Thinking: But Mass Local Food is so Expensive!
Kerrie recently offered these thoughts about the price of eating through MLF. Her bill for Mass Local Food that month was $96.03. Seems expensive, but is it?
“My bill for Mass Local Food is really high for the relatively small package (I am old enough to remember filling the back of my car for $100). But when I look at what I get, there is a good reason. If I separated my weekly/monthly grocery list into the every-day items and the specialty items, like really great cheddar, gouda and goat cheese, fine meats, bakery products, treats for the dog, quality herbs, and unique flavored jams & jellies, even the grocery store bag filled with the specialty goodies would probably cost about the same, or possibly more than Mass Local Food.
I cannot compare (in price or quality) Honeybee Baking Companies desserts to the grocery store bakery, or my cheddar that I get from Smith’s Country Cheese with the Land O’ Lakes variety that I might get on sale at Market Basket. And I want my children to know what Cheddar and Gouda taste like – the finer nuances of the flavors. Now, for economy and convenience, I will admit to always having a shrink wrapped bar or two of junky Swiss (in case I decide on Quiche Lorraine) or cheddar (in case I am having a tomato based soup), but I want the good stuff too.
The meats that I purchase are not even comparable to anything in a butcher shop or grocery store (including Whole Foods – which is NOT a farm store. It is a big box grocery store). Mass local meats actually come straight from the farm. The producer knows what the animal ate, how much exercise it got, how fast it could run into a new pasture when it was first opened, where it spent its afternoons on a hot summer day… Unless you are shopping at a farmer-owned meat shop, your butcher is likely purchasing animals wherever s/he can find them, and butchering them as-is. Not quite the same thing…
I purchased a vanilla “solid perfume” for my lovely and sophisticated teenage daughter who had purchased a bottle of scent with her teenage birthday money. I’m sure the solid perfume that I purchased will last as long as the bottle that she purchased and is about the same price. Not having to smell the sticky sweet cotton-candy smell around this house anymore?…Priceless!
Coffee, freshly roasted the Wednesday or Thursday before delivery day by Mark Johns in Holden is delicious and at $10.00 per pound is about the same price as a good quality coffee that was freshly roasted in a far-away manufacturing center before being packed and shipped half way across the country.
Freshly milled flour and whole grains grown in Northfield….It is just not possible to get fresh flour any other way. I’ll be making whole wheat bread and beef barley soup soon.
Echinacea from Turessa Botanical is half what I would pay elsewhere. And I have talked to Dawn and feel comfortable with her knowledge and skill in making these tinctures.
Well, I could go on, but, in case you are still reading, I’ll stop here. These items are so far superior to the same items from your grocery store. It’s just that they are collectively the more expensive items on your list whether you are getting them at the grocery store or Mass Local Food.
Can Mass Local Food products be part of a healthy and thrifty meal plan? It works very well for me!”
The Holiday Season is in full swing and here at Mass Local Food we want to wish you all a joyous and peaceful time with family and friends. If at all possible, we hope you will be able to take a few moments to sit back and enjoy what is good in your life and assess what you might need to change or prioritize in the coming year. Perhaps living a more simple life, spending more time with family, reducing your carbon footprint, eating more nutritiously, etc. are some of things you may want to try in 2010. Let us know what you are doing and we will try to add your thoughts to this report…..or even add a Mass Local Food blog in the future.
New Producer & Pick-up site this month:
We are happy to have Sidehill Farm’s yogurt. Check out their products and please your palate. Welcome to the new Holden pick-up site. More details on the Mass Local Food Shopping page for people who prefer Holden pickup.
Featured Products:
It looks like winter is officially here bringing howling winds, bitter cold, snow & more. As a result, Kelley’s daughter, Katy, has been suffering with horrible chapped lips. She doesn't like any of the commercially available lip balms like Carmex or Blistex, because they sting and really don’t taste that great. She tried the lip balm from Open Meadow and her lips started to heal immediately. Now she uses it regularly, twice a day, and her lips are looking good as new….and the flavors are much tastier than the commercial brands! If chapped hands and rough, red cheeks are a problem for you, try Good 4 You’s Salve-ation. Sheryl finds that it works wonders and can be used on cuts as well.
A few months ago, Westfield Farm left a sample of chocolate goat cheese at the Mass Local Food booth. With it were some almond cookie type crackers that were the exact, perfect complement to the cheese. We think that, even if you don’t like the idea of chocolate cheese, you would have loved this combination. Meghan, Kerrie’s daughter, was inspired by the combo and made orange almond biscotti to serve with the chocolate cheese. Kerrie reports that everyone really liked the combination and thinks it would be great for a special party. It was easy and delicious and you can make the biscotti ahead of time and freeze it. Most people prefer the cheese at room temperature as the texture and flavor seems better this way and so delicious with Billy Goat Beanery coffee.
Speaking of combos…..have you tried pairing any of Deborah’s Kitchen’s spreadable fruit with the suggestions on their labels? Sheryl has been experimenting and recommends using the Apricot Joy, mixed with white wine, lemon juice and a little honey (if you want more sweetness) as a glaze for boneless, skinless chicken breasts. First dip the breasts in flour and paprika, drizzle with melted butter and bake for 20 min. before the glaze goes on. Then continue the baking until the breasts are done (usually another 10 to 20 min. – depending on their size).
The same idea can be used with Massachusetts Rubies, garlic and red wine for pork roast or Hot, Hot Peach and lemon juice for salmon. Sheryl also mixed Cherry Bliss, Pear Lime Limbo, Forest Berries and others into plain yogurt (can’t wait to try Sidehill Farm’s) and likes that she can control the amount of fruit flavor. The next experiment is as a topping for or filling in baked goods or on top of pancakes instead of syrup. Kelly adds that she has been spreading Mango Sunshine on her bagel as a delicious and lower calorie alternative to cream cheese……Yummy!
What about high fructose corn syrup?
In the opinion of many MLF people, we should not even be eating corn syrup (most of it is high fructose corn syrup or HFCS). You can read about it in this slightly technical article. Or just Google it for yourself. Just read multiple articles and make your decision. Even Mayo Clinic and Harvard University, while saying it is as safe as table sugar, use words like “as for now” and “yielded conflicting results” -- scary words if we are feeding it to our children! And the problem is: we are eating a LOT of corn syrup. Just read the labels - the “organic” ones too!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!!!!!
Kelley, Kerrie, and Sheryl
and the entire Mass Local Food Board of Directors