Slow Food Seacoast’s “Time for Lunch” eat-in was actually a teach-in/workday. An enthusiastic crowd met at the Dover, NH, High School greenhouses to initiate a greens growing project that will supply the district cafeterias with salad mix once a week.

Shawn and Sarah Stimson, organic farmers from Sustainable Farm Products, volunteered their time to give a demonstration and answer questions. Afterward, we all piled into the greenhouse to plant 36 trays for the school. It was a fantastic morning!

More pictures on our Flickr page.

And Apple Annie in Brentwood is once again open - with the year’s first cider this weekend!

The Barrington Heritage Commission and the Barrington Farmers, with the sponsorship of the Barrington Recreation Department, are pleased to announce the first annual Natural Heritage and Agricultural Fair to take place Saturday, September 12^th, from 10am-4pm, at the Warren Farm, off of route 4, in Barrington, NH. The fair is a collaborative effort of local farmers and conservationists to celebrate the beauty and agrarian utility of our local natural resources.

Arrive in style on a mule-drawn hay ride, shuttling you to the day’s events.

The farmers’ market is open with many area farms offering vegetables, fruit, corn, potatoes, local meats, and heritage poultry. NH Crafters bring their wares, jewelry and yarns. Come and taste the goodness of local foods, sweet and savory, prepared by our own NH chefs.

The barnyard brims with heritage animals raised by NH farmers, working for NH food security. Cows, hogs, alpacas, rabbits, goats, sheep, and herding dogs, turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens will all be accompanied by their farmers for your questions, ideas, and curiosity. Discover how to homestead and create your own farm.

Come and learn about the many area initiatives to preserve and protect our natural resources for our health, enjoyment, and local food security. Learn about our water, our soil, our flora and fauna. Learn about bees and honey, worms and organic gardening. Find out what you can do to bring nourishing local food into our schools and how to preserve farm lands for future generations. Meet your NH experts, whose goal it is to partner with the community to transform our state into a sustainable haven.

Dance and take in the folk music of bands and fiddle jams. Learn to contra dance, and watch the spectacle. Listen to old-fashioned story telling and the history of our local farms. Go back in time to the Revolutionary War and see the routines of our earliest Americans and junior militias.

Join the celebration and conversation about what we can do to reclaim the greatness and wonder of our New Hampshire natural heritage and agriculture.

Don’t miss this great piece in NH Mag about the new seafood brand, “NH Seafood Fresh & Local,” an initiative of the Portsmouth Fishing Industry Committee with partners across the seacoast, including Slow Food and Seacoast Eat Local.

From Roger Doiron of Slow Food Portland and Kitchen Gardeners International comes this update and opportunity to say thanks. Take a look at the White House Garden video featuring Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass. Roger says:

By the way, I’m going to visit the garden next week along with some of the other FAS fellows and will be bringing the 110,000+ petition signatures and thank yous we collected in the course of our 14-month “Eat the View” campaign.  I’m going to print them on recycled paper and ask that Chef Sam Kass toss them onto the “First Compost Pile” so that we can literally become part of the garden we helped plant.  There’s no guarantee he’ll do it, but I’m hoping the symbolism will be too much for him to refuse.

We’ve kept our White House garden petition open on Facebook causes for people who might have missed it during the campaign but still want to show their thanks:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/43

For the non-Facebook crowd, we have another thank you form set up here:
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2009/08/white_house_here_we_come.html

Best wishes,
Roger

There’s a new fair in town! We’re delighted to note that Warren Farm (site of Slow Food Seacoast’s first-ever Farm Picnic, in 2006) will be thost of the Natural Heritage Agricultural Fair on Saturday, September 12, 2009.

The fair runs 10 AM - 4 PM and includes lots of wonderful offerings:

• Farmer’s Market with lots of great, fresh, local food
• Crafts and Specialty items made by local artisans
• Educational Displays and Information about Agriculture, Land Conservation, Sustainability and Living Local
• Animals accompanied by their owners who can answer questions about the purpose each animal serves on the farm as well as in our healthy local diets.
• Musicians, Country Dancing, yummy local food cooked up fresh, Revolutionary War re-enactors in authentic garb, Jr. Militia, Mule Team Rides, and Old Fashioned Storytelling

Help Out! The festival welcomes you as an attendee….or as a volunteer! Volunteers are needed on the afternoon of September 11 for setup,or on the day of the fair for parking and breakdown. To volunteer, please callCharles Tatham at charles.tatham@aphis.usda.gov

Directions to the Fair:

Two miles west of the Lee traffic circle off route 4.
From Lee Circle (where Rt 4 and Rt 125 intersect) head West on Rt 4 for 2 miles. Warren Road is on the Right hand side. The farm is down Warren Road 1/3 rd mile.

Contact for Questions, or to be a Vendor:  nh.ag.fair@live.com, or call Jessica at 603.335.2605

Enfield Shaker Museum Announces Culinary Symposium
Food for Thought: A Study of the Past Through Food

Join Eileen Behan of For the Love of Food to learn to prepare nutritious food  for your family.  The menu includes breakfast biscuits, quick cooking chili, English muffin chicken, veritable veggies, blueberry cake and roasted grapes.  Eileen will be at the Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School on September 12th from 11 to 1 o’clock  for their lunchtime cooking series.

Click here for more information and to register.

In the coming weeks, Seacoast residents will have several opportunities to learn how to can and preserve the summer’s harvest.

Yes You Can! is a food preservation demonstration that will be provided s at the Exeter Farmers’ Market, Swazey Parkway on Thursday, August 13 from 2:15-6:00 pm and at the Portsmouth Farmers’ Market at City Hall parking lot on Saturday, August 15 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Another presentation is scheduled for the Rye Public Library on Tuesday, August 25 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM.

The demonstrations are offered free-of-charge and will be provided by Claudia Boozer-Blasco, Extension Educator in Family and Consumer Resources with the UNH Cooperative Extension in Rockingham County.

Participants will learn the most up-to-date techniques for canning fruits and vegetables safely in a water bath canner.  Safe canning techniques will be demonstrated by making tomato salsa.  Proper equipment for canning will be displayed and current recipes by the US Department of Agriculture will be available.

This demonstration is designed for those who are preserving foods for the first time or for those who have been canning for many years. The exhibit and demonstration is open to the public and wheel-chair accessible.

Both the Exeter and Portsmouth Farmers’ Markets are coordinated by the Seacoast Growers Association.  More information can be found at www.seacoastgrowers.org

All programs are FREE (your tax dollars at work!) and open to the public.