Via the University of New Hampshire Department of Hospitality Management:

WHAT: Discover the Essence of Tuscany with Gina Stipo and Banfi Wines! The University of New Hampshire Hospitality Management students will present six courses of Tuscan cuisine at the upcoming Gourmet Dinner. The students have procured such local fare as Riverslea Farm lamb and mutton, Borealis focaccia, and sorbetto and organic salad greens from local farmers and businesses. Wine pairings will be provided by Banfi Vintners and beer by Smuttynose Brewing Co.

WHEN: Friday, April 16 & Saturday, April 17. Aperitivo begins at 6 pm, with dinner to follow.

WHERE: Stillings, 20 Ballard Drive, Durham, NH

COST: $50

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Purchase tickets online at UNH Gourmet Dinners .

The event is nonprofit and the class is based on an experiential learning model where the students create and manage the entire event from marketing to menu design.

Via the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Rockingham County:

WHAT: Wine Grapes: Growing and Pest Management. Topics to be discussed in this FREE workshop are pruning, disease prevention, insect and wildlife management.  Speakers are from the UNH Cooperative Extension:

• Cheryl Smith Extension, Plant Health Specialist
• Becky Sideman, Sustainable Horticulture Specialist
• Bill Lord, Fruit Specialist Emeritus
• Nada Haddad, Agriculture Extension Educator

If interested in pesticide recertification credit, 2 credits are available. Workshop is free, rain or Shine. Registration is not required but is helpful.

WHEN: Thursday, April 15, 2010, from 3:15 to 5:30 pm

WHERE: Zorvino Vineyards at 226 Main Street, Sandown, NH

COST: FREE!

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Deb at 679-5616 or Deb.Stevens@UNH.edu. If you need special accommodations in order to participate, please call 10 days in advance. See all events on the UNH Cooperative Extension calendar

In case you haven’t been bitten by the urge to garden yet (and with this weather, how can you not?), you might be spurred to action by knowing that April is National Garden Month!

From the National Gardening Association:

Every April communities, organizations, and individuals nationwide celebrate gardening during National Garden Month. Gardeners know, and research confirms, that nurturing plants is good for us: attitudes toward health and nutrition improve, kids perform better at school, and community spirit grows. Join the celebration and help to make America a greener, healthier, more livable place!

If you don’t have a garden of your own but are itching to get some dirt under your fingernails, pencil in April 24. In the morning, join other volunteers for Garden Cleanup Day to help ready Strawbery Banke Museum for its opening a week later. In the afternoon, attend free workshops at the  Heirloom Seed Plant-In, also at Strawbery Banke. Slow Food Seacoast is partnering with Strawbery Banke and the Chefs Collaborative to teach you how to grow and eat unique heirloom produce from your own backyard. See DETAILS and AGENDA for these events. RSVP requested.

As if that weren’t enough to urge you to don your gardening gloves, the Seacoast Community Garden Network (brainchild of Slow Food Seacoast’s own Jenny Isler!) is poised to launch its interactive website in May to inform and connect gardeners, and to connect gardeners and gardens. Stay tuned for the official announcement!

The Jenness Farm Spring Open House/Open Farm Weekend is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 17 & 18, 2010, from 10 am to 6 pm, rain or shine. Enjoy fresh donuts; browse the new-and-improved Jenness Farm store (there’s so much more than goat milk soap!); buy products from several vendors. Visit with chicks, piglets, baby goats, lambs, and crazy turkeys—not to mention Rhun the Frisbee Dog, official farm greeter! The weekend-long event will offer lots of fun for children of all ages. Bring a picnic lunch and any questions that you may have. WHAT: Jenness Farm Spring Open House/Open Farm Weekend WHEN: April 17 & 18, 2010, 10 am–6 pm WHERE: 77 Garland Road, Nottingham, NH 03290 WEBSITE: http://www.jennessfarm.com

Via the Simply Good Food Blog:

An unlikely hero, Joel Salatin is a rural Virginia farmer who has come to symbolize slow food, local food, practical organic farming methods, and no-nonsense ruckus-making. Read about a new Earth Eats interview and videos on the Simply Good Food Blog.

Want to support local independent restaurants and get a great meal for great deal?

Restaurant Week Portsmouth, a bi-annual culinary event that spotlights Greater Portsmouth as a culinary and cultural destination, runs from March 26 to April 3, 2010. Participating restaurants throughout the Seacoast will offer special three-course prix fixe menus (lunch $16.95 per person, dinner $29.95 per person). View menus for eachrestaurant through links on the Restaurant Week Portsmouth web page.

“Please note: Restaurants will not accept discount cards or other offers during Restaurant Week. Reservations highly recommended—diners must contact the individual restaurant(s) of their choice.”

Food & Water Watch announced today that the public lecture with Maude Barlow has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 7:00 pm. Part of the “Tap In” series at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the event originally was scheduled for March 4 (see the post about it here) was canceled due to a weather-related flight cancellation.) This lecture will be the last event in the series.

Please register for this event.

For more information …

About the organization: Food & Water Watch

About the Tap In series at UNH: UNH Office of Sustainability

About the event, and to register: New Date: Water Activist Maude Barlow Visits UNH

Ready to get your hands into the soil and bring back the green? On Saturday, April 24 (rain date: Sunday, April 25), join an inspired community in helping to bring new life to the historic gardens at Strawbery Banke Museum. The day starts with the Strawbery Banke Earth Day Volunteer Garden Cleanup and continues into the afternoon with a Slow Food Potluck and an Heirloom Seed Plant-In.

Other work opportunities also will be available throughout the site for those not inclined toward gardening, but all work done will help the museum get ready for its May 1 opening.

Morning: Garden Cleanup

Volunteers should arrive at the Strawbery Banke Visitors Center between 8:30 and 9:00 am for work assignments and refreshments. Please feel free to bring your favorite gardening tools, wheelbarrows, rakes, and gloves. All other tools will be provided by the Museum. Park in the lot by the Visitors Center at 14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth.

Midday: Slow Food Potluck Lunch

An optional Slow Food Potluck Lunch will follow at 12:30 pm. Visit the Slow Food Seacoast website and About Our Potlucks to learn more about Slow Food Seacoast and our potluck events.

Afternoon: Heirloom Seed “Plant-In”

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and to further the day’s theme, join us for an Heirloom Seed Plant-In from 1:30 to 4:00 pm!  Slow Food Seacoast is partnering with Strawbery Banke and the Chefs Collaborative to teach how to grow and eat food from your own backyard. Participants will receive free heirloom seeds and plants, and enjoy free workshops and talks. Afternoon sessions will include Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) information sessions, gardening tips, and heirloom seed planting, plus plenty of opportunities to get dirt under your fingernails.

>>Please RSVP by April 19 to volunteers@strawberybanke.org or 1-603-433-1110; tell us if you plan to bring gardening tools and a potluck dish.<<

Program Schedule and Locations [subject to change]

8:30–9:00 am: Volunteers arrive at Strawbery Banke for work assignments and refreshments (Visitors Center)

12:30 pm: Slow Food Potluck Lunch; visit About Our Potlucks to learn more about Slow Food Seacoast potluck events (Visitors Center)

1:30 pm: RAFT Heirloom Seed Plant-In and plant giveaway (Visitors Center)

1:30–4:00 pm: “Planting for Kids and Families” ongoing in the Children’s Garden with UNH Cooperative Extension Service Master Gardeners (Victorian Children’s Garden)

1:45 pm: David Buchanon of Slow Food Portland—”Slow Food in the Garden” The Ark of Taste and RAFT programs (Visitors Center)

2:00 pm: “Planting and Saving Heirloom Seeds”—Return to the gardens for a hands program planting early crops at the 1695 Sherburne, 1919 Shapiro, and 1944 Victory Gardens (meet in front of the Visitor Center)

2:30 pm: “Community Gardening”—Suzanne MacDonald (Community Gardens)

3:00 pm: “Slow Food—Sustainable Gardens” with John Forti, Slow Food Seacoast (Visitor Center)

Illustration donated by Brenda Drew Designs, www.brendadrewdesigns.com

The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) New Hampshire Herbal Network (NHHN) 1st Annual Spring Herb and Garden Conference will be held on Saturday, May 22, 2010, at Pine Hill Waldorf School in Wilton, NH.

The conference, entitled Beautiful Earth, “will feature some of New Hampshire’s top herbalists, gardeners, farmers, retailers, crafters, artisans and trades people who support organic growing methods, ecologically friendly products, local food, sustainable agriculture, natural medicine, and community awareness.”

Check out the NOFA–NHHN link for details!

It’s less than 2 months until the the first Seacoast Growers Association summer farmers’ market opens in Portsmouth, and the winter farmers’ markets in Newburyport, MA, and Northwood, NH, have finished for the season. But thanks to the efforts of local consumers, craftspeople, food producers—bakers, beekeepers, farmers, ranchers, vintners, and more—and the fabulous local organizations that bring us all together, we in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire are fortunate to have several more winter markets to get us there.

Final Winter Markets

Come check out what the vendors have to offer at the last indoor markets of the season.

• March 13 - Seacoast Eat Local Exeter Winter Farmers’ Market at Exeter High School, 1 Blue Hawk Drive, Exeter (GPS users, please use 315 Epping Road)
• March 20 - Rye Farmers’ Market - 10 am to 2 pm at Rye Junior High (note new location!), 501 Washington Road, Rye
• March 20 - Newmarket Farmers’ Market - 9 am to 1 pm at the Stone Church, 5 Granite Street, Newmarket
• March 27 - Seacoast Eat Local Rollinsford Winter Farmers’ Market at Wentworth Greenhouses, 141 Rollins Rd., Rollinsford
• April 10 - Seacoast Eat Local Exeter Winter Farmers’ Market at Exeter High School, 1 Blue Hawk Drive, Exeter (GPS users, please use 315 Epping Road)

Spring Markets

• April 17 -Newmarket Farmers’ Market - 9 am to 1 pm at the Stone Church, 5 Granite Street, Newmarket
• April 24 - Farmer’s Market at Heron’s Pond Farm, 299 Main Ave, South Hampton

Summer Markets Opening Soon!

The first summer farmers’ markets of the season usually feature early spring greens and locally grown plants to decorate your flower beds, create a vegetable garden, and add color to your life after a long winter. Other food and nonfood products will be available, too. Come see what they have to offer.

• May 1 - Portsmouth Farmers’ Market, Saturdays, 8 am–1  pm, 1 Junkins Ave., Portsmouth
• May 2 - Newburyport Farmers’ Market, Sundays, 9 am–1 pm, Tannery Marketplace, Newburyport, Mass.
• May 6 - Exeter Farmers’ Market, Thursdays, 2:30–6 pm, Swazey Parkway, Exeter
• May 15 - Newmarket Plant Sale & Farmers’ Market - 9 am to 1 pm, 5 Granite Street (Stone Church), Newmarket
• May 22 - Newmarket Plant Sale & Farmers’ Market - 9 am to 1 pm, 5 Granite Street (Stone Church), Newmarket
• May 27 - Northwood Farmers’ Market, Thursdays, 3–6:30 pm, Junction of Route 4 & Route 202A & 43, Northwood
• June 7 - Durham Farmers’ Market, Mondays, 2:15–5:30 pm, Pettee Brook Lane (Pettee Brook parking lot), Durham
• June 8 - Hampton Farmers’ Market, Tuesdays, 3–6 pm, 289 Lafayette Rd/Route 1 (Sacred Heart Church parking lot), Hampton, NH
• June 9 - Dover Farmers’ Market, Wednesdays, 2:15–6:00 pm, corner of Central Ave. and Sixth St. (parking lot of the new Dover Chamber of Commerce), Dover
• June 26 - Wentworth Greenhouses Farmers’ Market, Saturdays, 10 am–2 pm, 141 Rollins Road, Rollinsford (parking lot)

For More Information

Want to know which vendors are scheduled to be at the market, check a venue address, or get directions? Go straight to the source!

• Newburyport Farmers’ Market
• Newmarket Farmers’ Markets at Stone Church
• Northwood Farmers’ Market
• Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers’ Markets
• Wentworth Greenhouses Farmers’ Markets (Rollinsford)
• Rye Farmers’ Markets
• Seacoast Growers Association (Dover, Durham, Exeter, Hampton, and Portsmouth)

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