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)

Follow Slow Food Seacoast on Twitter

The World Affairs Council of Northern California presents the WorldAffairs 2010 Live Webcast on March 11 and 12, 2010: “The world that the Obama administration inherited a year ago is already a very different place. From global economic crisis to climate change, from international security dilemmas to development challenges, the path forward will require innovation from all sectors. Governments, non-governmental organizations, private sector initiatives and individual actors must all contribute.”

Topics include environment, economy, development, and security—all global issues. (Download the Webcast agenda in PDF format here.) Both days end with a session entitled Local Solutions to Global Problems, and Josh Viertel (president of Slow Food USA) will be speaking at this closing session on March 12.

The webcast is free, and no log in or registration is required! Simply go to the WorldAffairs 2010 Live Webcast page on March 11 at 12:45 PST and begin watching!

This BBC report features a Virginia farmer who is “feeding the community one stop at a time” as he takes his wares on the road—literally! His “Farm to Family” bus brings fresh food (vegetables, fruit, dairy, eggs, fresh meat, and bacon) to food deserts in Richmond, VA. And he uses Facebook to get the word out to customers! How cool is that?

The video also features commentary from Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel.

The Farm Bus on BBC News

Dear Slow Food Seacoast Friends,

Please read the exerpts below from a great letter Slow Food leaders recently received from Slow Food USA’s president. It really describes the direction Slow Food is headed in. I hope it makes you feel good about your involvement, what we have already accomplished, and what we set out to do each time we meet, host educational events, or simply talk to one another - we are making a difference.

*****

Dear Slow Food leader,

Slow Food USA is going to change the way America eats. I’m excited by what we stand to accomplish together and I’m writing you this letter to convey three important things:

I want to share the goals I have for Slow Food and its local chapters. This will help to define the work we do together over the next twelve to eighteen months.

MAJOR GOALS
Historically, Slow Food has done inspired work locally, on the ground, and in our communities to raise awareness about the connections between food, land and people, and to make a better food system. It is time to build on and expand this work so that Slow Food can create deeper and broader changes in our food system. First, by ensuring our chapters are effectively connected on the ground to the organizations and people who are doing great work there; and second, by speaking with a united voice on key issues as we move forward.

* We can increase our reach, our impact and our value to members by making sure that we have strong connections in our communities between our chapters and each of the community leaders, individuals and other organizations doing related work there. As we branch out to do work with and include youth, work on food justice, and work that serves those most hurt by our current food system, local connections will be a vital way in which chapters engage.

o Having strong local connections ensures your local chapters can help to serve the interests of all those doing related work in your communities.
o By being connected to a local network, a chapter offers more value to its members. More than any other reason, people join Slow Food to be part of a growing movement and to be connected to a local community of people who share similar values and work. When a member becomes a part of your chapter, that member should become a part of a community and a movement.
o By having strong local connections, we broaden the reach of our local networks. This allows us to have greater impact as we advocate nationally.

* We will speak with a national, unified voice on key issues to help our movement change the food system. With local chapters and members all over the country, ready to speak out and call for change in our food system, Slow Food is perfectly positioned to advocate for national policy change. Already Slow Food is being brought into conversations with federal policy makers and White House cabinet members to talk about the issues that matter most to us.
o President Obama has voiced support for our cause but has made it clear that if we want to see change happen, we need to show him a social movement.
o We have never united our local voices into a national voice before, but now is the time to make it happen.
o In the coming months we will be working with you towards national campaigns on issues in our movement that can unite our voices and draw broad support. This is new work for many of us, but it is the work that we are called to do.

* Annual Report on Slow Food Chapter Activity: The annual reports you send us on your activity help us to create a clearer picture of what Slow Food is doing on the ground, nationally. Here are some highlights of your accomplishments in 2008.
o Over 30 new chapters opened in 2008. You now run 212 chapters, and there is a chapter in nearly every state. We only lack chapters in North and South Dakota, Kansas and Delaware.
o In 2008 you ran over 1100 events. That is more than three events every single day!
o More than 140 chapters are already involved in or want to be involved in advocating for food policy changes, creating more access to good, clean and fair food for underserved populations and educating members about food security issues.
o You raised and spent nearly one million dollars. Roughly half of the money you raised was spent on running events, which means money directed to good, clean, fair food producers, and education for members and the public. The remainder went to supporting good work changing our food system and building our movement. With it you established school gardens, sent farmers and students to Terra Madre, and ran amazing programs.
* Food Justice Primer: A NEW resource that offers ideas for beginning (or continuing) to work on food justice projects, including hunger and food access, urban farming, worker rights, food sovereignty and youth mentoring. It lists project ideas, samples of chapter projects, and local and national organizations who work in food justice. Find it at http://slowfoodusa.org/index.php/local_chapters/details/working_in_food_justice

In closing, I want to thank you again for all that you do for this organization, and for the sustainable food movement. Real community is built out of shared food and shared work. Even though we live far apart from each other, our food and our work are shared. So we are a community, a community trying to make a good, clean and fair food system. I feel blessed to be a part of this community, and I look forward to the good work we are going to do together.

Yours truly,

Josh Viertel
President, Slow Food USA

Mark your calendars, make your reservations immediately, beat those cabin fever blues and join us for a Slow Food USA Ark of Taste Dinner at the Pearl Restaurant on Wednesday March 19!

6 pm for cocktails and convivial greetings…
7 pm the Chef’s 8-Course Sumptious Tasting Dinner:

First - Cape May Oysters Three Ways
Second - Nantucket Bay Scallops with Meyer Lemon Crumble and Baby Arugula
Third - Gulf of Maine Shrimp and Maine Crab Cake
Fourth - Blood Orange and Ojai Pixie Tangerine Salad with Boston Lettuce
Fifth- Yankee Farmer Bison Carpaccio with Carolina Gold Rice Grits
Sixth - Slow-Braised Red Wattle Hog with Edamame
Seventh - La Cence Petite Sirloin with Wasabi White Pepper, Green Mountain Potatoes and Garlic
Eighth - Chocolate and Kumquat Spring Roll

$55 per person includes gratuities

Pearl house wines will be available with each course in special $3 tasting pours

Call 924-5225 for advance reservations only. Limited seating - so call your reservations in soon!!!

Ben Watson, who is a board member of the Slow Food USA Ark Committee, has been working with Pearl Chef to create this special menu. He will be present to answer your questions about the Ark Project. This will be a fundraising event to enable several of our local farmers to attend this year’s Terra Madre Convention - a unique symposium bringing together over 7000 farmers, small food producers, chefs and agriculture school delegates to network for sustainable agriculture and working together towards the goal of making good, clean, fair food available to everyone!!!!

For those of you who are familiar with Michael Pollan’s work, you will agree that he has truly insightful perspective on how humans have come to affect the food system we are a part of, for better or for worse. In the United States, one of the most powerful influences is the National Farm Bill, which is up for renewal this year. Slow Food USA has joined with other progressive groups to educate the public and ask citizens to put pressure on Congress to change the way farm subsidies are distributed. They have complied some excellent information on their website, including a sample letter to your senators and representatives, and encourage everyone to get involved…. Now back to Michael Pollen who has written a wonderful article summarizing how the Farm Bill has gotten so out of balance. This can be viewed on his website at michaelpollan.com. Check it out and if you haven’t read any of his books, you may decide to take a trip to you local bookstore for a copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, his most recent work.

You knew were a Seacoast resident, but did you know you are also part of Clambake Nation?

The Slow Food USA initiative called RAFT (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) has organized the United States into regional ‘nations’ based on shared food histories. Within each group, convivia work together with RAFT’s seven supporting organizations to “document, restore, and celebrate” each region’s threatened foods. RAFT also encourages us to identify local foods that should be listed on Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. The Ark list exists to raise awareness of threatened foods, and encourage projects to help preserve them and revive their use. Here’s the list of foods RAFT is specifically working to support in Clambake Nation; as you’ll see, many of our members and associates are actively engaged in growing, cooking, or teaching about many of them, such as American heirloom apples, Native strawberries, and cranberry beans.