Local Events Worth Mentioning

Library

The Manchester Library is selling off some of their old stock on Thursday June 25th, 2009 from 2:30 pm to 6:30pm.

For $5.00, you will receive a paper grocery bag, at the entrance of the Winchell Room. You can fill the bag with as many items that you can fit into the bag from the materials available in the Winchell Room. Additional bags can be purchased at $5.00 per bag.

Farmer’s Markets

• Downtown Manchester’s Farmer’s Market starts Thursday June 18th, 2009
• The Seacoast Growers Association’s markets are open. (Durham: Mondays 2:15—5:30, Kingston: Tuesdays, 2:15—5:30, Hampton: Tuesdays, 3:00—6:00, Dover: (new location) Wednesdays, 2:15—6:00, Exeter: Thursdays, 2:15—6:00, and Portsmouth: Saturdays, 8:00—1:00)
• Deerfield’s Farmer’s Market website still lists opening day as TBD, but last year they opened Friday June 20th.

State Fairs

The first two fairs of the season are July 22nd – July 26th for the North Haverhill Fair and July 23 – July 26th for the Stratham Fair. Those who want to enter pictures or arts and crafts should get their entries in by July 15th.

Maple Syrup Open House

On Sunday I bribed my husband into going to the New Hampshire Maple Producers open house with me. We went to Folsom’s Sugar House in Chester. How did I bribe him? Maple Syrup Sundays… YUM.

We listened to the owner talk a little about how he produces the maple syrup but the place was packed so we didn’t stay long. I guess they had a good weekend because they were sold out of bottled syrup and packaged treats by the time we got there.

I did find the steam coming off the boiler to be a fun photography subject. I probably took 10 or 15 pictures of the ceiling. The owners probably thought I was crazy.

I really liked the rustic looking sugar house. It reminded me of stories my grandfather used to tell me about when he was a kid growing up in Gaspesie.

You may wonder why my husband is dressed so funny. Well it has to do with why I had to bribe him. I got him to agree to stop at the sugar house on our way home from the Eastern States 20-mile Race.

He ran 20 miles in the pouring rain along the cold coast on New Hampshire breaking his personal best. It was a little difficult for me to take pictures of him though. Between the wind and the rain I had a hard time keeping my camera safe. It’s usually such a fun race for the spectators because you can hop in your car from beach to beach waiting for your runner to come by. But it was a miserable day, and I wasn’t running around. But I’m so proud of him so I put up with it. I am glad that he finished almost 1/2 hour faster than last year.

NH Maple Producers Weekend

So I’m still waiting for my seeds to get here so I can start more Tomatoes and Eggplants.  I’ve even already filled the peet pods to plant them.

I figure I would remind those in New England that this weekend is the New Hampshire Maple Producers Open House.  You can go to their website to find out what different maple houses are offering. Some are offering tours, serving maple sundays, crafts, wagon rides and other products.  Don’t tell the kids it might be educational.

Some New Hampshire Eat Local Links

Here’s a small collection of links of local resources and blogs for local foods in New Hampshire.  I’ll try to add stuff as I find it.  Let me know if you know of any resources I can ad.

Resources

• Seacoast Eat Local
• NH Made – Not just for food.
• NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food Publication – Restaurants, Farms by Category
• PickYourOwn Farms
• Seacoast Region Farmers Markets
• Seacoast Growers Association
• NH Cheesemaker’s Guild
• Granite State Dairy Promotion
• Local Harvest (a National Website of Local Resources)
• Culinate
• NewEnglandGrown.com
• NH Food Systems Locavore Groups

Blogs

• Seacoast Eat Local Blog – this one is often posts about events and news in the local food community.
  
• Yankee Food – A nice personal blog about some of the food that can be prepared with local foods.

Farmer’s Market Tool

So I’m big into supporting local farmers that practice sustainable agriculture and who treat their meat animals with respect before they become steak, so I try to buy some of my food from local farmer’s markets. My favorite is the Deerfield Farmer’s Market. Last year we got AMAZING strawberries there from a tiny little vendor and I was very impressed with the heirloom turkey I got for thanksgiving from Beausoleil Farm in Deerfield, NH.

Cultivate has a Farmer’s market finder for all over the country. It’s currently missing the Deerfield Market and I’m not sure why that is but it is a great resource for a start to a local food search.

Allow me to go on a brief tangent on Heritage Turkeys now. Over 95% of turkeys are of the same breed, bred for their huge turkey breasts. They are so unhealthy that they cannot even reproduce naturally. I find their flavor uninteresting as well, at least now that I’ve had a delicious full breasted tender heritage breed.

“Simply by virtue of having a flavor, this represented a completely different order of turkey. Now I understood what turkey was like before the triumph of the Broad Breasted White, and why eating turkey had once been considered a great treat”

-Michael Pollan