June 22, 2010 [Mount Vernon, WA] - Area food producers are preparing to sell their products to wholesale customers in the covered parking lot of the Skagit Valley Food Co-op on Thursday mornings from 8-10 a.m., starting this Thursday, June 24th, and will be there every week through harvest season, interest provided.
The weekly market is designed to help area buyers and sellers decrease time and fuel costs associated with collecting and delivering local food themselves," says Lucy Norris, PSFN Project Manager. "The Skagit Valley Food Co-op and Puget Sound Food Network together identified an initial group of local vendors, now we need restaurants and food service buyers to show up." Buyers can either preorder from the farm, and then pay and collect at the market site, or choose to pick up later. Each vendor will choose their own invoicing and delivery options. Impulse buys are expected and encouraged.
The Skagit WholeSale Market is grounded in the harvest of all-star Skagit organic producers like Hedlin Farm, Skagit River Ranch, Ralph's Greenhouse, and Skagit Flats. Staples from Sakuma Bros, Twin Sisters Mushrooms, Hidden Meadow Ranch, Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy, and the newly formed Viva Farms will be complimented by delicacies from San Juan Pasta Company and Gothberg Farms. Seasonal appearances by other Skagit and PSFN member producers, and products from nearby and east of the mountains will appear throughout the season.
A collaboration between the Co-op and Puget Sound Food Network, it is the only grassroots business-to-business market of its kind in Northwest Washington.
Those interested in learning more or wish to participate as a Skagit WholeSale Market buyer or seller should contact Erin Treat at skagitcoop@gmail.com or visit PSFN at www.psfn.org. Map and directions to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op are posted at http://www.skagitfoodcoop.com/map.html.
For more background and information, please read our first press release from June 8th on our blog at http://psfn.org/blog/2010/06/seeking-buyers-for-the-skagit-wholesale-market-thursdays-starting-june-24th/, and follow All FOOD Considered, a blog created by Skagit Valley Food Coop.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Washington State Grape Society Scholarship available
The Washington State Grape Society is proud to offer
a scholarship to a deserving young person who
plans to attend Washington State University and engage
in a field of study relating to the growing of
grapes. This scholarship is targeted towards graduate
students, but undergraduate students may also apply.
To apply for a scholarship you will need to complete all forms. Click here to go to SCHOLARSHIP FORM. The completed Personal Information Sheet will need to be returned to the Washington State Grape Society, along with a Letter of Application,
as outlined in the guidelines. Three letters of recommendation or completed and confidential reports on applicant
forms must also be submitted.
The deadline for receiving applications is April 15, 2010. A decision will be made by the scholarship trustees and the award
will be announced at our Annual Meeting held in November. If you have any questions or comments, we would encourage
you to call (509) 786-7888 or e-mail the Washington State Grape Society.
a scholarship to a deserving young person who
plans to attend Washington State University and engage
in a field of study relating to the growing of
grapes. This scholarship is targeted towards graduate
students, but undergraduate students may also apply.
To apply for a scholarship you will need to complete all forms. Click here to go to SCHOLARSHIP FORM. The completed Personal Information Sheet will need to be returned to the Washington State Grape Society, along with a Letter of Application,
as outlined in the guidelines. Three letters of recommendation or completed and confidential reports on applicant
forms must also be submitted.
The deadline for receiving applications is April 15, 2010. A decision will be made by the scholarship trustees and the award
will be announced at our Annual Meeting held in November. If you have any questions or comments, we would encourage
you to call (509) 786-7888 or e-mail the Washington State Grape Society.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Farmland Preservation Grant News Update
Conservation Commission Accepting Applications for Farmland Preservation Grant Sponsorship
The Washington State Conservation Commission will begin accepting applications for proposals seeking Commission sponsorship of Farmland Preservation Program grants. Applications will be accepted by the Commission beginning February 23 and concluding on March 12 at 5:00pm for grants to protect farmland.
In 2009, the legislature amended the Farmland Preservation Program (FPP) within the larger Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP) to include the eligibility of the State Conservation Commission (SCC) to apply for funds through the program. According to the new statutory language, a match is not required for proposals from the SCC.
Grants may be used to buy conservation easements to protect valuable farmland from being converted to another use. Portions of grants may also be used to enhance the agricultural production of preserved farmland or to help restore or enhance ecological functions, including providing benefits to wildlife. Eligible farmland may include ranch land and irrigated or dry cropland.
The pre-proposal process is open and competitive. Pre-proposals are reviewed and scored by SCC staff based on criteria established by the SCC. Staff will submit a prioritized list of projects to the SCC commissioners who will then determine how many projects to advance.
To download the announcement, go to: 2010 WWRP-SCC Announcement
To download a pre-proposal form, go to: 2010 SCC Pre Proposal
For information on the WWRP Farmland Preservation program, please see: RCO WWRP Farmland Preservation Policy Guide
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Josh Giuntoli at jgiuntoli@scc.wa.gov 360-407-7474, or Ron Shultz at rshu461@ecy.wa.gov or 360-407-7507
The Washington State Conservation Commission will begin accepting applications for proposals seeking Commission sponsorship of Farmland Preservation Program grants. Applications will be accepted by the Commission beginning February 23 and concluding on March 12 at 5:00pm for grants to protect farmland.
In 2009, the legislature amended the Farmland Preservation Program (FPP) within the larger Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP) to include the eligibility of the State Conservation Commission (SCC) to apply for funds through the program. According to the new statutory language, a match is not required for proposals from the SCC.
Grants may be used to buy conservation easements to protect valuable farmland from being converted to another use. Portions of grants may also be used to enhance the agricultural production of preserved farmland or to help restore or enhance ecological functions, including providing benefits to wildlife. Eligible farmland may include ranch land and irrigated or dry cropland.
The pre-proposal process is open and competitive. Pre-proposals are reviewed and scored by SCC staff based on criteria established by the SCC. Staff will submit a prioritized list of projects to the SCC commissioners who will then determine how many projects to advance.
To download the announcement, go to: 2010 WWRP-SCC Announcement
To download a pre-proposal form, go to: 2010 SCC Pre Proposal
For information on the WWRP Farmland Preservation program, please see: RCO WWRP Farmland Preservation Policy Guide
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Josh Giuntoli at jgiuntoli@scc.wa.gov 360-407-7474, or Ron Shultz at rshu461@ecy.wa.gov or 360-407-7507
Thursday, November 12, 2009
CSA Farmer-Trainees for 2010-Wanted
The Community Supported Agriculture Training Center at Historic Greenbank Farm on beautiful Whidbey Island, WA is seeking eight to ten new farmer-trainees for 2010. The CSA Training Center will select new trainees on a rolling admission throughout November, December and January. Selected farmer-trainees will be exposed to a diversified cropping system of fruits and vegetables on almost ten acres of organically certified land using a CSA model. Applications and information about the program can be found on the NABC website: www.AgBizCenter.org. This year, housing is also available through the Whidbey Island WISH Foundation. The WISH housing application can be found on the NABC website.
The CSA training program will begin in early February, 2010 and run through October. Farmer trainees receive a monthly stipend of $500 and a $1,000 educational award at the completion of the year for supplies, tools and or equipment needed for future farming activities. Participants in the program will be expected to work an average of 30 hours per week, with most of these hours coming during the summer growing season. Our goal will be 50 CSA shareholders.
Sebastian Aguilar from Port Townsend has been hired as the new CSA Coordinator and will begin his responsibilities in late November. Mr. Aguilar has been farming organic vegetables fulltime for the past 13 years. He and his wife, Kelly, have three children and have managed farms in New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Washington State. Sebastian’s goals of top quality produce, healthy soils, and social outreach have guided his farming practices and are an excellent match for what is being done at the Training Center at Greenbank Farm.
On the Aguilar’s farm in Port Townsend, they use minimum tillage, cover cropping, compost, and biodynamic preparations to build and maintain healthy, fertile soils. He has done seed trials for the Seed Alliance and sold produce to the Port Townsend Food Coop. Farm apprenticeships, CSA’s, youth education and community involvement have always connected Sebastian’s farm to the local community, thereby building relationships that strengthen the local food system and the awareness that supports it. Sebastian grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and spent summers gardening with his grandfather in France. He started farming full-time at age 20 and has been passionate about developing a model of small scale organic agriculture that is ecologically, economically, and socially healthy ever since. Having started as an apprentice, Sebastian has learned how to host apprentices of his own – striving to offer them a thorough and holistic agricultural education.
The CSA Training Center at Greenbank Farm, the first of its kind in western Washington, is an innovative community response to what is an alarming reality across our nation: the steady decrease in farmland, a food system dangerously dependent on fossil fuel, and an impersonal food chain that transports food items an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to our dining tables.
The second year of this project is made possible by a grant awarded by the USDA Farmer Market Promotion Grant and matched by the Northwest Agriculture Business Center. It brings together mentor farmers, food activists, agricultural organizations and local officials as a team growing new farmers and more food for direct distribution to consumers.
For application materials, a CSA brochure, or more information, visit the NABC website at www.AgBizCenter.org, or contact CSA Project Director, Maryon Attwood at 360-336-3727 or CSA Coordinator, Sebastian Aguilar after November 23rd at the CSA Training Center Office: 360-222-3171.
The CSA training program will begin in early February, 2010 and run through October. Farmer trainees receive a monthly stipend of $500 and a $1,000 educational award at the completion of the year for supplies, tools and or equipment needed for future farming activities. Participants in the program will be expected to work an average of 30 hours per week, with most of these hours coming during the summer growing season. Our goal will be 50 CSA shareholders.
Sebastian Aguilar from Port Townsend has been hired as the new CSA Coordinator and will begin his responsibilities in late November. Mr. Aguilar has been farming organic vegetables fulltime for the past 13 years. He and his wife, Kelly, have three children and have managed farms in New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Washington State. Sebastian’s goals of top quality produce, healthy soils, and social outreach have guided his farming practices and are an excellent match for what is being done at the Training Center at Greenbank Farm.
On the Aguilar’s farm in Port Townsend, they use minimum tillage, cover cropping, compost, and biodynamic preparations to build and maintain healthy, fertile soils. He has done seed trials for the Seed Alliance and sold produce to the Port Townsend Food Coop. Farm apprenticeships, CSA’s, youth education and community involvement have always connected Sebastian’s farm to the local community, thereby building relationships that strengthen the local food system and the awareness that supports it. Sebastian grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and spent summers gardening with his grandfather in France. He started farming full-time at age 20 and has been passionate about developing a model of small scale organic agriculture that is ecologically, economically, and socially healthy ever since. Having started as an apprentice, Sebastian has learned how to host apprentices of his own – striving to offer them a thorough and holistic agricultural education.
The CSA Training Center at Greenbank Farm, the first of its kind in western Washington, is an innovative community response to what is an alarming reality across our nation: the steady decrease in farmland, a food system dangerously dependent on fossil fuel, and an impersonal food chain that transports food items an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to our dining tables.
The second year of this project is made possible by a grant awarded by the USDA Farmer Market Promotion Grant and matched by the Northwest Agriculture Business Center. It brings together mentor farmers, food activists, agricultural organizations and local officials as a team growing new farmers and more food for direct distribution to consumers.
For application materials, a CSA brochure, or more information, visit the NABC website at www.AgBizCenter.org, or contact CSA Project Director, Maryon Attwood at 360-336-3727 or CSA Coordinator, Sebastian Aguilar after November 23rd at the CSA Training Center Office: 360-222-3171.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
No more plastic bags for Mexico City
August 19th, 2009
Posted: 02:06 PM ET
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — Mexico City’s thousands of stores went green Wednesday, as amended ordinances on solid waste now outlaw businesses from giving out thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable.
The law affects all stores, production facilities and service providers within the Federal District, which encompasses the city limits. Nearly 9 million people live inside the district and another 10 million reside in surrounding communities that make up greater Mexico City.
Mexico City becomes the second large metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw the bags. San Francisco enacted an ordinance in March 2007 that gave supermarkets six months and large chain pharmacies about a year to phase out the bags. Los Angeles is set to impose a ban if the the state of California does not impose a statewide 25-cent fee per bag by July of next year.
Bans are also in place elsewhere in the world.
China has adopted a strict limit, reducing litter and eliminating the use of 40 billion bags, the World Watch Institute said, citing government estimates. Although compliance has been spotty, violation of the law carries a possible fine of 10,000 yuan ($1,463), World Watch said.
In Tanzania, selling the bags carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a fine of 1.5 million shilling ($1,137).
Mumbai, India, outlawed the bags in 2000 and cities in Australia, Italy, South Africa and Taiwan have imposed bans or surcharges. Ireland reported cutting use of the bags by 90 percent after imposing a fee on each one.
Some leading environmentalists are calling for a global ban on the bags, about 5 trillion of which are used worldwide. In the United States, about 100 million bags are used each year, of which 90 million are not recycled.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, says plastic bags are the second-most-common form of litter, behind cigarette butts. The bags are the greatest form of litter on the globe’s oceans, the U.N. agency said in a recent report.
The bags are also a major threat to ocean wildlife, causing the deaths of 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals that mistake them for food.
“Thin-film, single-use plastic bags, which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere,” Steiner said in June. “There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere.”
Mexico City, which has had some of the worst air pollution in the world, also is looking at improving its environment in other ways. The municipal government announced this month it will place more than 1,100 bicycles at 84 stations throughout the city for residents to use. Officials said they hope to increase bicycle use as a form of transportation to 5 percent, up from the current 1.2 percent.
Posted: 02:06 PM ET
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — Mexico City’s thousands of stores went green Wednesday, as amended ordinances on solid waste now outlaw businesses from giving out thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable.
The law affects all stores, production facilities and service providers within the Federal District, which encompasses the city limits. Nearly 9 million people live inside the district and another 10 million reside in surrounding communities that make up greater Mexico City.
Mexico City becomes the second large metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw the bags. San Francisco enacted an ordinance in March 2007 that gave supermarkets six months and large chain pharmacies about a year to phase out the bags. Los Angeles is set to impose a ban if the the state of California does not impose a statewide 25-cent fee per bag by July of next year.
Bans are also in place elsewhere in the world.
China has adopted a strict limit, reducing litter and eliminating the use of 40 billion bags, the World Watch Institute said, citing government estimates. Although compliance has been spotty, violation of the law carries a possible fine of 10,000 yuan ($1,463), World Watch said.
In Tanzania, selling the bags carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a fine of 1.5 million shilling ($1,137).
Mumbai, India, outlawed the bags in 2000 and cities in Australia, Italy, South Africa and Taiwan have imposed bans or surcharges. Ireland reported cutting use of the bags by 90 percent after imposing a fee on each one.
Some leading environmentalists are calling for a global ban on the bags, about 5 trillion of which are used worldwide. In the United States, about 100 million bags are used each year, of which 90 million are not recycled.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, says plastic bags are the second-most-common form of litter, behind cigarette butts. The bags are the greatest form of litter on the globe’s oceans, the U.N. agency said in a recent report.
The bags are also a major threat to ocean wildlife, causing the deaths of 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals that mistake them for food.
“Thin-film, single-use plastic bags, which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere,” Steiner said in June. “There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere.”
Mexico City, which has had some of the worst air pollution in the world, also is looking at improving its environment in other ways. The municipal government announced this month it will place more than 1,100 bicycles at 84 stations throughout the city for residents to use. Officials said they hope to increase bicycle use as a form of transportation to 5 percent, up from the current 1.2 percent.
Event update
Our scheduled Essential Oil class with Michelle Mahler for today has been postponed until Monday August 24th. Please join us! The class is free, but with a small fee of $15.00 you can make things during the workshop to take home and are provided with a wealth of information.
Tuesday August 25 - Nordic Naturals will be here at the store doing a demonstration. Come on by!
Tuesday August 25 - Nordic Naturals will be here at the store doing a demonstration. Come on by!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
CSA News for Whidbey Island Folks
The Community Supported Agriculture Training Center at Greenbank Farm is pleased to report that 60 community members have invested in Whidbey Island’s newest farmers and the island's largest CSA.
Harvest boxes for members are discussed each Monday by Anza Muenchow, CSA Program Coordinator, and the CSA students. On Mondays, decisions are made about what to harvest that week, when it will be picked and who will be on the harvest team. Priorities for each row are discussed and tasks delegated. The students also send out a weekly newsletter including recipes.
The work that the CSA students and Anza have accomplished in a few short months is absolutely incredible. They have built a hoop house and a wash station, set up the field for irrigation, laid the irrigation hoses and drip tapes, set up over-head sprinklers, hauled water when they had to, started hundreds of organic seedlings, planted, weeded, harvested, attended classes and worked at the Farmers Market. Then they show up on Mondays to start the cycle again.
The CSA Training Center at Greenbank Farm is rooted in a long tradition of farming begun by the Phillips family in the early 1900's. In the 1930s, the Philips switched from dairy farming to berry farming; by 1972 the Greenbank Berry Farm was known as the largest loganberry farm in the United States. Chateau Ste. Michelle purchased the property and in 1995 negotiated with the national non-profit Trust for Public Land to sell all 522 acres of the Greenbank Farm to Island County, the Port of Coupeville and The Nature Conservancy.
The CSA Training Center works closely today with the Greenbank Management Group and the Port of Coupeville on a daily basis. It's a place where everyone is on a first name basis. Most importantly, it's a place where everyone is working to make agriculture a way of life once again at Greenbank Farm, create new farmers, and increase agricultural acres in production on Whidbey Island.
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