 Enes Yigit is the soft-spoken and kind individual cutting lemons and squeezing them fresh onsite at the West End Farmers Market. Based in Alexandria, their fresh juices have been sold at Eastern Market and the Turkish Festival in D.C. Made from whole fruit and sometimes served with fresh mint (no color or syrups), their product is all natural.  This Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington the documentary "Farmadeddon" will be shown at 11:30AM. Afterwards there will be a panel discussion about the issues raised in the movie about the troubles small farms are experiencing. Your $15.00 donation will be given to FarmFoodFreedom.org to lobby the FDA on behalf of consumers
For those of you who are die-hard local-food foodies some of the information presented in the documentary might be old news. For others the idea that the USDA has been over-zealous in harassing small farms might be a rather nasty surprise. As Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com states in his July 8 blog: "Activists, farmers and foodies make the case (in the documentary) for locally grown and minimally processed food, and we hear a lot of anecdotes about governmental overreach, while the bureaucrats either damn themselves by keeping their mouths shut or damn themselves by talking and saying nothing. A Vermont family has its entire herd of imported sheep destroyed, thanks to a completely imaginary outbreak of mad-cow disease (which is not known to occur in sheep in the first place, and definitely didn't occur in theirs). Armed agents invade an upstate New York farm to seize a cooler full of raspberry yogurt. An undercover unit breaks up an interstate trafficking ring -- one devoted to bringing USDA-certified raw milk from South Carolina across the line into Georgia." Why the sudden rush to armed intervention to prevent raw milk from being drunk by consumers? Bureaucracy gone wild?, Stupidity? Pressure on the USDA by Agribusiness? We may never know for absolutely certain. In my opinion, at the very least, the differences between highly processed food factory farms run by corporate agribusiness and local farmers has caused a crisis in identification by the powers that be such as the USDA, and State and Local Health Departments. Here in Virginia, where they support farmers markets, the bureaucracy has difficulty sorting through the differences between agribusiness products and small farm products. They tend to utilize the same rules for both, when in fact regulations that recognize the difference between Agribusiness Products and Small or Sustainable Farm Products has become essential. This documentary is about the moment in time when this concept is still being articulated and lobbied for. As in all moments of change - problems are occurring. But it is possible for people to sway the laws in their favor, lobby their congresspeople, write letters, buy locally grown foods. If you like your free-range eggs, hormone free chickens, and even raw milk - go see the documentary, and donate your money towards the work of re-describing what healthy food is, where it comes, how it is stored, and take a look at a moment in time, just before everything either facist-like stubbornly stays the same or serendipitously changes drastically. For more information on these issues go to: http://grassfedonthehill.com/about-grassfed-on-the-hill Yesterday's event was fantastic! The weather was wonderful, a great turnout and there was indeed lots of laughter.       Fruit, flowers and face painting. Veggies, vases and video recording. Yogurt and yoga. Herbs, handmade goods and henna. Baked good, balloon twisting, bicycles, babies and bubbles. Meat, milk and magic. Lemonade and laughter.
What did you like most?  Ted has been involved with woodworking most of his life, but really got into it about eight years ago after he retired - making things for his grandchildren in his garage. He sold some items at the Eldercrafter shop in Old Town Alexandria for a time. That evolved into an expanded product line and selling at farmer’s markets. Ted take pride in producing high quality hand crafted items (still working in his garage) and enjoy selling what he can at local farmer’s markets in Maryland and Northern Virginia.              Ever wonder who runs the West End Farmers Market? We have a wonderful group of dedicated volunteers who help with the administration, weekly set-up and clean-up, event planning, marketing and communications, accounting, and anything else that needs to be done.
Mindy Thompson is the creative mind - and hands - of Mindy Makes. Her delightful line of hand-sewn items includes reversible capes for little girls and little boys, summer dresses for little girls (most are reversible and some even come with matching bloomers), baby bibs, burp cloths, nursing covers and purses.  Mindy partners with her mother in the making of the clothes - and who doesn't love a business owned and operated by family?
Mindy wrote up a biography to share with her customers: Mindys Makes began a year ago after many suggestions from friends who liked the items I was creating for my son, my daughter and myself. After my son was born four years ago, I used my mom's sewing machine with my very basic knowledge of sewing (I could sew a mostly straight line) to make a baby blanket for my son. It was fun so I made blankets for my friends' new children. Then I made burp cloths, took some lessons and received a new machine for Christmas. From there I explores and expanded. Mindys Makes began with just me, Mindy. But my mom, Debbie, could not stay away. She loves to make this for her grandchildren and has been sewing for most of her life, so she gladly joined me and now we work together to make unique, fun and colorful itms for young children. In addition to children's items, I love taking a couple of pieces of fabric, playing around with them to shape them into purses. Aside from creating and designing items to sell, I spend most of my time playing with my two children. I have a son who will be five in February and my daughter is two and a half. Before children, I spent my days educating high school students about he mysteries of the world, using physics. Everything I make is something that I want to put on my daughter or son, or use myself. One of the hardest things about his business is not keeping the dresses, aprons and flannel pants for my own children. Often times, they come to visit me at the market and see something that they claim is "mine!". Mindys Makes started as an online business with little direction of where to sell, but as the year progresses and summer came along, I discovered the farmers market. It is a venue that I really enjoy and where I have found a little niche. I sell at other crafter's shows, bazaars and street festivals in the area as well, but I also enjoy the familiar clientele of the farmers market in Cameron Station Susan Birchler, the Director of the West End Farmers Market, after much discussion and feedback from our vendors has decided to cancel this Sunday's market. This informed decision is based on vendor feedback yesterday and information from the National Hurricane Center and the Weather Channel which states that the worst rain, flooding and tropical storm winds will occur in our area between 3PM Saturday and Sunday morning. Some of our vendors from the VA Eastern Shore are coming from an area that is labeled high risk on the weather map and may not be able to travel due to flooding, downed trees and electricity, and dangerous road conditions. On Sunday morning the Hurricane is projected to be right off our coastline, with storm surges, flooding, tropical force winds between 30 and 60MPH. And the Potomac is expected to flood. Additionally the City of Alexandria is asking people to stay home and be ready for the lights to go out.
We recognise that this is hard coming right after a Sunday off for the Cambodian Festival. We will reopen on Labor Day weekend. Until then, please have a safe weekend.  Meet Rachel! She is working on the SNAP/EBT program project for the West End Farmers Market. She'll be meeting with market managers at other farmers markets who are currently using SNAP/EBT to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the program and what the major pitfalls were to implementing it. In addition, she'll be researching the process to apply, procure the forms; and creating a report that outlines what we need to do to implement the program. By the end of the season, she will have devised a step-by-step plan for implementing the program at the West End Farmers Market.  Meet Jasmine!
She has be assisting Eden Good in educating the public about canning fresh, local foods. In May, Eden Good was selected to participate in the 2011 Discover You Can℠ program (sponsored by Jarden Home Brands, the makers of Ball® Brand Fresh Preserving Products in partnership with the Farmers Market Coaltition). The goal of the program is to help educate the community on the benefits of buying and preserving local, seasonal food and teach them sustainable, healthy living and get market patrons involved in home canning. In January 2008, the American Journal of Public Health published this article:
Effect of a Targeted Subsidy on Intake of Fruits and Vegetables Among Low-Income Women in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children by Dena R. Herman, PhD, MPH, RD, Gail G. Harrison, PhD, Abdelmonem A. Afifi, PhD, and Eloise Jenks, MEd, RD The results emphasized that those who are given the opportunity to eat fresh fruits and vegetables will most likely do so. People with low funds were just not able to afford to eat well. The WIC (women, infants and children) program is doing a great deal to provide young mothers with adequate meals and nutrition. WIC now allows food coupons to be used at grocery stores and farmer’s markets whereas before they only covered carrots and juices. Since WIC has provided more fresh fruit and vegetable options, their members have responded well by consuming more servings per day on average. This is a particularly positive progression with the program because everyone should have access to fresh, local food. It is interesting that the researchers who conducted this study mentioned there were multiple comments from participants stating their preference in where to buy fresh food: “Although we do not have any formal quantitative data to substantiate reasons for farmers’ market participants having higher fruit and vegetable consumption than super- market participants, we do have individual reports that farmers’ market participants thought produce at their site was fresher and of higher quality than at the supermarket. Participants who purchased their produce at the farmers’ market also mentioned enjoying the pleasant 'community experience' of meeting friends while shopping and interacting directly with growers.” The community experience and access to super fresh produce is better than any grocery store. Our lives revolve around food. By shopping directly from the farmer’s market with people from our community, we stay connected and grounded. It gives us something to look forward to every week and in a way, our quality of life improves. Not only does shopping at farmer’s markets benefit the consumer, but it also increases revenue for small farms. Small farms struggle to make ends meet and they need our support. By encouraging more families to shop at the markets, we are improving our economy and food system. Last year 18,245 farmers, 3,647 farmers' markets and 2,772 roadside stands were authorized to accept FMNP coupons. Coupons redeemed through the FMNP resulted in over $15.7 million in revenue to farmers for fiscal year 2010. This large increase in profit is very reassuring! Local, seasonal produce is so important and everyone in the community should be able to enjoy it. |
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