Keepin' It Local, Folks.

Eat My Words!
By Karin Edmondson

Another year is here, pristine and luminous with possibility, with opportunity for new ways of thinking and especially, of doing. Action, after all, speaks louder than words, does it not? I’ve recently begun a course in landscape design and, in one of my textbooks, there was this line: “Decline (of the Roman Empire) was due to internal misrule, corruption and perhaps most of all to the elimination of the small family farm unit. Small farms were converted into large estates owned by a single landlord and worked by slaves…” (Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe, The Landscape of Man. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1995: 128. The paragraph continues with mention that the Roman army abroad declined in discipline and in sense of purpose, and while this statement is absolutely rife with gleeful opportunity to equate our country’s current monarchy of Dubya, I will practice restraint—my own New Year’s resolution.) In my mind, Jellicoe’s statement allows for a comparison to our own country’s present reliance upon industrial agriculture to feed the masses, to perpetuate fast food and to inevitably ruin our natural resources—natural, human and animal. The single landlord of Roman times has morphed into corporate ownership of land and farming of today. Small family farms across the country are in danger of disappearing. Governmental policy is at once slow to change and a Goliath of an adversary, especially with lobbyists generously lubed by funds from agribusiness. Disillusioned with politicians, disparate groups and self-proclaimed do-gooders seeking to help small family farms, farmers in the Catskill Region have taken matters (and their future) into their own hands with the advent of the Pure Catskills campaign and the formation of the Farm Catskills! group. These two locally-grown groups seek to halt the disappearance of small family farms. (The number of farms in the region both in and outside of the New York City watershed has fallen by two-thirds in the last twenty years.) Even more importantly, they desire to reverse the trend and encourage, foster an expansion in the farm community of the Western Catskill Mountains.



Pure Catskills

Any conversation about the Pure Catskills branding campaign and marketing initiative should start with the Watershed Agricultural Council, a not for profit organization funded in part by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and dedicated to protecting the city’s watershed. WAC, as it is commonly referred to, safeguards the purity of the city’s drinking water by protecting the land in the watershed region. WAC accomplishes this in several ways, including conservation easements, but the most effective tool in long-term watershed purity has been promoting regional agriculture. Enter Pure Catskills. The campaign seeks to develop a brand unique to the Catskill agricultural region that will be recognized for quality of product and representative of an exceptional rural landscape. Some might say that appellation is an appropriate word to use in relation to Pure Catskills and indeed, this term has merit. The Catskill Region’s topography and climate influence what produce can be grown and how animals will be raised and ultimately, how both produce and meat will taste. Area specific meadow grasses and herbs will imbue the meat from animals raised in the Catskills with an flavor that is uniquely Catskills. I’ve often heard that goat milk from Catskill goats might have a hint of lavender or a faint bouquet of wild herbs, depending on the season and what fields the goats foraged. The Catskill Region has a long history of providing food for New York City and has an impressive cornucopia of farms, farmers and artisans who collectively grow and produce a stunning array of fruits, vegetables, meats, artisinal food products, value added food items and other specialty goods such as herbal skin care lines etc. Simply take a look at the Pure Catskill Buy Local Guide for 2005 or visit www.buypurecatskills.com. The guide is a handy (keep one in the house and especially in the car!) and informative guide to farms, farm markets, farm stores and other specialty food or agriculture related businesses in Greene, Ulster, Schoharie, Delaware, Sullivan and Otsego counties. Amy Kenyon, an agricultural facilitator for WAC and editorial and advertising consultant for the Buy Local Guide (and proprietress of Skate Creek Farm in East Meredith) stressed that the guide should cater to local farmers and be inclusive rather than exclusive. A listing in the Guide costs $25. A small display ad and a listing is $90. The Buy Local Guide is the hallmark of the Pure Catskills campaign. As of press time, another one hundred farmers had already signed on for the 2006 guide.

Farms and businesses who become members of the Pure Catskills campaign are plugged directly into the Catskill community. Visibility is raised without substantial increase in any individual advertising budget. Pure Catskills aims to reach tens of thousands of local residents and seasonal visitors through events, the Buy Local Guide and via advertising, signage and point of sale materials. Members of Pure Catskills will receive 10% discount on all WAC sponsored workshops, will be able to use the Pure Catskill logo on their products, on signage and promotional materials and will be given priority to participate in special events, dinners and tastings to promote local products. Most of all, though, members benefit by aligning themselves with a marketing campaign that promotes conservation, forestry, sensitive husbandry of natural resources and fresh, clean local food.



Regional events are crucial for exposure and in 2004 and 2005 Pure Catskills has successfully sponsored tents at the Margaretville Cauliflower Festival, Slow Food’s Urban Harvest in Manhattan and the Catskill Mountain Foundation (map)’s Mountain Culture Festival in Hunter. The Pure Catskills tent can comprise any official member: When I worked the Mountain Culture Festival in July the following regional artisans were represented: Elk Creek Herbals, Heather Ridge Farm, Susan Riesen Candles, Skate Creek Farm, Stone and Thistle Farm, Tea Thyme Herb Farm, Promised Land Farm and Sherman Hill Farmstead. Pure Catskills has also sponsored tastings, dinner series and day-long conjoined events at several local farms such as Down on the Farm Day. More recently, Pure Catskills has organized both a Cheese Workshop at Sherman Hill Farmstead that was a roaring success (another one is planned for early 2006) and a Manhattan Market Tour for Farmers (25 local farmers had signed up) that included a visit to Baldor Specialty Foods in the Bronx, Whole Foods and/or Balducci’s and a top Manhattan restaurant, and focused on specialty crops, produce packaging and marketing, criteria for purchasing agricultural products on a retail level, and how local foods are valued and used in food service. Other upcoming events will include: an Herbal Medicinal Dinner with Elk Creek Herbals in February; another Cheese Workshop in conjunction with CADE (Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship) entitled “Making More For Your Milk” with Vermont cheese guru Peter Dixon in March that will focus on creating regional specialty cheeses. Allison Bennett, Farm to Market Manager for the WAC hopes to have the Pure Catskills Web site up and running by March so that farmers and others who wish to advertise or be listed in the Buy Local Guide can register directly online.



For more information on upcoming Pure Catskills events or to inquiry about a listing or a full color ad in the 2006 Buy Local Guide, please contact Allison Bennett, Farm to Market Manager, Watershed Agricultural Council, at 607 865 7790, ext. 125 or allisonbennett@nycwatershed.org. The Pure Catskills Web site is www.buypurecatskills.com.



Farm Catskills!, Inc.

Farm Catskills! is an independent grass roots consortium of farmers that is working to protect the working landscape and to keep farming a viable industry within the Catskill Region. Farm Catskills was conceived of as a direct result of a Countryside Exchange hosted by the Glynwood Center (www.glynwood.org), a “non profit organization dedicated to advancing the field of community stewardship,” in the autumn of 2003. Catskill farmers came together to affirm and to implement the Exchange Team’s suggestions. Now, at the start of 2006, Farm Catskills is set to incorporate as a not for profit membership organization: Farm Catskills Inc., A Sustainable Community in a Working Landscape.

Finding a solution to the ever increasing and encroaching threat to farmland is Farm Catskills’ main priority right now. Over just the last year, hundreds of acres of local farmland have been lost to developers eager to turn the countryside into strip malls, high income and low income housing and to turn a pretty profit. Farm Catskills seeks to establish a Community Land Trust (CLT) by acquiring land through gift or purchase (with donated funds) and maintaining ownership, but selling farm structures and leasing the land to farmers for long term agricultural use. In a nutshell, the land remains profitable because the farmer purchases only the structures and not the land, and while he or she can make improvements to the structures or add new ones (within reason) to the property and even sell the structures and make a reasonable profit the terms of the farmer’s lease with Farm Catskills will limit the profits so that the buildings will be affordable to the next young farmer seeking to make his future in sustainable agriculture. Both the farmer and Farm Catskills will pay their fair share of school and property taxes.



Farm Catskills is involved in several other projects: 1) advocating for tax incentives to keep farmland in active production (such as tax breaks for properties with working barns); 2) developing and promoting agri-tourism, Farm to School Programs and CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture; 3) promoting local products through Pure Catskills Buy Local campaign; 4) working together to sell local farm products at festivals and events locally and farther afield; 5) exploring ways to promote the development of processing and distribution infrastructure within the region, and 6) encouraging information exchange among the agricultural community via an e-mail listserve.



Farming: it isn’t just for farmers anymore. Farm Catskill members include farmers (of course) but also other members of the community—educators, writers, business consultants, development specialists, local not for profits and other local business entrepreneurs. Farm Catskills has within it the spirit of the community, something that even the most sophisticated PR firm or slick marketing agency ultimately lacks, and will hopefully be the advantage it needs to conserve the region’s agricultural heritage.



For more information or to join, please contact Amy Kenyon at 303 994 7126 (mobile) or skatecreekfarm@earthlink.net or Kate Ryan at 607 746 6503. Anyone can join—membership is $25 for a two person household and each member will receive a vote as well as periodic newsletters.



Local Farm Updates

Dawn’s Bakery (profiled February 2004)

Dawn’s Bakery is a local bakery in Cairo that specializes in natural baked goods. Dawn’s Bakery features handmade butter cookies, decadent mousse cakes, pastries, fruit or cream pies in two sizes, layer cakes, cheesecakes, Danish pastry, scones, breads, stromboli, biscotti and big cookies. Gear up for the Super Bowl with Stromboli (stuffed Italian bread with salami, pepperoni & mozzarella), rolls, cakes and cookies.



Think ahead, Dawn makes delicious handmade cookies and chocolates for Valentine’s Day! Dawn’s Web site, www.dawnsbakery.com, will be up and running live very soon! Dawn’s now offers shipping anywhere in the U.S. where UPS delivers. She will start out with scones, muffins, loaves of bread, cookies and granola, as they are easier to ship. To order, please call Dawn at 518 622 3072. Dawn’s Bakery is located at 689 Route 145 across from the N&J Citgo Mart in Cairo, NY. Dawn’s is open Monday and Wednesday from 9 am until 6 pm, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am until 4pm. Please call Dawn for more information, or e-mail her at Dawn@dawnsbakery.com. Local delivery, with advance notice, is available for cookies & pastry trays to business meetings and parties. This month the bakery will be closed from Monday, January 2 through Tuesday, January 10. They will reopen on Wednesday, January 11.

Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats (profiled August 2004)

Fleisher’s is a butcher store specializing in local and regional pastured and organic meats. They have a wide selection of meats including smoked hams and turkeys, locally-raised geese, pheasants, Cornish game hens, capons, Muscovy ducks, Pekin ducks and guinea hens. They also carry homemade sausages ideal for stuffing and fantastic breakfast sausages, bacon and eggs. Jessica Applestone and Joshua Stein have relocated their store to 307 Wall Street in Kingston. The store will now be open Thursday and Friday from 11 am to 7 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Fleisher’s will be stocking lots of local organic produce and features an expanded dairy selection along with a wide selection of local dry goods and products. For more information please call Jessica or Joshua at 845 338 MOOO.



Heather Ridge Farm (profiled November 2004)

Heather Ridge Farm is a new farm that is 200 years old and is situated in old dairy pastures and antique apple orchards. Carol Clement and John Harrison specialize in pastured and grass-fed beef, pork, chicken and turkey. Absolutely no antibiotics, hormones or chemicals are used on the farm. Starting in January through May, the Farm Store will be open every second and fourth Saturday of the month from 11 am to 2 pm. (They are glad to open by appointment between sales). Each Saturday sale day will feature a theme, dishes to try with recipes provided, and a special item on sale. Carol will be testing new products that she and John have created to carry in their store. This is when Carol has fun in the kitchen!



Saturday, January 14 will be “Sausage Sampling,” showing off their new flavors of sausages. In addition to their breakfast and sweet and hot Italian sausage, Carol and John make their own honey-apple, Irish bangers, asiago cheese/garlic/parsley, Tuscan sundried tomato and herbs, and chorizo. Come and taste them all.



Saturday, January 28 will be “Soups and Stews.” They’ll have meaty soup bones, marrow stock bones and chicken parts available, and recommendations for the best cuts to use.



Heather Ridge Farm’s freezers are full of pork (bacon, kielbasa & kabanosy), chicken and all grass-fed beef. Gourmet garlic varieties have been harvested, are curing and available. Also for sale are wool throws and blankets locally made by Carol’s friends at Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Warnerville. The usual items for sale include select lamb cuts, organic raw honey and Irish-style Lemon Honey, Cinnamon Walnut Honey topping and Orange Pecan Honey Topping, culinary herbs, eggs and turkey, pork and chicken brines—made with Carol’s own honey, herbs, spices and sea salt. Baked goods from Wholesome Baked Goods (their neighbors the Aloisi’s), local cheeses (Nettle Meadow’s luscious Kunik, a cow-goat brie-like cheese, as well as Brovetto’s fresh mozzarella and their Harpersfield cheese in assorted flavors), maple syrup, candles and soaps are also available.



Carol & John have added a few new members to their farm family…two adult female llamas now grace their fields along with a young male offspring. Come up the hill and take a look! Heather Ridge Farm has also been approved by the Department of Agriculture & Markets to work with the first mobile meat processing unit in New York State. They are the fourth farm in the state that has qualified. Carol and John believe that this will give them more control over the part of the process that has been off-limits or, at best, difficult, and as a result, they will be able to offer better service and quality in our products to their customers.



Heather Ridge Farm’s pure raw heather honey was recently named the Best Honey in the Hudson Valley region by Hudson Valley Magazine! Heather Ridge Farm is located at 989 Broome Center Road in Preston Hollow. For more information and directions, please visit the Web site at www.heather-ridge-farm.com, call Carol or John at 518 239 6234 (office) or 518 239 6045 (store) or e-mail them at HeatherRidgeFarm@aol.com. They are open by appointment as well. Visa, Mastercard and Diners Club now accepted!

Stoneledge Farm

(profiled September 2004)

Stoneledge Farm is a NOFA-certified organic farm in Cairo. Stoneledge Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) 2006 information and membership brochures are available by contacting Stoneledge Farm at stoneledge@surferz.net or by calling 518 622 3003. 24 weeks of certified organic produce raised by Stoneledge Farm are found at CSA sites in Greene County, Manhattan, Westchester County, City Island, Stamford and Wilton, Connecticut.



*Got a hot tip on a Catskill area farm? Please feel free to email me at KarinaEdmondson@yahoo.com with any questions or leads on a local farm that you think more people should get hip to.