Posts Tagged ‘farmers markets’
Pilgrim’s Pride: The Appetizers
As we head toward Thanksgiving, Y&H wants to help you eat like a pilgrim (a Native American, too, because we’re all about equal opportunity eating here). In other words, we want to help you eat locally for the holiday. Almost 400 years ago, the pilgrims had no choice but to eat local. These days, we do. It’s not easy. First up: the appetizer course.
For a great opening spread, try a slection of local cheeses, charcuterie, breads, and jam.
Several local dairies hawk their cheeses at area farmers markets, including Everona Dairy, Keswick Creamery, Blue Ridge, and Cherry Glen. For charcuterie, check out Red Apron, which sells Nathan Anda’s wide-ranging selection of house-cured meats at Planet Wine in Del Ray and at the FRESHFARM Penn Quarter market (until Dec. 17). Or order Jamie Stachowski’s holiday charcuterie board, which includes enough sausage and salami and pâté to serve 10 people, by calling the chef at (202) 413-7355.
Yep, That’s Right, More Photos from the White House Farmers Market
Y&H had a hard time extracting himself from the office by the start of the FreshFarms Market by the White House yesterday, so I missed all the politico-celebrity speech-making. Fortunately, there were only, say, a thousand other journalist covering that angle. So I focused on, you know, the food. It’s a farmers market after all, even if it’s one as much about symbolism as produce.
Check out Y&H’s photos after the jump.
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White House Farmers Market Draws Criticism Before Its Opening
The traffic is outrageous on Vermont Ave. during rush hour!
No one needs to tell you, least of all Y&H, that in this blog-eat-blog, 24-hour news-cycle world everyone is required to have an opinion. But, really, shouldn’t everyone wait until the object under criticism has actually opened?
I’m speaking about the new FreshFarm Market by the White House, which the busy non-profit opens today with guest appearances from First Lady Michelle Obama, Mayor Adrian Fenty, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Last month, Mother Jones was first out of the block in predicting dark things about the market:
[I]f this idea becomes reality, the Obamas should be careful to make it a sustainable market for local farmers rather than a kitschy tourist attraction bogged down by pins and t-shirts that say “Yes We Can Farm” and “Change We Can Grow In.” But let’s face it, due to the massive security detail the market would require and the overwhelming draw for Washingtonians and tourists alike, the latter is more likely.
(Just for the record, Capital Spice has an excellent run-down of the vendors, none of which appear to be hawking pins and t-shirts.)
WTOP continued the early hand-wringing with a story about potential rush-hour traffic snarls:
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White House Farmers Market to Open Tomorrow
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack explains the USDA’s local farm program.
UPDATE, 5:52 p.m. Weds.: The Los Angeles Times has more details on the market here.
As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign, the White House will launch a farmers market tomorrow in the 800 block of Vermont Avenue NW. It’ll run every Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. until Oct. 29.
The Chicago Tribune quoted USDA Undersecretary Ann Wright as saying that the market and other programs to support local farming are “very much a part of the president’s initiatives to bring more healthy food to underserved communities and children.”
According to Y&H fave Obama Foodorama, the opening of the White House market will also coincide with another KYF2 initiative: Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan “will announce farmers market promotions program grants for markets in the northeast corridor…”
FRESHFARM to Double Value of Food Stamps to Break the Yuppie Stranglehold on Farmers Markets
The headline is tongue-in-cheek, but it’s also true: How many low-income folks do you see shopping at local farmers markets?
The question is particularly relevant in D.C., where, according to the Mayor’s Office, 105,751 residents are food stamp recipients. How many of them do you think shop at the Dupont Circle market when they have to eat on, essentially, $3 a day? A couple of years ago, a few members of Congress took up the challenge to eat for a week on a food stamp budget. Trust me, they weren’t shopping at farmers markets. Sometimes, they ate crappy food, just like the experts say the poor do.
Today, FRESHFARM Markets, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing local farmers and urban eaters together, announced that it will double the value of government-issued food stamps (and other relief coupons) at two of its Saturday markets: the one on H Street NE and the other in Silver Spring. According to a FRESHFARM release, these markets were ” targeted for the initiative because they are in neighborhoods that have a significant number of residents who receive financial assistance to buy healthier food.”
So how can farmers at FRESHFARM markets afford to, in essence, cut their prices in half for such a potentially large pool of shoppers? The nonprofit, according to a publicist, received a grant from Wholesome Wave Foundation to cover the costs. The grant lasts through the end of the market season, which is November for H Street NE and December for Silver Spring.
FRESHFARM says more funding is pending to expand the program. The full text of the release is after the jump.
Eastern Market Reopens
As promised, Eastern Market re-opened today after a $22 million renovation, following a fire in the Spring of 2007. Mid May, I (or rather a designated construction official, who said I couldn’t come onto the site due to my footwear) snapped some photos of the inside of the building.
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