November 2011

Farm to Table at Vermont’s Skinny Pancake: What’s On Your Plate?
Jeff Gangemi Nov 15, 2011 Burlington 0 comments
In a few short years, Burlington’s Skinny Pancake creperie has become something of an institution. Co-founder Benjy Adler started his business in 2003 as a two-man operation with his brother Jonny. Together, they manned a cart on the main pedestrian walking mall in Burlington, making sweet and savory crepes for hungry passers-by. In 2007, they opened a full-fledged restaurant on Burlington’s waterfront. Benjy later launched a second Skinny Pancake location in Montpelier, and in 2010, he launched The Chubby Muffin in the Old North End of Burlington. All three locations – along with the still-running food cart – source a majority of their food locally from a group of about 30 farms and...
Farm to Table at Occupy Wall Street? Organic Farmers Donate Healthy Food For Protestors (Video)
Jeff Gangemi Nov 14, 2011 AOL 0 comments
Here's an interesting look at how some organic farmers and chefs are helping keep Occupy Wall Street protesters healthy and well-fed. At 2,000 meals a day, they'd qualify as the largest — and no doubt the healthiest — soup kitchen in all of New York City. Amazing! To watch the Aol/Huffington Post video, click here > Check out Six Circles Farm (featured in the video) on FarmPlate!
Despite Growing Market, Young Farmers Lack Start-Up Capital & Affordable Health Care
Jeff Gangemi Nov 14, 2011 health insurance 0 comments
In a recent blog post, Mother Jones’ Tom Philpott sends a mixed message to aspiring young farmers. On the one hand, it’s a good time to be a small, local food producer selling direct to consumers; that market is growing. On the other hand, good luck raising money to start a farm. And even if you do scrounge up the funding, even better luck finding affordable health insurance.   According to the USDA, direct sales from local farms to consumers are at their highest level since the early 1980’s. And the benefits to the local economy of buying direct from farms are clear as ever, according to Philpott. But despite a strong market, the recent increase in young, hip folks heading back to the...
"Honey Laundering" - Another Reason to Buy Local
Remy Franklin Nov 11, 2011 apiary 0 comments
You might remember some hype a few years ago surrounding colony collapse disorder, or “bee die-offs,” as most of us remember them. American apiarists first noted honeybee disappearances in late 2006, and the phenomenon gained popular attention with coverage like the 2009 documentary, Vanishing of the Bees. While media attention has since died down, our precious pollinators and honey-makers are still vanishing at frightening rates. Nationwide losses from managed honeybee colonies have hovered steadily around 30% annually since 2006 (USDA). But if we've been losing bees for five years now, why haven’t honey prices gone through the roof? In August, a Food Safety News investigation ...
A Very Local Turkey Day
Kaitlin Haskins Nov 11, 2011 farms 0 comments
It's turkey time! If you haven't yet reserved a turkey to grace your Thanksgiving table, now is the time to order one from a local farm. Whether this is your first year buying a local turkey or you have been supporting small farms for years, FarmPlate can help you find the perfect bird for the centerpiece of your feast.  Our team has selected a sampling of small farms across the country that grow and sell heritage breed, organic, free-range and pastured turkeys and game birds. We have included a few key words that each farm uses to describe their turkeys. Check out their FarmPlate listings for more information.     NORTHEASTBailey Turkey Farm (Lyme, NH) - pasturedNo-View Farm...
On Veterans Day, Farmer Veteran Coalition Honors Both Military & Agricultural Service
Jeff Gangemi Nov 11, 2011 CivilEats 0 comments
On this Veterans Day, Marine Corps veteran Chris Ritthaler does much more than lament the ongoing military conflict and violence around the world. Nor does he stop at saluting the extreme sacrifice our fallen countrymen have made. More than that, Ritthaler gives us some great perspective on the ongoing impact many of our country’s veterans have, via the great food site CivilEats.   Ritthaler describes how military veteran and organic farmer Michael O’Gorman founded the non-profit Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) in 2008, and how the organization is working to mobilize military veterans in the sustainable agriculture movement through programs like the FVC Fellowship Fund. Check out this...
From Nabisco, General Mills & Pillsbury to CSA Farms & Local Food?
Jeff Gangemi Nov 10, 2011 Andy Bellatti 0 comments
It’s easy to criticize big business when you haven’t had your fingers on the puppet strings. If you’d been a willing participant and advocate for GMOs, mass production and constant cost reduction, it would be much harder. That’s why you want to respect Bruce Bradley, who has recently started blogging about his experiences working for such companies as Nabisco, General Mills and Pillsbury. But is he an eager reformer, or a relentless self-promoter? You be the judge, in this interview from writer and dietician Andy Bellatti in Grist: “A few weeks ago, I learned of a relatively new blog about food industry deception, but with an interesting twist. The blog's author is Bruce Bradley, who spent...
McDonald’s McRib: Unholy, and Now Illegal Too?
Jeff Gangemi Nov 09, 2011 animal welfare 0 comments
Anyone who’s seen its recent commercials knows that McDonald’s uses the scarcity principle to generate excitement about their “limited-edition” McRib sandwich. Of course, if you dare to look closer, it’s the actual rib meat that’s scarce (the McRib has been shown to contain tripe, heart and scalded stomach, among other appetizing pig parts).   Even if you can stomach that revelation, it’s impossible to accept the mistreatment of the pigs who become the pork in the McRib. Check out this piece in the Huffington Post on a new Humane Society lawsuit against the producer of said pork: “The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced this week that it had filed an SEC complaint...
Food Artisans Strike Back Against Restrictive Regulations
Jeff Gangemi Nov 09, 2011 Associated Press 0 comments
With 9% unemployment being the new normal, starting a small food business from home has helped lots of folks make ends meet.  Of course, when the words “food business” and “homemade” occupy the same sentence, regulators traditionally get worried. So worried, in fact, that they’ve outlawed the sale of homemade food products in many states.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped creative folks across the country from skirting those laws in recent years. “Clubs” in San Francisco and “swaps” in Brooklyn have helped foodies get the homemade fare they’ve been searching for. But some small producers are taking the fight through legislative channels, helping to create “so-called cottage food...
Farm to Table at Chez Panisse: What’s On Your Plate?
Jeff Gangemi Nov 08, 2011 Alice Waters 0 comments
Cal Peternell is the café chef at Chez Panisse. He is a 16-year veteran of perhaps the best-known farm-to-table restaurant in the country, which was founded by Alice Waters in 1971. Far from lamenting the growing popularity of the local food movement, Peternell celebrates it. “Luckily, more and more people are doing it,” he said. “We like to remind people that this is the way everyone ate until 100 years ago. Local and seasonal - you didn’t have much of a choice…” Happy to publicize the farms he sources from, Peternell listed them one by one, with the ingredients they buy from each. All except the organic pork, which Chez Panisse sources from Iowa, come from the restaurant’s local region in...