Instigate a Local Food Movement

Our weekends here are getting busier and busier. With the warmer weather, food growing outdoors, the birds singing, and the flowers blooming, the farm is bursting with new life and abundance.

On May 15th, we hosted another Farmer's Gathering. Local farmers were invited to preview the 2010 Pemi-Baker Local Food Guide--check out their listing and all the new additions to this years' Guide. We have added a map for finding farm locations, as well as an information page on Farmer's Markets in the area. It has been exciting to participate in the expansion of this Guide, which in the first edition only four years ago, included only three farms and no advertisements. Today we are bursting at 16 pages and squeezing in 39 farms, and local businesses and services are off-setting the printing costs by purchasing an ad!

The local food movement has reached the Pemi-Baker area! It has been growing steadily, and we at D Acres feel the importance of continuing to instigate this kind of movement. In February, we participated in a screening of the film FRESH at the Flying Monkey Theater in Plymouth. We served fresh chicken soup and a delicious seasonal pumpkin soup, screened the film, and Josh spoke on a panel that included the coordinator for Local Foods Plymouth (an online market), and a county agricultural representative. It was a great turnout, and has inspired many to continue their involvement in making local food more accessible to this area.

And now with the Local Food Guide, anyone can pick up a copy in surrounding towns and find a local source of meat, wool, poultry, veggies, eggs, garlic, baked goods and the list continues. We will be printing over 7,000 copies this year, with 4,700 of those copies being inserted into The Record Enterprise local newspaper.

At D Acres, we are not only interested in eating and feeding good food, we are interested in getting others to see the importance of doing the same. Farmers are not often recognized or supported enough in their efforts to provide. Choosing to have a livlihood that requires one to get her hands in the dirt, or muck out stalls, slaughter animals, harvest, save seeds, run a business, market, and advertise is choosing a hard and rewarding life.

Help to close the economic gap that supports the shipment of nutritionaly deficient food thousands of miles before it reaches your plate. You can support your local farmers by purchasing food directly from the farm or buying at your farmer's market.

Come to the Common in Plymouth on Saturday June 12th and get a taste for local food and community as we launch the 2010 Local Food Guide. We will be celebrating with samples from area farms, music, and speakers (11am-1pm).

We look forward to seeing you there,
Regina