This year the market will be packed full of a great variety of annuals, perennials, landscaping accessories and garden arts and crafts. The Junior Master Gardeners will also be on hand with activities for the children. Local musical groups The Fffellaz will entertain market guests on Saturday, May 19 and then on Saturday, May 26, Compared to What will bring their unique sounds to the front lawn of the market.

Shoppers are encouraged to get to the market early for the best selection. The market is located at 420 East Boulevard Drive in Flint across from the main post office. For more information call (810) 232-1399 or visit the market website www.flintfarmersmarket.com.

“With over 80 convenience stores in the City of Flint and very few places to buy fresh and healthy foods, neighborhood markets can become incubators for healthier eating and small scale economic development. We believe that they can also become centers of community pride and engagement,” said Dick Ramsdell, Market Manager.

The markets are planned to last for three hours and will be held on off days for the main market. The exact sites and days of the new markets will be announced in late May. Each market will allow the opportunity for part time jobs for a market manager and a young person from the neighborhood and will have at least one “anchor” vendor from the Flint Farmers’ Market. The markets will feature neighborhood gardeners who will have an opportunity to sell their produce and will be located within residential areas which will provide easier access for those who cannot shop at the main market. For more information contact the Flint Farmers’ Market at 810.232.1399 or info@flintfarmersmarket.com.

Urban agriculture businesses, “community supported agriculture,” countless farmers markets, backyard chicken coops — and the list goes on.

Many people are gravitating away from the grocery stores and back to the days of buying fresh produce at the market and knowing the farmer who grows their food.
It’s what some refer to as “back to basics living.”

In Washtenaw County, farmers markets abound, as well as CSAs and many food-based businesses.Farmers markets are seeing an increase in vendors, as well as customers. Many have been around for several years, including the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, which is 92 years old. The producers-only market has an average of 30 vendors in the winter and near 100 in the summer.

Throughout the past several years, it has added new vendors and has seen a growth in its customer base. Some markets throughout the county are offered year round so residents are able to get fresh produce throughout the year, much of which is grown in hoop houses, an inexpensive greenhouse that can be used throughout the year.

If the cones in your yard still contain their tiny seeds, but you want to get them off your grass, consider raking them into a corner of your garden so they will still be available to foraging birds and squirrels. Later in the spring, as other sources of food become available and the seeds have been eaten, you can add them to your compost pile.

Get a jump on blossoms
Ready for some spring color? It’s time to cut the branches of spring-flowering shrubs and trees, such as redbuds, dogwood, crabapple, forsythia and spirea and “force” them into bloom. Start by clipping healthy, young branches 12 to 18 inches long. Look for those that contain several flower buds, which are usually larger and plumper than leaf buds. Recut the stems when you bring them inside. Place them in a bucket of lukewarm water, and put the bucket with the water and stems in a cool, dark room. When the buds begin to show color – a process that can take as much as six weeks – bring them out of the darkness, arrange the stems in a vase with fresh water, and enjoy an early taste of spring.

Eating Local
Did you know that of the fourteen states where edible dry beans are grown, Michigan ranks number one in the production of black beans, cranberry beans and small red beans? According to the Michigan Bean Commission, approximately 90% of our abundant harvest of cranberry beans is exported to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Columbia. Our black beans are exported primarily to Mexico, and Michigan is the main supplier of dry beans to Europe.

Beans are a great low-fat source of protein, and they’re loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals.

You’ll find several varieties of locally-grown beans at the Flint Farmers’ Market, so if you’re trying to eat more local foods – or you just love beans – pick up a bag of Michigan-grown beans. You’ll want to plan ahead a bit and soak them overnight for quick cooking the next day. Or bring them to a boil, turn off the heat and let them soak for a couple hours. Either method will cut their overall cooking time significantly. After you cook them, rinse and refrigerate them for up to three days, and they’ll be available at a moment’s notice to add to salads, soups and stews.

You can also mash drained, cooked beans, add a little seasoning and a bit of cornmeal, and form the mixture into patties. Saute the patties until crispy on the outside and hot on the inside. Some beans work better than others, and experimenting with varieties and additions such as herbs, sautéed onions and finely-chopped veggies is half the fun!

Erin Caudell is Outreach Program Coordinator for the Ruth Mott Foundation. She can be reached at ecaudell@ruthmott.org.

The college has created a program that aims to help farmers get the certification they need to sell their crops to grocers and wholesale distributors.

Julie Parks, director of workforce training at GRCC, said some local farmers are unable to offer their products in spots beyond farmers markets because they lack Good Agricultural Practice certification, or GAP, a designation that shows growers are producing their food in a way that minimizes the risk of a foodborne illness outbreak.

The lack of farmers who have the certification has created demand from distributors like Sysco, which sells food to restaurants, healthcare facilities and schools, according to its website.

“There’s a big need with our local stores to find locally-produced food and produce,” Parks said, adding that Sysco is interested in finding more locally grown blueberries and raspberries.

The class, which costs $199 to attend, started earlier this month and consists of eight hours of classroom time, Parks said.

Phil Tocco, an educator at Michigan State University’s extension office in Jackson County, said while GAP certification isn’t required by law, insurance companies representing retailers typically don’t allow grocers to buy food that doesn’t meet the certification standards.

“There’s a lot of wholesale buyers who say we’re not going to buy your produce unless you have the certification,” said Tocco, who helped design the curriculum for GRCC’s class.

Becoming GAP certified requires that farmers implement a system where they follow specific practices and document a variety of things, such as sanitation, what fields certain crops are grown in and water-quality testing, Parks said.

The documentation helps show whether growers are following proper procedures and determine where tainted produce originated from in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak, she said.

Following the class, an instructor is available to go to a student’s farm and evaluate whether he or she has taken the necessary steps to implement a food safety system. To achieve GAP certification, a farmer must be audited by a third party, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It’s not rocket science,” Parks said of becoming GAP certified. “But you’ve got to document your crop.”

Tocco agreed, saying that while implementing a GAP program may be difficult for some farmers, “it’s the cost of doing business.”

“I think it’s important for all farmers to be able to answer the question of what are you doing to keep my food safe,” he said.

What’s fueling the increase in our area? The venerable Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market has never been so crowded — with both vendors and shoppers. And it’s been joined this winter by the Saline Winter Farmers’ Market (Saturdays from 9 a.m.-noon) and the St. Joe Farmers’ Market, at St. Joe Hospital (Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.).

According to Nancy Crisp, market manager of the Saline Farmers’ Market, this year’s winter market held on Saturdays at Liberty School is “better than I had even planned on. I had over 30 vendors before Christmas, and now still have over 20 vendors. Between 350-450 people come each week. One thing that is so great is that we do have winter vegetables. Like greens, radishes and potatoes. Because people have hoop houses now.”

Observing the continued demand for fresh produce, farmers are deciding to grow crops through the winter using hoop house technology, passive solar structures that keep the produce coming even in the coldest months.

Jeremy Moghtader, farm manager at the MSU Student Organic Farm, says, “For farmers, (hoop house growing) helps stabilize farm income and makes farm operation much more viable. The revenue that you can generate through a hoop house is pretty substantial — because you can get a lot more food out of that space.”

According to Dan Bair, farm program manager at the Farm at St. Joe, the number of winter markets has increased because “Michigan is just a very agriculturally diverse state.” He says, “The Organic Farm Training program at MSU has played a role with outreach and awareness around the state, educating because of that program and its use of hoop houses.”

MSU has had a full-time hoop house outreach coordinator for the past six years, says Jeremy Moghtader. And using hoop houses, the MSU Student Organic Farm, which graduates 16 new farmers each year, started the first 48-week year-round CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program in the state in 2003.

Shannon Brines at Brines Farm in Dexter is one of the four-season growing pioneers in our area. He built his first hoop house and started growing winter greens in 2005. Now he has four hoop houses in production, and 40 winter CSA members. He’s planning on 80 CSA members next year.

Jennifer Kangas of Capella Farm was able to start a winter CSA program last year thanks to the hoop houses she built, and now she’s taking her winter produce to the Saline Winter Farmers’ Market. She still has garlic, chard, choi, arugula, carrots, collards, kale, mustard greens, salad mix (which goes really fast according to Nancy Crisp), spinach and three kinds of potatoes.

Efforts like Selma Cafe’s “20 Hoops in 20 Days” have organized volunteer labor and low-interest loans to increase the available square footage of winter growing capacity in our area by 60,000 feet last year alone, according to Selma Cafe co-founder, Jeff McCabe. McCabe has since started a hoop house building company, called Nifty Hoops, and says he hopes to put another 120,000 square feet under 50 structures this year.

Nearby, places like Capella Farm, the Farm at St. Joe, Seeley Farm, Green Things Farm, Sunseed Farm, Prochaska and Tantre Farm are all growing year-round with hoop houses. Several, like Capella Farm and Sunseed Farm, now have winter CSA programs. And a new year-round, Tilian Center Residency Farm CSA is just starting up this spring.

According to Dan Bair, winter markets “keep people connected to the freshest, most local food, during the cold months. And in the wintertime, the food coming out of the hoop house is of superior quality because of the sweetness that all the root crops and greens get in the winter.”

That sweetness is among the secret amazing payoffs of suiting up with earflaps and parkas for the winter morning market. Michigan’s winter vegetables are the sweetest of the entire year because of a survival strategy that cold season plants use.

Jeremy Moghtader say,s “For hardy greens (and roots) that are tolerant of freezing and thawing, it’s a physiological adaptation to cold. Plants are preventing water in their cells from freezing by increasing sugar in their cells. If the cells freeze, then they burst. That’s why kale and brussels sprouts are sweeter in fall after a frost. In the hoop house, they get repeated exposure to those (freezing and thawing) conditions. It’s very noticeable in collards, spinach, parsley, cilantro, kale. Carrots are just very, very sugary. I dug carrots out of the hoop house, and I’ve never eaten a carrot so sweet. It was almost sinfully sweet. Enough that I wondered — is this still good for me if it’s this sweet?”

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market

Location: Held in the main hospital lobby.
Address: 5301 McAuley Drive, Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Time: Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

What’s available: Dan Bair, Farm Program Manager at the Farm at St. Joe says he’s got “salad mix, spinach, arugula, collard greens, kale, chard, scallions – purple ones, carrots, beets, and some garlic.”

Saline Winter Farmers’ Market

Location: Held indoors at Liberty School in Saline
Address: 7265 Saline Ann Arbor Road, Saline, MI
Time: Saturdays 9 – noon, through the end of April

What’s available: Market manager Nancy Crisp says “winter items include: garlic, chard, choi, arugula, carrots, collards, kale, mustard greens, salad mix (which goes really fast), spinach, and three kinds of potatoes — and that’s just what was available last week from Capella Farm. Although they’re beginning to run out a bit. Prochaska Farm has spinach, radishes, red cabbage, a Japanese heirloom popcorn, and Czech sauerkraut, along with the several cheeses made by Four Corners Creamery in Tecumseh. Kapnick’s still have lots of apples and cider.”

Ann Arbor Farmers Market

Kim Bayer is a freelance writer and culinary researcher. Email her at kimbayer at gmail dot com.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today announced that the number of winter farmers markets is increasing. According to the updated National Farmers Market Directory, since 2010, the number of winter markets has increased 38 percent, from 886 to 1,225. These winter markets also account for nearly 17 percent of the nation’s 7,222 operating farmers markets (Note: The reported number of farmers markets has been updated since August 2011).

“Consumers are looking for more ways to buy locally grown food throughout the year,” said Merrigan. “Through winter markets, American farmers are able to meet this need and bring in additional income to support their families and businesses.”

Farmers markets operating at least once between November and March are considered winter farmers markets. The top 10 states for these markets are:

State # of Winter Markets in 2011 # of Winter Markets in 2010

1. New York 180 152
2. California 153 137
3. Pennsylvania 78 35
4. North Carolina 73 53
5. Ohio 50 34
6. Maryland 48 30
7. Florida 46 31
8. Massachusetts 43 30
9. Virginia* 40 21
10. Michigan* 33 19

The expanded adoption of hoop house technology, which has enabled many smaller growers to extend their production seasons at low cost, has been a contributing factor to the growth of winter farmers markets. Hoop houses have allowed growers to produce locally-grown products for longer time periods and in colder climates.

USDA provides support to farmers markets through numerous programs, including AMS Specialty Crop Block Grants Program and Farmers Market Promotion Program. The agency also sponsors its own indoor farmers market during the winter months at USDA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The market features local products such as fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs, honey, herbs, handmade soaps, baked goods and more.

* New to the top 10 list.

#
This artile was published by the USDA
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The first Michigan Farmers Market Association Conference is March 6 and 7 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing. The gathering takes place during Agriculture and Natural Resources Week at Michigan State University.

The association says more than 275 farmers markets operate in the state, up from about 150 five years ago.

The conference will offer a market manager “boot camp” tract for new and beginning market managers; an advanced tract for managers that have attended previous educational sessions; and a farmer tract for small- and mid-sized farm operators.

Registration is required by Feb. 24.

Rick Snyder’s State of the State address Wednesday night.

Keith Creagh, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, expanded on some of the highlights in an interview this morning.

Nutrition, obesity

One of the state’s biggest food processors is at the heart of a new initiative called for by the governor to improve health, nutrition and the obesity rate among Michigan residents, Creagh said.

Gerber baby food’s infant and toddler study found there’s a lack of knowledge among parents about the best way to make the transition from breast milk to solid food, Creagh said. But the study also suggests that by 24 months of age children are “already imprinted by what eat for life,” Creagh said.

So producers and food processors, public health officials, and retailers have joined forces in an outreach program that takes information right to parents where they shop, to answer their questions. “For instance,” Creagh said, “if I want to feed my child a carrot, (parents may ask): ‘Is it safe? Is he old enough? How big a chunk is right?’ “

The need to limit the amount of juice and to opt for milk with some fat content for infants rather than skim, “there’s all sorts of information, and we could help,” Creagh said, by better sharing the information already at hand at point-of-purchase displays or with nutrition experts in stores.

“I think we can make a dent in the whole obesity problem.”

It’s good for the public’s health, but good for farm production, too, Creagh said, as venues such as farmers markets in hospitals and other programs designed to increase access to locally produced produce increase options for farmers who grow fruits and vegetables.

“When Michigan farmers have only one way to sell a product, they are price takers,” Creagh said.

Jobs in agriculture

On the jobs front, the Michigan Department of Agriculture now “sits at the table to drive rural economy,” working with Michigan economic development groups to make sure that training for work aligns with jobs in agriculture that need workers.

Including agriculture in the planning for the state’s 10 new economic development regions “is a brand new development that’s very exciting,” Creagh said.

It’s important, he said, because there is not a national database that captures the food and agriculture industry, so much of Michigan’s burgeoning agriculture industry has been invisible. Agricultural jobs were lumped into generic categories, categorizing food processing as “manufacturing,” for instance, which doesn’t help tailor workers to the field’s specific needs.

Agri-tourism, wine production and other agricultural and rural needs have been hidden as well, Creagh said.

“We’ve had a food processor summit and an agricultural producer summit, and we’re working with KVCC, GRCC, (and other community colleges and universities) to ask what is needed and how do we get that done,” he said.

“I can help connect the dots,” Creagh said.

Internet, a new bridge to Canada

Creagh said improving Michigan’s infrastructure is essential to allowing agriculture in Michigan to reach the potential that the state’s diversity of crops, climate and availability of water make possible.

“Broadband (Internet access) is just like electrification of the rural countryside — we cannot compete in today’s world without instantaneous access to Internet,” Creagh said.

“If I have dial-up Internet access (as many rural areas do) and it takes 15 minutes to answer a customer’s request, I will not be successful,” Creagh said. “Also, I know of no young person who will stay in a community without good Internet access, so if you want to retain youth, you’d better be connected.”

A new bridge into Canada is essential as well, he explained, for current traffic and to build a stable future.

“We export every third row we grow — a third of what we grow in this state — and our largest trading partner is Canada, with about $750 million in agricultural goods exported into Canada every year,” he said. But increasing efficiency for current needs is not the real issue, he said.

With a growing world population, “by 2050. we will have to double production to feed people,” he said.

Congestion in East Coast shipping coasts causes containers to get hung up in New York and Newark.

Canada is building a new port in Halifax. A bridge with direct access to Halifax “gives us a huge advantage,” Creagh said.

“Michigan is in a spot where agriculture can be successful long term.”