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.

#
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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.”

The reason? Food and food sources have changed dramatically – many believe for the worse – over the decades. For example, most US-grown produce travels an average of 1,500 miles to get from farm to table. And a significant chunk of our food is grown or raised outside the US.

Somewhere between $.80 and $.90 of every dollar we spend on food at a grocery store goes to pay processors, packagers, distributors, wholesalers, truckers and the rest of the infrastructure, leaving our community. That leaves $.20 or less for the grower.

By comparison, locally-grown food purchased at a farmers’ market returns between $.80 and $.90 to the grower.

Then there’s the prickly issue of the huge consumption of fossil fuel by the food industry – fuel to produce pesticides and to process and transport products – and lingering fears about recent wide-scale contamination at major food-producing plants.

These, plus a host of other food-supply topics will be the subject of discussions at the “Food for Change” summit in Flint, Saturday, January 21.

Food for Change Summit organizers want to engage community partners to create approaches to these issues in Flint with the ultimate goal of creating jobs and reducing illness caused by unhealthy diets.

From 10 a.m. to 4p.m. participants can take part in round-table discussions and small-group sessions to discuss food policies, food and the economy, and community-based food. The goal is to begin identifying local food issues and to advocate for a community-based food system.

The summit will be held at the Mass Transportation Authority (MTA) Conference Center, 1401 S. Dort Highway in Flint. Local foods will be served throughout the day. The event is free to all, though participants are asked to register in advance or arrive at 9am the day of the event to register.

The conference is sponsored by C.S Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Genesee County Farm Bureau, Ruth Mott Foundation and Michigan State University Extension.

Call Claudia Mach at 810-396-3101 for additional information and to register, or complete the registration form at http://tinyurl.com/foodforchange.

An Acts Matter essay

We can alleviate a hunger pain with a quick fix of highly processed food. But is the goal convenience or is it nourishment? As a parent and the director of Rogue Valley Farm to School, I know we can do better in the new year to cultivate lifelong habits that nourish personal and environmental health.

If you’re not familiar with Farm to School, the heart of the movement is to get good, fresh food to students, create new markets for local farmers and provide educational opportunities in agriculture, health and nutrition. It is a grassroots movement that has spread across the country. Rogue Valley Farm to School would like to ensure that kids have wholesome, nutritious, delicious food at school. As studies prove, children’s intellectual and physical development depends on proper nutrition.

I could produce a long, detailed wish list for 2012, but a single wish-come-true could impact the entire list. While a large donation to RVF2S would be wonderful, a shift in federal policy would be our single wish. We ask that the barriers that make it difficult for schools to buy directly from local, small farms be reduced.

Establishing federal policies that include community food security initiatives within the 2012 Federal Farm Bill and the Child Nutrition Act would positively impact local farmers, school meals, local economies and the health of children.

Perhaps converse to conventional thought, poverty and obesity are linked. Over the years, the obesity rate has risen and the income gap has widened. Food is a social justice issue. Consequently, more children are eating subsidized meals from school kitchens.

Nationally, 17 percent of children are obese and 31 percent are overweight. These facts translate into expensive health concerns. Obesity is estimated to cost $147 billion annually. Today’s children are expected to have more than a 30 percent chance of becoming diabetic and are expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

The status of the small farm is equally serious. Farming has the greatest decline of all occupations in this country. Less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is involved in farming and the age of the average American farmer is 57 years old.

What can you do?

As eaters, I would urge you to take the time to do more home cooking and patronize the farmers markets or join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) so that you are buying produce directly from the producers.

As parents, I ask that you let your school administrations know you’d like your child to learn about nutrition, health and obesity and that school meals reflect what is taught.

As voters, I ask you to pay attention to the 2012 Farm Bill, land-use planning and legislation that impact school meals and farmers. And as community members, I ask you to learn more about RVF2S at www.rvfarm2school.org.

Farm to School Executive Director Tracy Harding moved to Southern Oregon in 2001 with her family and helped start the Ashland Saturday Growers Market in 2008. She was a program assistant for the Oregon State University Extension Small Farms Program and has served on the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center board since 2006.

But winter veggies from your local farmer may be right under your nose for the picking, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Earlier this month, the agency announced that winter farmers markets are taking off.

Since 2010, these markets have increased 38 percent across the country to more than 1,200 sites. You can scout out the closest one through the National Farmers Market Directory.

New York, California and Pennsylvania lead the way with the most winter markets so far. Our colleagues over at KUNC in Colorado are also reporting a big expansion of markets in their state.

But even though more farmers are finding a way to maintain the harvest through the cold months, and get crops to market, coaxing vegetables out of the ground when the air is chilly and the wind brisk is tough work. That’s why some universities that work with farmers have made winter production a new research priority.

“Winter farmers markets showing up throughout New England and are drawing large crowds of eager customers,” the cheery UMass Extension Vegetable Program reports on its website. And so the program, along with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension and two local food organizations, is experimenting with different technologies and farmers to expand their winter harvests and sales.

A lot of simple measures already exist to help cold weather crops like green and root vegetables along. Some farmers, like Zach Lester and Georgia O’Neal in Unionville, Va., use high tunnels – steel arches covered with plastic sheeting that act like greenhouses for tender crops like salad greens. Nancy Shute reported on their farm, which produces fresh leafy greens all year round.

Other farmers prefer low tunnels to protect cold-hardy crops from the elements. They’re much cheaper and simpler than high tunnels, and usually only two-feet tall. (Check out this nifty tunnel primer from Cornell University for more details.)

This year, the folks up at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York (the same folks who appeared in Dan Charles’s piece earlier this month on young farmers) are building low tunnels out of old PVC pipe, according to Erica Helms, the center’s director of marketing and philanthropy.

“We also want to preserve the harvest,” Helms tells The Salt. That means improving root storage and cold storage so that fall vegetables last deep into the winter. Good, hearty seeds are also key to growing vegetables that beat the cold. “We want high productivity and flavor,” she says.

For the rest of this article please visit http://www.michiganfood.org/assets/goodfood/docs/MichGoodFood_Newsletter_Dec_2011.pdf