April 8 is 'Massachusetts Agriculture Day' at the State House

Massachusetts Agriculture Day at the State House is on April 8 this year. If you have the day off (unlike me), you can go and show your support for Massachusetts farmers as they showcase their products and work to state lawmakers.

For (slightly) more information, here is an informational flyer.

If you have an agricultural product to display, you can fill out a participant sign-up form.

Introducing the localgrub calendar

Here is the official localgrub calendar. I'm going to use this to list all the events I can find that are centered around (or at least vaguely related to) local food in the Central Mass/Metrowest area of the state. Isn't Google wonderful?! :) No, I don't work for them, but they allow me to do so many useful free things online and that makes me like them a lot.

If you come across anything interesting that I haven't included, please send me an email so I can add it.

Drumlin Farm, Lincoln MA

Drumlin Farm

208 South Great Road, Lincoln MA 01773

http://www.massaudubon.org/drumlin

Today was the last pick up for Drumlin Farm's winter vegetable CSA. So sad. This is the first time I've belonged to a winter CSA and it's been nice having fresh local vegetables all winter. I don't know if I can wait until June when Springdell Farm's summer vegetable CSA begins.

How can they grow vegetables in the winter in New England? Well, they don't. At least for this one--Drumlin Farm also has winter greens CSA (which was full, so I couldn't join this year) and I believe that they grow them in a greenhouse. At least, I wandered into the greenhouse a few weeks ago and noticed some salad greens ready for picking so I figure that's probably where they come from.

Anyway, the winter vegetable CSA is mainly root vegetables and squash, with some kale, onions, and garlic thrown in at the beginning of the season (it started in December). These are grown during the summer/fall growing season and they store them under optimal conditions, doling out two weeks' worth at a time for those of us without root cellars. You only pick up every other week, which is convenient, as opposed to every week like during the summer/fall. We ate a lot of root vegetable soups and stews this year. And yesterday, another shareholder donated her daikon to me (lucky for me she doesn't like it). I've been craving Korean food lately, so I'm going to make a big batch of radish kimchi. Yum!

Next month Drumlin Farm will hold its annual Sap-to-Syrup Farmer's Breakfast (Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm--contact the farm to reserve your spot). It's a pancake breakfast featuring their own potatoes, sausage, and maple syrup. This is the third year in a row that I've gone to this breakfast and it's been delicious and fun every time. You can go on tours of the farm and learn the origins of maple sugaring, and you can also visit the sugar house to learn about and watch the maple syrup being made. And, of course, you can buy some maple syrup to bring home with you.

Just as a heads-up, starting in a couple of weeks, maple sugar houses all around New England will open their doors for pancake breakfasts for the few shorts weeks they're producing maple syrup. Try to check at least one of them out this year--in my book, there are few things finer than New England sugaring season. If you're interested, you can find information from the Massachusetts Maple Producer's Association, the New Hampshire Maple Producers, the Vermont Maple Foundation/Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut, and the Maine Maple Producers Association. Sorry Rhode Island, I couldn't find information about your maple syrup.

localgrub map

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