New Local Food Initiative In Barbour County Schools

Today, WesMonTy RC&D Coordinator Jason Teets and Sustainable Projects Coordinator Ben Nemeth had a meeting with the County Food Service Director of Barbour County schools.

During this meeting, expectations were set on what would be needed to begin a local food based initiative with the Barbour County schools. Currently, the school district receives federal grant funds that focus specifically on healthy food initiatives in the schools. One part of this takes the form of a snack several days per week. We have worked out an agreement to assist in the procuring of local food for the snack, as well as using foods that the children may not be exposed to otherwise. The local food can easily be provided for with current resources in the community. It is also important to expose children to a variety of foods to help encourage a healthy diet and also to affect the wave of food related health problems that are so prevalent in West Virginia.

A very important, and unique, aspect of this project is the sourcing of food through the local Community Garden Market. The market, being the main hub for local food in Barbour county is the ideal place to purchase the food from. This will keep it all very local and ensure that the producers benefit from this project.

A tour of WesMonTy's projects was also conducted. A visit to the Community Garden Market (a receiver of funding through WesMonTy) showed the Director the main local food hub of Barbour County. It was a good demonstration as to the availability of these foods especially entering the cold season. Finally, we took short trip to Chestnut Ridge to look at the high tunnel and low-tunnel projects. We were able to demonstrate WesMonTy's work towards assisting local producers with season extension and what our vision for the future is. Also at the high tunnel, we met with Jeff Sickler and spoke about his efforts and his excitement for the project.

The meeting went very well and the Director was able to see the a portion of our projects and get a better sense of what we are doing. This is a very exciting partnership between WesMonTy and Barbour County schools. Next week could possibly be the first week of the project, with local food being used in local schools!

Food Corps

After submitting a letter of intent to Food Corps, WesMonTy was selected to submit an RFP!

WesMonTy was only one of a handful of organizations selected to represent their state in the upcoming site selection process. 105 organizations from 40 states applied.

Now WesMonTy is requested to submit an RFP that will be sent out today.

This is a very exciting piece of news and we will continue to work hard towards hosting volunteers in September 2011!

Local Producer Success Story

Congratulations to local producers Jeff (Pictured) and Lisa Sickler on their big sale to the Shop N' Save in Belington. Jeff and Lisa live in the Chestnut Ridge community and aside from having a high tunnel where they grow amazing produce, they also grow beautiful Chrysanthemums. They began by selling their mums at the Community Garden Market in downtown Philippi, and they were being sold as fast as they could supply them. They were also able to sell some at the local Southern States store.

Several weeks ago, Jeff approached the Belington Shop n' Save when he heard they were buying local produce. At the sight of his mums, they immediately bought several hundred that he had on hand!

Consistent with the Community Garden Market, their mums have sold out quickly, and have impressed not only the management at the Belington Shop n' Save, but a regional manager as well.

The mums have been so popular and are of such high quality, that they were recently asked to grow some for next year! They now have an agreement with the Belington Shop n' Save to grow several hundred just for them. They also may be able to supply several other area stores with mums as well!

Congratulations to Jeff and Lisa on your recent successes!

Our advice to you is to buy them when you see them because they won't last long on the shelf!

South Morgantown Farmers Market

Two weeks ago, South Morgantown Farmers Market on US-119 received funding from WesMonTy to run a large ad in the local newspaper. WesMonTy visited the market to see the results of this ad.

The results were incredible. According to the market manager Lesa Gay, the market has seen it's best business after ads of this size have been run. As you can see from the pictures, the market was bustling, and many people came out, enjoyed the weather and spoke with the friendly local producers.

This market is such a great social meeting place for the community. It allows neighbors to come together, support their local producers, and enjoy some company.

Congratulations to the South Morgantown Farmers Market on their great success!

The South Morgantown Farmers Market is open Thursday's from 4:30 to 7:30. Please visit their website for more information: http://www.smcfarmersmarket.org/

Food Safety Guidelines

At the local marketing club, several of our members mentioned the confusion over allowable processed foods at the farmers markets, especially pertaining to the Community Garden Market. For instance, hot pepper jelly is no longer allowed, and there is a lot of confusion as to why this is.

On the DHHR website there is a handy guide titled: Farmers Market Vendors Guide. It is a PDF file that can be found at the link below:

http://www.wvdhhr.org/phs/food/index.asp

This guide is very useful in answering any questions vendors may have on what they can and cannot sell at the market and also the reasons why this is. It lists Apple Butter, Sorghum, Molasses, Eggs, Meat, Jams and Jellies, Honey, Baked Goods and a host of other foods. If you are interested in producing any goods for the farmers markets in your area, you can use the form to get the proper information on food safety.

High Tunnel Visit

This past Thursday, Dr. Lewis Jett from WVU paid a visit to the high tunnel on Chestnut Ridge. As a continuing source of technical assistance, Dr. Jett has been very involved in the high tunnel from the initial planting to the present. During his visit he recommended some late season crops to plant and also some ways to prepare the high tunnel for the coming fall and winter seasons. Dr. Jett provided them with several different seeds for a late season crop. He handed out several types of peas, some beets, and lastly some carrots. These are crops that will flourish in the warmer environment of the high tunnel as the temperatures begin to drop.

Along with some seeds, he also provided some technical advice. For instance, the night temperatures are beginning to drop, so he recommends that the sides of the high tunnel now be rolled down at night to hold in the heat. The crops inside the high tunnel were not his only focus however. He also recommended some treatment for a blight that is occurring on the pepper plants located outside the high tunnel.

Dr. Jett was very impressed, as were we at the difference in quality between the pepper plants inside the tunnel versus the pepper plants outside the tunnel. Both rows of plants have received the same treatment (or a lack thereof in the case of pesticides), in watering, initial manure application and fertilizers. The peppers outside the tunnel are suffering from a pretty severe blight which has obviously stunted their growth. Overall, they do not look very healthy. However, the pepper plants inside tell a completely different story. They are flourishing to say the least. The have avoided the blight, despite being some 10 feet away from the other plants. They are at least 1.5 times taller than the plants outside, and the peppers they are producing are large and healthy. This small 'study' being put on clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of a system that a high tunnel can create.

As well as pepper plants, the tunnel also has several varieties of tomatoes, as well as a row of green beans. The tomatoes are large and will be ready for harvesting soon. The green beans have been coming in for several weeks now and are green and delicious.

The high tunnel project on Chestnut Ridge is proving to be very valuable and informative. Now we need to begin spreading this technology around the area.

Please check back soon for more updates!

New Opportunity For Local Growers!

WesMonTy recently spoke with the Produce Manager of the Shop N' Save in Belington. This locally owned store has been featuring locally grown produce on their shelves for the last 5 seasons! A small section is given to in-season produce which currently includes:

Cucumbers

Yellow Squash

Tomatoes

Peaches

Zucchini

We recognize this great effort on their part to support the local growers. We are also incredibly grateful that a store that large would take the lead in such an important issue for the community and the region.

Thank You Belington Shop N' Save!