First Farmer’s Market of 2010

The Humboldt County farmer’s market season began this last Saturday with a special early market at the Plan-it-Green conference in Arcata.  It was fun getting back to into that social dynamic that is unique to farmer’s markets, and of course it is good to have another stream of revenue early in the season.  We had a nice spread, combining winter storage crops, overwintered crops, and early greenhouse crops.  Folks were happy to once again have access to super-fresh veggies, and I sold nearly everything I brought!

The conference was a great one as well.  The Plan it Green conference is a great learning opportunity and networking event on the broad topic of building green communities.  This year’s them was “Local Self Reliance - making connections”, and one of the focuses was on local food systems.  I had the opportunity to present on a panel that took a broad view of the current state of our local food systems and highlighted opportunities for enhancement.  Sara Mosser, a local planner, spoke about policies that support local food systems (like Community Food Assessments) and gave many examples of innovative projects being undertaken by communities around the country.  Melanie Patrick, representing our local CAFF chapter, spoke about food distribution models both past and present and provided insight into how we can help local producers connect with local institutions like schools and hospitals.  I spoke about accessing farmland, and about promoting “food literacy” so that all our citizens can become more comfortable growing, purchasing, and cooking local, whole foods.

The conference drew in over 1,000 people, and it was great to see fellow Freshman Farmer Dustin Dougherty there (see his good blog posting, too!).

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