Local Food News & Meeting Minutes

  • EAT June 2010 Meeting Minutes

    Thursday July 1, 2010

    EAT Meeting

    Wednesday, June 30, 2010

    6:30-8:00 pm

    Wenatchee World Conference Room

     

     

    In Attendence:

    Mike Brogan

    Mike Cochran

    Tony Davis

    Nadine Lehrer

    Ally Neher

    Joan Qazi

    Kerry Steffan

     

    Treasurer’s Report:  Current balance $1169.12

     

    Updates:

     

    Calendars – Café Mela has money from calendars.  Mike will be collecting it. 

     

    The Community Garden -  It is looking great---even the EAT plot!  Rich Colson has taken over care of our plot and it’s doing very well.

     

    Community Garden Lecture Series - Andy Khan did the most recent presentation (on tomatoes).  It was not well-attended, but like all the other presentations thus far, it was well-received.  Dave Gerlach is excited about the series and would like the Wenatchee World to come back and do another article at our July meeting probably on the 19th. 

     

    We need to consider what we can do to generate better attendance and get all of the users of the community garden involved.  Our first step is to talk with Dave and find out when most of the gardeners are there tending their plots.  If we can have our presentations coincide with their gardening times, we might get more people to attend.  Also, next year we might just do fewer presentations.

     

    In addition to getting the current community gardeners more involved, we’d like to encourage more involvement by people living in the neighborhood around the gardens.  Suggestions include having a booth at the Methow Park Farmers’ Market and hosting a community garden “block party” in August, featuring food grown in the gardens.

    Upcoming in the lecture series – Nadine suggested a local food potluck at the Community Center combined with a “tour” of the gardens and discussions of what’s growing, how the plants are doing, and maybe some troubleshooting.

     

    IRIS meeting – NCW Food Coalition - Ally attended the meeting last month. The meeting focused on figuring out their mission.  They have decided they have 3 main concerns, and will have committees for each one:  1-education, 2-policy, 3-production.

    They will serve as a unified group to share information and resources with others.

    The next meeting will be in Okanogan on September 15th, and the following one will likely be in Quincy or Wenatchee.

     

    School Gardens – The Office of the Superintendent offered two $400 scholarships to Joan and a teacher within the Wenatchee School District to attend a sustainability conference on Bainbridge Island at the end of this month.  This will be a great opportunity to learn more about connecting school gardens with larger curriculum.

    “Youth United” is a way for local high schoolers to get a varsity letter in community service.  We are looking into getting them involved with the school gardens.

     

    Local Food Fridays – It has expanded this year, and is doing very well!  CFC has asked EAT to staff a booth.  You can chat with nice people and educate them about local food while you listen to music and eat delicious local food!  We decided to take the August 6th date with a focus on chickens and eggs and a game to match a photo of a chicken to its colored egg.  Also, we’ll have a list of local egg suppliers and an update on keeping chicken in your backyard in the city.  Mike will follow up on the backyard chickens policy.  Please contact Joan (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you want to staff the booth and/or if you can help create the games PLEASE!

     

    Other news - Mike Brogan has land in Nahahum Canyon.  He’s looking for growers to use this property.  It would need to be terraced farming.

     

    Something to ponder:

     

    How can foodies like EAT go beyond their core group (who attend all the same events together, great for socializing, but still preaching to the choir) to try to diversify the audience for our educational campaigns?

     

    We had the following ideas, but we would LOVE to have other suggestions!

    Again, having the EAT booth at the Methow Park Farmers’ Market, with recipes available using ingredients that are available at the farmers’ market.  Also, we are considering having more interactive things at Local Food Fridays, such as games with prizes.  Use variety of media connections including Hispanic radio stations.

     

     

    Upcoming Event:

     

    Film showing – “Two Angry Moms” at the YWCA in support of Café AZ’s and to raise awareness of school food and nutrition.  Wed, July 14th at 6 pm.

     

    For more info on this film, visit:  http://www.angrymoms.org/

     

     

    Next Meeting may be postponed from July 28th to August 4th…stay tuned for updates.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • EAT Monthly Meeting Minutes

    Wednesday June 16, 2010

     

    EAT Meeting

    Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    at Wenatchee Valley College

    12:45-2:00 p.m.

     

    In attendance:

    Mike Cochran, Rich Colson, Cheryl Dawes, Nadine Lehrer, Joan Qazi & Kerry Steffan

    Next Meeting:  Wednesday June 30th at 6:30pm in the Wenatchee World Conference rm.

     

    Treasurer’s Report

     

    Account balance: $1,319.72

    All calendar sales are done except Farmhouse Table, Top Foods, Cafe Mela, and Lemolo.  We will follow up with these to see if they want to continue to sell them.  If they don’t, we’ll collect any money and take remaining calendars to Farmhouse Table.  Rich will submit EAT taxes form 990N.

     

    Other news

     

    Calendars:  Sandi Bammer is in charge of the calendars this year.  Please take photos of growers, chefs, and farmers’ market vendors using the highest resolution possible.  2011 calendar theme will be “Farmers and Chefs.”

     

    City ordinance regarding chickens:  Mike was on KOHO to speak about the issue of having chickens within the city limits.  Susan Ballinger, Doug Bergstrom, and Sandi Bammer were also at the planning meeting.  Currently, the size lot limit is ½ acre, but many would like to see it reduced to ¼ acre, to allow more residents to keep chickens.  It seems that residents may be allowed a certain number as “pets,” but there will likely be a “no roosters” clause.  It looks like the commissioners are on-track to allow for this change.

     

    Farm-to-School:  Jan Hansen (Wenatchee High School Kitchen Manager) invited local chefs Tony Davis and Richard Kitos to come to the high school and offer local food.  They were featured in the following article:

     

    http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2010/may/25/students-find-local-produce-at-school-area-chefs/

     

    IRIS:  At our meeting, Cheryl presented information on the “Foodways and Byways Project” that IRIS has been working on, about which you can find information through this link:

     

    http://irisncw.org/Programs/Nature-of-NCW/GOV10-11Framework.pdf

    If you are interested in participating in this, or have ideas, suggestions, or questions, please contact Nancy Warner:  (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address),  www.irisncw.org

     

    IRIS will be having their Success Summit on November 17th. 

     

    The Northwest Regional Food Coalition will be meeting on June 10th in Twisp from 10 am to 1 pm.  It will be a strategic planning session.

    It would be great if someone from EAT could attend this!

     

    Community Garden:  The fence has been purchased and partially installed.  It divides the sidewalk from the plots, protecting the plots, and will also allow peas or other climbing plants to grow up/along it.  “Planting Day” at the garden was wonderful.  Dave Gerlach’s kids and Jiraporn’s daughter did most of the EAT plot planting. 

     

    NOTE:  The EAT plot is in a prime location for viewing.  The concern is that it will not be well-maintained.  We need to decide if we want to give it back/turn it over or find someone willing to take over management of this plot.  Rich Colson offered to take a look.

     

    Community Garden Lecture Series:  Shawn Steffan’s presentation in May on backyard pests was well-received.  We are looking for other people interested in presenting topics of interest to local gardeners.

    Possibilities:  Jiraporn to speak on flower growing

                          Chip and Andy – tomato growing?

    If you are interested, or know of someone who might be, please contact Nadine.

    The lectures will be held on Tuesday evenings at the Community Center.

     

    School Gardens:  Orchard Middle School has been having great success.  Laurie Neal has been doing an excellent job with it, and they recently harvest romaine lettuce and served it in the school’s salad bar.  Foothills Middle School continues to struggle with lack of parent involvement.  Newbery’s garden maintenance is very well-organized, and teachers will take over the garden in the summer.

     

    There is the question of what to do with the other gardens over the summer.  Possibilities include:

    1-Connect with the Women’s Resource Center or the food bank.

    2-Have students/children sell the produce at the Wenatchee Farmers’ Market

    3-Sell the produce through the Farmhouse Table

    4-Collaborate with the YWCA (for their new restaurant)

    5-Join forces with the Senior Center (this would be an especially good fit for Foothills Middle School, given their location)

     

    The school garden video is still a work in progress.  Oly Mingo, of Howell at the Moon, will do some more editing on it.

     

    Wenatchee Valley Museum – Super Summer Adventures:  Joan will teach a course called “Edible Schoolyard Gardening” in two parts during session 1 (June 21-24) and session 2 (June 28-July1).  It is for kids entering grades 5-7.  You can access information about this course and register for it through this link:

     

    http://www.wenatcheewa.gov/Index.aspx?page=160  (click on ‘classes’)

     

    The Farmhouse Table CSA started on June 2, but it’s not too late to sign up to get your weekly box of fresh, local produce!  Stop by Farmhouse Table Produce or follow this link for more info:

     

    http://www.communityfarmconnection.org/Farmhouse_Table_CSA.html

     

    Upcoming

     

    Sunday, June 20 – Local Harvest Dinner at the Kingfisher Dining Lodge at Sleeping Lady Resort.  At 5:00 pm, there will be wine and cheese tasting.  Eron Drew will give a tour of the organic garden at 5:30.  Dinner will begin at 6:00, featuring Executive Chef Ken McDonald and Chef Isaac Kaplan-Woolner. 

    Adults: $40, Kids ages 5-12: $16, Under 4: Free

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • EAT Meeting Minutes April 2010

    Wednesday June 16, 2010

    EAT Meeting

    Thursday, April 29, 2010

    Wenatchee World Conference Room

    6:30-8:30pm

     

    In attendance:

    Sandi Bammer, Mike Cochran, Tony Davis, Nadine Lehrer, Kim Lohse, Ginny O’Kelly,

    Joan Qazi, Sara & Freya Rolfs, Maureen & Eileen Sheimo, and Kerry Steffan (note-taker/minutes-typer, lest you think that Joan is tooting her own horn---see below)

     

    Upcoming:

    Tuesday, May 4th—Farmhouse Table opens for the season

    Thursday, May 6th – Planting party at the community garden.  4-8 p.m.

    Monday, May 17th—Community Garden Education series, Natural Pest Control with      Shawn Steffan, 7-8pm.

     

    Review of EAT’s Mission Statement and Goals – by Joan

    At this meeting, we reflected on the accomplishments of EAT and its partners.  Here are the highlights from the past year:

     

    The Community Food Assessment.  We are still using the results of this research and our CFA has helped provide a good model for others to use (such as Kittitas County).

     

    Calendar.  Thanks to the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center sponsorship, these have been a great fund-raiser.  For 2011, we hope to feature local chefs and farmers.

     

    Northwest Farm Credit Services.  Provided grant money for EAT to purchase a rototiller that is being shared by all the schools with Edible Schoolyards (it is housed in the shed at Newbery).   Deadlines for future funding applications are March, June, and October. 

     

    Farm-to-School Conference.  It was a great success, with representatives from schools in 5 area counties present, as well as many local growers.  Several connections were made, and some local schools are now using potatoes from Cloudview Farm and local asparagus in their lunch menus.  We will try to do a follow-up survey to assess successes and challenges.

     

    Connections between EAT, CFC, and IRIS.  We continue to build our relationships with these groups (and there is certainly a fair amount of overlap in their memberships).

     

    Partnership with W.I.C. & Master Gardeners.  We helped write a grant proposal to increase consumption of fresh produce among local WIC clients.  We did not get the grant, but the process of working with both groups was very positive, and we hope to partner with them on future projects.

     

    Interactive map on our website.  Thanks to Ben Field!

     

    EAT’s involvement with the Community Garden.  Organizing a monthly seminar series, free to community gardeners.   Spanish-speaking neighbors of the community garden are especially encouraged to attend (Nadine is present to interpret).  Seminars are usually held on Mondays, around 7 pm.  Ginny offered to help distribute information/fliers through her work as a dietician.  Kerry suggested having a seminar about pest control.  Her husband, Shawn, is an entomologist, and will be able to give a presentation.

     

    Updated Farm-to-Table Directory.  Lots of hard work, especially by Amy Simonson, to create a great local directory.   Entries were based on who filled out forms at a previous Farm-to-Table conference, or through emails sent out by Amy.  It will be updated again to include more local growers, retailers, and restaurants.  It’s not necessarily a money-maker, but it’s great to get the info out to the public.  We might be able to get a Community Farm Connection grant to do an updated version.  Also, maybe CFC would be willing to take on this project since they have the connections.

     

    Local Food Fridays.  A lot of fun last summer, with great food by Tony Davis and Amy Simonson.  Tony will be making pizzas this summer at Centennial Park, Fridays.  There will also be live music.

     

    New brochure.  We got a revised brochure with our great pea pod logo thanks to a donated gift certificate from Rich for publishing services.

     

    Edible Schoolyards.  In March, there was a workshop for teachers on using the curriculum for the school gardens and how to connect students to our community (grow for local food bank, involve seniors from a nursing home, etc) via the gardens.  We are working on the video and will try to get the map up on our website.

     

    Booths.  We had booths at several events this year, including the Chelan County Fair, the farmers’ market, Earth Days, and Taste of the Harvest. 

     

    Our Officers:  Rich Colson, Treasurer; Joan, Coordinator Extraordinaire!

    We will be looking to fill these roles again, so anyone interested in helping in a new and different way, let us know!  We would like to reorganize the structure a bit, decreasing the workload of the coordinator, and asking people to volunteer to take on one particular project.  This will spread the work out, while still having a central “point person.”

    Mike and Kerry have offered to be co-Secretaries.    

     

    Also, Joan wisely suggested not taking on too many (or any?) new projects in the coming year.  Rather, we should work on refining our relationships with our partners and put our best efforts into our current projects.  Scrolling up, it’s plain to see that we’ve got plenty!

     

    3rd Annual “Pea Pod” Awards:  to recognize the work of our volunteers.  Nadine Lehrer (plus a special addendum to Mike Cochran!) and Kerry Steffan were this year’s recipients for all their dedicated work on grant-writing, booth-staffing, school & community gardening, plus note-taking and translations!!  We all deeply appreciate the efforts of all of our volunteers, thank-you!

     

    Other business:

     

    Maureen Sheimo works with the City of Chelan on developing sustainability standards.  She is working with Manson teacher, Tim Bombaci, to get Manson schools involved with a future farm-to-school workshop. Manson Elementary has a school garden and is working on environmental education in the schools. Joan suggested contacting Tricia Kovacs, at Washington State Dept of Agriculture.  The “We Can” program in Manson (Meg White) has two 2-week camps planned for this summer.  EAT members agreed that we could help work on a possible Chelan Farm to School workshop in the Fall. 

     

    We discussed our presence at the Chelan County Fair.  We may have a different location this year, but we are not sure if we want to have a “manned” booth.  We may just have info there (map of school gardens, brochures, etc). 

     

    Community Garden – still needs money for its fencing (approx. $2,200).  Sara suggested looking into a NW Farm Credit Services grant.  EAT has already donated $100.  Joan asked the group if we would be willing to donate more, and we all agreed.  We didn’t decide on a specific amount.  EAT has a plot in the garden, so come & participate.

     

    Farmhouse Table (FHT) – Kim got a call from someone with 20-25 acres of land between East Wenatchee and Rock Island that is looking for someone to farm it, so he doesn’t lose his irrigation rights.  Kim hopes to carry Scott & Ruth Parson’s breads at the shop.  We discussed the Healthy Gourmet’s latest venture, the Riverwalk Inn & Artisan Bakery.  See their website for details: www.riverwalkinnchelan.com. 

     

    Also at FHT – volunteers are getting lined up to help with retail this year, as well as helping with boxing CSA shares.  FHT also has a student from Wenatchee Valley College who is part of a work-study program.  She has already made big contributions in getting the shop ready.  It will open on May 4th!

     

    Treasurer’s Report:  Current balance:  1331.12; Accts. Receivable  65.00-Wen Natural foods from Calendar sales and 22.00-Earth day calendar sales; Accts. Payable  Paid $50 to join Cascade Foothills Farmland and paid $100 for fencing at the Community Garden

       

    Action Plans for the coming year (and contact persons):

     

    1.  2011 EAT Seasonally Calendar (Sandi Bammer)

    2.  Farm to School programs (Tony Davis)

    3.  Note-taking and Website updates/calendaring (Mike Cochran & Kerry Steffan)

    4.  Edible Schoolyard video (Oly Mingo)

    5.  Farm to Table Directory (Kim Lohse)

    6.  Community Garden (Nadine Lehrer)

    7.  Farmer Bios for WHS (?) create posters with help from WHS students

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • EAT minutes March 2010

    Wednesday June 16, 2010

    Eat Minutes  3/24 12:30

     

    12:35   MooCow:  Meeting starts:  Joan Qazi, Sandi Bammer, Rich Colson, Mike Cochran, Nadine Lehrer, Michel Wiman, Kim Lohse present

     

                Next meeting is April 28th at 6:30pm in the Wenatchee World Conference Room.  Pea Pod Awards and Officer Elections will occur.  Bring Friends, Bring Food, Have Fun, Make “not outrageous” Plans.

     

    12:40   What’s Coming Up:    April 8th:  Pybus City Commisioners Meeting

                                                    March 29th-April 3rd:  Community Garden Build Parties

    April 12th:  Community Garden Education Series: 7pm @ Community Center.  Amy Hendershot will discuss soil moisture, fertility, and you.

    November 15th:  Local Seed Exchange We received Heirloom Tomato seeds from Tomato Fare

    April 17th:  Earth Day at Centennial Park from 11-2.  “Getting the Green”  Free, resourceful ways to conserve.  EAT is an organizer and we need help to man the booth.

    April 1st:  Alpine Lakes Cheese Class with a magazine person.  $75 cost, learn to make all the cheeses that they make.

    April 26th:  WSU Small Farms Farm Walk at Black Sheep Creamery.  Monday 12:30-3:00pm

    May:  WSU Small Farms Farm Walk at Tonamaker’s

     

    1:10     Help pass the healthy school initiative with Representative Hurst.  Contact Joan for details.

     

    1:14     Treasurer’s Report: We have $1241.12 with $55 in Accounts Recievable.  19 Calendars sold at Wenatchee Natural Foods alone.  Thanks to Wenatchee Valley Health Center for sponsoring.  Need calendars (or money) still from Café Mela, Red Bird, Hallmark, McGlins, Top Foods and maybe we should move the rest at Earth Day.

     

    1:21     Take Photos NOW for next year’s calendar.  Nik Wiman wants to do Honey work

     

    1:22     Culinary Arts at Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center.  Betty Palmer runs the whole show right now through Wenatchee Valley High School.  Betty wants word to spread through Kitchen Community Chefs that she’s training kids for kitchen work.  They have big plans and they cater too.

     

    1:28     Farm to School – Went great.  Speed Dating went great.  Dowsides from reviews is speed dating could be bumped up the schedule.

     

    1:30     School Gardens are up and running.  Teacher Workshop on April 5th to institutionalize the gardens so that they don’t fall apart when key parents move on.  Foothills was rototilling on the afternoon of March 24th, and Newberry was tilling on April 4th.

     

    1:34     Kim Lohse is going to Chelan to meet with Scott Parsons and Wynne Weinreb at their respective places.

    1:38     MooCow Meeting officially ends

     

     

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