Thursday, August 2, 2012

East KY Local Foods

Aug. 2nd.
Gardens in Floyd and South Magoffin counties are doing well although it is interesting how the wet weather has been beneficial to some of us and a bother to others. Some of our families are getting a pretty good crop of beans but most have beautiful vines and very few beans. Corn is another crop that some families are doing well with but most, not so much. The good news is that the Floyd County Farmer’s Market has opened up and the farmer’s who have had good corn crops are bringing it in. The FCFM has a local only policy which for them means Floyd and neighboring counties only. No Tennessee corn at the FCFM. Todd Howard, the market manager, said that the producer members of the Market decided they wanted to grow the local economy with a local only policy.

St. Vincent Mission’s Grow Appalachia program is a big supporter of “Buy Local” and has been working with other individuals and organizations on developing the East Kentucky Local Food Systems Collaborative. The mission of the East Kentucky Local Food Systems Collaborative is be a hub to collaborate, build, strengthen and support the eastern Kentucky food system through: information sharing, promoting, education, advocating for policy change, building markets for eastern Kentucky products.

In my opinion, EKLFSC is a great way to help the Grow Appalachia families and farmers begin moving into John Paul’s “phase two”. In fact, I know that several of the current Grow Appalachia programs have already plugged in to this resource. The movement of the collaborative has stalled in recent months but another gathering has been scheduled to reestablish and revitalize the movement. The gathering will be August 23rd at the Knott County Extension Office in Hindman. If you can come, please RSVP to Alexa Arnold of CFA at alexa@cfaky.org so she can tell the caterer. You can also check out the website at www.appalfoods.org for some history of the group and other resources. And you can copy the flyer on this post and pass it along to anyone in your area-farmers, teachers, restaurant owners, and hospital administrators-anyone who might be interested in building a healthy food system in eastern Kentucky. 

Here’s the flyer. Hope to see you there. Sr. KC.

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