Norman's Newsletter 8.23.10

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Norman's Newsletter 8.17.10

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Norman's Farm Market Newsletter via @constantcontact

Norman's Farm Market Newsletter via @constantcontact

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Check out my @constantcontact newsletter

Three Springs Fruit Farm

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In mid February, we drove up through the dormant fruit orchards of northern Adams County near Gettysburg to peruse seed catalogs and start planning our growing season with Three Springs Fruit Farm. The farm contains approximately 500 acres of primarily orchards nestled in the heart of fruit country in Adams County.

We met with Ben Wenk who is the 7^th generation of his family to farm over the past 100 years and works with his father, John, and uncle, David Wenk. Ben is a recent graduate from Penn State’s Agro ecology program with a minor in Horticulture. After unloading a few skids of empty peach crates from 2009 we sat down at a table on the ground floor of an old farmhouse in the middle of acres of orchards. Johnny’s Select, and Baker’s Creek seed catalogs spread about and there is something about this time of year when looking through catalogs you get high hopes. Everything looks so good in the catalogs and every growing season is a clean slate filled with endless possibilities.

It was really enjoyable sitting down with Ben and discussing the upcoming season. Asking ourselves what worked, what didn't, what is going to be worth our efforts this upcoming season. He is how I would envision the New Farmer from an article I just read in Edible Shenandoah. He is aimed at discovering and cultivating a new niche for his established family farm. Whether it is through finding a new product, new method of production, or new way to reach potential customers, you get this sense from Ben that he is someone who enjoys what he does and wants to combine the wisdom from the past with the technology of the future. A nice sense of ambition tampered with a degree of humbleness. On the afternoon of our meeting, Ben was preparing for a seminar which he was giving at the PASA Conference the following day. The seminar had to do with small farms utilizing the internet and social networking to reach new customers.

We combed through the catalogs and developed a nice wish list for items we would like to see this summer in terms of specialty produce items. On that list we have some unique varieties of artichokes, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and squash. We look forward to doing some business with Ben and Three Springs Fruit Farms this summer and maybe even getting up to Gettysburg to jam at an open mic hosted by Ben Wenk.

Cheers,

John Norman

Vote Norman's Farm Market for Farmers Market

Vote Norman's Farm Market for Farmers Market

Maryland’s Best Buyer-Grower Seminar

On January 21, Norman’s Farm Market attended Maryland Department of Agriculture’s 2010 Buyer-Grower Meeting in Annapolis. We had a blast meeting all the producers and sampling their products. Also it was great catching up with many of the key players in the local foods movement. Kate Mason, the agricultural marketing specialist for Maryland’s Department of Agriculture, did a great job of organizing the event. She also puts together many other events geared towards helping Maryland’s producers develop a customer base. The 2010 Buyer-Grower Meeting was attended by vegetable farms, fruit orchards, meat & dairy farms, seafood producers, wineries, and more. Area chefs, some larger buyers such as Wegman’s & Wholefoods, and of course Maryland’s premier local food advocate Norman’s Farm Market attended the meeting as prospective buyers.

The first wall of the auditorium was lined with seafood producers and watermen from the Chesapeake Bay. We spoke to Ernie Nichols of Uncle Ernie’s Tangier Sound Oysters and sampled his delicious Oysters. Ernie’s mission statement is, “To provide a sustainable source of excellent Tangier Sound oysters while working to help restore the wild oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay.” His farm provides literally billions of disease resistant oyster larvae to help restore the bay’s population. This is important because oysters function as living filters and play an important role restoring the ecosystem of the bay.

Next we spoke to Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet of Firefly Farms in Maryland’s Allegheny plateau. We were pleased to discover that Mike & Pablo frequent our Chevy Chase location and we loved their artisan goat cheeses. As we sampled their cheeses we discussed our recent trip to Wisp which is not far from their farm. FireFly farms is committed to “…sustainable agriculture and the preservation of small family farms, respect for the environment, humane treatment of animals, and world class cheese!” We discussed our dairy CSA program with the possibility of working together in the future. They would be a great addition to our program with such excellent quality cheese and sustainable values.

It is always great catching up with Renee Catacalos, a freelance writer and consultant specializing in the farm to table movement and formerly the publisher and editor of Edible Chesapeake. Currently Renee maintains her own blog. Aside from giving us some great ideas and feedback concerning Norman’s Farm Market, Renee also told us about the 2010 Future Harvest, Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (CASA) Conference she had recently attended.

After spending a few hours meeting and speaking with many more producers and local food advocates we headed home. All in all, we found our excursion to Annapolis for the 2010 Buyer Grower meeting to be productive and fruitful.