Locavores, please read on... TWO SATURDAYS - TWO EXPOS - KC Food Circle's 12th Annual EAT LOCAL! Exhibition of Farmers

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Kansas City Food Circle’s 12th Annual Exhibition of Farmers

2010 EAT LOCAL! Expos

2 Saturdays

March 27 & April 3

• BUY DIRECT from LOCAL FAMILY FARMERS

• High-quality, organic veggies on-site & by CSA subscription

• Free-range meat and eggs

• Organic veggie seedlings and plants for your spring garden

• Free Kansas City Food Circle Directory of Local Producers

• Original music by Eco-Troubadour Stan Slaughter

Saturday, March 27, 2010

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Shawnee Civic Center
13817 Johnson Dr., Shawnee, Kansas (2 miles east of I-435)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Roger T. Sermon Community Center, Truman & Noland Rd., Independence, Missouri
(1 ½ miles west of US 291)

FREE PUBLIC ADMISSION – FREE PARKING

FREE local food workshops at both sites, featuring: “How to Buy Local – CSA’s and Organic Farmers Markets” (see details below)

For more info, call KC Food Circle @ 913-334-0556 or 913-620-8427.

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Free How-To Workshops

At the Shawnee Expo – March 27

Buy It, Eat It!

Learn how to get local, organic and free-range food direct from family farms using CSAs, farmers markets, buying clubs and co-ops.

9:30-10:30 a.m.

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Can It, Freeze It!

K-State’s County Extension Agent Nichole Burnett shows you how to enjoy the fresh, delicious taste of local and organic year-round through canning and freezing. Feel free to bring in the pressure gauge on your dial pressure canner. They will be tested for free for one hour following the workshop.

11-noon

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Dish It Up!

The blue bird bistro, one of the first local, organic restaurants in Kansas City, shows you how to prepare local, free-range meat.

12:30-1:30 p.m.

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At the Independence Expo- April 3

Buy It, Eat It!

Learn how to get local, organic and free-range food direct from family farms using CSAs, farmers markets, buying clubs and co-ops.

9:30-10:30 a.m.

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Can It, Freeze It!

University of Missouri’s Nutrition & Health Education Specialist Karen Elliot shows you how to preserve local, seasonal produce so you can enjoy its health benefits and great taste all year. Feel free to bring in the pressure gauge on your dial pressure canner. They will be tested for free for one hour following the workshop.

10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

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Dish It Up!

Justus Drugstore Chef and Owner Jonathan Justus shares his passion and tips for local, seasonal cuisine.

noon - 1 p.m.

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SPONSORS:

• Sierra Club
• Food Circles Networking Project – Missouri Extension
• Local Foods Project – K-State Extension
• Greens KC
• Whole Foods – Local Vendor Program
• Society of the Precious Blood
• Fresh Food Express
• Fresh Connect KC
• Green Sanctuary at All Souls UU Church (KCMO)
  

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Garden Song

by David Mallett

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row
Please bless these seeds I sow
Please keep them safe below
‘Til the rain comes tumbling down

Pullin’ weeds and pickin’ stones
We are made of dreams and bones
Need a place to call my own
‘Cause the time is close at hand

Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature’s chain
Till my body and my brain
Tell the music of the land

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Plant your rows straight and long
Season with a prayer and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her loving care

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Slug by slug, weed by weed
Boy this garden’s got me t’d
All the insects come to feed
On my tomato plants

Sun-burnt face, skinned up knees
The kitchen’s chocked with zucchinis
I’m shopping at the A&P’s
Next time I get the chance

Old crow watching from a tree
He’s got his hungry eye on me
In my garden I’m as free
As that feathered thief up there

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

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NBC Casting Call in Mission, KS (Chipotle) - March 30th - new show = America’s Next Great Restaurant

Hi,

I’m writing from Emmy-nominated production company, Magical Elves (Project Runway and Top Chef). We are casting a new show for NBC called America’s Next Great Restaurant (wt) - a competition show where the next great restaurant concept could make a big splash. We are seeking foodies, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, those with a creative business sense but also people with no food biz experience who simply have a great idea. As someone whose content gets in front of a lot of these types, we are hoping you might find this interesting enough to let your readers know about.

We will actually be holding an open casting call in Kansas City! We would love to meet everyone in person and hear their concept first hand. We will be at:

MISSION, KANSAS

Tuesday, March 30

~ Chipotle ~

6864 Johnson Drive

Mission, Kansas 66202

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

More information can be found at: www.NBC.com/casting, with a click through to our site with the application on it.

Verbiage and language is below that can be used to pass along. I’ve also attached a press release.

Thank you for considering publishing and/or posting; it might be an exciting thing for someone who gets on the show to have heard it from you first...

--
James Karhu
Associate Casting Producer
Magical Elves
"America's Next Great Restaurant" (NBC)
james.karhu@magicalelves.com
213-630-6530x295

Do you have an idea for America’s next great restaurant? Are you sitting on a billion dollar concept? If you think your restaurant idea has what it takes to go national and bring in millions of hungry Americans, read on...

From NBC and Magical Elves, the Emmy Award-nominated producers of "Project Runway" and "Top Chef," comes a big-event competition that will award one contestant the opportunity to see their idea turned into reality with a new restaurant chain opened in three cities across America! The contestants' fate will be decided by a panel of some of the most important names in both the dining and business worlds that will invest their own money in the final restaurant chain and have a huge stake in the ongoing success of the game's winner.

There are TWO options for you to apply:

1. Attend an OPEN CALL, at one of the cities below
2. Follow the directions on our website for SUBMIT BY MAIL instructions.

(Hint: pitching in person is fun.)

Please go to http://www.nbc.com/casting/ for all information, to download an application and pre-register for an open casting call at one of the eight stops on the nationwide casting bus tour. Along with a filled out and signed application and a photo-ID, we want you to bring anything you feel would help pitch your restaurant concept. Elements could be visual, edible, audible (jingle anyone?) or even wearable. . . Keep in mind you will have a limited time to pitch your idea, so make it count.

You can also can follow the bus tour on Twitter @magicalelves, with photos and video available on nbc.com/americas-next-great-restaurant.

Good luck and have fun with it,

The Magical Elves Casting Team

EATERS, you've got the EXPOs... GROWERS... find a workshop!

This coming Saturday, March 27th,

is the first Growing Growers workshop

for the 2010 season

Growing Growers workshops are open to everyone interested in market farming, local food or sustainable agriculture. The workshop series focuses on sustainable practices and is intended to introduce the basics of growing food for sale at farmers' markets, CSAs, wholesale and more. The workshops are a great way to learn from farmers, extension professionals and one another. Workshops typically conclude with a farm tour that helps connect theory to practice.

We will start off the 2010 season with a workshop covering the foundation of growing - healthy soil.

Workshop: Soil Building with Organic Practices

When: Saturday, March 27th,
10 am to 3:30 pm (including farm tour)

Where: Leavenworth, KS at the

Kansas City, Kansas Community College, Leavenworth Center,
Room 8, 225 Cherokee, Leavenworth, KS

Cost: $30 (includes lunch)

Farm tour: Conway's Produce

Rhonda Janke of K-State will introduce basic soil concepts, soil test options, managing nutrients, soil structure and biology and more. Hwei Yiing Johnson of Lincoln University, a new presenter in 2010, will discuss compost and composting options. Paul Conway of Conway's Produce will discuss his cover cropping systems and then host us for a farm tour where we'll see his soil management practices.

If you would like to attend this workshop, please reply to this email or email growers@ksu.edu directly to pre-register. You are welcome to pay at the door.

Questions about this workshop or the rest of the workshop series? Go to: www.growinggrowers.org or call: (816) 805-0362.

An informational flyer for this Saturdays workshop is attached.

Hope to see many of you there!

Laura Christensen
Growing Growers Training Program
www.growinggrowers.org
growers (a) ksu.edu
(816) 805-0362

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Growing Growers is now accepting
applications for the 2010 Apprenticeship Program.
Apply now!
LOCAL FARMERS
= LOCAL FOOD

In Kansas City, as in many other cities across the country, there is a growing demand for locally produced farm products. Individual consumers, restaurants, and grocery stores want to buy vegetables, meat, and dairy products from local farms. We have more farmers markets than ever before; Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs) are turning members away; grocery stores and restaurants alike report that they would like to get more products than are currently available.

The demand for local farm products in the metro area is bigger than the supply. So, how do we expand to meet the demand? How do make sure that we respond to this opportunity?

First, we need to help existing farms expand their operations to whatever degree makes sense for them. As farmers, we can expand by developing our production skills, by becoming more effective at selling our product, and by “growing” our farms. There is a challenge in this kind of expansion, it takes time, money, and the willingness to learn new skills.

Second, we need to help new farms get started. As the older generation of farmers retires, we need farmers to replace them, and more. Getting into farming “from scratch” is not an easy thing. It requires a wide range of skills - agricultural, marketing, and business management. it requires land, and it requires financial investment.

Basically, we need MORE FARMERS growing and selling in local markets, and we need BETTER FARMERS who can produce more to meet the local demand!

Growing Growers was established to address this need for more farmers and for more effective farmers. As a collaboration between K-State Research and Extension, University of Missouri Research and Extension, the Kansas City Food Circle (a consumer organization), and the Kansas Rural Center, we set out the goal of providing educational opportunities to help new growers get started and established ones get better at what they do.

We do this through:

FARM APPRENTICESHIPS: Every year, Growing Growers helps organize apprenticeships on farms that sell in the Kansas City metropolitan area (including Lawrence, KS). Farm apprentices work on a local farm to get first-hand, practical experience; they attend monthly workshops; they get direct one-on-one training from their farmer. The apprenticeships are both paid and volunteer; we offer a first year apprenticeship that provides a broad overview of farming and then a follow-up second year apprenticeship that emphasizes more advanced farm management skills.

MONTHLY WORKSHOPS: Beginning in March of each year, we offer monthly workshops that address many of the skill sets required to run a local farm, from soil building to production planning to marketing to farm business management. The workshops are geared toward the beginning farmer, but offer good information and skill development for more experienced farmers as well. They are open to anyone. For a current schedule, click here.

GROWERS LISTSERV: Part of what helps us develop as an industry is communication and information sharing. We’ve set up an email listserv of area growers, restaurateurs, grocery stores, and others interested in the local farming industry. The listserv is a quick and easy way for a farmer to contact other farmers with emails like “I’m looking for a good source for local soil amendments” or “I’ve got a bean picker that I want to sell” or “I’ve got a surplus of potatoes that I need to sell. Does anyone have any suggestions?” Local grocers and restaurants can post emails soliciting suppliers; people organizing educational activities can send out notices about workshops, farm tours and conferences. Anyone can sign up for the listserv. To sign up, send an email to: growers@ksu.edu.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL AND NETWORKING EVENTS: We also organize special events to help develop the local farming industry. Most recently, we organized a one day conference, “Feeding Kansas City,” that addressed marketing channels for local farm products, to help farmers figure out how and where to sell their vegetables, meats, and dairy products. We’ve organized workshops on farm budgets and financing, since money is key to starting or developing a farm. We try to respond to needs we see in the local farming community and to partner with other organizations to address these needs.