Food and Hunger

(03/07/12) Cold nights, warm days, sunshine: chickdees are busy, and the sap is rising. It all adds up to maple syrup season. Whether your operation includes a bulk holding tank and miles of plastic tubing, or just a few buckets hanging off the trees in the backyard, it all starts the same way, with a strategically placed hole in a sugar maple.

And it's today's Heard Up North, produced by Martha Foley.

(03/05/12) It's a scene that was common-place in the early 20th century, horses out on a frozen lake cutting through the ice with bladed plows.

Ice harvesting may not be part of your family's plans this year, but for one rural St. Lawrence County family it's the only way to keep food cool during the summer. Trevor Alford visited the Douglass family farm outside Canton and has our story. more

(03/02/12) Saranac Lake will host one of only four Congressional hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill in the country. The Saranac Lake session will be the only one held in the northeast U.S. this year.

Representative Bill Owens of Plattsburgh calls it a "tremendous opportunity for New York to make its voice heard as Congress crafts the next Farm Bill."

A press release from Owens office says North Country Community College will host the hearing on Friday, March 9. The other three are scheduled in Illinois, Arkansas, and Kansas in the coming weeks. The hearings are meant to gather on-the-ground input from farmers and others about re-authorization of federal agriculture policy, which last happened in 2008.

(03/01/12) The Lake Placid Center for the Arts will host a locally-produced film about local farms tonight (5 pm). Small Farm Rising features three vibrant Adirondack farms that provide food through farmer's markets, retail stores, restaurants and CSAs. Adirondack Harvest coordinator Laurie Davis told Todd Moe more about tonight's event and the film.

(02/27/12) The Uihlein Sugar Maple Research & Extension Field Station in Lake Placid made its first batch of syrup last Thursday. Director Michael Farrell, who's been with the field station for seven years, says it was the earliest he's made syrup.

Crews started tapping trees at the 200-acre Uihlein Forest on January 31. That took about three weeks. Then, workers had to inspect the 60 miles of tubing that carries the sap from the trees to the sugar house.

Chris Morris joined Farrell for a tour last week. Farrell told him that mild temperatures have given area producers a jump start on the season.

(02/23/12) The Farm Bill is up for reauthorization this year in Congress, and North Country residents can have their say about it this weekend. Congressman Bill Owens will be in Potsdam Saturday for a town hall forum on the Farm Bill. It's hosted by the League of Women Voters.

Aviva Gold is director of a non-profit organization called GardenShare. She says agriculture is a big part of the north country economy, but the Farm Bill is such a huge, multifaceted proposal, it can be overwhelming to try to understand it.

That's why GardenShare is hosting an informational workshop on the Farm Bill BEFORE the forum with Representative Owens.

Correction: The audio of this story reports the beginning of the workshop as 9:30 am. The correct start time is 9:00 am. We regret the error. NCPR

Gold spoke with Julie Grant. more

(02/17/12) An open house featuring local farmers and a community dinner in Plattsburgh on Saturday, March 3 will showcase local produce, meat and dairy products. Horticulturist Amy Ivy, with Cornell Cooperative in Clinton and Essex counties, tells us more about the second annual "Food from the Farm" event.

She told Todd Moe she's hoping it will energize consumers about this year's growing season and buying locally grown food in the late winter months.

For dinner tickets, call: 518-561-7450, or email: adi2@cornell.edu

(02/01/12) Root cellars were an essential part of nearly every home a hundred years ago. And along with an increase in the number of people growing their own food is the return to the root cellar. More than a basement, it's the cousin to canning and freezing and another way of preserving the harvest into the winter months. A couple of winters ago, Todd Moe visited Winnie and Rob Sachno's root cellar on their St. Lawrence County farm for a closer look at a simpler way of storing food.

(01/23/12) January is the beginning of the gardening season for seed catalog fans. The stacks of colorful, glossy pages can set off a fantasy of unrealistic expectations, or can be the foundation of a good plan for the coming season.

Amy Ivy, of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service of Clinton and Essex counties shares thoughts on how a gardener can sort through the possibilities and make good choices for the new year.

(12/27/11) Last summer we produced a series on the new generation of North Country farmers. This week we'll take a second listen to some of the highlights of the series, Farmers Under 40.

Two years ago about a hundred young farmers gathered in Tarrytown, New York and came up with the idea of creating an organization to support young people wanting to work the land and make a living off of it. They named the group the National Young Farmers Coalition. One of its co-founders is Severine von Tscharner Fleming. She manages Smithereen, a 100-acre farm on rented land in the Hudson Valley.

According to the USDA, the average age of the American farmer is 57. Von Tscharner Fleming says young farmers--descendents of traditional farmers, inner-city gardeners, homesteaders, college graduates and ex-suburbanites--face tremendous structural obstacles like access to land, capital, education, and business training. She told Todd Moe that one of the principle ideas behind the coalition is that if the country wants active farms and sustainable food production in fifty years, the next generation needs help.