Locavores THRIVE with the Eat Local Challenge 2010

Take Thrive's 2010 Eat Local Challenge September 10 - 19! Sign the pledge on the Thrive website to become a Locavore and enjoy the delicious bounty of locally-grown food in the Rogue Valley.

Your Eat Local Challenge choices include:

Locavore Supreme- All foods that you consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (you even agree to give up coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)

Locavore- All foods that you consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (but you’ll still want your coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)

Taster- All foods that you consume during one meal per day throughout the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles

Sampler- All foods that you consume during two meals throughout the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles

All Participants will receive the following:
• Comprehensive Local Food Directory
• Weekly Local Food Menu Plan
• Local Food Recipes
• Eat Local Week Calendar of Events
• 2010-11 Rogue Flavor Guide
• You will be entered in a Drawing for a Rogue Flavor local food basket


To take the Pledge visit http://www.buylocalrogue.org/

Farmer Incubator = Good Food for Me+You

The Southern Oregon Farmer Incubator helps beginning and limited resource farmers start and sustain their businesses while providing needed fresh produce to area food pantries. Participants can opt to participate in one or both of two program tracks: hands-on farm business courses and access to new markets.

Track 1: Farm / Business Training consists of bi-monthly hands-on agricultural, business management and marketing education over a nine-month season. Participants will receive an on-farm consultation with a small farms instructor and be referred to other experts to address any specific issues arising during the program year.

Track 2: Market Access gives participants an opportunity to sell their produce to area food pantries, made possible by a generous grant from the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation. Participants in the second track will also sell product through Rogue Valley Local Foods, an online farmers market, and will gain experience by staffing the markets in rotation.

The program is a collaboration between the Oregon State University Small Farms program and Thrive in partnership with Friends of Family Farmers, Rogue Farm Corps and ACCESS. For more information contact Thrive at http://www.buylocalrogue.org/index.php

LOCAL GROWING at Ashland-Talent Growers CSA

The Ashland-Talent Growers CSA* is a new and exciting collaboration of small-scale local farmers and food producers in the communities of Ashland and Talent who have combined their resources in order to provide all of us fresh local organic food lovers with an increased variety of local products.

The Farms:

The three main farms – Happy Dirt Veggie Patch, Meadowlark Family Farm, and Village Farm – encompass ten acres on five different sites in the Bear Creek Region. Within their cooperative effort, individual farmers can specialize and grow what is best suited to the micro-climate and soil type of their location. And the group as a whole can take advantage of the diverse skill set of the individual farmers: organic farming, ranching, permaculture, mycology, food preservation, distribution, wildland ecology, and value-added food production.

*CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture