June 22, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under Education
Recirculating Farms Coalition in cooperation with the USDA Farm Service Agency is hosting a series of outreach and discussion sessions for farmers in New Orleans, Louisiana and beyond. We are planning to have classes throughout the summer on topics that will provide training and information on how to participate in various federal farm/farmer support programs, such as getting insurance and applying for funding, equipment and other assistance. At these July meetings, we will review and select which topics are most important to our community and schedule dates and times for the classes, so the most farmers are able to participate. Help us support growers! Hope to see you at one of these meetings to provide your input. Snacks and drinks served.
(Others may be added):
July 6th – Loyola Law School, Room # 111, 5:30- 7pm
526 Pine St, New Orleans, LA 70118
July 11th The Healing Center, Interfaith Room 4th floor 5:30 – 7pm
2372 St Claude Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117
July 19th The People’s Health Jazz Market 5:30 – 7pm
1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70113
July 25 Rosa Keller Library Meeting Room, 5:30 – 7pm
4300 S. Broad Ave, New Orleans, LA 70125
Please let us know if you plan to attend so we can have enough materials and refreshments for everyone. Questions? Contact media@recirculatingfarms.org or call or text 504-515-0161. You can also RSVP our Facebook Events page at: bit.ly/nolafarmersessions
Big thanks to all the above venues for providing free or very low cost space to make such events possible. We appreciate your generosity and support!
May 13, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under In the News
What a great week we had here at RFC in New Orleans! We initiated our partnership with the New Orleans Mission, an organization dedicated to supporting the homeless in our city. We installed raised garden beds at the Mission’s Women’s House and many of the women residing there were excited to get involved. Check out the story WGNO ran about it.
When our work in the garden was done, we picked some of the sweet limes and rosemary that were already growing there and made fresh rosemary limeade. We all enjoyed getting to know each other. We’ll be spending more time together in the coming months, as we’ll host gardening and health supportive cooking classes at the Mission regularly now.
Next up – a new garden for the Mission gents too and an urban farmer training program! Stay tuned.
April 22, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under In the News, Take action!
At its meeting in Colorado on April 21, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory committee to the USDA National Organic Program, had a long discussion about whether hydroponic and aquaponic farms could keep USDA Organic certification. The Board reviewed what the term “Organic” means in the United States and other countries. The largest debate is over whether “Organic” requires soil, but there was little mention about other efficient resource use.
Hydroponics and aquaponics are sustainable systems and they are important for the future of agriculture because they reuse waste and water, they can use less energy, they can run on alternative energy, they are space efficient, they are versatile and today, organics should be about more than soil. It should be about the whole picture. We should be looking to improve our planet and these types of farms at their very core are eco-efficient.
It was especially ironic that the NOSB was considering pulling Organic certification from such highly eco-friendly farms on the day before Earth Day. Fortunately, the Board recognized that it needed more information before making such a crucial decision, and deferred their final recommendation until its next meeting in the Fall, and possibly even longer.
RFC member farmers, including Michael Hasey of The Farming Fish in Oregon (who brought pesto from his farm for the board and attendees to sample), also attended the meeting and provided comments and information to the NOSB. Tawnya Sawyer of Colorado Aquaponics offered NOSB members a tour of her facility at The GrowHaus there in Denver. A number of the board members participated.
Click here to see the statement RFC’s Executive Director, Marianne Cufone, released to the media on Friday, and click here for RFC’s comments to the NOSB.
March 21, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under In the News, Organizational, Take action!
We are SO excited – our ED, Marianne Cufone, was selected to be on the 2nd ever Grist 50 list. Announced today, the Grist 50 is a new annual list that highlights who’s hot in the national green movement. Meet all 50 of this year’s “fixers”.
Each year, Grist searches for inspiring innovators and do-ers working on fresh solutions to the planet’s biggest problems. The result is a collection of 50 leaders who are building a sustainable world that works for everyone. Solutions come in many shapes and sizes: exciting technologies, smart campaigns, forward-thinking legislation, innovative products, courageous organizations. As do solutionaries: entrepreneurs, comedians, farmers, activists, scholars, scientists, and more. The Grist 50 shows what a vibrant, diverse sustainability movement looks like. Last year’s inaugural list reached and inspired nearly 6 million readers! Check it out!
February 28, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under Organizational, Uncategorized
I really enjoy hearing people’s food memories. It’s a simple way to connect over something absolutely universal and it inevitably becomes a very personal conversation.
My most vivid food memory is from when I was little, returning to New Orleans from San Diego every Mardi Gras and smelling eggs, grits, sausage, toast and coffee wafting up the stairs and permeating every crevice at my grandmother’s Uptown 2-story double house. The windows were often open to circulate the air, but that never diminished the beckoning power of that savory aroma. It let me know it was time for breakfast. I got to see my Paw-paw (grandfather), though he was no longer married to, nor lived with my grandmother, and my Marran (godmother), but hardly ever my Parran (godfather). It was time to watch Rev, the old man who rented the front room from my Grandma, head out in his 3-piece suit and matching hat to parts unknown (to me at least). It was time to dive in to what was probably not SUCH an amazing a meal, but to me, it was absolutely everything.
I grew up in an apartment in San Diego, an only child to a single mother. Things got fancy at my place when we had Waffle-O’s for breakfast and not her favorite, Corn Flakes. She cooked, but it was what I could characterize as “survival cooking”. Mom became expert at a couple of meals that she made up. My favorite of them was smoked sausage in red gravy over rice (which wasn’t really red gravy at all – it was just jarred tomato sauce; and yes, now I know there is a difference). Otherwise, we did Swanson’s TV dinners a lot so we would not miss an episode of important shows, Arby’s because there were coupons in the Sunday paper, Jack-in-the-Box because it was on the way to my school, and a fair amount of Hamburger Helper.
Having a big breakfast that wasn’t from McDonald’s and didn’t come with a side of donuts was an anomaly. It being home cooked was amazing, again not because the food was so incredible, but mainly because it was a time to catch up on the “news”.
More of my grandmothers’ friends and neighbors had fallen invariably ill, some had relocated to be closer to their children, some had died. The new hotspot was the Senior Center where grandma was learning to paint and enjoy her crotchet circle. My Marran was well into her 30s and still not married. She spun lavish tales of her job at the shoe store on Canal Street and her “near misses” to her settling down. She and my Parrain hadn’t spoken since 1973 (which could be an exaggeration) when he broke off their engagement to marry another woman. But far as she knew, they had some kids, lived someplace, and seemed to be happy. My Paw-paw would only ever talk enough to say hello, ask us how we were doing, and complain about my grandmother just enough to irritate her, then head off to his new family (to be fair, he had been married to whoever she was a good 20 years by then).
What I mean is that this wasn’t just about the food – it was the feeling and experiences that came with the food being there on the plate, on the table, in the kitchen, with my family, that sticks with me. That feeling of connectedness, a sense of belonging. And no matter how the characters change or what the actual food is in the memory, that is exactly what I remember: the togetherness. And so we learn from our family and pass on our traditions across the table, just as you would pass the peas.
For instance, we had milk or water with meals – never wine, soda, or juice. The only wines I recall were Manischewitz or those gallons of Gallo, so no great loss there. But Grandma would hide her pink canned Tab sodas in her room, so that no one else would drink them. She was on a fixed income and was a diabetic so she needed her Tab. I learned soda was reserved for special occasions and certainly not to be consumed willy-nilly.
There was no drinking any of whatever you had before you had cleaned your plate. This was along the same vein as “having eyes bigger than your stomach”, which was a major sin punishable by stern reprimand, about don’t waste food because it was hard to come by. Now, as an adult, I look back and see that my grandmother had survived the Depression. She lived in a time long before mass food production, for her there was no such thing as food waste, and everybody had a Victory Garden. Food really was hard to come by and growing it was hard work. So I learned to be respectful of the value of food; it is to be consumed consciously and intentionally; it is not to be discarded carelessly.
We said thanks to the cook and Grace before eating, no matter what the meal. If Rev was around, he would lead the prayer, but it was generally just an expression of gratitude to have something to eat. It wasn’t until I got my first job and my own apartment that I understood intense gratitude for having food. I learned appreciation.
My food habits started when I was a kid, but they evolved much more when I had children of my own. My kids wake up to the smell of baking quick breads, muffins, or even granola fairly often. They understand that “eating with the seasons” means we only have blueberry pancakes in the summer and pecan pie muffins in the Fall because that’s when the fruit/nut is available. They know that crawfish is a spring thing, but shrimp and okra smothered with creole tomatoes is a gift that summer has to offer.
For me, it’s still not just about the food – it’s about what comes with it. It’s the zany stories from the family, about knowing who you are and who your family is. It’s still about being respectful of food and learning to consume it consciously and intentionally. It is still about gratitude and appreciating the greatness in the most humble constructions and presentations…just like I did then and do now.
Recirculating Farms Coalition in cooperation with the USDA Farm Service Agency is hosting a series of outreach and discussion sessions for farmers in New Orleans, Louisiana and beyond. We are planning to have classes throughout the summer on topics that will provide training and information on how to participate in various federal farm/farmer support programs, such as getting insurance and applying for funding, equipment and other assistance. At these July meetings, we will review and select which topics are most important to our community and schedule dates and times for the classes, so the most farmers are able to participate. Help us support growers! Hope to see you at one of these meetings to provide your input. Snacks and drinks served.
