If you like to eat, then you have cause for celebrating pollinators, as at least one-third of the food we eat relies on bees, flies, and other critters to set fruit and seed. Much of our wildlife also relies on pollinators to make the seeds and fruits that they eat.

Chatham Marketplace is Pittsboro's locally owned grocery co-op - stop by this week and look for the little bee symbols that identify all the products in the store that depend on pollinators - everything from vegetables and fruits to juice to cooking oils to meat and dairy (forage crops) to coffee and tea and chocolate...when you see the bee symbol you can thank pollinators for making that food possible!

Our landfills are filling up with things that won't ever go away.
Specifically, old, outdated electronic equipment which take up space
and pose a hazard to our environments.

That's why FOX50 created "E-Cycling" Day:
Saturday, June 27th from 10am - 2pm at all 3 locations.

Come out and see us - rain or shine - in the parking lots of three Best Buy locations:

* Durham - Renaissance Center
(7001 Fayetteville Rd, Durham, NC 27713)

* North Raleigh - Capital Blvd.
(6101 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27616)

* Cary - Crossroads Plaza
(237 Crossroads Blvd, Cary, NC 27518)

EFLAND -- Ten years ago, walking around a certain 61-acre parcel of land in Efland was more like off-roading. All you could see were overgrown weeds and trees coming out of nutritionally parched soil that had been slashed and burned several times in previous decades.

Ben Bergmann and Noah Ranells, then N.C. State University professors teaching and researching agro-forestry and soil science, could see much more.

They could see goats, sheep, cows and chickens grazing free on pastures and garden patches full of vegetables and fruits.

They could see Fickle Creek Farm.

Beginning Farmer Rates Make Land Affordable
USDA is offering big benefits to beginning farmers: Who else can
qualify for 1.5 percent, 20-year fixed interest rates on a big chunk
of any farm mortgage? No, that's not a typo. The Farm Service Agency's
Down Payment Program for beginning or limited resource farmers may be
the best deal in decades for someone interested in buying land at the
moment.

"That's the best rate I've ever seen for a USDA loan program, and I've
worked in farm credit for 27 years," says Greg Beachy with Farm Credit
Services of Mid-America in Louisville, serving Ohio, Indiana,
Tennessee and Kentucky. Borrowers who've stumbled onto the offer are

Shame on the farmers who won't let the county test the effect of the sludge they use, in case it might turn out to be making their customers sick! (CHN June 3).

I believe Hendrik Ibsen wrote a play about that 100 years ago, "Enemy of the People," in which the doctor who discovered that the town's spa water was causing illness rather than being beneficial, and was driven out of town for saying so. Perhaps the paper should publish the names of the farms that refused so that we can refuse to buy from them at the Farmers Market.

Tony Armer

On Sunday June 14, we are joining many of North Carolina's most
acclaimed chefs and a group of incredible Piedmont farmers to cook a
picnic-style dinner at W.C. Breeze Family Farm, a 270 acre educational
farm devoted to sustainable agriculture just a few miles north of
Hillsborough. All proceeds from the evening will help grow new farmers
across North Carolina by supporting farmer apprentice programs hosted
by the Center for Environmental Framing Systems and PLANT at Breeze
Farm Enterprise Incubator program.

Over 70 restaurants, artisans and farmers are working together to
prepare the all-you-can eat feast celebrating the bounty and diversity

CHARLOTTE -- The bride wore white. The guests ate green.

Well, OK -- the bride's dress was actually ivory. And the environmental correctness of the food at the early May wedding of Laura Paynter and Robert Burton wasn't as important as the source.

It was all local, from the dates stuffed with Bosky Acres goat cheese and wrapped with Grateful Growers prosciutto to the chilled asparagus from Rhodesdale Farm in Grover.

Although she had never catered a wedding before, private chef Hollace Stephenson of Tastemakers of Charlotte was excited to work on a reception that reflected the values of the couple: all of the food was locally produced. 'It's all about eating well and living well,' Stephenson says. - CHARLOTTE OBSERVER PHOTO BY GARY O'BRIEN

"Eat local" has been a grass-roots catchphrase for a while, spawning the word locavore, the explosion of farmers markets, even restaurant menus naming the farm that raised the chicken on your dinner plate.

Now this grass-roots movement is seeking a permanent voice in state government. Legislation in both the state House and Senate proposes the creation of a 24-person Sustainable Local Food Policy Council.

A few definitions may be in order. "Local" means food grown within North Carolina. "Sustainable food" is a product of farming that enhances the environment, sustains the economic viability of the farm and improves the quality of life for both farmer and society.
More Local & State

May 19, 2009

After dealing with ticks for the last few weeks, it's nice to see that
Jason is having a chicken coop built. Our hope is that we not only have
a natural way to get rid of bugs, weeds, and even create fertizlier but
that we also have a source of eggs and meat when the time comes. Katie
suggested we call it the Egg McMansion. 

(Frankie continues work on a coop that will hold around 50 chickens)

May 18, 2009

After weeks of tilling, planting, and constant weeding we finally had
some sprouts! Though there certainly has been no shortage of rain as
late, our number one concern still remains water capture. Slowly we
began to collect water barrels and totes and now have approximately
1000 gallons of storage capacity. 

Thanks to Frankie we also now have a platform to raise the barrels
off the ground so we can gravity feed the water onto the fields. Water
will flow from the roof of our shed and trickle into the barrels from a
gutter system we are currently designing.