Food Inc. will be playing at the Crested Butte Majestic Theatre beginning tonight Friday August 7 with showings at 5:30 and 7:45 PM. We have been asked to come and participate and we will table at the premiere event just to add to the fun and festivities. What’s so fun about learning about food production? When it comes to the production of your food sources what you don’t know can absolutely hurt you.

My own experiences with food choices has ranged anywhere from vegan to carnivorous, raw to cooked and has shown me that it’s not so much how the food is prepared right before you eat it as how the food is prepared from the moment of germination up until right before it’s eaten. There have been times where raw food diets or vegetarianism have served a purpose for me. It has generally been when I needed to detox from having eaten a bunch of food that I hadn’t paid attention to how it was produced and my health had become compromised for unrecognized reasons. As I proceeded to educate myself about the nature of food, its production and its subsequent adverse effects on my health, with the help of other people on the path like Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Waters and Eric Schlosser I became aware of the total disrespect the industrial food production system has sold to myself, the American population and the world. It is a devastating system perpetuated by greed, exploitation and petroleum. It is wreaking extreme damage to the ecology on a grand scale and individually on the consumers of the food. It manifests in global climate change, viral pandemics, obesity, heart disease and countless other unhealthy negative feedback systems.

More specifically the issue is tied in to the economics and health care debate that is traversing the USA and the globe. Our ingredients are the fundamentals of good health and economy. When the ingredients that we eat come from a disrespectful industrial complex our health will suffer due to the lack of nutrients and the nontraditional style of food. Our economy will suffer due to the extreme exploitation of resources, employees and the Earth that falsely props it up. It is no wonder to me why the so called global economy is floundering if not outright collapsing. Much like the National Security budget, it is unaccountable. It is too big and too disconnected from the communities it is supposedly working to nurture. It is a false idol and we are reaping the destruction that has been sown so irresponsibly.

I’m not all apocalyptic downer guy because I have seen what changing my food supplier to local accountable growers has done for my personal health, my local economy, and my local community. Sure the food is a bit more expensive up front but it is the real cost of the food and I don’t waste my time or money on false bottomed promises from the health insurance industry. I have been asked by wide eyed people not much younger than me who have bought into the health insurance scheme, “What happens if you get cancer?” I reply, “Today is a good day to die.” I also know that if I avoid toxic immersion of my body inside and out I have little to fear from major health issues like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and so forth. Stranger things have happened.

I went and bruised my coconut a few weeks back while moving one of the town bike racks by myself from the Adaptive Sports 24 Hour Townie Tour right of way through the Crested Butte Farmers Market. I think I got a concussion and I have been forgetting names even more frequently than usual.  You’ll have to pardon me over any mental lapses while my bruised melon heals up.

This year the Crested Butte Farmers Market has partnered with the Gunnison County Department of Health and Human Services WIC Program. Colorado is one of 12 state agencies that do not participate in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). This means that participants cannot redeem their government issued vouchers at farmer markets and must redeem their vouchers for questionably produced corporate cheese. This flies directly in the face of the mission statement of the WIC program which is to get nutritionally at risk mothers and children access to the highest nutrition possible.

There is now political backing at the state level here in Colorado to support a CO FMNP however there is a problem. Before new programs can be instituted and funded, existing programs that have had their funding removed must be refunded at their previous levels. Economic crisis being what it is, it will be a long time coming before Colorado is able to begin funding new programs let alone re-funding programming that has been removed regardless of the political backing.

Here is the good news: The Crested Butte Farmers Market has taken the initiative within the Gunnison Valley to finance $80 in WIC vouchers per registered participant from Almont north.  We printed out the professional materials and vouchers at our own expense and we delivered the WIC coupons to Kim Bemis at the Gunnison County Health and Human Services offices. These coupons may be redeemed at the CB Farmers Market. They represent an additional funding to the registered WIC participants. They will still receive the full amount of vouchers from the county that they usually receive and the bonus of $80 to be spent on the freshest produce in the valley at the Crested Butte Farmers Market. Our local economy is doing that well. We realize that $80 is not a tremendous amount of money however it’s a bonus to what the participants receive. If the money is used wisely to purchase bulk cases and preserved effectively then it will become even more valuable. We are also running a food preservation workshop class each week through the summer at the Depot in Crested Butte. Please call (970)-901-0748 for more information.

In addition to the WIC program we are operating a new policy that allows our food vendors to pay their market fees with in-kind donation. This means that our farmers get more money to take home with them to continue the sustainable farming efforts and Crested Butte receives more food into its food shed and food bank operations. As of last week I think we’ve donated something like 100 lbs of the best food in town to the Crested Butte food bank based out of the Oh-Be-Joyful Baptist Church. No reject canned goods, dehydrated macaroni and cheese or well packaged, highly processed trash. This is straight up the most healthy food in the county coming into the homes of our community that need the assistance.  This is serious community service in a time when most governmental organizations are clipping the finances to such necessary programming. We will not be exploited by the hand of global economy.

]]> http://cbfarmersmarket.org/cbfm-wic-2009-partnership/feed/ 0 http://cbfarmersmarket.org/crested-butte-farmers-market-no-apostrophe-please/ http://cbfarmersmarket.org/crested-butte-farmers-market-no-apostrophe-please/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:42:23 +0000 CBFM http://cbfarmersmarket.org/?p=199

Folks, the apostrophe is a touchy subject, especially when referring to a farmer oriented market. An apostrophe denotes possession or ownership. Living in America it seems like possession is everything. It denotes power, prestige, entitlement, dare I say, rights. All of the things that make America great, of course. There are hardliners that would recoil, if not get outright hostile, at the notion of operating a farmers market without including the apostrophe at the end of the word farmers, like this: farmers’.

It seems so trivial but that apostrophe means quite a bit to many people. It denotes a hand in the ownership of the market. Some people are driven to the power of language over substance or action. I am not one of those people.

During our formative months we spent quite a bit of time going around and around as to whether we should include the apostrophe in the name of our organization, as in, Crested Butte Farmers’ Market. The decision came down that we were going to skip the inclusion of the apostrophe in the name of our organization. It is not without reason and it doesn’t mean that we are any less hardcore for the omission.  Let me explain.

A farmers’ market denotes that the market is generally possessed by the agriculturalists from the particular region in which it operates. It is true that without farmers there would be no farmers’ markets. Crested Butte, indeed the entire north end of the Gunnison Valley, has NO farmers. For those that might balk, yes, there is Round Mountain Institute about 10 miles south of town. I am a great admirer of Miss Nancy Wicks and I like to brag that I am probably her greatest student but Nancy has for a while been moving away from farming into education. She has done well for herself with this endeavor, but she would not qualify as a farmer in a farmers’ market sense.

Crested Butte would need to possess farmers for there to accurately be a Crested Butte Farmers’ Market. All of our participating agriculturalists travel about 80 – 90 miles each way to arrive in Crested Butte Sundays between June and October. I am increasingly grateful that they do and the food seems to be getting better year after year as we build our symbiotic relationship. These folks come from the Western Slope. Beautiful places like, Paonia, Delta, Montrose, Hotchkiss, and Olathe that I have had the business and pleasure to go and visit in person. If we were to use the apostrophe appropriately for the market we operate in Crested Butte we would accurately denote the market thusly: the Paonia, Delta, Montrose, Hotchkiss and Olathe Farmers’ Market, not the Crested Butte Farmers’ Market. Or we could try: Neighboring Western Slope Farmers’ Market. I am aware that we are operating in something like a semantical mobius strip here.

Our bigger mission and purpose is to inspire the reality of making a living in Crested Butte through the avenue of localized agriculture and farming. Notice that I didn’t say make money. I place greater value on accountable food to livelihood than money. I also notice that money most times doesn’t necessarily allow access to the most accountable food sources. Getting Crested Butte to get agricultural is a LONG term goal. When Crested Butte has more Crested Butte farmers at the CB Farmers Market, (or any) we will proudly proclaim, “Mission Accomplished” and change our organization name to the Crested Butte Farmers’ Market.  But then, I prefer to use our budget for even less ridiculous things, like our third Annual Peach Pit Spitting Competition coming up in early September! Longest peach pit spit gets 2 tickets to the Buddy Guy headlined Telluride Blues and Brews Festival. The Guy’s a damn living legend, alright.

As such we firmly stand behind the decision to call ourselves the Crested Butte Farmers Market. Not only because our farmers are not from Crested Butte but for typographical reasons as well. With the combination of antiseptic digital technology with the dirty fingernail business of organic farming there are certain adjustments that need to be made. Web domains can not possess an apostrophe. Punctuation in general is frowned upon in domain addresses. But it is impossible to get an apostrophe in a website name. Therefore we would have a copy editing nightmare trying to check every domain and signage reference for appropriate placement of an apostrophe or the removal thereof. We are a volunteer run operation. Does anyone want to volunteer for such a tedious and anal retentive use of their time? I can’t even sell the notion to myself. Therefore, to keep our copy straight and to assist our friends and contacts we have dropped the apostrophe from our organization name. You can blame the encroachment of digital programming upon the English language if you’re of the ilk that needs to spend more time blaming instead of having fun.

One more aspect to add to the mix. As a board member of the Colorado Farmers’ Market Association (note the apostrophe denoting possession by Colorado’s farmers) I spent much of the last year determining a definition of a farmers’ market. It largely centered around the concept of being tailored to the individual community within which it functions along with direct food producer to consumer relationships. Therefore, it is unfranchiseable. (Barring totally crappy concepts like Celebration, Florida.) This is an important distinction considering the attempts of certain larger franchise chains to co-opt the farmers’ market zeitgeist. The Crested Butte Farmers Market is organized to keep the community of Crested Butte front and center while inspiring high quality, accountable, local agriculture in a literal grass roots sense. Our board is composed of 7 members. Our bylaws state that the board must be composed of a majority of Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte citizens. This protects the community within which the farmers operate from outside business exploitations and internal skirmishing. In fact, four of our present board members are not vendors at the market to keep potential conflicts of interest in check. We could therefore accurately label our event Crested Butte’s Farmers Market. But that might alienate or agitate the farmers more than we want to by denoting ownership by Crested Butte and the exploitation of farmers. We are attempting to empower agriculturalists, not exploit them. In America even, go figure.

This is all as clear as mud of course.

None of this prevents the myriad professionals that I deal with on a daily basis from attempting to stick an apostrophe in our organization’s name somewhere. As if there is no reason behind ousting the apostrophe in the first place.

Generally speaking, I know I don’t know what I’m doing. That doesn’t mean that I don’t know appropriate placement of apostrophes. Just one of the many glorious endeavors of managing a high altitude farmers’ market…farmer’s…farmers’s….farmers’s'….farmers….

How about the Crested Butte Farmer-Oriented Market?

For the past several weeks we have continued to raise the bar for total sales at our event. It appears that offering high quality locally made necessities is never an economic market that needs be concerned about disastrous crises. We are young but we are clearly gaining momentum. I have some amazing photos from the first several weeks that I’ll intersperse.

Last week we partnered with the local artisan group Artists of the West Elks. They have been located at the southern entrance of Crested Butte near the St. George and the Dragon sculpture. This year we communicated about combining our energies and the outcome was a success. The street was remarkably packed all Sunday long. My wife told me that while she was sorting out our experimental Zero Waste Station she looked up to a question about the appropriate place for their cup from an ex-President. The correct answer is to bring your own cup so as to maximize its reuse from week to week.

Speaking of the experimental Zero Waste Stations, the results so far have shown maximum abuse by participants. I find half filled cups of Starbucks disposable cups that clearly aren’t from Crested Butte amidst the blue recycling bins. Amongst other various debasing products and disarray like gum, vendor sampling materials, and toxic imported materials.  It would appear that in general people are lulled by the magical thinking of throwing things in containers and forgetting about them.  I’m plenty guilty. But I’m working on my trash awareness. Through my conscious actions I project my personal respect. It amazes me to see how badly people disrespect themselves while they think they are disrespecting others. Or more often, just plain not thinking.

The Crested Butte Farmers Market Zero Waste Stations did identify some things that worked. We began the program last year and found that we were heavily abused during the July time frame. The trend of abuse then gradually tapered lower and lower as we ran into latter October until it was practically non-existent. The cycle of high abuse in July is repeating itself this season. There is a correlation to the spike in tourist activity in July. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking trash about the tourism. Crested Butte generally houses people that love to be here and pride themselves on their hospitality. You’ll find some amazing local hosts and citizens trying to mind their own business. But, it is often wagged in our faces that Crested Butte needs the tourists or we wouldn’t be able to exist. I disagree. People probably heard similar refrains when the coal mines were in operation with regards to that industry.  The Crested Butte Farmers Markets’ sales numbers last year showed that our biggest days of total sales don’t come until the latter part of August and into October. This is generally referred to as ‘off season’ although I’ve heard nerdy overly optimistic marketing types referring to  it as the ‘shoulder season’ more frequently to my dismay. September is when the food really starts to come in from our Western Slope neighbors. Crested Butte has not been afraid to feed itself on the highest quality ingredients. Think about it, highly nutritious food that treats the ecology right is the only health care plan that is worth anything, despite recent attempts to reform health care from the top. It portends to be a booming year for our business model, welcome to locals and respectful tourists alike. We’ll even take the disrespectful because we care about the ignorant and we have an educational mission too.

We also found success when the handful of volunteers we have had help are stationed at the Zero Waste Stations. The volunteers reported that people were generally engaging and willing to oblige.  Some even learned that there were numbers on the plastic materials that relate to their chemical make up and if they are recyclable or not.  The bins stayed impeccably sorted when a friendly face was there to help educate the would be disposers. This is an encouraging sign. It’s the most important job if not the most glamorous. And if you know Crested Butte then you know we’re all about the glamor around here.

Meanwhile Crested Butte and the entire Gunnison County has no composting infrastructure nor a well developed operational recycling plan. Therefore there is no ability for anyone to realistically cope with the crushing amount of unused food and packaging items other than to send it to the dump, with extremely limited exceptions.  I’ll have the audacity to say that the Crested Butte Farmers Market offers the best hope for change in that much of the packaging material can be directly returned in full to the vendor for primary recycling. We have egg containers and mason jars going back to ranchers. Wine bottles returning to the vineyard. Goat cheese jars returned for a deposit, pie tins, produce boxes, honey jars, kombucha jars and trend setting locally made apparel from reclaimed material are also primary recycle points at the CB Farmers Market. Not to mention the Free Tent. This year at the CB Farmers Market Free Tent opportunistic marketeers have scored a 27″ TV, a barely used $500 Never Summer snowboard rig with ladies Burton bindings, K2 skis with Marker bindings and impeccable base material, organic mattresses and more that represents another outlet for in-community primary recycling.

I think next year we will move towards a policy of limited non-recyclable product available at a vendors’ booth that might be handed off to a potential disposer. The brunt of caring for the ecology and water supply around us shouldn’t land on either the consumer or the producer fully. It should be equally borne by both via awareness and education about our personal impacts. Please bear with us while we sort out the mess. This is our third year and we will experience some growing pains. We have a master plan of growth within the space we are given and then to refine and refine again over the seasons maximizing our real estate value and attracting a harmonious and supreme clientele, both inside and outside the CB Farmers Market. It seems so simple I have to wonder why other major Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte business leaders can’t figure it out. Well, some have.

]]> http://cbfarmersmarket.org/mid-july-cb-farmers-market-update/feed/ 1 http://cbfarmersmarket.org/anyone-seen-the-thaw/ http://cbfarmersmarket.org/anyone-seen-the-thaw/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:25:01 +0000 CBFM http://cbfarmersmarket.org/?p=115

The 2009 CB Farmers Market season is upon us. Well, 2 months away, and just as well considering that a wet spring system is pumping cold snow outside this evening.  But we will not be deterred from continuing the greatest extreme farmers marketing experiment ever perpetrated. And there’s a good reason we don’t attempt to start our market until the summer solstice on June 22. Oh, we do likes the sensible reasoning around these parts.

This past February we collaborated with the world famous Timberline Restaurant on Elk Avenue. Tim and Darlene run a  fine establishment, we are neighbors on the corner of Second Street and Elk Ave during summer Sundays and they support local agriculture to some degree. What more could you ask for from a neighbor? A Crested Butte Farmers Market Winter Harvest Fundraiser dinner, of course.

Tim Eggelhof put together an excellent 5 course Colorado sourced menu for our supportive diners. The Two Tone String Band provided the local atmosphere and we kept our mission message front and center in the off agricultural month of February. Certainly off agricultural for these high alpine Rocky Mountain parts.

Let’s see now….

The deadline for applications to the farmers market came and went with the tax man’s deadline this past week. Deadlines have never stopped anyone from applying late for anything before so why should we be classified specially? We are looking great for the 2009 season. I think we have received the most vendor applications yet in our 3 years of existence. Our Crested Butte Special Event Application is just about finished and we expect to be able to hand that off to the town administration early next week.  Meanwhile we are still expecting and receiving applications. I look forward to our board of directors meeting later this month so that we can get our confirmation letters out and post our list of highly pedigreed farmers market vendors.  I’ll be back real soon so check in with us as the season gets on to see what new events we are adding at the market as well as many other totally unique and marketable features.

August is here this week and the Crested Butte Farmers Market is setting off its 2008 Market Games with a field day at Gothic Ball Park at Crank’s Plaza. The Field Games Events will be held in the Gothic Field outfield as the Farmers Market will be relocating for one week only to Crank’s Plaza at Fifth and Maroon. Featuring teams of 2 participating in three categories The Market Games Field Day will blow the Beijing Olympics away. Grand Prize for the team of 2 that completes all three events with the most points is two day passes to the Telluride Blues and Brews show on Saturday. The first event is a Human Wheelbarrow Relay. Teams of 2 will make the length of the course and switch positions halfway. Second event is the Three-Legged Race. The Main Event is the Great Apricot Chuck Off. Farthest toss back and forth between 2 teammates across the field with apricot intact and without dropping wins. The events will be weighted with the most points available in the Apricot Chuck Off event. The highest cumulative points between the 3 events will win the 2 Passes for the Gov’t Mule, GLove and Special Sauce and 50 Microbrewery Grand Tasting in Telluride September 13.

The Crested Butte Farmers Market is off to a smashing 2008 season. Our vendors can barely keep up with the demand from our community. The first couple of weeks found many of the vendors selling out of product at or before noon. The total dollar sales have smashed last years’ totals for this time and have exceeded our predictions for this season so far. The addition of live music, No Waste Zones and food concessions appear to be a big bonus for the market vendors and patrons. One of our participating agriculturists told me that he hasn’t read the book on farmer’s markets but that the take off of the Crested Butte Farmers Market appears to be one of the most successful ever, especially considering we are only now beginning our second year. I’ll take that as a spanking accomplishment. Without further ado I’ll let the photographs do some speaking:

The Crested Butte Farmers Market kicks off today. The trail dust of the the Ride the Rockies crowd settled down and the festivities of the Fat Tire Bike Week are well under way. Now is the best time to be on Elk Avenue. There is still plenty of cool breeze, the summer crowds are not yet all hard core and most important there are die hard supporters of the Adaptive Sports Center touring for 24 hours all through Crested Butte but considerably down Elk and definitely right through the farmers market.

I decided to enter the solo rider 24 hour category a couple of hours before the start. I missed the start. But I rode a straight eight hour shift in the name of the Crested Butte Farmers Market. The stars tonight were unbelievable. I think I managed to pull about eighteen laps around town. The lap my wife timed took 40 minutes so I reckon eighteen laps isn’t so bad. I just can’t help myself from stopping and chatting with all of the beautiful minded people in this community.

The finish for the Adaptive Sports Center 24 Hour Bridges of the Butte Marathon is at Second and Elk Ave at 3:00 PM Sunday. The Crested Butte Farmers Market will be winding down its first week and the festivities for the marathon will be held at Josephine’s (the old Forest Queen). I came home to check the weather and to finalize some items for the market. I’ll be biking and running the market all day Sunday. I’ve already been given the keys to the city, maybe I’ll pull down the Heart O’ Gold Medal eventually.

The Future of Food

@

The Majestic Theater

THURSDAY JUNE 19

7:45 PM

FREE

(donations accepted)

Most folks are reticent to bring up politics in a public venue.

Fortunately for me I am not like most folks.

The single most politically powerful vote anybody can make is the choice of what goes into their mouth. What is allowed to pass the lips of any given individual describes a considerable amount about their character. When I was growing up, ignorant and very impressionable from my youth in the age of digitized media, I was sold the political idea that flashy packaging and provocative sales commercials were all I needed to satisfy my emotional and nutritional needs. I bought it and ate it. As a result when I was young I had very poor character and health. I was a terrific American consumer but a very poor character. I don’t think I was alone.

After a bout with some chronic physical pain a few years ago I had to completely re-evaluate my personal consumption habits. I had to overhaul the entire way that I looked at the food that I was exchanging my good money for and consuming. I had been told by a doctor that I’d have to live with my pain. That diagnosis cost me a trip to the Front Range plus the $260 check I left with the receptionist, not to mention that it was unacceptable as I am only 30 and plan to live quite a while longer. Upon my return to Crested Butte I began a liver cleanse and looked at what I had been consuming in my younger and more recent life. I changed my dietary habits. It was a slow process but soon enough my pain went away. How much is that worth?

So, what changed? I went from a diet composed largely of high fructose corn syrup sweetened beverages, a certain irresistible brand of ice cream that comes in pints, and other highly processed and packaged foods to eating a predominantly locally produced vegetarian diet (I was not a vegetarian at the time). The change was very difficult. My body gravely craved the processed sugars and refined products to which it had become accustomed. I eventually vanquished the processed food products in my diet and my pain has gone away. It took some time and patience to make the change completely but now I think I’ll stick with personally accountable food providers. What is that knowledge worth in dollars?

Can a dollar value be put on the removal of chronic pain? Yes. It’s usually a cripplingly steep amount placed upon the head of the consumer by the medical industry. I hear many comments from people regarding the higher price of quality organic foods. I think that a hospital treatment for cancer or diabetes and dental work is considerably more expensive on the body and the wallet. Medical professionals seldom offer the primary prescription of food as a medicine anymore over the surgeries and pharmaceuticals that they are obliged to throw down the throats of their specimens, I mean patients. But, hey, they’ve got kids to feed. In the past couple of years I have found that almost always where there is an imbalance in the body (such as a tumor, inflammation or pain), a removal of highly processed foods or the addition of nutrients in the diet can help to balance the scales. Adding pharmaceuticals alone is akin to continually pumping more chlorine into a hot tub when it is completely scummed and backed up from all kinds of horrible foreign objects going into the water that have no business being there. Is the chlorine really helping the problem? Think about it.

I have made a political choice not to let the industrial pollution of the medical, pharmaceutical and food distribution industries into my mouth anymore. I have made the political choice not to wait around for the medical establishment and corporate food distributors to use and abuse me like a specimen and an ATM. I have made a political choice to use my energies now on acquiring foods that are accountable to my personal health. In my educated decision I have learned that what is healthiest for me coincidentally happens to be healthy for the earth, the water, the sky and my neighbors. I have learned that products found on the shelves at the stores or fast food restaurants tend to be about as healthy for you as the packaging that they come in. Look into it for yourself. It is disrespectful. My life has benefited exponentially in a positive physical and emotional balance as a result of my political choice. This is a balanced equation in which money plays an infinitesimal part in my personal health.

This path of life and knowledge was the inspiration and impetus for my giving as much of my energies to the organization of the Crested Butte Farmers Market as my time allows. The Crested Butte Farmers Market is as selfish an endeavor as it is altruistic. I need access to food that is respected while it is made, food that respects me and coincidentally respects the earth. Food that comes from a personally accountable source of soil and not off of a petroleum fueled mass production line. I can’t save the world by myself but apparently I can help myself by growing or knowing the grower of my food.

So, which political candidate is going to get my vote this year; Obama, Clinton or McCain?

Considering that I wouldn’t put any of them or their corporate paymasters in my mouth I imagine I’ll take a miss on the federal presidential elections this year. I will, however, be casting a more powerful local vote at the Crested Butte Farmers Market all summer long. A powerful vote for my foods’ accountability. A powerful vote for my personal and communal respect. A powerful vote for taking control of the health of myself and of my family. A delicious, summer-long, self respecting smorgasbord of a vote. Why wait until November to be an actively democratic American patriot?

3 weeks to the 2008 Crested Butte Farmers Market Kick Off!