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FALL 2011 ISSUE

FRESH NEWS for our

to the Fall 2011 issue of Fresh News! While the days are becoming shorterand its harvest time, our farmers are busy! Its also a hectic time for LFPwrapping up inspections for the year, rolling out our national expansion, and reaching out toconsumers. Our short newsletter allows us to stay in touch with our farmers even during thesebusy times. Enjoy!

IN THIS

ISSUE...

Upcoming EventsBare Soil? Plant Cover Crops!What Does it Mean to be an LFP Partner?New Market PartnersSpotlight: Paul Chorney

While there are still a few months be-fore the official end of the season, andits time to start thinking about getting

ready for winter. Among the manytasks necessary to put the farm to rest,what better way to build your soil dur-ing the off season than to plant wintercover crops?

On top of maintaining the current nu-trients, you can reduce your weeds fornext year and grow organic matter.

Cover crops play an important role onCanadian farms. When choosing a win-ter cover crop, farmers often choose acrop that will survive winter condi-tions, such as hairy vetch or winter rye.

Planted in late summer or early fall,these plants are established by thetime winter arrives. As theyre growingthrough the fall and again in springlegumes such as vetch are fixing nitro-gen at approximately 110 lbs/acre.

In the spring when its time to till thecrops under, the plants have been

working to maintain the soil structureand retain nutrients, helping to avoidany erosion that would have occurred,reducing compaction and the number

of weeds able to grow, while also yield-ing up to 1.75 tons/acre of biomass to

be worked into the soil!

Why not take advantage of this timeover the winter months where the soil

would otherwise be sitting bare?

Theres more cover cropping infor-mation than we could ever hope to putin this little article. If youre intriguedor interested in more resources, pleaselet us know and well send you a re-source list weve been developing.

Contact: 416-699-6070 ext 231 orLynn.Bishop@localfoodplus.ca

WELCOME

BARE SOIL? PLANT COVER CROPS!

farmersWHAT LFP IS DOING FOR OUR FARMERS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sept 10, Taste of Kingsway, Toronto,

ON

Sept 11, Feast of Fields, King Town-

ship, ON

Sept 11th Feast of Fields, Vancouver,

BC

Sept 15 Farmers Feast, St .Norbert

Market, Winnipeg

September 16-18 Harvest Moon Festi-

val, Clearwater, Manitoba

Sept 18th Feast of Fields, Saanichton,

BC

Sept 24, Taste of Town and Country,

London, ON

Sept 30, Eat-in-Ontario, Toronto, ON

Dont forget to let us know if there areany events youre attending in your ar-ea, or businesses youd like to suggest

for our program.

Hairy vetch and rye planted in combinationPhoto credit: Flickr account Chiots Run

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Sherry NielsenCertification Managersherry@localfoodplus.ca416-699.6070 ex. 228

NEW MARKET PARTNERS

Here at Local Food Plus, were alwaystalking about how we promote CertifiedLocal Sustainable food to partnerres-taurants, grocers, institutions, distribu-tors and as of this summer, farmersmarkets.

What does this mean to be a partnerwith LFP?

Well, it begins with the Partner Servicesteam here in the LFP office: ChrisTrussell, our Partner Services Manager;Erin Shapero, our Institutional ServicesManager; and Tracy Phillippi (profiledin our last newsletter), our Partner Ser-

vices Coordinator. These three staff,supported by the rest of the LFP team

work directly with restaurants, grocers,institutions, distributors and farmersmarkets to figure out how they can bet-

ter support Certified Local Sustainablefare.

LFP works with these commercial buy-ers and they commit by signing an an-nual pledge. This pledge stipulates thatthe buyer agrees to purchase either anagreed upon numberof products orpercentage of their food purchasesfrom Certified Local Sustainable farm-

ers (thats YOU!). As well, with eachannual re-pledge, LFP encourages buy-ers to increase their commitment.

The Town of Markham is a great exam-ple of a institutional partner who has

been very dedicated to Certified Local

Sustainable fare. They partnered withLFP in 2008, beginning their commit-ment by agreeing to purchase 10% oftheir food from our farmers. Over thefive year term of their food service con-tract, they have steadily increased thepercentage of local sustainable foodspurchased, 10% for the first year, and a5% increase every subsequent year. TheMunicipality is now sourcing 25%oftheir food purchases as Certified LocalSustainable and is hoping to go evenhigher. With a large annual food budg-et, thats an important contribution

back into the local economy and in sup-port of local sustainable farmers!

In the last year, weve signed on 34NEW Partners, or 88 in total,pledging to source from Certified LocalSustainable farmers, with more to comeas we expand to BC, MB and QC.

By getting this pledge from buyers

across the province, we continually im-prove the ability of Certified Local Sus-tainable farmers to sell their fare closeto home. While we dont broker thedeal, we do try to help make these con-

nections by highlighting our new mar-ket partners in each quarterly newslet-ter (see below), through our blog, onFacebook and on Twitter. As well, part-ners receive a monthly list of our certi-fied producers and processors.

Keep in contact with us, be informed ofour latest partnerships the next place

you might be able to sell your fare!

Paul ChorneyProgram Coordinatorpaul.chorney@localfoodplus.ca204-775-1724

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN LFP PARTNER?

SPOTLIGHT: PAUL CHORNEY

Local Food Plus is pleased towelcome Paul Chorney, thefirst LFP staff person in Man-itoba, thanks to a partnership

between LFP and Food Mat-ters Manitoba.

Paul brings a passion forcommunity development andlocal sustainable food sys-tems to Local Food Plus.

In 1979, he helped start Har-vest Collective, Winnipegs

first organic retailer whichhad a strong focus on provid-ing citizens with sustainablefood grown in Manitoba. Forthe past 5 years, Paul has

worked for Food MattersManitoba as the CommunityLiaison and will concurrentlycontinue n this role on a part-time basis.

Paul realized the importantrole that local sustainable

food plays in community de-velopment early in his career,and has recently refocusedhis work on helping futuregenerations maintain accessto food that is good for theenvironment and their localeconomy.

Paul will work towards certi-fying farms in Manitoba

while also developing rela-tionships with partnersthroughout the province.

Certification Contacts:

Have a question about qualifying for certification? Or needhelp with paperwork? Contact PaulHave questions about the status of your certification? Or con-ditions that need to be met? Contact Sherry

Apple Tree Farmers Market (Toronto, ON)

Epic Fairmont Royal York (Toronto, ON)

Nota Bene (Toronto, ON)

Stone Maiden Inn B&B (Stratford, ON)

Stone Road Grille (Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON)

McGill University (Montreal, QC)

FoodShare (Toronto, ON) Provenance Regional Cuisine (Toronto, ON)

Local Food Plus President Lori Stahlbrand(middle) at LFP Partner Restaurant RubyWatchco, after a delicious Certified LocalSustainable meal

Donate Now!As a charity, LFP isalways thankful for donations, member-

ships or contributions of any kind. Callus or visit us online to donate now.