2012 Local Food Connections Workshop: Presentations

In case you missed out or want to review the information presented again, below are the slides and information given by some of our presenters from the 2012 Local Food Connections Workshop.  

(Click on the presentation title to view a .pdf file) 

Planning Crops For Consistent Yield: Rebecca McMahon

Sedgwick County Extension Agent

Nose-To-Tail Meat Use: Chef Michael Beard

Owner of 715 Restaurant, Lawrence, KS

Eating Locally: Paula Miller RD, LD

Dietitian & Love Local Food Blogger

Liability Insurance for Market Farms: Brady Krueger

Krueger Insurance, Newton, KS 

Eating by the Calendar in KS: Tracey Graham

Kansas Rural Center

Preserving the Harvest: Tracey Graham

Kansas Rural Center

Local Food Connections Workshop: Register Now!

Local Food Connections Workshop

Register Now!!
Get excited for this great upcoming event!  

Network and learn with farmers, chefs, locavores, and others to make local food production, marketing, and purchasing connections.

9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sedgwick County Extension Center

21st & Ridge Road, Wichita, KS

 Local producers, grocers, restaurateurs, institutional food buyers, other food businesses, and locavores (supporters of local food) are invited to attend this day long event that will focus on networking, and building marketing skills and business relationships.
See full schedule below! 

$25 -  Our Local Food Members   

$35-  Non-Members

Includes a local food lunch!

Register online by November 7, 2012

Click Here to Register!

Click Here for a .pdf file version of the schedule!

Help us spread the word!  Click Here for a flyer.

Strategic Marketing Workshop and Farm Tour for Livestock Producers

Whether it’s cows, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys or pigs -

there is a market just right for you!       

Come find your niche!

Value-added, local, grass-fed, organic, pasture-raised, or heritage breeds ...

September 21, 2012
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
American Legion Building Post #76
Concordia, Kansas

Come find out how to -

• Create a successful “brand”
• Find the best market for your products
• Expand your customer base - even if you’re not near a big city
• Increase profit margins and help manage risk in tough times
• Navigate important food marketing rules and regs
• Meet Madonna and Larry Sorell, whose Red Wattle pigs are coveted by chefs across the US
• Learn about niche marketing, raising heritage breeds, running a B&B on the farm, and bringing along a new generation of farmers.

In the afternoon, tour Lazy S Farms.
Featured in Time magazine, the NY Times, and the Kansas City Star! 

Speakers include:

• Livestock producers engaged in niche and direct marketing around Kansas
• KDA meat, poultry and dairy specialists
• KSU Animal Science and Extension specialists
• Kansas Small Business Development Center consultant

Enjoy a BBQ lunch and afternoon ice cream social!

For more information and to 

register visit the Kansas Rural 

Center website -

www.kansasruralcenter.org

Registration fee - $35 

Covers lunch and materials

Statewide Local Food Network Now Open - Register Today!

BIG NEWS! 
Kansas' very own online local food hub is now just a click away!

Do you produce food to sell in Kansas? 
 

Are you owner or manager of a restaurant or grocery store  

that strives to feature local food?
 

Do you manage a farmers market
in the beautiful Sunflower State? 

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, please check out Kansas' premier online local food network and  "Get on the Map" of Kansas local foods! 

Are you on the map? 

 

 
Click here to register for the newly launched, statewide local food finding and networking tool: http://ourlocalfoodks.com/

It's FREE!  

  Our Local Food is working hard to build this new online tool, which includes profile pages for you and the other local foods players you are linked up with. We've launched the registration pages EARLY (before the other site features) so we can begin recruiting folks like you to "populate" the Kansas local foods network! This is a great way to let local food lovers know who you are and were to find you. You'll be able to sign up, create a page for your farm, market, or business, link up to others in the network, and invite any local food producers, market managers, or local food supporting food businesses you know to join in.     By fall, we plan to add a Craiglist-like feature to even further develop local foods  connections!   
Here's a link to Kansas' statewide local food map:  http://ourlocalfoodks.com/food-finder

Deadline Extended for Our Local Food Internship Applications!

Our Local Food internships can be done from almost anywhere in Kansas! Please help spread the word about this great opportunity for meaningful summer work, working to drive the local food movement throughout Kansas. Extended application deadline: Friday, April 20, 2012.

Our Local Food, a program of the Kansas Rural Center, is accepting applications for eight summer internship positions across the state. Internships are open to current college students and recent graduates wanting to learn more about the local food movement and excited to cultivate connections between farmers, businesses, consumers and communities.

Applicants must be able to commit to working a minimum of 20 hours per week during the ten-week internship, which runs from June 1 to August 15. Interns who can dedicate additional time to the internship will gain more from it and have the opportunity be involved in more compelling work. Internships are unpaid, however each intern will receive a $1000 stipend to defray costs at the completion of the 10-week commitment.

To apply, please submit your complete application pack to the appropriate chapter coordinator by April 13:

Kaw River Valley Chapter:
ourlocalfood.krv@gmail.com

• South Central Chapter:

southcentral.olf@gmail.com

• Southeast Chapter:

ourlocalfood@gmail.com

• Twin Rivers Chapter:

twinrivers.olf@gmail.com

Our Local Food–Southeast Seeks Steering Committee Members

If you live or work in one of the following twelve counties that comprise the Our Local Food-Southeast Chapter, please consider applying for a position on the chapter's Steering Committee:

Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Franklin, Labette, Linn, Miami, Montgomery, Neosho, and Wilson.
 

OLF-Southeast is a network of local farms, farmers markets, food businesses, supportive organizations and consumers who are committed to increasing the production and sales of local foods in Southeast Kansas.

As a member of the OLF-Southeast Steering Committee, you would help us identify opportunities and barriers, access expertise we don’t have on staff, build relationships with key constituencies, and ground truth our assumptions. The committee would also guide key program strategies focused on communications, outreach and education, and evaluation.

We're looking for diverse representation on the steering committee including farmers, food business owners, farmers market managers, KSRE agents, chamber of commerce/economic development staff, food bank representatives, nutrition professional, chefs, culinary programs, city or county officials, college/university economists, marketing/media professionals, travel/tourism bureau staff, county farm bureau officials.

We anticipate that the OLF-SE Steering Committee will have two to three face-to-face meetings and the same number of conference calls annually. There may also be opportunities to join sub-committees focused on specific opportunities within our region.

Become a member of the OLF-Southeast Steering Committee and be part of the movement to:  

• expand local markets for locally grown foods; 
• increase the consumption of local, healthy food; 
• diversify the economic base and agriculture lands; 
• and develop a food processing and distribution infrastructure for our region.

If your are excited by the opportunity to collaborate with others in your region, please contact Mercedes Taylor-Puckett to receive an application pack.
The application deadline is 5:00 pm, Friday, March 2.

Position Announcement: Southeast Chapter Coordinator

The Kansas Rural Center is seeking a contractor to serve as the Our Local Food–Southeast Chapter Coordinator. The Southeast Chapter encompasses the following twelve counties: Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Franklin, Labette, Linn, Miami, Montgomery, Neosho, and Wilson.

Contract Dates: March 2012 - October 31, 2012
Payment: $9,000
Application Deadline: Friday, Feb. 24, 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this part-time contract position (15 to 20 hours per week) is to fulfill duties of work plan for Our Local Food 2012 for the Southeast region, with the overall goal of nurturing relationships between producers and buyers of local food, assisting them in increasing sales, and generating awareness among consumers to increase local foods demand.

Kansas Rural Center encourages partnerships with KSRE through the 2012 Savor the Season program

Kansas State Research and Extension FACS agents, Horticulture agents, Family Nutrition Program personnel, Master Food Volunteers and Master Gardeners looking to encourage more consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables this summer will have a new tool this year, thanks to the Kansas Rural Center's "Savor the Season" Program.

Savor The Season fits in well with KSRE’s commitment to promoting healthful lifestyles and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption through a variety of programs, as exemplified by Walk Kansas, the Family Nutrition Program and many others.  Partnering among KRC, KSRE, farmers markets and other organizations mutually benefits all parties, and allows for cross-promotion of each other’s activities and programs.

Savor the Season provides a unified voice in the promotion of diversity and sales of local produce.

The mission of the Savor the Season program is to improve the diversity of fruits and vegetables grown in Kansas, and to increase the sales of those crops.

For consumers - and of particular interest to KSRE FACS agents, FNP staff, and Master Food Volunteers - seasonal cards available at participating farmers markets will provide details on selection and storage of fresh produce along with preparation tips and recipes.  The Savor the Season specialty crops for 2012 are: Spring:  spinach, arugula, snow peas, rhubarb;  Summer: basil, bell peppers, garlic; and Autumn: spaghetti squash, turnips, pumpkins.

Card content is currently being developed by KRC staff in partnership with KSRE food specialists and volunteers.  Consumers, chefs, master food volunteers and others interested in the program are encouraged to submit favorite recipes using the 10 crops to twinrivers.olf@gmail.com by March 1, 2012.   Examples of past years’ cards can be found at http://www.ksfarmersmarkets.org/blog/savor-the-season-program-a-retrospective.  The new cards, along with reprints of the previous 16 crops, will be shipped to participating markets by April 18, 2012.

This year, for the first time, we are also offering other interested organizations the opportunity to purchase the crop cards at cost ($4/hundred).  These cards can be used for outreach at garden fairs, food festivals and numerous other events.  They’d be lovely prizes for Walk Kansas participants!  An order form can be found at here.  Orders must be placed no later than March 15.

Through Savor the Season, farmers markets can receive funding and other assistance for promoting specialty crops (includes all fruits and vegetables, plus nuts and horticultural crops).  Participating markets will receive an array of marketing and promotional materials, and have the opportunity to receive funding via either mini-grants up to $250 targeted at new or smaller markets interested in testing a special events program, or cost-shares that will match up to $400 for specialty crop promotions.   Farmers market organizers can find all of the information needed to apply online at www.ksfarmersmarkets.org/extras/ .   The application deadline is March 15, 2012.

To benefit producers of fruits and vegetables, Savor the Season is partnering with KSRE, the Kansas Vegetable Growers Association, and other local agencies to provide resources and specific guidance on production, post-harvest handling and marketing of five of this year’s chosen specialty crops.

The KRC strongly encourages partnerships among KSRE, farmers markets and other organizations committed to improving the health of their communities.  Please consider partnering with your local farmers market to provide special events, such as food tasting and/or cooking demonstrations, which encourage greater consumption of specialty crops.  Volunteers and food businesses interested in distributing materials and partnering for events should contact their local farmers market.

A non-profit organization founded in 1979, the Kansas Rural Center works to strengthen rural communities and cultivate grass roots support for public policies that encourage family farming and stewardship of soil and water. Savor the Season is part of Our Local Food, a program of the Kansas Rural Center made possible by a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant from the Kansas Department of Agriculture.  Our Local Food is a network of local farms, farmers markets, food businesses and consumers committed to helping Kansans eat better, and to re-building a sustainable local food economy.

For further information, visit:
KS Farmers Markets
http://www.ksfarmersmarkets.org/
Kansas Rural Center
http://www.kansasruralcenter.org/index.html

Questions about the program can be addressed to Tracey Graham at twinrivers.olf@gmail.com