Is your vinegar made from petroleum?

YUK! My recent tater salad could have fueled my car! Well not really, but I wonder just how many petroleum based products I'm eating on my salad!

From Reuters: May 18, 2009

Heinz re-affirms its commitment to use only 100 percent all-natural
ingredients in its popular Distilled White and Apple Cider Vinegar, offering
an alternative to petroleum-based vinegars

PITTSBURGH, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Not all vinegars are created equal -- and
not all are created with natural ingredients. In fact, vinegar can be made
from either natural ingredients, such as corn and apples, or artificial
ingredients, such as petroleum. According to a recent survey*, this is proving
important to more than 70 percent of vinegar users looking for all-natural,
high-quality ingredients when making salads or salad dressings. In response,
Heinz is re-affirming its commitment to use only natural, sun-ripened corn and
fresh apples -- never petroleum -- in its popular Heinz Distilled White and
Apple Cider Vinegar.


The majority of vinegar users (89 percent) said they didn't know that their
vinegar could be sourced from petroleum, while 79 percent indicated that if
they discovered their vinegar was sourced from petroleum, they would switch to
an all-natural vinegar. With no current requirements to disclose ingredient
sources on labels, many consumers may not be able to tell how their vinegar is
made. That's why Heinz is taking steps to raise the level of consumer
awareness about all-natural vinegar choices and proudly proclaiming that Heinz
Distilled White and Apple Cider Vinegars are always 100 percent all-natural. 

Read the whole press release

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132551+18-May-2009+PRN20090518

Japanese Tuna Terrine by Sedona Cantina & Tapas

Japanese Tuna Terrine. Fresh avocado in lime juice with sashimi grade tuna in a Japanese (soy,ginger, wasabi, rice wine vinegar, cilantro) ceviche style marinade. It is then layered, starting with avocado, in a terrine mold and pressed with a brick overnight.
Then, you pop it out, top it with a wasabi cream sauce, and, ENJOY!!! (on rice crackers or egg roll crisps)


Sedona Cantina and Tapas is located in Fayette County:

Turn at the light for fayetteville off of 19. Go straight through town until you get to the stoplight. Continue straight through light on Court st. (also Rt. 16 south) and we are about 1.5 miles out of town on the right.

You too can find other unique restaurants in West Virginia, by going to Wvfarm2u

Chef Brian Ball's take on a traditional Mexican dish

Chef Brian Ball's take on a traditional Mexican Fish Taco was divine:

First he started with a basil infused white tortilla chip

Then he took a granny smith apple slaw and put it atop the basil infused chip

Sandwiching the slaw with another chip
Adding the seared Tuna atop the "taco"

Adding the aioli (aioli: is made by slowly whisking oil into egg yolks and garlic. )

The finished product with sprinkled coriander seeds...a tantalizing taste bud fiesta!!

According to the National Culinary Review: Local is the New Organic

"Chefs are increasingly finding product within 150 miles of their venue" by Laura Taxel.

'It's a fundamental axiom among chefs that to make great food, you need great ingredients. As a measure of freshness and qulity, local has become the new gold standard. So chefs around the country are increasingly turning to products sourced from artisan producers and small family owned and sustainably operated farms located within 150 miles of where they cook.

Noting this shif, the American Farm Bureau, based in Washington, D.C., included farm-to-table cuisine on its list of top food trends for 2009, and local produce earned the No. 1 spot on the National Restaurant Association's most recent "What's Hot" chef survey...'
Laura Taxel, The National Culinary Review. July 2009

For the last 3 years, WVfarm2u.org's aim has been, and continues to be, connecting farmers and artisans with chefs and consumers. This is a free service to all West Virginians. We will continue forging ahead on making modifications and enhancements to our website to help both farmer and chef connect. If you haven't registered on wvfarm2u.org and you grow food or make food in West Virginia...what are you waiting for???

If you haven't done so already, sign up for our newsletter at wvfarm2u.org (top right corner), and follow me on Twitter.

101 Unique Places to Dine in West Virginia

101 Places where you just gotta eat in West Virginia

The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia and the Dept. of Tourism are asking the public to submit their favorite restaurant on wvfarm2u.org's survey 101 Places in West Virginia where you just gotta eat. Have you submitted your favorite restaurant here in Wild Wonderful WV?

On a technical note: I have received emails and calls from folks who were experiencing issues with the image verification at the bottom of the survey. This has been removed so anyone who may have experienced an issue can now complete the survey without any further problems.

On a side note: Happy SPRING!!! What are the signs of spring in your neck of the woods? My elderberry bushes are getting leaves, the daffodils are in bloom, and the red potatoes, peas and onions have been planted.

We're looking for a few West Virginia Farmers

The West Virginia Sustainable Fair is looking to purchase food from a few WV farmers for their banquet on April 17. Their signature annual “Taste of West Virginia” benefit dinner, 2009 theme: “Farmers and Their Chefs” will kick off the weekend.

Any farmers that have food available please email the following information to Annie Seay

Your name
Your Farm Name
Phone Number
Products Available
Whether or not you're listed on the website: WVfarm2u.org

More musings from the WV Small Farm Conference

Congratulations are in order for the Clarksburg Farmers Market and Elkins Farmers Market on winning the one month of PayPal's Virtual Terminal which was sponsored this year by WVfarm2u.org.

Virtual Terminal is a fee based program from PayPal that allows anyone with a verified business account from PayPal to use their internet connection, cell phone, land line or fax machine to take credit and debit card payments. Our first test of this system was on Monday, February 23 at the Winter Blues Farmers Market when WVfarm2u.org sponsored Monkey Dance Ranch's booth.

The market on Monday was jam packed with customers trying to purchase locally grown foods from farmers in the area. In today's world, it seems more and more people carry less and less cash and rely on plastic be it either credit or debit. As I walked around the market, marveling at the "sold - out" crowd who were happily purchasing free range eggs, I couldn't help overhear some key comments. These comments included key phrases:

"Uhhh, the ATM is out, we'll have to just get this - but I really wanted to get the bread too"

As I stood purchasing my cherry wood wooden spoon made by Monkey Dance Ranch, a woman walked up to their booth and said, "I wish you all accepted credit cards I never carry cash anymore".

I wished I had a siren or a bell because at that moment, Monkey Dance Ranch exclaimed they accepted credit cards and a sale was made.

If your farmers market has access to a landline, cell phone reception or wireless internet connection, it may be beneficial for you to consider the Virtual Terminal from PayPal. It's not without fees: It costs $30 per month, but with no contract so if you want to try it for a month, you can without any cancellation fees. There are 3% transaction fees, Monkey Dance Ranch tacked on a service fee to cover the cost of the transaction fee to the price of the product, this is only one way to deal with credit/debit transaction fees.

Click Here to learn more about PayPal's Virtual Terminal.

WVfarm2u.org at WV Small Farm Conference Day One

A big thank you to Tom McConnell of WVU Extension for letting WVfarm2u.org participate again this year! It's our third year here: Three's a Charm as they say.

The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia sponsored a PayPal Virtual Terminal during the Winter Blues Farmers Market for Jason & Sigrid Teets of Monkey Dance Ranch who sold lamb, handmade wooden spoons and wool pelts. With the Virtual Terminal from PayPal they were able to use their wireless internet connection and take credit and debit cards from customers. They're sales increased by at least 50%. More data to come on that later.

This year at the Small Farm Conference here in Morgantown, the Collaborative is giving away 3 one month service to Farmers Markets who are registered and listed on WVfarm2u.org.

If you are going to attend the Small Farm Conference Feb. 24 - 26, stop by our booth and get registered or we can help you to determine some of your online marketing needs.

Small farms are gowing everywhere!

MUNCIE, Ind. - Rising consumer demand for locally grown, organic produce is fueling a surge in the number of small Indiana farms, boosting their numbers nearly 80 percent over five years, a new farm census report shows.

The number of Indiana farms under 10 acres soared from 5,436 in 2002 to 9,720 in 2007 -- a 79 percent increase -- said Greg Preston, director of the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service.

"It's skyrocketing. We are getting a lot of newer farmers coming in that are smaller -- going into direct marketing, specialty products, organics, locally grown, this type of stuff," Preston told The Star Press.

For the ag census, taken every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a farm as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products are produced and sold.


Read more here...

The Collaborative's lessons learned through SARE grant

In summer 2006, Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia in partnership with the South Central Penn State Extension Service Office submitted a SARE Sustainable Community proposal and despite the multiple challenges for a small farm in trying a new venture, nine farmers (six in West Virginia and three in Pennsylvania) expressed an interest not only in learning about value-added but also in trying it on for size because as a part of this grant they could minimize the risk, the financial outlay, and get some solid assistance with marketing.
This SARE initiative provided the opportunity for these farmers to become working partners with SARE and in this way to develop the sweat equity needed to finance their value added processing. The learnings from their efforts then became a model for others to benefit from.

Lessons Learned

• Offering free samples is a most effective marketing technique and so is and providing the customers with recipes.
• Having a recipe from a well-known chef on the package added even more value.
• Consumers love a story. One farmer shared with customers that they were using their great grandmother’s recipe. Another shared the story about how the heritage seeds for their product had been handed down for 7 generations. These stories made people interested and eager to buy.
• Consumers love history—for example, having corn stone-ground at historic (Stonewall Jackson) mill added even more value to the product.

To read more about the Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia SARE learnings, please click here

Happy New Year to West Virginia Farmers, Artisans and Chefs

I have created this blog as a place for you to gather quickly information about the site WVfarm2u.

The information presented here will be on a variety of subjects including upcoming changes and/or additions about the website, new marketing ideas and useful tools on the website. In addition to these types of posts, there maybe articles, guest bloggers and more.

Please feel free to comment, ask questions, or give your insight.

So cheers to a new year, lets make West Virginia shine in 2009.

Annie