The leading vote-getters in the five categories (in no particular order) are:

THE DEADLINE FOR VOTING IS FRIDAY DECEMBER 16, 2011.

Farm/Farmer leaders are Wookey Ranch and Jim Miller/Comanche Creek Farms, and there are many others receiving votes.

Chef/Restaurant voting is dominated by the following three vote-getters Che Stedman, Moonstone Bistro; Ann Leon, Leon Bistro; and Grilla Bites, Chico.

Voters have cast ballots for the following Food Shops: Orchard Nutrition; Chico Natural Foods Cooperative, S&S Organic Produce and Natural Foods, Country Organics, Leon Bistro, Bacio Catering, Zucchini & Vine.

The following have voter support in the Food/Beverage Artisan category: Kaleidoscope Coffee; Dave Miller/Miller’s Bake House; Ann Leon/Leon Bistro; North Valley Farms Chevre; Chico Chai; and Jadda Miller.

A new vote-getter, Stonehouse, made an appearance among non-profit organizations this week. Otherwise the list of vote-getters from last week remains unchanged: Little Red Hen, Master Gardeners, Farm Bureau, North Valley Land Trust, Shasta College Community Teaching Garden, and Tehama Together. And now Stonehouse too!

I have a feeling that people are waiting for the deadline before casting their votes for their heroes in the five categories. That deadline is Friday, December 16, 2011. Don’t forget to vote for your local heroes of 2012!! Winners will be announced, with a brief article on each winner, in the Spring edition of Edible Shasta-Butte magazine, due out on March 21, 2012.

Vote online at www.ediblecommunities.com/heroes. It's fun, fast & easy! Honor those in your community who provide the healthy food we eat.

The following were this past week's vote getters.

1. Farm/Farmer: Wookey Ranch; Jim Miller/Comanche Creek Farms; Chaffin Family Orchards; Pyramid Farms; Marc Duivenvoorden
2. Chef/Restaurant: Anne Leon/Leon Bistro; Grilla Bites, Chico
3. Food Shop: S&S Produce and Market; Zucchini and Vine; Chico Natural Foods Coop; Country Organics, Redding
4. Food/Beverage Artisan: Ann Leon/Leon Bistro; North Valley Farms Chevre; Chico Chai; Jadda Miller, Red Bluff
5. Non-Profit Organization: Little Red Hen; Master Gardeners; Farm Bureau; North Valley Land Trust; Shasta College Community Teaching Garden; Tehama Together, Red Bluff

The number of votes is growing daily, so check back in a week to monitor the list's growth. Don't forget to vote for your favorite (and you can only vote once). Vote online at www.ediblecommunities.com/heroes. It's fun, fast & easy! Honor those in your community who provide the healthy food we eat.

Voting ends on December 16, 2011.

Gabe Miller (at right) welcomed attendees to the 6th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Workshop in Quincy on Friday, October 7, 2011.

Dan Macon (left), Ag Consultant and Farmer/Co-Owner (with his family) of the Flying Mule Farm in Auburn delivered the keynote address. He offered the 60 (or so) attendees some suggestions for making a farming venture productive, rewarding and even fun.

Dan's first suggestion was to get to know your neighbors and to help your neighbors when they need help. Remember, you are your neighbors' neighbor and you will likely appreciate/need reciprocation down the road. However, you alone are responsible for your economic success (or failure). And success requires hard work.

Take responsibility for your own economic success. Farms must be economically viable and it is the farmer's responsibility to make it so. Dan did remind the audience that the best way to make a small fortune farming is to start with a large one!

Learning—and teaching—is a constant in farming. Take time to learn and listen.  Collaborative learning and training is a win/win for farmers and farm interns or apprentices. Interns and apprentices are not your future competitors. A community that depends on local produce needs good farmers - lots of them! 

Dan gives guest lectures at colleges and other venues - everyone learns (the best way to learn is to teach!).
 Emphasize the successes/the good times/recall your "Passion for the Land" through telling stories about the best times!

Farming can be a lonely enterprise. Don't be the last farmer standing: ensure you have successors to pass your passion along to. Make work fun—get your kids interested. As an example, on his sheep farm, Dan and his family host Sheep Camps for kids.  Day trips to other farms are always fun and illuminating. Dan gave his wife and daughters digital cameras to take pictures of what they liked about the operation . . . and was surprised to learn what they did like! And so were they!! Don't take agrarian skills (such as sheep shearing) for granted, pass those skills along.

You need your community to be strong and vibrant to support your farm. Buy and sell locally. Be an active member of your strong and vibrant community. Know and support your community—banks, grocery stores, and other merchants/businesses.

The sessions that followed Dan's keynote address covered issues that farmers - and potential new farmers - in the community need to address or know about, such as 

Finally, there was an abundance GREAT locally produced food (made possible through local agriculture!) to fuel the discussions that followed about the importance of agriculture in our communities!

BACKYARD GARDEN ABUNDANCE!

Now is the time we get to harvest the abundance of our backyard gardens. Often, the abundance overwhelms the harvester.

What interesting/creative uses of excess produce from your (or others') backyard gardens can you tell us about (beyond pickling, preserving, drying)? For example, there's a restaurant in Charlottesville, VA, that is taking the surplus from home gardeners and turning it into a meal at the restaurant (gratis for whomever brings it in). Maybe there's a soup kitchen in your community doing interesting things with garden surplus? Or maybe there's a mom-and-pop grocery store doing some sort of barter for your summer squash? Or a pickling company that does barter for your cukes? 

Growing Local is a coalition of groups and individuals in the north state who value local, healthy food and are determined to find ways to introduce more local, healthy food into the lives of area residents. To this end, the coalition hosted Go Local! A Forum on the Future of our Food held in Redding early in 2011. Almost 200 people attended the day-long forum.

Interactive panels addressed the following topics:

• What are we growing?

  Go Local! Forum Sponsors

  Ag Innovations Network; Edible Shasta-Butte; Fedora Catering; First United Methodist Church; Future Farmers of America; Good Work Organic Farm; Grilla Bites; Healthy Shasta; Hill Country Health & Wellness Center; Jefferson Public Radio; People of Progress; Roots of Change; Shambani Organics; Shasta College Economic Workforce Development and the Shasta College Natural Resources, Industry and Public Safety Division; Shasta County Department of Agriculture; Shasta County Farm Bureau; Shasta County Public Health; Shasta Growers Association; Shasta Senior Nutrition Program; Slow Food Shasta Cascade; Superior California Economic Development; University of California Cooperative Extension; Western Shasta Resource Conservation District.

• Where does our food go?
• Who is eating local? and
• How can we nurture a sustainable food system?

Following the panel presentations and discussions, the conference participants moved into groups to synthesize the day’s learning into recommendations to promote a local, sustainable food system.

Encouraged by large and enthusiastic turnouts at January forum and the first Growing Local general meeting of 2011, the Growing Local steering committee organized a broad-based meeting to update the strategic plan, bringing together coalition partners and the eager general community to identify ways the community can participate meaningfully to invigorate a healthy food system and food economy. To achieve a realistic strategic plan with broad-based ownership, an Appreciative Inquiry addressing the topic Imagine a Healthy Future: Planning the Ideal Food System was held on May 25, 2011 at the Gaia Shasta Hotel in Anderson. The goal was to produce strategies that would create a healthy, sustainable and accessible local food system.

Twenty people from the region who represented various food production and distribution sectors attended this event that started in the afternoon and concluded at 8:30 pm. The Appreciative Inquiry approach leads strategic planners through a series of steps starting with paired interviews focusing on positive experiences with the local food system.

Following the paired interviews, the participants shared their stories in two groups of eight, one self-titled the "Food Web Group" and the other "All Things Food." The Food Web Group distilled these strengths of the local food system from their interviews:

FOOD WEB GROUP

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

The provocative propositions suggested these strategic actions:

• Create a directory of local food system activities and identify gaps to inform future activities.
• Celebrate the value of local food.
  
  • Parties!
  • Cooking classes.
  • Farm-to-school.
  • Food faire.
  • Farm tours.
  • Farmers as RockStars.
  • Youth Programs.
  • Media campaign.
  • Competitions.
  • Family activities/programs.
  • Film series.
• Training, Mentoring, and Skill Development. . .
  
  • For activities that support the local, sustainable food supply.
• Support local infrastructure initiative for food and farm.
  
  • CoOp & distribution, Commercial Kitchen and Processing Center.
• Develop policies that promote sustainable food supply, land and water resources.
• Increase Memberships.
  
  • Films
  • Cooking demos
• Collect data.
• Create Coalition Structure

Revisiting this list of activities will be Growing Local's next task with a view toward developing specific action plans to bring the strategic goals to fruition. A meeting is planned of the participants in the May 25 meeting plus other interested folks who were unable to attend the May 25 strategic planning meeting. Check this web-site for further details, or contact Edible Shasta-Butte.

We look forward to your participation in creating the next phase of Growing Local!

Olive Oil Purveyor Promotes Healthy Lifestyles

The Fall 2010 edible Shasta-Butte magazine featured an article on olives, particularly those grown in the Corning area. One of the article's points was that olive oil is a healthy food, especially the EVOOs (extra virgin olive oils) which are within a year or two of milling. Olives grown in this area yield oils that are especially rich in polyphenols, anti-oxidants which track down and decommission nasty free radicals in our bodies. Dewey Lucero, of Lucero Olive Oil, LLC in Corning, pointed to his grandparents, all life-long users of olive oil who remain healthy in their eighties. Dewey, himself far short of his eighth decade, understands that olive oil is only one element of a healthy lifestyle. He and his wife lead active lifestyles, participating in sports that place participants in oxygen deficit. And when Brandon Drew invited him to sponsor one of the triathlons he stages, Dewey readily accepted. The second Black Butte Triathlon sponsored by Lucero is next weekend.

The weekend, April 9 and 10, is split into two separate races -- a Mountain Bike Triathlon on Saturday and then, on Sunday, a Road Triathlon. Triathlons are character-builders, requiring participants to complete a swim -- in Black Butte Lake (located on Stony Creek west of Orland and was formed in 1963 upon the completion of Black Butte Dam) -- then bicycle before finally running. This  triathlon can be especially challenging as the weather has added extra spice in the recent events!

For more information on the event: www.blackbuttetriathlon.com.