The Neighboring Food Coop Association is working in collaboration with family farmers, farmer co-ops such as Deep Root Organic Co-op and the Pioneer Valley Growers Association, and processors including Farm to Table Co-Packers, the Vermont Food Venture Center and Green Mountain College’s Mobile Flash Freezer, to pilot products that are grown, processed and packaged right [...]
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When you stroll the Bellows Falls Farmers’ Market this week you will find tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, potatoes, greens of all colors and sizes, carrots, beets, local fruit, fresh and potted herbs, blooming perennials, 100% grass feed beef, pork, and chicken, farm fresh eggs, maple syrup, sweets treats, cold drinks, prepared food, hand crafted jewelry, kids [...] In the early 1970s Bill Bartlett would often pass the Calkin Farm on Bradford Road in Newport and see Tom Calkin, not a young man at the time, painstakingly planting infant blueberry bushes and “I used to wonder ‘when would he ever make a profit?’ ” Blueberries take about eight years [...] This week’s weather couldn’t be better for sampling ice cream made with New Hampshire dairy products. Granite State Dairy Promotion (GSDP) has an instant hit with its New Hampshire Ice Cream Trail guide to help with finding new scoop shops to try. The retro-look map identifies 28 places serving ice cream [...] The Vermont Agency of Agriculture is making available $100,000 in matching grants to farmers for capital improvements related to GAPs certification. Grants are capped at $10,000 per farm, and farms must contribute 50% of total project costs. If you have not seen the documentary The Future of Food you can watch it at: The Great Falls Great Food Community Conversation will host a community supper and its inaugural conversation about food on Friday, July 8, at Our Place Drop In Center, 4 Island The supper will be from 5:30-6:30. There will be food for everyone Please feel free, however, to bring a [...] Hi Growers, The USDA has finally released a Guide for Growers seeking GAPs Certification Auditing multiple crops for diversified growers – pg 7-8 How to do a recall Dear Growers, As I mentioned in an e-mail this spring, USDA Auditors will be paying special attention to how growers are writing their assessments, SOPs, and recall/ traceability systems. Some of the assessments and SOPs that passed last year, will not be considered adequate this year, due to this new emphasis! You should review your farm [...] |
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Got 13 minutes? Youtube GAPs Mock Audit
Want to learn what a GAPs Audit looks like?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ws1C_mmx24
North Carolina Extension has this great 13 minute video that takes you
through
the steps of a GAPs audit.
Check it out!
–
Ginger Nickerson
GAPs Outreach Coordinator
UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture
106 High Point Center, Suite 300
Colchester, VT 05446
gnickers@uvm.edu
Office Phone: (802) 656-5490
Cell Phone: (802) 249-6701
Fax: (802)656-8874