Stories, News & Updates...

Newsletter No. 10 - Dec 2009

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:43:12 -0500

First Winter & Holiday Farmers’ Market in Westford on Dec. 11, 2009

4 - 7 p.m. in the Red Brick Meeting House on Rt. 128

We are very excited to hold the very first winter farmers’ market in Westford on Friday, December 11, 2009, from 4 - 7 p.m. Please come out and visit us!
We will invite a variety of vendors to sell at the winter market to offer you everything from produce to meats, baked goods like cakes, pies & cookies and holiday specialties, condiments, prepared foods and much more. We’ll also have local arts and crafts, so you can browse for holiday gifts.
Many of our regular summer market vendors’ will also be at the winter market, so you can pre-order directly from them. For more information on who will be selling their goods, please check our website www.westfordfarmersmarketvt.org which will be updated continuously.
Enjoy an afternoon with neighbors & friends, good food and music, and browse for unique gifts and crafts for the holidays. We look forward to seeing you there!

Newsletter No. 9 - Sept 2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:59:35 -0400

Westford Farmers' Market Newsletter No. 9 - September 2009

* The New Cheese On The Block - Vermont artisan cheese is coming to  the Westford Farmers' Market this Friday
* Westford's own Roland Pigeon & friends will play on Sept. 18
* NOFA Vermont conducts a Market Assessment & Training Session
* Books on preserving and canning at the Westford Library
* Children's Day @ the Farmers' Market on Sept 25

We are back to our full strength of regular vendors and look forward to welcoming you for the remainder of the season with fresh foods and farm goods to extent a little bit of summer.

*NEW: This Friday we welcome our new cheese vendor Stan Biasini of Mount Mansfield Creamery to the market. Stan has started selling his cheese only this year, but already created some buzz about his unique cheeses. Mount Mansfield Creamery has three carefully crafted recipes, a Havarti, a soft cow's milk cheese and a Tomme. Biasini is starting small, making about 420 pounds per month only, so we're excited have him at Westford Farmers Market. Come on down for a taste!

*A special treat awaits us: Roland Pigeon & friends will play at the farmers' market on Friday, starting at 4 pm. Roland is practically 'at home' on the Common, and finally we could persuade him to pack the fiddle and come on over to the Gazebo this Friday. This should be a great event, and we hope you all can make it - bring the whole family for some Old Time Music & more.

*Fall is approaching rapidly and now is the time for canning and preserving the great bounty of Farmers' Markets and your own garden. We will have cookbooks and books on canning and preserving on the manager's table for display this Friday. All books are available at the Westford Public Library.

*As some of you already know, we are part of a NOFA Vermont (www.nofavt.org) program that helps small Farmers' Markets stay a vital part of the Vermont landscape. The program assists us with various tasks like logistics, training and more, and we will be having our partner market Bristol observing and studying our Farmers' Market this Friday. With the results of the study, we hope to further improve our market and to make it even more attractive. Your feedback is highly welcome!

*Mark the date and spread the word! On Friday, September 25 we'd like to extent a special invitation for families and kids to come to visit the Farmers' Market for a Children's Day. Learn about home-grown foods and how to make them. Check out yummy treats from our bakeries. Visit the Gazebo where a professional Face Painter awaits you. Plus: We welcome all kids who would like to set up a stand at the Westford Farmers' Market without a fee on that day. Kids under 16 must be accompanied by an adult to sell their goods and the general market rules apply; which means that you sell only products that you made or grown yourself, and comply with health and safety regulations. (Please check the Farmers' Market website for a copy of the rules and regulations or email me for more information).

See you at the market!

The Westford Farmers' Market on the Common: every Friday afternoon, 3:30 - 6:30 PM - rain or shine

Newsletter No. 7 - July 31, 2009

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:49:00 -0400

1. Music
We are very lucky to have another great musician on Friday, July 31: Tim Berry, who will play Folk/Americana. You can listen to some of his music at:
http://www.myspace.com/timberrymusic.
Please help spread the word! This is vacation time, and many of you have friends and family visiting. Bring them to the market on Friday! We are proud to be a quintessential small Vermont Farmers’ Market, right here in your community - and of course, great music adds to the fun.

2. National Farmers’ Market Week in August
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has declared August 2 - August 8 2009 to be the 10th annual National Farmers' Market Week. NOFA Vermont is organizing special events at farmers' markets around the state, visit http://www.nofavt.org/ for more information. There is also a video contest where everybody is invited to participate:

Buy It, Cook It, Film It Video Contest

A creative film contest open to everybody who loves Farmers’ Markets! Shoot a short film about your favorite farmers' markets and post it to YouTube to be entered into this contest. Judges are NOFA Vermont's executive director, Enid Wonnacott, as well as Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Roger Allbee. With over 70 farmers’ markets, Vermont has many reasons to celebrate and there are many events planned nationwide to acknowledge that ‘shopping local’ is great resource and should be accessible to all. More info:
http://www.nofavt.org/market-organic-food/farmers-markets/129#2

‘Travel to the Farmers’ Markets’. A brochure will showcase US East Coast Farmers' Markets and give out information about their times & location, so visitors can plan their summer vacation route differently this time. The working title is:
Travel the fresh way - visit local Farmers' Markets! Ask us when it’s coming out!

Our musician on Aug 7 will be Evelyn Troester who comes from Brooklyn, NY and we will partner with a New York City Farmers Market for the day.

August 07 Market Day:

Books on farming, homesteads, and the localvore movement are on display. The event will be held together with the Westford Library, and all books are available at the library.

Burlington Free Press Article

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:07:29 -0400

Hometown: Westford Farmers' Market
By Lynn Monty, Free Press Staff Writer

Local musician Carol Ann Jones played her guitar and sang as Chris Siegriest’s dog Oreo, 13, relaxed in Westford’s town center. A thunderstorm threatened the Westford Farmers Market, but that didn’t stop the dozen or so vendors from setting up shop recently. Siegriest of the Bread and Roses Farm in Westford has sold vegetables at the market for three years.
Sue Comette of Fletcher visits the booth weekly. “My husband loves the radishes, the scallions and the carrots,” Comette said. “I usually get all that I can.”

Vintage feedbag dresses were the hot item Carrie Cook of Cambridge was peddling. The idea was inspired by a song. She sang, “I got a fifty dollar gold piece that says there ain’t nothin’ I can’t do. I can make a dress out of a feedbag. I can make a man out of you.” Cook said she makes different size dresses and often wears them herself as a shirt or with a belt.

New business owners Guy and Pat Roberge of Westford were at the market selling their Green Mountain Kettle Corn. “We just started this business two weeks ago because my husband is going to retire next year and we wanted to do something together, so we came up with this idea,” Pat Roberge said.

Janet H. Franz of Westford was left with only two loaves of bread at her booth. “They’ve already cleaned me out,” she said. Pies are her biggest seller. She has baked for the market for 10 years.

According to The Westford Farmers Market newsletter, it received a mini-grant from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont this year. This grant provided 40 Vermont Farmers Markets a total of $85,079 to support long-term growth and stability. The Westford Farmers Market will use a portion of the funding for new market manager, Heike Meyer.

Meyer said she is managing the daily business of the market, coordinating marketing and planning activities. She will also be looking for new vendors to be in the market. There are not enough funds to support a full paid position, she said. Everybody involved with the market is volunteering a lot of time.

New road signs to attract commuter traffic and tourists traveling in the region on Fridays have been ordered and the Web site is new this year.

Additional Facts
If you go
• WHAT: The Westford Farmers' Market
• WHEN: 3:30-to 6:30 p.m. Fridays
• WEB SITE: www.westfordfarmersmarketvt.org
• E-MAIL: info@westfordfarmersmarketvt.org.

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Newsletter No. 2 - July 17, 2009

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 18:34:51 -0400

On July 17 we will have a Picnic Day at the Westford Farmers’ Market. We invite all our regular (and new!) customers to bring a blanket or sit down at one of the tables in the gazebo and stay for a family picnic.
To enjoy the great food available, we will raffle sets of recycled cutlery plus eco-friendly bamboo plates. There are also great picnic recipes available to take home, so don’t forget a trip to the Info Table right in the middle of the Farmers’ Market this week.

You are invited to bring friends and family along and enjoy (hopefully!) one of the few days without rain so far outside. The market has a great variety of picnic-friendly foods and drinks like Europeans Delicatessen, Asian Foods, Samosas, and even grilled Hamburger! For dessert choose between freshly baked cakes, pies and cookies. Fresh Lemonade, Iced and Hot Coffee is also available.

Go Green! We are a true Vermont Farmers’ Market that prides itself for offering only homegrown / homemade and, if possible, organic foods and products. We like to take that philosophy a step further by giving out a number of eco-friendly plates and cups to you to enjoy your picnic on the green. But, of course you can always bring your own picnic basket, plates, cups and cutlery to reduce the amount of trash and help conserve our resources even more! Either way, you can enjoy great products of your local vendors right in your community.

Win some eco plates, cutlery and biodegradable trash bags! Just come over to the Managers Table for more info. Good luck!

Thank you for your help in reducing our impact on the environment by supporting local food. Have a great “green” picnic.

Your Westford Farmers’ Market

Newsletter No. 1 Season Start

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:49:04 -0400

We will be back for another season of fresh produce, homemade goods & breads, beautiful crafts and some exciting events and activities throughout the summer.

We will not only bring you local foods & crafts, but also music and activities on Friday afternoons. We think that market days should be a true community event; one that invites locals and visitors alike to stop by. We are planning to have music, a children’s day, cooking demonstrations, a Harvest Festival and much more later this summer.

The Westford Library will be open on Friday afternoon until 6pm

More great news: We are one of the Vermont Farmers’ Markets that received a mini-grant from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont this year.

In this grant, 37 Vermont Farmers’ Market were awarded a total of $85,079 to support their markets’ long-term growth and stability.

We received a relatively small amount, but we are still very excited that the Westford Farmers’ Market has been awarded this grant for the ﬁrst time. We are now able to support initiatives towards website development and maintenance, provide more infrastructure for the market, and fund a manager stipend.

Make sure to check back for more information and email us if you want to receive our newsletter: info@westfordfarmersmarketvt.org

Please support your farmers market by visiting us this summer and help spread the word - see you on the Common!