Virginia’s Executive Mansion
Hudson Heritage Farms’ goat meat was recently used at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, VA. Here is the recipe card:
Vegetarian Recipes
Looking for different ways to use your non-meat products? Check out www.cookeatdelicious.com There are many different vegetarian recipes. The website is also listed on our Resource page.
Not a vegetarian? Doesn’t matter, we won’t tell that you are checking out different ways to use your vegetables!
Specialty Crop Grants: Request for Applications
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is accepting applications for USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Specialty Crop Block Grant funds. Agricultural associations, industry groups, community-based organizations and producer groups that seek to improve the competitiveness of specialty crops in Virginia are eligible to submit proposals for grants up to $30,000 per project. Although individual producers are not eligible, they may join with groups and organizations to apply for these grants. VDACS will administer nearly $500,000 in funds for the development of Specialty Crop projects.
The deadline for returning applications to VDACS is noon April 2, 2012.
Specialty crops are categorized as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and nursery crops, including floriculture, that are not typically covered by traditional crop insurance. Specialty crops do not include standard commodities such as corn, wheat or soybeans. A number of crops do not qualify for a specialty crop competitive grant, including cotton, feed crops (corn, hay, oats, barley), livestock and dairy products, eggs, oil crops (soybeans, canola), peanuts, tobacco or aquaculture. Processed foods are eligible as long as they enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops.
“These specialty crop grants have proved to be a real boon for Virginia’s specialty crop producers over the past several years,” said VDACS Commissioner Matthew J. Lohr. “It encourages them to be innovative, and that often leads to new sources of revenue. That in turn can create jobs in the community and help keep our valuable farmland in production. I support any and all ways we can enhance the competitiveness of Virginia’s many specialty crops.” Lohr adds that Virginia is not a one crop state, and enhancing these specialty crops is one way to strengthen agriculture as a whole to ensure that it maintains its place as the state’s number one industry.
Specialty Crop Competitive Grant proposals need to be specific and explain how an association, industry group or organization will use the funds to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Some examples include research, promotion and marketing plans, as well as food safety projects.
In awarding the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant funds, VDACS will give priority to projects with the sole purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of specialty crops as they pertain to the following issues:
- increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops
- improving efficiency and reducing costs of distribution systems
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assisting all entities in the specialty crop distribution chain in developing Good Agricultural Practices, Good Handling Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices
- investing in specialty crop research, including organic research to focus on conservation and environmental outcomes
- enhancing food safety
- developing new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops; pest and disease control;
- developing organic and sustainable production practices
- increasing the competitiveness of specialty crop farmers
Guidelines, instructions and the application for the USDA Specialty Crop Competitive Grants are available online at http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/marketing/scrop.shtml (click on Application Form to apply), via e-mail to melissa.ball@vdacs.virginia.gov, or at VDACS, 102 Governor Street, Richmond, VA 23219.
New Website
One of our listed producers, Poplar Spring Farm has a website. Please check it out. It is http://www.PoplarSpringFarm.com
For Sale
Old Chester Farm has the following for sale:
- Medicated goat feed for sale $10.50 per 50 lbs bag
- Very good grade dog food $18.00 per 50 lbs bag
- Good grade dry cat food $4.00 per 3.3 lbs bag with 31.5% protein
Please call for additional details and to set up delivery/pick-up to Joe Jr, 434-454-6001 8 AM – 5 PM, weekdays and Saturdays only!
More Christmas Tree Information
Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842.
In 1851, Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds loaded with trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York and opened the first retail lot in the United States.
For every real Christmas trees harvested, two to three seedlings are planted in its place.
There are about one million acres in production for growing Christmas trees. Each acre provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people.
The Farm Connection would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays!
Farm Business Management Update
Here is an update of the Farm Business Management Update (Dec. 2011 – Jan. 2012). It is a joint effort of the Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty and the area farm management educators.
Christmas Trees
Real Christmas trees are an all-American product, grown in all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Top selling Christmas trees are: balsam fir, Douglas-fir, Fraser fir, noble fir, Scotch pine, Virginia pine and white pine.
The top Christmas tree producing states are Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California and North Carolina…and Virginia is gaining fast!
You can find your local Virginia Christmas farm at http://www.VirginiaChristmasTrees.org. Support Virginia Christmas tree growers! These facts and more can be found on their website.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Farm Connection would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Here are a couple of fun turkey facts.
Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they have been around for over 10 million years.
Until 1863, Thanksgiving Day had not been celebrated annually since the first feast in 1621. This changed in 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale encouraged Abraham Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday in November “as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.”
Domesticated turkeys (farm raised) cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.
Only male turkeys (toms) gobble. Females (hens) make a clicking noise. The gobble is a seasonal call during the spring and fall. Hens are attracted for mating when a tom gobbles. Wild toms love to gobble when they hear loud sounds or settle in for the night.
The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 pounds — about the size of a large German Shepherd — and was grown in England, according to Dr. Sarah Birkhold, poultry specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
Mature turkeys have 3,500 or so feathers. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn’t eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.
More than 45 million turkeys are cooked and 525 million pounds of turkey are eaten during Thanksgiving.
Ninety percent of American homes eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Fifty percent eat turkey on Christmas.
North Carolina produces 61 million turkeys annually, more than any other state. Minnesota and Arkansas are number two and three.
Benjamin Franklin, the great American statesman, thought the turkey was so American it should have been chosen as our national symbol rather than the eagle.
The fleshy growth from the base of the beak, which is very long on male turkeys and hangs down over the beak, is called the snood.
From www.baltimoremd.com
Old Chester Farm
We would like to welcome Old Chester Farm to the Producer page. They have different items available during the year. You will need to call them for availability and prices.
Old Chester Farm has new farm products! Check them out.
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