Take the Buy Local Challenge

By Joe Bartenfelder, MDA Secretary

July is peak season for Maryland produce, plus it’s National Ice Cream Month. We at the Maryland Department of Agriculture will be celebrating, and we hope you will too!

Take the Buy Local Challenge

“Yes, I pledge to eat at least one thing from a local farm every day during Buy Local Week!”

That’s the Buy Local Challenge, which runs from July 18-26, and the Maryland Department of Agriculture (along with Maryland farmers) encourages residents, restaurants, hospitals and others to sign the pledge and take the challenge. What could be more delicious?!

During Buy Local Challenge Week, we encourage everyone to support Maryland’s family farms by purchasing at least one locally grown, made or harvested product each day. After trying it for a week, we hope you will continue that practice every day of the year.

The Buy Local Challenge, created in 2006 by the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission, has grown into a statewide initiative that has continued to evolve. In its latest Policy Choices Survey, the University of Baltimore Schaefer Center for Public Policy found that more than 78 percent of Marylanders said they want to buy produce grown by a Maryland farmer.

Sign up online at: www.buy-local-challenge.com/

Governor’s Buy Local Cookout

To kick off Buy Local Challenge Week, Governor Larry Hogan and First Lady Yumi Hogan will host the eighth annual Governor’s Buy Local Cookout on July 16. The cookout features delicious, original dishes made by local chefs with locally grown foods. Earlier this year, Governor Hogan invited teams of chefs and producers to submit original recipes that highlight the diversity of local products. Some 37 recipes were submitted; and 15 were selected. The First Lady and Government House chefs will also provide an entrée and salad for the cookout. All recipe submissions will be published in the 2015 Maryland Buy Local Cookout Recipes, which will include wine, beer or spirits pairing recommendations from the Maryland Wineries Association, Brewers Association of Maryland and the newly formed Maryland Distillers Guild. The cookbook will be available online when completed next month.

MDA has published several cookbooks full of recipes that can be made with local products. Some are simple and quick, others are more complex. Past cookbooks are available free online http://mda.maryland.gov/Pages/Buy-Local-Cookout.aspx.

For many, the buy local movement is about fresh, delicious food, grown by a farmer they may know or whose land they can see from the road. And certainly local food tastes better, holds its nutritional value longer and is less likely to cause foodborne illnesses than food that is shipped. But buying local is more than just good food.

Buying from local farms also promotes cleaner air and water, reduces our carbon footprint on the planet, and strengthens local rural economies while encouraging people to adopt healthier eating habits.

Where can you buy local?

If you want to make sure you are buying local Maryland products, join a CSA or visit a farmers market and talk directly with the farmer. You can also search online at www.marylandsbest.net (now mobile-friendly) to find products by county and/or category. When you visit your favorite grocery store or local produce stand, look for the Maryland’s Best logo, which is the state agriculture branding program. The program started in 2001 to help consumers identify (and purchase) local agricultural products. Clearly, consumers want more local products, and we are stepping up our efforts to emphasize that agricultural products labeled ‘Maryland’s Best’ are local.

Farmers, grocery stores, restaurants and food distributors who would like to use the Maryland’s Best logo and work with MDA to promote their Maryland products should contact our marketing office at (410) 841-5779.

Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail

July is National Ice Cream Month and visiting one of Maryland’s on-farm creameries is a great way to celebrate. We launched the Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail three years ago to promote our dairy farmers and encourage Marylanders to visit a working farm. I have already visited three of the eight farms across the state that produce and sell ice cream directly to consumers, and I plan to visit the rest this summer. I’m impressed with the diversity of what each offers, with their variety of flavors and how each store has its own unique vibe. If you are traveling around Maryland this summer, make a point to visit at least one stop on the trail.

You can pick up an Ice Cream Trail Passport at any of the creameries (or online at www.marylandsbest.net). Complete the Ice Cream Trail passport by visiting every stop on the trail and answering a question from each creamery by September 23. Send it in to us and you will be entered into a drawing to be named the 2015 Ice Cream Trail Blazer.

Happy trails to you and your family! May you make many happy memories this summer. Remember to support local farmers and buy local!