{"id":20569,"date":"2016-07-29T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=20569"},"modified":"2016-07-27T16:51:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T20:51:04","slug":"maryland-department-of-agriculture-launches-marylands-best-restaurant-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/07\/29\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-launches-marylands-best-restaurant-promotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of Agriculture Launches \u2018Maryland\u2019s Best Restaurant\u2019 Promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong><em>Join #BuyLocal Seasonal Movement that Brings Customers through Doors<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marylandsbest.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Restaurant-Promo-Banner.jpg?resize=760%2C289\" width=\"760\" height=\"289\" \/>ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/strong>\u2013The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/marylandsbest.net\/\">Maryland\u2019s Best <\/a>program is launching a new state-wide seasonal promotion with restaurants. <em>Maryland&#8217;s Best<\/em> is the source to find the best local food and products from Maryland farmers. The promotion, \u201c<em>Maryland\u2019s Best<\/em> Restaurants\u201d runs August through October, encouraging restaurants to source, purchase, prepare with, and promote local Maryland specialty crops on their menus and online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re encouraging restaurants to buy from and promote their support of local farmers who are now offering seasonal specialty crops, such as melons, tomatoes, and sweet corn,\u201d said Secretary of Agriculture Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cRestaurants participating in this campaign will not only appeal to customers who want to eat local but also contribute to the economic growth of Maryland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Participating restaurants can sign up at <a href=\"http:\/\/marylandsbest.net\/marylands-best-restaurant-promotion\">http:\/\/marylandsbest.net\/marylands-best-restaurant-promotion<\/a>.Benefits include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Maryland\u2019s Best<\/em> window decal, stickers and check inserts to publicize support<\/li>\n<li><em>Maryland\u2019s Best <\/em>grocery bag for farmer\u2019s market shopping<\/li>\n<li><em>Maryland\u2019s Best<\/em> Restaurants live link listing on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marylandsbest.net\/\">Maryland&#8217;s Best<\/a> and mentioned on all MDsBest social media accounts<\/li>\n<li><em>Maryland\u2019s Best <\/em>logo for use on restaurant web and social media sites<\/li>\n<li><em>Maryland\u2019s Best<\/em> Restaurants listing on a future mobile app (software application) being developed by MDA for consumers to find eateries cooking with local produce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using social media, the department is also encouraging Maryland restaurateurs to snap \u201cselfies\u201d with their favorite farmer, specialty crop and\/or local summer produce menu item and post them on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Marylands-Best-89703601400\/\">Maryland\u2019s Best Facebook page<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/\">Instagram<\/a> and Twitter using <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MDsBest\">@MDsBest<\/a> and the hash-tags: #BuyLocal, #FarmersMarket, #MDsBest #GetYourFreshOn. The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s <em>Maryland\u2019s Best<\/em> program will monitor the contest to determine the restaurant with the most posts, to be announced in November.<\/p>\n<p>The late summer\/early fall months are traditionally strong months for Maryland farmers, selling carrots, peaches, grapes, watermelons, tomatoes, sweet corn, cantaloupes, honeydew, a wide variety of berries, pumpkins, beets, pears, plums, apples, sweet corn, garlic, potatoes, eggplant, honey, and all types squash and greens. To find local farmers markets, pick your own operations and agritourism operations in Maryland, visit\u00a0the Maryland\u2019s Best <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marylandsbest.net\/\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"># # #<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/MdAgDept\">@MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join #BuyLocal Seasonal Movement that Brings Customers through Doors ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Maryland\u2019s Best program is launching a new state-wide seasonal promotion with restaurants. Maryland&#8217;s Best is the source to find the best local food and products from Maryland farmers. The promotion, \u201cMaryland\u2019s Best Restaurants\u201d runs August through October, encouraging restaurants<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/07\/29\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-launches-marylands-best-restaurant-promotion\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20570,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20569\/revisions\/20570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}