{"id":20868,"date":"2016-12-13T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=20868"},"modified":"2016-12-12T17:02:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T22:02:39","slug":"buy-local-for-the-holidays-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/12\/13\/buy-local-for-the-holidays-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Buy Local for the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Support the Local Economy with Delicious, Unique Gift Ideas<\/em><\/h3>\n
\"Maryland<\/a>

Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Joe Bartenfelder and Deputy Secretary Jim Eichhorst<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD<\/strong> \u2013 Looking for a last minute gift idea? This holiday season, consider your Maryland agriculture options when purchasing gifts.\u00a0 Maryland farmers and specialty food and beverage producers offer a wide range of items to enjoy.\u00a0 Options could include a wine, beer, spirits, cheese, fresh meats, yarn, plants, and more.<\/p>\n

For a gift that keeps on giving, why not give a CSA membership? A year\u2019s share offers months of weekly produce from a Maryland farm. Other unique, local gift ideas could include a gift certificate to one of the farm creameries on the Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Trail, or horse riding lessons at a nearby stable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith such a diverse range of unique products available, Maryland farmers have something for everyone on your list this holiday season,\u201d said Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cNot only do locally grown products make great gifts, but they help support our family farmers and local economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the most recent agricultural census completed in 2012 by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 1,276 farms in Maryland sell directly to consumers. They bring in $28.03 million to the state\u2019s economy.\u00a0 In 2012, 667 of 12,256 farms (5.4 percent) in Maryland were producing value-added products, which include jams and jellies, wine, or even grinding wheat into flour on the farm.<\/p>\n

To find Maryland agriculture products to give as gifts, visit MarylandsBest.net<\/a>.\u00a0 The web site, which is serviced by the Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Office of Marketing, lists numerous Maryland farmers and specialty food and beverage producers.\u00a0 Also check out the video profile<\/a> of Washington County\u2019s Caprikorn Farms goat cheese\u2014one of the state\u2019s finest producers of artisanal cheeses.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Support the Local Economy with Delicious, Unique Gift Ideas ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 Looking for a last minute gift idea? This holiday season, consider your Maryland agriculture options when purchasing gifts.\u00a0 Maryland farmers and specialty food and beverage producers offer a wide range of items to enjoy.\u00a0 Options could include a wine, beer, spirits, cheese, fresh  Read the Rest…<\/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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20868","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\/20868","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=20868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20870,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20868\/revisions\/20870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}