The Wild Center puts local farmers center stage
Free Farmer Market Day event scheduled for ThursdayTUPPER LAKE - The Wild Center attracted visitors from all 50 states this year, but its idea of good food is much more local, and the museum's big tent and Great Hall are becoming a center for area farmers and local food events.
According to Executive Director Stephanie Ratcliffe, The Wild Center plans to get into local food in an even bigger way in the future. The next food and farm event takes place Thursday starting at 1 p.m. inside the center's Esplanade tent, and is free to the public.
There will be cooking demonstrations, farmers with their products, children's activities and museum presentations related to local food production in the Adirondacks.
"We started buying locally for our own cafe because we always look to source locally," Ratcliffe said. "Then, Kerri Ziemann, one of our naturalists who organizes the museum's Winter Wildays, had an idea to invite area farmers to join us as part of our winter weekend events, and her instinct proved to be a great one - that The Wild Center was the right location to brings farmers and the public together, and a place we could add a learning experience to what the famers were bringing."
Products that will be showcased Thursday include produce and other goods from Sunwarm Gardens, honey from Suzanne Rinas Apiary, a wide range of products from Well Dressed Foods, Underwood Herbs, Whitestone Farm, Hohmeyer's Lake Clear Farm and Merchia Farm. Additionally, there will be special presentations including a noon walk with well-known herbalist Jane Desotelle, one of the leaders in the local food effort, who will help visitors identify wild plants that can be used for food and medicine.
At 1 p.m., Chris Hample of Long Lake will do a cooking demonstration using local ingredients.
At 2 p.m. Amy Kohanski, a natural food specialist with Nori's Village Market in Saranac Lake will demonstrate the best ways to make sure different supermarket fruits and vegetables don't pass on the pesticides and herbicides on their skins.
Bernadette Logozur, of the Cornell Cooperative Extension, will present information on farming in the Adirondacks and how people can access foods produced from local working farms. The Wild Center staff will also offer worm composting demonstration, a food miles game, food-related crafts for children and a guided walk on the newly opened "New Path," focused on sustainability and green design on the 31-acre campus.
The local food movement is gaining attention around the country as rising oil and shipping costs push industrial food prices higher.
A series of tainted food scares, including tomato and beef recalls, increased awareness of some of the health issues related to mass-produced food. Soaring costs that have seen wheat prices jump 70 percent in the last year also pointed at the potential for food shortages that could cut supplies of imported food to the United States. David Tomberlin, whose Well Dressed Food company will be part of the Thursday event, says he sees a new reality in the increased awareness and demand for locally grown food.
"Cheap oil and cheap fuel helped set up the way we think about food," he said. "The price of oil may go up and down, but long-term there is a new cost reality in food, and we need a new system that is going to be much more local."
"I think we're going to find that were better off in a lot of ways if we can start to get more of what we eat from our own communities," Ziemann said.
Upcoming food programs at The Wild Center will include a harvest event Oct. 2, and then the Featured Farmer events will start up in January, and run every other weekend throughout the winter, showcasing different farmers and their products.
The winter events let local farms present away from the busy summer season, and are part of an effort in the region to extend the season for fresh and locally grown products in the Adirondacks.
Jen Kretser said local food has an impact on the natural world that is the Museum's core focus.
"When you look closely at where a lot of our food comes from you can see that the way it is produced, shipped and packaged now is not going to work much longer as our only big source of food," she said.
The Wild Center is located at 45 Museum Drive in Tupper Lake New York, and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. More information is available at www.wildcenter.org.
