Please join UConn's Spring Valley Student Farm at the 8th annual Know Your Farmer Fair!
Now in its eighth season, this awesome event creates an opportunity for the community to meet local farmers from across Eastern CT (New London, Tolland and Windham Counties) and look ahead to the upcoming growing season. Residents can shop the farmer’s market as well as ask about local Community Supported Agriculture Programs (CSA), farm stands and pick-your-own opportunities. If you feel shy getting to know your farmer at the local farmer’s market, then this is the event for you!
Additionally, there will be food and farm products available for purchase, an opportunity to get free seeds for your garden, some great food trucks, and the chance to learn from the fabulous farmers that lovingly grow food for our local communities.
Stop at the Spring Valley Student Farm table to buy some cool hand-printed SVSF tshirts, or take home some native milkweed seeds saved from our farm!
Who: You! This event is free and open to the public. It is a kid friendly event!
When: 11:00am to 2:00pm on Saturday, April 1st
Where: The new Willimantic Community Center in downtown Willimantic! (Check out the new spot!)
The Know Your Farmer Fair is a project of the Windham Community Food Network. WCFN is a collaboration of merchants, farmers, organizations, and community members looking to meet local nutritional needs with local resources. Follow the Know Your Farmer Fair on facebook or on Instagram!
Learn more about Spring Valley Student Farm on our website or follow us on Instagram!
Read on for more about the Know Your Farmer Fair…
Each year, before the full spring frenzy whisks away our local farmers to the tasks of fields and crops, a group of farmers set up tables in a community area and get ready to say hello. The 8th Annual Know Your Farmer Fair is meant to do just that- help you know your farmer. Though many farmers bring something to sell (whether it be jarred items, frozen meat, cold weather crops, or CSA subscriptions to purchase), the offerings are slimmed down and the moment relaxed. This isn’t a mid-summer farmers market with people scrambling for the last pint of blueberries, but rather an opportunity to walk table by table and say hello to a person that has invested their time and energy into producing food for you and your family.
This year, the farmers will be gathering at the new community center in Downtown Willimantic on April 1 from 11-2pm. With over 20 farms already signed up (and more joining!) you can easily picture a large room filled with farmers and friends a-like buzzing with conversation and laughter as some folks reunite with farmers after the long winter rest and some make new acquaintances with a farmer they will start to visit every week for their groceries.
For many, this is an opportunity to share information about what their CSA will look like this year. A CSA share (or Community Support Agriculture share) is, often, a weekly share of vegetables and/or fruits that a farm produces and distributes to customers during the growing season. This basic model has a lot of opportunities for tailoring from farm to farm, so the event has always been a good way to talk with farmers about what their specific CSAs will look like. How many weeks does the share run? Do they offer half shares? Are their extra add on options like eggs, bread, or flowers? Do they have a meat CSA with different pick-up times?
But for folks that have a large vegetable garden and don’t need the weekly infusion of veggies to their larder, there is still plenty to talk to farmers about. Many farmers in our area are specializing in things such as honey, maple syrup, teas, and soaps. These community gems are hidden treasures that can be hard to find if you were scrolling the internet late at night looking for local honey to relieve allergy symptoms, or soothing organic herbal tea to help you get to sleep. These farmers come not just to share their wonderful products with you, but share the craft that they have been developing to give back to the community.
And for those that are eager to know about how their food is raised this is the chance to get a better insight into our local farmer’s practices! If you are looking for an organic farmer, one who doesn’t use GMO’s or meat or poultry that is soy-free, the farmers are happy to answer those questions. Our farmers care so much about the land they are on and the people that they feed so the practices they use to raise our food are often things that are very important to them and they are happy to talk to you about what makes their farm, and how they farm unique (and brings that added flavor!)
With food trucks, kids activities, and a seed swap, there is plenty that will make this event a great family outing and something that will make you linger as you explore the farms that make this region, the Quiet Corner, so unique and a reflection of the agricultural history and heritage of our state.
For more information, contact: Jessica Larkin-Wells at jessica.larkin-wells@uconn.edu