Expanding Winter Harvest and Sales for New England Vegetable Crops
Public interest in purchasing locally grown food has grown immensely in recent years throughout New England and across the US. Growers have responded by keeping farmstands open longer, creating winter farmers markets, and offering various forms of ‘winter shares’ at CSA farms. Traditional storage practices combined with improved production technologies are needed to generate, store and market more food to satisfy market needs.
With funding provided by a Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education grant, the UMass Extension Vegetable Program is partnering with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension and two local food organizations, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) in western MA and Seacoast Eat Local (SEL) in eastern NH on a project that addresses the need for expanding winter harvests and sales for various vegetable crops in New England. The project builds upon successful innovations in cold-season growing, and focuses on aspects of production and storage that need further development to strengthen this aspect of the regional food system.
Please follow the links below for information on low-cost season extension, winter storage systems, and winter markets.
Partners on the project are:
- UMass Vegetable Program (Ruth Hazzard, rhazzard@umext.umass.edu, Amanda Brown, brown@umext.umass.edu)
- UNH Vegetable and Small Fruit Program (Becky Sideman, becky.sideman@unh.edu);
- Seacoast Eat Local (Kate Donald, kate@seacoasteatlocal.org);
- Communities Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (Claire Morenon, claire@buylocalfood.org).
Please call 413-545-3696 for more information.