Watch all of the 2023 Love Local Series videos from Kearsarge Food Hub
By Hanna Flanders, Kearsarge Food Hub
We’ve inherited a globalized food system that works for very few people economically, drawing wealth out of rural communities and causing immense harm to the planet through destructive practices up and down the supply chain.
This kind of consolidated system is inherently vulnerable to disruptions that threaten our ability to access foods – think empty grocery store shelves during COVID, or farm workers going on strike, or fossil fuel shortages, or global conflicts halting trade and transportation. These disruptions ultimately lead to greater food and nutrition insecurity for all of us.
How do we get out of this? Building community based, localized food systems.
Kearsarge Food Hub (KFH) is a nonprofit organization working to contribute to a resilient, community based, localized food system in rural New Hampshire. Like so many food hubs across the nation, KFH functions as a critical bridge between local farmers and neighbors in our community, holding together a network of services that range from growing food with regenerative practices on our own Sweet Beet Farm with educational programs to grow the next generation of farmers, to creating food access and representing 150 regional farmers and producers all year long in Sweet Beet Market and Cafe, to ensuring all neighbors can access local foods regardless of ability to pay with 2000 lbs of fresh foods donated monthly that reach over 500 area families.
At KFH, we aim to not only make a real difference in the lives of our neighbors, but also to contribute to systemic change in the ways we grow, eat, and share food on the local and regional levels. In so many ways, this is what our annual Love Local Video Series is all about.
One thing we’ve learned here at KFH over the last nine years of food systems work is food security IS farmer security. Our farmers and producers are absolutely fundamental to the health and wellness of our communities, supporting us with the foods they grow and make, and the ways they tend the land. Our farmers are on the front lines of not only experiencing the effects of climate change on their businesses but combating and mitigating its effects for the area they work and live. Despite and among these challenges, they continue to push forward to produce food and build community resilience.
In this Love Local Video Series (view all the videos below), we visit four farms in New Hampshire and Vermont that have contended with the weather this year and, like all farmers, have had to find their way to make it through.
These farms represent a sample of what a diverse, localized food system can look like – many farming models contributing to a resilient community food web where the varied approaches make the whole stronger, and where short and long term food security is more achievable.
New England produces 12 percent of the food it consumes, with just 5 percent of land in agricultural production while many farmers struggle to find land access. We have a ways to go to reach the benchmark of supplying 30% of our food from regional sources by 2030 as set out by the A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience report from the New England Food System Planners Partnership, a collaboration among six state-level food system organizations and Food Solutions New England.
That’s why we’re so very grateful to hear directly from our farmers in these videos, where they generously share their time, stories, and experiences with us so we can learn from them and with them about what we can all do to move the needle forward and inch toward that 30% by 2030 goal.
2023 Love Local Series – Kearsarge Food Hub
NOK Vino – Creating Culture around the Vine
“NOK Vino is committed to making delicious wines and ciders from the fruits grown here in New Hampshire. Their wine production is based in Concord, NH, though they farm vineyards from across the state and are generally dedicated to reviving not only vineyards but rural landscaces and living. Nico and his crew remind us that the effort to source as much as we can from people around us activates very real and powerful potential in our local food system and community – potential that’s based in human connection. It’s not just delicious wine and cider, thought that is a big part of it! You’re going to want to taste what NOK Vino is serving, and that is an authentic expression of the fruits grown across the Granite State. Learn more about NOK Vino: www.nokvino.com and find their products at Sweet Beet Market in Bradford, NH.”
Deep Meadow Farm – Health of the Planet, Health of the People
“Deep Meadow Farm is 50 acre organic farm on the Connecticut River in Ascutney, Vermont. Jon, his son Kyle and their team are committed to producing a range of organic veggies for a diversity of markets in Vermont, New Hampshire, New England, and beyond. The challenges the farm has faced form climate change and increasingly tight margins are very real and ongoing. Jon shares the critical message that to keep our local farms alive, we must participate with regular business. Eat and shop local when you can! Learn more and support Deep Meadow at https://deepmeadowfarm.net/”
Spring Ledge Farm – A Community Treasure
“Spring Ledge Farm is an absolute cornerstone in the Kearsarge community, not only for producing local foods but for contributing to a sense of place and creating opportunities for neighbors to engage with the local food system. Owner Greg Berger and his team prioritize giving back to the community with the dollars that circulate through their business. Spring Ledge is a household name in our rural communities, keeping agriculture front and center in our homes. Generosity of spirit embodied at Spring Ledge Farm! Find all their goodness at 37 Main Street in New London, NH and learn more at www.springledgefarm.com.”
Sweet Beet Farm – Regenerative Farming & Growing Farmers
“Sweet Beet Farm is a program of the Kearsarge Food Hub on a mission to reinvigorate the community within a restorative local food system. On the farm, this looks like soil building practices, encouraging a vibrant farm and forest ecosystem, growing a diversity of organic veggies and herbs, all while welcoming students and learners of all ages and connecting and sharing with a growing network of local farmers. Learn more about Sweet Beet Farm at: https://www.kearsargefoodhub.org/sweet-beet-farm”
2023 Love Local: Meet your Farmers & Makers Full Recording
“Check out the full recording from Kearsarge Food Hub’s Love Local: Meet your farmers + makers virtual event. Learn more about the important work of our featured farmers: NOK Vino, Deep Meadow Farm, Spring Ledge Farm, and our own Sweet Beet Farm. The takeaway? We all have a role to play in making our food systems and communities more resilient during these challenging times. Learn more about KFH and support our nonprofit services at www.kearsargefoodhub.org.“
