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    • A for profit social enterprise, all about food
    We unearth the stories behind your food
    to inform, entertain, and connect you to what's on your plate.

    BikeLoc: Discovering Local Food by Bike

    by admin on July 28, 2010

    About Harvest speaks with Robert Dubois of a movement called Bikeloc. Averaging about 70 miles per day, Robert and Aaron are traveling across America by bicycle and with a purpose to collect and share stories about Local Food Movement across the country.

    Listen here:

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    To learn more about this movement, visit BikeLoc.org

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    Farmer Jane: The Book and Movement

    by admin on July 10, 2010

    Temra Costa cooks, gardens and serves as an advocate for farming and food. She is also is the author of the new book and movement known as FARMER JANE.

    In her new book, readers learn that women are one of the fastest-growing demographics to own and operate farms in the United States and that they are tending towards diversified, direct-marketed foods that create relationships with the people that Temra indentifies simpy as, eaters.

    Press material that accompanied my review copy of Farmer Jane describes Temra and her work as follows:

    Costa was intrigued by the number of women engaged in food and farming through her professional career as a sustainable food and farming advocate with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), in California. With a thirty percent increase in women farm operators from 2002 – 2007, along with increases in women-owned businesses and involvement in government, the feminine voice in food and farming is starting to be heard. Farmer Jane is a compelling and empowering look at how communities, businesses and homes can be enriched by the sustainable food movement. Enlightened by the lessons and trials of women farmers, chefs, advocates and educators, Farmer Jane gives information and support to anyone wishing to become involved.

    Listen here:

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    A Honey Bee’s Best Friend: The Apiarist

    by admin on June 30, 2010

    Do you wonder what makes a honey bee tick? We definitely do and decided to speak with someone that you might say is one of the honey bee’s best friends, Tim Schuler.

    NJ State Apiarist Tim Schuler

    NJ State Apiarist Tim Schuler

    Tim is the State Apiarist with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and also teaches the Bee-ginner’s Beekeeping Course at Rutgers University.

    Got Honey?


    Would you like to keep bees yourself but need to know more about Bee Keeping?

    Tim Schuler tells us some of the best places to find information can be found here:

    http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/divisions/pi/prog/beeinspection.html

    http://njbeekeepers.org/

    http://maarec.psu.edu/

    Tim Schuler and his BEE-Bearded son

    Listen here for our interview with Tim Schuler:

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    ‘The Farmer and the Horse’ to Premiere at Howell Living History Farm

    by admin on June 15, 2010

    Plowing at Howell Living History Farm

    Three month stay on a old-time farm turns into a feature length documentary

    In 2008, Jared Flesher started a blog called Farmbedded to document his 3 month stay at Howell Living History Farm, an educational facility that “preserves and interprets farming life and processes from the era of 1890-1910″.

    Farmer Charles Napravnik of Asbury Village Farm

    An Award-winning freelance journalist, Flesher writes about energy, the environment, and sustainability for The New York Times Online and The Christian Science Monitor. His work has also been also been published by The Wall Street Journal Online, New Jersey Monthly magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Gannett New Jersey newspapers. During our interview (podcast below) about this film, Flesher said:

    I decided to tell the story about The Farmer and the Horse because it tells a story about sustainability that I don’t think has been told before.

    The rough cut of the film, 75 minutes long, is now complete and has been receiving great reviews from local farmers, environmentalists, and land conservationists.

    Intern at Howell Living History Farm in 2008.

    The Farmer and the Horse will premiere at Howell Living History Farm on August 6 at 9 p.m. Click here for more details:

    http://thefarmerandthehorse.com/

    Want to help?

    The Farmer and the Horse is looking for a local organization, business, or individual to sponsor the screening. Contact director Jared Flesher at jtflesher@gmail.com for more details.

    Listen here for our interview with Filmmaker Jared Flesher:

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    The Farmer and the Horse: The Documentary

    by admin on May 18, 2010

    Before tractors changed farming forever, horsepower meant hooking up a team of draft horses to a walking plow or seed drill. Farms today are bigger, faster, and more productive than ever before, but are they better? A group of farmers in New Jersey aren’t so sure…

    Follow filmmaker Jared Flesher as he documents the past, present, and future of horsepower in the Garden State and beyond.

    To learn more visit project website

    To contribute to this project, visit  Kickstarter.com

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    Agribusiness in Romania

    by admin on April 7, 2010

    Dana Bucur is involved in the agribusiness sector in Romania. Her professional life started in 1996, teaching students about Management and Marketing. In 1998 she had the great opportunity to join Mr. Peter Topham’s Romanian team. Topham is one of the top 10 UK business farmers and between the years of 1998 to 2006 he had large agricultural investments in Romania mainly in farming.

    Dana has worked for an agricultural trader (UK), for a large olive farm and a large diary enterprise. She holds an MBA, which she earned in the UK and an Agribusiness MBA that she earned in Romania & Germany.

    Listen here:

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    For more information about Dana Bucur and her businesses, please visit: http://www.agrimanagement.ro/

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    The First Int’l Blueberry Festival in China

    by admin on February 17, 2010

    A few month’s ago I was contacted by Mark Fagen, a senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard University. He had contacted me because he was interested in getting copies of The Mighty Humble Blueberry to take with him on a trip he was making to China to speak to the Federation of Agriculture Cooperatives.

    Professor Fagen had been invited specifically to work with the agriculture coops there and to help them better understand food safety requirements. While there, he also planned to attend China’s first ever Blueberry Festival. China has been raising wild blueberries in northeast region of the country for the last 6 or 7 years, and this was their official opening. According to Fagen, a much smaller and more fragmented cultivated blueberry industry also exists in China.

    In an email, Professor Fagen shared details about the photograph (seen above) and a little about his journey:

    “Aside from the 2 hour flight from Beijing followed by a 12 hour train journey, it was very interesting. I am attaching a photo of me presenting your video to Song Xibin, Secretary of Committee Commissioner (think regional mayor). “

    The Mighty Humble Blueberry is about how the cultivated blueberry industry was created and expanded nearly 100 years ago and it has been an honor for us to share the story with the people of the emerging wild blueberry industry in China. Read a recent review about this documentary here.

    To learn about the Chinese Blueberry Conference and Festival and more, listen here:

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    High Nutrition & Great Taste = Pulse Crops

    by admin on February 9, 2010


    Grown in the Pacific Northwest and along the Northern Plains of the United States, Pulse crops provide us with excellent sources of nutrition.

    Zerbe Peas

    In this podcast we speak with Tim McGreevy, the executive director of the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council. Listen &  learn what Pulse crops are and why Tim McGreevy finds them to be among the most “nutritious crops in the world”

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    Pittsburgh’s Edible Schoolyard

    by admin on February 1, 2010

    Based on the seed-to-table learning model initiated by Alice Waters in Berkeley, CA, The Pittsburgh Edible Schoolyard integrates garden activities into the regular classroom curriculum to improve young students’ eating habits, invest students in their school communities, and enhance students’ academic performance.

    Now in its fourth year in the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS), The Edible Schoolyard is the fruit of collaboration between PPS personnel, teachers, parents, community members, and the non-profit organization Grow Pittsburgh.

    In this podcast we speak with the Director of Education for Grow Pittsburgh, Joshua Burnett. To many young Pittsburgh students, he is better known as “Farmer Josh”.

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