Maine-grown vegetables - Colby (College) changes its cafeteria salad bar

[jpak]

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/4455534.html

WATERVILLE -- Colby College students may notice the vegetables are fresher than ever when they peruse the salad bar next week.

Beginning Monday, Colby will begin offering a new salad bar that's comprised entirely of Maine-grown produce.

The produce comes from as near as The Apple Farm in Fairfield, Backyard Farms in Madison and Kennebec Bean Co. in North Vassalboro, said Ruth Jacobs, spokeswoman for Colby College. Other items in the salad bar come from Aroostook County and southern Maine.

The new salad bar is being offered in response to calls from students for local produce, but it also is an outcropping of the ongoing commitment by Colby College and Sodexho, the food service management company the college works with, to support the local community, according to Varun Avasthi, director of dining services.

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[Botany]

1. ah don't they have a winter in Maine?

Kinda hard to grow veggies @ 12 below

[jpak]

2. Yes, but we now have wood-heated hydro/biomass-powered hoop and greenhouses

to grow fresh goodies in all year long.

So long food miles!

[kestrel91316]

3. Hmmmm.......Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch have a GREAT

year-round garden in Maine.

But no, you can't expect tomatoes in January. We all need to relearn how to eat seasonally.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Season-Harvest-Organic-Vegetables-Garden/dp/1890132276

[jpak]

4. Backyard Farms in Madison Maine grows tomatoes all year long

They have a multi-acre hydro-powered greenhouse and are building a biomass co-generation plant to provide heat and electricity in the winter months.

They are a major New England tomato supplier too...

[kestrel91316]

5. As long as they are powered by renewables and are off grid to boot,

that's WAY COOL. But you still can't get decent tomatoes in January.

[Botany]

6. Not as good as tomatoes grown outside in a hot humid summer but ....

.... I have had some hydroponic on the stem tomatoes that were pretty good.



In the summer I grow Jet Stars, Brandywine, and Pink Lady .... the Cherry tomatoes
(sweet millions) never get inside .. I just eat 'em outdoors.

[kestrel91316]

7. Brandywines are THE BEST in the world!!! Sadly, we get such horrible

searing sun here in the Valley that their poor tender skins don't protect them and they cook on the vine. Like my bell peppers......