-by Carly Valenzuela ’13
On Saturday, November 21st from 10am-2pm, the first annual Holiday Farmers’ Market* will be held at Williams College. The event, to take place in the Towne Field House, will feature more than thirty regional farmers and producers from the Berkshires who will sell all of the “fixings” for a Thanksgiving meal including produce, cheese, eggs, meat, poultry, bread, pies and other baked goods.
The idea for a holiday market was envisioned by Nancy Thomas, founder and owner of the Mezze Restaurants Group located in Williamstown. Thomas, a board member of Berkshire Grown, saw a holiday market that took place in Bennington, VT last year and thought that the same idea could be applied to the Williamstown area with the help of the local food advocacy group and the Berkshire community.
Not only will the Market help the participating local farmers extend their selling seasons, but it will more importantly allow the farmers to work together to educate attendees on the significance of sustainable food programs and local agriculture. According to Lori van Handel, Manager of the Sustainable Food Program for the Zilkha Center, the Market will allow many Williams students to “meet the hands that feed them” since Dining Services uses many of these local farmers’ products in the dining halls on the Williams College campus.
Dining Services spends a portion of its budget every year on premium local and organic foods with the purchase of hormone-free milk, maple syrup, low-spray apples, fresh seasonal vegetables and several varieties of local cheese from local farms. Williams also purchases sustainable fish, local beef and pork and organic chicken for special events.
Berkshire Grown hopes that the market will help with its vision of “a community where healthy farms define the open landscape, where a wide diversity of fresh, seasonal food and flowers continue to be readily available to everyone, and where we celebrate our agricultural bounty by buying from our neighboring family farms and savoring their distinctive Berkshire harvest.”
In keeping with the goals of both Berkshire Grown and the Sustainable Food Program, van Handel hopes to see the Market used as a stepping stone to bring more students together to help the Sustainable Food Program’s vision of supporting Slow Food as well as to educate Williams students on the significance of sustainable food programs. Already, students who have learned more about their roles in the food system have proposed ideas to create a Slow Food Campus Convivia on campus as well as a campus garden to engage with their fellow students on food quality and justice.
“My feeling is that many members of the Williams community have difficulty realizing that we are not passive consumers of food, but co-creators of the system that feeds us. As a resident of the Berkshires (and we all are, even if for only four years), I would rather support an agricultural industry organized around “values”–such as health, quality and community, than support an agricultural industry (agribusiness) devoted to quantity and convenience. Sometimes supporting local agriculture takes more up-front money, and more effort, but when you realize that your purchase at a local farmer’s market is a vote for health in the largest sense–health of our bodies and of the land, and of our rural economic community, then food no longer seems like a smart place to economize,” van Handel explained.
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Vendors who will attend:
The Williamstown market will feature the following vendors: Appletree Hill Organic Farm, Baby Cakes, Berkshire Organics, Berle Farm, The Berry Patch, Chocolate Springs, Cricket Creek Farm, Elf Parlor, Gala Restaurant in partnership with Green River Farm, Hidden Pasture Farm, Jaeschke’s Orchard, The Market of Pittsfield, Mezze Catering, Mighty Food Farm, Peace Valley Farm, Sleeping Dog Farm, Sol Flower Farm, Sweet Brook Farm, Wild Oats Community Market and several independent bakers and florists.
If you would like to learn more about the sustainable food projects active in the Berkshires, please speak to the farmers and Zilkha Center representatives at the Holiday Market. You can also contact Lori van Handel.
*There will also be a Holiday Farmers’ Market in Great Barrington on November 21st.