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Kathleen Merrigan Plays Matchmaker

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 11:12:26 AM PDT

Kathleen Merrigan (Vilsack's #2 in command at the USDA) sent out a memo offering to play "matchmaker" to help those trying to build local and regional food systems better utilize the USDA. In particular, she highlights:

1. The Community Facilities Program

The Community Facilities (CF) Program supports the success of rural communities by providing loans and grants for the construction, acquisition, or renovation of community facilities or the purchase of equipment for community projects.

As examples, she says an NGO (non-governmental organization) could receive USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen to teach healthy cooking classes using produce from farmers, a farmers' market, or cold storage to help a school buy and serve fresh produce directly from farmers.

2. The Business and Industry (B&I) Guarantee Loan Program

The purpose of the B&I Program is to help new and existing businesses in rural areas gain access to affordable capital.

As examples, she says the loans can be used to aggregate local farm products so they achieve enough volume to serve a school system, to build a mobile slaughterhouse, or to add equipment and storage facilities for a local food processor.

3. Value-Added Producer Grant Program

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) Program provides grant funding for agricultural producers who add value to their raw products through processing and/or marketing, thereby increasing farm income.

Selling value-added products is a very important tool for farmers to capture more of the retail dollar from the food they grow. I've actually met a few farmers who have received this particular grant. Merrigan's examples are an organic cooperative receiving a grant to conduct a feasibility study and develop a marketing plan to provide locally grown produce to schools, a farmer receiving a grant to direct market pasture-raised lamb to restaurants and stores, or a dairy farm receiving a grant to plan and execute a marketing campaign for their ice cream.

Way to go Kathleen! If this money is out there, it'd be great to see folks taking advantage of it!

Jill Richardson :: Kathleen Merrigan Plays Matchmaker

Tags: Kathleen Merrigan, USDA, Local Food, (All Tags)

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Kathleen Merrigan Plays Matchmaker | 5 comments

In addition to community kitchens (4.00 / 3)

to teach cooking to people, I'd like to see community kitchens made available to farms to process their produce into value added products.

I looked into what it would take for me to produce flavored vinegars, and it would take 2-3 permits/licenses just to do that, depending on whether I was flavoring cider videgar with fruit syrups or making the vinegars directly from wine. That's outragous. You can license a home kitchen in Oregon, but the requirements would make it impossible for my kitchen to be licensed.

My options are contract with someone who does have a licensed commercial kitchen or build a whole new building with a commercial kitchen in it, neither of which is financially realistic for small batch processing.

I had considered drawing up plans for a mobile commercial kitchen and trying to get that licensed, and making it available for member farms to use for a fee. That I think would be doable, but it's not realistic to expect every small farm in America to build their own processing facility.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 18:33:02 PM UTC

I'll have to try and get more info (4.00 / 2)

as my memory sucks, but some farmers here are getting together for a community kitchen for farmers and others to use. That way, folks that go to pick your owns can go directly to canning, farmers can expand their product line and folks like me can just go spend some time canning for the winter etc . . . I like your idea of a mobile one.

So . . . is it your opinion cider vinegar is best for flavored vinegars? I used a champagne vinegar to make blueberry vinegar. Turned out pretty tasty, but I'm a complete newbie and it was a total experiment, so help me out here! :)

by: nycstray @ Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 21:05:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The little bit of info I have on flavoring vinegars (4.00 / 1)

says to use brown cider vinegar, not white or white or red wine vinegars. Why I don't know. I'm going to try different types of vinegars as a base. I was going to make my own, but uleashing acetobacter in the same building as my wine making sounds like a bad idea every time I think about it. At least if I use a pasturized cider vinegar I won't have to worry about contaminating my good wine. Especially since I think I'm going to have a really nice desert wine.

I'd say that if you're having success with champagne wine, I'd stay with that. I go through gallons and gallons of vinegar/year. This time of year I can use over a gallon/month making dressings, salads, marinades, etc., so champagne vinegars won't work for me. I can get the cider vinegar at the store for $5/gallon and flavor it with fruit syrups. I ran across some syrup recipes for basil, oregano and rosemary that I want to try. I'll bet fennel or sweet anise would make a great syrup to flavor vinegars with also.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 22:20:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks! (4.00 / 1)

I think I may try the cider. I used champagne because I was not sure how well the blueberries would come through a cider. I have some raspberry syrups I made that I also want to make vinegars with. I love the idea of making basil, rosemary, etc syrups for vinegars :) Fennel also sounds good. You could do a reduction for grilled seafood, etc. We should be getting more fennel in our CSA shares. I'm having fun making small batches of things for "later" and thinking of different things I can make with them.

If you have links for the herb syrups, would you mind posting them in a Pot Luck later? (I've already hijacked this thread :-[) We're getting fresh herbs also, and it would be fun to "extend" their use ;)

by: nycstray @ Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 22:48:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]