Press Release

Fresh Ideas Fill Menu for Oklahoma Local Foods Week

It’s official!  Governor Brad Henry has proclaimed June 14-21 “Local Foods Week” in Oklahoma.

“Citizens of Oklahoma are seeking access to fresh and local Oklahoma grown foods through a growing number of venues,” reads the proclamation.

Those venues, says the governor, include farm stands, farmers’ markets, the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, the Oklahoma Farm-to-School program, community supported agriculture (CSA), and many others.

Oklahoma leads the nation in the growth of such direct farm marketing ventures.

Celebrating Local Foods Week can be as simple as buying some fresh Oklahoma-grown food from any of them – but that’s only a taste of what’s possible.

A “Menu of Ideas” from Buy Fresh Buy Local Oklahoma, which organized Local Foods Week, plants the seeds of many other ways to celebrate.

The Menu is available free, along with a complete calendar of Local Foods Week events, at www.BuyFreshBuyLocalOK.com.

Some events planned for this special week include cooking demos, special talks from vendors and scavenger hunts for children at farmers’ markets. Some community gardens will offer tours to the public and farms will host milking demonstrations, cheese making classes, farm-table dinners and labyrinth walks.

At home, the menu suggests, people can freeze or can local produce for the off-season, and even plant gardens of their own.

Friends and neighbors can cooperate to organize “canning swaps,” start or get involved with a community garden, or help provide fresh food to the local food pantry through the “Plant a Row for the Hungry” program.

Though Local Foods Week runs for just seven days, the Menu of Ideas can bear fruit all year long.  When students go back to school in the fall, for instance, they can taste-test local foods in the classroom or cafeteria, or invite a local farmer to speak.

Farmers can list their farms in the Oklahoma Food Connection, a directory of farms selling locally. This free service is available at www.kerrcenter.com.

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