French Toast Breakfast at Coit Road Farmers' Market

On Saturday, March 19th from 8:30am to 12 noon, Coit Road Farmers' Market will host a French toast breakfast featuring Chef Eric Wells. With sap running, the breakfast will include Northeast Ohio maple syrup, free range eggs, sausage, apple cider and coffee ... all for only $5!

Proceeds will benefit Coit's onsite greenhouse project.

Of course the market will also have apples, free range eggs (chicken and duck), greens, tons of cheese, baked goods, maple syrup, honey, spices and plenty more from local farmers.

The Coit Road Farmers' Market is open from 8am to 1pm on Saturdays. It is located at 15000 Woodworth Road in East Cleveland.

EcoTuesday Meetup March 22: Hurdles for Small Farms Selling Direct

The new buzz among Americans is all about eating healthier foods. The discussion has finally come front and center in a nation struggling with diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other diet-related chronic illness. As demand for locally grown food steadily increases, supply from existing local farms cannot meet the growing demand.

North Union Farmers Market (NUFM) has been a pioneering advocate for local farmers, with a 16-year history of attracting more than 300 small farms to its eleven “certified producer only” markets throughout Cuyahoga County. In surveying local farmers over the years, NUFM has pinpointed what it perceives as the greatest threat to small farm business - over regulation by state and federal governments. The impact on local farms can be devastating - more than half have left the business of farming because of lack of funding, lack of personnel resources, physical constraints and the costs associated with running a farm business.

EcoTuesday's March 22 will address the questions striking at the heart of this critical issue affecting both our economy and our public health: How can governments protect the consumer and grow more small farms? Is it the job of government to protect the consumer? What is the government’s role in protecting the consumer while encouraging local agriculture?

Panel Members Include:

• Adam Sharp, Legislative FB Representative
• Gale Betterley, Ph.D., Dairy Farmer
• Tom Wiandt, Killbuck Valley Farm
• Eric Ross, Red Wagon Farm
• Susan Woodworth, Middle Ridge Gardens
• Louis Rorimer, Snake Hill Farm
• Todd Mogren, Millgate Farm

This amazing set of speakers has been organized by event co-planner Donita Anderson, Executive Director of NUFM.

Special Guest Moderator: Liz Lockert of the Civic Commons

For more information or to register, please visit the event website.

EcoWatch’s Third Annual Green Gala April 8th

As Spring nears, we are wrapping up website content improvements and dipping back into our blog and other outreach tools. Look for another newsletter addition in late Winter/early Spring and the roll-out of our ODA grant programs beginning in April. (More on that later!). Check-out our twitter feed for news about local food press and happenings. Visit our calendar for information about local food learning opportunities. And, subscribe to this blog for posts about upcoming local food related events, newly discovered products and resources.

First up, EcoWatch’s Third Annual Green Gala fundraiser on April 8 featuring keynote speaker Philippe Cousteau, the grandson of Captain Jacques Cousteau. EcoWatch is an Ohio-based nonprofit dedicated to providing a voice for grassroots environmental organizations and activists working to better our planet. EcoWatch has served Ohio for more than five years through its bimonthly newspaper EcoWatch Journal, which is distributed for free throughout the state with a readership of 100,000 per issue.

The Green Gala will be at Executive Caterers, 6111 Landerhaven Dr., in Mayfield Hts. Philippe Cousteau continues his father’s and grandfather’s work of protecting the planet’s water through his advocacy and his organization EarthEcho International. Cousteau is the chief ocean correspondent for Animal Planet and Planet Green channels, where he works on various ocean and water-focused documentary programs. He is the chief spokesman for Environmental Education for Discovery Education—the number one provider of K-12 broadband-delivered educational content to U.S. schools. Cousteau serves on the board of directors of the Ocean Conservancy, Marine Conservation Biology Institute and National Environmental Education Foundation, as well as the advisory board of Discovery Communications Inc.’s Planet Green.

Cousteau is the author of Going Blue, a handbook that seeks to inform youths about the issues surrounding our waters and provide the strategies and examples they need to see themselves as change agents. The book is divided into the five stages of service learning—investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration. Teenagers will get an opportunity to meet Cousteau at a pre-event the evening of the Green Gala and receive a copy of the award-winning Going Blue handbook. EcoWatch is partnering with companies to help sponsor tables of students at the event.

In addition to learning about ways to help save a precious planetary resource, those attending the Gala will also learn more about the Great Lakes watershed and be updated on the impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster last year. Emcee for the evening will be Cleveland’s Maureen Kyle, a reporter and anchor for WKYC-TV 3.

Tickets for EcoWatch’s Green Gala can be purchased at www.ecowatch.org or 216-387-1609. Tickets are $100 ($75 tax-deductible). Come enjoy hors d’oeuvres, dinner, drink ticket, silent auction items, live jazz and Philippe Cousteau’s presentation to support the efforts of EcoWatch.

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Do you have an upcoming event you would like Growhio to highlight on this blog or a product or resource consumers and businesses can use to grow, compost, raise, preserve or cook local food? Please send your press release or relevant information to us at growhioinfo@gmail.com.

Off-Season Improvements

Growhio is using the off-season to make extensive changes and improvements to its website! What started as an effort to provide all information related to local food in Northeast Ohio on the site is now an active effort to provide only the best information on local food - in a clear, concise and easily navigable format. But we aren't going to spoil the fun of discovery now!

Look for gradual additions to the website content over the next few months. If you would like be notified when all planned improvements are live, please sign up here. We will not use your email address for any other purpose than this single notification.

As part of this transition we are also transferring web hosts, making our growhio.org email addresses inactive until at least mid-February. In the meantime, you reach us at growhioinfo@gmail.com.

Growhio Merchandise at Pop-Up Gift Shop!

This holiday season: Get Local. Get Green. Get Creative. Get Gifts.

Growhio is fortunate to be included in this year's Pop-Up Gift Shop, a unique use of space at Trinity Commons (2242 Euclid Avenue). Pop-Up Gift Shop is open Thursdays (excluding Thanksgiving) through Sundays, November 18-December 19, 2010. Growhio's gray and black t-shirts, reusable totes, and car window decals will be available for purchase.
Pop-Up Gift Shop is the genius of local artists Trish Supples and Nicole McGee (PlentyUnderfoot.com)--a demonstration of Cleveland’s many amazing resources (local artists, reused materials, empty retail spaces, innovation and creativity as far as the eye can see!). The idea was born out of an encounter between the artists and Dean Tracy Lind from Trinity Cathedral while they all attended this year’s Sustainability Summit: GlocalEngine. GlocalEngine was a follow-up to Sustainable Cleveland 2019, the summit out of which Growhio was born.

Help us celebrate reuse, sustainability and fun in Cleveland by shopping at the Pop-Up Gift Shop this holiday season for unique local gifts and supporting Growhio!

LESS Productions' SC2019 Local Food Video

ODA Specialty Crop Grant - Graphic Design

In addition to the promotional video discussed in the previous post, Growhio's Ohio Department of Agriculture specialty crop grant covers the graphic design and production of promotional materials for the marketing campaign, educational program, and new vendor start-up program--such as RTA bus ads, postcards, and signage. Growhio will be issuing an RFP in early December soliciting proposals from graphic design professionals to design these pieces. If you or any designers you know are interested in submitting a proposal, please send the contact name and email address to gforte@growhio.org to be added to the distribution list.