Jericho and Underhill: Joint Food Hub!

Laura reporting:

Folks from Jericho and Underhill came together yesterday for a first meeting of the joint Jericho and Underhill Food Hub. A baker’s dozen from the sister towns discussed combining forces to amplify efforts toward more local food production and access to local food.

While there was talk of what the future may hold, i.e. commercial kitchens, farm to school programs, local food celebrations, etc., some activities are happening already and can be supported and enhanced by this group and town residents.

For example, a communal potato patch is being planned on one of two possible sites in Underhill. There was talk around having open planting and picking days for families to both educate and feed more people. A community dinner takes place during winter months at Underhill’s town hall following the Stone Soup concept. For summer months, a community bake is in the planning stage in Jericho, modeled after an existing event in Johnson. Ongoing in Jericho, there is the kid’s garden contest, extra row harvests as well as the community edible landscape. March kicks off the garden education series at the Jericho Town Library with “Seed Starting with Ease” led by Laura Oliver.

The conversation included bringing back some school gardens that have gone by the wayside, supporting more farmers and local produce at the farmer’s markets, and helping create additional farm stands and farm stores, such as the one planned at Chamberlin’s Farm in Underhill.

The next meeting of this incipient group will happen on March 20. We’ll cover vision and organization of the group, as well as establishing groups to tackle various projects ; hope you can spread the word and join us!