Photo at Osamequin Farm in Seekonk

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us for this past weekend's Ag and Food Conference! We had a fantastic day, and are so grateful to everyone who took the time to join us. Speakers, moderators, panelists, special guests and audience members alike, the day could not have been possible without all of you. We hope all who attended came away with new ideas, knowledge and inspiration for how they can be a part of our local food system, whether you're growing, selling or eating.

Conference registrants should receive recordings from the event in the near future. Folks who didn't register can expect to see recordings of sessions made available throughout the spring on our website and social media.

This year's conference would not have been possible without the support of our incredible sponsors: PCT Federal Credit Union, Davoll's General Store, Farm and Coast Market, Buzzard's Bay Brewing, NOFA-RI, Johnny's Seeds, Edible Southeastern Massachusetts, Turtle Tree Seed and MarketLink. Support for the Conference also comes from funding through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.

Ready to get your farm season off to a strong start and connect with other farmers and service providers in your community? Come to one of our in-person networking events this spring! Over the next two months, we'll be gathering our community across the region to connect and discuss important topics for the year ahead. Full details will be released in the coming weeks, but mark your calendars now for these upcoming events:

Registration to networking events is not required but is encouraged. All networking events are free, and will include light refreshments and food.

If you aren't able to join us in-person but are still looking for more ways to engage with SEMAP, we also have a virtual workshop all about how to use spreadsheets to improve your farm business on Thursday, March 22.

Spreadsheets have many uses on-farm: financial record-keeping, crop planning, payroll, and more. But they can also be so confusing! Join us in problem-solving common problems and discovering the full potential of spreadsheet software like Excel and Google Sheets. This session is geared towards farmers with a basic understanding of spreadsheet uses. This is for farmers/fishers with an existing familiarity with Excel or Google Sheets, who are looking to use it to its fullest potential and/or trouble-shoot a few common problems. If producers have no familiarity with spreadsheets, SEMAP can work with them one-on-one before this workshop.

SPACE IS LIMITED: We will close registration at around 15 people so we can take a look at individual spreadsheets and allow all to share their screens. If there’s a lot of interest, we will look into repeating this workshop.

Take a look at a few of the currently open grant, reimbursement, and award programs below, then check out a complete list on our webpage.

With the growing season just around the corner, now is the time to get your business listing up to date for this year's Local Food Guide!

Every year SEMAP distributes over 10,000 copies of our Buy Fresh Buy Local Guide for the Southeastern Massachusetts region. Ensure your Guide listing is up to date by checking out last year's virtual guide.

Once you submit your updates, changes will be made in your virtual listing right away, and will be reflected in our printed Guide coming later this Spring. Click the button below to complete our Business Listing Google Form, or head to our website for more details and to update your listing there.

13 acres of farmland in Dighton, MA, are currently available for purchase. The property includes a 1200 sq ft colonial-style home on-site. The property is located on Elm Street. For more details, check out the full property listing on New England Farmland Finder.

Researchers at the National Farm Medicine Center and The Ohio State University are looking for farmers and ranchers who are raising children 0 to 18 to participate in an online survey. The survey asks about your families’ experiences taking care of children while also working on and off the farm/ranch. The survey is open to part time and full time farmers, ranchers, and their partners operating in rural, urban, or suburban areas.

To fill out the 15 to 20 minute survey, click here or use the button below.

For questions or to request a paper survey, contact project lead Florence Becot at 715-389-9379 or [email protected]­­­­­­­­­­­­

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service recently signed a cooperative agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for more than $3.5 million to improve child nutrition and build new relationships between schools and local farmers.

This funding opportunity, Northeast Foods For Schools, is now available to all schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. Funds can be used to purchase unprocessed and minimally processed foods grown within 400 miles.

Massachusetts Farm to School is collaborating with local producers to support connections with schools that are receiving the funds. Farmers interested in selling to schools are encouraged to reach out to Simca Horwitz ([email protected]) for more information or with any questions. 

A key goal of the Northeast Foods For Schools is to create new procurement relationships between schools and Socially Disadvantaged farmers and small businesses. To that end, MDAR is supporting this effort by establishing a database of Socially Disadvantaged farmers to ensure that self-identified farmers are kept informed of the process. The more individuals we can reach, the more effective our work will be in the future.

Please complete this form to self-identify as a Socially Disadvantaged farmer or producer. If you have any questions about how your information will be used, please contact [email protected]. Please disseminate this form through your networks.

Ag Day recognizes the cultural heritage, resiliency, and vitality of Massachusetts’s agricultural industry, and gives farmers and the organizations that represent them an opportunity to educate legislators about the industry.

The event is free, but registration is required. Please use this form from MDAR to register. Please share the link with your networks - anyone who supports Massachusetts agriculture is welcome to attend!

2023 CSA offers are available from farms all across the region now! Many of our wonderful local farms have started rolling out farm shares for this year already, so now is the time to buy yours and make sure you get all the great local fruits, veggies, meat, and eggs you need. Plus, check out some of the CSA and farm share offerings from our other producers, including flowers, seafood and aquaculture.

What makes CSAs so valuable? For farmers, money earned from CSA shares early in the year allow them plan for the season ahead with more support during what would typically be a slower time of year. For consumers, it locks in your access to fresh, local food during the year, and allows you to show your support for local farms all year round!

Looking for a farm near you to purchase your share from? Check out our new CSA page for Southeastern Massachusetts, which you can view now to find offers near you! Check out the mini-guide today, and get your share for the season!

This month, we wanted to share with you a couple of resources on the regulatory side of food and nutrition. We promise, it isn't as boring as it sounds!

First, we have an episode of the Firewall Podcast, hosted by Bradley Trusk. Firewall focuses on the intersection of tech, regulation and politics, and in an episode earlier this year, the focus was on nutrition and food. This episode features a conversation with Helena Bottemiller Evich, a nutrition and policy reporter previously of Politico, and now authoring her own independent newsletter, FoodFix.

The conversation ranges across a number of issues around food and nutrition, from hunger relief at a policy level, to FDA shortcomings, to the future of food in the United States. Helena brings her years of journalistic experience and first-hand knowledge on these issues in a way that is both insightful and (pun intended) digestible. Nutrition policy and regulation is a key piece of building a better food system, and we hope you take the time to give this a listen and consider this work as it relates to all of yours.

On top of this, we also encourage folks to check out Helena's work at FoodFix. It is a great source of information for the happenings around federal nutrition work, from FDA on down. Decisions made in these agencies affect our food system greatly, and knowing what's going on as a producer is incredibly valuable. When it feels like food and nutrition don't always see the attention we know they need, it is refreshing to have a strong, experienced journalistic voice covering these issues.

We are always looking for new suggestions of resources to broaden our understanding and learning about what matters to farmers, and we especially want to hear from you about what you've read, heard or watched recently. If you have any thoughts or recommendations for this section going forward, send an email to [email protected].

While we are still just on the cusp of the growing season in Southeastern Massachusetts, we want to highlight the crops our farmers are growing to get you through the last stretch of winter. Head over to a winter market in your are and look for any of these amazing crops.

Throughout March, be on the lookout for...

And don't forget about year-round local products like meat, dairy, eggs, and seafood! We hope this helps you plan recipes and get the most out of local food!

Have you checked out our Local Food Jobs page recently? You'll find local food and farm job listings relevant to Southeastern Massachusetts. Here are a few picks currently on the page. Want to share a listing? Email [email protected]

Farm Stand, Field Crew, and Youth Educators at Medway Community Farm in Medway

Assistant Grower at Moose Hill Farm in Sharon

Greenhouse and Nursery Crew & Garden Center Interim Assistant Manager at Allandale Farm in Brookline

Development Director at Berkshire Grown in Great Barrington

Part Time Farmhand at Ivory Silo Farm in Westport

Multiple Positions at CommonWealth Kitchen in Dorchester