Food Access Spotlight: Waldo County Bounty

It’s been quite the summer for our friends and partners at Waldo County Bounty (WCB)! WCB is a community-based organization whose mission is “to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, nutritious food by collaborating with local farmers, organizations, and community members towards an equitable food system.” Their work includes:

• Farm-to-Pantry: co-founded by Daybreak in 2020, this program buys food from local farms and distributes it to Waldo County food pantries and soup kitchens. It is not only an ethical imperative for Daybreak as we seek to ensure that all our neighbors have access to locally grown foods, but also helps us move as much of the harvest as possible and reduce waste! From our preliminary findings, our food waste at Daybreak is under .05% of the food we move and the majority of this "waste" is sent as compost to a local pig farmer.
• Veggies for All: gleaning surplus crops from farms and gets them to communities. WCB and their mighty volunteers have already surpassed 2025 totals and have gleaned at 13 farms this year! It’s peak gleaning season, so stay tuned on their social media for volunteer opportunities.
• Give & Take tables: supports home gardeners and creates free, community-based access to fresh produce. WCB manages 25 tables across the county!

Daybreak is a core partner in both the Farm-to-Pantry and Veggies for All programs - we help connect local produce to local community members by purchasing directly from the farms and providing fresh food to participating hunger relief organizations! Did you know that $1 from every farmbox handling fee goes right to our food access work? THANK YOU!

Whether you’re a Waldo County local or reside elsewhere, we encourage you to stay in the loop with our food access partner.

• Sign up for their newsletter
• Learn more at their website: Waldo County Bounty
• Follow them on Facebook
• Follow them on Instagram (and learn about future fun gleaning opportunities!)

Peppers Galore!

It’s peak pepper season in Maine, and whether you’re into the hot and spicy, the sweet and mild, or like a surprise with every bite (did you know that one in ten shishito peppers can be as hot as a jalapeno??), we have three pepper preparations to inspire you to enjoy them long past their season.

Peppers Agrodolce

A sour (agro) and sweet (dolce) Italian condiment that goes great with roasted meat, topped on a pizza, or layered with soft burrata on toasted bread. We like this recipe - add toasted Vesper sourdough and a heavy smear of Balfour bevre.

Hot Honey

Ditch the store bought Mike’s and never go back when you see how easy it is to make your own (100% local!) version. Drizzle over pizza, a sharp cheese, or roasted veggies. Blend whatever quantity of whatever type of hot pepper you want (or about ¼ cup for a standard recipe), combine with Swans honey (1 cup) and a splash of Sewall apple cider vinegar (1 Tbsp), bring to a boil then cool and bottle.

Refrigerator Hot Sauce

Control the heat when you make your own - have fun experimenting with different pepper varieties! Our recent customization email included this simple recipe featuring our hot deal on bulk hot peppers from Swango Farm: 5lb hot pepper mix for $25. These make incredible hot sauce! Soak for 1-2 weeks in Sewall's apple cider vinegar and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Put peppers, ACV and garlic in blender + enjoy homemade hot sauce all winter long!

Farm Updates from the Milkhouse

We recently checked in with Caitlin from the Milkhouse to hear how their summer went. Despite a drought affecting most of Maine, their crew and cows are resilient, and Daybreakers are lucky to have access to their yogurt year round!

Daybreak’s sister company, Peak Season, helps get Maine food into Maine schools. Here’s a lineup of 4 gallon buckets heading from the Milkhouse creamery, to our warehouse, to our community schools! (Want to learn more about the movement to get local food into schools? October is Farm to School Month, and there are many ways to get involved. Learn more here!)

If you’re a fan of Milkhouse yogurts, you can be grateful for the endless work that goes into a pasture-based dairy: from thoughtfully grazing livestock, cutting throughout the dry (too dry - we need rain!) season, and wrapping up the baleage for good-eating grass in the winter.

A faceoff, cows vs. three year old!

An early frost last week (yikes!)!

As we ease back into our fall schedules and some normalcy after a busy summer, we wanted to remind you to please pick up your farmbox during the designated pickup window! If you find that your schedule conflicts with this window, check out our other farmbox pick up sites, and consider swapping!

Thank you to all our awesome Daybreakers that recruited friends to join during our Refer a Friend promotion! There are other ways to introduce friends to Daybreak year round:

• Gift certificates are available through our website in any amount (these make great holiday gifts!)
• Try a Daybreak Box or Farmers’ Choice Box with our “One-Time Box” offering - no subscription required, just check us out!
• For an anonymous gift, “Give a Box” at any time or during the customization window. These boxes of local produce go to our food access partners!

From the Archives

For more peppery inspiration, check out our October 2024 newsletter: recipes for Seven Moon Farm’s Walnut Pepper Spread, and Briny Grilled Italian Cornos. All past newsletters are archived on our website.

Fun fact about onions...

they’re worth crying about (especially the ones our farmers are growing and curing this time of year)! But why does this happen? Cutting an onion ruptures its cell walls, releasing enzymes that mix with amino acid sulfoxides to create a volatile gas. When that gas hits the water in your eyes, it forms a mild sulfuric acid, triggering tears!

What’s missing from the Daybreak lineup?

We’re still in the most bountiful time of year for local produce, but chilly nights are reminding us that winter is on its way. That means it’s time for us to start thinking about bulking up our pantry staples for you all, and we’d love to hear from you on what to source! Let us know in the form here.

Daybreak makes local food grocery shopping easy with 26+ convenient delivery locations throughout the state of Maine.

Orders must be picked up on the published day during the listed pick up time.

Don't see a pickup location that works for you? Start a new one!

Contact us if your community is interested in setting up a delivery location. If you are in Central or Southern Maine and near our current delivery route we’ll happily consider it! Learn more.

We're always here to answer any questions you may have or to assist with online account navigation and subscription adjustments.

Maine Grown Local & Organic Foods Delivered Year Round

www.DaybreakGrowersAlliance.com