Farmers’ Markets provide incredible edibles to the general public and especially to food lovers across the North Country. At a farmers’ market one can interact directly to the farmers about the food they grow and even discuss great recipes for cooking some of the fresh, local, mostly organic produce. It is a great initiative to support farmers’ efforts as they struggle against big corporations selling food produced from factory farming.
The Potsdam Farmers’ Market is located behind the municipal parking lot on 13 Main Street, Potsdam, NY 13676. It is a participant in the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and accepts Food Stamp/EBT cards. It is open on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (May 21 to October 29, 2011) and Wednesdays from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (beginning first week in August). Contact Juanita Babcock at (315) 384-4289 or visit their website at http://northcountrysites.com/potsdamfarmersmarket/ for more information.

Established in Autumn of 2009 with their motto “Sharing Knowledge from the Past ~ Building Skills for the Future” the Sustainable Living Project is involved to inspire and enable people to adopt more healthy, local and sustainable ways of living.  It spreads awareness of the externalized costs of current lifestyle in the North Country and of our unique position in a rural region, that has retained many vital “simple living” skills and resources. The Sustainable Living Project helps facilitate the sharing of this deep pool of knowledge within the community. The broader vision and goals of the Sustainable Living Project are:

Strengthening vibrant community connections and celebrating local living, in town and in the countryside.

Facilitating skills-building for self-reliance, appropriate technology, environmental awareness, energy independence and small scale local agriculture.

Sharing low-impact and low-cost solutions people can incorporate into their lives to reduce their ecological footprint.

The specific long term goals of the Sustainable Living Project are:

To create a Community Resource Center & Agricultural Depot that would serve the community as a whole as well as rural enterprises and other non-profits working within our mission framework.The eventual goal is to create a Homesteading College with a core curriculum based on growing, eating and preserving food, renewable energy systems, “green” building, and traditional rural skills.

Their year-round programs are the core of their work in the community and inform their creativity as a project through their emphasis on “open learning” — the idea that we all have knowledge, skills and information to share with each other. There is a core coordinating group of 10-12 volunteers (more always welcome!) working on the various projects of the SLP culminating in the Local Living Festival ~ A Celebration of Resourceful Living. This is the second year of the festival after a very exciting and successful event last year with over 1200 attendees. The Festival will be held the last weekend of September 2011 at the Learning Farm of the Cornell Cooperative Extension near Canton, NY.

For more information visit their website www.SustainableLivingProject.net/ or e-mail sustlivingproject@gmail.com or call 315-347-4223.

-Klaus

We are renewing the Seedcorn.org website.  We’ll be under construction for the near future..    check back soon for updates and more community resources/info.

We welcome feedback/comments/ideas..