Bring Food Scaps to Farmers' Market

A food-scrap collection program run by ecoRI News, a nonprofit news website covering the environment and social justice, moves into a new market on Saturday – the Go Local farmers’ market in Barrington.

Food scraps will be collected at the market, which returns to the Barrington Congregational Church tomorrow, June 2, and runs every Saturday through October from 9 am to noon.

The public works division of ecoRI News will take compostable food scraps at a collection station. A staff member will be there also to answer questions about composting and other waste-stream issues.

At the end of the market, the public works team will either hand off the food scraps collected to a local farmer who adds this material to a compost pile, compost the food scraps itself, sell it as a fundraiser or donate the resource to community gardens and public school growing projects.

Click here for some guidelines. There are do's and don't's for composting.

“It is hard to consider the waste stream in its current form without feeling pretty guilty,” said ecoRI Public Works Manager Kevin Proft. “Most people want to live more sustainably. That’s where ecoRI Public Works comes in; our goal is to teach the public about how they can reduce the amount of waste they add to this stream.”

Go Local returns to the “White Church” for its third year. It is run by Lisa Browning of Barrington, a registered dietitian.

“This is the way we should be eating,” she said. "It's access to delicious, nutritious, healthy food at your doorstep."

Dozens of vendors from Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts will be setting up booths and tables each week, although the mix of vendors will change weekly.

"This is farm fresh food," Browning said. "You should do your shopping here for fresh produce and baked goods. And the more support given, the lower the prices can be."

Among the local products at the market will be fresh eggs; breads and pastries; artisanal and goat cheeses; meats, seafood, and lamb; all-natural and cage-free poultry; candy and confections, salad greens and herbs, dips and spreads, organic honey and related products.

The farmers market also will have “something special" just about every week. Tomorrow, for instance, "La Creperie will be making made-to-order crepes,” said Browning.

Mark Taber, a local keyboard musician, will be providing music.

Go Local accepts credit and debit cards, food stamps, WIC vouchers and senior coupons, Browning said.

Here are a handful of the 2012 vendors and their products:

• Seven Stars Bakery, breads and baked goods
• Bristol Bakery, breads and pastry
• Providence Coffee Roasters, fair-trade coffee
• Oakdale Farm, an organic farm that uses Integrated Pest Management to minimize the use of pesticides
• Aquidneck Island Apiaries, organic honey and similar products
• Nettie's Kettle Corn
• Sweet Lorraine's Candy Shoppe, candy, chocolate and confections
• The Farmers Garden, fresh vegetables
• Baffoni's Poultry Farm, natural, cage-free poultry and eggs
• Earth Esstential Herbals
• Foxboro Goat Cheese
• New Urban Farmers
• Mapleville Farm, preserves and baked goods
• Local Catch, seafood

For more information on the farmers market, click here.  Or go to Facebook here.