Fresh Bites Winter 2021 Edition

COMMITTEES Farm to School

Farm to School Feature

Cornell Cooperative Extension Launches BY CHERYL THAYER Ag Economic Development Specialist Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY NY 30% PRODUCT DATABASE

BY ROSEMARIE HANSON Trumansburg Central School District top ny state crops for Farm to Table

Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY recently launched the NY 30% Initiative Eligible Product Database , which lists all known 30% eligible items, sans seasonably available fresh produce and regionally available local protein. Products in this database qualify for the NY 30% Initiative as they are either: (1) NY Grown & Certified or (2) contain 51% or more NY grown/raised/produced ingredients and have product formulation statements (PFS’s) that have been approved by State Ed. Each eligible itemcontains the following information, when possible: distributors, distributor and manufacturer codes, vendor contact information, NY Grown & Certified (NYG&C) certificate and an accompanying list of qualifying products (if not evident), product formulation statements, and other necessary documentation required for verification, and product sell sheets. Also included in the database is a master list of vendors and a master list of NYG&C products. The database can be used to: • Identify products that have been designated as eligible NY Food Products. If they are available in your area, purchase them! If they are not available, you can work with supply chain partners to bring the item(s) to your region. • Download and use relevant PFS’s and other pieces of attestation. • Search for eligible NYG&C products. Note that State Ed is using inclusion in the database as sufficient evidence of NYG&C products. • Use the NYG&C Master List to identify sources of fresh produce, protein and other products that are not specifically listed in the 30% database as unique products. Note that items listed in the NYG&C Master List are not officially approved as NY Food Products; only those items listed in the Approved Eligible NY Product List are.

Harvest NY developed a suite of resources to assist you in navigating the database. Included are tutorials on using the database, which is housed in Airtable, a database management platform that may be new to some. We created a PDF guide and a short video tutorial highlighting the most useful and pertinent features of the database. Should you have a product you would like considered for inclusion in the database, please fill out the Google Form. Also, please reach out to us if you notice anything that might be missing or incorrect pertaining to a product or if you want to provide feedback on ways to improve the database. Our next steps are to identify sources of fresh minimally processed produce and animal-based protein for inclusion in the database, so please check back frequently.

So, How can you incorporate these items into your menu?

When you are thinking about adding local and NYS products to your menu, it helps to know what the top crops are produced by NYS farmers. According to NYS agricultural reports, dairy leads the pack in NYS. In fact, NY is the # 1 producer of yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese in the nation! Apples, eggs, grapes, cabbage, potatoes, sweet corn, squash, tomatoes, and onions round out the list of top crops. Many of these items are grown for processing, or aren’t available in the school year, but apples, cabbage, potatoes, squash are available year -round and are inexpensive to boot! And they keep for a long time without spoiling.

Green cabbage is great raw in salads and slaw when local lettuce is out of season. Try mixing green cabbage with apple, celery, and yogurt for a Waldorf style salad. Napa cabbage is great in stir fries or lo mein; Savoy cabbage is great in minestrone; red cabbage makes a colorful addition to salads or braise it with apples and raisins to make sweet and sour cabbage. Russet or Kennebec potatoes can be simply baked or served twice-baked with cheese. Smaller “salt” potatoes can be steamed whole, or cut and roasted. Yukon Golds are great mashed, skin on. Butternut squash is sweet enough to substitute for pumpkin in muffins and other desserts or diced and roasted in savory dishes. It also pairs well with apples in Curried Squash and Apple soup or served simply mashed with butter and cinnamon. Apples are delicious eaten out of hand, but are also great in salads, and are transformed with baking with a little cinnamon.

Screenshot of the 30% NY Eligible Database, which can also be viewed by clicking below.

Top: A farm along Rte 20 - “Cabbage Alley”. NY is the #2 producer of cabbage in the nation! Left: Honeynut, Koginut, and an experimental squash from Row 7 seed company awaiting the oven.

30% Database

FreshBites

WINTER 2021

FreshBites

WINTER 2021