November 01, 2024 5:55 pm
• Last Updated: November 01, 2024 5:55 pm
Stonington ― With a new grant from the state Department of Agriculture, the Yellow Farmhouse Education Center will be able to build out infrastructure to support local kelp farming and the community.
The $172,000 award through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program will allow the North Main Street educational non-profit to build a $225,000 commercial kitchen to support community programming, local traditional farmers and local kelp farmers.
The award is funded through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
The Yellow Farmhouse, located on the grounds of Stone Acres Farm, along with the New London Community Meal Center and Ellington-based Modern Milkman were the three recipients of $670,000 awarded through the program, which seeks to strengthen local and regional food supply systems while fostering resilience in the middle of the supply chain.
The middle of the supply chain is anything done to a product after harvest but before sale including steps like washing, packing, freezing and dehydrating.
“Our specific grant is to build out a commercial kitchen here at the Yellow Farmhouse Education Center,” said Jennifer Rothman, its executive director on Wednesday.
The funding will cover design, construction, and outfitting the kitchen with commercial grade furnishings like countertops and shelving, equipment such as a giant kettle and commercial dehydrator for the new facility which will be located inside the Yellow Farmhouse Educational Center.
The organization raised money to cover additional costs including a concrete pad which will support a refrigerated shipping container provided by Connecticut Greenwave, an organization dedicated to training and supporting regenerative ocean farming.
The Yellow Farmhouse’s close proximity to the water was key to its usefulness to kelp farmers who are required to refrigerate kelp within four hours of harvest. Farmers can sell either fresh or processed kelp for human consumption, but fresh kelp must be blanched first, requiring the use of a large kettle. Another option is for farmers to dehydrate the kelp before sale.
Though the equipment is specific to the kelp industry, its uses are far broader.
“What’s so neat about this work is that the kelp industry, the harvest time is exactly the opposite of land-based farms,” she said.
“When the kelp farmers are not using the space because their harvest is done, it’s almost exactly when a land-based farm like Stone Acres or other local farms might be interested in using the kitchen to make broths or dry herbs or make other value-added products,” she explained.
Rothman said that during the late-winter, early-spring season, local kelp farmers will be able to use the kitchen to prepare their product for market, and then as summer begins, local farmers will be able to use it to make broths, dry herbs or create other products.
“It’s a really good way to share the space,” she said.
In addition to supporting marine- and land-based farmers, the commercial kitchen will also be available to the community. Though the details have not been worked out yet, Rothman gave a community canning day as an example of potential community uses.
It will also be used for educational programs.
“We’re sort of looking for these kinds of connections that already exist in the food system– of partnerships that we can both actively engage in but also model as a teaching tool for not just how a kelp farmer might use this space but how you can look into your community for existing solutions to some of our larger issue in the food system,” she said, explaining what she hopes students may learn from it.
Rothman said the Yellow Farmhouse will receive the funding this month, and she anticipates the kitchen will open for use next November.
