This Weekend in the People’s Republic

This weekend, allow your recreational activities center  around all things farm. Fall approaches but we’re still in the most productive part of the growing season.

Come celebrate the crowning of our  Famers Market as “America’s Favorite” and get in touch with Agricultural Ecology with a newly minted expert at the I-House.  After the jump, find all of the appropriately juicy details.

Friday, 11 September 2009

Art Exhibit
Opening: Portraits of a Mexican Farmscape by Kraig Kraft [CULTURE]

International House Community Room

10 College Park

6pm-9pm

FREE

The opening reception will attempt to bring a bit of central  Mexico to the I-House. We’ll have the La Michoacana taco truck pulled up to the front of the building and some ranchera music. Please come  and join us. I’m completing a Ph.D. in Agricultural Ecology at UC Davis. As part of my dissertation on Mesoamerican chile pepper genetic diversity, I conducted a survey investigating seed  selection and seed saving methods amongst chile  pepper farmers in the Central Mexican state of Aguascalientes. When I began the project, I wanted to collect more than data. I wanted to capture something of  the culture of agriculture and represent these farmers and their personal stories in a more evocative way. I chose to take portraits of each of my survey participants (with their permission) and the resulting exhibit represents a current snapshot of Mexico’s Central Valley farmscape.

My survey data illuminated the difficulties involved in chile farming in Mexico – the increasing costs of production, the diminishing returns on labor, the disappearance of traditional and heirloom varieties, and the  aging of Mexicos farmers. Against the pressures of the increasingly capital-intensive agriculture and in the face of other challenges to traditional farming systems, these men, many in their 60s, still choose to  plant traditional varieties of chiles – the guajillo and pasilla – using the same seed saving techniques as generations before them

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Beer Tasting Benefit for Yolo County Chapter of Marriage
Equality U.S.A. [DRINK]

Davis Food Co-op

620 G Street

$1 per taste

For the next couple of months, the Co-op is generously  dedicating all of the money raised at their thrice-monthly wine and beer tastings to a great cause, marriage equality. As my friends Shelly Bailes & Ellen Pontac note, “It’s a tasteful way to support marriage equality.”

This week, beer from Full Sail Brewing Company.

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Boca Do Rio [MUSIC]

10pm, Sophia’s Thai Kitchen & Bar, 129 E Street

$4

“Simply amazing… I am not normally a listener of Latin  music, but Boca do Rio has opened my eyes and ears. An excellent choice for a night with friends… absolutely one of my favorite bands, ever.” – iTunes review

Editor’s Note: These guys rule.

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Saturday, 12 September 2009

America’s Favorite Farmers Market” Award Ceremony &
Celebration [CELEBRATE]

Central Park

10am

FREE

Davis Farmers Market will celebrate being voted  “America’s Favorite Farmers Market” at an award ceremony and celebration on Saturday, September 12th at 10 a.m. at Central Park, 3rd and C
Streets in Davis. American Farmland Trust (AFT) along with thousands of voters  crowned the Davis Farmers Market as one of America’s three favorite farmers markets (large, medium and small markets) on August 9th. The award is the  culmination of AFT’s summer-long contest and represents the integral role that Davis Farmers Market plays in its community where dedicated customers cast over 3,000 votes for the market.

Saturday’ s event includes an award presentation by Ed Thompson, AFT’s California Director and Senior Associate. Other speakers include: California Secretary of Agriculture A. G. Kawamura; Davis Mayor Ruth  Asmundson; and Rich Collins, president of the Davis Farmers Market Association. Randii MacNear, Davis Farmers Market manager for 30 years, will be master of ceremonies. After the ceremony, the Market will give away 500 No Farms No Food  totes bags with “Davis Farmers Market—America’s Favorite Farmers Market” emblazoned on them. Watermelon will be served after the
ceremony.

The AFT contest registered just shy of 30,000 votes in  support of local farmers markets across the nation and featured 857 participating farmers markets. The Davis Farmers Market swept the “large
market” category (55 vendors or more) with 10 percent of total vote cast.  Williamsburg Farmers Market in Virgina took home the medium market prize and Collingswood Farmers Market in New Jersey took the small category. Each market  receives 500 No Farms No Food tote bags to give away to their customers. Farmers markets represent one of the best ways for consumers to support their
local farmers, farmland, and regional economies. By partnering with farmers  markets, American Farmland Trust is encouraging consumers to consider the importance of farmland and to support local farmers. Put succinctly, there is no local food without local farmland.