State’s first lady lauds local produce Food marketing challenges noted

AUGUSTA – The kitchen of the Blaine House was filled with the heady aroma of curried butternut squash soup, a favorite of former first lady Mary Herman that has become a traditional holiday soup for current first lady Karen Baldacci.

Baldacci invited visitors from Maine’s agricultural community and members of the news media into her kitchen Wednesday to celebrate the range and variety of locally grown squash.

It was another in her series of occasional events highlighting Maine produce and products – she already has celebrated maple syrup, apples, tomatoes and lobster.

As visitors sipped the thick, caramel-colored soup, the discussion strayed from extolling the virtues of Maine’s squash harvest to the difficulties of marketing Maine-grown produce.

An avid gardener and a licensed dietitian, Baldacci has been a champion of products made and grown in Maine. But, she said, “without a Maine label, how do I know which is local squash in the supermarket? Without a label, the choice is taken away.”

The Maine Department of Agriculture has been wrangling for years with large grocers to identify and market Maine products more clearly.

Ned Porter, deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, explained that, despite surveys indicating Maine consumers want locally grown and produced products labeled as such, grocers would like to use a regional identity, such as “Made in New England” that would allow them a more consistent product and extend the growing season.

Andy Williamson of County Fair Farm in Jefferson, who provided the squash for Wednesday’s event, said a recent shipment of his pumpkins was refused by a major grocery chain because some of the pumpkins had mud on them. “It was raining and we were trying to wipe it off as much as we could,” he said.

“These large supermarkets behave as if our vegetables are all made with cookie cutters and we just take them off the shelves of our barn,” said Williamson. “They don’t have any concept of what farming conditions are.”

Porter explained that Maine’s growing season is too short and often the farms are too small to provide the quantity of consistent produce that the large supermarkets require.

Lauchlin Titus, president of the Maine Vegetable and Small Fruit Growers Association, told the first lady that one way consumers can be assured of local produce is to buy from farm stands and farmers markets. There are more than 100 growers in the association, said Titus, and well over 600 commercial vegetable farms in Maine.

Baldacci asked what the state could do to assist local growers, and Titus replied, “Market, market, market.

“We don’t have enough money now to market Maine-grown crops,” he said. The Department of Agriculture’s annual marketing budget is about $100,000. “We need to invest more in marketing Maine agriculture,” he added.

Baldacci said it is her priority to promote Maine’s harvest. Squash, for example, is “rich in flavor, vitamin A, potassium, niacin and iron. It has a long storage life and comes in many varieties,” she said. “It is quite versatile.”

That versatility was proved Wednesday as those enjoying the curried soup shared other recipes: butternut squash and apples with Maine maple syrup, baked in the oven; a casserole of spaghetti squash, sausage, tomatoes and corn; pumpkin bread and cookies.