The Guide is Here!

Looking for local food in the Catskills and New York City watershed? The 2012-13 Pure Catskills Guide to Farm Fresh Products hit the streets this week and is now available at farms, farmers' markets, restaurants, and retailers throughout the region. This full-color 66-page local foods directory connects you with over 200 Pure Catskills members throughout Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties. And these farmers are ready to do business by sharing their local farm and food products with you!

Now in its tenth year, the Pure Catskills buy local campaign delivers its annual Guide to Farm Fresh Products to connect consumers with regional food and farm businesses. If it's made, grown or raised in the Catskills, you can probably find it in the Pure Catskills Guide to Farm Fresh Products. Over 45,000 copies of the Guide will be distributed to hundreds of locations across the region throughout July.

The images in this year's Guide highlight the Catskills dairy, the backbone of the state's agricultural industry for centuries. Value-added dairy producers are transforming everyday staples like milk, butter and cheese into more obscure ethnic specialties like kefir, gelato and cajeta. Most of these farmers head multi-generational operations; but the value-added aspects of their businesses are relatively new. Eight Catskill dairy farms, families and their products are featured this year with portraits by Sullivan County-based photographer Andy Ryan.

Linda Smith at Sherman Hill Farmstead, Franklin
Photo: ©Andy Ryan

You can also find in the Guide this year

• farmers' markets listings for community gatherings around local every day of the week; 
• member listings online which make for easy on-the-go discovery;
• reference icons to make product identification easier;
• a series of panels highlight food trends and producer groups including community supported agriculture, pastured livestock and pick-your-own operations; and,
• a calendar of events and list of tourism activities through 2013. (For the most current events list, visit www.purecatskills.com.

Tell us what you think about the new Guide below or post your comment to the Pure Catskills Facebook Page.

 

Can't find your hard copy out in the watershed? Download the pages you need (or the whole Pure Catskills Guide to Farm Fresh Products) here.