Floyd Memorial Library on Wednesday, November 18 at 6:00pm.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, community bulletin, events, health, libraries by Nancy
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On Sunday, September 13, from 10:00am – 4:00pm, many of the North Fork food growers and producers will present the 2009 North Fork Foodie Tour, a self-guided tour from Riverhead to Orient.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 on the day of the tour. Children under 12 are free.

For tickets and information, visit the click here or call 722-5712.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, events by Nancy
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Here are links and info for families about local farmstands:

Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Pick Your Own Guide 2009.

Long Island Farm Bureau’s Farmstand Guide.

In addition, there will be a farmer’s market in downtown Riverhead next to Atlantis Marine World Aquarium. Open Thursdays, 11:00am to 4:00pm from July 9 to late November.

* * *

For some great ideas of what to do with these fresh farm products, see recipes and articles on the NorthForkParents Family Cuisine page.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, excursions & activities, farming by Nancy
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In the newest installment of In the Kitchen with Jeni, Jeni let’s us in on a stock we can invest in. Homemade soup stock!

Many of us have tried and failed to make a flavorful, hot, nourishing soup stock, wasting hours and ingredients that none of us can afford, especially in these frightful economic times. Jeni gives us the secrets, the ingredients, and the recipes to start getting it right. Thank you, Jeni!

Also find lots of other recipes, articles, and links on the North Fork Family Cuisine page.

Go to the North Fork Family Cuisine page.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, seasons & weather by Nancy
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In the January 2009 installment of In the Kitchen with Jeni, Jeni show us how to make risotto, plus she gives us two risotto recipes to try: Wild Mushroom Risotto and Risotto Milanese. Yum! And do you know something? We can do it!

Also find lots of other recipes, articles, and links on the North Fork Family Cuisine page.

Go to the North Fork Family Cuisine page.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, seasons & weather by Nancy
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In the December 2008 installment of In the Kitchen with Jeni, Jeni shows us how she creates the delicious and nutritious grain salads that always earn her raves at her house. She shares her techniques and gives us some guidelines on how to combine our favorite flavors and ingredients (or at least those we have on hand) for optimum results.

And Jeni isn’t giving us any cheat-sheet recipes this month. She is challenging us to put these ingredients together ourselves…

Go to North Fork Family Cuisine.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine by Nancy
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The 2009 Suffolk County budget reduces funding for Cornell Cooperative Extension by $940,661 of which the Family and Consumer Sciences Program is absorbing more than half (53%) or a total of $498,764.

Please contact the North Fork’s county legislator is Edward P. Romaine as well as County Executive Steve Levy to let them know how these programs have been vital to you and ask that at least some of these funds be partially restored in the 2009 budget and fully restored in the 2010 budget.

email Edward Romaine: edward.romaine@suffolkcountyny.gov
mailing address: 423 Griffing Avenue, Suite 2, Riverhead, NY 11901
phone/fax: 631-852-3200; 631-852-3203

email Steve Levy: county.executive@suffolkcountyny.gov

Your feedback to the legislator and county executive will have the most impact if you can tell them briefly how Cornell’s educational services help you and others in your community. Are you a parent that has enhanced your skills with your children because of something you learned in a workshop? Are you a professional who has attended a training that gave you information useful to your work with families? Are you a person with diabetes (or have a family member with diabetes) who learned how to improve your health? Have you attended nutrition classes that taught you how to save money while preparing healthier family meals? Please tell your legislator how you specifically benefited from our programs and how much they are needed.

The elimination of the Family and Consumer Sciences Program means the loss of the following programs and services for parents, caregivers and family support professionals:

More than 300 parenting workshops held annually throughout Suffolk County

The bi-lingual family well-being project

The Family Development Training and Credentialing Program

The Strengthening Families Project

The Together and Loving It marriage strengthening program

Reliable, research-based information on child development and parenting available free of charge online and through fact sheets, bulletins and news articles

Parent education support for childhood obesity prevention

Training support for child care staff, family workers, librarians and teachers.

For more than 25 years, the Human Development Program has been the most reliable resource for research-based information for parents and professionals in Suffolk County.

The loss of county funding jeopardizes matching and in-kind support for nearly $500,000 in federal, state and foundation funding for Family and Consumer Sciences Programs, resulting in the potential elimination or reduction of the following programs:

The federally funded Childhood Obesity prevention project

A subcontract with SUNY Stony Brook as a partner in the Center of Excellence for the Prevention of Pediatric Obesity

The federally-funded Diabetes Resource Coalition and the NYS funded Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes project

The federally-funded food stamp nutrition education program

For every one dollar the county invests in Family and Consumer Sciences, it gets back three dollars in educational services to families.

The reduction of the Diabetes Education Program by $142,487 or 36% will result in:

A reduction of Suffolk County health centers served by the Diabetes Education Program from 8 to 5

The potential loss of up to one million dollars for the county health centers that rely on CCE diabetes educators to fulfill requirements of other state and federal grants for nutritional counseling. Reimbursement for prenatal care will also be adversely affected.

The elimination of CCE administrative and programmatic support for the East End Diabetes Forum that reaches nearly 200 individuals with diabetes annually and is the only event of its kind on the east end. Without CCE support, the forum will cease to be.

In Suffolk County nearly 55,000 people have diabetes with an estimated increase of approximately 10,000 new cases a year. Uncontrolled and undetected diabetes is an economic, social and health burden to the County

Again, please contact the North Fork’s county legislator is Edward P. Romaine and County Executive Steve Levy to let them know how these programs have been vital to you and ask that at least some of these funds be restored.

email: edward.romaine@suffolkcountyny.gov
mailing address: 423 Griffing Avenue, Suite 2, Riverhead, NY 11901
phone/fax: 631-852-3200; 631-852-3203

email Steve Levy: county.executive@suffolkcountyny.gov

Tags: Cornell Cooperative Extension, North Fork family cuisine, babies & pregnancy, community bulletin, elementary, health, marriage, parenting, services, teens, toddler & preschool by Nancy
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Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Pick Your Own list for 2008 includes places where you and your family may pick your own holiday tree.

There is a link to this Pick Your Own list on the Family Cuisine page.

Tags: Cornell Cooperative Extension, North Fork family cuisine, Winter Break, holidays by Nancy
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Don’t forget, you can download free planning worksheets from NorthForkParents, including the Winter Holiday Planner, Party Planner, Weekly Menu & Grocery List planners and more!

Go to the Free Downloads page.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, downloads, parties by Nancy
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Students in four Riverhead Schools will receive fresh fruits and vegetable snacks each day in school starting in December thanks to a $130,575 Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) grant awarded to the district from the New York State Education Child Nutrition Department. The Riverhead Central School District is the only school district on Long Island to receive the grant.

The FFVP is a new program designed to provide fresh fruits and vegetables during the school day and after school, free of charge to all school children in participating schools. Providing a variety of fresh fruit and vegetable choices supports a healthy school environment. The food items must be fresh, not canned, frozen or mixed with other foods. They also must be served as a snack rather than as part of the regular meal service. An additional criteria is that the items must be domestic, with the exception of bananas. The intent is to increase children’s fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, establish healthy snack choices, and expand the variety of fruits and vegetables that children experience, in order to positively impact their present and future health.

The snack items will include items like apples, kiwi, red peppers, broccoli, strawberries, butternut squash, Asian pears, cantaloupe and yellow peppers. All fruits and vegetables must be fresh and raw. In addition to eating a healthy snack each day, the students will learn about the fruits and vegetables they are consuming, why they are important and the concepts of good nutrition. The goal of this program is to encourage healthy snacking, increase the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and create healthy food choices in schools.

Karen Ball, the director of the school’s food service program, will handle the purchase and distribution of the produce. She encourages area farmers to contact her with quotes for fresh fruit and vegetables. Her FAX number is 369-9460 or she can be reached through email at karen.ball@riverhead.net.

Tags: North Fork family cuisine, Riverhead, community bulletin, farming, health, schools by Nancy
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