October, 2006 Welcome to American Farmland Trust’s “Farm Fresh News”— our bimonthly e-newsletter featuring ways you can help to protect farm and ranch land and keep your life and the land healthy. Cows Have Regional Accents?! How A-moo-sing! This Halloween, Support Your Local Ghouls and Goblins! When farmers in England claimed to be hearing different accents among their herds of cows, the professionals stepped in. Sure, cows provide us with a great source of protein and a variety of delicious dairy products, but great conversation? Read Moo about it >>   Did you know that a typical supermarket tomato usually travels about 1,500 miles from where it is grown to your salad bowl? How about a pumpkin? For this year’s Halloween carving and Thanksgiving pumpkin pies, support a local farm and purchase this delicious seasonal squash from your community farmers’ market or pumpkin patch. Find a farmers' market >> Print out AFT’s Fun Farm Animal Pumpkin Carving Templates!>>  Workplace Giving One of the simplest and most efficient ways to donate to American Farmland Trust is by contributing through Earth Share in your annual workplace charity campaign. By contributing to American Farmland Trust through Earth Share, you may pledge that a small amount of each paycheck be automatically deducted to help protect farmland. Find out how>> We Want to Hear From you! Do you like to buy fresh food that comes from local farms and ranches? Take Action! Every day, 3,000 acres of America's working farms and ranches are paved over for housing, highways, shopping malls and parking lots. We're losing our best farmland—the land closest to growing cities—the fastest. And the health of the land we all depend on needs to be protected with environmentally sound farming practices. Take action today>> Healthy Stuffed Acorn Squash Fresh-from-the-farm acorn squash is sure to be a hit!  This easy and delicious dish is great on its own or as part of a fall dinner! 1 acorn squash 1 cup barley 1/4 cup toasted pecans 1/4 cup dried cranberries 1/4 cup dice sweet potatoes 1/8 cup small diced red peppers Instructions: 1.) Cut squash lengthwise, spoon the seeds out, rub with olive oil and roast at 350 F for about 20 minutes. 2.) In a 2-quart saucepot, cover barley with water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 25 minutes or until done (adding water as needed). When barley is done (firm), strain excess water and allow to cool. Set aside. (Continued...) 3.) Cook sweet potatoes in water and strain. Set aside. 4.) Combine the cooked barley, pecans, cranberries, sweet potatoes and red peppers. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 5.) Stuff cooked squash with barley mixture. 6.) Enjoy! Thank you to Clyde's Restaurant for featuring seasonal items from close-by Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania farms, and for sharing this 'locally grown' recipe! Healthy Farms for Clean Water Millions of New York City residents have clean drinking water, thanks to help from healthy farms in the Catskill Mountains. And now, one of these farmers—Tom Hutson, a dairy farmer from DeLancey, N.Y.—has been honored for his great work. For leadership in conservation and daily practices to protect our water supply, Tom received AFT’s 2006 Steward of the Land award. Read more about Tom’s work>> Support AFT  |  http://www.farmland.org/ © Copyright 2006 American Farmland Trust. All rights reserved.