Small-scale agriculture brings to mind idyllic images of cornfields, cows and manure, all of which still thrive in Central New York, but the 21st century is seeping in slowly. For some local farms, agricultural practices have remained unchanged.

Carrot beds must be painstakingly weeded by hand and real people handle every potato that comes out of the ground. What has changed is the way farmers communicate, particularly young farmers. They are on Facebook, Twitter and blogging up a storm.

By using media that their customers are already familiar with, farmers create more opportunities to market themselves and build relationships. In a seasonal industry that is subject to innumerable variables like rainfall, temperature and disease, customer loyalty is crucial.

Strawberry season lasts only for the month of June, and you need to make sure you keep them hooked until the first apples drop in late August. Technology supplements personal interactions that happen at farmers’ markets or through CSAs — or Community Supported Agriculture.

In a CSA, members buy a farm share at the beginning of the season and receive goods for a set number of weeks. It is a great way for farmers to get the capital they need at the beginning of the season, and it ends up being a great deal on local food for the members.

Local food purveyors find themselves playing the role of educator by telling people how to best store, prepare and consume their products. Farms successfully build communities through social media paired with hosting events like canning workshops and harvest parties on site.

A new resource for accessing the local food scene is the smartphone app Farmshed 2.0, brought to you by Farmshed Central New York in New Woodstock, N.Y., outside of Syracuse. The app allows you to search by either the name of the establishment or by categories like dairies and creameries, orchards or wineries with a special focus placed on farmers’ markets, including a daily calendar delineating which ones are nearby.

Users can view the app results in alphabetical order or by distance from their current location. Each farm or business has a profile that explains what it does and lists pertinent information like phone numbers, hours and email addresses, along with a link to Google maps and directions. This app can be used on any device with Internet access. You can set the radius of your search between one and 50 miles of your current location, making your food exceedingly local. Less fossil fuel was burned to get that food into your belly and many of the establishments are organic, so there are fewer yucky chemicals in the soil. Farmshed 2.0 can be found at farmshedcny.com.

You never know what you might find. I had no clue that Little River Farm was raising egg-laying hens within the Syracuse city limits. Get going.

Leanna Mulvihill is a senior forest engineering major and environmental writing and rhetoric minor. Her column usually appears every Tuesday. She can be reached at lpmulvih@syr.edu.

Published on September 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm