USDA deputy secretary visits Shore (Top Story)

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

EASTON, Md. — Kathleen Merrigan came to town last week with a message: “Every family needs a farmer,” she told Chip Councell. “Keep up the good work.”
The USDA deputy secretary stopped by the Councell Farms retail market after a brief ceremony in Easton hailing Shore Gourmet, a marketing firm for Eastern Shore valued added products, and celebrating the opening of the Shore Gourmet’s new distribution center.
There she told an under-the-tent gathering of federal, state and local officials and Shore Gourmet suppliers and marketers, that the firm, which now has about 15 suppliers and some 15 stores in which it has displays, is, in itself, “a celebration of local agriculture.”
Shore Gourmet has received two Rural Business Enterprise Grants from USDA’s Rural Development initiative program through the Mid-Shore Regional Council and is part of the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative.
Merrigan toured Shore Gourmet’s distribution center on Brooke’s Drive in the Easton Industrial Park and sampled some of the products which the firm buys from its producers and then markets to the retailers.
She was accompanied by Jack Tarburton, Rural Development state director for Maryland and Delaware; Charles Cawley, Maryland Farm Service Agency director, and Maryland Ag Secretary Buddy Hance.
The event in Easton was also attended state and local lawmakers and by representatives of the office of Sens. Barbara Milkulski and Ben Cardin and Congressman Frank Kratovil.
At Councell Farms, Merrigan greeted shoppers and clerks, posed for the under-those-circumstances mandatory photos and especially greeted two-week old Avery Madeline Councell, the daughter or Casey and Jason Councell and the first grandchild of Jo Ann and Chip.
Merrigan was presented a gift bag of produce by the Councells but said she bought some green beans to add to the bag.
“I have got to do some shopping while I am here,” she said.
Another shopper in the market added, “ After all, she is a woman.”
Merrigan then would move on Annapolis where she would be a guest at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s “Buy Local, Eat Fresh” cookout at the Governor’s Mansion.