Thank you to the former Heritage Farm Coast Trust for creating the concept for this guide. It continues to encourage shoppers and visitors to search out and purchase locally grown farm products, thus helping to keep our farms in business and our land in farming.

Many thanks to the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture for their continuous support of the SEMAP Buy Local Campaign. Thanks as well to the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and Steve Johnson of The Blue Room for their financial support, enabling us to reach out to growers and consumers throughout Southeastern Massachusetts.

Thank you to Terry Perreira and Jim Knox at The New Bedford Standard Times for their expertise in seeing this handbook through to production.

To Spinner Publications of New Bedford, and specifically John K. Robson and Joseph D. Thomas for providing us with the stunning regional photography.

A special thank you to Irene Winkler, Sue Guiducci, Kelly Savary, Laura Smith, Janet Egan, Rickart Connole and Barbara Link who helped reach out to many of our local farms and businesses and give them a voice for this edition of the Harvest Handbook.

Finally, thanks to the farmers and growers in Southeastern Massachusetts and Eastern Rhode Island for persevering through sometimes challenging times, working to keep local agriculture viable and continuing to provide high quality, fresh local produce to our region�s shoppers!

 Last Updated On: 8/2/06