Great Depression Cooking!

Found this series on a farmers' market blog ...... If you've got a sack of potatoes, some onions, and some tomato sauce put up, this is for you!
Be thankful & enjoy it all of you "foodies" .......
Great Depression Cooking Videos

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Glimpse of Summer

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to put out some of the summer harvest. Here are the flowers from the Ambridge Farmers' Market that have been drying in the basement. Remember when it was so warm??? Food & food for the soul!

The gomphrena is from the Volkars and the celosia (aka cockscomb) came from Ridgemont Farm. Nice, simple spots of color on a cold & snowy day.......

You can also see a "Cranberry Orange" soy candle that I found at the Old Economy Village Museum Store. It's made locally by Simplers Creek Soap Company. The contact info on the jar is simplerscreek3054@yahoo.com. They are vendors at the Mt Lebanon Uptown Farmers' Market. I had some soap too, but that has managed to disappear as gifts over the holidays!

WAgN Potluck Gathering

It's now that time of year when the "farmer types" get together, have meetings, and make plans for the upcoming growing season. Yesterday, a group of "women in agriculture", aka members of PA WAgN got together. We met at Munnell Run Farm in Mercer County for a potluck dinner & informal meeting. Some of the folks were fairly local, but several came from a county or two away and some from as far as Clarion, Beaver, & Allegheny counties. It was an interesting cross-section of veggie, value-added, & livestock producers, as well as 4 college student/interns/exchange students from Allegheny College.
Check out some of the local growers who were enjoying the afternoon. They may be local to you!
Fresh From the Vines
Blackberry Meadows Farm
Mildred's Daughters Farm
Dream Thyme Farm

PA WAgN is a free education & outreach effort of the Penn State University College of Ag Science. Everyone is welcome to join! Watch the web-site for the upcoming 2009 field day schedule.

Congrats to Somerset County Farmers' Market!

Hey --- look what showed up today in my "farmers' market" Google Alert!
Somerset County Farmers' Market, Inc. received recognition at the national level from the American Farm Bureau at their annual meeting in San Antonio! The award cites the Somerset County Farm Bureau, Penn State Cooperative Extension, and the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce for their collaboration to create a farmers' market that grossed over $100K this year.
http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=newsroom.newsfocus&year=2009&file=nr0111f.html

Take a trip back in time on this blog to visit the market in season!
http://localfarms-localfoods.blogspot.com/2008/09/local-food-goes-on-roadtrip.html

http://localfarms-localfoods.blogspot.com/2008/10/roadtrip-somerset-farmers-market-part.html

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Tell me again ......

How do we define local? Grocery shopping today provided 2 examples. We've mentioned Brunton Dairy in the past. It's a local dairy farm that makes their own ice cream and still runs a home delivery route! So this is a prouct made within 5 miles of home. http://bruntondairy.com/brunton_about_us.php

Contrast that with Modern Mushroom Farms from the eastern side of Pennsylvania. This is the only ingredient that can be considered "local" in a salad that is being made to take to a PASA Potluck tomorrow in Cranberry Township, PA. Most states promote agricultural products grown & sold within their state as being a local product. So this brings us face-to-face with the dilemna that we face at this time of year. If you're really into local, you really have to prepare for the vegetable "off season". For those of you who have a stash of winter squash, check out the recipes in the Modern Musroom web-site. There's a sidedish that uses mushrooms and roasted winter vegetables. http://www.modernmush.com/index_consumer.asp

Footnote: Can't wait to see who turns up at the PASA event tommorrow ....... Hopefully we'll get some pics of your favorite local farmers, growers, and businesses that are interested in buying locally whenever possible.

All things local ....

Keep looking for local wherever/whenever you shop! Here are some cookies baked with local eggs from Turner's Poultry Farm. Our nearby Pittsburgh area "Big Bird" grocery chain carries these local eggs. I buy them in preference to the seemingly untraceable generic style eggs "packed by blah blah" chain. Yes, technically you can trace them, but it's not obvious where they're raised or grown. And what happened to traceablilty if the meats in the meat coolers are labeled as "Product of US/Canada/Mexico"? Somehow I don't think that this was the intent of COOL (Country of Origin Labeling).

Attention Farmers & Farmers' Market Vendors - Education Alert!

First Item - Calling all farmers interested in "No-Till" and "Permanent Cover Crop" systems ..... Take a look at this opportunity to attend the 2009 Southwest Regional Tillage Conference on January 28th in Greensburg, PA. The permanent cover crop system is used for both crops and vegetables and speaker Steve Groff has pioneered this method in Lancaster County, PA. The featured No-Till speaker is coming from Ponta Grossa, Brazil! This looks like a very worthwhile program for those of you who raise crops and also raise market vegetables. Here is the brochure:
http://armstrong.extension.psu.edu/Agriculture/FCnewsletters/2008/2009_SW_Tillage_Conference.pdf
Second Item -Calling all farmers' market vendors and farmers' market friends/volunteers ...... Here's an event that you may really want to attend. The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, aka PASA, is holding a one day Farmers' Market Pre-Conference Track on Thursday February 5th in State College, PA. This pre-conference program is part of PASA's 18th Annual Farming for the Future Conference taking place from February 5-7, 2009 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, PA. There are 2 areas of emphasis. Track 9 is titled Farmers' Market Success for Producers and Track 10 is titled Farmers' Market Success for Managers.
Based on my past experience at the PASA FFTF conferences and the explosion of farmers' markets nationwide, I'd recommend that you register asap if you would like to attend this program. For what it's worth, I can personally vouch for several of the speakers ........ ;)
For this program, go to Pre-Conference Tracks on the link below:
http://www.pasafarming.org/conf2009/