Daylily Diversion

Here's a local farm that has nothing to do with food .... that is, unless you're into cooking with daylily flowers! Patty's Daylilies is just a few minutes off of US Rt 30 in Chester, WV at 1057 Pyramus Road. Now is a great time to go & check them out if you'd like to extend the daylily season in your garden. Selecting plants that are just now starting to bloom will give you flowers long after the familiar orange roadside daylilies (and most common garden varieties of daylilies) have finished their display.

I picked out Julia's Surprise, the very tall reddish flower with a orangish/yellow throat in the middle of the picture to the left. It will go in the same bed as Nona's Garnet Spider, a variety that I got at Patty's several years ago. Just take a look at all of the colors in the picture ..... something for everyone. This is just one of the many beds of daylilies that they dig & divide for you as you wait. I zipped through in about a half hour, but I recommend setting aside an hour or more to get a good look around & take notes. There was a yellow self variety that was just starting to push up scapes - now that's going to be a late season bloomer.

Another tip for buying daylilies is to go late in the day (or even after a rain) to see how the flowers hold up. Nothing worse than some of the newer varieties of daylilies that seem to melt in the rain. Yuck!

Local to You ....

It all depends on where you are ..... if you travel, you'll want to support the local farmers. This weekend, we traveled to the Lisbon, Ohio area and then on through Salem, Ohio to pick up 1/2 peck & peck sized clear plastic bags at the GreenStar Cooperative. We use them to package wool & fleece for sale. It's also a great place to get baskets, produce containers, and wooden crates if you're a market gardener (or for crafting and displays).

On the way back home, we stopped in at Gasper's Garden just outside of Washingtonville. When I got out of the truck, the driver in the truck next to me said hello. I returned the hello thinking that it was just a friendly stranger, but was surprised to see someone from our home area! It was one of the guys (Dave's straightman!) from Dave's Heating who does the annual service check on our oil furnace. Turns out that he was with his family at the Quaker City Raceway in nearby Salem and they always come out to Gasper's Garden for sweetcorn. They wait to get to the raceway and then go out to buy fresh local sweetcorn & fruit instead of packing it from home.

We left with blueberries, green gage plums, sweetcorn, & peaches.

Rain Sprinkles .......

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The sky kept changing from threatening to sunny, but that didn't slow us down at the Ambridge Farmers' Market. Just look at these peaches that Frank had on his table! We missed last week and the change in what's available is just amazing. We also picked up sweetcorn, cauliflower, summer squash, onions, and cookies. The first tomatoes of the season were there, but they were long gone by the time I arrived! Also seen was a flyer posted that mentions a cooking demo next week at the market. Cooking demos are always popular, so this should be fun.

It was a short ride home and the corn went immediately into the boiling pot for dinner.

Delicious!

...... and hey, how about the new banner? This bouquet of cut flowers came from Ridgemont Farm today!

Buy Fresh/Buy Local Farm Tour

Looking for something to do on Saturday the 18th? Here's a chance to make a real connection to local farms and local food in Western PA. The PASA 2009 "Behind the Barn" Summer Tour brochure provides a map and list of farms that will be open to the public on Saturday. How about taking in a couple of farm visits after hitting your Saturday morning farmers' market?

Shop Like You Mean It!

Today there was a "goal" or purpose to shopping at the Ambridge Farmers' Market. I'm on tap for a "sidedish" (NOT a salad) for a picnic dinner meeting tomorrow night. Since the committee is part of Penn State Cooperative Extension in Beaver County, it's only appropriate that fresh local farm products go into the the dish, right? So what's in season? Well, new potatoes are abundant right now, so we're having "Garlic & Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes ..... it had to be something that could be popped into the microwave to heat up after work. The new potatoes are from Dave (see the post from June 18th) & the garlic scapes & parsley are from Douds-Floyd Farm . The fresh rosemary is from plants that I overwintered on the kitchen windowsill. Now that's local!
I can smell the aroma from the kitchen as I write .... & rounded out by a couple of other items ...... fresh black raspberries from May-Malone Farm, yellow summer squash from Volkar's Farm, and chocolate/black walnut bars from Pat, the baker.

Also --- if you're interested in preserving your own food & farmers' market produce to enjoy all year, take a look at the brochure for a 3 hour class coming up at the end of July in Beaver County. This is perfect timing ..... right at the peak of canning season. Pat Leach, a former Penn State Cooperative Extension Sr. Educator from Indiana County will be leading the workshop. I worked with Pat at PSCE and she is an expert on the subject. You've heard of Penn State Master Gardeners, right? Well, Pat is a Penn State Master Food Preserver!

Click here for a copy of the program brochure. These programs are really popular right now. A similar program put on by PSCE in June at Janoski's Farm in Clinton had about 50 people in attendance.

Only One Picture!

Arrived at the Ambridge Farmers' Market on Thursday and it immediately started to rain. So much for being able to take pictures ....... I got this picture from the shelter of the car & you can see that the rain didn't stop the customers. Pretty cool umbrella, huh? Look at the beautiful foxtail lillies.

It's that time of year again! Lots of green and yellow zucchini. Also, the first new potatoes and cabbages are ready. I picked up some golden beets for the weekend and some great edible pod sugar peas. Red raspberries are in season now .... yum!