Filling Up!

The farmers' market is filling up with veggies and flowers now!  There were tons of beets, peas, cabbage, onions, zucchini, chard, rhubarb, etc on Saturday at Beaver.  The flowers from Ridgemont Farms were gorgeous too ...... just check out the current banner!   We made off with gingersnaps from Pat's Pastries since we don't get them often.  These are REAL gingersnaps.  Lot's of molasses.

Fresh Picked Beans

LFLF stopped at Janoski's Farm and Greenhouse on the way home this evening.  In addition to these beautiful fresh green beans, there were plenty of other home grown choices such as: sugar pod peas, yellow wax beans, rhubarb, red raspberries, strawberries, leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, new white potatoes, etc.  Everything that they grow is tagged with "Our Own" on the signage as shown above. 
For the plant lovers, there were signs for the greenhouse where everything was Buy One - Get One!    I didn't have time to go over and check it out, but there were plenty of bedding plants and hanging baskets visible from the parking lot ..........
Someday we'll also talk about the other local foods that Janoski's carries in the market ..... beef, eggs, fudge, honey, candy, and more.

Local on the Farm!

It doesn't get any more local than this!  The sour pie cherries are starting to get ripe and should provide some excellent picking for a little over a week.  The cherries are in varying stages of ripeness, so we leave the top of the trees to the and harvest as much as possible from these 2 trees for pies and freezing for the off season.  FYI, these trees are "Granny Stark's Own" sour cherry trees - the variety name escapes me right now and their web-site is currently "being updated" so I can't look it up.  They have a heavy crop this year.  In years past our Miller Brothers Nursery Montmorency sour cherry trees were also heavy bearers, but they have gotten frosted the last 2 years.  Possibly just as well, since LFLF would be inundated with cherries!   When we had excess cherries, a friend used to make a "liquid" cherry slump.  Ingredients included sour cherries, sugar, ????, & time ....... :)

This is our "corn on the cob" pot over half full of cherries!   Now they've been rinsed and tumbled in lemon juice to help keep them from quickly turning brown.

Pennsylvania Food Success!

On Sunday, LFLF took a trip to the Cook Forest Herb & Fiber Festival.  The weather went from high winds and hard rain to bright and sunny, on and off all day.  It was raining when we got to the event, so we quickly got under cover.  Carriage House Creations was set up in front of the Sawmill Center For the Arts and they were providing samples of their products.  While talking to David, the gentleman manning the booth, I remembered why the products looked SO familiar.  His wife Louise was a guest speaker at the Penn State Cooperative Extension Food For Profit  program that I attended in 2005/2006(?) at the Penn State Dubois Campus.  At the time, I was auditing the class in preparation for facilitating that program in the SW Pennsylvania region.  Louise had a great story to tell and was so enthusiastic about her signature margarita jellies!   With that great inspiration, the team that I worked with went on to conduct 3 FFP programs in the following months.   We were also able to get some local food entreprenuers to share their business stories.  

The Food For Profit program is a "must" if you're thinking about starting your own home-based food business!
LFLF left Cook Forest with a Raspberry Margarita Jelly, a Christoforetti Olde World Pasta Modesto Sauce (loaded with garlic!), and 2 bottles of Bold N' Spicy Bourbon Basting Sauce.   Can't wait to enjoy them all!

Strawberries Today!

Finally some farmers' market pictures!  After several rainy days where LFLF didn't dare pull out the camera, we had a break in the rain for the Beaver Farmers' Market today.  And what a day it was .... the first strawberries of the season were on the table and folks lined up to get them.  We slipped in to the Oak Spring Farm booth and picked out 2 pints of snow peas ..... they were right behind the rhubarb stalks.  There were more strawberries at the other end of the market as well as some really nice lettuces & garlic scapes.  Our choices were red romaine, green or red bibb, & green or red oak leaf lettuces.  We chose the reb bibb lettuce and a bundle of garlic scapes. 

We ended up with some baked goods and 3 pots of wave petunias before we left the market!  

Local Wines

It's been a little while since we've had a post on this blog ..... Based on other activities, we've had to miss several farmers' markets, but we did participate in the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest  last weekend.  The festival is a supporter of local fiber arts and local agriculture.  Sunny Sprouts Greenhouse from West Newton was at the festival for the 1st time and we also had 2 local wineries, Thistlethwaite Vineyards & Plum Run Winery. Plum Run is know for their selection of fruit wines and they can also be found as a vendor periodically at the Main Street Farmers' Market of Washington, PA .
LFLF did make it to the Beaver Farmers' Market on Saturday, but it was POURING RAIN and it wasn't the best time to take pictures.  FYI, Robin of Ridgemont Farms was there for the first time this season with her wonderful cut flowers!  

1st Ambridge Market Today!

By the time I got to the market today in Ambridge, the lettuce & asparagas was sold out, as well as most of Pat's baked goods .....
LFLF got some lovely bunches of new onions.   Just perfect for salad!  There were also bedding plants, herbs, & hanging baskets for sale.  Two of the farmers had potatoes from last fall and they looked great.  I'd expect to see rhubarb and radishes soon.