Farewell Farmers' Market!

Saturday, December 13th was the last market day of the season for the Beaver County Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association in Beaver, PA. Goodbye 'til next spring from the farmers' market! Next market is May 2nd, 2009 ...... check the calendar and make sure that it's a Saturday.
We picked up apples since I'm on the hook to make apple pies for a Christmas luncheon party. We also bought cookies, a large butternut squash, carnival winter squashes, & some parsnips. PARSNIPS, you say? I've never had parsnips in my life before, so I decided to try some ..... I'll report back on the experience once I figure out what to do with them! The butternut squash went into "Butternut-Lamb Deluxe" - a recipe from the Garden Way Zucchini Cookbook. This recipe is about as local as you can get, since the lamb comes from my farm.

If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see the price on the book --- $3.95. I've had this one for quite a while .......

O' Christmas Tree, Local Christmas Tree ......

You know that you're close when you start to see the rolling fields of Christmas trees in all sizes! What a picture perfect day it was to get out and cut your own fresh Christmas tree. The sky was overcast, but yesterday's snow made it a winter wonderland for the families out selecting trees at Hozak Farms in Clinton, PA. http://www.hozakfarms.com/.
The lighted lot next to the Christmas Barn was full of trees, but everyone seemed to be taking a wagon ride out to cut their own Christmas tree.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08342/933047-51.stm
Since we get a tree from our own farm, we go to Hozak's to get pine roping & other greenery. They have a big selection of greens, pine roping, wreaths, and swags out on the front porch of the Christmas Barn. I even noticed some eucalyptus bundles this year ......

The barn porch overhang is full of wreaths, display items, and yard cut-outs. Inside the barn there are all kinds of decorations from table runners to nativity sets to ornaments to nutcrackers ........
Open any newpaper now and you're bound to find ads for local Christmas tree farms. Or check out this link to find local farms in your state and area.
http://www.christmas-tree.com/

Beaver Farmers' Market Still OPEN !

Two more Saturdays left for the Beaver Farmers' Market. Today the weather was relatively mild in the 40's and sunny. Baked goods were sold out by the time we got to market, but after Thanksgiving, who really needs it?!? I'm rationalizing, of course. We picked up a couple of cabbages from Oak Spring Farm and some green onions from Dave's Produce.

My big purchases of the day were Christmas wreaths and swags made by the Volkar family. It's a tradition every year. The 13th will be the last day to get holiday greenery at market, so don't miss it! Here are the Volkars taking orders and customizing wreaths ........
After the market we stopped for lunch at a local drive in restaurant ...... yes, we still have carhops in Beaver County! This is another way to get "local" into the equation. Not necessarily food from local farms, but supporting a local business over a chain. Jerry's Curb Service is located in Bridgewater, PA on Riverside Drive. You can't miss the big EAT sign on Rt 51. If you go on a warm evening, the local car buffs circle the lot with antique autos & muscle cars as you're parked in your car eating. No one was circling today, but it was a perfect day to eat in the car. Try it sometime if you're in the area. Back into a parking space, turn on your parking lights, and wait for the high tech carhop with a handheld device to come and take your order!

Finally, back home to put up the wreaths ......

100% Local Feast!

You're looking at the serving line for the 53rd Annual Beaver County Farm-City Banquet held at the Big Knob Grange on Wednesday night. Reservations were capped at 150 and it was a sell out! The Farm-City Banquet exclusively showcases Beaver County produced food from vegetables to beef to ice cream.
The Big Knob Grange, New Sewickley Kiwanis, & Penn State Cooperative Extension of Beaver County organize the dinner every year. The food is donated by the farmers' market members of the Beaver County Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association and other local farmers ...... this year, Rovidale Farm and Brunton Dairy helped support the dinner with beef, milk, and ice cream. Proceeds were donated to the Beaver County 4-H Foundation.

Local produce items on the menu included spiced beets, sweet corn, butternut squash with local honey & butter, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and that perennial favorite (where else could you get it?!?) roasted turnips being dished up below!
Follow that up with apple pie and ice cream and everyone left the tables feeling grateful for our local farmers ............

October Sunday ... what was I thinking?

I was out and about today. It was a beautiful, sunny October afternoon and I decided to stop at a local farm market to pick out a few pumpkins. I should have known better! In addition to the great weather, it was a bye week for the Pittsburgh Steelers ......... Yes, that means that every family in Southwestern Pennsylvania went out to get their Halloween pumpkins today.

They packed the farm markets and corn mazes. They took hayrides out to the pumpkin patch. They sipped apple cider. They stirred applebutter. They staggered through the fields & parking lots loaded down with pumpkins and corn stalks. They got in my way! ;~)

I by-passed two farm market festivals where they had folks in orange t-shirts directing traffic into the parking areas. Finally, I slipped into Jodikinos Farm (between tractor ride departures to the pumpkin patch) and picked out 10 little pie pumpkins for $1 each. Then I zipped back out of the parking lot and headed for home. Whew.

Hey, the good news is that our local farmers had a great day to bring in visitors.

All about pumpkins ...... http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins/
My pie pumpkins are going to be fence posts sitters ..... yep, they sit on fence posts along the driveway as a seasonal touch.

Still, I didn't get the unusual pumpkins/squash that I'm looking for to use as decorations. The search continues ..............

Packed Market!

A quick picture or two from the Ambridge Farmers' Market today. Here's a look at SOME of the mums available now ........ and how about these cut flowers and herbs? I got to the market at 4:30 today and it was packed! Of course, most markets are jumping right at opening, but the crowd seemed to have staying power today. The tables were overflowing with fantastic fruits, veggies, baked goods, flowers, and plants.

Local Farms Support the Fair!

Two of our local farms have been big supporters of the Hookstown Fair over the years. You can support these farms too and buy their products here in Beaver & Allegheny counties.

The first is Janoski's Farm in Clinton, PA. http://janoskis.com/ What a great display they had at the fair! There has to be a story behind that truck. If you visit their farm market & greenhouses on US Route 30, you'll see that they mark their own home grown veggies & fruit as "Our Own". They have also been big supporters of the 4H livestock aution over the years.

Another local farm with a nice display was Brunton Dairy. The cows were there too ..... http://bruntondairy.com/brunton_about_us.php Brunton Dairy still does home delivery in the Aliquippa area. You are likely to find their milk and ice cream in some of the local convenience stores. (I also saw their milk in the Kaufmann Family Marketplace on Rt 18 just outside of Burgettstown. http://www.kauffmanmarketplace.com/ <---- worth a stop for bulk foods and Amish meat & deli products from the Holmes County, Ohio area.)

Support our local farmers!