2 More Sewickley Vendors!

Wonderful Selection At Kohut Rooster Hill Farm & Greenhouse!

One of the regular vendors at the Sewickley Farmers' Market is Rooster Hill Farm & here is Jeff Kohut with a group of shrubs that he's raised, most that he grows on from cuttings.   You can expect to find items that you won't fnd in the big box stores, including his own line of pottery.  If you'd like to visit their quaint retail greenhouse shop, it can be found along US Route 30 West of Clinton, PA at the corner of Platt Road & US Route 30 .... lots of perennials, shrubs, & trees for sale at great fall prices!

Underhill Farm Artisan Yarns ....

Talk about serendipity ..... on Saturday morning I had recieved an email blast from PASA about farmers' markets in Western Pa and had clicked on the link for the Somerset County Farmers' Market.  LFLF was involved in the start up of that market as a Penn State Extension Educator, & I took a quick look at their current vendor list.   This was the first time that I had heard of Underhill Farm & I was pleased to see that the SCFM had a yarn vendor on board.  Imagine my surprise to see that same farm at the Sewickley market last weekend!   


Underhill Farm Yarn Close-up!

The Underhill Farm Leicester Longwool/Mohair blend artisan yarns have a wonderful luster as you hold them up in the sunlight!   As the weather cools own, the local yarns are back on the front burner for fall & winter projects ......

Upcoming Event in Meadville, PA

Here's a different type of class/event relating to local meats.   PASA, along with Allegheny College Dining Services, is hosting a local meats and meat tasting event on Saturday the 28th at the Meadville Market House.  Should be interesting if you're in the area.  Many farmers' markets have meat vendors, but you do have to plan ahead and bring a cooler if you're not headed straight home after market.  This looks like a good way to meet some farmers and make a local connection for stocking your freezer year round. 

Calling All Locals!

Look for this sign on Saturday July 24th!  It's your welcome to the farms & businesses on the PASA Western Region Annual Summer Farm Tour.  The tour is a "drive-it-yourself" opportunity to visit local farms and see what they're up to.  Each farm will have different activities and things to see.  When you visit your first farm, you buy a $10 ticket for the entire carload.  This ticket serves as your pass to as many other farms as you can get to between 10am & 6pm! 
Click here for the tour map.  It will also be given out at each farm as you purchase your ticket.
Enjoy the tour!

We'd be remiss ......

LFLF would be remiss if we didn't mention the upcoming
PASA Farming For the Future Conference on February 4-6 in State College, PA. If you're a farmer/grower, farmer wannabe, local foodie, etc., put this conference on your to do list! Check out the sessions in the on-line brochure. The great feature of this conference is that you don't have to pre-register for sessions, just look over the list and go to what interests you! If you miss a session, PASA has all of the sessions recorded and they can be purchased just after the session or later after the conference.

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.

It's Local Food Week!

Don't forget that it's Local Food Week in the Pittsburgh area. Check out the story at this link for events still planned for this week! http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08262/912869-34.stm?cmpid=fooddining.xml

How about the Main Street Farmers' Market in Washington, Pa on Thursday?http://buylocalpa.org/event/view/46
http://www.washpa.net/FarmersMarket/home.html

Or Farmers@Firehouse in the Strip on Saturday?http://buylocalpa.org/event/view/31

So what is a Somerset Snap???

OK ..... this is for the serious foodies. I just got my PASA Harvest Celebration Benefit Dinner invitation in the mail today. http://www.pasafarming.org/pittdinner.html The tag line is "Pittsburgh Celebrates the Freshest Local Flavor of the Season". In looking over the extensive menu, I noticed "Somerset Snaps". Now what is a Somerset Snap? A Somerset Snap is a tasty, regionally adapted green bean grown by Laurel Vista Farm in Somerset County. How do I know this? Well, I had the opportunity to work on a couple of projects with Rick & Rita when I worked at PSCE. They are very active in promoting local agriculture and they have a special interest in infrastructure & logistical issues ...... the kind of things that most farmers have so little time to do. If we want to promote local food, we need to do some work to break into the marketplace. That means going beyond our great farmers' markets and working through issues related to transportation, food safety, processing, packaging, etc. Lots of work to do on this front for agriculture ......

If you'd like to try the full range of local foods, this dinner may be for you! In any event, check out my friends at Laurel Vista Farm. http://www.laurelvistafarm.com/Products.html

Sidelight ---- Rita & Rick came to a conference & brought me a garbage bag full of onion skins from their packing house. Why? I use them to make a natural dye for my wool yarn. It makes a beautiful deep gold! ;~)