Local Events This Weekend...

If you're a Bucks dweller, with a penchant for local food and/or wine (Ooh me! Me!) then check out these local events this weekend. And checkout my sweet little tulip from my garden. Had to slip that in, because it makes me smile every time I go outside and see it greeting me. 

It's important to me to highlight the local farmers markets here. We've gotten so used to running to the big box stores for everything that we have lost sight of how this little convenience to us has really affected our local farmers and artists. Not to mention, our loss of a connection as a neighborhood and community. And in turn, we also end up buying "easy", highly processed foods and meats, and veggies and fruit coated in pesticides and chemicals.  So please think about heading to a farmers market by you this weekend, talk to the growers and your neighbors there. Make a connection, you never know who you might meet and what they might bring to your life. And check out one of my favorite chicks and her blog on Earthfoods, which can give you some tips on what to make with that food you buy there:  http://earthfoodexperiment.wordpress.com/

Friday is First Friday in Doylestown, http://firstfridaydoylestown.com/. Good night out for the family. Or, you could stop by Shady Brook for the Wine Concert Series, which will have the Mango Men this week, http://www.shadybrookfarm.com/summer_wine.php.  Both events run from 6-9.

On Saturday, try to make it to the Doylestown Farmers Market between 7-12, where you can find seasonal, chemical free, and low input vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits; bedding, vegetable, herb plants, container gardens, and orchids; jams, pie filling and preserved products; pastured chicken and eggs, duck and duck eggs, turkey, goat, and lamb; artisan bread, baked goods (cookies, cakes, biscotti, pies, stromboli, Greek pastries); handmade soaps, lotions, and skin care products; goat cheeses, yogurt, milk and meat; mushrooms, honey, maple syrup, granola, and prepared foods. Locally handcrafted woodenware, beeswax candles, alpaca yarn and other products, glass jewelery. Whew! That's a lot, all in one place. Support your local farms and artists!  This is located at W. State & Hamilton St., Doylestown, PA 18901. I'll be there, maybe I'll see you!!

The Wrightstown Farmers Market is also going on from 9-1pm, at Wrightstown Twp. Municipal Bldg (parking lot), 2203 2nd Street Pike, Wrightstown, PA. Smaller but excellent for staying local for eggs, soap and in season produce.

And of course, don't forget your Mother on Mothers Day! There are a ton of local wine tastings and events going on. Or a Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner at the Riegelsville Fire Company, if your mom digs that kind of thing. Sorry, mom. You're on your own for this one.

Unique and Recycled Ideas for Container Gardens

Not everyone has space or time to maintain a large garden, or maybe you're just dipping your green thumb into the pool to see how you do. Either way, container gardening is a simple and easy way to get started, and if you're like me you prefer to find an affordable and earth conscious way to do so.  So here are some ideas using materials you probably have in your house right now.

Do your own version of "dumpster diving" into your recycling bin, and pick out the large containers, like the soda bottles or even large cat little containers. Cut the tops off of the bottles, and poke or drill holes in the bottom.  For an added bonus, you can have the kids paint the outside for a charming extra touch. For the cat litter containers,  you can spray paint the outside only, and drill holes in the bottom for drainage. Even better if they're the kind with handles, so that you can relocate them to follow the sun. Don't forget about your yogurt containers (the ones with the plastic lids are great for seedlings as little greenhouses!) and plastic take out or fruit crates.



My personal favorite is using colanders and even metal wire wastepaper baskets.

 

Just line the baskets with peat moss, and fill it with potting soil then plant your seedlings. Plant some herbs in those colanders and there you have it, a perfect herb kitchen garden!

Tired of those #$@*!-ing dandilions? Revenge Salad.

As a die-hard nature chick, I have a problem vilifying any part of nature. This includes dandelions and creeping Charlie, but the latter has become the recent target of blind fury. It's creeped into my veggie garden, which dogs, cat and children in my household know NOT to do unless you're invited. That being said, if you are not the nature lover or are just out of patience, you can exact some revenge on the little suckers with this recipe.  Oh, but if you have a dog, maybe you should pick them from your dogless neighbors yard.

You'll need:

1/2 pound of torn dandelions (that's a lot out of your yard! Hooray!)

2 chopped tomatoes

1/2 tsp of dried basil

1/2 red onion

Throw all ingredients into a bowl. I'd toss in a few strawberries to even out the flavor, maybe some goat cheese. Because everything is better with goat cheese. And a strawberry vinaigrette. 

Bucks County Foodshed Alliance Meeting... You should go!

"Bringing Food Production Back Home,” will be led by organic gardening pro Paul Thompson, president of the BucksMont Organic Garden Club. Thompson is a  veteran of 35 years of organic vegetable production, and he'll share ideas about creating a backyard food supply and answer questions for experienced as well as novice gardeners. For example:

• Which vegetables are the easiest to grow?


• Which crops will save my household the most money?


• What can I grow that’s tasty, easy, nutritious — and new and different?


• What are the most efficient and productive organic gardening techniques?


• How can I expand my growing space and increase my yields?

This is a good starting point for beginners!

http://www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org/index.php