Produce! Get your produce!

In an ideal world, our farms would be able to accommodate unlimited CSA members. But at least in the meantime, as we continue to grow as an organization, we love getting to sharing our organic produce with new friends and community members through the farm market we attend weekly and the Harvest Sale that we host bi-weekly. So if you're looking for an opportunity to get some farm fresh veggies grown with great care using organic practices, along with grass fed meats provided by our partner farms, stop by and see us at one of these spots!

Every Saturday, we harvest at Hillside Farm and bring delicious produce over to the Swarthmore Farmer's Market from 9:30am to 1:30pm. Located right in front of the Swarthmore Co-Op, a visit to this market is a great opportunity to meet our farmers and the rest of the Greener Partners team. But come early, the supplies don't always last until close with so many hungry customers. For more information, click here or here.

{ A star Greener Partners helper at the Swarthmore Market }

Twice monthly on Saturdays, we host our own farm harvest sale at the Willows Cottage in Radnor. Featuring the surplus bounty from Skunk Hollow Farm, as well as grass fed beef and free-range chicken and eggs from our partner, Forks Farm. Come by to purchase some delicious seasonal produce and explore the farm! The next surplus sale will be held Saturday August 22. Market is open from 8am-11am, and after Labor Day we'll be hosting a harvest sale every Saturday! For more information and updates on Skunk Hollow Farm, click here.

{ A peek at the Skunk Hollow Harvest Sale }

Enjoy the last of these summer weekends, we hope to see you out at the market!

Bitten by blight.

Late blight... Two words no farmer wants to hear. More prevalent in cool, wet and windy weather, it can wipe out a tomato or potato crop in no time. You've likely heard about the effects of the blight this season, as more farms in our area have started burning and burying tomato plants hit by the blight. Until recently, we had been lucky to avoid a brush with the fungus ourselves. But early this week at the Skunk Hollow Community Farm, our farm manager Rick Fonda noticed some of the white spores on the leaves of the tomato plants, a sure indicator of late blight. Since there isn't much a farmer, much less and organic farmer, can do to fight the fungus, Rick will have to begin the process of digging up the plants and burying them to prevent further spread of the spores.

{ Picture of a tomato plant affected by late blight. Courtesy of The New York Times }

There is little more disappointing for a farmer than to watch his or her crops die without any recourse. But amidst the frustration we're grateful that, unlike the people of Ireland in the 19th century, this year's late blight is problematic but certainly not life-threatening. And we're keeping this in mind when heading to the farm markets this summer. Fewer producers will be offering tomatoes, and the ones they do sell will be more expensive due to the demand. Regardless, we won't let that drive us to buy elsewhere, and instead we'll take advantage of summer's other bounty. They may not be the big, beautiful tomatoes we all love, but the cauliflower looks amazing this time of year. Supporting our local farmers by purchasing the produce they do have to offer helps strengthen our communities, not to mention get them back on track for growing healthy tomatoes next year!

{ A photo of a recent share list from the Skunk Hollow Community Farm }

For more information on the late blight, click here or here.

Preserving the bounty

Many of you have probably begun noticing an abundance of summer squash and zucchini in your CSA shares and in the farm markets in recent weeks... And there is more to come! These delicious veggies produce in huge volumes once the warm weather hits, leaving us all to find creative ways to use the crops before they spoil.

And these aren't the only things we're finding in abundance as summer unfolds- berries, cucumbers, beets and onions are also making themselves known. Luckily, there are literally hundreds of amazing ways to cook these varieties, and better yet, tons of ways to preserve them as well. Because while we may be drowning in these fruits and veggies at the moment, there will certainly come a time when we miss their summer flavor- and that's where preservation comes in!

Because there are so many options, listing them all here would be nearly impossible, so instead we've compiled a list of our favorite sources for preservation ideas. Try these books and links for delicious and varied recipes for preservation, from quick and easy tips for freezing and creating refrigerator pickles to instructions and recipes for canning produce, pickles and jellies. Though some of these ideas will be more involved, all of these resources are geared towards small-scale, at home preservation. So dig-in and have fun!

Books:
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Preserving Summer's Bounty
• Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving and Freezing

Links:
• Canned Heat at Epicurious.com
• National Center for Home Food Preservation

Recipes:
• Pickled Red Onions
• Relish, Sauce and Chutney- All in one day (scroll down to click on recipes)

Get your grills ready...

I must admit, the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. It's hard to go wrong when you combine a weekend of good friends, fireworks and BBQs... Especially when those BBQs incorporate the beginnings of the sweet summer harvest. We're just now starting to see a few summer favorites in our own CSA shares; from summer squash and strawberries to green beans and cucumbers... And the first of the season's tomatoes shouldn't be far behind.

{ vintage flag photo by Joseph Hancock courtesy of art.com }

So for my part, I've been dreaming up a delicious menu all week that will incorporate some of our own and our neighboring farm's bounty, and that will suit the tastes of the vegetarian and carnivorous, the dieters and the indulgent. So without further ado, let's take a look at the potential menu...

{ grilled chicken courtesy of Bon Appetite }

• Lemony White Bean Hummus with garlic and tahini
• Forks Farm grilled chicken
• Green leaf salad with new cherry tomatoes, Zebulon red onion and feta
• Bikini Zucchini Salad (a clever name for a delicious diet-worthy mix of raw zucchini and lemon dressing, with a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and basil)
• Grilled sweet white corn
• Homemade buttermilk biscuits

{ grilled corn courtesy of Bon Appetite }

As for a sweet ending....
• Black Raspberry-Blueberry Pound Cake
and
• Vegan Coconut, Chocolate Chip, Pecan cookies based on this recipe (okay, so this last one isn't exactly local, but I am a true believer that no holiday is complete without a bit of chocolate)

There are still hours left until the final trip to the farmer's market tomorrow- so things could still change, but come Saturday I know that I'll be enjoying at least a few of these summer dishes. And how about all of you, what favorite foods have you excited for this weekend?

Camphill Hootenanny

Can you say hootenanny? Okay, now can you spell hootenanny? Either way, this Saturday's summer celebration at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills is going to be a blast. Featuring music by Spirit and Dust, Mason Porter, Chris Kasper, Wissahickon Chicken Shack, Hezakiah Jones and Tin Bird Choir (just to name a few!), arts tables, local crafts and and delicious food from the garden and cafe, the afternoon is not to be missed. Click here for more information or to purchase tickets.


Camphill Village is an amazing community where resident volunteers live and work together with adults with special needs. In addition, and important part of Camphill's mission is their dedication to sustainable land use. They believe that "the health of land and people are deeply interdependent," and practice biodynamic agriculture. Is goes without saying that we at Greener Partners have a sincere respect for the work at Camphill, and for that reason (and maybe partly because we love music and good food) you'll find many of our smiling faces at the hootenanny this weekend.

See you there!

Wekend Plans: Skunk Hollow Hoedown!

There are few things I would rather do on the weekend than spend time outside with friends, great food and live music. And if outside meant hanging out on a gorgeous farm and the live music happened to be bluegrass by one of my favorite local bands, the Wissahickon Chicken Shack, that might just be my ideal day. If it sounds good to you too, mark your calendar for this Sunday from 3-7pm at the Willows Cottage for the Skunk Hollow Community Farm Hoedown. And if the farm, food and music isn't enough to draw you and your family and friends in, perhaps the mechanical bull will? For more information please visit: www.greenerpartners.org or www.radnorconservancy.org

Greener Partners in the news!

Serious April showers didn't stop our farmers from planting the first seedlings of the year at opening day of the Hillside Farm at Elwyn. 

{ The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 15, 2009 }

Our head farmer Ben Weiss lead the way in the mud to plant crops of onion, spinach and kohlrabi for our 2009 CSA. And the wet work paid off! Aside from planting the crops that will give way to delicious produce before long, the rainy-day activity drew the attention of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Delaware County Daily Times. Always exciting to see our partner farms in the press!

{ The Delaware County Daily Times, April 15, 2009 }

Night on the town

While the remains of our winter food offerings are leaving me less-than-inspired in the kitchen of late, some creative chefs are finding no shortage of delicious meals sourced from our farm communities in the Delaware Valley. So if, like me, you're wondering how many more meals you can create from the root veggies still hiding in your kitchen- consider making a night out this weekend at one of the many area restaurants who source most of their food locally. If you're not familiar with which eateries in your area might offer local food, click here for tons of great resources. And if you notice that your favorite restaurant isn't on the list, don't hesitate to kindly mention it to the staff on your next visit... The more vocal we are as consumers about what is important to us, the more likely we will be to promote sustainable agriculture in our communities!Have a great weekend all! Personally, I'll be at Standard Tap enjoying delicious local food AND drinks!

Fridays at the Farm

A few years ago, sometime between frightening college dining hall food and the slightly less frightening meals I later fed myself in my own kitchen; I started to really become aware of the food I was eating for the first time. Not that I hadn’t noticed and enjoyed my mom’s famous fajitas, a good burger and fries or my favorite mint chocolate chunk ice cream before. But I started wondering, where did the food I was eating come from? Was it harvested nearby or did it travel to my grocery store from Mexico? Some of it seemed so foreign to what I had seen grown in the ground, that I had to wonder if any of its components had been grown at all. And what difference did that make exactly?
I wasn't alone. Richard Hoffman’s short documentary, Fridays at the Farm, is an insightful snapshot of his journey to answer some of those same questions. I was lucky to see the film for the first time last week, when Richard joined some of our Greener Partners team at a town meeting to discuss plans for our newest venture: a community farm at Skunk Hollow in Radnor. The connection was clear; Fridays at the Farm speaks eloquently to the questions that many of us ask about the food we eat, and, more importantly, inspires us to get involved in the process.
You can see a short clip of the film below. You may recognize the farmer as our own Amy Johnson, who began asking herself these same questions and making her own answers long before I did.



To learn more about Fridays at the Farm, click here.