Holiday Sale at Inverbrook this Saturday 1-6PM

If crowded malls and impersonal big box stores are getting you down this holiday shopping season, I am happy to offer the perfect alternative.  This coming Saturday from 1-6PM we are hosting a holiday sale at the big stone house on the farm featuring a variety of talented local artisans.  Orchids, cheese, beeswax candles, temporary tattoos, pottery, seed packets, earrings, fabric bags, aprons, and more....this eclectic mix of vendors will provide a wide array of gift options.

Along with the great local artisans, I will be manning farm table which will include the ability to sign up for our 2012 CSA season, learn about the add on CSA options like the North Star Orchard Fruit share, buy gift certificates from Three Birds Bouquets, as well as the opportunity to purchase Camels Hump Rain Barrels. 

Shop locally and celebrate the holidays this season at Inverbrook Farm's Holiday Sale. A selection of fine handmade crafts and local fare will be available for purchase.

Featuring:
* Bessie -- bags, aprons & accessories
* Chansonette Flowers & Art -- inspired orchids & succulents
* Happy Cat Organics  -- where the slow food revolution begins
* HEIRLOOM: modern classic -- jewelry & accessories
* Lyla Kaplan Pottery -- functional stoneware
* Red Haven Farm -- artisan cheeses
* Matchstick Handmade -- beeswax candles
* Camels Hump Rain Barrels  -- water catchment systems
*Three Birds Bouquets -- flower csa

Bring your friends and enjoy light hors d'oeuvres while ringing in the holiday season and new year 1-6PM Saturday, December 17th!

Bessie's Bags



Matchstick Handmade Beeswax Candles



Happy Cat Seed Packets



Chansonette Orchids and Floral Creations

Lyla Kaplan Pottery bottle



Heirloom: modern classic pendant



Congratulations Happy Cat Organics!

This Thursday we will be celebrating the launch of the Happy Cat webstore at the Chester County Green Drink gathering 7-9PM at Victory Brewing Company. The day before earth day seems like a fitting time to raise a glass to the hard work of the husband and wife team of Tim and Amy Bloom Mountz and their amazing resource for heirloom seeds and growing /foraging tools. Of course I have a special affinity for anyone who includes Wendell Berry quotes on their “philosophy” page:

In 1993 my Grandfather, David Haas was killed in a car accident. He had lived his entire life on the rich soils of Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania. People said he didn’t have a green thumb, but a green arm.
With his passing my Grandmother gave me a jar of his beans, these turned out to have great historical and cultural importance.
A passion was born.
Our passion became our craft and our lifestyle is our dedication to that craft. Happy Cat Farm exists to teach people how to grow and forage their own food sustainably.
We touch seeds everyday in our practice of seed to table farming. They teach us patience and bring ritual to our lives, things that modern life is so void of.
“We stand for what we stand on”
-Wendell Berry

You can read more about Happy Cat below:
Grid Magazine Profile

Growing Magazine Profile

Tim’s Black Ruffles tomato is a particular favorite and got a nice shout out on the Go Indie farming blog as their top tomato in the test garden.

You can RSVP to the Happy Cat Web Launch/Green Drinks gathering on facebook.

Cheers to Happy Cat, cheers to a productive growing season.

Sowing the Seeds of Spring--its time to start planting

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has
been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed
there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
- Henry David Thoreau


The schizophrenic weather these last couple of weeks-60 degrees at one moment, 4 inches of snow the next; blustery wind then spring like breezes-makes it hard to get a sense of the season. My actions have been just as extreme-from winter walks in the snowy woods to seed planting in the solar heated greenhouse. My mind however, is singularly focused- I have spring on the brain. I am all about seeds right now, apparent even in the subject of my snowy landscape photos (goldenrod and milkweed pods).

With March just around the corner, this is the time to start many of our favorite summer vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. They need plenty of indoor growing time to get a proper jump on the season. I know many of you are avid home gardeners (even if you are CSA members) and I thought it would be helpful to share some resources that have been most useful to me.

First and foremost is the Johnny Seed website (and catalog). I reference the Johnny Seed Catalog more than any other resource. It is filled with great growing information for each of the types of vegetables, herbs, and flowers they sell. Below is a list of specific useful links all described in their January blog posting.

-Seed-Staring Date Calculator (I use May 15th, 2011 as a last frost date, you might be able to get away with earlier in May if you live a protected or urban area)

-Seed Amount Calculator--helps you fiqure out the amount of seed you need for your specific garden or harvest needs.

-Target Harvest Date Calculator—this is a great tool that Johnny’s has developed with another favorite resource of mine Growing For Market—it is basically an excel file that you can plug into to figure out planting dates based on when you want to do your harvesting (this is a new tool).

The Johnny’s Website is also filled with crop specific growing guides, videos, and more. Here is a great video from the Martha Stewart show featuring a Johnny’s expert about seed starting basics.

Although it was written a number of years ago Mother Earth News has a great posting about seed starting.

We also are lucky enough to have two great local resources in regard to seed starting—two local companies run by good friends.

Happy Cat Organics-a great source of heirloom seeds with a newly updated website.

Organic Mechanics- an organic potting soil available at both Kimberton Whole Foods and Harvest Market Natural Foods.

Local writer Margaret Gilmour has two recent postings on seed starting and heirlooms on her wonderful blog Fresh Basil.

Finally, I want to leave you with some added inspiration. Local filmmaker Rich Power Hoffman of Spring Garden Pictures uses time lapse photography to capture the amazing process of seed germination and plant growth. His film Fridays at the Farm is one of the most powerful and compelling pieces about the importance of supporting a CSA. If you have a spare 20 minutes, I strongly recommend checking it out. It makes me cry every time I watch it. Enjoy and happy planting.

Fridays at the Farm from Spring Garden Pictures on Vimeo.

Seeds of Spring from Spring Garden Pictures on Vimeo.

The Power of PASA--thoughts of spring

With feet of snow on the ground and the current blizzard conditions swirling outside my window, you would hardly guess that I would be inspired to think about farming. Believe it or not I am currently in a farming state of mind--in large part due to my attendance of the informational and inspirational PASA Farm for the Future conference. An amazing opportunity to network, learn, and just enjoy with over 2,400 other farming enthusiast--the Farming for the Future conference has garnered the much deserved reputation of providing farmers with what they need to refill the wellspring of passion and knowledge necessary to get through another farming season.

This year's conference did not disappoint. The slightly caustic but genius keynote speaker Michael Reynolds provided a model for this year's theme-- The Sustainable Challenge: Providing for a Livable Tomorrow -- through his rebellious yet ecologically logical architectural models. I attended a range of workshops with topics that included high tunnels, fermented foods, dealing with melon/cucumber/squash pests,transition towns and more--all with the underlying theme of providing for a more sustainable future. One of the highlights of this year's conference was to have Chester County natives Hoots and Hellmouth provide musical entertainment at the kick off winter picnic (with the giant turkey image staring down on them while they performed). In fact we got snowed in up at the conference, resulting in the opportunity to enjoy Hoots and Hellmouth a second time at a wonderful local food and ale house venue the Elk Creek Cafe--a restaurant started by former PASA executive director Tim Bowser. If you are ever in the State College area I strongly recommend the Elk Creek Cafe.

But on to farming--despite the weather outside, this is the perfect time to be picking out seeds, thinking about potting soil, and planning out your garden. Luckily PASA can be a resource for all of us in the Southeast region. This weekend PASA is hosting a great double header workshop on backyard chickens and succession planting click here for the complete details. Two PASA members are also great resources for seeds and potting soil-- Happy Cat Organics and Organic Mechanic potting soil. Check out Organic Mechanic at the PASA conference in the picture below. Another great resource, especially while you are stuck inside, is the Johnny Selected Seed Company (they too were at the PASA conference, even though the company is based in Maine). I basically could not survive without the help of Johnny's--their catalog is a fantastic reference as is their website and my new obsession their blog. So as the snow continues to pile up--I hope you can enjoy thoughts of spring and all the wonderful local resources PASA has to offer.

A sense of place-recent blog postings

Sometimes I spend way too long searching the internet for recipe inspirations, photos, and folklore about the produce I feature in a particular week's share. Well I have yet to find the perfect daikon radish link, however I found this wonderful posting on Grist.org about Apples and a sense of place. I love the sentiment, and as a farmer so enjoy the opportunity to explore a deeper connection to history, culture, and what it means to create community, not to mention the fact that I am a total sucker for any Wendell Berry reference, also one of my life's inspirations, my person guru so to speak.

Speaking of a sense of place, check out Happy Cat's lastest posting (I will add a little warning about Punk Rock Farmer's language, not for the young or sensitive reader). Nothing like foraging for your seed source!

The Apple Tree
by Wendell Berry for Ann and Dick O’Hanlon

In the essential prose
of things, the apple tree
stands up, emphatic
among the accidents
of the afternoon, solvent,
not to be denied.
The grass has been cut
down, carefully
to leave the orange
poppies still in bloom;
the tree stands up
in the odor of the grass
drying. The forked
trunk and branches are
also a kind of necessary
prose—shingled with leaves,
pigment and song
imposed on the blunt
lineaments of fact, a foliage
of small birds among them.
The tree lifts itself up
in the garden, the
clutter of its green
leaves halving the light,
stating the unalterable
congruity and form
of its casual growth;
the crimson finches appear
and disappear, singing
among the design.