Lancaster Farm Fresh--Four Season Harvest--Sign Up Now

One of the biggest criticisms of the local food movement is that it lacks efficiency, convenience, and a potentially smaller carbon footprint because of its unorganized and under developed distribution system. The argument is that a consumer actually wastes energy driving to various farms, farm stands, and farmers markets trying to "buy local." Another criticism is how to support local agriculture in the winter. One answer to these "problems" is the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFF). Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFFC) is a non profit organic farmers cooperative of 64 farmers in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. They focus on creating healthy high quality foods from highly maintained and enriched soils on their small scale family farms.

LFFC serves all of Eastern Pennsylvania, New York City, and most of the tri state area by connecting the farmer and customer, delivering the best local organic produce, value added products, and humanely raised and pastured animal products to retail establishments, co-ops, restaurants, and institutions. LFF runs a year round 4 Season Harvest buying club, and Inverbrook Farm serves as a drop off site. You can sign up on their website where you will encounter this message:

Building a sustainable food system starts on the farm and ends on your table. Both ends of the equation are equally important. We are dedicated to environmental stewardship, supporting local communities, and producing healthful food. We are also committed to bringing you the best food we can at fair, affordable prices. Sign up for 4 Season Harvest today and get the local products you want in one fell swoop. Shop online and receive weekly deliveries at a pick-up site in your neighborhood.

Our products include Seasonal Vegetables, Eggs, Milk, Butter, Cheese, Yogurt, Flour, Maple Syrup, Honey, Bison, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Goat Milk and Cheese, Gluten Free Baked Goods, Fair Trade Organic Coffee, Baby Food, Mushrooms, Apple Cider, and more.


The protocol for ordering is relatively simple. You sign up through the LFF website. They will send you a confirmation email which will then give you access to their inventory. You make your order on-line--you must do this before 4PM on Friday--then your order will be delivered to Inverbrook the following Tuesday. You will receive an email with your order total, and then you send a check payment into LFF headquaters. The LFF delivery usually arrives at the farm by mid-morning on Tuesdays--and then you come pick it up. I have been sending email reminders once your order arrives. Its that simple. Because LFF shares warehouse space with local health food store Kimberton Whole Foods, you as a consumer have access to a great diversity of product--including coffee. Its a wonderful example of collaboration and cooperation where the focus is on creating a heathly, sustainable, local food system with the acknowledgement that we obviously cannot grow everything in southeast Pennsylvania, but we can still do our best to make sure that the products we offer are from small family farms and that the enviromental impact of transportion is kept to a minimum.

To learn more about this wonderful food enterprise click here to read a profile on LFF Coop that appeared in a Spring 2009 issue of Grid Magazine.

One of the major forces behind the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop is its general manager Casey Spatch. I am a big fan of Casey, not only do we share a common ethic when it comes to the elements of a local food system that are most important, Casey is also wealth of information when it comes to medicinal herbs and foraging. Casey and his partner Eli have started an Medicinal Herb CSA through Lancaster Farm Fresh known at Community Supported Medicine. If you are a fan of foraging and medicinal plants the Lancaster Farmacy blog is definitely worth checking out. As it turns out I am not the only one impressed (and I would say mildly obsessed) with Casey's amazing depth of knowledge--Lee Stabert, writer for GRID magazine, has featured Casey in several GRID magazine and blog postings. Check out the links below:

Foraging for Pawpaws and starting a fire while hunting for the fruit.

Part 1 and Part 2 of a hunt for Morel Mushrooms.

Posting on Casey's latest endeavor with partner Elizabeth Weaver--the Lancaster Farmacy.

PASA's Farming for the Future Conference- 20 Years of Food System Inspiration

As mid-January quickly approaches I am reminded that time is running out to register for the convivial, informational, and inspirational Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA)'s Farming for the Future Conference. As I have written before, there has been no more influential force in my farming career than PASA and its Farming for the Future Conference. For me it signifies the official start of the season--the place where my enthusiasm and energy for farming is renewed and reinvigorated--where the well-spring of passion, drive, and inspiration is refilled. This is a particular special conference in that it marks the 20th year of occurance with a keynote by the "godfather of sustainable agriculture" Wes Jackson and the conference theme of "Strengthening from Our Roots: Claiming Our Food-System Future."

I encourage you to browse the conference program that includes local meals, music, socializing, expert speakers, as well as a diverse range of informational sessions. I leave you with words from PASA's executive director Brian Snyder:

This year’s conference is special in many ways, but none as poignant as the opportunity we have to celebrate our 20th gathering together as a community of common purpose. My first conference was the 10th, so this is also a milestone of much significance to me personally. As such, it is a time to take stock of where we’ve come from and what we’ve achieved together. In true PASA fashion, however, we are not at all ready to give up the struggle that began even before our first gathering in 1992...the dual effort to restore dignity to farming and good food to the tables of all citizens in this nation and beyond.

Indeed, as our conference theme makes clear this year, we are ready to assert ourselves in a way we never could in the past. An economic recession has come and gone, and there will be others, but the rising tide of interest in the sources of our food and how it is produced will not be diminished anytime soon. That a healthy food system is a key element of our continued high quality of life on this planet is a conclusion being reached by folks at both ends of the political spectrum, and everywhere in between...it unites us in ways that few other endeavors are able to.

We look forward to welcoming you to this latest edition of one of the largest and most respected gatherings of sustainable agriculture enthusiasts anywhere in the country. Come join us as we explore the great sustainable opportunity now before us, that of claiming our food-system future for our families, our communities and, indeed, the entire world.

Happy New Year-Delicious Winter Salad Recipe

Happy New Year! I cannot believe it has been almost a month since my last posting. I guess I got caught up in the holiday and end of year duties. Now that the New Year has begun and I am a little more caught up on office work--I am excited about posting on a more regular basis. Stay tuned for updates regarding the farm, our community, as well as news and events that might be of interest to you. In the meantime I thought you might appreciate this fantastic winter salad recipe--with all kinds of seasonal ingredients like fennel and citrus. I actually have the opportunity to try it last night. We had a going away gathering for farm friend Hannah--who is returning to university in Canada to complete her masters work. Hannah is a friend, helper, and surrogate daughter to Martha Pisano of Highland Farm Sheep cheese and yogurt. Martha brought this salad to the party last night and it paired perfectly with the other winter dishes brought to the table.

Speaking of talented women in our community--Margaret Gilmour, local writer and one of the founders of CC Dwell, has launched her own personal blog--Fresh Basil highlighting the things in life that are hand-crafted, just plucked, and all-natural--read more about Margaret here--Enjoy!

Cheese--the perfect gift for the locavore in your life

As the cold weather continues and winter greens and storage crops start to dwindle, the perfect local food to focus on is CHEESE. I love cheese and am so thankful for the amazing community of cheese makers, sellers, and proponents who have sprung up in the last couple of years to revive a once thriving cheese culture here in Southeast PA.

One of the best resources for cheese in the county is the newly formed Chester County Cheese Artisans group. Upcoming events include a holiday open house at Yellow Springs Farm and a winter Farms Market at Birchrun Hills Farm.

Speaking of winter farmers market--the next installment of the Kennett Square Winter Market will take place Friday, December 17th with a great cheese assortment from Amazing Acres and God's Country Creamery--two of the cheeses featured in GRID's Holiday Cheese plate. The first cheese PA Noble is available through the Lancaster Farm Fresh 4 Season Buy Club that makes drop offs at Inverbrook (I actually ordered some this week) and then the Noble Road--one of my personal favorites is available at Talula's Table.

If you are willing to travel a little farther afield -- Philadelphia cheese blogger Madame Fromage will be leading a guided cheese tasting at the Reading Terminal tomorrow--click here for the link. Madame Fromage will be teaming up with GRID magazine in the future to produce a monthly feature on local cheese-- in the mean tine check out the newly created Cheese TV.

Other links featuring local cheese:

Talula's Table Blog

CC Dwell interview with 8 Local Cheese Makers

Great posting from the Apples and Cheese, please blog about eating local this time of year

Community of Giving--Sustaining the Presence of Farming and Music

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
- J R R Tolkien

Happy December 1st--an occasion that marks the transition from the holiday of gratitude to the season of giving. It is in this spirit that I want to encourage your generosity and support to include two very worthwhile entities that truly embody the sentiment in the Tolkien quote above. They are the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) and the Philly based musical group Hoots and Hellmouth.

I could write volumes (and have already dedicated several postings to both PASA and HnHM) about the interconnectedness between these organizations and our farming operation, our community and each other. Instead I encourage you to explore the websites of each--it becomes very clear that both are all about the creative promotion and success of "food and cheer and song."

Vibrant local food systems are the key to successful farms, healthy food, and respect for the natural environment. PASA, one of the leading advocates for these concepts, works together with farmers and consumers to ensure a thriving, sustainable Pennsylvania food system for us all.

I invite you to join PASA as a member and connect with a larger network of people who appreciate good food and the farmers who grow it.
-PASA is a network of people who care - we all have a role in assuring the health and longevity of our regional farms and food supply.
-PASA is the catalyst that brings together those dedicated to advancing sustainable food and farming systems.
-PASA is a dynamic new model for partnerships between traditional agricultural and our ever-changing society and has worked to forge positive and needed changes in the way food is grown, harvested, distributed, and marketed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Our family farms face enormous threats and whether we can save farming in time is up to all of us--of course your support of Inverbrook is greatly appreciated however without the educational opportunities and advocacy work of PASA we would be lost (take the recent and successful senate passing of a Food Safe Bill that includes several amendments friendly to small farmers).

If you are interested in taking the next step here are two things you can do:

Click here to send a donation to support good, honest food for everyone.

Click here to sign-up for PASA's e-news and stay up-to-date on PASA policy updates and news.

On a somewhat related note--the musical locavores that make up Hoots and Hellmouth are looking for financial support from their fans to complete a recording of new songs. You can be a part of this grass roots campaign by making a donation on Kickstarter--an online fundraising site. For as little as $10 you can help support the band in their next creative endeavor.

To get a sense of Hoots and Hellmouth's dedication to sustainable agriculture check out this NPR story on their fall farm tour

In case you are not yet familiar with the band, here are some videos of Hoots and Hellmouth in action. The first is high energy Hoots at the Philadelphia Folk Festival a couple of years ago singing "What Good Are Plow Shares". The second video is of "Roll Brandywine Roll" a beautiful song inspired by our beloved river.





Hope you will join me in supporting these two worthy groups. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving--the true Pleasure of Eating

Happy Thanksgiving! I thought I would put forth one of my favorite Wendell Berry excerpts--all about the true pleasure of eating. Thank you all for your support--from turkeys to salad greens, from farmers markets to CSAs--you should feel proud of your connection to the land and community that is embodied in this very special meal.

An excerpt from Bringing it to the Table (2009, Counterpoint Press):

" The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. The knowledge of the good health if the garden relieves and frees and comforts the eater. The same goes for eating meat. The thought of the good pasture and of the calf contentedly grazing flavors the steak. Some, I know, will think it bloodthirsty or worse to eat a fellow creature you have known all its life. On the contrary, I think it means that you eat with understanding and with gratitude. A significant part of the pleasure of eating is one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes. The pleasure of eating, then, may be the best available standard of our health. And this pleasure, I think, is pretty fully available to the urban consumer who will make the necessary effort.

I mentioned earlier the politics, esthetics, and ethics of food. But to speak of the pleasure of eating is to go beyond those categories. Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend. ..."

(Wendell Berry from the 1989 essay "The Pleasures of Eating" as republished in Bringing it to the Table, 2009.)

Unusual Roots--Salad Turnips and Winter Radish Recipes

I have to give a final plug to these three unusual but delicious roots. First the sweet and mild salad turnip--one reporter finds them almost better than chocolate. These tender turnips are the perfect addition to crudite platters and winter salads (see recipe at the end of this posting)--they have all the sweetness and texture of a radish with almost none of the heat.

Next is the Watermelon Radish, their main virtue is their amazing inner coloring--I found this great recipe for watermelon radish chips on bucks county CSA Blooming Glen Farm's website. I tried it out immediately--the chips are delicious, however it made the house smell like a Chinese restaurant. I also discovered some recipes where you make baked radish chips. I look forward to seeing if this cooking method is a little less ordor intense, either way it certainly lessens the oil intake which makes these delicious snakes all the more healthful.

Finally I want to highlight the Asian cooking staple the Daikon Radish. I like to use Daikons in stir fries, soups, and stews instead of turnips--they cook a little faster and have basically the same taste. Here is a chicken soup recipe from the new New York Time's recipe blog Food52. A more traditional way to enjoy Daikon Radishes is after they have been pickled--check out Food In Jars Pickled Daikon recipe.

Enjoy your roots!

Baby White Turnip Salad With Toasted Pecans And Bacon
Time 5 minutes Serves 4
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Ingredients
4 small white turnips with their greens attached
1/4 c. pecan halves or pieces
3 oz. bacon
1 green garlic stalk or green onion, sliced on the bias
salt and pepper, to taste
1-2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
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How to make it
Preheat the oven to 350.
Remove the greens from the turnips. Tear the leaves with your hands into medium to large pieces and set aside.
Slice turnips as thin as possible (use a mandoline if you have one). Put into a bowl of iced water.
Toast the pecans in the oven just until they start to brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
In a non-stick pan, saute the bacon until crunchy on the outside. Remove from the pan and set aside, reserving the fat.
Prepare a simple vinaigrette: combine vinegar with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in about 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil. Set aside.
Heat the bacon fat in the same pan. Once hot, add the green garlic/onion and saute until tender. Add greens to the pan, season with salt and just a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook until they are wilted.
Remove the sliced turnips from the iced water bath, dry them with a kitchen towel and toss with the vinaigrette.
Arrange the turnip slices and their greens in a mound and sprinkle bacon and pecans on top.