Sounds like we’re in for a snowy few days, folks… just in case you’d forgotten that it was winter.  Here’s a few things to keep you busy this weekend.  Brew up a nice cup of hot chocolate, pull up the quilt and start clicking. Survey says: fruit and veggie consumption dropped in 2009.  Bummer — …

Community gardens are not just an urban phenomenon.  Yes, in places like New York City, it’s hard to walk a block or two without finding some tended patch of green, spilling out onto the sidewalk.  In fact, New York boasts more than 600 gardens covering more than 32 acres — pretty impressive. But they exist …

America’s farming demographic is aging. Rapidly. According to the latest Census of Agriculture, the average age of a U.S. farmer is 57.2, and that’s not all.  The average American small farmer is over 60. More than one out of every four farmers is over 65 years old and rapidly facing retirement, and less than 6% …

Happy rainy Friday.  While the Local Food Hub truck is out making the rounds (to the Haven and Clark, Johnson and Jackson-Via Elementary Schools, to be exact), we’re making the rounds on the internet.   Here’s the best in food-related media this week: DIY Backyard Beekeeping slideshow and tutorial.  If you can garden, you can beekeep! …

To be completely honest, the idea of growing mushrooms freaks me out.  It could be the fear of accidentally eating something that’s horribly toxic, but I trace a good deal of my paranoia back to a particularly memorable episode of the X-Files (which, if you’re interested, featured a mushroom that extended for more than ten …

Driving around Charlottesville, you’d be hard pressed to go more than a few blocks without eventually coming face to face with the back end of a Volvo or Subaru sporting a “Buy Fresh Buy Local” bumper sticker. But as prevalent as the sentiment seems to be, is the movement actually a movement? That is to …

It’s Friday and the Local Food Hub truck is out and about, stuffed full of local potatoes, winter squash, turnips, onions and apples and making donation drops at both the Haven and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank in Charlottesville.  Here’s to a good weekend and healthy eating for all.   Also, here’s our new …

I can’t help it – the thermometer barely cracked 50 degrees today and I automatically started thinking about spring: sunshine, seeds, gardens, sprouts, fresh fruits and vegetables. Alas, it’s only January and here in Virginia, we have at least another two months of the cold stuff. Reality check. Here’s the thing: eating locally also means …

If you share even a marginal interest in “food issues” – whether it manifests in your weekly runs to the farmers’ market downtown or your letter writing campaign to the USDA in support of Farm-to-School lunch programs– then you’ve heard of Michael Pollan. Actually, even if you haven’t done any of those things, you’ve still …