With a superb team of non-profits, farms, and local businesses coming together as partners, we were able to make this event way more than just a plant sale – while we did have a lovely selection of organically grown, lusciously-green seedlings, we also had food, drink, art, music, and learning opportunities. Oh, and a few pygmy goats for good measure.

While parents picked out plants for their home gardens (either from Local Food Hub or our incubator farm, Cottage View Farm), their children painted murals, made seed balls, visited with the dairy cow, and snapped photos in the photo booth. Afterwards, families settled in the pine grove to picnic and listen to music. Many wandered over and took part in our self-guided farm tour, which featured stops at the high tunnel, the chicken coop, and fields full of vegetables.

A great team of volunteers joined us on Saturday to ensure we were well staffed and ready to serve. Thank you Jean, Sydney, Sarah, Joe, Jessica, Anne, Grace, and Taylor! And thank you Melissa Maki for documenting the day in photographs.

All of this was made possible by our generous partners at the Ballyshannon Fund, who are committed to educational endeavors that encourage greater understanding of rural living, the ethos of farming, and the responsible use of natural resources.

And finally, it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without our amazing partners: Blue Ridge Music Together, Lucy O Photo, Best of What’s Around, City Schoolyard Garden, Cottage View Farm, Feast!, Vanguard Ranch, and T&N Printing.

We are so excited for tomorrow! We hope you’ll be joining us for some of the amazing activities that we have planned throughout the day, and if the past two posts haven’t convinced you, then you’ve probably been waiting for this one — all about the PLANTS!

For the gardener:

• Organic and heirloom plants: The greenhouse is absolutely packed with healthy, green, luscious plant starts — and they need a good home! Pick up everything you need to get your garden off to a healthy, happy start, including:
  • Moon and Stars Watermelon – A magical melon, the dark green and yellow speckled skin of the Moon and Stars watermelon evokes a living galaxy, while it’s pinkish red flesh is extraordinarily sweet and flavorful.
  • Tomatoes — We’ll have 12 varieties on hand, some heirloom, all organic. We’ve picked out our favorites, including Black Zebra, Virginia Sweet (yellow with red stripes!), Moskovich, and Mountain Princess.
  • Pumpkins — Cinderella, Long Island Cheese, Jack Be Little. Such evocative names!
  • Squash & Cucumbers — summer classics! No garden is complete without them.
  • Flowers: Marigolds, cosmos, and more! Perfect for companion planting with veggies.
  • Herbs galore: Easy to grow and perfect for summer cooking, everyone must have herbs! We’ve got a nice variety (including purple basil) to get you started!
  • More! This is just a selection…
• Meet the Farmer: Our newest farmers, Mark & Melissa of Cottage View Farm, will have their very own booth set up, too! They’ve got a fantastic selection of heirloom and organic plants to complement ours. Come on out, hear their story, and stock up!
• Expert advice: Don’t worry, we won’t send you home with a car-full of plants to fend for yourself! Adri and Steve, farmers extraordinaire, will be on hand to answer all of your questions, and we’ve got lots of hand-outs, guides, and diagrams to help you out.
• Self-guided farm tour: You don’t want to miss this! We’ve designed an informative and fun farm tour to share all of our projects with you! Find the balloons, grab a guide, and wander around the farm at your leisure — there’s so much to check out!

See you tomorrow — get the details here!

So pack up your picnic blankets (or borrow one of ours), relax, and have some lunch! Oh, and don’t forget to stock up on supplies for home, too.

For the hungry:

• Crazy for Kabobs: Try something new and delicious! Vanguard Ranch will be here with their food truck serving up all-natural, free-ranged, antibiotic and artificial hormone free goat meat, perfectly seasoned and expertly prepared. Or, for the vegetarians among us, pick up a tasty tofu platter. Yum!
• A Moveable Feast: Everyone’s favorite local specialty shop and cafe, Feast!, will be setting up shop on Saturday, too! Grab some salads and spreads and a baguette, and picnic to your heart’s content. White bean salad, hummus, pimento cheese, prosciutto egg salad, and more!

For the shopper:

• Pop-up Market: Our miniature farmer’s market will feature some of the tastiest seasonal produce available. Asparagus, greens, strawberries and more — do your Saturday shopping at our market and stock up for the week!
• Where’s the Beef: Our neighbors, Best of What’s Around, will also be here all day, hawking some of the finest grass-fed beef in town. Like the song for which the farm is named. these folks are all about growing and providing the very best of everything around. They’ll have grass-fed ground beef, as well as some speciality cuts of beef and steak. Stock up — this stuff is hard to get!
• Merchandise: Pick up a stylish Local Food Hub or Best of What’s Around t-shirt, and grab one of our new market totes while you’re at it!

Here’s Sneak Peek Part 1, just in case you missed it. Check back tomorrow for Sneak Peek Part 3!

We hope you can join us! We have a great list of partnering organizations that will also be here on Saturday to make this event fun, festive, and family friendly. There really is something for everyone — and to prove it, we’re going to spend the next few days highlighting all the great stuff that will be going on this weekend. Take a look below and be sure to check back tomorrow!

First up: For the young (and the young at heart)…

If you ask me, there’s no better way to spend a sunny, spring Saturday than picnicking amongst the trees on a beautiful organic farm. BUT, just in case you need a few more reasons to pack the kids up and take a 15 minute drive down Route 20, then read on…

• Sing, dance, make merry: Let your inner-musician come out to play! Blue Ridge Music Together will be here from 12 – 2pm with instruments, songs, and inspiration under the pine trees. Perfect for kids of all ages (that’s right — everyone welcome!).
• Paint the farm: Join the lovely folks from City Schoolyard Garden as they help design and paint a larger-than-life mural of the farm. Paint brushes, paints, smocks provided — you bring your artistic vision and brush skills!
• Say cheese! Grab some props and step right up into the best photo booth this side of Scottsville! The talented Lucy O Photo will be lending her skills from 11:30am – 2pm to help us kick off our second community photo booth (did you miss the first one? it was awesome!). Get your photo taken with our infamous toy chicken, write a message on our chalkboard speech bubbles, or just grab your friends and smile!
• Meet the goats: Ever seen a pygmy goat? Well now’s your chance! They’re just like real goats, but smaller, cuter, and way more adorable. Our friends from Best of What’s Around will be setting up at 10 am with their crew of pygmy goats. Make sure you stop by to scratch their heads and say hello. If we’re really lucky, Rosie the cow will also make an appearance!

Those are just the highlights, but we hear there will be more: bubble wands, crayons, coloring books, veggie print-making… the list goes on!

Check back tomorrow for Sneak Peek Part 2!

Charlottesville, VA – Earth Week got a little bit tastier this year, thanks to an expanded partnership between University of Virginia Medical Center, Morrison Healthcare Food Service, and Local Food Hub. In order to support small farms, bolster the local economy, and offer the tastiest seasonal produce available, the hospital cafeteria will feature a diverse array of local fruits, vegetables, and other products made available by Local Food Hub, including:

“Using food that is prepared using fresh, wholesome ingredients that are harvested in a socially responsible way is part of Morrison’s Food Philosophy, so partnering with Local Food Hub during Earth Week and the rest of the year is a perfect match,” says Wendy Phillips, clinical nutrition director at UVA Health System.

Local Food Hub worked with Executive Chef Julian Spainhour to develop menus for the week based on seasonal and local availability.

“We are proud to be creating a link between large buyers like UVA Health System and our region’s small family farms. Not only does it mean fresher, tastier food for patients, staff, and customers at the hospital, but it means market access and economic vitality for our small family farms, too,” says Emily Manley, outreach and communications director for Local Food Hub.

Large buyers and small local farms haven’t always been able to work together. Often buyers are logistically unable to source produce from many individual farms. And small farms face insurmountable barriers like infrastructural challenges that prevent them from accessing these markets in the first place.

Local Food Hub helps to connect buyers and farmers in a way that benefits both. By purchasing food from local farms for a fair price, and then selling and distributing to institutions, restaurants and retail outlets, Local Food Hub has created “one number to call” for local food while also supplying the required liability insurance, traceability, and refrigerated delivery.

When large buyers like UVAHS keep their spending local, it can have a big impact on the economy. According to a recent report by the Wallace Center and the BALLE, every dollar spent at a local business can have two to four times the economic impact of a dollar spent on a non-local business by generating jobs, income and wealth.

Since 2009, Local Food Hub has purchased more than $1.2 million worth of Virginia-grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat from more than 70 area farms, putting hard-earned money directly into the pockets of farmers and business owners. Local Food Hub aggregates, markets and distributes locally grown food, freeing up time, labor, and expenses for small family farms and providing access to fresh local food for more than 120 institutions and businesses like schools, restaurants, hospitals, and grocery stores. Local Food Hub helps create and retain jobs in Central Virginia while promoting rural agriculture, healthy eating, and conservation.

For additional information, please contact Emily Manley at: emily@localfoodhub.org or (434) 286-2176.

The theory of permaculture bring together some of my favorite things in life: science, art, agriculture, nature, design, and conservation. First developed in the mid-70s in Tasmania in response to the rapid increase in industrial agriculture, permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature, and emphasizes the importance of connections, relationships, and working together.

In action, permaculture looks something like Radical Roots Farm. A five-acre vegetable farm in Keezletown, Va, Radical Roots employs methods like cover crops, crop rotation, beneficial insects, and compost to create healthy soil and beautiful food.

If you’d like to learn more about permaculture and how you can integrate these methods into your own farm, garden, or homestead, then join us for this Permaculture Workshop on June 24, 2012!

Taught by none other than Dave O’Neill of Radical Roots Farm, the workshop will cover:

• What is Permaculture? — Ecological Design
• How to live More Sustainable & Abundantly? — Integration
• Radical Roots Farm Tour

Permaculture for Homestead and Farm

Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012
Time: 9am – 4pm
Location: Radical Roots Farm, Keezletown VA
Cost: $40 for general public (free for Local Food Hub partner producers)
RSVP: info@localfoodhub.org or (434) 286-2176

Date: May 5, 2012
Time: 10am – 3pm
Cost: FREE!

Last year we had a blast, and this year we’ve got even more exciting things planned. Bring the whole family, stock up on healthy organic plants for your garden, have a picnic, and just enjoy a beautiful spring day on the farm. Check out what’s on the agenda:

Mark and his partner, Melissa, are the newest addition to the Local Food Hub team, having transplanted themselves to Virginia’s moderate climate (and red clay) from Burlington, Vermont this past February. These two beginning farmers are helping to pilot an exciting new project here at Maple Hill: our Incubator Plot Program.

Officially launched in March 2012, this program is designed to give young, ambitious agriculturalists the support and hands-on experience needed to eventually start their own farm — something that’s challenging by any standards, but especially in today’s economy. The Incubator Pilot Program offers young farmers a one-acre plot of land, along with housing, equipment-sharing, and a wealth of educational resources and networking.

So far, Melissa and Mark are out of the gates running. Drawing on diverse academic backgrounds (environmental studies, philosophy, religion), and creative instincts honed in their Vermont backyard garden, these two have a greenhouse full of plants and lots of seedlings already in the ground.

But why am I still typing? You should get to know Mark and Melissa yourself! Check out this little Q&A we put together and next time you see them out, say hello and welcome!  You can find Cottage View Farm plants at Rebecca’s, and this season they’ll be selling their vegetables at Scottsville Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and Meade Park Market in Charlottesville on Wednesdays. Follow them on Facebook to keep up with their adventures!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Local Food Hub (LFH): Welcome to Virginia, you two! Tell us a little bit about your experiences in gardening — what makes your farming urge tick?

Melissa: I have fond memories of gardening with my grandmother in our small suburban backyard as a child. During and after college, I volunteered on a variety of farms, including WOOFing, and ultimately ended up with my hands in the dirt in Burlington, VT. For four years, a community garden plot  meant I was an urban gardener, but I wasn’t satisfied as I couldn’t grow the quantity or quality of food I wanted. When Mark and I bought our house in the summer of 2010 we immediately converted the back and front yards into garden space, and sold the excess at a local farmers’ market under the name “Yellow House Gardens.”

Mark: As a kid, some of my most vivid memories involve my (Italian) mom sending me to the backyard to grab basil for the pasta sauce she was making, or starting bean plants from seed in the first grade.

LFH: Why have you chosen to pursue farming?

Melissa: There’s something innately appealing about growing food for myself and others. Growing food for myself ensures I do not take it for granted. Growing food for others increases the challenges, and ultimately, the rewards.
Mark: Every day is an adventure, a truly dynamic endeavor that brings into play millions of factors both within and outside your control. It provides something that is one of our most basic needs as well as a primal source of pleasure. You have to bring both science and art to the table, and get to be outside while you’re at it.

LFH: What kind of things do you have planned for your acre this year?

Melissa: We are planning a lot of diversity within our acre plot. I think we’ve got A through Z covered: from arugula to zebra tomatoes. We’re growing this diversity not only because we enjoy eating a variety of vegetables, but also because we’re in an experimental phase, learning what works and what doesn’t in a new climate.

Mark: I had jokingly told Melissa last year that I want a half-acre tomato farm. It’s a much better statement when said seriously.

LFH: What are you most excited about growing?

Melissa: I love husk cherries (also know as ground cherries). If you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone! Let me be the one to introduce you to them. These amazing sweet fruits are related to cherry tomatoes and tomatillos and taste like a mix between pineapple and strawberry. Despite the fact that they are time-consuming to harvest, I’m excited to grow husk cherries on a larger scale and introduce people to this amazing fruit because the taste is well worth it!

Mark: See above: tomatoes! Even more so than the final product, the entire process: a low tunnel to protect them, trellis structures, pest and disease control. It’s a labor of love, and worth it.

LFH: What’s your favorite vegetable to eat?

Melissa: You’ll notice my “Eat More Kale” bumper sticker prominently displayed on my truck (not far from my Local Food Hub sticker). Kale is great raw, sauteed, steamed, or even baked. It’s flavorful and super nutritious. I hear it grows well here though it will bolt in the summer heat (not something we had to worry about in Vermont!).

Mark: I think as a farmer your favorite vegetable is always the one that is about to finally be ripe, and your least favorite is the one you’ve been eating non-stop for the past 3 months…

LFH: Any favorite books or websites for farming information and inspiration?

Melissa: I find inspiration from all kinds of sources: Mother Earth News and Acres USA magazines, websites and forums on farming and gardening, authors like Eliot Coleman and Joel Salatin.

Mark: We drew a lot of inspiration from the books of Joel Salatin and Gene Logsdon, and from autobiographical accounts such as Kristin Kimball’s “The Dirty Life” and Novella Carpenter’s “Farm City”. We have not looked much at books recently, though, because we are constantly inspired by this incredibly tremendous opportunity. There is so much going on, or that we want to do, and we believe strongly in the incubator plot concept. We have seen it be successful at the Intervale, and know there is much potential for collaboration between farmers, especially old-timers and new blood. This opportunity is so unique and valuable that inspires every time I think about it in that way.

You can find Cottage View Farm starter plants at Rebecca’s Natural Foods, and at Scottsville Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and Meade Park Market in Charlottesville on Wednesdays. Follow them on Facebook to keep up with their adventures!

Have I got the thing for you!

Take a trip out to the farm this Friday, March 30, from 2-5 pm and join us for a Potato Mob! We’ve got 900 pounds of fingerling potatoes to get in the ground, and we need as many hands as we can get! Pull on your grungy jeans, lace up the work boots, grab a water bottle (and a buddy) and take a drive out to the farm!

2012 Potato Mob

March 30, 2012
2:00 – 5:00 pm
7129 Maple Hill Farm
Scottsville, VA 24590

Questions and RSVP to info@localfoodhub.org. See you Friday!

Still not sure? Take a look at this video from last year’s Potato Mob:

It’s long been established that our little part of Virginia has a deep connection to local food and farms — Forbes did name us the “locavore capital of the world” back in February of 2011, after all. But this time, the attention is coming from the folks on Capital Hill!

On Friday, March 16, a group of Senate Agriculture Committee and USDA staff piled into a big ol’ bus (stocked with a lot of snacks!) and made their way down to Charlottesville for a tour of Local Food Hub’s warehouse and educational Farm. They also met with owners of Vanguard Ranch and Saunders Brothers Nursery, and toured Bellair Farm in Albemarle County.

It seems our model, which supports small farms, feeds the community, and powers the local economy, is making waves among the movers and shakers in DC these days. It must have something to do with the 70+ farms, 45 public schools, and thousands of community members that we’re working with every day!

Officials were looking to explore a successful food hub model, learn about the challenges facing small-scale farmers, and gain a better understanding of how the 2012 Farm Bill might address some of these issues.

“As we look forward to writing the next Farm Bill, Chairwoman Stabenow is focused on expanding market opportunity for all farmers. We are grateful for the opportunity to visit Local Food Hub and hear about some of the successes and practical challenges the operation faces in sourcing locally,” said Jacqlyn Schneider, a staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry.

This isn’t the first time that folks at the USDA have taken a notion to our work, though. Included in the new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass publication and highlighted multiple times on the blog, the USDA has called Local Food Hub “a model for fostering long-term sustainable development and community engagement through agriculture.”

Jim Barham, Agricultural Economist with the USDA AMS, said “I have been closely studying regional food hubs for several years now and what Local Food Hub has been able to accomplish in such a short period of time is quite remarkable. It is a testament to the great efforts of Local Food Hub, the strong commitment and dedication of the farmers they work with, and the growing demand from consumers for locally grown food.”

We think Jim really summed it up perfectly. Local Food Hub provides economic opportunity for small farms and good, fresh, local food for school kids, families, hospital patients, and the community. And we couldn’t do it without all of you — the people who grow, buy, and eat these delicious, local fruits and vegetables. Who wouldn’t want to come from DC to check that out?!

We were honored to host this energized and inquisitive group, and excited to show off the great things our community has made possible! Thanks for visiting, y’all!