Homegrown Happy Valley

As a child, I was a big fan of the Strawberry Shortcake doll. I would dream up different ways to serve strawberries to my Barbies and G.I. Joes with my Berry Bake Shoppe. Now that the first berry of the summer has arrived, I’m once again dreaming of strawberry concoctions. Fortunately my recipes have matured a bit.

Week Two marks the beginning of strawberry season. How will you use strawberries, and how are you doing on your personal Eat Local Challenge? Leave a reply and let us know (you can now opt to be e-mailed with follow up comments!)

When investigating CSAs this winter, I found many options in State College and the surrounding area. Most work like this: People pay between $500 and $600 in the spring for a share of the farm’s bounty. Each week between May and early November you pick up your share of fresh fruits and vegetables (usually enough to feed a family of four) at a designated location or the farm. If you have a smaller family, some farms offer half shares at roughly half the cost. And some farms also offer a limited amount of work shares, where instead of paying for your produce, you offer up your sweat and services in the field.

Each Monday during the Eat Local Challenge we’ll post “7 Days of Local Eating.” This is a compilation of what the three of us at Homegrown Happy Valley do with the food that’s available at the farmer’s markets and in our CSA boxes each week (Katie and I belong to Village Acres CSA; Michele belongs to Tait Farm.) We’ll try to note the source of the food where possible, but since we sometimes lose track, we’ll denote those food items as simply “local.” We’ll also include a tip or special note for each week (and we’d love to hear from you in the “Leave a Reply” box below for your own tips and recipes!)

Get your canvas bags ready: it’s time to kick off Homegrown Happy Valley’s first annual Eat Local Challenge! Beginning with the opening of our summer farmer’s markets and concluding at the end of Labor Day weekend, we hope to inspire you to eat locally this season.

What is local? Local is usually a 150-mile distance from where you live, but you can define it as an area near you (such as your county or state).

Tait Farmer Erin McKinney: Get the feeling she whistles while she works? (photo courtesy of Kelly Chubb '2007 PSU Advertising Alum)

Tait Farm’s spring season officially begins this week. Tait is one of many area farms with a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that allows consumers to buy fresh, locally grown food directly from the field. Tait offers two membership shares: full year (January-December) and half year (May 19-November 24). Through the winter and early spring, full-year members have been visiting the farm for bi-weekly distributions–lots of organic carrots and potatoes–assembled in crates at Tait’s shop. But starting Tuesday, old and new members converge in the barn behind the shop for the first of the weekly pick-ups. We caught up with farmers Erin McKinney and Steve Spanelli while they were washing lettuce and preparing for the kickoff.