Local Foods Abound!

Well despite the rainy weather, we had a nice visit to the East End Farmers Market today. Musicians playing (which sure did help keep everyone’s spirits up), kids under a tent snacking on fresh baked goods, people chatting and catching up, and oh yeah – lots of local foods and products, too. Here are some of our “finds” from this week: from Adam, Amanda, and their kids of Shiloh Valley Farm (McGraw, NY) we purchased yummy baking powder biscuits; from Ably Acres (Marathon, NY) we purchased some grass fed ground beef; some cucumber and melon soap and linen spray were purchased from Tammie Whitson of Cold Brook Farm (Marathon, NY); from Sean Duffy of Rising Moon, Setting Sun, a new CSA in East Freetown, we purchased some great looking red lettuce; and from Lime Hollow Naturals we are eager to try the rosemary and lavender natural cleaner and dishwashing soap.

We had a nice visit with Lisa Lickona of Red Rose Farm in McGraw, NY (with lots of beautiful flower bouquets and tempting scones at her booth). My husband and I also had a great discussion with Karl Frost of Frosty Morning Farm in Truxton, NY. He had some great looking perennials and herbs and we had been looking for some comfrey. Paul Knapp (of Cobblestone Valley Farm) had let us know about a friend of his that uses comfrey and daffodils as companion plants for his apple trees to great success – so we also wanted to give it a try. Karl has plenty and we will be contacting him next week to pop up to his farm and get some. He also generously offered to bring it to the market next week, but we don’t live that far from him, and now we have an opportunity to see his farm.

After leaving the East End Farmers Market, we headed to Paul and Maureen Knapps’ Cobblestone Valley Farm in Preble. Today was their NOFA-NY (Northeast Organic Farmers Association of New York) Picnic on the Farm. Again the weather wasn’t too cooperative, but they also had a good turnout. For lunch, we ate Cobblestone Valley Farm hotdogs and hamburgers. Also there was free Organic Valley chocolate milk and string cheese to snack on. In addition to tours to visit their dairy operation, and meeting the pigs, chickens, turkeys and goats; several information booths were set up. These booths had representatives from Cortland County Soil and Water Conservation, Cooperative Extension, Organic Valley and NOFA. Also there were students from the Future Farmers of America with their teacher Derek Hill who runs a great agriculture education program at Tully High School. It was a bit damp to do our strawberry picking, so we’ll have to save that for another day.

It was certainly great to see so many people from the Cortland area working to provide healthy local foods and products at both locations. Thanks to all of the farmers, NOFA folks and other vendors for working so hard for us!