Archive for the ‘The farm’ Category
Our Local Foods Urges You to Support Walk for Autism-Charleston
In addition to selling the Autism Ribbon Floor Puzzles, we would like to encourage you to participate in the 2010 Walk for Autism-Charleston on Saturday April 17th at Hampton Park. Registration begins at 9:00 am and the Walk begins at 10:00 am. Registration is $15 for an individual or $20 for a family.
Refreshments will be provided with live music, jump castles, a sensory play area, therapy dogs, sponsor tables with information on autism, crafts, and more. Haircuts by Great Clips will be available and there will be a great silent auction to support Walk for Autism-Charleston.
See you there!
 Coming to a field near us! |
The folks from Outstanding in the Field (www.outstandinginthefield.com) will be setting up their famous “Long Table” at Thornhill Farm on Sunday, September 26, 2010! Their mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure – literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 they have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table. Ingredients for the meal will be almost all local, with much of the produce coming from Thornhill Farm. The meal will be prepared on site by award-winning Chef Sean Brock, of McCrady’s Restaurant in Charleston with the Our Local Foods team providing the assist! We encourage you to come join us and have a wonderful day on the farm! |
| We are so proud the folks from Outstanding In The Field have chosen to include Thornhill Farm as part of their 2010 National Tour. We are also grateful that a portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit Thornhill Farm’s resident non-profit organization, Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry. Please visit www.outstandinginthefield.com to learn more or to purchase tickets. | |
Our Local Foods and Chef Sean Brock from McCrady’s Tavern in historic Charleston, SC celebrated the garden this week in an extraordinary way. We hosted “dinner on the porch” as fulfillment of a pretty classy auction item from the coffers of the local fundraiser circuit.
The wonderful meal consisted of vegetables freshly harvested from the damp rows that afternoon, as they were hastily collected in the rain for the evening event.
Guests arrived just as the rain subsided to find the table all set with linens and candles on the screened-in front porch of the cabin that will become our farm store. Mini-lights and citronella lanterns filled the space with a soft welcoming hue of light that said “settle in for a comfortable evening with the chef…”.
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Planning your meals around what’s in season can be a tasty experience and satisfying way to enjoy food. It may be daunting to imagine only utilizing fresh food that’s growing nearby, but here are some tips that may help:
- Purchase seasonal foods in enough quantity to last for several meals.
- Wash and cook what you purchase right away.
- Use the freshly cooked ingredient in several meals by creatively adding it to different dishes.
- Divide and store in the refrigerator to be used throughout the week.
Let’s take an example from OurLocalFoods at Thornhill Farm. We’ll plan a few meals around a yummy seasonal item from the CSA box!!
Our spring garden is in full bounty of seasonal greens. We have an abundance of Curly Mustard, Russian Red Kale and Turnip Greens. Yummm!
Let’s cook two pounds of curly mustard. Wash the beautiful lacy chartruese leaves and leave in the collander to drain. Finely dice some garlic or shallots. Heat a tablespoon of fresh green olive oil in a large wok or saute pan. Have a half cut fresh lemon for the finish.
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Today was filming day… which is really good because we want to document what’s going on out here at Thornhill Farm. We had SunbayMedia out to do the filming. They captured the planting that’s going on, the new plants in the hoop house, our take on organic farming- the beneficial insects, compost tea, etc. We also talked about how OurLocalFoods fits into the local economy; specifically, we employ local residents, and sell food in the local area.
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We have 300 chickens on the farm now - they arrived last weekend. We have a chicken tractor for them to live in (see the picture below). The chicken tractor is a chicken house built on a trailer. Our Local Foods would like to acknowledge the incredible design of the chicken tractor by George and Celeste Albers of the “Green Grocer” on Wadmalaw Island (just outside of Charleston, SC). The house has booms sticking out on each side with a shrimp net draped over it that hangs down to the ground. This area is approximately 25′x35′ which is the area the chickens have to run around and feed in. Each day, while the chickens are in the house, the trailer is moved a bit to a new spot, and the chickens are let out to roam around. At night, the chickens go back in their house to roost, and egg laying is also done in the nesting areas. The reason for moving the tractor each day is so there are plenty of new bugs and such for the chickens to find and eat. In a nice symbiotic way, the chickens also dig up the topsoil, add some fertilizer to the soil, and reduce the insect count.
Our Local Foods Chicken Tractor
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Well, we almost got washed away yesterday. The report was more than 5″ of rain in 12 hours… so now we’re trying to dry off. We’re never ones to complain about rain - sometimes we just wish we could control when and how much comes down. But, there’s a lot to do in the fields, so we’ll back out as soon as the ground dries enough to get back in there.
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Yesterday we got Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry up and running at Thornhill Farm in McClellanville. This program helps high school students with disabilities by engaging them in horticultural therapy. The horticultural therapy aspects of the program are handled by Catherine, and Our Local Foods is involved in helping provide infrastructure and support however we can. The students are from Georgetown HS and they did a great job getting the planter boxes filled with good soil, and then started the planting. Stay tuned for updates as their garden grows!
…some pictures of the adaptive gardening program
- Maria
Last week we put the potatoes starts in the ground. In total we put out about 3000 plant starts. It is about 100 days to harvest, although delayed harvesting is OK too. So, look for potatoes in late May. We are also fast & furious on the rest of planting for spring and summer. If you’re in the area, drop by and see what we’re doing.
- Maria
