By Amanda
Martina and I recently got together to celebrate spring and the one year anniversary of this blog, A Growing Season. For both of us, it was a time to look back and see how far our lives have come: what our blog has produced, how it has expanded our knowledge and understanding of local food and food systems, and most of all, where our life’s journey has taken us. Continue reading
By Martina
I’ve always been a little intimidated by cooking meat-centric dishes. So when I heard about Fields of Athenry Farm’s Basic Meat Cookery class, I signed up on the spot. And I’m so glad I did. Continue reading
By Amanda
This week I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do: find and cut down my own Christmas tree. It’s traditional in West Virginia to cut down a cedar tree off your property for your Christmas tree. We all agreed that a cedar tree from our land was our choice. So, I set out on my dad’s four-wheeler, with its cart in tow. Continue reading
by Martina I know, this photo, with its mile-long caption, looks like a typical conference panel (if a typical conference panel had eight participants plus several people making introductions!). But it was much more fun than that…maybe because I couldn’t wait to hear what the movers and shakers in the local food movement had to say…or … Continue reading
Despite the rain, the DC Eat Local festival event was a great ending to the week’s events. Every type of organization or business involved in the local foods movement was represented: restaurants, local farms, food hubs, businesses, food producers, wineries, and more. Here’s a gallery of photos:
By Amanda
Recently the Wall Street Journal profiled a plan in Detroit to use large pieces of land in the city that have been abandoned by de-urbanization and population loss consolidated into urban farms. As a veteran in community revitalization and an urban farming advocate, this is one of the coolest stories I can think of – bringing together a new solution for depopulating cities that is actually an old use. Continue reading
Now’s your chance to get together with other DC area locavores and local food activists and celebrate all that is fresh, delicious and sustainable about the local foods movement! Eat Local First is a local food campaign that begins with a week-long celebration of local food in the Washington DC area. Continue reading
By Amanda
A recent article in the opinion section of the Washington Post focuses on that icon of July 4th eating, the all-American hamburger, and how its components are hardly produced in the spirit of the forefathers’ economic views of free enterprise, fair price, opportunities to prosper and equality. Read on to find what author Tracy McMillan claims are the economic realities and unsustainable sources of beef, buns, tomatoes, onions and lettuce that reveal “what a simple hamburger says about our nation’s ideal of freedom and enterprise.” Continue reading
By Amanda
Recently I learned about Accokeek Colonial Farm, located on the Potomac river in Maryland, directly across the river from Mount Vernon. When I found out they were having a special Heritage Breeds Day, I thought it a great opportunity to visit this treasure of a local resource. Combining both of my favorite passions, history and sustainable farming, it sounded like a perfect day out for me. Continue reading
By Martina I grew up spending summers in Germany visiting my Oma, where every hike through the woods had a purpose, ending at an outdoor cafe…with local pastries, of course! So when Clear Spring Creamery advertised their Open Farm Day at the Dupont Circle market recently, I looked forward to a meandering country drive with … Continue reading
A Growing Season 