News from Centre County Buy Fresh Buy Local
What will you find at the farmers markets this week?
- Just in! Peaches, green and yellow wax beans, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, & currants, fresh garlic, tomatoes, basil
- While they last! Rhubarb; Maple syrup from this Spring’s run
- Peak season! Peas, garlic scapes, cucumbers, zucchini, kohlrabi, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, arugula, mustard, tatsoi, chard, kale, collards, beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, radishes, and turnips, fresh herbs (chives, cilantro, and parsley), potted vegetable, herb, and perennial plants, including squash, melons, cucumbers, and herbs seedlings
- Year-round products – Milk & dairy, honey, wine, meats, cheese, eggs and baked & canned goods
New and returning favorites
- Peaches from Way Fruit Farm
- Blueberries from Moser’s Garden Produce, Patchwork Farms, Way Fruit Farm, and Vints’ Blueberry Farm
- Black raspberries from Woodside Acres
- Gooseberries and red currants from Demeter’s Garden and Jade Family Farm
- Nougat with almonds and brown butter teacake with hazelnuts from Gemelli Bakery
- Refreshing mint soaps from Soap Sprite and lemon verbena soap from Thankful Sage Farm School
JOB OPPORTUNITY – Production Manager at Greenmoore Gardens CSA
Greenmoore Gardens is a Certified Organic farm located outside of State College, Pennsylvania. We grow for a CSA with over 150 members, attend local farmer’s markets, engage in direct-marketing to local chefs and restaurants, and have an on-site certified kitchen with plans to process and market value-added products. Currently Greenmoore Gardens has 13 acres in production, including high tunnels and greenhouses.There are many projects in the works, including an on-site kids camp and garden, kitchen events, collaboration with local schools and institutions, and future expansion of production to include acreage under commercial high tunnels to enable year-round production
Position Overview – We are looking for an experienced resident Production Manager to oversee and implement daily agricultural activities at Greenmoore Gardens. Duties include managing farm crew (including work traders, volunteers, and interns), crop planning, crop planting, crop maintenance, harvest, and post-harvest processing. The Production Manager must be creative and efficient, and able to balance both production and finance schedules and deadlines. A successful candidate will have experience with medium-to-large scale production, and be able to contribute ideas on how to expand, grow, and diversify our operation.
Responsibilities
- Safely operate and provide basic maintenance of a variety of tractors, implements, and farm vehicles
- Set up and operate irrigation systems
- Determine seeding and transplant needs based on desired yield
- Estimate yield of crops ready for harvest
- Communicate yield & harvest date estimates to Administrators and Owners
- Manage weeds mechanically and by hand
- Manage 4-15 production crewmembers, interns and volunteers
- Maintain planting, production & harvest records in MS Word and/or MS Excel and or GoogleDocs
- Communicate throughout the workday with team via cell phone and text message
- Understand and follow certified organic production guidelines
- Experience working on a diversified CSA farm highly desired
- Must be physically capable of working long days, lifting 40+ lbs, and doing both often
- Must be a proven and confident leader with excellent communication skills and a positive attitude
Expectations – This is a full time permanent position with expectations of 50+hrs/week, with some weekend work during the planting and growing season. Winter months are less intensive.
Compensation – Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. Basic on-site housing included. Profit sharing for the season will be based on mutually agreed upon production and sales goals and maintaining expense
budget goals.
To Apply – Email a resume and cover letter.
News from Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Planning for 2013 PASA Conference (February 6 – 9) is now underway…”February may seem far away now, but the PASA staff is diligently working to put together a program that will help you farm better. While you’re out watering livestock, pulling weeds, or battling pests, think about what topics or speakers you want to hear and send those suggestions to us! Email Kristin, or use our Suggestion Box on the website.”
New Logo & Website for Lemont Farmers Market
(From Jackie Bonomo)
Here is the NEW Facebook page, courtesy of Eric of Clan Stewart Farm.
News from Way Fruit Farm
Peach and Blueberry seasons have begun! Sweet, delicious & healthy, these fruits are perfect for snacking & dessert today! All fruits & vegetables are coming early this year due to the unseasonably warm spring weather. We’re trying to keep you updated as best as possible and we hope you’ll come out and check what’s fresh at the farm regularly so you don’t miss anything! Cherry & Strawberry seasons are over. They were short, but truly sweet!
We are trying to offer lots of other convenience items now to make your summer easier and more delicious. Stop by anytime and pick up a bag of ice in our inside freezer, bags of charcoal, picnic groceries such as: ketchup, mustard, marshmallows, bottled soda and more, and local newspapers. We currently have the free publication The Gazette delivered inside the farm store and a CDT paperbox on the porch, so you can grab the paper even if we’re not open.
Don’t forget that our Way Cafe & Deli serves Galliker’s hand-dipped ice cream and we can slice lunchmeats & cheeses for you daily!
Here’s to a great grilling & picnicking summer! May you make lots of good memories with family & friends and great, local food!
Building Clay Ovens & Other Summer Reskilling Workshops
Greg Ziegler sent a very cool link about a curriculum – including oven design, photos of the construction process and historical context – he developed a few years ago as part of the Medieval Technology and American History project of the Penn State Center for Medieval Studies, supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities We the People Initiative.
Check it out: The Bread Oven – Symbol of Colonial Liberty
If you’re interested in learning hands-on about clay oven building, sign up for the August 5 Spring Creek Homesteading workshop led by Dana Stuchul and Chris Uhl. To sign up for any summer workshop, please call 237-0996 or send an email.
- Cold Summer Soups Cooking Class – 9 a.m. to noon, July 14 at Friends Meeting House
- Advanced Home Beer Brewing – 2 to 5 p.m., July 14 and 21. Prerequisite: Basic Home Beer Brewing
- Beginner Wild Edible Plant Identification – 9 a.m. to noon – July 15 at Greenmoore Gardens.
- Introduction to Magic: the Gathering – 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., July 15
- Whole Animal Butchering – 9 a.m. to noon, July 21 at PSU Meats Lab
- Cooking with Greens – 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. July 22 at Friends Meeting House
- Beginner Dungeons & Dragons: Character Creation – 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., July 22.
- Fruits, Berries and Herbs – Use & Winter Storage – 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 4 at Friends Meeting House
- Clay Oven Building and Bread Baking – 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Aug. 5
- Everything Corn! Cooking Class – 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 11 at Friends Meeting House
- Building a Rain Barrel System – 2 to 4 p.m., Aug. 12
- Everything Tomato! Cooking Class – 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 25 at Friends Meeting House
Home Energy Use – Charts, ZEH Design, & Calculator
(Link forwarded by Paul Ruskin)
From Turn up the Heat!, by Eric Vermeiren
The average Mid-Atlantic household uses 25 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day…The single largest home energy hog is its heating & cooling system, accounting for almost 40% of an average home’s electricity needs. Next on the list is water heating, consuming about 25% of a home’s electricity needs. Your washer/dryer and refigerator round out another 20%…
This means that even in device-laden households, homes with lots of light fixtures, and homes of budding chefs, addressing the efficiency of your HVAC system and your Water Heater are the two most significant things you can do to increase home efficiency – and in turn decrease your monthly utility bills.
(Response from Andy Lau)
If you’re interested in home energy use, I share a cool spreadsheet that I developed that calculates this given specific info on your home (for all-electric homes). It is used in support of curriculum I’ve developed on Zero Energy Homes. A paper describing the ZEH project and the calculator are attached.
How to Buy Wind Power in Pennsylvania
(Sent by Kate Keim)
- Go to the PA Office of Consumer Advocate website to read Energy Choice information. You can also get printed information by calling 1-800-684-6560
- Go to the PA Public Utility Commission website to view a list of energy suppliers and get more information, including company phone numbers, which will be useful to gather additional information about contract and cancellation terms and fees.
- At the PUC website, for the 16801 zip code, there are currently two companies listed as offering electricity generated from renewable sources: Blue Star Energy (dba AEP Energy) and Constellation Energy (part of Exelon). Both companies instruct interested customers to call for more information, including the proportion of their electricity generated renewably and the source. At the zip code page, you can also enter your average kilowatt-hours of energy use (from your current electricity bills) to get an estimated average monthly cost.
- If you decide to switch, you’ll still get only one bill monthly, from West Penn Power, and you’ll still pay West Penn Power to transmit the energy to you. But the bill will also separately show the charge for the electricity that you use and the company that generated it using at least some renewable sources.
- If you go ahead and switch to a clean energy supplier and have a good experience doing it, consider helping a friend or neighbor follow your lead.
Protest at Senator Toomey’s Harrisburg Office July 6
From Ed Perry, National Wildlife Federation, Climate Change Campaign (880-9593)
Climate Change Activists – I am holding a protest outside Senator Toomey’s office in Harrisburg on Friday, July 6, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Last week, Senator Toomey voted with Senator Inhofe to kill EPA’s regulation to reduce mercury emissions from coal and oil-fired power plants. EPA’s regulations also reduce emissions of arsenic, chromium, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride. You know, all that stuff you like to see in your air. We need to let Senator Toomey know we’re fed up with him protecting the polluting industries instead of looking out for the health of our families, like Senator Casey is.
Please let me know by next Tuesday (July 3) if you can make it so I can make arrangements for the van. We need kids!!! so bring your kids and grandkids too. I’ll have signs, and T-shirts for the first 20 who sign up.
The Sky Is Pink Video
From Pam Steckler of the Ferguson Township Community Rights Campaign:
Hi All – I hope you have a few minutes to watch Josh Fox’s new short film on fracking and N Y state. It’s excellent! Sustainable renewable energy is the answer. Now is the time.
Fracking News
- FracTracker Newsletter – June 29 Edition
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