Green Eats

Head on down to Pittsboro this upcoming Sunday, June 13th, from 5-7pm for ChathamArt’s 5th Annual Potluck in the Pasture at the student farm on the campus of Central Carolina Community College. Great art, delicious food, and all kinds of fun can be had for only $8 (only $5 if you buy in advance online). Please visit the ChathamArts website for more information and to purchase tickets.

Photo courtesy of the Eno River Farmers Market

In what they say is a first for the Triangle, the Eno River Farmers’ Market in Hillsborough has started an online ordering site. Customers can “shop the market” online from Saturday to Monday and then pick up their orders at the Public Market House on E. Margaret Street in Hillsborough on Wednesdays.

I tested the system myself this past week – on Sunday I ordered potatoes and ground pork from Fickle Creek Farm and carrots from Two Chicks Farm. Wednesday afternoon I headed to historic downtown Hillsborough to pick up my order at the market pavilion on E. Margaret Street. Leila, the Eno River Farmers’ Market manager, told me that they had five orders for the inaugural run, which is more than they expected. I had to pick up my orders from the Fickle Creek and Two Chicks tables, but in the future Leila hopes to be able to have vendors drop off their goods beforehand. Customers would then pick up their orders intact from Leila or a volunteer. The benefits are two-fold – customers on a tight schedule are able to get in and out relatively quickly, and vendors that otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend the Wednesday market are able to have another selling day without having to man a table.

I’m excited about this latest innovation from the Eno River Farmers’ Market, and I plan on ordering pretty regularly. I’m interested in seeing how other customers approach this new way of accessing local food, and if other area markets follow suit.

Eno River Farmers’ Market Online Ordering Site

A week of staking out 111 Orange Street in downtown Durham finally paid off, as I was lucky enough to be Scratch Bakery’s first “customer” this morning. I use the air quotes because the coffee and doughnuts were free (red tape has tangled up their business license, they hope to have it resolved today). I enjoyed a buttermilk doughnut and had two cups of Counter Culture coffee while I sat and chatted with Andrea Weigl. I also bumped into fellow local food blogger Jessica Johnstone, who was on her way to work and had to take her breakfast to go. Scratch is definitely a family venture – owner/baker extraordinaire Phoebe Lawless was hard at work in the back, while her husband and daughter hung out up front. It was a great way to start my morning and was only the first of what I expect will be many visits to Scratch.

Scratch is open M-F 7:30am to 4pm, and Saturdays 9am to 3pm. They are located at 111 Orange Street in downtown Durham – click here for a map.

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and North Carolina State University have just made available online a new manual entitled “Keeping Garden Chickens in North Carolina”. The manual covers a variety of topics including breeds, feeding, housing, and flock health. While by no means comprehensive, the manual is a great place to start for anyone who is considering starting their own backyard chicken operation.

Keeping Garden Chickens in North Carolina (pdf)

This past Friday Leland decided to build a cold-frame to help protect some seeds and transplants he’s been nursing along as part of his foray into bonsai. The results were great, and you can read his post on how he built the cold frame for more information. I’m hoping he’ll let me use it next year to get a head start on spring planting!

Leland’s Bonsai blog – Tiny Tree

Do you love competition? Do you love to cook? Do you love local food? If you answered yes to all three of those questions then head down to the South Estes Farmers’ Market to sign up for our first ever Fresh Chef Competition!

I would like to thank Andrea Weigl of the News & Observer and Vimala Rajendran for graciously agreeing to judge this event. I would also like to thank Martha Jenkins of Kitchenworks for her generous donation of a Wusthof knife set for the grand prize.

We will start taking entries for the Fresh Chef Competition this Saturday, May 29th, at the market. For more information or inquiries, please e-mail me at mlardie@gmail.com.

The South Estes Farmers’ Market is held Saturdays from 8-12 and Tuesdays from 3-6 at University Mall, 201 S. Estes Drive, in Chapel Hill, across the parking lot from A Southern Season.

I know this isn’t food or ag related, but its important to support you local community in all ventures, so please check out this press release from fellow eater Johanna Kramer, aka @durhamfoodie on Twitter.

Neuse River Golden Retriever Rescue is coordinating it’s first ever Fur-Raiser and Fun-d-Raiser. The idea is to bring the community together to help raise money for NRGRR and collect fur to send to help with the Gulf oil spill.

Tyler’s Taproom of Durham has sponsored the Pavilion at Durham Central Park for NRGRR’s use for the event. “We are so grateful for Tyler’s sponsorship”, says Johanna Kramer, Event Coordinator and Foster Volunteer. “This now provides us with a covered venue and allows us to raise fur and funds, rain or shine.”

Any and all clean hair is welcome. NRGRR will have collection boxes on-site and groomers to comb out and collect dog fur.

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Dean (of one of my favorite local food blogs, VarmintBites), reports that Durham baking goddess Phoebe Lawless is ready to open her brick and mortar location next week. Scratch Bakeshop will combine Phoebe’s delicious pies (both sweet and savory) along with her other creations and coffee from Counter Culture. The 111 Orange Street location will be open from 7:30am-4pm Monday through Friday and 9am-3pm on Saturdays. See you at Scratch!

Scratch Seasonal Artisan Baking
111 Orange Street
Durham, NC 27701
919-956-5200

piefantasy.com

When someone asks me for an example of a multi-platform, sustainable farm I always reference Fickle Creek Farm. Ben Bergmann and Noah Ranells have built something that most people struggle to attain, a pasture-based, rotational system that incorporates sustainable farming (both with livestock and produce) with agroforestry and permaculture practices while virtually eliminating the need for conventional inputs. I visited Fickle Creek recently and was very impressed with what I saw. Here are some photos:

Ben Bergmann explains the basics behind one of Fickle Creek's chicken tractors

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Photo by David La Spina for The New York Times

The New York Times Magazine has a great article on the Modular Harvest System, a new portable slaughterhouse operating in the Northeast. I think its high time we had one of these here in North Carolina! Check out the article and let me know what you think:

Field Report: A Moveable Beast – NYTimes