Aug
25
2008 Centre County Farm Tour
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[Note: This entry is delayed by roughly two weeks, but only because of a scheduling mishap. I'm still working out how to use WordPress for delayed posting. This entry (and the Mt. Nittany Winery review) were lost in the shuffle.]
We began our Farm Tour in Millheim at the Farmer’s Market for our weekly produce shopping. We had not intended to begin the tour so early — before ten o’clock in the morning — but the festivities were clearly underway. Parking was at a premium at the American Legion so we parked along the entrance road. Only a few of the usual vendors were there, with most of the stall space taken up by information tables on local farming and sustainable agriculture. There were also several guitarists playing folk songs. Overall, it was much more crowded than usual. I don’t deal well with large groups of noisy people, so we opted to buy a few items and head home. We had tickets for chicken dinners at the Pleasant Gap American Legion.
I don’t know if this is a Pennsylvania thing, and we didn’t see any of it in Michigan, but pretty much every fire department, church, and youth group will have at least one chicken barbecue fundraiser in the summer. If you wanted to, you could eat chicken every Saturday from May to October. The chicken is often hit or miss, but if the group doing the fundraiser knows what they are doing, it’ll be amazing. Unfortunately, everyone in the area knows which groups do the best chicken, so when those groups have their sale you have to get there early.
After a chicken dinner that couldn’t be beat, we headed off for the farm tour. We began by traveling back over Centre Hall Mountain to Full Circle Farms. We were met by Daisy the sheep, a farm pet who was showing Marie, an exchange student from France, around the farm. Located in Spring Mills, and owned and operated by Sabine and Thomas Carey, this organic farm also has its own Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Share program. We hope to participate in this next year, and it was nice to see where they grow their food. We were able to see most of their operation, including free-range chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Among the turkeys were several of the somewhat rare Red Bourbon turkeys they raise. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the birds), these are all raised as breeding stock to be sold to other farms and are not available for sale to the general public. (The quest to taste a Red Bourdon continues!)
We then went back to our car and headed to Mount Nittany Vineyard & Winery, which was to be the last stop on our abbreviated tour and is detailed in the next entry.
Aug
11
Centre Hall Mountain Closed
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Pennsylvania’s State Route 144 over Centre Hall Mountain closed this morning and will remain so for the remainder of the week. It is unclear whether it will be reopened on Saturday in time for the Millheim Farmers’ Market, or if it won’t be reopened until Monday for Centre County Grange Fair traffic. It will be reclosed after the conclusion of the Grange Fair and will remain so for most of the month of September.
We’re going to need an alternate route to Millheim this weekend, and probably until the end of September. Fortunately, travelling from Bellefonte to Millheim via Madisonburg Mountain takes only slightly more time than travelling over Centre Hall Mountain does. You may need to make similar arrangements. The official detour involves 45 and 220, which may work better for you, but for me it makes a 30-minute trip into at least 45 minutes.
Aug
8
3rd Annual Centre County Farm Tour
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I’m firming up my schedule for Saturday’s Farm Tour. I am currently thinking about visiting three sites on the tour.
First, I plan to start with the Millheim Farmer’s Market at 10 a.m. The Tour doesn’t officially begin until 12:30 p.m., but the Market is open earlier. I’ll do the week’s veggie and meats shopping and probably stick around for the cooking demo by High Street Pub from Bellefonte, PA.
Since I’ll have a cooler and the weather looks to be mild, I’m not running my purchases back home right away. Instead, I’m heading to Spring Mills to visit Sabine and Thomas Carey’s Full Circle Farms. The Carey’s run a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Share program. I didn’t have my act together last winter in time to become a member, but I’m planning to participate next year and want to check out the farm. This is also the farm that raises Red Bourbon turkeys, which had me terribly excited earlier this week when I discovered it.
I’m looking for one more site to visit after Full Circle Farms, but I plan to round out the day at Mount Nittany Winery near Boalsburg. I’ve had several of their wines and have been impressed by what they’ve managed to achieve here in Centre County. I don’t expect the sort of accomplishments I’ve seen in Michigan, and I admit I was spolied by Michigan’s Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas, but I do anticipate quality winemaking. Expect a full tasting rundown early next week.
If you are planning to attend any of the farm tour, leave a comment or email me, cg AT this domain name. Maybe we can put together a piece detailing everyone’s experiences since no one person can visit them all! I know I’m looking forward to it.
Aug
4
Centre County Local Foods Week
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Centre County’s Local Foods Week starts this Tuesday at the Boalsburg Farmer’s Market. This will be an event to see, with a cooking demo by one of the Centre Gourmand’s favorite local chefs, Chef Sean Kelly of Kelly’s Steak & Seafood.
More information is available from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
The highlight of the week will be the third annual Centre County Farm Tour on Saturday. Tickets are $10 per car, $3 per bike, and are available at any of the farms on the tour. Look for a hardcopy map and guide for the tour in the Friday, August 8, 2008, Centre Daily Times Weekender.
The Centre Gourmand will be at the Millheim Farmer’s Market for his weekly vegetable and meat buying trip on Saturday. He’ll probably also go to one or two other sites on the tour, but with so much to see it would take several years of Farm Tours to get through it all.
