On Special! 

Oat groats from Cayuga Pure Organics--the only farmer-owned organic grain and bean co-op in the Northeast. These are the whole oat grains with their vitamins and minerals intact. Cook like brown rice and season either sweetly for breakfast, or with seasalt and pepper and fresh herbs for a savory side dish. Talk about a food value! $1.25 per lb, marked down from $1.90.

Original Red and Garlic Red Sauces from Christina Maser's Pantry. Featured as one of Mary Ann's Staff Picks, these sauces are versatile, easy-to-use and delectable. Create a fast food meal! Just saute a mix of chopped greens,...

Mary Ann's Picks

Misty Creek Goat Dairy in Leola, PA makes the finest Raw Goat Milk Cheddar Cheese around! I love it shredded in a salad or on top of steamed veggies. It's also great on top of my next favorite-- Christina Maser's Garlic Red Sauce-- which I use often to top a big plate of sauteed baby boc choy, collard greens, kale, spinach or any combination of greens. Occasionally I like to start this dish by frying up some bite-size pieces of Highview Farm Sweet Sausage. There's no better way (for carnivores) to season a pot of luscious, local greens.

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Weaver's Orchard is located in southern Berks County. It's a fourth generation family orchard and farm going back to 1931. Edgar Weaver (third generation) drove me around a portion of the 107 acres of orchard when I visited earlier this week. Ed recently served as the president of the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania, an education and advocacy organization for the fruit industry in PA.

Pam's Picks:

• Our Pasture-Raised Eggs - They're back! And have such wonderful deep yellow yolks and great flavor. Makes it hard to eat those pale, industrially-produced eggs any more! And I love knowing that the hens enjoy lots of fresh air and sunshine.
• Asparagus - Yesterday one of my neighbors said that he doesn't like asparagus. I told him he needs to try just-cut local asparagus. The season doesn't last long, so eat it while it's local.
• Four Worlds Bakery bagels - especially the Everything Bagels! Four Worlds bagels are wonderfully chewy. No, they're not classic New York bagels,...

Find out about a 2010 study by the Delaware Vally Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) that is the first stage in an effort to envision a more sustainable and resilient food system for the Greater Philadelphia region.

Most meat-eaters in America eat from only a small section of each animal. Find out how this is a problem for small local livestock farmers, and how to eat meat more sustainably...

A recent article in The New York Times got me thinking about HLF's buying decisions...

Two creative recipes for cranberry season from customer Phoebe T!

Moist and flavorful- Cranberry Spice Cake

Simple and succulent- Chicken with Kale & Cranberries

A Talk with Reynaldo
By Hannah Westheimer, Local Farm & Food Artisan Researcher
On Monday evening Mary Ann and I traveled two hours from Philadelphia into beautiful Lebanon County farmland to visit Landisdale Farm and to hear –in Spanish—the story of Reynaldo, a man from Peru who helps Dan and Rachel Landis work their farm.

Reynaldo is part of a program called MESA (Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture) that sponsors international farmers to come to the US for training in sustainable and organic agriculture. In exchange, Reynaldo is expected to use his new knowledge for a project to benefit his home village in Chinchero, Peru. He’s looking forward to introducing new varieties of vegetables and organic methods of growing them. Currently, only potatoes and quinoa are grown (with the use of chemicals) there. Reynaldo was excited to learn about what HLF does, as he also wants to open a vegetable market and have classes to teach his villagers how to prepare the vegetables he plans to grow.

After conquering numerous obstacles—hurricanes, flooding, calendar mix-ups—Hannah and I finally made it to this much-anticipated meeting at Rachel and Dan Landis’s farm in Elizabethtown. Hannah, a fluent Spanish speaker, interviewed Reynaldo Levita who comes from Peru and helps Dan and Rachel farm their 200 or so acres. I’ve recently become concerned and interested in how our supplying farmers make decisions about their help, and this was our first face to face meeting with a person from a different country who does farm work on one of “our” farms. Hannah was a natural at interviewing in Spanish. She has written up Reynaldo’s story which you can find on the HLF website.

Often when you the term "busy bee," it conjures up a person buzzing around, getting things done, not so much a winged creature flying from flower to flower. But when it come to raw honey, the term takes on a whole new meaning. In fact, it takes both busy humans and busy bees to get this sweet and sticky product from flower, to hive, to jar. This week we are lucky to have raw honey from not one, but TWO local beekeepers.

First, there's the very local honey that many of you have come to know and love from from Pam's beekeeping husband, Steve. Labeled and sold as Vortex House Honey (named after their family residence in W. Philly), the supply is limited and disappears quickly . Customers swear that this honey is the best and that it helps with their seasonal allergies because it's made by bees that gather nectar from a wide variety of local flowers

Freshly pressed video from yesterday's farm visit to Dutch Meadow Organic Dairy in Paradise, PA. Farmer Aaron Stoltzfus and his family graze 50 Dutch Belted cows on the lush green pastures featured in this clip. From this ideal forage the herd produces healthy, farm fresh that's bottled on the farm into returnable glass containers.

A behind the scenes video of how your local, organic groceries from Harvest Local Foods get from local farmers to your fridge!

Pizza Baking Guide from Four Worlds Bakery

Here are some hints from the folks at Four Worlds on how to make a great pizza from using their delicious, wild yeasted dough.

Garlic Collard Greens

1 bunch organic collard greens
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon butter