Horn Farm Center for Agricultural Education

Horn Farm Happenings – August 4

John Wright Restaurant pizza-of-the-week benefit for Horn Farm CenterHappy August! Celebrate First Friday with a delicious pizza topped with Horn Farm produce at John Wright Restaurant. Remember to ask for the Horn Farm pizza.

Lots of people agree that pizza is delicious, but what about insects???

tobacco hornwormMicroherding Invertebrates
Raising invertebrates for food and farming can be fun, entertaining and rewarding – and meet many different needs.
On August 26, join William Padilla-Brown for discussion and demonstrations as he takes us on a journey through many different invertebrates – starting with our two ancient aquatic invertebrates, Brine Shrimp and Triops, then our Subterranean Red Wiggler worms, followed by crickets, roaches, mealworms, waxworms, superworms, BSF larvae, hornworms, their beetles, moths, and flies!

Participants will get hands-on time, setting up small habitats to take home with choice of crickets, roaches, mealworms, and/or Red Wiggler Worms. The course will end with a demonstration on how to cook with edible insects and participants who wish may participate in an Entomophagy (the eating of insects).

We are having a party!
October 11
Save the Date!

Healthy ecosystems maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves, naturally. Land management techniques that mimic such healthy ecosystems can produce food, fiber, medicine, and other products while simultaneously regenerating the landscape. In September, the Horn Farm Center is partnering with the Lancaster County Conservancy and Susquehanna Heritage to present Tending the Susquehanna Riverlands. Space is limited, register today!

Also in September:
Hugelkultur
Cooking Venison
Roasted Vegetables
Foraging
Pawpaw Festival
Wildlands Immersion: The Art of Seeing and the Science of Observation

We are looking for a volunteer or two to staff the Horn Farm Center display at Rudy Park on Saturday, August 12 from 9 to 12:30. If you can help, please let us know! Thanks!

The Farm Stand is open, and the tomatoes are here!
Come for just picked vegetables and fresh flower bouquets!
Saturdays from 9 to noon
4945 Horn Road, York, PA 17406

See you at the farm!

CSA Newsletter – July 31

Last week’s CSA share

The Weekly Share

Here’s what to expect in this week’s share:

  • Potatoes
  • Squash
  • Sweet Pepper
  • Hot Peppers
  • Scallions
  • Onions
  • Green beans
  • Tomatoes
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Herbs

*Due to the unpredictability of weather, pest problems, and other factors produce in the weekly shares are subject to last minute changes.

Purple viking potatoes! 

 

Tie-Dye Potatoes

I was so excited last week to see Purple Viking potatoes in my share. The colorful purple and pink skins always remind me of tie-dye! They also happen to be my absolute favorite potato. Purple vikings are an incredibly flavorful variety of potato and their texture is smooth and creamy.  They are perfect for mashed potatoes but I also like them roasted as home fries and in my cheesy potato recipe.

Nutritionally potatoes are high in vitamin B6, potassium and vitamin C.  I am a big fan of not peeling my potato skins, the skins are full of vitamins and minerals as is the flesh but the skins contain more fiber. The skin on purple vikings is not tough so they make for ideal eating. Potatoes can keep for months if stored in a cool dry place. (Side note, don’t store your potatoes too close to your onions, onions will make potatoes sprout and go bad faster.) So when you’re ready to use them give those skins a good scrub and keep them on when you cook.

Bacon Cheesy Potatoes

  • 1/2 lb bacon
  • 2 lb potatoes (the quart size in your CSA share is about 2lbs)
  • 1-2 medium onions
  • 2 T flour
  • 1 C Milk
  • 1 C shredded cheese (cheddar, colby, monterrey jack, whatever you like that melts easily)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • butter

1. Cook your bacon – I prefer to cook it in the oven but you can also just stove top fry it.  For the oven baking, I lay the bacon on a baking sheet, put it in the oven, then turn on the oven to 375 and cook for about 20-25 minutes. After the bacon is cooked set it aside to cool.  Once cool crumble it.  Reserve the bacon grease, we’ll use it in the sauce. If you oven baked your bacon, turn the oven up to 400.  If you fried your bacon, then turn on the oven at the very beginning.

2. While the bacon cooks, cut your potatoes and onion into thin rings. If you own a mandoline, this is the perfect time to use it!

3. Put 2 T of the bacon grease in a sauce pan.  If you don’t like bacon grease, use butter.  Whisk in the flour and some salt and pepper (light on the salt if you used the bacon grease).  Over medium-low heat cook the mixture till it is a golden colored creamy roux.

4. Add the milk slowly whisking the whole time, turn up the heat to medium and let the sauce start to thicken.  Once thickened, stir in your cheese then remove it from the heat.  Add salt and pepper to taste – I often throw in a little creole seasoning in for some kick.

5. Grab a baking dish and butter it all up, add a layer of potatoes; top with some of the crumbled bacon and a layer on onions (make sure you have separated the rings); then pour on about 1/3-1/2 of the sauce.  Repeat with a second layer of everything and the rest of the sauce – don’t overfill.

6. Place the dish on a baking sheet (just in case of accidental overflow) and pop it in the oven for an hour and a half.

Enjoy!

Connect and Share

What is your favorite part of your CSA share? If you have a recipe or picture you want to share, a trick you learned, or a question about your CSA produce please let us know at csa@hornfarmcenter.org.  Share on social media with the hashtag #HornFarmCSA.

Horn Farm Happenings – July 28

UNFI Volunteer Day July 26Our woodland restoration is well underway! Here’s the crew that helped transform a section of woods from a tangle of overgrowth to an accessible corridor. In just a few hours, this stream bed went from the conditions on the left to those on the right. The volunteers on this day came from the mid-Atlantic sales team at UNFI. In addition to sending us amazing volunteers each year, UNFI is a generous financial supporter of the Horn Farm Center. stream bed before and afterWilson Alvarez (far left in photo above) is leading these work days. Wilson is a certified permaculture designer, inventor, gardener, skilled tracker, bowyer, nature-awareness instructor, and writer from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For the past twelve years, he has studied and taught classes and workshops on bio-intensive agriculture, regenerative technology, foraging, hunting, trapping, tracking, and wilderness survival. He is teaching two series of workshops this fall: Bowmaking, and the Wild Lands Immersion which consists of five classes: The Art of Seeing and the Science of Observation | Shelter & Water | Fire | Food: Foraging, Hunting, Trapping | and Advanced Primitive Hunting Techniques.
We have more work days scheduled for the coming months. If you or your organization would like to be part of this amazing project, please let us know!

We are delighted to announce that Brandon Tennis has joined the Horn Farm Center’s Board of Directors!Brandon TennisBorn and raised along the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Brandon Tennis is a professional land manager and Director of Stewardship for the Lancaster County Conservancy. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Millersville University and a master’s degree in Ecological Design from the Conway School in western Massachusetts. His experience includes an array of land planning, environmental restoration, trail work, organic farming, permaculture design, outdoor education, and social work. Brandon and his wife, Abby, first circled paths with the Horn Farm Center seven years ago when they made the decision to convert their CSA into a permaculture exhibit perennial food forest. Several travels and a few years later, they now grow food on a quarter-acre residential lot in Marietta primarily for themselves and their daughter. Brandon believes in the value of farmscapes as functional ecosystems. Welcome, Brandon!

Upcoming events:
Foraging – August
MicroHerding Invertebrates
Hugelkultur
Cooking Venison
Roasting Vegetables
Wild Lands Immersion – Primitive Skills Workshop Series

See you at the farm!