Vollmecke's has a Winter Order Market pick ups on Saturdays, 1/21. 2/4, 2/18, 3/3
You'll find winter veggies, farm applesauce, fruit butters and pasta sauce.
Plus order Dia Doce Cupcakes, Lone Star Farm Beef, MacDougall's Irish Victory Cakes,
and Wonderful Market Cheese and Breads.
Email  winterorder@csachestercounty.com to receive a form for the next order!
Check out out events page to see what CFR is up to this winter and spring!

As you can tell by the frequency of my posts, Cooking For Real is all over the place this summer. Our 4th year with Triskeles' Food For Thought program is moving right along. We'll be baking and working on our food entrepreneur skills this week at the Farmers Market at Great Valley on Thursday, July 14th. Great group of young people this year, working on the farms in the morning and whole food cooking and nutrition in the afternoons! Learning to empower ourselves through making good food choices and having an awesome time doing it! We are happy to announce a new group from Coatesville starting this week, working at Vollmecke's and cooking right on site at the farm - no doubts where your food comes from with that kind of direct experience!
And this is our 2nd year with Bournelyf Special Camp, working with 17-21 years olds, hands-on whole food cooking, learning how to take care of yourself in the best possible manner, trying new foods with friends and counselors. What a wonderful group of young adults...lots of fun!

Vollmecke CSA is open and we've had our first happy hour! Friday pick up at the farm is a great time to socialize and catch your breath for the week! Opening day, my Angora goats were ready to be hand fed after a morning of munching poison ivy, privet and other invasives in a research project for the Friends of the Wissahickon in Fairmount Park in Philly! What a beginning to the growing season, rain, rain, rain, followed by sun, sun, sun and another week in the upper 90's!
Soon we'll be growing bananas and citrus fruits to match our new climate! Hope everyone gets out to support your local farmers and producers at the markets! 'Tis the season!

        Caravaggio 

Ok, so temps are rising slowly, seeds are started in the greenhouses at Vollmeckes, chickens are laying, the watercress is ready for first harvest, can the fiddleheads be far behind? Cooking For Real will be all over the state this spring, check out our events page to catch up with us. We will be doing frequent demos at the Farmers Market at Great Valley in Malvern on the Penn State campus, Thursdays, 11am - 2pm OPENING DAY MAY 12th!

Next Monday April 18, RAJ PATEL
will be speaking at Franklin & Marshall College on "What's Stopping Us from Becoming Food Sovereign?"
Time: 8pm
Place: The Lisa Bonchek Adams Auditorium in Kaufman Hall, F&M College

Raj Patel was an outstanding keynote speaker at the PASA conference 2 years
ago. Don't miss this opportunity to hear an important voice in our local/global food
economy! An award-winning activist and academic, author of Stuffed and Starved:
The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and New York Times
bestseller The Value of Nothing, Patel will once again take on the
global politics of food !  A book-signing follows the lecture.

Sponsors: Wohlsen Center for the Sustainable Environment and the
International Studies Program

This event is free and open to the public.  Go to http://
calendar.fandm.edu/detail.php?id=7417 for more information and a link
to Patel's website.

We are gearing up...lots of Earth Day activities, KWF Green Fair, and such great new clients like Crothall Services, Goddard School and Wyndcroft School. We'll do 5 more weeks of Tasty Tuesdays and then summer will be right around the corner. Looking forward to seeing the fields greening at the farm, seeds are being started in the greenhouse and the garlic is pushing up with vigor at Vollmeckes. My chicken flock has recently doubled with the adoption of two injured girls from Karen and we are getting a few eggs everyday so I guess my chicken rehab is successful. Just noticed the watercress is flourishing by the springhouse which means it's almost time to change the seasonal recipes on the website....Sweet Carrot and Watercress Salsa/Salad and the Queen of Salsa's, my Mother's Day family favorite, Watercress and Avocado Salsa! Watch for early local greens as we transition from Winter Markets to the 2011 Farmers Market season in early May!

Another great conference with old friends and new! The middle school group was terrific as we made our favorite Squash Pancakes! One of the students asked ME if I had seen Food, Inc.! That is what Cooking For Real is all about, getting the message out there so the young people can make the change happen! After some technical difficulties, the Educator Training workshop on the PA Standards went well, luckily I can talk really fast so we did an hour and 10 min. class in about 30 min. It was an overview so anyone with further interest can email me directly. And then the HS Track made some Two Potato Pancakes. It's apparent that these kids were in tune and pretty well versed with PASA and 4H so they had some great ideas of their own to add to our combined panel discussion.
Other highlights:meeting the folks from Frecon, you guys rock! hanging out with Nancy from the HerbSun ltd. and of course, Molly hand-filling fresh cannolis for the table at Legends! Great to see you all! Spring hopes eternal!

Hope you are already pre-registered for the 2011 PASA Conference! We'll be presenting two hands-on cooking and nutrition programs, Middle School first thing in the morning and "It's Your Food, It's Your Choice" for High School students on the Thursday track at Penn State later on. It's all about the food so we'll be on hand to educate through cooking and eating, our specialty! The afternoon will find us with the Educators Track, making the connection between experiential learning and the PA Standards, not as hard as you might think. Stay tuned for more news from the conference!
Coming up in February, a Bread Baking program with a new Whole Wheat Bread recipe we recently developed that can be done in about an hour, no joke!

Before the snow arrived last week we got in one of the two CCHD Health Fairs for county employees! Excellent attendance and interest...they just could not believe those were whole wheat pancakes! We are talking a lot about integrating whole grains into your winter fare. Our bodies need some good proteins and some real fats too. Meats, dairy, eggs and poultry are readily available from your local farmers in the winter plus more and more farmers are growing in high tunnels and greenhouses to extend the growing season! It's a challenge to eat seasonally at this time of year but many local farmers markets have a winter version either pre-order or just shortened outdoor hours. Keep farmers farming, support your local growers and producers. Check out the events page to connect with our current programs and the local food system.

expanding our reach to include Great Valley Corporate Center and Eagleview Corporate Center. Here is your connection for a fresh and local lunch delivered to your workplace, Monday through Friday. Weekly and next day ordering available.
Our mission is to get our corporate friends and neighbors to enjoy to high quality, locally produced food they deserve! Cooking For Real collaborates with Kimberton Whole Food, Oh My! Pretzels and Drury Lane Muffins to provide a wide
selection of lunch options. Check out the Fresh & Local Lunch link in the sidebar! If you're looking for great recipes to wow your family and friends over the holidays check out the recipe sidebar or email us to find the local version of your holiday favorite!

Outstanding group of about 30 kids of all ages came to the Root Veggie Soup program on Thursday. We told the stories behind our favorite roots of the season, how and where they grow, nutrition and folklore! All the while fresh, local, seasonal soup from start to finish, plus local apples and fresh cider from Vollmecke Orchard and CSA in Coatesville! Amazing..the kids loved the soup and asked to take some home to their families! Thanks to HOPP for sponsoring this event!