Photo courtesy of Longview
It’s here! It is officially February 1st and it is time to start the Locavore Challenge along with the Longview Center for Agriculture! A division of Greener Partners, Longview is a 120 acre farm in Collegeville, PA (just outside of Philadelphia) and they maintain organic and sustainable practices. In addition to farming a wide variety of produce, the farm has some livestock and offers classes to its community in order to further their understanding of the local food economy. The on-site market offers a great selection of local foods for sale and the center also offers kids’ classes, summer camp and a CSA program for folks to receive local foods.
The Locavore Challenge is designed to help folks understand how they can eat locally during February. February local foods you say? Isn’t it supposed to snow in Philly today? Well, yes, snow is coming, but you would be amazed at what is available and the Locavore Challenge is a fantastic way to stretch yourself and learn so much about what our area has to offer. If you are not in the Philly area, it is still a great challenge to do and you can seek out your local farms to see what they have to offer. Sign up for the email notices from Longview so that you receive weekly updates and details about each day’s challenge.
Each day’s challenge is also listed on the market’s online calendar. Challenges may include cooking with local foods, exploring locally roasted coffees, visiting a local farm, or attending events at Longview like a class on Winter Fruit Tree pruning. When you sign up for the challenge, there are some great incentives to share your achievements. You can use social media, email Longview at info@longviewfarmmarket.org or stop by the market to show photos of what you have accomplished in order to earn raffle tickets. Raffle tickets will let you be entered into a weekly drawing to win local food baskets, gift certificates, market discounts, and free workshops. If your challenge entry is reblogged or reposted by Longview, you can earn an extra raffle ticket for that week.
So, what is today’s challenge to kick it all off? Today, Longview would like to invite you to stop by the market and talk to their staff about what it means to be a locavore. The market is located at 3215 Stump Hall Road, Collegeville, PA 19426. Directions are available here. You get three raffle tickets just for stopping by! You can learn more about cooking with local foods, enjoy a tour of the farm at 3 pm, and see what local vendors have to offer in the market.
I will be blogging along with Longview this month, so keep an eye out for at least a couple of posts each week here and you can follow our Locavore experience on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I hope you join us on this great challenge and learn more about living and eating locally!!
Disclosure: I am working with Longview this month to promote the Locavore Challenge and am being compensated for my work.
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I’d love to stop by today! Just not in the cards. However, I will be following the challenges and sharing them with my readers on Frugal Local Kitchen.
I can’t wait to see how you guys are doing the challenge, Barb!
This post on facebook really got my attention this morning. This is such a great idea. I think alot of folks don’t realized that some local farms still have fresh produce available all year round not just during the warm weather months. This is a great way to promote local eating throughout the year!
I think it will be a great way to explore what is available in winter!
Great challenge! It’s one thing to eat local in September or in southern California, but February is a big challenge!
We’ve got some favorites in kale and root veggies, so I will be curious to see what else we can incorporate.
That is a great idea! We are up near Emmaus, so we have lots of local places, this is a great challenge – to use more of them.
You do have some great farms and resources out your way, Gina!
I really need to find a CSA local to me
I’ll be talking about their winter CSA in the next few weeks, so I will see what other Philly area CSAs I can uncover.
I stopped by our local winter farmers market last night and enjoyed a Beetza (Pizza topped with Beets)
Yum! That could be made to be very sweet and savory at the same time!
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